Suitable attire’ was ordered for Ryo. In keeping with Wuu’s intentions to stay as inconspicuous as possible, the clothing was new but not fancy. Those constraints aside, the vest and pouch were attractive and sturdy.
A day prior to their scheduled departure a secretive little Thranx appeared at Wuuzelansem’s entryway to handdeliver a tiny package. This produced a remarkable brace of identification documents, including even a credit charge stick. The latter was supposedly unforgeable, for the financial institutions of all Thranx worlds were extremely security-conscious. Ryo would use it only in an emergency.
“I will handle all fiscal transactions,” said Wuu. “No sense in tempting fate. That stick will be the most difficult to pass, but it’s important that you at least be able to show one. No one travels intersystem without a stick.” He studied the younger Thranx. “How do you like your new clothing?”
Ryo dropped to all sixes, rose again and twisted his upper body, shook his abdomen. The vest stayed securely in place.
“I hardly know what to say.”
“One wordless and one overflowing with words. We’ll complement each other well.” The poet made a gesture indicative of second-degree amusement mixed with disavowal of sarcasm. “Tomorrow then, we take ship.”
“And if there are problems?”
“We’ll deal with them as they present themselves. Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, my boy, especially if you prepare for it in advance.” He wagged a truhand at the younger male.
Ryo didn’t sleep well that night’ as he dreamed unreassuring dreams that centered on a gigantic slobbering thing with a mouth full of crooked, snaggly teeth, crimson fur all over its body, and a half-dozen claw-fingered hands that groped anxiously after him. It wore its skeleton inside, like the yaryinf, and it wanted to suck out his head.
He woke uneasily to the soft chimes of Wuu’s house alarm.
They packed little, carrying only hand luggage. “We’re not going to an investiture ball,” Wuu had pointed out, “and those who travel light travel fast.”
Exiting the level complex in which Wuu lived, they took a shaft lift below surface and then a fourth-level transport to the nearest module terminus, where they boarded a direct module to the shuttleport
“I regret only one thing that has happened thus far,” said Ryo in the quiet of their private compartment.
“What’s that?”
“That those who beat and robbed me should escape without punishment.”
“Who says they suffer no punishment? I know what their lives are like. They are miserable most of the time and at best a little of the simplest pleasures may trickle down to them. They live in many ways worse than our primitive ancestors who grubbed a bare existence from the earth, for the advantages of modern society are denied them. Yet ignorant and unhappy though they are, they must somehow live too.”
Wuu made an all-encompassing gesture with all four hands. “The universe is a jungle, my boy. You could spend all your life in Willow-wane’s wildest reaches fighting poisonous flora and carnivorous fauna, be healthy and happy, and come to the Hive of Ciccikalk one day only to be run over by a transport module. If you regard every place as being dangerous and uncivilized you will find yourself much more relaxed in mind.”