The staff was waiting for her, of course: her visits were very well planned. They bowed as one, two long rows of cooks and servers rippling like the wind as Anwei Ayles strode into the restaurant in green and black patterned robes, head high. The yellow-blue flicker of her AI companion, Horanckk, floated at her side, appearing and disappearing as he switched his output between the restaurant's projectors. Her private dining room was prepared, table set with self-heating plates, floor covered with stain-proof plastic sheets.
First, bitter herbs to cleanse her palate, and salted ice water. The knives and prongs and clamps were already ready, and she had put on the first of several full-coverage lacy aprons that she would be going through. She did tend to make a mess when she ate.
The staff brought out the main course with clear pride. She had sent around the requisite tissue samples the week before. Now, muscle and skin gleamed on carefully shaped porcelain bones heated to blood temperature, and vat-grown organs pulsed in their support pods. The last she had of her companions, on the greatest adventure of her life.
She sighed almost wistfully, and looked up at the ceiling, seeing in her mind's eye the planet and the stars and the universe beyond – and the walls around the universe, now forever inviolate. That had been the price each of the crew of the Transmigrations-9 had paid: their universe restored, but sealed away from all others forever, so that their Thread Walker powers could not create more worlds and stress the fabric of reality to breaking.
So those others she had walked with – they were there, each alive in their own universe. Never to be seen or heard or smelled again. But they were there, and she hoped they were happy.
She had embraced them hard and well as they parted, pressed her cheeks and hands to theirs. As soon as she had arrived in her new Fle (a place of soaring glories and deep peace, now) she had called for medical personnel, and had her skin and clothes carefully scraped. The skin cells found had been rejuvenated, nurtured, and finally named and claimed by her.
The vat-grown meat ripped between her teeth, with just the right tug as she separated it from the false bone. She breathed in through a full mouth, tasting blood frothing over her tongue and all the way down her throat, and felt a deep contentment within her.
She was here, she was well, and they were well too. And a part of them would always be with her.
Anwei's Restaurant (1/2)
First, bitter herbs to cleanse her palate, and salted ice water. The knives and prongs and clamps were already ready, and she had put on the first of several full-coverage lacy aprons that she would be going through. She did tend to make a mess when she ate.
The staff brought out the main course with clear pride. She had sent around the requisite tissue samples the week before. Now, muscle and skin gleamed on carefully shaped porcelain bones heated to blood temperature, and vat-grown organs pulsed in their support pods. The last she had of her companions, on the greatest adventure of her life.
She sighed almost wistfully, and looked up at the ceiling, seeing in her mind's eye the planet and the stars and the universe beyond – and the walls around the universe, now forever inviolate. That had been the price each of the crew of the Transmigrations-9 had paid: their universe restored, but sealed away from all others forever, so that their Thread Walker powers could not create more worlds and stress the fabric of reality to breaking.
So those others she had walked with – they were there, each alive in their own universe. Never to be seen or heard or smelled again. But they were there, and she hoped they were happy.
She had embraced them hard and well as they parted, pressed her cheeks and hands to theirs. As soon as she had arrived in her new Fle (a place of soaring glories and deep peace, now) she had called for medical personnel, and had her skin and clothes carefully scraped. The skin cells found had been rejuvenated, nurtured, and finally named and claimed by her.
The vat-grown meat ripped between her teeth, with just the right tug as she separated it from the false bone. She breathed in through a full mouth, tasting blood frothing over her tongue and all the way down her throat, and felt a deep contentment within her.
She was here, she was well, and they were well too. And a part of them would always be with her.