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Proteins

Words and music copyright ©2002 by Blake Hodgetts

This song has two main thematic sources: those old cowboy love songs about girls from Mexico who didn't even speak English; and Robert Chilson's story "Moonless Night" (Galaxy, 1978) about a cargo pilot's hopeless love affair with a dancer named Lalominat -- although that story has nothing to do with the song aside from one inspirational plot point.

I met her in a spacer bar on Syrtis Alpha 9;
She was sitting by her lonesome drinking glycogen with lime.
I sat right down beside her, and strange it is to tell,
Though I couldn't place her species, still I felt I knew her well.
And we struck a conversation that went on into the night,
And she asked if I would like to see her pod...

[chorus:]
And you're many years behind me now, my blue-haired Syrtis gal;
I know our paths may never cross again.
I always will remember your sweet last words to me:
Z˜!ovaq übï]o lla'ng

She said she worked a cargo route -- she was an engineer
A load of Jaglan triticale had brought her to this sphere.
She wasn't much for politics; she really loved to sing,
She always felt romantic near a planet with a ring.
Her tentacles were long and lithe and sheathed in silky fur,
And who'd have guessed I'd fall in love with her...

[chorus]

We went back to her landing pod and soon began to kiss,
Or rather did what on her world approximated this.
While I won't say I found her loving absolutely new,
She did some things that I don't think a human girl could do.
And then afterwards we lay there until I began to cough
As I went into anaphylactic shock...

[chorus]

I've been around the block, and know what every spacer knows:
Be sure your proteins get along before you get too close.
I don't know what came over me and A!e]i that night--
Were we blinded by the moment, thought we'd finally got it right?
I saw her in the hospital the day I had to leave,
And through blistered lips she told me not to grieve...

[chorus]

 

The romanized representation of the phrase is only a vague approximation. A better approximation is given by the following IPA transcription: