Jack L. Chalker Hotel Andromeda (SSCol)

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story at Hotel An-
dromeda myself, and even visited Rebecca Lyons in her heaven. She still had
the downloaded personality of Warren there with her, burning in flames,
screaming. She said she would keep it there forever, as if it were a treasured
gift. But
I contacted Hotel Security and managed to erase the stolen construct. I read
its memories before releasing it from its pain. Still, all these years later,
I sometimes think of Warren.
An explorer relumed to Darius IV a decade ago and de-
scribed the world as fecund. In the mountains, he said there were fruit
trees cherry, mango, pear, avocado, olive, peach, apricot and wild
strawberries the size of a man's fist.
Salmon and giant trout leap in the streams. He found wild fields of corn and
rice, and wheat growing over your head, and beneath the double suns, the
plants blossom all year long.
Stronger trees and grasses have even begun to encroach into the desert wastes,
finding place among cactus. There is no one there now to harvest the fruits,
so they are consumed by lizards and flocks of ivory cockatoos. This is what
Warren made of his world, and I imagine that I would not have done as well.
GLASS WALLS
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Beth touched the warm glass window. Inside, the baby
Minaran swam, its small head rounded and sleek, its eyes open and friendly.
When she had first passed the cubicle, the baby rested on its back on a rock,
basking in fake sunlight. Its fur was white, its fins slender but strong.
Odd that it would have a cubicle all to itself just inside the human wing.
Odder still that the cubicle had been a banquet room a few days before.
She leaned her face against the glass, wishing she could go inside. The poor
little thing had to be lonely. If she could hold it and feel its warm, wet fur
against her skin, she might be able to ease the loneliness both of their
loneliness for just a short time.
"Beth!"
Roddy's voice. She jumped away from the window and stood, hands clasped behind
her back. She kept her gaze trained downward, away from the Minaran in the
cubicle.
137
138 Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Roddy hated it when she ogled the guests.
"What are you doing in the main lobby?" He stood beside her. She could smell
peppermint on his breath. He had just had a cup of his favorite expensive tea.
"Did someone call for you?"
She shook her head. How many demerits this time? Or maybe he would take a
week's worth of tips. The diamond square pattern on the carpet ran together.
She blinked, making sure her eyes were tearless.
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"You know I don't like having the personal staff in the lobby. It creates a
sleazy atmosphere. Some of our patrons would prefer to ignore people like
you."
As you would, she thought. She finally raised her head, saw Candice at the
lobby entrance, watching the entire ex-
change. Roddy wore a black suit, very twentieth-century retro, fitting in
perfectly with the decor in this half of the hu-
man wing. Except for the Minaran.
"I was walking through," Beth said, "and I saw the
Minaran. What's it doing here?"
"That's none of your business," Roddy said. "When you were hired on, you were
told not to ask questions "
"Beth was not hired," Candice said. She started down the incline into the
lobby. Roddy didn't move. He froze, just like
Beth had, when faced with his boss. "Let's not have this dis-
cussion in the lobby, hmm? My office, please."
Except for the Minaran. the lobby was empty. The next ship was twenty minutes
behind schedule. The staff was hav-
ing its break, preparing for the midaftemoon rush.
Beth and Roddy followed Candice around the registration desk. Her office was a
spacious room with a view of the docking ships and the stars beyond. She had
to have been at
Hotel Andromeda for most of her life and had to have been a valued employee to
attain a view like that.
"Sit down," Candice said as she slipped in the wide leather chair behind her
desk. Her office, too, was done retro. Beth didn't want to sit in the leather
chair on the other side of the desk she hated the feel of the material against
her skin; it brought back too many unpleasant memories but she did anyway.
Roddy sat beside her, perched at the edge of the chair as if he were going to
spring up any minute.
"The lobby is not a place for dressing down an employee,"
GLASS WALLS 139
Candice said, folding her jeweled hands together and leaning forward on the
desk. "We are striving to make our guests as comfortable as possible, and they
don't need to see dissention
among the staff. Is that clear?"
Roddy nodded.
"Good. You may go."
Roddy leaped out of the chair as if it had an ejector seat. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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