Day 4 - Paradise Station
In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
-Terry Pratchett
I stepped out the Station elevator one floor above the main lobby. This would lead me to the mezzanine, and from the balcony I could look down onto the perpetual crowd that had gathered at the checkin and check out desks, as well as at the bars and restaurants that spilled out into the common area. There were hundreds of people milling about, to-ing and fro-ing, as one classical author put it.
Darwin was standing beside me, watching the scene through the railings. He was already starting to draw attention from the folks passing behind us, but as yet, no one seemed interested enough to even pause. I love crowds, people seem to mind their own business in crowds. When you are in a small group, say in an elevator or transport station, people want to establish close personal bonds for some reason, and a cat is the perfect bridge to use when crossing the gulf of individuality that normally separates us. I like that gulf. I wish people would stay on their own side of it more often.
There were two massive sweeping staircases that led down from the balcony to the main floor, framing the Grand Entrance. The stairs were frequently used as they afforded the best view of the lobby, and in the decor of Paradise Station's Valhalla Hotel, not at all out of place. The ceiling soared above the mezzanine, giving the lobby area an airy feeling that would have been an engineering marvel planetside. Even though it was the outer edge of the rotating station, space was not an issue in this massive room.
Paradise was one of the last stations to be built, and the last done so in the 'grand' style. It was completed about three-hundred fifty years ago, but had been in operation for one hundred or so years before its completion. After humanity had given up the dream of populating the stars, our energies turned inward. If the solar system which birthed us was to be our grave as well as our cradle, then we were going to make it as comfortable as possible.
I marvelled at the audacity of the architects and the artists who spent their lives, sometimes their entire working careers, dedicated to completing this reproduction of a bygone era that never was. In a style that was old a thousand years ago, the lobby was a homage to archaic Egypt, gold and black enamel featuring prominently. Soaring columns dotted the lobby floor, while chandeliers the size of cabins were dwarfed by their distance above the floor. I am aware of the discontinuity of the Hotel's name with its decor. The only people who would have cared have been dead and dust for millenia.
I, for one, was glad that the costume era had come and gone, and the staff was well dressed, but without the ridiculous reproductions of ancient Egyptian head gear and skirts. Some parts of the system were still very conservative, and some of the stations radically so, and the sight of male and female staff doing their jobs topless sent some guests into apoplexy and distracted others. After the third death for 'inappropriate touching,' the hotel decided that full suits with the Valhalla logo on the shoulder would suffice.
I made my way over to the stairways, one curving down on each side the Grand Entrance, which once served to welcome dignitaries and VIPs, when their were such people. Now the grand entrance remained closed and dark most of the time, used only to bring in huge set pieces directly from space.
From my vantage point, I could see almost everyone, and saw the flow of each individual's life and choices merged into a great river of flowing movement and potential. Even in this day of limits and resignation, people still believed in the importance and power of their choices. They decided when and where to have dinner, and what they were going to eat. But as a Finder, I knew that very few of the choices we make are free, driven by our body's needs, the cycles of the planet and what was on the menu today.
I had deliberately chosen the staircase. It would give time for the people to acclimate themselves to Darwin, who padded silently at my side, looking for all the world like he owned the hotel. Given the decor, he was probably the most authentic person there. Of course Darwin is a person, or hadn't you noticed.
As we glided down the stairs, Darwin would draw stare after stare, while I took the opportunity of my sudden invisibility to scan the crowd. People who don't want to be looked at usually avoid looking at other people. If you are trying to hide, this is a terrible idea, because any action that goes against the crowd attracts attention. If you want to hide in plain sight, do what everyone else is doing.
Most of the the patrons actually brought wepets to the station all the time, and while it was expensive, it wasn't rare. Just to be clear, I didn't consider Darwin a pet, but the disguise worked to both our benefits.
About half-way down the stairs Darwin had, if only briefly, drawn the attention of almost everyone in the crowd, if only for a moment. Some notable exceptions were a few couples so enchanted with each other that not even Darwin could interpose himself on their mutual obsession.
Humanity is funny that way. Even though we were in what many called 'the twilight' of our species, the universal despair that had followed our abandonment of the dream of interstellar travel had now settled to a centuries long melancholy. Even though we knew with a certainty that we crushed and buried beneath our surface activity that all of our effort and toils and trials would end the meaningless extinction of our kind, whether it was thousands or millions of years from now. Despite all this, to which was added the capricious whims of fate that would randomly destroy our lives, we still fell in love, had and raised children, and stared with awe at the unreachable stars and unfathomable sunsets.
I discounted the couples, whose swirling event flows brightly circled each other, neatly excluding the rest of humanity, and focussed on the others who had disregarded Darwin's deliberate distraction. There was one couple who were sitting together watching the elevator area. They were a study in contrast.
Except for the fact that they were both women, they could not be more different. One was tall and broad shouldered, well muscled and well coifed. Dark-hair braided in a three foot long tail that was currently slung over her shoulder, dark eyed, dark-skinned she emanated a self-confident strength that could be sensed by the people around her who unconsciously gave her a wide berth. Was she beautiful? I don't know, ask her partner.
Next to this dark goddess sat her polar opposite. She was petite almost to impossibility. Her frame, her face, her wispy blonde hair that defied control, all spoke of fragility and vulnerability. Her skin was pale to the point of near translucence. Her eyes were not the blue you would expect, but a pale gray that was almost white. Of the two, she was obviously the more dangerous, by far.
Their hands rested casually on the table between them, almost touching. I could see the flow of cause and effect moving around them, encircling both of them together, though they weren't looking at each other. Between them spun a dark vortex of pain, betrayal and grief. I could see the ravages of a once passionate relationship creating a black impenetrable wall between them.
This was Markham and Joy. They were two of the best Finders in the system and the only team. Each Finder uses a core grief, and private pain, which we call the Void, to separate us from the interchange of human life, to lift us above the causes and effects of other lives upon our own. This in turn lets us see the 'flow' by extracting ourselves from it. For these two, the devastation of their failed relationship is what gave their Finding power, and the pain created by staying together without reconciliation created their Void. They had to stay together to Find. They had to stay apart for the same reason.
I watched them for a moment. Joy looked over to me briefly and gave a nod of professional courtesy. They wouldn't interfere with me, nor I with them. Their presence alone however would change the flow here, causing people to be more cautious and and more curious than they otherwise would have been. They were a disruption to my Finding. They knew it and didn't care. Their method involved shaking things up and seeing what fell out. It worked most of the time, but it was a destructive way of doing things.
I left them to their observations, confident that nothing was going to be coming from the elevators. I paused on the staircase to continue scanning. This annoyed Darwin in his stately pace down the stairs, and he very nearly continued without me, which would have made him look ridiculous. Cats do not appreciate being made to look foolish.
Darwin paused in midstep and looked up at me reprovingly. To regain his dignity, he sat back on his haunches and looked for all the world like it was his idea for us to stop on the stairs. He yawned for effect, which he in fact created. The presence of those teeth drew a gasp from those who were currently looking at us, drawing even more attention from the crowd.
A couple of people at the closest bar were oblivious to us. Most of them because they were inebriated into insensibility and nothing short of a catastrophic decompression would draw their notice. One, was casually sipping his drink, uncaring of the world as it passed him by. This was Fereydoon Bobak.
Bobak was a mid-level Finder. He usually took on smaller jobs, missing pets, jewelry etc. He was good, though he lacked the drama that higher level Finders seem to wrap around them like a cloak. He was, by all accounts and my own experience, a nice guy.
He was married, had a kid, and lived a quiet life in the suburbs of one of the great cities planetside, last I heard. I have to admit, I was a little surprised to see him here.
I started back down the stairs as I finished my scan of the room, noting exits and entrances, and projecting the flow forward enough to relax a little. Time to visit an old acquaintance.
When I reached the bottom, Darwin slunk away into the foliage of the huge plant pots that dotted the floor. I swear he is part shadow. He would be found when he intended to be. At present, I was sure he had gone into hiding to avoid all of the petting and touching that was the natural sequel to the admiration and notice his glide down the stairs had evoked.
I threaded my way through the crowd, ignored now that Darwin was gone. People were already starting to forget that Darwin had descended the stairs in the company of a man. They only remembered the cat who came to dinner, which is what I was aiming for all along.
I made my way to the bar where Bobak was sitting, quietly slipping into the seat next to him.
"Hey, Fred. How goes it?"
He looked over to me, his look of surprise transforming itself to a huge smile.
"'Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world.'" he quoted to me. He was always fond of classical literature. "Joshua Friedman, the greatest Finder on life, as I live and breathe!"
He thrust out his hand. I took it warmly in mine and Bobak pulled me in for a bear hug, laughing and patting me on the back. He was a good man, and an old friend from before I changed. I hugged him back, surprised at my hunger for human contact.
Thus in the pose of two old friends reuniting, which we were, he quietly whispered in my ear.
"Gregson is on the station."