Toast by Charles Stross

Author:Charles Stross [Stross, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Charles Stross

</EDITORIAL>

We arrived back in the bar. “I think I need a drink,” said Lynda, wobbling on her feet. “Oops! So sorry. Er, yes. This is so slow, Richard! How do you handle the boredom?”

“Excuse me?” The bartender handed me another Jolt, this one nicely chilled. A large margarita slid across the bar top and somehow appeared in her hand.

“This!” She looked around vaguely. “Real time!”

I stared at her. Her pupils were wide. “Are you on anything I should know about?” I asked.

“Sensory deprivation. My suit’s powered down.” She shook her head. “I feel naked. I haven’t been offline in months; there are things happening that I don’t know about. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I’m not sure. Is it always like this?”

“How long have you been down?” I asked.

“I’m unsure. Since I saw you in the show? I wanted to get into your headspace and see what it was like, but it’s so cramped! Maybe half an hour; it’s a disciplinary offense, you know?”

“What, going offline?”

Her eyeballs flickered from side to side in the characteristic jitter of information-withdrawal nystagmus. “Being obsolete.”

I left Lynda in the safe custody of a hotel paramedic, who didn’t seem to think there’d be any permanent side-effects once her clothing had rebooted. I headed back to the con, fervently glad that I’d stepped off the treadmill a couple of releases after Ashley, way before things got this bad.

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