Raiders (12 page)

Mirabella looked at Danny said, “Don’t worry about the credits Danny we’re good. But not too much though.”

Danny stepped back from Kama and said, “Okay sweetie.” He cupped his hands, squinched his eyebrows into an amusingly disarming contortion and then whispered, “I’ll keep it below three hundred, but only for you my dear.” He smiled and tapped his Personal Assistant band on his left upper arm. “Vasuki would you please draw for my friend here a black dress, base pattern twenty-two with a strapless variation?”

A female voice that carried a Hindi-esque accent emitted from Danny’s armband, “There are three customers standing near you. Please select customer for overlay.”

He blushed and saluted straight into the air. “Well dearies Danny’s brain is just not here today! Hah! Yes Vasuki, the customer right in front of me please.” He waved his hands out toward Kama and rolled them. “I’m sorry sweetie your name is?”

“Kama.”

“Vasuki, wrap a black number twenty-two around my dear Kama please. Strapless.” At once a grid of lights threw themselves out from the back corner of the store's ceiling. Kama’s body shimmered with chaotic illuminated traces, just for a second or two and then a black dress appeared over her clothes. Brief interruptions in the rendered holo-dress pushed through as Vasuki had some difficulty keeping the light holograph directly over Kama’s body. She couldn’t hold herself quite still enough.

Calliope spoke up. “Danny, we need a...Umm...She needs a little more.” She winked at Danny and then said,“You know. Advertising.”

Danny held up his hand. “Say no more my dear. Haven’t even started yet. Vasuki, sequins please, diffused. Five millimeters.” The holographic dress fabric transformed into a sparkled black sequin attention grabber. “Collect back the shoulder seam please.” The shoulder seams moved themselves back and thinned down. “Eternals on shoulders. Full spectrum. Three centimeters apart please.” Six small lights appears in a row across the shoulderline. Danny briefly looked straight at Kama’s chest for a moment. “Thoracic apex, minimal augment.” He silently mouthed to Mirabella,
Doesn’t need it
. Danny looked at Kama and her new pseudo-dress. “Vasuki, cycle through some princess panels please.”

Vasuki rendered vertical dress panel highlights onto Kama's torso in three second intervals. As she did so Calliope and Mirabella said, “No, no, no, no,” until finally they were happy with the selection. “Yes!” Three panels on the abdomen, the sides were slightly open and laced up but the laces themselves were hardly visible.

Danny showed off his true talents as he ricocheted off a series of commands to alter the dress. “Vasuki, drop the neck seam line three millimeters. Good. Flare out the sleeve ends a little. No, no that’s too much I’m afraid, taper them down. Good. That’s good. Okay angle the lower hemline at twenty degrees. A little more. Twenty two. Twenty three. Good hold it there. Save pattern Vasuki.”

“Pattern saved. Is the customer ready now?” Vasuki asked.

“No.” The group cycled through the remaining accessories with Vasuki’s help. They picked out bracelets, shoes, a handbag that Kama didn’t really need although it looked spectacular with her ensemble and the other trinkets to complete it all. Everything was picked out with Vasuki and Danny’s help without actually seeing any real, physical merchandise. After about twelve minutes from the moment they walked into Lunvane’s Store, Kama’s outfit was almost ready to go.

Danny looked at Mirabella, kissed the ends of his fingers as if Kama were his own created masterpiece, giggled and shrugged. Mirabella cupped her eyes and shook her head. “Oh Danny you are such a nut, but we love you. Okay that’s good we’ll take it.”

“Vasuki, please print out the dress. My honey-dears you will just have to give Danny a few minutes to assemble it? Miss Sewbot back there isn’t working so well these days. I will have to do some of the seams myself. Be right back.” And with that Danny retreated behind a curtain-lined door.

Twenty minutes later Danny emerged with everything from the back room. Kama dressed herself in her freshly fabricated outfit. The girls checked their messages using standalone kiosks that were automatically tethered to any nearby bodyworn Personal Assistants. The kiosks were ultra low power devices and only used energy when accessed. The rest of the time they rested in a deep hibernation state that consumed only three thousandths of a watt thanks to flexible circuit technologies that were developed in the early 21st century.

Danny kissed Mirabella’s left cheek, lightly squeezed her shoulders and said, “Don’t stay away from Danny too long next time my lovelies!” He wiggled his finger in mocked scorn. “Be good now!”

The trio left Lunvane’s and headed to Club Fire which was three levels down and a half kilometer away in the Centre Link community. Mirabella missed Danny’s affectations as they were indeed authentic. She knew him since the time she was able to pick out her own clothes. He felt like an extension of her real family in some nebulous and undefined way.

When they arrived at Club Fire at ten the club’s entrance doors were mercifully devoid of anyone waiting to go inside. Mirabella handed the doorman three tickets as a rhythmic and muffled
bimmety-boom bimmety-boom-boom
resonated from two doors, one black the other red. The doorman looked at Kama for two seconds, flexed a nod and then stoically waved them past.

Once inside the three grabbed a high table and sat down. Kama looked nervous and fussed with the folds of her new dress. “My hair doesn’t match anyone else’s. Does that matter?” she said to Mirabella, her voice raised so it would overtake the music.

Which was true. The formerly bald parts of her scalp were covered with about two centimeters of hair except for the five centimeter circle of long strands still bound by metal rings all the way down her back. Before they left her Pod Mirabella had scrunched and teased Kama’s hair up and back with some glitter infused Polar Ice Gel. It had dried quickly into a workable viscous tack.

“Don’t worry. You look great,” Mirabella said. “Sometimes it helps to be different, maybe you’re setting a trend, you know?” Mirabella shrugged and then tapped the table top which lit up and showed a series of drinks with their attached descriptions and prices. She flicked her finger just over the table’s surface and the display scrolled round to show even more drinks. “Ooh this one looks good.” She circled the image of a drink labeled
Sunspot
twice without actually touching the table to confirm her order. She looked to Kama. “What are you getting?”

“I don’t know,” Kama said “None of this really means anything to me. Just pick one.” Kama raised her head from the huddled group and resumed her observation of the club customers who shuffled past their table. “Pick any one. I don’t care.”

“Okay that’s cool. You like cotton candy?” Mirabella asked Kama.

“I don’t know.”

Calliope asked, “What about chocolate ice cream?”

“Just pick any one.” Kama shrugged and frowned.

“Ooh, I know! You like citrus fruits? Umm, mangos, oranges, that kind of thing?” Mirabella asked.

“Yes.”

Without saying another word Mirabella circled her finger around the
Waste Blaster
drink option. It was a conglomeration of blended mandarin orange, grapefruit, lemon, mango, ice, sugar, rum, pure grain, vodka with just a touch of plum brandy.

Calliope whispered to Mirabella, “Jesus you’re evil. Think she can handle it?”

Mirabella patted her hand on Calliope’s and puttered her lips. “Phhht, sure. Don't get all boring on me now.”

Calliope rolled her eyes and said, “Fine, whatever. Get me one of those too.” Mirabella circled her finger around the Waste Blaster image once more to confirm two orders. Four and a half minutes later a waitress who wore a one piece dress lined with
eternals
approached their table. The dress was red on the left side, black on the right with rows of tiny
eternals
that flickered and dimmed with the music.

“Welcome to Club Fire. I am Kandia. Who’s getting the Sunspot?”

Mirabella threw up her hand. “Right here! Looks good, thanks.”

Kandia set the drink down in front of her. The glass’s bottom had a special polarized coating that captured any ambient light and focused it straight up the glass and into its contents. Her Sunspot faintly appeared to glow in the dark with an orange-yellow hue with tiny black dots that floated in suspension. Mirabella guessed that the black things were supposed to be representative of sunspots perhaps. She raised her voice as the music volume ratcheted up a little. “Hey, what’s in the black things?” She asked the waitress.

“Nothing, just sugar and some gelatin. It’s just for effect. Do you want something else?” Kandia cranked her head slightly forward and stared at Mirabella with a look of evident concern.

“No, no. Thanks though. Love your eternals though. Can’t find any that do that.” Mirabella pointed to her own outfit which was heavily studded with eternals although they did not glow nor dim, but remained invariably illuminated.

Kandia continued with her dispensation. “Yeah by boyfriend bought it for me. Thank you for noticing though! Okay so you two, here are your Waste Blasters.” She set the two large oval shaped glasses in front of Calliope and Kama. Kandia looked at Kama and said, “My favorite. You’re gonna love it.” She winked, spun herself away and then walked over to another table.

Calliope leaned over to Kama who stared down at the table with an out of sorts shyness. “So whaddaya think? This place is mind-blowing, yeah?” She asked Kama.

Kama raised her head level up and said, “Yeah, it’s great. I mean it’s different.”

Mirabella asked while she scanned around the club, “Different than what? You didn’t have anything like this where you come from?”

“No, yeah we did. It’s just, well.” Kama paused then continued. “We didn’t have any places like this really. They were more like gathering parties. People showed up and left but usually there was no door or workers like this place. Also I was a Chosen so everyone looked up to me. T That is they feared me so much.”

“They
feared
you? Like how do you mean?” Mirabella said as she watched two men in their mid twenties approach their table.

Kama said, “If anyone ever gave me a problem then they were, uh...”

“They were what?” Mirabella asked.

Kama made a horizontal slicing motion across her neck. “Like that. But this is different though.” She quickly smiled and looked at the two guys who presently stood a meter away from their group. “But here, I am just a normal person like anyone else. We called them the common when I was in the Temple. But now I am one.”

“But it’s more fun this way, right?” Mirabella said asdshe sipped at her drink. “One of the little people, just like us!” She raised her drink, laughed and drank some more.

Kama turned her head to face Mirabella and also drank from her Waste Blaster glass. “It is.” She nodded as she slurped from her straw. Calliope talked to the two men with her back to their table. Neither Kama nor Mirabella could hear what they were saying to each other. Every ten or fifteen seconds one guy or the other would glance at Kama as they talked and smiled.

Calliope turned her body to Mirabella without breaking her focus on the men. “So this is my friend Mirabella,” she said as she reached over to her. “And this is my other friend Kama. Kama’s new so we’re sort of having a girl’s night out thing here.”

“Hello, hi!” The two men yelled out against the ever-loudening music. The two men positioned themselves between Mirabella and Calliope and the four talked in a small makeshift huddle. Kama suddenly felt awkward and self-conscious and she was not sure on what to do next. She fidgeted with her breasts and appeared to reseat herself within her dress.

One of the guys burst out a roar of a laugh, the kind that barrels across a large room and then touched Calliope’s shoulder. “No way! Bubble tea! Yeah, yeah! I knew I saw you somewhere!” He said to Calliope. She lit up her face and laughed.

Kama continued to look around and people-watch for what seemed like half an hour although it was three minutes in actuality. The two men laughed with Mirabella and Calliope and then walked away. “Where are they going?” Kama asked the two girls.

Mirabella pushed back her stray red microbraid from her face, snapped on her drink and said, “They’ll be back. Just making their rounds. Ryan, he’s the one with dark blonde hair. He said he thought you were a supermodel or something. I don’t think he realized who you are. Guess not everyone knows.”

“Supermodel? What is that? Good or bad?” Kama asked.

“Oh that’s good.” Mirabella patted her hand mid-air. “Shit,
really good
. I think they thought you were way out of their league though.”

Kama ran her hand down her metal-ringed braid to her shoulder line. She said with an inflected snobbery, “I am!”

All three girls belted out a laugh. Calliope snorted out some of her drink as she was in mid-sip.

Fifteen minutes later all the lights within Club Fire dimmed down to about five percent.. Two men and a woman marched onto the stage and waved at everyone. A disembodied voice announced, “Everyone having a great time at the Fire?”

The club's yelled out, “Yeah!” and “Yes!” One person screamed out, “Not yet brother!” in an attempt to be humorous. A few patrons laughed in response.

The announcer continued. “Rockin! Except for the guy who said that! Someone get that dude a drink! Now, please help us welcome to the Fire, the Deathtones!” Claps and whistles resonated across the club. Spotlights back-illuminated the band and they began to play. The band was so strongly backlit that nobody could not see their faces at all.

Kama looked down at the table. She noticed the words that scrolled over it's surface while the band played. “What does that say? I can’t read it!” She yelled over to Mirabella.

Mirabella did not respond but instead she pointed to a Chinese symbol. Kama nodded and tapped the symbol. The words immediately switched from English to Mandarin. They said, “CLUB FIRE WELCOMES YOU :: DEATHTONES TONITE ONLY :: 26 OCTOBER 2511 :: CURRENT SONG ++MY BODY BURNS BY VANDAL SEVENTY-SEVEN (year 2357)++”