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carry a copy of Penthouse up to the register? But the flow of traffic into
and out of the Adult Sector was heavy, and nobody seemed to think twice
about it. Must be my uptight twentieth-century conditioning, I figured.
An attendant whose head was mostly eyes and whose body was
rectangular and orange, like a giant box of Tide, watched the life forms
coming in, making sure none were underage. I wondered how he could tell
with some of these creatures. At least four of his protruding eyes were on
Vadera and Krill when we stopped nearby.
"We'll wait for you here," Krill said.
"You don't have to," I told them.
"We don't mind," Vadera said. "Maybe" she giggled (I think) "maybe
you'll tell us about some of what you saw."
Fair enough. I waved good-bye and joined the flow into Galaxyland's
Adult Sector, nodding at the box of Tide as I passed. Nothing much
changed here; the black stone modules looked the same, as did all the
colorful lights. A sign pointed the way to a Comfort Plaza and a Currency
Exchange. There were food stands, and a place where you could buy
souvenirs.
What did differ were the names of the modules. No Aunt Emma and
the Space Bunnies here, not even Black Hole! The first one I saw was
called Mass Murder Maze. Past it, across from one another, were
Pleasures of Pantrika and Drug Trip, both of which sounded intriguing.
One called Holiday with Hitler held no appeal at all, since I'd already met
the bastard. Perhaps Silk and Leather, or Turkish Jail&
It was tough to choose! Do I try one with little or no line, or do I assume
the popular modules are those worth the wait? For example, Drug Trip
was really packing 'em in, while only one guy a sort of walking rice
cake stood in front of Dismemberment Dreams. All the other lines were
about the same, except for one at Brothels of Bordellus V, which was
nearly as long as Drug Trip.
I finally decided upon the latter, not only because it was clearly popular,
but because its line seemed to be moving along more quickly than any of
the others. In only three or four minutes I was standing in front of the
attendant, yet another dung beetle (they must've had a pretty strong
union). The admission, he informed me, was forty units, double anything
in the General Sector. Sure, I plunked it down, but I thought, This better
be good.
The line continued briefly inside the building. Standing there, I saw
why it was moving so quickly. First off, there were three doors, all of
which I presumed were programmed alike. And second, each life form
emerged less than two minutes after entering a module. Forty units for
under two minutes! If any of them felt like they'd been ripped off, they
didn't utter a word. None of them looked angry, either; their expressions
ranged from dreamily contented to totally spaced out and disoriented. I
was beginning to wonder why I'd chosen this one.
Okay, here was the story on Drug Trip, as narrated over a speaker
during the short stay on line. At the present time the most popular drug in
this quadrant of the galaxy was something called slovor, from Centros III
(same place that obnoxious kid Pahtui came from). It's a brownish-yellow,
gritty powder that beings use in much the same way that people of my
time used wheat germ. You know, sprinkled on ice cream, salads, blended
into drinks, that sort of thing. A small amount is relaxing, gives you a nice
little high. The problem is, a craving for slovor increased geometrically
after you've been on it awhile, until you can't get enough. And then&
The purpose of Drug Trip was to simulate the hallucinogenic effects of
a six-month-long habit, about the limits of an average being before he
totally lost it. In the early stages a quick and painless withdrawal was
possible, and this was what the module hoped to encourage. There was
also a plug for Drug Trip Jr., in the General Sector, which simulated a
four-month habit. Hell of an idea, I thought.
Just before my turn came, a purple humanoid female with spidery
arms and legs and a face that vaguely resembled Queen Elizabeth II
stepped out of a module. She seemed more disoriented than most. After a
glance back at the door, she reached into her purse and pulled out a large,
transparent packet of what I figured was slovor. She held it up for
everyone to see before putting it on the floor, where it was instantly sucked
down. A few life forms nodded, clapped, made other weird sounds as she
left. Drug Trip had obviously worked for her.
My turn. Actually, I was nervous. Just so you know, I never tripped out
before. No PCP, no LSD, nothing like that. Smoked a joint back in college,
nearly threw up. This was virgin ground I was treading here.
The room was as small as the water closet at the Comfort Plaza.
Nothing in it but a square foamy pad in the middle, upon which I parked
my butt. Almost instantly the room plunged into total darkness, and my
stomach flip-flopped from the sensation of being inside an elevator that
had just snapped its cable on the fifty-eighth floor and was headed for the
sub-basement. Well, that wasn't going to bother me, not after Parachute
Free-fall.
So what if my stomach was pulling itself up hand over hand and was
now halfway along my esophagus?
The descent slowed, and these rings of multicolored lights began
spinning around me, I mean really fast. Wait a minute; now I couldn't tell [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]