Things Aren't Always What They Seem...

Hey Everyone!! :-)

Here's a little bit more of the third installment in the Petri Dish Chronicles! As always, the disclaimer is that this is a draft and, as such, it's unedited and likely full of errors and is subject to revision, revamping, and being completely scrapped and rewritten. But, with that in mind, I'm reasonably satisfied with the basics of it, at least at the moment, or I wouldn't have bothered posting it. Enjoy! :-)

Excerpt from Shifting Paradigms:

“There are a lot of markets in the rainbow, but this one is larger and more diverse than any I’ve seen before. Usually, if I’m shopping, it's for something specific, and I stick to niche markets, but this..." Chessie shook her head. “This is something else entirely.”

An alien of a species Petri didn’t recognize completed a complicated gesture involving its limbs and a lot of head bobbing that the human merchant it was interacting with seemed to understand and agree to the terms of. The man, in turn, waved over a male Paka, who began performing what looked like a ritual dance to Petri. She wasn’t sure if the dance was part of the negotiations or if that was what the alien had bought, but the two moved off into the crowd floating above them as the human turned to the next customer.

What caught Petri’s eye next outraged her. What appeared to be a young, human child, no more than 5 or 6 years old, was being auctioned off to a small group of adult humans not far from where they were standing. She moved to get closer and try to help the child, but a hand on her arm stopped her. Whipping her head around, she saw it was Vlad who had grabbed her. Her eyes flew to meet his.

“You may not interfere.”

“You’re just going to allow this?" she gasped, pointing at the seemingly terrified child for emphasis.

“You need to remember, all is not what it appears here. Just because a person’s avatar is that of a child does not mean the person is a child. What you see as a human child may be a human adult, an adult of another species, or a non-sentient program. Also, the sale may very well be with the consent of all involved. If I’m not mistaken, you, yourself, engaged in not dissimilar transactions regarding your physical body not too long ago.”

Some of the tenseness left Petri’s posture. “So, that’s not really a kid?”

Vlad shrugged. “I’m simply reminding you that emotional reactions to what you perceive to be true about others are not appropriate here.”