Realware

"Like your brain and everything you own," muttered Babs as she and Randy walked up the gangplank, which flowed with a million colored lights. "You're lucky you didn't pick up a thinking cap here Monday night Randy."

"I know all about that," said Randy, pulling something out of his pocket. Two transparent, flexing pieces of plastic, a bit like limpware dental appliances, capable of adjusting themselves to fit. "These are titaniplast nose Mockers. I brought the two along so's you could use one too."

"Can't we just avoid getting too intimate with any moldies?" asked Babs. "I hope you're not pla

"All I'm here for is to ask the Metamartians about the allas," said Randy.

"Swear to God, Babs. And to show you a good time. But wearin' a nose blocker in this kind o' place is what I'd call a reasonable precaution." Babs was intrigued by Randy's low-life expertise. They stepped off to a quiet corner of the ship's deck and she let him show her how to put on the nose blocker while Yoke and Cobb watched. You had to half swallow it and then use your tongue and breath to push it up over your dangling throat thingie -- over your uvula -- and into the back of your nose. And once it was there it settled itself into place. It made your voice sound fu

"Hey," interjected Cobb. "I'm going on down below to look for the Metamartians. See you three later."

"Thanks a lot for not bringing me a nose blocker!" said Yoke to Randy after Cobb left.

"Like I'm go

"Incorrect," said a small, deep voice.

"It's Josef!" exclaimed Babs. "I recognize his voice. That cute little beetle? I don't think you noticed him the other day, Randy. He's one of the aliens. Where are you, Josef?"

"Here," said the beetle, and buzzed down from the ship's rigging to land on Babs's shoulder. "It's safe to use your alla, Yoke, almost everyone else is belowdecks for the performance." So Yoke popped a small glowing mesh into the air and made herself a nose blocker.

"Is that skanky Kevvie really doing a moldie live sex show?" asked Babs.

"That's what Thutmosis meant?" said Yoke in a strangled voice. She'd just put the nose blocker in her mouth.

"This must be Kevvie's new job," said Babs. "I hear she has to move out of Derek and Calla's place by March first. She's hustling to get money for a new room."

"Yes, Kevvie and Haresh have been performing together," confirmed Josef. "But they already did it once this evening, and Haresh is questioning the validity of repeating such an act. We're about to leave the Anubis in any case."

"Hell, I think this tub's got a primo buzz to it," said Randy. "Sex and drugs and moldies and aliens. Something waaald about a party boat, even if it is stuck in the mud. Have you ever tried camote, Babs?"

"I did all that in high school," said Babs. "Drugs make me uptight. I try to see God, but I end up in a loop of neurosis. That's just how it is for me. I'm fine with beer, wine, and loud music." She let Josef crawl onto the tip of her finger. "Anyhoo, Josef! We want you guys to tell us how to make allas. Because today Randy figured out that when one of us dies, our alla registers itself to the next person who picks it up. Which means, since people are such greedy pigs, that when the secret gets out, we're dead meat."

"Interesting," said Josef, and fell silent for a while. "This had not occurred to me," he said finally. "And I've just uvvied the others, and they hadn't thought of it either. You must realize that death for us is a very minor thing, what with our two-dimensional time and many lives. In your merely one-dimensional time, death is -- "

"You go

"Force will get you nowhere, Randy," said Josef from Babs's palm. "It's not our decision as to when you humans can have the power to make an unlimited number of allas. But I'm sure Om will give you the knowledge soon. Om likes for beings to use her allas."

"Who is this Om?" asked Babs. "You guys said 'Praise Om' the other day."

"Om is our god," said Josef. "She follows us around. Now that the Metamartians are on Earth, Om is present."

"Om has something to do with the powerball as well as the allas," added Yoke.

"What about Phil, Josef? Can you ask Om how Phil's doing? Or can Om talk to me directly?"

Josef was quiet for a moment. "Om says Phil is fine. And that he'll be back soon. But, no, Om can't easily communicate with humans due to the one-dimensionality of your time."

"Shitfire," exclaimed Randy. "All this bug can do is bitch about our time? What kind o' bullshit is that? He's wastin' our time, what it is. I say we go downstairs and see the show. I missed it on Monday."

"Wait," said Yoke. "Don't forget that we want Josef to tell Om to prevent allas from making plutonium."

But Josef had already flown off.

Babs, Randy, and Yoke headed across the deck to the companionway. There were a few others grouped here and there on the deck, many of them well into trips on various kinds of drugs. Their faces made Babs think of people sitting on the John. Listening to their bodies.

Down below there was an Egyptian-looking bar decorated with lotus-stem columns, a hieroglyph mural, and an overhanging textured plastic Sphinx head. Hieroglyphs covered the other walls as well, and there was a music mix going, a combination of notes and sound samples. Not all that great, thought Babs. But of course people didn't come here because of any wonderful artistic ambiance --they came for the illicit things they could do. The room reeked of moldies, of corruption and decay.

A Snooks moldie who resembled a partially unwrapped mummy was busy behind the bar, serving up whatever concoctions were requested. Now and then he plucked a camote nugget out of his windings. Randy got beers for himself and Babs, but Yoke didn't want anything. She just wanted to run around looking for the Metamartians. Babs suggested they meet up again inside the big show room. As she drank her beer Babs noticed that there was a sound-DIM stuck to the side of the bottle, and that when she moved the bottle, a little bit of the music changed. When she wiggled the bottle back and forth, for instance, there was a skritchy-skritch sound, and when she moved it up and down there was a loop of black rapper saying, "Yubiwaza!" She played with that for a minute.

"Yu-Yu-Yu-Yu-Yubiwaza!" When Babs got her second beer, she kept the first bottle. The second bottle's DIM could trigger a guitar riff--whang -- and a woman's deep voice saying, "Space cowgirl?" With a bottle in either hand, Babs began tweaking the web of sound. "Skritch sk-sk-skritch-itch yu-yu-yubi space cow-ow-ow-itchy-itch-owgirl? girl? Wha-whang girl? girl? girl? Whang-a-whang yubiwaza cowgirl?" Once you were part of it, the music sounded good. Randy noticed what Babs was doing, and was smilingly-dancing along. And there were three lifters dancing too, doing the flat-footed sporehead newt-dance. One of them was a musician, he had about a hundred sound DIMs stuck all over himself. Each of his gestures made audible trails of tasty media-sampled noise. There were a couple of Egyptian-looking Snooks moldies dancing too, with gracefully undulating arms grown impossibly long.

The people in the booths nearby weren't really into the music, at least not in any obvious way--they were mostly just sitting there sucking on soft bags of juice and wearing that inward look of "When does my lift come on?" or "When do I come down?" A few of them were peaking, and their expressions were more like a cartoon image of something missing: a white void with alternating long and short surprise-lines radiating out from a central lack. Like, "Huh?" Babs saw one of the dancing Snooks moldies snake her arm down behind a really zoned man. A lump moved up the moldie's arm like a rabbit inside a python. Probably the guy's wallet.