Scenes from a Perfect World Part 3

by Grahame R. Smith

26th February 2013

This is a deleted scene from my first novel At Risk ... A Perfect World.

Introduction to the Love Dart

People flew out of Rahhoon's outrageously high jump booths, clutching children and glasses, and screaming with delight as the invisible antigrav devices lowered them slowly to the ground. Rahhoon and Leela welcomed all with open arms. An uninvited Marleeseen orchestra was providing euphoric party music. Evangeline, assisted by her friend Macklebrew, had set up a horse riding attraction that enthusiastic children had already discovered. The general atmosphere was as if nobody had seen anybody for at least a hundred years. Chitchat flourished, and enmeshed in this was the eternal gossip and teacher of Dance Meeko Ma and her faithful but lively companion Lal.

'I do like a little indulgence, from time to time,' Meeko was saying.

'From time to time!' Lal said with mock disbelief.

'Well, maybe a bit more than that. My saying is this, excuse the oxymoron, but I do enjoy a bit of moderate excess.' Everybody laughed, except Lal who had heard it hundreds of times before.

'Rahhoon,' Meeko went on. 'Have you not invited those devilish Marleeseen, apart from that little group playing music?'

'No need to, dearest Meeko, they don't need invitations. They consider themselves invited to everything. I must say that they have been quite restrained so far this evening, which means they have something in store for this party. So fear not, and watch out, the Marleeseen are coming.'

'Oh good,' Meeko said. 'I'm so glad, they are such intriguing creatures!'

Omigali, Anakaran, and His Holiness Hakinadouus arrived into a supplementary, extremely high jump booth and required a long descent on an invisible antigrav platform. The platform was completely safe, even for toddlers, but vertigo suffers found that difficult to believe. 'Oh, that outrageously naughty Rahhoon! What a party prank!' Anakaran said as they approached the ground. Omigali jumped quickly off the platform and, responding to beckoning from Monomay, rushed over to join her new friends.

Everybody was having a hilarious time being entertained by Pol and Voreesh who were manifesting a sitcom using caricatures of their teachers. They had created this show all by themselves, using a technology housed in two small rectangular objects, which they held in their hands. These rectangular objects, of course, were unnecessary, as the drama they housed was a non-locality programme, which their implants could have controlled. In fact, all the children present had microdot implants which had infinite capacity. From these implants, they were able to project images of people and things, talk to, manifest each other across the other side of Salvation, access information of any kind, and watch entertainment holos. Furthermore, these implants were highly flexible with an enormous capacity for innovation. They set up numerous symbiotic relationships with fundamental neurological structures and lined up with intuition, imagination, and creativity, and even shaped telepathy in those who wanted it. They also formed an important function in facilitating the workings of the second level biological functions well developed in the children.

When Pol and Voreesh had perfected their malicious little game, they would either keep it in their implants or discard it. Importantly, on the other hand, there was also pleasure in actually holding a game device in the hand. They could decorate it, attached it to their person as an attractive accessory, and swap it with other games devices. Another attraction was that someone else could play your game in your head, and what is more, two or more people could play each other. This was something immensely enjoyed by people in their teens. Rakku, for example, was highly skilled at this type of play and famous for her intriguing dramas.

Omigali sat down beside Sool who, following her performance had quickly linked up with her friends. During a lull in the teacher-comedy, Omigali turned to Sool and introduced herself. 

'I know you must be tired of compliments, but your dancing was wonderful. I shall never forget it. You dance for all of us!'

'Thank you Omi,' Sool accepted the compliment gracefully. 'From you, that is a compliment indeed.'

Suddenly an army of Marleeseen swooped down from the sky like a swarm of insects, their intention to seek out ruthlessly every person at the party. Except for young children, there would be no mercy and no prisoners.

They had a new, lethal weapon: the love dart.