Chapter Three: Suspicious Characters

Mei elected to take the shift immediately following Tanaka's, followed by Mohammed and then Dante. That left them with about twelve hours until Mohammed had to be on duty.

As they wandered back towards their apartments, Dante asked, "What d'you suppose they've got up there in that lab that's so dangerous?"

Mohammed shrugged. "Doesn't really concern us. Let's just make sure that nobody else can get their hands on it."

Dante nodded and glanced off in the distance, lost in thought.

Mohammed's thoughts were soon lost as well, lost in the beautiful feudal Japanese architecture through which they walked; lost in the fact that he'd been on this rock for a few hours and no reporters were questioning him and all the passersbye only smiled and nodded. The people here seemed completely unconcerned with the events that transpired outside of their little floating world. Mohammed breathed deeply and felt an enormous weight begin to lift. He may have been the man who made Mars, but here he was just a man like any other.

Mohammed and Dante met up with the rest of the crew of the Artemis outside their apartments and explained the laboratory guarding situation. Hector particularly laughed at Dante for having to work during his vacation.

Jeanne's stomach growled loud enough for the whole group to hear. She blushed slightly.

"Not a bad idea, Jeanne," Mohammed said. "What say we find some place for dinner?"

And so they all wandered together down charming little roads, laughing and joking with the sense of new-found freedom they were all just beginnign to feel. They almost missed the restaurant at first—there was nothing on their viziers notifying that the doorway they were passing was an eating establishment. Dante, however, happened to glance over at it.

"Would'ya lookit that!" he pointed.

They all looked. On the wall next to the unassuming doorway was a small, hand-painted wooden sign that read, "Sushi Tama." Beneath the latin letters was a rather amateurish painting of a fish—a salmon perhaps? A window next to the sign was covered from the inside with rice paper so that only the glow of the interior lights the occasional passing shadow could be seen.

Mohammed turned to his crew. "What do you think?"

Jeanne and Anita peered suspiciously at the rice paper covered window. Hector asked, "Is it even a restaurant?"

"Let's find out." Mohammed noticed the door had hinges and pulled at the handle.

The interior of the restaurant held to the feudal Japanese decor that the whole asteroid seemed to enjoy, but a swift glance around revealed absolutely no Vizier interactive elements whatsoever. Indeed, there didn't seem to be a single piece of post 18th century technology within view. To their left were maybe a dozen tables, half of which were full of people and piled with small dishes of various combinations of rice and what looked exactly like raw fish.

An elderly man with tiny bright eyes and a small moustach saw them and approached. He wore a bright red chef's outfit complete with foot-tall cylindrical hat. He smiled warmly and bowed. "Welcome to Sushi Tama. Five for dinner?"

Mohammed returned the bow. "Yes, thank you."

The man grabbed some sheets of paper off of a nearby counter and gestured into the restaurant proper. "Please, if there are any open tables that meet your fancy."

Anita pointed. "How about that one in the corner?"

The man bowed again. "Very good. This way." He led them skillfully and silently through the tables to the far corner, to an empty table large enough to hold eight people. He lay the sheets of paper down on the table, one in front of each chair, and quietly picked up the remaining un-used chairs. "My name is Hiroyuki Sakai. Please look over the menu and I shall return shortly."

They all sat. Dante looked confused. "What menu?"

Mohammed picked up the piece of paper in front of him. It wasn't real paper, but it was a good fascimile. On the left half were Japanese characters, and on the right were the latin alphabet translations. "This is the menu," he said.

"Really?" Dante picked up the one in front of him and peered at it.

Mohammed glanced quickly around the restaurant and noticed that none of the other patrons were using thier Viziers. Indeed, none of them even seemed to be wearing them at all, not just flipped up in the un-used position. He recalled now that Sakai hadn't been wearing a Vizier either. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said quietly to his crew, "since it appears there are no reasons to use a Vizier in this restaurant, I suggest we take them off."

The others glanced around the restaurant and quickly and quietly unattached their visors, slipping them into pockets.

Sakai returned shortly. "Have you had a chance to look over the menus?"

Mohammed glanced around the table and noted the various looks of confusion and consternation as everybody else looked over the paper menus. He leaned close to Sakai and said quietly, "We're all rather new at this, and I don't know that looking over the menus will help much. Would it be all right if we simply left our dinner in your hands?"

A twinkle glinted quickly in Sakai's eyes and he bowed deeply. "It would be an honor, Justice." He silently gathered the menus and disappeared into the kitchen.

"What did you do?" Dante asked suspiciously.

"Look, we're out of our league here. I let someone who knows what's what decide what would be good for our dinner. We're in good hands."

[description of foods that Sakai brings them]

Good food, a comfortable environment, and friendly company, plus liberal sprinklings of sake, made the next two hours pass very amiably. Mohammed could feel all the tension of the past two years washing right out of his shoulders.