Space For Hire (Seven For Space) Read Free

know.
    "Never mind your questions." She brushed loose strands of hair back from two of her heads. "Keep watching for those Loonies. I've work to do."
    She'd also carried in a medical bag, which she hastily opened. I'm no expert on operating equipment, but I know a brain buzzer when I see one.
    She thumbed it into life and neatly cut the top of Dr. Umani's drunk-en Irish head off. Then she calmly reached inside and scooped out a large egg-shaped steel cylinder. "Hold this," she said, handing it to me.
    "What is it?"
    "Daddy," she said. "It's Daddy, of course."
    I looked down at the cylinder; it was pulsing red deep inside and was warm to my touch.
    Esma was working on the black man. She buzzed open his head, took the steel cylinder from me and deftly inserted it. She used a quick-stitcher to sew up the incision. "There," she said, all three of her heads wreathed in smiles. "All done."
    The slender black man sat up, rubbing his skull. He grinned at me. Then he began to sing. "Poor boy work in de pits all day, shapin' and scrapin' de Luna clay, sweatin' and strainin' fer de white man's pay …"
    "Just what the hell's going on?" I demanded.
    Esma knitted most of her brows and sighed. "Isn't it obvious?"
    "Not to me," I said.
    "Daddy's brain has been transplanted into the body of this authentic black jazz singer obtained from our NewOld New Orleans branch. Daddy has always been fond of authentic black jazz singers."
    "Workin' all day in de white man's way," sang the new Dr. Umani.
    "Does he know who he is?"
    "Naturally," said Esma. She put her green Venusian hand in his gnarled black one. "Daddy, you'd better tell Mr. Space all about why we wish to hire him."
    "Righto, and sho' nuff," said Dr. Umani, affecting a broad early-stage Southern dialect; it was not nearly as impressive as his Irish brogue. "What we gots hyar is de last body." He thumped his chest. "An' I'm in it. No more spares hyar on Mars. De bad folk keep sendin' dose Loonies to gun dis ole man, an' iffen I don't have no more of dese hyar bodies on tap I'm cooled out for good." He looked at me with yellow-flecked eyes. "You diggo?"
    "Not exactly," I said.
    "My father has vital work to do here on Mars and must remain alive to do it. His enemies want him dead. So long as he lives, and continues to function, his work remains a threat to them."
    "What kind of work?"
    "We'd rather not go into that," she said flatly. "Our business with you is simple; we wish to hire a bodyguard. You are to accompany our next shipment of coldpac bodies out of Allnew York and guard them until they reach Bubble City here on Mars. My father's life depends on his having plenty of spares handy."
    "Oh, yass. Yass, yass, oh, yass indeedy!" agreed Dr. Umani.
    I drummed my fingers on the desktop. Logic seemed to have vanished, and I missed it. I like to keep things logical. "Look," I said, "wouldn't it make a lot more sense if you hired me as a personal bodyguard for your father?"
    "But why?"
    "To keep him from being shot again."
    "Oh, he'll be shot again," Esma assured me. "My father's enemies are very persistent. They'll keep killing him off, no doubt of that. But I'll be around to see to it that Daddy's brain is re-transplanted whenever necessary."
    "But won't they try and kill you?"
    "They already have. Several times. But my particularly heavy, durable, all-weather Venusian skin resists their weapons. At least it has thus far. Of course there are many ways I could be destroyed and they may try one of them soon. But I'm not afraid. I just want to live long enough to see my father's experiment succeed."
    "Sounds a little screwy," I muttered. "Couldn't someone else guard your father's spares en route to Mars?"
    "Deedy nossir, deedy not!" exclaimed Dr. Umani. He jigged around me, shaking his black head and laughing. "You is de one for dis hyar job. Dere ain't nobody else dis hyar darkie gonna trust!"
    "What father means, Mr. Space, is that we both know your record. You are a very brave,