I thought they were through with me, but no, I had to sit back down in my chair. A cameraman assistant got a backscreen erected behind me – a sort of pattern of stones like a cave, quite realistic. And I posed and looked powerful for them.
But Bis, who was being very helpful, still wasn't satisfied. He was pointing down and whispering and I got up to see what he was pointing at. There was a whole display of figure-cakes along one bar: these are made of sweetbun dough, are lifesize and pretty realistic, nymphs and so on, all in natural color. And an assistant went racing down and chopped off a cake nymph's hand and smeared some red jam on it and came racing back up and handed it to me.
I told them I wasn't hungry. But they said they wanted to see how well I really could act and would I please look ravenous and voracious and look as if I was eating it. Well, nothing was easier: I am a natural actor and today I was capable of anything. Then they got some shots of me chewing the bite as though delicious. Finally, Bis and they agreed I'd done beautifully and left.
One hundred girls were doing a parade dance along the bars, floating big banners along and I got interested in watching them. They seemed a bit unreal but pretty.
The crowd was already pretty noisy and suddenly there was a surge of sound so I looked to see what had attracted their attention.
It was just a Palace City limousine. It glided to the landing target. And out stepped Captain Tars Roke, the King's Own Astrographer. He was accompanied by several aides and they were all in dress uniform and made a splendid sparkle of color to the crowd. They came sedately over to the platform and up the steps. The Homeview crane swung way over and got close.
Roke came up and shook Heller's hand and they chatted like old friends. And a Homeview interrogator was there. I caught some scraps of it.
"I'm sorry," Roke was saying, "I can't reveal where this mission is headed. I just came over to tell my friend Jet that I wished him well."
"From the type of engines that this mission ship has, Captain, couldn't we conclude that the mission is back to the old home galaxy? Perhaps to pick up and tow here some ancestral monument from the ruins of our racial planet?"
"I didn't say that," said Roke. "You did."
"But, Captain, this is Tug Oneand we have it on reliable authority that it can't be run within a galaxy without peril. Its sister ship blew up." At the moment I thought, well, I'll just have to carry it there with my bare hands. I felt perfectly able to do so. Really capable of tremendous feats! Methedrine, I thought, what have I ever done without you? What glorious stuff! My mouth felt kind of dry but I didn't want to get down into that crowd just to get some tup.
The Fleet male chorus was singing some Fleet song and the crowd took it up. I didn't realize it was a prelude to something else. Then I noticed that everyone was looking up. So I looked up.
Maybe three miles above us, two hundred and fifty Fleet spacefighters were flying in formation. They do it in a very orderly fashion. I think the command ship has a computer which spits out coordinate orders to individual crews and they immediately take those positions. They wheeled and formed various figures, all very precise. And then suddenly they all strung out across about five miles of sky.
They fired their guns all at once!
Mile-long, eighth-mile wide bands of sustained flame, the kind that lasts a minute glaring in the daylight, and then throws out white clouds, blasted across the sky. It said: GOOD LUCK, JET!
And then the concussion wave hit while the sign flamed!
It was loud enough to be heard by every person in every one of the five cities!
And even the ground was lit up by the glaring light of those letters!
Although I was feeling almost as high as those letters, something nagged at me that this was not quite all right for a secret mission! I couldn't put my finger on it. It just didn't seem fitting somehow. Then I realized what it was. Those pilots and crews up there were missing the party! Flying around up there, they wouldn't get any tup or cakes.
I was about to call this to someone's attention when down they came and, with new blasts, they landed in an open field nearby and out poured the pilots and crews and over they came to the party. So that was handled.
I was feeling a little sorry for the Homeview crews. They were working so hard and yet, really, they weren't getting anything newsworthy. The stuff would never be used. They had lots of films of dancing girls and tup trucks. Why would they show any more? So it was all right. The secrecy of the mission was still intact.
I was gazing down upon what now must be ten thousand Fleet and Apparatus people and had just about decided it was pretty well over when I heard a yell.
Somebody was pointing up and then a lot of people were pointing up and here came a white and gold air limousine. It was an unmistakable vehicle. It had been built as a present from billions of fans on a hundred and ten planets!
The din of the crowd hurt the ears! "It's Hightee Heller!" They chanted her name so loud it almost took the hangar roof off! "Hightee Heller! Hightee Heller! Hightee Heller!" I smiled. I understood now what Jet had meant. A family affair. Of course. How nice of her to come!
The Homeview crane was swooping down.
Hightee Heller danced out of the limousine, throwing kisses. She was dressed as an angel!
Of course. For the christening!
Well, we'd get the christening over and leave. Nothing else of interest could happen.
All five bands and choruses began to sing and play her favorite song.
A special effects truck was drawn up below the review platform and its crew, waving canisters of tup the while, were setting up.
Hightee came dancing up the platform steps. She kissed Heller lightly on the cheek and the crowd screamed "Hightee and Jet!"
"Hightee and Jet!" Then here went the christening!
A great white cloud, by three-dimensional electronic projection, appeared in the sky above. An angel seemed to step out of it – but of course it was just Hightee on the platform furnishing the physical pattern which was projected on the sky.
The crowd screamed with delight!
The white cloud settled over the ship, billowing and curling.
Hightee leaned over on the platform and the three-dimensional image of her, a hundred and fifty feet tall, made an elegant motion over the ship with both hands.
All five bands struck a dramatic chord. Both choruses sang a prolonged note.
The angel cried, "Little ship, I give thee life!" The bands and choruses went silent.
The angel seemed to bend over and kiss the ship upon the nose.
The bands and choruses sounded another chord which ended with a cymbal crash.
Then the angel again spread her hands and cried out, "THY NAME IS NOW PRINCE CAUCALSIA!"The bands and choruses sang with joy.
The crowd went mad!
The Homeview crews got it all!
Some good sense seemed to penetrate my fog. Because it was Hightee Heller here, those Homeview pictures just could get viewed on every screen in a hundred and ten planets. And worse, all you had to do was put that name, "Prince Caucalsia,"on any office or school or museum computer keyboard and you'd get "Folk Legend 894M" and that would point directly to the mission destination, Blito-P3!
Oh, it was a good thing I was powerful enough even to work with such crass amateurs! Superhuman feat, but I could do it.
Besides, Hightee had probably christened other ships. That wouldn't guarantee they would use the pictures. It would take more than that.
The fireworks truck was busy again. The christening had ended with a wild display of daylight fireworks in all colors, visible for miles. And then there was a supernova! It must have been started earlier because now, twenty miles up at least, it burst with a flash that lit up all five cities already brilliantly lit by Voltar's sun. Spectacular!