Book request: 1970'sA short story:concerns a race of merchants who discovered Earth on one of their journeys. One of the traders enters a bar in a drunken state. One of those in the bar receives a pill from the merchant who gives him special gifts or powers. At a certain point, the trader's colleagues enter the bar and take him with them. A short time later, one of those colleagues returns and forces the person present who has had the pill to take another pill, which will deprive him of the acquired powers.The credo of the traders (no free gifts; everything has its price) has been violated because the first pill has not been paid. Under threat of a weapon, the person present swallows the second pill, but the special gifts he has received enable him to teleport the pill from his esophagus.Then he teleports the merchants and their ship into the sun. Because of the special gifts he has become like a god.

Matching book description: An interstellar trading ship arrived in the moon's orbit two years ago, and the few aliens who have descended to Earth have stayed in their landing craft or at the United Nations building in New York City. When one of the aliens unexpectedly shows up in a Los Angeles tavern, bartender Ed Frazer awakes the next morning with the strangest hangover of his life. Ed barely reme An interstellar trading ship arrived in the moon's orbit two years ago, and the few aliens who have descended to Earth have stayed in their landing craft or at the United Nations building in New York City. When one of the aliens unexpectedly shows up in a Los Angeles tavern, bartender Ed Frazer awakes the next morning with the strangest hangover of his life. Ed barely remembers taking the pills offered by the alien; each pill flooding his brain with the knowledge of an alien profession ... spaceship captain ... teleporter .... translator ... but Ed can't remember how many pills he took, or if the confusing overload of information in his head shadows the terrible secret of their mission. Hugo Award Nominee ...more