The 20th Golden Age of Science Fiction MEGAPACK ™: Evelyn E. Smith Read online

  “That's what you're going to look like when the plasto-surgeons get through," she explained. “They'll pigment your eyes and skin and hair, and they may be able to add a few inches to your height. Though I think you actually have grown a little. Something about the air, or, more likely, the food."

  “Embelsira thought I was handsome the way I was. Embelsira . . ." But Embelsira was light-years away. Embelsira was part of a fading dream — and he was awakening now to reality.

  “Look at the cube. Look at your status symbol."

  He looked at it, and he kept on looking at it. He couldn't tear his eyes away. He was hypnotized by the golden glitter of it, the golden meaning of it. “Musician," he said aloud. “Musician. ..." A dream word, a magic word. He hadn't thought of it for years, but this he didn't have to reach back for. Once touched on, it surged over him, complete with its memories.

  * * * *

  But she had made it meaningless, too. He managed to tear a laugh out of his throat. “Spano said I'd be able to buy the Musicians' Guild when I had my million and a half. Apparently you've been able to bargain them down."

  “This cost nothing except the standard initiation fee," she told him. “You came by it honestly — through your music, nothing else. And you have more than a million and a half credits, Clarey — nearly ten times that, with more pouring in every day."

  She touched a boss on the side of her chair and white light hazed around them. “I think we're close enough to Earth to get some of the high-power tri-dis," she said, “although we can't expect perfect reception."

  Blurrily, a show formed — a variety show. At first it seemed the same sort of thing that he remembered dimly, more interesting now because it had almost the character of novelty. Then an ornate young man appeared and it took deeper significance. He was carrying a musical instrument — refined, machined, carefully pitched. He played music on the ulerin while a trio sang insipid Terrestrial words. “Love Is a Guiding Star" they called it, but that didn't matter. It was one of the tunes Clarey had taped.

  She touched another boss. The blur reformed to a symphony orchestra, playing as background music to a soloist with another ulerin. “That's your First Ulerin Concerto," she said. “There are three more."

  Another program was beginning, an account of the tribulations of an unfortunate Plutonian family. It faded in to the strains of ulerin music, to a tune of Clarey's. If they could have endured it to the end, she told him, it would have faded out the same way. “Every time they play it," she said, “somewhere on Earth a cash register rings for you. And this one's a daily program."

  He watched transfixed and transfigured as program after program featured his music, his ulerin.

  “Not just on Earth," Han said, “but on all the civilized planets, even in a few of the more sophisticated primitive ones. You're a famous man, Clarey. Earth is waiting for you, literally and figuratively. There'll be ulerin orchestras to greet you at the field; we sent a relay ahead to let them know you were coming."

  But his mind was slowly alerting itself. “And where am I supposed to be coming from, then, since they're never to hear about Damorlan?"

  “They've been told that you retired to a lonely asteroid to work — to perfect your art and its instrument."

  Of course they couldn't divulge the truth about Damorlan. “It seems a little unfair, though," he said.

  “Why unfair? After all, Clarey, the music is yours. You took Damorlan's melodies and made them into music. You took their ulerin and made it into a musical instrument. They're all yours, every note and bladder of them."

  She reached over and put out a hand to him. “And I'm yours, too, Clarey, if you want me," she breathed. There was obviously no doubt in her mind that he did want her. And in his, too. One didn't reject the Secretary of Space.

  He took the chilly hand in his. The skin was odd in texture. I'm imagining things, he thought. It's a long time since I touched a human female's hand.

  “I must be a very important Musician," he said aloud.

  She nodded, not pretending to misunderstand. “Yes, important enough to rate the original and not a reasonable facsimile. You're a lucky man, Clarey." And then she smiled up at him. “I can be warm and tender, I assure you."

  It took him a moment to realize what she meant. For a moment he had that pang again. She would never be the same as Embelsira, but a man needed change to develop.

  He was still troubled, though. “I want to do something. Even an empty gesture's better than none at all. The last few months, I started putting together a longer thing; I guess it could be a symphony. When I finish it, I'd like to call it the ‘Damorlant Symphony.' "

  “Why not?" she said. He thought she was humoring him, but she added, “They'll think you just picked the name from an astrogation chart."

  In a final burst of irony he dedicated the “Damorlant Symphony" to the human race, but, as usual, he was misunderstood. In fact, one of the music critics — all of whom were enthusiastic over the new work —wrote, “At last we have a great musician who is also a great humanist."

  Eventually Clarey forgot his original intent and came to believe it himself.