88 The last stop on Earth

The last stop we made on Earth was stuffed with as much dramatic foreshadowing as a peasant cabbage roll. Enroute, my engineer (Millenia) had taken to spending her time locked into the hypogogic reader and re-scanning through every light entertainment module that we had stocked on board during the last visit. She had been especially looking forward to this trip in order to catch up on her favourite light entertainment artifacts from Earthside audible and visual. Ah, yes, light comedies, courtroom dramas, fashion magazines, these were rare and precious commodities in the local interstellar economy, most of us had overdriven our brains to the point where any respite from the full frontal assault of experience was more than just welcome.

It was essential to survival.

As I overrode the automated landing protocols and took control of the helm a familiar quotation by a long dead Earthling prince bubbled through my second brain: The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of games.

How much more true for entertainment!

My first brain reflected on the quotation as I piloted our stealth craft down to the surface expressed as a superposition of waveforms. I would collapse the form near the same urban conglomeration we had chosen last time, if only because from the very first visit, we learned that it was such a weird place that we would be ignored. We could have gotten what we needed from orbit but having come all this way, I looked forward to stretching my legs a little.

"Raf, nearing Hoolywode?"

Millenia enjoyed mangling the name, she said it made her feel 'local.'

"Near, yes, I wonder if they'll ever figure this out?"

"Figure out what? Why citizens of an interstellar spacefaring federation of planets like us have never officially contacted them?"

(We share our second brain, correct anticipations happen)

"Some bright individual could do it Millenia, but nobody would believe that we 'aliens' haven't contacted Earthlings because obviously we're addicted to their multimedia and might go mad if production suddenly stopped."

"Right, silly huh?"

"I'd say so."