author : Greg Costikyan

Johnson Mukerjii is the president of a successful Silicon Valley enterprise, about to bet the company on a new holographic projector. Then the aliens come, and their super advanced technology knocks the bottom out of Earth's entire high-tech industry. Abruptly bankrupt and on the street, Mukerjii fights back by selling the aliens what they want -- tat! But there are some problems along the way, not least raising the $25 million, plus travel, during Earth's massive global economic depression, for a small booth at the local Trade Fair, "only" 28 light years away.

A mildly amusing and fast-paced look at corporate finagling with an alien twist. There's also a moral -- when the aliens come, let's not be too quick to trade them our equivalent of Manhattan Island for their equivalent of a handful of glass beads.