The Perfect Song

By Lee Willard

It is 3039ad, almost eight hundred Earth years have passed since Desa emerged from the pass thru the Kinsheeta. The starship age has come and gone. If anyone has seen the report of the second expedition to 61 Cygni, you know that Desa was involved in some adventures during the early starship age. Its only lasting effect was cheaper suntower service to more places. That was so long ago that it is now taken for granted and many electronics companies are centuries old and their names are household words. But even now print media holds more of the market than it's had on Earth since its 20th century. It is still the main media of the average person. The average person in the city where and when this takes place uses an 'eye' (data terminal) once or twice a month at this time.

Desa never took the threat of celebrity seriously. People had warned her since the 55th, but it had eluded her so completely for four centuries that she didn't believe the threat was real. Yes, this same story could take place in New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris or Los Angeles and appeal to lovers of that time in Earth's history when music was important. Those stories have been told, those all have governments to appeal to and contend with, the scene in Zhlindu does not. In this Desa also has to come to grips with her ambivalence toward fame and her lack of empathy for one of her closest friends.

In here we also get a first-hand look at the music scene and music business of Zhlindu. This city is known for music and is probably the home of the culture where music is the most important of any human culture known to date. It is one of the biggest businesses in the city and one of the most important aspects of their culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lee Willard
• Release date: Jul 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005953997

Lee Willard

I am a retired embedded systems engineer and sci-fi hobbyist from Hartford. Most of my stories concern Kassidor, 'The planet the hippies came from' which I have used to examine subjects like: What would it take to make the hippy lifestyle real? How would extended lifespans affect society? What could happen if we outlive our memories? How can murder be committed when violence is impossible?I have recently discovered that someone new to science fiction should start their exploration of Kassidor with the Second Expedition trilogy. To the mainstream fiction reader the alien names of people, places and things can be confusing. This series has a little more explanation of the differences between Kassidor and Earth. In all of the Kassidor stories you will notice the people do not act like ordinary humans but like flower children from the 60's. It is not until Zhlindu that the actual modifications made to human nature to make them act that way are spelled out. To aide that understanding I've made The Second Expedition free.I am not a fan of violence and dystopia. I believe that sci-fi does not just predict the future, but helps create the future because we sci-fi writers show our readers what the future will be and the readers go out and create it. I believe that the current fad of constant dystopia and mega-violence in sci-fi today is helping to create that world, and I mention that often in reviews and comments on the books I read. I also believe that the characters in those stories who are completely free of any affection are at least as unnatural as the modified humans of Kassidor.In my reviews, * = couldn't finish it. ** = Don't bother with it. *** = good story worth reading. **** = great and memorable story. ***** = Worth a Hugo.

Book preview

2. Something New

The hallway was empty so Aldya passed his hand over Via's lovely contours as they passed each other. Is that an invite, she asked, Or just a little teasing?

Want to do Dusksleep? he asked, I'm open.

I'm not sure, I'm open, but I don't know if I'll be in the mood for a social sleep, If I am, I'll come over.

Hope you are, he said. She was a nice lively little cutie, one he liked sharing a bed with, with some regularity. He couldn't linger now, Gession had dropped a message to see him upstairs. He knew what it would be about, the New on the Scene tapes, there were so many, if he listened all the way thru every one of them he would still be at it when the year ended.

Gession actually had a window in his work space. It wasn't part of his residence, that was another fifteen floors up the building. At least he hadn't asked Aldya to come up there. The six floors up to here was enough work on his thighs. It was nice to see the light. It was bad that he spent most Afternoondays deep in commercial space where the light of Kortrax never penetrates and it was always Nightday. Getting to see some of the light he was missing was a treat. The window had glass in it and on this Afternoonday of Hareenduul he had that glass open. It was a bit brisk even on Afternoonday in this first week of the year and they were already twenty one hundred feet above the basin floor.

Hey, welcome, how was your new year?

Lonely, Aldya said. I passed up too many chances hoping for someone more to my liking, wound up going home alone for Dawnsleep of Knmonaweep.

Sorry to hear that.

My own fault, I had two chances but passed them up.

If you're cruising the taps on Rankor Hill the last evening of the year, you should strike early.

Gession was probably right about that. It was over, he had hopes for the coming sleep. So I see, Aldya said. Anyway, it's not like it's all that special a sleep. I actually like Noonsleeps best.

Nice and hot. But anyway, I wanted to talk about this year's submissions before I forget.

I'd be starting on them now, Aldya said.

Yeah, find me something different. Things are getting really stagnant lately. We need somebody that shakes things up the way KaggusDaggar did back around the turn of the 100th.

Back in that direction? The comeback of tower was the latest news.

KaggusDaggar was the character of the 100th century. We need a character of the 103rd, Gession said. He had a small pot of tea, it just started to whistle so he poured.

What will be the character of this century? Aldya asked.

Any contact with worlds of other stars is always important. The 100th was also characterized by the starships, Gession said, and there were signals recently discovered coming from YingolNeerie again, maybe that will characterize our century.

How will that effect music? Aldya asked.

I wish I knew. If they have music at YingolNeerie, can they send it so a suntower can receive it? If so would they? And if they did, would their music be anything we could listen to?

I don't know, Aldya said. I find I can't listen to the music of the Fmak for instance. They never developed the concept of bass for one thing, it all sounds like pounding nails into your nose to me.

But there are many other cultures under Kortrax that produce beautiful music, Gession said. Even those spacey drones from Trenst have a certain beauty to them. The Yakhan has many interesting musical ideas. Maybe instead of finding something from YingolNeerie you can just find something from far away. It wouldn't be as far as another star, but even the Yakhan is farther than most people travel in a lifetime.

And that's where the signals are detected, Aldya said. If I come across anything from the Yakhan I'll pay particular attention.

Just find me something different, something new.

There were twenty two tapes submitted so far, Aldya found out when he got down to talk to Ganni. What are they? he asked.

I didn't get to even start most of them, she said, There were lots of power tower songs, there's a great blast ripper by a group called Carnivorous Babies that I like. Let me keep the tape if you don't like it. I wish you guys could consider it, it's pure shredded plasma all the way.

That's not what we're looking for, Gession told me to find something new and different.

The most different is probably one by a cute girl that was in pretty early. It's a bit tower but a bit spacey. It put me to sleep but Gession might like it.

Which one is that?

You'll see it, it's the oldest band. The picture is a ship on a mountain lake with a guy's picture faded into the clouds of the background. The picture's a lot wilder than it looks at first.

She handed him the box, before he went he wondered if he should chance another invite in case Via didn't make it. He though better of it because Via was so jealous of Ganni's golden tan skin and Ganni would never tell her where she got the mod. All Aldya had ever gotten out of her was that was an hour by streetcar, and that the whole ride was indoor. That put it somewhere in South Harborwall, East Slope or one of the spines. Then there was the fact that Ganni had lately been much less likely to accept such invitations.

Ganni had the submissions all indexed and sorted and in a box for him to grab and take with him. This is when it would be nice to have a residence within the company compound because he could just take it home with him. As it was he had a compartment in the office space. It was a bit small but he had a good player and speaker set with some outboard conditioning he'd had some of the technology guys plumb up for him that added a lot more space to the room. He'd sold the company on the fact that it wouldn't do to rate a recording highly and then have it turn out the audio was of very poor quality and couldn't be played on a standard home system.

These days most people converted everything to photovoltaic and stored it in a data cube and called up songs by lists that most people called 'performances.' Most people remixed their tunes to their taste. Most songs were still sold as 'tapes' that are in fact physical plastic tapes encoded in compressed frequency domain transforms rendered as near-microscopic holes in the tape thru which air or light passed. The light signals were conducted by optical fibers to the chips. The tapes could still be played on purely pneumatic systems also and those were still in use and still manufactured.

His own system was photovoltaic, driven by light from a mirroid suntrap high above. It made no sense but to go thru the tapes in the order they were indexed, by newest to oldest. It was amazing how that seemed to sort them by category. The ones who had formed in the last year or two were mainly blast, motor-blast and a bit of rumble thrown in. There was one tower-power ballad in the first ten. The next ten had little blast, still some rumble, even one good one that he put aside. The next to last band on this list had been together over a decade. Theirs did have some polish to it, it was the best of the tower, he would put that aside. As it played he saw that the one she mentioned was last, the sails on a mountain lake, a face projected on the clouds, no made up of clouds. He looked at it awhile and let the ship and the shore become background and saw that the sky and its reflection were actually a black and white photograph done in highland sky blue and white and stippled for texture by various cloud patterns. It was a photo of a Nordic man with a beard and loose curls. His kiss bellied the sails of the ship. He looked at their answer to 'how long playing together' 3,30,15. Desa -yandrille and lead vocals, Klegnif, chippongga and chorus. Address with an asterisk.

Even though the tape he was playing was one of the three best so far, he was anxious to get this in. He put the one before it on top of those and put this in. There was just a space at first, far beyond the mountains a royal chorus called. The daintiest crystals tinkled somewhere above, but in the ground below, a beat began to thump. He noticed the other discrepancy on their sheet, they had one more digit under 'number of copies of submitted song sold to date' sixteen thousand. It was then that the sweetest voice ever said, 'There's no Angels here, just those signals far away, Drew you sailing there, far away' and the notes were so clear. Instead of the wall of sound, it was a vast space thru which the images danced. He was reaching for the interview request form by the time she got to the word 'here', by the time she got to 'such a long, long empty road' he had it filled out and in a capsule. It would be reaching Gession before the song was over.

It was two tense weeks while he waited for the interview list. He lobbied Gession both weeks to let him interview her as a favor, because she had been in one of his batch of tapes. He'd recommended nine others in those weeks, but still remembered hers as the 'something different' that Gession might be looking for. Gession promised to consider him.

By the time he was finally given permission, he found the address was deserted. He hoped that meant that she was just not home at the time, but since there had been an asterisk, and Ganni was away, he and Markinsk had to go on to others on the list that week. He spent the next Afternoonday attempting to track her down thru her tape manufacturer and retailers. He got to a guy up on the north side of the hill who said he had known her for a long time.

Yep, he said, She left the first few copies of these, he held up a couple other tapes out of one of his bins, herself. I've known Desa since she first came around. I first knew her when she was doing masters for Teeum and Magas-m'Nee back in the 100th or thereabouts, late 55th maybe. She played in a band then too with this Old-Elvish guy and some party-belly. We sold quite a few of their tapes too.

This is not their only recording?

As ZhlinDos they've got these three. Now I don't know Klegnif that well, I have never met her at all come to think of it, just seen her at a show.

They play out?

They play some neighborhood plaza's and for some cooks up on the Lmuthra end of the Appalaise pretty often. They're as sweet live as they are recorded. I got to warn you, this one here, he showed him the tape. The picture was taken somewhere far from here, there was a wide sunlit field of vedn, all in bloom on a mountainside. There was a crumbled stone wall behind it, grown over with wild, not city growth. Surrounded by the fallen blocks of that wall was a floor model yandrille, what looked just like an original Kniydi, with a big haired brunette, and a nice Paduba double-bank with a buxom blond at it. The song was Tear the Walls Down. This was remastered from a recording and pressing done in the town of Lastriss somewhere in Wescarp. If you've got good gear you'll notice, but it's OK for a re-master, the original was better than some you find the cheap shops cranking out here.

They claim to have played together three and a half centuries.

Out in Wescarp. Desa's talked about that. This is the first time Klegnif's come to the city. I've yet to meet her but her boyfriend's been around keeping up with stock and such. Their new one's doing very well, I wouldn't have time to go after as many cases as I can sell if he didn't help out. Teeums might not be able to keep up if it was more than just a few of us in Northeast Rankor Hill selling them. I think I've gone thru a dozen boxes already. You walk up and down Morranga or Kalipaicha on a quiet evening and you'll hear someone playing that song.

Aldya was actually rarely on those vangs, he might take Kalipaicha for awhile if he came down to Reshplaza outdoors. He didn't get down there even once a year, and when he did he sometimes took Great Benzai off Lmuthra and then Haken Khume and never saw the sun til the atrium before the waterpark. So how do you know Desa? he asked.

Oh, she's been around now and then for centuries. I was still cooking when I first knew her, She lived around HakenCourt I think. We've always been on good terms.

You don't know her very well?

I've not shared her bed or confided deep secrets with her but I've spoken with her when she brought the first boxes of these tapes over. She remembered me as a cook, she was always nice.

Since the address he had given was less than a mile away, he thought he might see if she might happen to be home now so he could bypass the clerks and messengers and set up the interview himself. He walked all the way, using a shortcut he knew down Koochess Industrial and Niadeem Commercial but had to labor up fourteen floors of Alanstairs on his way back up onto the Hill. There was a hallway off that, he had to ask a local cook to decode part of the address, it was down deep in a tiny atrium that was going commercial.

He reached the address, and found it was the same place approached from a different direction. There was now a sign on the door. Large convenient property with good commercial possibilities, air and gas available, see broker, and another address only fourteen floors and fifteen hundred feet from the door he used when he left the Crystal Scene building. From the looks of that sign, she would not be coming back here again. He stopped at a little eye room and typed that info back to Crystal Scene. He would let the clerks and messengers continue the pursuit. He hoped they found her. He hoped he got to do the interview.

3. Interview

Desa slumped into the desk chair exhausted, unpacked at last in her new home. The view wasn't bad from here, she could see all the way out to the flats of the southeast. In the foreground were the fronds and balconies of the northeast slope of Rankor Hill, not far from the collar. Thru them she could see a jagged jungle of city scape that worked its way down Imuna Vang toward the Karthuum valley, a mile distant and another thousand feet lower.

She had to borrow to afford this home. This altitude with its sweeping views and pleasantly cool climate did not come cheap, and though the place was small and technically a strap-up, it had cost aluminum. She wasn't very worried about it however. She'd earned a third of that aluminum already and that enabled her to pay off a third of the loan before she was even moved in.

It was a good thing she also had a studio twelve floors below and a half mile away, she could never get her gear in here. The studio was spacious, but cheap because it was without windows in the attic of a space occupied by a toothbrush factory.

She really shouldn't sit, a writer for Crystal Scene magazine would be here any minute. The resolve to get cleaned up for that had not yet lead to action when there was a call at the door. We are Aldya and Markinsk of Crystal Scene, we seek Desa.

This is Desa, please enter, she called back. She thought of dashing to the bathroom and asking them to make themselves comfortable, but that was on the lower level while she was on the upper and the door was on the landing a third of the way down. She would never make it, she wasn't even up from the chair before the door was open and a slender guy with long shining Tundrite-bronze hair was popping thru, followed by a husky orange-haired Dwarvish woman lugging a big, serious camera that she pointed at Desa and fired.

Hey, she said, I just unpacked. Let me get cleaned up for pictures.

Oh we will, Aldya said. Desa was at the top of the steps leading to her landing at the open rail. He was mounting the steps.

Markinsk leaned over with her camera and continued snapping away. Desa covered her face with her hands. We'll only use one candid at most, Markinsk said, and it will be flattering.

We didn't mean to be too early, Aldya said, We can certainly allow you to get comfortable.

Thanks, Desa said and motioned them into the room. I've got the upstairs habitable, sorry I got so far behind...

It looks stunning and tasteful, Aldya said. Markinsk was already photographing the room, balcony and view from various angles. It's hard to believe that it was only two weeks ago when you were living at that other address.

Thanks, she said, and started toward the stairs. I left out labels from other recordings I've played on.

I know 'Sweet Lover' is not your first song. I found the other two. Then he saw she had nine tape labels on the table. So ZhlinDos is not your first band? But you have been together for centuries?

Yes, but not steadily and not always under that name. I think we were called 'Why Don't You Guys Jam?' for our first few decades. We were called the 'Mountain Furies' for most of our career. We didn't start using the name ZhlinDos until long after Klegnif came down and lived with my son in the valley.

The Hyadrain?

No, Yoolbarla Vale, a finger of the Central Wescarp Valley.

It was clear she might as well have been talking about nation-states the starships came from as far as he was concerned. He was probably one of those people who's valley count went to two. These others? he asked about the labels that were not by ZhlinDos.

I've made some trips to the city before, played with some guys here and there. Amis-Amon was the longest but we never recorded. I played with them in twelve different episodes over the 101st, and 102nd. He looked at the labels, three with 'Sarsawuf', two with 'BlissCry' another under her own name but with the guy from Sarsawuf on chippogga. He must have never heard of any of them, he didn't say anything. I don't have labels for a few studio tapes and the ones I did in the Dos basin.

You have performed there also?

That was how we got our name.

It's the name of the two cities, isn't it? And if you are from Dos, that means?

Klegnif is from Zhlindu, but please, I don't want to smell like an athlete.

Yes, go, he said. Take your time.

She didn't, she took a quick shower and tried to get her hair dry.

Let us know when it is OK to come down there, Aldya called.

She put on a clean wrapskirt, a thin royal-blue tie-dye with a nice thong and pearl-shell belt. Come on down. The room's a bit smaller but we can all fit. She heard them on the steps. Markinsk had her camera at the ready. I'm still trying to do something with this mop, she said. She was combing it up from behind her ears, Markinsk snapped twice. Her Elvish points would be plain, as would her round eyes and cheeks. She'd always known that being a pop-eye was her weirdness, she sometimes tried to hide it, knew this lighting would show it. Lit by late Afternoonday sun off the tapestries on her walls, her color might look a little ruddier than normal, but her hair was still too wet for the fiery highlights to shine.

You are very beautiful, Aldya said, Allow it to show. He pulled up a pad and sat on the foot of the bed. Her wash stand was across from the toilet compartment that separated the bed area from the bath. It had the only mirror in her apartment.

Hold your hair up just like that and turn toward the light, Markinsk said. Fluff it out a little more so it catches the light. She sat on the floor in front of Desa's clothes racks. Now lean back just a bit and turn your head a bit more left so it's almost a profile. She clicked a couple times. We'll use that shot if we use any, she said.

Aldya acknowledged her with a nod, asked Desa, How do you feel about having a hit song?

If Blighnitentide or Hallakannon released a song that sold sixteen thousand copies in its first year, you would be asking them how they felt after releasing such a dud.

ZhlinDos is not a centuries old band, you are new to the scene.

I've been playing around Zhlindu since the 55th. You saw the label for 'Finding Ceremony' by 'Sarsawuf' upstairs. 'Sweet Lover' has a long way to go yet to sell as many as that.

How would you feel if a hundred and sixty thousand copies of your song were sold this year?

Desa knew her eyes popped out. That was the level of sales Halakanon might make from their latest release. It would be, she paused, thought about it, I don't know, that's a whole new level. That's more than Finding Ceremony has sold altogether. I don't know how I would feel about that.

You might be able to expect that if you have an article in our magazine.

I thought we were doing a 'New on the Scene' shot? Desa said.

We will do at least that. You have charm, your song has a certain something that's new around here.

The softness of the Dos basin.

Whatever it is, Aldya said, you have it. You can be big.

I don't want to be BIG big. It's nice to get gigs and have them well attended, but I don't want to be pestered, neither does Klegnif.

Your form said she would not grant an interview.

She's a private person, she doesn't relate well with strangers.

Can you speak for her?

I'll do my best, I've known her three and a half centuries. She and Klegnif went way back, back to her first notes in Yoonbarla. She'd met Klegnif when Klegnif lived with a guy who owned a little country yaagatoria in the Wescarp hills with a decent enough plastic-string roller-pitched hand-held on the stage. They'd played together off and on around Wescarp as the Mountain Furies for the whole three centuries Desa owned her crystal-string.

This is a beautiful room, Aldya said, Would it be possible to get some nude shots in here.

I thought you were doing a little blurb for the 'New on the Scene' column? Desa asked.

That may be all we can get, but this is our project, he indicated himself and Markinsk. If we can get more, so much the better, and so much the better for you.

Desa had never minded nudity, but a picture in a major media magazine might be a little different thing. I'm not doing anything raunchy. Don't you sneak any shots of me I don't want shown.

If we get a few pages out of this, that's feather in our cap, so we win, but think of what it can do for your career.

My career is as a songstress and not a sex object.

We wouldn't try to do that to you, he said, You're right, raunchy wouldn't work for you. But a few polite pictures of you on this bed with the city in the background would just show you as a person.

Desa dropped the skirt she had just put on and lay