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An interrogation, a Bar-recommended stimulant, and some variously expensive transactions later, Linyabel has a scanner sitting on Bar's surface, whirring away, converting borrowed paper books at many pages a second into sensible electronic formats, and she is finishing up a plate of loaded savory waffles and a slab of goose and a pomegranate pudding for her snack-plus-added-stimulant-related-
isthisart
Linyabel finds the bar while she's on Komarr, up late in Dr. Cheung's lab, debugging software and making sure it plays nice with his scanning equipment. She meant to go into the kitchenette for a snack, and... this.
An interrogation, a Bar-recommended stimulant, and some variously expensive transactions later, Linyabel has a scanner sitting on Bar's surface, whirring away, converting borrowed paper books at many pages a second into sensible electronic formats, and she is finishing up a plate of loaded savory waffles and a slab of goose and a pomegranate pudding for her snack-plus-added-stimulant-related-appetite, and she is reading a book that has already been loaded onto her pen.
An interrogation, a Bar-recommended stimulant, and some variously expensive transactions later, Linyabel has a scanner sitting on Bar's surface, whirring away, converting borrowed paper books at many pages a second into sensible electronic formats, and she is finishing up a plate of loaded savory waffles and a slab of goose and a pomegranate pudding for her snack-plus-added-stimulant-related-
isthisart
"Oh. I suppose that would help. So, all right, bizarrely coherent but perhaps high-variance anomalous traits, some of which cause miscarriage before anyone would notice them and some of which produce useful - powers. This sounds like an interesting world."
isthisart
"Really? That sounds very versatile if you're creative enough and keep ferrous metal on hand."
iamnotpolaris
"It so incredibly is. I can't do it in Milliways, though, Milliways isn't on a planet and doesn't have the requisite magnetic fields."
iamnotpolaris
"Totally worth it, though, Milliways has the previously mentioned reverse-engineerable technology and also beverages made of fruits that don't exist back home. Speaking of which, Bar? What would you recommend today?"
isthisart
How about an Escobar pear nectar?
"I've had that," says Linyabel. "It isn't very much like Earth pears, just similarly shaped." Her scanner finishes a book. She gives it a new one and returns the first to Bar.
"I've had that," says Linyabel. "It isn't very much like Earth pears, just similarly shaped." Her scanner finishes a book. She gives it a new one and returns the first to Bar.
whatamithinking
"Bar's recommendations are pretty much never wrong. Emily gets a different fruit thing pretty much every time she's here."
isthisart
Bar supplies an Escobar pear nectar. Linyabel puts away the last couple bites of her meal and the dishes vanish. "I've enjoyed her expertise myself."
whatamithinking
"If I didn't know better I'd suspect she was a telepath too, but even I can't do drink orders like that when someone gives me permission to read them."
isthisart
"I suspect it's a derivation of her ability to determine species-wide dietary habits, individuals' allergies, and per-occasion nutritional needs. Plus absolutely inhuman amounts of practice."
And a knack.
"And a knack."
And a knack.
"And a knack."
isthisart
"Mm-hm. So what exciting reverse-engineerable technology have you been bringing home to the nineteen hundreds?"
isthisart
"That's a good choice. I'm importing some of the same. Bar says that when Ivan was here she could not find Miles useful anaesthetic without knowing more about his medical properties, but I always carry," she pats a small object, "a medical scanner which has a recent scan of him, and I have his complete genome on my pen, so between the two it's only a little worse than if she had him here to look at, and I think he'll be delighted. He has the oddest allergies."
isthisart
"In the case of many technologies Bar knows to exist the problem isn't that there's anything wrong with the technology but that the information that counts to her as 'published' isn't sufficient to reconstruct it from scratch. I wonder if you could use holo-pens where you're from, as long as I'm here to consult on them anyway?"