Page 28 of Eat My Moon Dust
I picked through the bowl and brushed my fingers over a little filament to taste its contents. “Copper. If you want this to glow like a rudimentary bulb, you’d need tungsten instead. But it’ll get too hot to touch, let alone put in a tree. You’d be better off using gallium diodes.”
Tinsley’s smile didn’t so much as twitch as she beamed up at me. “I have no idea what those are, but as long as they’re on a string and colorful, I’ll take it.”
My mane swirled, thinking it through. “Do you have examples?”
“Yes!”I couldn’t tell if she was agreeing that she had examples or exclaiming in triumph. “BEO, search for snaps of outdoorKrismislights!”
The big holoscreen switched to a visual database of trees and human homes illuminated with cords of colorful bulbs. Tinsley pointed to her favorite, the bulbs about as long as her thumb with a little curl of glass or plas at the end. My mane rolled over itself with gathering interest. Shilpakaari loved color, and I was no exception, despite the grey tinge in my skin.
“So, will you do it?”
Tinsley held her breath with hope, expecting me to decline. I scrolled through the snaps of Earth slowly, stalling for time while I weighed the cost and reward.
Then that damned conversation with Bajora echoed in my head. I needed the humans to see me, know my name, say hi… I needed to ask one out to dinner and play the part of flirtatious bachelor, at least while Zufi was in town. Was it stupid of me to tie up the industrial printer with frivolous, useless shit? Yes. But would it make hundreds of humans happy? Fuck yeah, it would.
Plus, this human holiday ticked all of a shilpakaar’s instinctual visual boxes, which meant the spats would love it. I could win some points with them, with the humans, and maybe even with Zufi…
Like Bajora said,thiswas my job right now. If I didn’t give it my all, I’d be up shit’s creek with no paddle by the end of the week and it wouldn’t matter how many hours I spent hunched over my workbench building perimeter drones and bumping up security infrastructure. Zufi would send me to the chopping block and my brood would be homeless.
“Come by the hangar tomorrow,” I decided, glancing at her cold bay. “We’ll talk over lunch.”
“Yes!” she squealed, pumping the air with her fists. “Thank you, Hunar, Ipromiseyou won’t regret it!”
I pressed my lips together in a half-smile, the best I could muster. Regardless if I liked the color of the lights, the idea of wasting time on holiday decorations grated on my work ethic. “No problem. I better go. Sorry again, for Reha.”
Tinsley waved me off, capping the jar ofsiduras the front door hissed open. “You don’t need to apologize for your kids, Hunar. I’m fine, and you gave me the best thing I could have asked for anyway.”
“Twinkle lights?” I asked, taking the jar from her. She nodded once.
“Twinkle lights.”
That quirked the corner of my mouth.
“Right. Good night, then.” I stepped out into the hallway, and she leaned out from the doorframe.
“See you tomorrow!”
Once I was alone in the lift, I unscrewed the cap on hersidurand breathed it in.
Earlier in the day, she’d said something about drinking it hot, but I tried it chilled anyway. My chest warmed with comforting spices as a tingle shivered up the length of my tendril tips.
It was delicious.
10
?HUNAR?
Bing.
“Access granted,” I said before BEO could chime in my ear. Aavar was due back from Samridve and he was right on time. I didn’t need him to yell into my linguitor, fighting the atrocious pop music he always listened to on full blast.
I refocused my attention on the little bulb suspended above my workbench. It was a couple inches from base to tip, with a swirl of glass spiraling around the end. It was plas rather than glass, which made it light enough to mount on a tiny levipuck.
Tinsley had been right on the money when she said her twinkle lights would be a cinch to figure out. The gallium diode and levipucks were the only real engineering requirements, and I had the blueprints for those already. The majority of my morning had been spent instead on refining the shape of the plas bulb. I had four prototypes I was happy with, but she would have to judge when she arrived for lunch.
The base though… I’d made a judgment call on that. Rather than green, the bases would be red to blend in with the jungle. And the electrical cord she insisted they be mounted on? An ugly waste of filament. Instead, I’d program the little levipucks with a fleet code and installed the software on her holotab. All she’d need to do is draw where she wants them to hover on her holoscreen, and the little guys would fly right out of their container into position. No messy wires to roll up or hang from palm fronds.
Besides, the woman practically spoke in exclamation points. She wouldn’t want a handful of twinkle lights. She’d want a fucking army.
