Analog Science Fiction And Fact - June 2014 by Penny Publications Read Free Book Online Page B

the
Herald
—but we'll just have to make do with amateur photographers while our professional photographer is busy being an amateur tour guide."
    Escoli's expression was calculating. "I had no idea that my services were so indispensable," she drawled. "Remind me to ask for a raise when I return."
    Searching for a dexterous change of subject, Baldwin made the obvious choice. "We'll discuss it later," he said. He pointed. "There's the sight we came to see. Why don't we look at it?"
    The sunset was a wild extravaganza of kaleidoscopic colors. Baldwin felt as if they were watching a slow-motion film of a stained-glass window being shattered.
    Izmir was justifiably famous for its glorious sunsets. This was what observers gathered on the observation deck of the Mazabashi Inn to observe.
    To build a permanent platform from which to witness a spectacle cherished for its impermanence was typical of the Bukkarans. Like human beings, they weren't so much rational as rationalizing creatures. They frequently contradicted themselves, and would have been quick to contradict anyone who accused them of it.
2.
    Escoli's pix-shooter wasn't really Escoli's. It didn't belong to her. It was the property of the
Izmir Herald
—a professional rig that had been issued to Escoli by her employer. When the shokiku—the constables—had completed their preliminary investigation, the camera was returned to the offices of the newspaper.
    Baldwin called it that—a news
paper
—even though it wasn't printed on paper and never had been. The
Izmir Herald
was actually a newscast. The text was transmitted daily and received by the
Herald's
subscribers on their comtotes, wristcoms, or voxviews. Be that as it may, Baldwin and his colleagues still referred to themselves as members of the "press," they used expressions like "go to press" and "stop the presses," and they spoke of "cameras," "photographers," "snapshots," and "capturing images on film"—terminology that should have been obsolete and would have been if journalists like Baldwin had abandoned it. But they hadn't. Some traditions die hard. As far as Baldwin was concerned, Escoli's digiscopic imager was a "camera," she'd used it to take "photographs," and he was, at present, examining the photographs stored in the camera's memory—the pictures Escoli had taken of her vacation.
    Escoli had evidently conducted her cousin to all of Izmir's standard tourist attractions. Here was a close-up of Tumanzu with the Awoji Observatory in the background. The big telescope had the condescending air of a skywatching instrument unaccustomed to the contemplation of less exalted spectacles. And here was an image of Tumanzu standing at the entrance to the Cave of the Winds, his fur ruffled by the breeze. Tumanzu had fed the hujos at the Gyoki Marina, attended a nubenga concert at the Yokadu Auditorium, dined sumptuously aboard the floating restaurant that sailed between Shuzanjo and Myshina twice daily. And so on and so forth. Baldwin recognized all of the stops they had made. The sole exception was a residential district that could have been located almost anywhere on the island. Modest cottages, sturdily constructed. Walls of the reddish stone that was quarried from the cliffs on Izmir's north coast. Convoluted streets paved with cobblestones from the same source. Big tachibina trees with their feather-duster leaf-clusters. Steeply sloping roofs designed to shed rain. Typical Izmirian dwellings. Nothing about them was extraordinary except how extra-ordinary they were.
    "Take a look at this, will you, Dave?"
    David Collins was the juniormost of the
Herald's
three reporters. He knew the island like a native for the simple and sufficient reason that he
was
a native. He'd been born here. His parents were career diplomats: under-secretaries on the staff of the Terran Embassy.
    Baldwin transferred the photo to Collins' comtote. A single glance at the screen, and: "Kroydhun district."
    "West shore?"
    Collins nodded. "See the