Book 4: Chapter 8: The Search
Bob
July 2334
Cedar Rapids
Hugh had cleaned up the spare manny and was on the road. I was glad to have him active in Heaven’s River. The thing with cloning versus transporting and the whole soul business was, I admit, freaky. I wondered if he’d decided to transport to Eta Leporis just to test it out for himself.
I was in town, having arrived by land. A few casual conversations revealed that I was in a location that the translator handed off as Cedar Rapids. Local tree, of course.
It was a prosperous town, with a relatively large fleet of ships. It appeared that being the closest port to the mountains, and therefore the choke point for all goods coming from and going to the next segment of Heaven’s River, was a good thing.
There was another festival in full swing. I decided to wander around a little, see the sights, and get some of the flavor of the place. Hopefully without my friends around, I would be just one more face in the crowd.
And I would make a point of not peeking into any carts.
In rapid succession, I saw a square dance group, a terrific string quartet, and a vocal group. The Quinlans definitely had a good sense of music and rhythm. But nothing was going to compensate for those short limbs. They would never do ballet. Or even hip-hop.