Entrance | Yindex | © 1999-2008
This does not look like any "cafeteria" you have ever seen. Though it is spacious and has impressive architecture, the chairs do not face empty dining tables. Rather, each seat faces a large, rotating personal buffet table. Ethernet cables and wide tubes run down from them to the floor. Any ordering would probably have to be done from the menu panel to your right, the audience in the folding lawn chairs... Wait a minute. Even for recycling the text of the Cathedral, that's a stretch. Who gets entertainment from watching strangers eat? Anyway, this area seems to be designed with good atmosphere in mind; it might be a good place for an informal meeting, such as the one you are currently in the middle of.
"Oh, there you are!" cries Lucy. You find yourself suddenly disoriented by the sound of her voice, coming from behind you while you see her in front of you. "You were gone so long, I thought you had given up."
You realize the source of your disorientation: Each cluster of personal buffet tables has the seats at the center, facing outward toward the tables. Mirrors rising from each table allow you to see Lucy and two beavers, who are seated behind you.
"Glad you could make it," says Wilhelm, "It'll be nice to chat a bit, while I'm not so busy. This is my wife, Henrietta. By the way, from what humans have told me, the Cajun buffet here is exquisite. I naturally prefer the seafood buffet."
"If you're really daring, you could order up some of the native plants," Lucy pipes up. "I talked to the chefs after the third time I tried it, and they said not to worry; they don't serve Terrans anything that would be toxic to us."
After choosing a buffet and digging into a delectable meal for a while, you sit back. "I'm still stuck on that meta-key problem," you reflect. "I don't even know what the puzzle is."
"Oh, that," says Wilhelm. "Has it occurred to you that the phrase 'meta-key' is itself a clue?"
You wrinkle your nose at his reflection. "Yes, I'd already gotten that bit."
"My friend Myrtle might be able to help you out," Harriet informs you, "she knows about this stuff. She lives far away from all of us, so you'll have to call her from the pay phone. I forget her number, but it's in the phone book."