Chapter Three
The doors parted with a soft pneumatic hiss.
Nico stepped inside, immediately greeted by a wash of unfamiliar music and the warm, fragrant air of the restaurant.
The place was unlike anywhere he’d eaten recently.
Soft ribbons of colored light wound their way across the ceiling, shifting between shades of violet, amber, and pale blue. Holographic shapes drifted lazily overhead, occasionally breaking apart into thousands of luminous particles before assembling themselves into something entirely different. Some appeared almost organic, resembling strange translucent creatures swimming through invisible currents.
The music was equally unusual, a strange arrangement of unfamiliar instruments and rhythms that seemed almost alien in their composition. Nico listened for a moment. It wasn’t bad, actually. Just different from anything he was accustomed to.
The dining area stretched toward an enormous wall of glass overlooking the city. Beyond it, the afternoon traffic of Axiom moved between towering buildings, streams of vehicles threading through the spaces between enormous animated advertisements. A passenger shuttle drifted past the windows, momentarily obscuring a brilliant blue hologram several stories tall.
Closer to the glass, the restaurant opened onto a broad terrace suspended high above the streets.
The booths were floating.
Not particularly high, perhaps half a meter above the floor, but enough to make their lack of support immediately apparent. Each sat within a faintly illuminated magnetic field, its base casting a soft circular glow onto the polished surface beneath it. Some were occupied by humans, others by species Nico recognized only vaguely, and a few by creatures whose anatomies made the seating arrangements seem almost comically impractical.
A server with six slender arms passed between the tables, balancing an assortment of translucent dishes. Something inside one of them moved.
Nico decided not to look too closely.
He scanned the restaurant.
Dex had mentioned getting a table near the terrace, though that didn’t narrow things down considerably. Nearly half the dining area seemed designed around the view.
Then he spotted it.
The unmistakable metallic sheen of a familiar head, just visible above the back of a booth near the windows.
Nico smiled to himself.
Dex was sitting with his back toward the entrance, apparently occupied with something on the table in front of him.
Perfect.
Nico made his way through the dining area, slipping between two passing servers and approaching the booth as quietly as he could manage.
He was barely a step away when Dex spoke.
“Don’t.”
Nico stopped.
Dex hadn’t turned around.
“Don’t what?” Nico asked.
“Whatever you’re about to do.”
“I wasn’t going to do anything.”
“Of course not.”
Nico stared at the back of his head.
“How’d you know I was there?”
“You’re not particularly quiet.”
“I was being incredibly quiet.”
“You nearly walked into a server approximately six meters behind me.”
Nico glanced over his shoulder.
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means you were distracted.”
“You’re annoying.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Nico came around the booth and slid into the seat opposite him.
The entire platform shifted slightly beneath his weight before settling back into place. He looked down at the narrow gap separating the booth from the floor.
“That’s weird.”
Dex finally looked up.
“What is?”
“The floating thing.”
“Magnetic suspension.”
“I know what it is.”
“Then why is it weird?”
Nico leaned back against the cushioned seat, testing it with a small shift of his weight.
“Because it’s a booth, Dex.”
Dex considered that for a moment.
“Fair enough.”
Beyond the windows, a stream of vehicles curved around the neighboring tower, their polished surfaces catching the afternoon sunlight.
Nico looked out over the city.
“Not a bad spot,” he said.
“I thought you’d like it.”
“Yeah.”
He watched a distant advertisement dissolve into a shower of artificial sparks before reforming into the enormous face of a smiling alien woman.
“Yeah, this is pretty nice.”