points of which this might be one. Also, her sparklies,” I recorded the charming phrase for later use, “are far from unique. As we pass more deeply into the bazaar, we’ll find the same items again and again, but almost certainly at better prices. Tourists who shop the edges pay the most. I think you would find that to be true no matter where along the circumference of this enormous marketplace you go.”
I gestured outward in a dramatic fashion. Through the translucent dome that covered the area to protect it from not only the weather, but from the noise of arrivals and departures, we could see numerous ships and shuttles of myriad designs. The Imperium Jaunter and its escort remained in orbit, taking on fuel and undergoing inspection for any engineering faults. We had made the descent by shuttle. Four of the small craft were in a secure hangar almost a kilometer behind us by then.
“Oh,” Dierdre said, with refreshing eagerness. “I wondered how you came to have so many friends here who knew so much about you! He’s such a social lad,” Madame Deirdre confided to Lieutenant Anstruther, who dogged our steps with all the air of a protective mother wolf. I had protested at being assigned a bodyguard, but the Jaunter ’s captain insisted that all of us nobles be watched over at all times we were not on ship. I had insisted with equal fervor that if that was the case, I would prefer to have one of my own crew beside or, in this case, behind me. It was Anstruther’s turn. Nesbitt and Redius were off somewhere else in the company of a couple of my cousins. “Well, I need to buy some pretties for my daughters and grandchildren. They seldom leave Keinolt, and I hardly ever have time to look for anything nice when I’m traveling with a troupe. We might as well perform in a warehouse in the middle of an asteroid belt, for all we see of those exotic locations we go to, I am always telling the producer!”
I smiled. This was yet another way in which I could reward this extraordinary woman. She was not an experienced shopper, of that I had already ample proof. One of my talents, hard-honed among my cousins, who were also avid acquisitors of interesting merchandise, was to discover, evaluate and obtain, at a fair price, that which took my fancy. I extended an elbow, into which she tucked her narrow hand.
“Come with me, then. I have a friend here on this planet. OTL-590i is an LAI who is the secondary backup secure bookkeeping unit for the local banking system. Odile knows not only who are the most prosperous merchants, but who order their wares and supplies from the finest sources. She has given me a list,” I brandished my viewpad, “separated into categories such as clothing, housewares, works of art, jewelry and the like. The entries are overlaid onto a map of the marketplace. We are about twenty yards from the first of her choices.”
Madame Deirdre looked enchanted. Her large gray eyes twinkled like so many “sparklies.”
“How interesting! I must meet your friend. I am afraid I spend so much time rehearsing and performing that I seldom get to know the mechanicals in our midst. The lovely device that looks after the cabins on my level always has a pleasant word for us. It could easily ignore us, but it doesn’t. Curious. Their wants are not our wants; our needs are not the same as theirs. We live side by side with them, but it might be a completely parallel existence, as we have with plants.”
“Exactly so,” I replied, delighted. “I have found their observations on our lives to be of immense value. I hope they like us, since our well-being is so frequently in the palms of their circuitry, so to speak. I must say that most of the time they take a neutral stance on their view of our behavior. It is often far better than we deserve.”
“We ought to explore what it would take to evoke concepts for an electronic personality,” Madame Deirdre said, her eyes brightening. “I have never performed for
I gestured outward in a dramatic fashion. Through the translucent dome that covered the area to protect it from not only the weather, but from the noise of arrivals and departures, we could see numerous ships and shuttles of myriad designs. The Imperium Jaunter and its escort remained in orbit, taking on fuel and undergoing inspection for any engineering faults. We had made the descent by shuttle. Four of the small craft were in a secure hangar almost a kilometer behind us by then.
“Oh,” Dierdre said, with refreshing eagerness. “I wondered how you came to have so many friends here who knew so much about you! He’s such a social lad,” Madame Deirdre confided to Lieutenant Anstruther, who dogged our steps with all the air of a protective mother wolf. I had protested at being assigned a bodyguard, but the Jaunter ’s captain insisted that all of us nobles be watched over at all times we were not on ship. I had insisted with equal fervor that if that was the case, I would prefer to have one of my own crew beside or, in this case, behind me. It was Anstruther’s turn. Nesbitt and Redius were off somewhere else in the company of a couple of my cousins. “Well, I need to buy some pretties for my daughters and grandchildren. They seldom leave Keinolt, and I hardly ever have time to look for anything nice when I’m traveling with a troupe. We might as well perform in a warehouse in the middle of an asteroid belt, for all we see of those exotic locations we go to, I am always telling the producer!”
I smiled. This was yet another way in which I could reward this extraordinary woman. She was not an experienced shopper, of that I had already ample proof. One of my talents, hard-honed among my cousins, who were also avid acquisitors of interesting merchandise, was to discover, evaluate and obtain, at a fair price, that which took my fancy. I extended an elbow, into which she tucked her narrow hand.
“Come with me, then. I have a friend here on this planet. OTL-590i is an LAI who is the secondary backup secure bookkeeping unit for the local banking system. Odile knows not only who are the most prosperous merchants, but who order their wares and supplies from the finest sources. She has given me a list,” I brandished my viewpad, “separated into categories such as clothing, housewares, works of art, jewelry and the like. The entries are overlaid onto a map of the marketplace. We are about twenty yards from the first of her choices.”
Madame Deirdre looked enchanted. Her large gray eyes twinkled like so many “sparklies.”
“How interesting! I must meet your friend. I am afraid I spend so much time rehearsing and performing that I seldom get to know the mechanicals in our midst. The lovely device that looks after the cabins on my level always has a pleasant word for us. It could easily ignore us, but it doesn’t. Curious. Their wants are not our wants; our needs are not the same as theirs. We live side by side with them, but it might be a completely parallel existence, as we have with plants.”
“Exactly so,” I replied, delighted. “I have found their observations on our lives to be of immense value. I hope they like us, since our well-being is so frequently in the palms of their circuitry, so to speak. I must say that most of the time they take a neutral stance on their view of our behavior. It is often far better than we deserve.”
“We ought to explore what it would take to evoke concepts for an electronic personality,” Madame Deirdre said, her eyes brightening. “I have never performed for
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