Seeing her boyfriend struggle, Kammy rewords it. “Let’s say the System Director has a friend named Kammy out in the real world. If he wanted, he could just imagine that I am that Kammy and my PAC data would transfer to her. Nothing would happen to this girl in real life, but I personally would leave this universe and be imagined to dwell in the form of that real-worlder. If I return, I would have some limited addition to my knowledge and personality that I gained from that person based on how compatible the new data is with the System software, as well as how much of it I actually wanted to keep if the real Kammy turned out to be more of a jerk than I can be sometimes, ha ha. Remember that if the System Director doesn’t have enough knowledge about, say, how real Kammy thinks, then he can’t properly process the data update I’d get from her. Sure, there’s the possibility that I retain everything from her and just choose not to display it for the sake of the author, like how the Infinites tone down their knowledge and abilities for the sake of those who wouldn’t be able to keep up with them, but chances are me returning to the System from the real world would result in some data loss. Right, Lady Duplica?”
Cat taps her index fingers together before pointing finger guns at the girl. “Right, totally.”
“Hey, guys,” Elena jumps in, “is anyone in the mood for a light snack?”
As the hands go up, Cat raises the bar by saying, “You don’t have to keep it light, Elena, since it is close to lunch time. What do you have in mind?”
Charis chuckles, “We could give everyone space food.”
Vocalizing her shock at this insult, C3 defends her space station, “Are you saying all we serve are vitamins and goop in a tube, Charis?”
Charis continues her light laughter, “No, no, don’t forget the dehydrated water, dear.”
“How is that possible?” Owan asks.
“It’s not,” says C3. “My friend has just been stuck out in space way too long. Come on; I’ll show you that we still know how to cook in space.”
Paul raises his hand to warn in form of a question, “We’re in the past. Will that affect your station with us being invisible if people start seeing the food suddenly move and disappear?”
“You ask this four years in, Paul?” asks Jo. He just shrugs, and the class moves on.
“Fine,” complies C3 as she waves her hand to materialize fine examples of her culture’s cuisine. “We have apple sorbet, sweet fried rice, chicken beef soup and another round of the drinks you got earlier.” Mind you, that is a soup with chicken and beef, not a hybrid critter. Now, there’s a munchin’ at this luncheon. We have a room full of happy campers enjoying something much more substantial than what Charis teased them with.
“Are you disappointed in the low nutrition, Charis?” Faye teases.
“I very much am disappointed,” she says with a grin. As the kids laugh, Charis looks down at the table to see Meg CCCXLI has plopped the taunted menu choice by Mrs. Scott’s bowl. At Charis’s hand is a small pile of pills and tablets. “Meg, you’re adorable.”
Elena bounces back and forth between her soup and her dessert, having poured her rice into her bowl. After a sip from her drink, she asks, “So, where are you going next, Cat?”
With a quick slurp, though not terribly loud, Cat rushes the bite she just started to prepare her answer. Once ready, she states, “We’re going to visit a very special System Guard from Dogwood ancient history, kind of, and then we will probably go to XI or just meet some contemporary SG’s at a designated location elsewhere. I’m not completely sure yet.”
Watching her son gulp down his lunch, Mercy asks C3 for the recipe to everything that’s been made today. To this, space ninja Meg transfers the info directly into Mercy’s mind so she can be sure to take this delicacy home with them to treat Paul to this soup more often.
“Why don’t you give her the recipe for your fried ice cream cake, Mom?” Paul suggests.
“Yes!” Meg demands. “Give! I must have this thing!”
Inner Man Theatre 