At dinner, a Casually dressed Breckenridge led Catan in a full tuxedo, while Max, in jeans and a polo shirt, led Nico in a ballgown to the main dining hall, where they had reserved a window seat for the evening. They passed a number of nobles who gave them amused looks, understanding right away that the outfits were a result of a bet. It was a fancy resort, but a ballgown and a tuxedo for dinner were a bit much.
They had just gotten seated when a small boy’s voice chirped from across the restaurant. “Lord General look, the mecha lady is so pretty today.”
Imperial Prince Wushu was at a table in the far corner with a group of Cygnus nobles, including the Duke who had sat with Max and Nico yesterday at dinner. The boy was waving furiously and standing in his seat, trying to get their attention. Lord General Kirkland was doing his best to get the boy to sit down, but he wasn’t having it until he got to talk to the friends he had made on the space station.
“I will be back in a moment. I’ll settle him for dinner, but I suspect we will be busy all evening.” Nico joked..
With an elegant swish of her dress, Nico rose to her feet and seemed to glide her way across the floor, the floor-length skirt of her gown barely making a ripple as she moved. Max was sure it was a trick of her leg movement, but it made her look somewhat like a fairy, floating across the room.
“Lady Tarith, it is a pleasure to see you again.” Lord General Kirkland greeted her, as Nico grabbed the young prince into her arms and gave him a spin.
“The pleasure is all mine. I’m guessing that you have arrived early for tomorrow’s wedding celebrations, so I won’t keep you too long. I just had to come over and say hello to the lovely young groom here and ask where his blushing bride was hiding.” She told the General, who gave her a smile in return.
“She has been somewhat delayed. She locked herself in her Uncle Lu’s lab today so she could play with the mecha trainers, and it took over an hour for security to get her out. She should be here soon, the staff was told to bring her straight to dinner when she arrived, and then she is grounded for the rest of the night.” Prince Wushu whispered to Nico, not wanting the tables around them to know.
The memory made everyone around the table laugh. A little girl locked Chen Family security out of a secure lab? Not likely. But the chances that Uncle Lu refused to answer the door until they were finished playing? That was very likely, if not the only logical answer.
“Bring her to say hello after the meal if you have a chance. If not, we will see you both tomorrow at the celebration.” Nico replied with a nod and a curtsey before returning to her table.
That was enough to settle the young Prince down for a little while so he would eat, and a round of the dinner special was brought to Max’s table along with a bottle of wine and a small vial of something Max didn’t recognize.
“Energy supplements, for the Cybernetically Enhanced. A new development of the Chen Family from right here on Comor.” The server informed them with pride.
Oh, those things. Uncle Lu was a big fan and had them try them out already, assuming these were the same ones and he didn’t feed them experimental drugs the last time.
“Thank you, that is greatly appreciated,” Nico responded, managing a proper smile this time.
Max knew that her System was altering her body, but the speed that she was adapting to facial expressions was incredible. Many Cyborgs take over a year to produce expressions that convey an actual emotion and don’t just look artificial. Some never manage to do it at all. Even those who get organic augmentations will normally struggle with their new appendages and facial features for a few months.
It’s not a design issue, at least not that Max knows of. It’s that the brain doesn’t recognize it as the original body part and therefore has no muscle memory for it and has to learn to use the perfectly functional appendage all over again. The same thing often happens to people like Dave, if they can get the money for reconstructive surgery that will let them walk again.
That was something that Max was eagerly waiting to do. The veteran had raised him better than his own parents had, and now that Max had Military Credits, they could be transferred to Dave’s veteran account for the surgery. The problem was going to be convincing the military medical system that he was a high enough priority to be granted access to the advanced medical procedures.
Max could try to go through the civilian system, but that was a mess on Kepler Terminus. Over half of the population were veterans or government workers, and most of those who weren’t were slum dwellers with no system and low-paying jobs. That meant that places like the Gray Market clinic where Max was born made up most of the private system, and they didn’t have clearance for the sort of gene therapy needed to undo the damage from the chemical weapon attack and heal Dave’s body.
It was a hard lesson to learn as a child in this life. Just because something existed, didn’t mean that everyone would be given access to it. Your contribution to society determined society’s contribution to you.
But Max was getting sidetracked, and only just managed to pull himself back to the real world in time to keep track of the conversation. That hadn’t happened to him in a while, and usually only happened when he was about to regain memories or was thinking of something that was forcibly repressed.
Could he actually know something about gene therapy? He didn’t recall it existing in his last life, and he certainly wasn’t a doctor. He would have to try again later and see if there were other thoughts that triggered the experience.
The young Lady Chen never did make it to dinner. An argument with her watcher led to her having dinner in her room and only the promise of getting to see everyone at breakfast averted a full-blown meltdown. It was a bit of a disappointment, the kids were an amusing pair, but everyone had a long day today and was ready to get some sleep early in the evening to prepare for tomorrow’s festivities.