Chapter 4. Fair Exchange
There was a shocked silence.
‘She doesn’t mean it,’ said Celeste apologetically as she saw the girls’ faces.
‘Yes I did,’ scowled Angelica and turned her back on them.
‘There must be a solution.’ Celeste thought for a minute while Kate muttered to herself and Phoebe retied her ponytail. ‘I’ve got it,’ Celeste said excitedly. ‘Why don’t we each have one and we’ll tell our parents they’ve been sent over from Lunar Circle on a student exchange.’
‘All right,’ agreed Angelica ungraciously. ‘I’ll take Kate. If she’s so keen, maybe she can figure out a way to work on my father and get herself home.’
Kate could think of many objections to this plan, but feeling that she really had no option, she followed Angelica as they left Celeste’s apartment.
‘We don’t have to take a hoverpad,’ Angelica explained grudgingly. ‘Our place is a bit further along.’ They walked through another of the warm see-though tubes.
‘There aren’t many people around,’ Kate ventured.
‘Of course not,’ scoffed Angelica. ‘Everyone is at a training session. They have one every second tri-moon at this time of day. Or else if they are students like us they are studying with the Master. We’ve got a day off to work on our Glory Walk projects,’ she added, forestalling Kate’s next question.
Angelica stopped at a doorway and held her hand over the plate. The door slid open with a hiss. ‘Thank goodness that still works, otherwise I’d never be able to get in,’ she muttered.
Kate looked around. The apartment appeared to be similar to Celeste’s with an eating area, a comfortable seating area and archways leading off to what she presumed were bedrooms. Angelica led the way down one of these to a short corridor. She pointed out the bathroom and showed Kate how to get water into a shallow basin shaped depression set on one wall.
‘These work by voice command. Just say what you want and the Master System will do it for you.’
Angelica’s bedroom was obviously her own space. Discarded robes lay on the floor in untidy piles and a bank of screens lined one wall.
‘What are all these for?’ Kate asked curiously. ‘Are they television sets?’
Angelica looked at her blankly.
‘They’re screens. Even young children know how to work them. Your planet must be very backward if you don’t have these.’ She gave an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes as she saw Kate’s fists bunch in anger. ‘Okay, okay, I’ll explain it to you. Some of them are locators. You say the name of whoever you want to find and it shows you. Look.’
She stood in front of one of the screens and said, ‘Celeste.’
The screen hummed with an amber glow then showed Celeste and Phoebe chatting together in Celeste’s apartment, along with an older girl who looked very like Celeste. Celeste looked up and waved and went on with her conversation.
‘That’s not very private,’ frowned Kate.
‘Oh, you can block it whenever you want to. You can block it for everyone except your friends as well.’ Angelica pointed to another row of screens. ‘These screens are for learning.’ She paused in front of the largest screen and spoke her name. A list immediately scrolled past on the large silver screen. ‘Bother. I have to learn my trajectories by next tri-moon.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘I hate that stuff. It’s so boring. My father can’t understand it. He thinks that because he’s an astrographer that I’ll be one as well or at least really good at it. But I’m hopeless.’
‘My father is an artist,’ Kate blurted out. ‘He paints amazing scenes and stuff but I’m no good at it at all. Maybe talent isn’t always passed onto children.’
Angelica brightened up. ‘Really? You don’t know what a relief that is. I thought I was the only person in the universe who couldn’t do what their parents did.’
‘You’re not. There are at least two of us,’ replied Kate, thinking how much nicer Angelica was when she smiled. ‘What do the other screens do?’
‘This one’s an entertainer.’ Angelica moved a cushion in front of a green screen. ‘You can say what you want to watch and it shows you. Sit down and have a go.’ As she spoke she took off her belt and changed it for a plain one.
‘Like our television I suppose,’ said Kate, sitting on the cushion. ‘What sort of thing do I ask for?’
‘Anything,’ said Angelica simply. ‘Here, I’ll show you. Moongliding,’ she instructed the screen. The green glow faded to be replaced with a soft pink light, which turned out to be the sky. Several people in closely fitting silver suits and facemasks swooped across the screen. With enormous coloured sails strapped to a harness on their bodies, they looked like giant butterflies. They dipped and glided as Kate watched enviously.
‘It looks as if they are really flying. Can anyone do it?’ she breathed.
‘Yes, but it takes quite a bit of training. My father said he’d take me to have a try when I’m older. They don’t allow children up there. We have to make do with the Gravidome, though that can be really neat fun as well.’
A clatter came from the main room and a voice called, ‘Angelica! Are you there?’
Angelica grimaced. ‘Come on. You’d better meet my parents. Now try to act like someone from Lunar Circle.’
‘How do I do that?’ asked Kate frantically, but it was too late. Angelica walked out to the living area and announced baldly, ‘this is Kate. She’s an exchange student from Lunar Circle and she’s going to stay with us for a while. Kate, this is Astrid and Jupiter.’
A tall willowy blonde lady smiled and held out her palm to Kate. After a moment’s hesitation, Kate touched her own palm to it. She was relieved to note that this was apparently the correct thing to do.
‘Lunar Circle, is it?’ murmured a deep voice. The tallest man Kate had ever seen fixed her with piercing blue eyes. He had flaming red hair like Angelica’s and it sprang from his head in wiry curls. ‘How do you find the sub-astral vibrations over there?’ he asked.
Kate looked at him blankly.
‘Oh, she isn’t interested in that stuff,’ Angelica said quickly. ‘Really Jupiter. Just because you’re an astrographer you assume everyone else is interested in stars and planets and stuff.’
‘If more people around here showed an interest, they might do better in their studies,’ growled Jupiter. He glowered at Angelica who scowled back. Kate watched in fascination.
‘Let’s not argue in front of our guest,’ put in Astrid soothingly. ‘Come on, Kate. ‘I’ll show you your room.’
Kate allowed herself to be led down the corridor. Astrid stopped by an archway and muttered a few words to one of the silver panels. ‘There. I’ve keyed it in for you. All you have to do is say what you require and the Master System will take care of it,’ she said kindly. ‘I guess this is a bit different to the way things are done in Lunar Circle?’
‘My home is certainly different from this,’ Kate said truthfully.
‘I’ll leave you to settle in,’ Astrid went on. ‘There are robes in the closet. I’m sure you’ll want to wash and change out of your travelling clothes.’ She looked doubtfully at Kate’s jeans and T-shirt. ‘Put them in the bathroom and the system will launder them for you. We’ll be ready for our meal in another twenty chronosurds.’
‘Thanks,’ mumbled Kate. She sighed in relief as Astrid left the room. She could hear the argument continuing between Angelica and Jupiter and made out the words ‘inconsiderate’ and ‘should have given us more warning’ before Astrid firmly waved the door across. ‘They must be talking about me. I shouldn’t have come here,’ Kate thought. ‘But what else could I do? And what the heck is a chromosurd?’
She shrugged and decided to take Astrid’s advice and change her clothes, which were looking even grubbier than usual. She explored the bathroom and looked rather doubtfully at a sunken area of floor in one corner.
‘Maybe it’s a shower,’ she thought. ‘I’ll give it a go anyway.’ Stripping off h
er clothes, Kate stood in the corner and feeling remarkably foolish said, ‘water, please.’
There was a short beeping sound and suddenly a torrent of cold water cascaded over her. Kate gasped and spluttered, blindly reaching out for the steps to get out. There now appeared to be a solid invisible wall between her and the rest of the bathroom.
‘Warm water,’ croaked Kate. ‘And less of it,’ she coughed.
A beep sounded again and instantly the water came down in a warm gentle shower.
‘I wonder if they have soap,’ Kate giggled in relief, as she felt the water rising around her ankles. The command ‘soap’ was ignored.
‘Wash me,’ she said tentatively then squealed in surprise as what looked and felt like dozens of round padded hands on long flexible rods came pushing out at her on all sides. After trying unsuccessfully to avoid the pads, Kate closed her eyes in resignation and found she was being expertly soaped and scrubbed by a veritable army of handpads. They shampooed her hair and washed her all over, even behind the knees, while Kate wriggled and squirmed helplessly.
Yet another shower of warm water followed this before the beep alerted her to the onslaught of a rush of warm air.
‘It’s a bit like being in a car wash,’ thought Kate. ‘This must be the end of it,’ she yelped as the floor tilted and she was suddenly ejected out into the middle of the bathroom floor.
The Glory Walk Page 4