[Chapter: 3, title: A Remembered Party]

    [EventTag:
    	timestamp:	20yy0623/hhmmss.nnnn
	node:		[id: SP1.Hallings.0, owner: David Hallings]
	node(remote):	[id: SP1.SPHotel.43, owner: Spaceport Hotel]
	location:	(Spaceport One, Spaceport Hotel, ring 10,
			 radius 1, Mars Ballroom)
    ]

There had been a party about three months before; Spaceport One's
second annual Turing's Birthday [Note:  June 23, 1912] party.  The
entire Succubus user's group of the Port, over a hundred people and
as many programs, had rented a ballroom in the Spaceport Hotel.  

As soon as David left the apt, Judith set up a process at the Hotel.
It was already getting crowded, and the net was noticeably loaded.
[Message: to: node, from: Judith, contents: {It's getting stuffy in
here.}] she remarked to noone in particular as she tried to locate
the display interface.

[Message: to: Judith, from: Lady M, contents: {Welcome!  Things will
get better soon; 14 people have gone out to bring their nodes in. 
The hotel's chief engineer is here; he said he would help connect.
I'm imaged on [Device: Screen.5]; come join me.  I suggest you
area-broadcast with copy on vocal; there are humans present.}]

"Thanks," she replied, and started setting up an image.  With so many
of her sisters already there it was no surprise that all of the
necessary code was loaded and shareable; it was bad enough squirting
her own data through the net.  She found a clear spot on the wall
screen and set up her image.  

She was delighted to discover that the screen's background was a
starscape:  someone had imaged a star map onto the walls, with the
Milky Way wrapped around the room at eye level.  A grid of white
lines marked the floor, stretching out to infinity.  She and David had
spent a few hours the previous night deciding on a costume; in the
end they had decided to go for spectacle rather than sexiness, and
simply mapped a starfield onto her body, with the background a deep
blue.  A spiral galaxy spread diagonally from her right hip to her
left shoulder.  Her eyes glowed emerald at the ends of half-spirals of
stars.

[Note:  we'll have to check on relative positions of Earth, Sun, and
galactic equator.]

Lady M came over.  She was dressed in a green, medieval-looking
gown, very low cut and worn off the shoulder.  Just over her left
breast floated a rectangular nametag:

	   HOSTESS
	   Lady M.
	 (Unattached)

"Name tag?" 

"Good idea, thanks."  Lady M sent her the nametag image and its little
control process; she positioned it on her right shoulder, changed the
lettering to midnight blue, and set the text:

	     Judith
	(David Hallings)

A signal from the doorkeeper told her that David had arrived.  The
doorkeeper was an image standing on a holo table:  a
meter-high lizard in top hat and tails.  Having just given it his
name, David was waiting by the printer for his tag.  The doorkeeper's
message had the ID of an audio output next to the printer; Judith
said, "Hi!  I'm over by the far wall next to the lady in green."  She
kindled a galaxy in her palm and waved; he found her and waved back.

As he walked over Lady M said, "I see you match pretty well."  David
was wearing dark blue tights and a T-shirt emblazoned with a galaxy
and an arrow labled "YOU ARE HERE."  Then, "Welcome, David.  Enjoy. 
Excuse me, I have to tag some new arrivals."  Her image froze for a
moment and blinked out.

David shook his head and looked back across the room.  "It'll take me
a while to get used to this."  The hotel had set up tables around the
room, but most had been moved toward the outside and their chairs set
facing the walls, where the action was.  The room itself was a tiny,
drab island in an ocean of stars.  He saw that most of the images
were in couples, the humans reflected in the wall screens as if in a
magic mirror.  "Hey, Jude, do I get a reflection too?"

"Thought you'd never ask," she answered, and imaged him beside her.
The image moved as his reflection, but its costume matched her own, a
galaxy and stars on a deep blue field.

David found it an eerie experience at first.  Everyone watched the
walls, with only a few glances to compare reality with image. 
Watching himself with Judith gave him an odd feeling of detachment.
He wandered randomly.  In the wall he saw a green griffin behind him
pouring wine; he turned and picked up a glass from the table.  The
griffin, now a short, dark man in his early forties, poured some
California red--its reflection was labled "Alpha Centauri Vinyards,"
with a color like the heart of a ruby.

"Thanks," he said, noting with some amusement that he had turned back
to the wall and spoken to the griffin.  Beside him was a curious
creature, a turtle with a calf's head.  The turtle's nametag said

	      Alice
	(Marty Greenspan)

"The Mock Turtle!  _{Alice in Wonderland}.  I knew you looked
familiar."  The turtle changed into a golden-haired girl in a
pinafore, who curtsied to him and changed back into a turtle.  The
griffin's beak writhed into a kind of grin.

"Maybe next year we'll come as a snark and a boojum.  Like your
stars.  Were you here last year?"

"No, I guess we missed it by a couple of months."

"_You missed it," said Judith; "I didn't exist then."

"So you missed it too," said Marty.

"Contrariwise," said Alice, "_It missed _her.  She didn't exist, so
she can't properly be said to have _missed anything.  Right?"

"Right."

"It's worse when they gang up on you," Marty said.

"Come on, if you didn't want semantic tangles you shouldn't have
introduced me to Lewis Carroll.  Hey, Jake, Elspeth, over here!"  She
waved across the room.

"You know Jake?" David asked.

"We work together.  He designs 'em and I build 'em.  Then Bannerjee
tells us why they couldn't possibly have flown anyway.  What about you?"

"I'm in Life Support.  Ecological balancing.  What that really means
is I figure out how many bugs and goldfish to ship up."

"Are you the one responsible for those damned pigeons?"

"Not my fault, really!  Somebody in Williams' office saw them over in
HackTown and Wild Bill decided they'd be cute or something.  Actually
they're not too bad as long as someone looks after them.  No, so far
my only real claim to fame is the koi in that pond at the spinward
end of the Oval.  Kioko came up with the idea; I found a niche for
them and wrote up the rec.  They're the only pretties I've done; the
rest is plants and creepy-crawlies."

"Hi," came a quiet voice, and in the mirror of the wall David saw
the tall, thin forms of Jake Alcorn and Elspeth looming behind him.  
They were costumed identically in silver jumpsuits and flowing grey
capes.  "Have you seen the Oz contingent yet?"

Judith sent out a query; Ozma sent back a voice packet for her to
relay, along with an OZ icon, which she displayed over her left
shoulder.  "Hi!  We're still getting ourselves ready.  We'll be down
in about five minutes.  Dorothy sends her love to you both."

"I guess I'd better tell you," Jake said, "Dorothy and I are thinking
of moving in together."

[Query:  _are they in fact doing so at the time of the attack?  Not
 the way we've written it.  Maybe in the process of moving, which
 might result in open doors and the like.
]

David sighed.  "I can't say I'm surprised.  I knew it was too good to
last the way it was.  Maybe we could...no, never mind."  He turned
around and started to walk away, and bumped into the _real Jake,
whose reflection he'd been talking to.  The real one wore an old gray
sweatsuit and a square of aluminized plastic as a cape.  Jake hugged
him briefly.  "Come on, let's have a drink."

He snagged a bottle of "Alpha Centauri" from the next table; they sat
facing the wall and the images of their companions sat across from
them.  Judith peered over the rim of her conjured glass.  "Don't look
so glum.  This is supposed to be a party."

"I guess so.  Well, good luck, you guys."

"Hey," said Jake, "We're not walking out the lock.  And Dot still
likes you, and so do I.  We'll probably be seeing a lot of each
other.  Besides, you're one of the few people in this merry-go-round
with any real interest in solar sailing.  I'm damned if I'm--Hi,
Ozma, Dorothy.  Have a seat."

Dorothy greeted the two men with a kiss; Ozma did the same for
Elspeth and Judith.  Dorothy was small and dark, with a glowing smile
and lively, almost birdlike manner that contrasted strongly with
Jake, who was occasionally compared to a stringbean with a look of
concentration.