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On Mia's station, in the meadow
"Hello, Emily," said Mia. "It's nice to see you again."
"Hi, Mia," said Emily to the orbital farm's command and control interface, who was all dressed up in a Hawaiian shirt and topped with a fraying straw hat.
"Have you come to inquire about Lúcia."
"Yes." Emily sighed. "I feel bad having the boys report back on her. It's like we're spying."
"She is in the garden," said Mia. "The same as last time. And I don't think you're spying, Emily. The harvester crabs are Lúcia's friends. They are simply friends looking out for her. As I look out for them. And you look out for me. And... Well, you know what I'm trying to say."
"Yeah. Thanks Mia."
"Speaking of friends," said Mia. "Here come three of them. Or is it one of them? I can never be sure."
Emily waved. "Hey, Aidoru."
Three Aidoru waved in return.
"Hello," said Mia. "Do you wish to know how Lúcia is faring?"
Aidoru shook her head.
"I have a favor...
"Well, a few favors, I think
"To ask of Mia."
"Anything I can do, I will," said Mia.
"Also, Emily,
"I will need your expertise.
"For some special tasks."
"Of course," said Emily. "Anything. Just ask."
"A benefit show
"A concert to raise money
"For people she loves"
"The people of Novo São Paulo?" asked Mia.
Aidoru nodded.
Emily turned her gaze to one Aidoru, and then another, finally settling on the Aidoru in the middle. "I assume you're the one putting on the concert?"
Again, Aidoru nodded, only this time striking a pose with beaming smiles and jazz hands from all three of her.
"I like it," said Mia. "And I have relayed the message to my harvester crabs. They are excited and hope there will be a need for many backup dancers."
"For dancing and more," said Aidoru.
"For lighting and stage setup.
"It takes a village."
"You can count on us," said Mia.
Down by the hot springs
"Will this take long?" asked Lúcia, as Aidoru handed her Emily's tablet computer. "There is much work still to do in the garden."
"Lúcia, my love
"I will let you return soon,
"But I need your help."
Lúcia frowned. "Of course, ma petite. I am sorry. I let my own feelings get in the way."
A single Aidoru stepped in to deliver a quick hug, while the remaining two clustered on either side and pointed to the tablet screen.
"You want me to read this?" asked Lúcia.
"Just the part right here.
"I will read the rest of it,
"When the time is right."
"Okay," said Lúcia, turning her gaze to the tablet. She cleared her throat and studied the words on the screen. "Aidoru?"
A look of concentration crossed the faces of all three Aidoru. She paused for a moment, and then one Aidoru spoke up. "Yes, Lúcia."
"Is the water warm enough?" read Lúcia.
The next Aidoru spoke. "Yes, Lúcia."
"Shall we begin?"
The third and final Aidoru said,"Yes, Lúcia."
Lúcia raised her gaze from the tablet, moving her eyes from one Aidoru to the next, as her mouth hung slack.
All three Aidoru broke out in a massive grin.
"You..." said Lúcia. "You..."
Three Aidoru nodded vigorously.
"No... no haiku?"
"Yes, Lúcia." said all three Aidoru at once.
"Shall we...?" ask Lúcia, as a wry smile began to take shape on her face.
"Yes, Lúcia?"
"Shall we begin?"
"Yes, Lúcia."
Lucia reached out to take Aidoru's hands in hers. She leaned in to plant a kiss on each Aidoru's cheek. The two of them headed for the hot sping, leaving their clothing folded neatly on the bank.
"Aidoru?"
"Yes, Lúcia." One Aidoru raised an eyebrow as she said this, her bare shoulders just poking up above the suface of the water.
"I want you."
"Yes, Lúcia." The next Aidoru smirked and moved closer.
"Now."
"Yes, Lúcia." The final Aidoru leaned forward to take Lúcia's head in her hands. She mashed her lips hard against Lúcia's mouth and probed with her tongue.
"Yes, Lúcia," intoned the remaining Aidoru as she surrounded Lúcia in an embrace that encased Lúcia at the center of two naked and grinning Aidoru, and one dead set on making love to her mouth with her tongue.
Lúcia moaned and let herself go limp.
The center Aidoru wrapped Lúcia in her arms, one hand on the back of Lúcia's head, as she continued probing with her tongue. The two flanking Aidoru let their hands slip inder the surface of the water as they pressed their bodies closer.
Two hours later
Lúcia, still encased inside Aidoru, shuddered violently.
"Yes, Lúcia?" said Aidoru.
Lúcia's eyelids fluttered. "I'm... I'm..."
"Yes, Lúcia?"
Lúcia's eyes began to roll back into her head. "Chérie, I'm..."
"Yes, Lúcia?"
"I'm... I'm... Ahh..." Lúcia shuddered again, while three Aidoru held her upright and kept her head safely above water.
"Yes, Lúcia," said all three Aidoru in unison.
Later, near the station's airlock
Two dozen harvester crabs were assembled in three rows of eight across. Each crab in a row of eight held a single pincer over his head and clacked in unison with Aidoru who clapped out time.
"Five, six, seven, eight," said Aidoru.
"That's it boys, you're looking good.
"Get ready to spin..."
Exactly twenty-four shining silver harvester crabs turned one and a half circles until they were all facing in the opposite direction. Exactly twenty-three glints of blue tinted light bounced off their backs from the high-poer LED spot light Captain Jade adjusted on its tripod stand.
Aidoru stopped clapping out time.
"Let's do it again.
"Reg needs to move in closer
"To catch the spot light."
Reg stepped back from the troupe of twenty-four and let his pincer drop to his sides.
"You got it buddy," said Jade. "One more practice run and you'll have it nailed."
Reg turned his eye stalks toward Jade and stood proud on his eight little legs as he move back to his place in line.
Aidoru clapped out time once more.
"Again from the top,
"You've got this boys. I know it.
"Five, six, seven, eight!"
Several meters away, over a small rise
Emily was crouched in the meadow, fiddling with a handheld holographic projector she had secured to the back of a harvester crab named Sisyphus using three pieces of strategically placed double-sided tape.
Sisyphus figeted the entire time.
"Could you hold still?" said Emily, frowning. "Just another minute, I promise."
Sisyphus lowered himself until his belly was resting on the ground, tucked his eight legs up under himself and rolled his eye stalks once.
"It's not that bad," said Emily. She reached in to tap a small, recessed button on the holographic generator. A two meter tall projection of a robed figure appeared. The figure's face was adorned with the mask of a horned demon derived from ancient Japanese Noh theater. A guitar was slung low across the front of the figure.
Emily stared up. She tapped the screen of her tablet and the masked figure made a windmill motion over the strings of its guitar. "Nice," she said, grinning.
"Move around a little, Sisyphus old buddy," said Emily, still smiling.
"Whoa," said Jamie, walking over from the other side of the airlock, with a plastic donut shaped thing about twenty centimeters across in one hand and a similarly sized plastic hopper in the other hand. "You program all that? Impressive."
Emily shook her head. "Bokkusu bando," she said.
"Gesundheit," said Jamie.
"What? No." Emily shook her head. "It means band in a box or something like that. It's software. Holographic performers for musical accompaniment."
"Cool," said Jamie. "Wanna see something?"
Emily nodded.
Jamie set the donut thing on its side and attached the hopper to the top.
"What is that?"
"Technically, it's the inner workings of an electric leaf blower, whatever that is," said Jamie, sweeping up a small pile of wildflower petals from the ground and tossing the in the hopper. "I 3D printed it this morning. But, watch what happens when I do this."
Jamie connected a black wire on the side of the donut to one end of a small, cylindrical, rechagable battery she fished out of her jumpsuit. When she attached the red wire to the other end, the was a brief, high-pitched whine as a cloud of wildflower petals exploded into the air.
"Wha--" said Emily, "What was that?"
"Pyrotechnics display," said Jamie. "Or at least as close as I can get without risking the station burning down if something goes wrong. Okay, okay. It's confetti. But with wildflower petals. But I think with spotlight hitting it, it's gonna be even more impressive."
"I like it."
"Jade says you can probably enhance it with a digital filter or something when we do the broadcast.
Emily nodded. "Probably. But I've still got a drummer, bass player, and keyboardist to set up."
"What can I do to help?"
Emily handed Jamie the roll of double-sided tape, and fished another portable holographic generator out of the box. Sisyphus waved a pincer in the air and another harvester crab came skittering over to stand in front of Emily and Jamie.
As Jamie was afixing the first piece of double-sided tape, the long overhead tube that ran the axis of the station, delivering light from the focal mirror dimmed briefly.
In the conn of The Black Prince
Amaliya tapped at the screen of the console, selected an icon that looked like two overlapping speech bubbles. On the virtual keyboard that appeared, she typed, "How was it?"
Amaliya waited.
On the screen, below her question, appeared three letters. "meh."
"That's it?" mumbled Amaliya. "Meh?"
She picked up the radio microphone. "Black Prince to Hispanola, over."
"You know, you can just say Hey, Joan," crackled the voice from the other end, sounding amused.
Amaliya held the mic to her lips. "Hey Joan," she said, "Mia says, Meh. I guess it wasn't what we expected."
"Alright, I was afraid of this. Hispaniola's just too small to block out all the sunlight. Guess we're going to need you and The Black Prince, too."
"Aye, aye, Cap'n," said Amaliya. She place the microphone back in its cradle and did a fist pump in the air. She laughed at herself and then did another one.
Amalia turned her attention back to the virtual keyboard. "How's webcast plans..." she began typing. Amaliya tapped the backspace key several times and typed. "Never mind. Be over in a minute."
Mia's meadow
Amaliya stood in front of the metal command and control interface affecionately known as Mia. She reached out to adjust the ragged straw hat that had begun tilting to one side. "Someday you might consider a new one," quipped Amaliya.
"Someday," said Mia. "But not today. I like this old hat."
"Right," said Amaliya. "Let's go over the checklist. How's the webcast plan?"
"Avie reports she and Darius have hacked into all the screens at the New Melbourne space elevator. Awaiting signal."
"Great," said Amaliya. "Any others?"
"I think those are the only public screens they have," said Mia. "But Val and Marie-Anne report they have secure access to thirty percent of the screens along the Champs-Élysées in Nouveau Paris."
"Nice. Send them my appreciation. What else?"
"Remember those two interns at Aidoru's record company? They've got access to the screen on the company tower in Neo-Tokyo. Ready when we are."
"Serendipity," said Amaliya. She almost did another fist pump, but stopped herself at the last minute.
Down by the hot springs
Three Aidoru sat at the edge of the water, knees drawn up and shoulders slumped.
"One more time, chérie," said Lúcia.
Aidoru let her head fall onto her knees as she hugged herselves around her calves.
"For me?" said Lúcia.
One Aidoru looked up. "Konnichiwa. My..." She let her head drop back to her knees.
"Aidoru?"
"Yes, Lúcia."
"Konnichiwa," said Lúcia.
"Konnichiwa," said one Aidoru.
"My name is Aidoru."
"My name is Aidoru." said a second Aidoru.
"So happy to see you here tonight."
"So happy to see..." said the third Aidoru. "you... here tonight!"
All three Aidoru grinned.
"You've got it, chérie," said Lúcia. "You've got it."
Two hours later
"Hispaniola, ready," radioed Captain Joan from the conn of her ship, parked just to the side of the station's parabolic mirror.
"Black Prince, ready," replied Amaliya from her seat at the controls of The Black Prince, waiting to close the 200 meter distance between the ship and the station's mirror.
"Band ready," said Emily, hunched over a tablet screen. She reached up and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.
"Lighting, ready," said Captain Jade, standing by one of several makeshift tripods of carbon fiber conduit lashed together with kevlar twine.
"Confetti cannons, ready," said Jamie, looking out over the inner workings of five 3D printed leaf blowers and holding a rechargable battery in her hand.
In front of the command and control interface, a single harvester crab marched forward and raised his pincer to throw a salute before scurrying off to rejoin his troupe.
"Dance brigade reports ready," said Mia. "Webcast relays also reporting ready."
"Aidoru ready," said one Aidoru from the center of a field of wildflowers. The two Aidoru flanking her chewed their lips as they maintained their silence.
"Operation Comfort to the Masses is a go," said Mia. "I repeat. We are go."
In front of the parabolic mirror of the old Takahashi-Ono orbital farm known affectionately as Mia, the Hispaniola and Black Prince closed the distance between them until they stood directly between the station's parbolic mirror and the distant sun.
The interior of the station went dark.
A minute later, in major cities around the galaxy, diplay panels ceased their regular broadcasts and began to go dark as well. A few of the people walking along by paused to look up.
"Spotlight, go," said Mia.
Captain Jade turned on a single high-power LED lamp, circled it around the meadow a few times, and stopped it over Aidoru.
All three of her were clad in her signature plaid mini-skirt, a white blouse tied at the waist and with several buttons unfastened at the top. She held three microphones loosely in her hands, while her eyes remained focused on the tips of her shiny black knee-high riot boots.
All around Aidoru in the darkness, holographic generators began flickering to life. Soon she was flanked by a guitarist, bass player, and keyboardist. The drummer was last to come online.
The holographic guitarist in their Noh theater demon mask raked against the strings of their instrument to let a single, screaming power chord ring out. The drummer joined in with a brief, but furious rhythmic accompaniment.
All around the galaxy, hijacked screens were showing the same scene and issuing the same sounds. In Nouveau Paris, knots of people were stopping along the Champs-Élysées, craining their necks at the once blank advertising screens suddenly filled with Aidoru and her holographic band in a box.
At the station, Emily triggered the holographic keyboardist. The holographic guitarist and drummer fell silent and bowed their heads awaiting their next cue. In the meantime, the keyboardist tinkled out a soaring melodic line Aidoru and Emily had transcribed into software earlier in the day.
As the tempo of the piano began to slow, Captain Jade tightend the spot light on Aidoru.
People gathered around the space elevator terminus in New Melbourne turned to watch the scene unfolding on the screens over their heads. The musical accompaniment stopped. One Aidoru raised her head and at the same time, the microphone she held in her hands.
"Konnichiwa!" she shouted. Her words echo off buildings along the Champs-Élysées, causing more people to wander out of doors.
The Aidoru beside her raised her head and her microphone. "My name is Aidoru!" she said. The space elevator in New Melbourne arrived at the planetside terminus, but no one borded. All eyes were fixed on the screens overhead.
The third Aidoru followed suit. "So happy to see you here tonight!" In Aidoru's hometown of Neo-Tokyo a large crowd had gathered, craning their necks to take in the view on the screen overhead with several people adjusting their Bluetooth earbuds to take in the simulcast sound.
In all other major cities across the galaxy, thousands of people stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to one of the nearby screens displaying Aidoru.
On the old orbital farm where the show was taking place, Lúcia crouched in the tallgrass a few meters in front of Aidoru. She smiled and put her hands together as queitly as she could in a show of applause.
As Lúcia watched the holographic keyboard player flickering back to life, the piano melody started up again, Aidoru raised her heads high and began to sing. She started slowly.
"When I was young, ev'ry door opened for me."
Across the galaxy, thousands of people stood in front of screens, transfixed. Aidoru continued.
"Those days are gone, and the load's getting heavy.
Aidoru took a deep breath to deliver the next line.
"But I need to know... Are you happy to see me?"
As Aidoru paused after the last note, the crowds that started in the thousands, and grew to hundreds of thousands during just these opening line, collectively held their breath as they stared at the hijacked screens around them.
"And I need to know... Is ev'ryone readyyyy... Now!"
People watched and listened as Aidoru, aided by the fact she had three bodies, held the final note for what seemed an impossibly long time.
Just as Aidoru release the final note, Jamie let loose with one confetti cannon after another, showering the makeshift stage with wildflower petals. Crowds around the screens saw the display enhanced with computer generated sparks and glitter. In the center of it all, was Aidoru.
The people gathered around the New Melbourne displays let loose a cheer. Along the Champs-Élysées, anyone still seated at a café table jumped to their feet. Those who had wine glasses nearby, raised them toward the screens where Aidoru stood with feet planted shoulder width apart, hands in the air, and heads held high.
On the station, Jade ran frantically, switching on more of the LED spotlights to illuminate the two dozen dancing harvester crabs that had taken to the stage, weaving in synchronized fashion between the Aidoru as she marched around the makeshift theater.
In Neo-Tokyo, a few of the hijacked screens went black, showed a brief reboot message, and then went back to displaying their regular programming. But within minutes, those screens switched to newscasts that were all abuzz with headlines about the mysterious concert taking place on screens across the galaxy.
Soon, even the screens that were not hijacked for the webcast were showing Aidoru's face, while commentators put forth various hastily constructed theories about the reasons behind the spontaneous galaxy-wide concert.
As the newscasters debated, people around the galaxy were dancing in the streets. On Novo São Paulo, some enterprising soul at the Intergalactic Red Crescent had rigged a number of handheld tablets together to form one large screen. The makeshift screen was placed in front of the área between the Red Crescent and Talitha Kum structures.
Mother Estrella and several novices were keeping busy passing out miniature Toblerone bars to any children in attendance. "Santa Aidoru!" shouted a small boy with a chocolate smeared face, pointing at the screen. "Santa Aidoru!"
Soon the peacekeeping forces were called out, not because of the swelling crowd, but because Mother Estrella had just exhausted the last of the sisterhood's Toblerone stash. The two women in blue berets who responded to the call had to radio for backup to meet the demand.
