if money is no object

[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.

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

The door opens.
A young woman walks in, looks around, grins, and sticks her head back out. A few minutes later she and another young woman walk into the bar.
"Hello!" says the first one.

[isthisart]

"Hello. I had wondered when someone else would come in; Bar says it's unusual for a single patron to be alone here for long. My name is Linyabel. Komarr, 2999."

[whatamithinking]

"Komarr, that sounds familiar."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Remember I told you last time I was here? The planet with the revolutionaries?"

[whatamithinking]

"Oh, right, them. My sister's been running into a lot of people from your universe, it sounds like."

[isthisart]

"Really? Well, they've either been very uninspired about making use of the opportunity or very good at covering their tracks."

[iamnotpolaris]

"The first one inquired about taking home technology a bit more advanced than what they had for reverse-engineering after I told him I'd been doing that but Bar said anything obvious was too big for her to do."

[isthisart]

"Uninspired," pronounces Linyabel. "Books are small and can be made smaller, if nothing else."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I may have distracted him."

[whatamithinking]

Snort.

[iamnotpolaris]

"With conversation, Edie, about our respective worlds. Hi, I'm Emily and this is Edie, we're from Earth, 1986."

[isthisart]

"Oh? Where on Earth?"

[whatamithinking]

"At the moment, Westchester, New York."
"Are all Komarrans as...exceptional as you?"

[isthisart]

"Oh, I'm not from Komarr. Eta Ceta, originally. And most of the time these days I live on Barrayar."

[iamnotpolaris]

"...Eta Ceta. That's part of Cetaganda, right?"

[isthisart]

"Yes. You stayed long enough for a nexusography lesson?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"Not exactly! Why do I keep meeting people from this one family?"

[isthisart]

"...You met members of my family?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"The two other people I met here were Ivan and Mark, respectively."

[isthisart]

"Ah. How is Mark?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"Okay. Ish. About as well as could be expected, I think."

[isthisart]

"Well, that's better than any expectable alternative, I suppose. And I imagine Ivan is well enough?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"He was fine when I saw him."

[isthisart]

"Good. At this rate perhaps you'll run into my husband. I can only imagine what he'd do with the place; I suppose it will depend on whether he finds it before or after I've told him about it."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I imagine if I do it will go something like: 'Mark! So good to see you again!' 'Who on Earth are you?'"