“And the ugliness of efficiency is what you don’t like?”
“Yes, we try to hide it away when we can,” Valentin admitted.
Ellie knew that he was referring to more than just the aesthetics of the planet when he said that but she didn’t have time to reply because when they reached the bottom of the dark stairs, they were met by two women in red uniforms with the restaurant’s name, Jole, embroidered on them. The women smiled to greet them but did not speak.
Valentin instructed Ellie, “Follow this woman. You will need to answer a few questions from a computer. She’ll take you to our table afterwards. It’s a special tradition at this restaurant that couples have to do,” he explained further when he saw the concerned look on her face.
“What kind of special tradition?” Ellie asked concerned. She couldn’t shake the idea it was going to involve some pain. Anytime an Imperial person mentioned ‘tradition’ it always involved blood and sacrifice.
Valentin gave her a reassuring smile, “It’s fun. Nothing painful, this isn’t the Empire.”
Ellie returned his smile with a worrisome one but followed the smiling woman with Jole on her shirt obediently. She was led into a cold dark room and then the woman from the restaurant left her with a touch on her arm and a smile to let Ellie know that she should remain there and wait. It was all dark until suddenly a light pink computer light surrounded her and announced in a jovial tone, “Elloisa Johnson from Earth, I have a few questions for you. Your partner, Valentin of House One will have to answer these questions about you and, in your turn, questions about him. You must answer all the questions honestly as I will know if you are lying. Are you ready to begin?”
“Yes,” Ellie was amused.
“Good,” the computer said. “The first question is how difficult would you like your questions to be? Easy, Medium or Impossible?”
Ellie smiled. She liked games. “Will he have to make his questions to the same level as I do?”
“No,” answered the computer. “He will chose for himself. That is part of the game.”
Ellie knew that Valentin had found out as much as he could about her, so she decided to make her questions impossible. She told the computer and then it began asking her very personal questions about her life and experiences. After the computer finished, she asked, “What do we get if we answer the questions correctly?”
“To eat,” replied the computer and then turned its pink glow off as the same woman attendant entered the small room, smiling and gestured again for Ellie to follow her.
The woman led Ellie to an elegant table in the center of a dark and plain room. The small table was decorated with a white embroidered tablecloth and had a small vase of wildflowers in the center of it. Valentin was already there waiting for her.
“You chose the impossible questions, didn’t you?” he asked upon seeing her devious face expression.
“You’ll have to wait and see,” she replied and then thanked the servant out of habit. “Now, please explain to me how this all works? I’m extremely excited.”
“There are 22 courses of food. Every time we both answer the question correctly, we both get a dish. If one of us gets the question wrong, we only get one dish. If we both get the question wrong, we get nothing and have to wait until the next dish is ready for the next question.”
Ellie wished now she would have chosen the easy questions. She was hungry. “And the wine?” she asked picking up her glass, “We will always have that?”
“Yes, this is supposed to be fun. Taste it. It’s a local wine. Not as fine as some of what Earth produces, but it’s not bad.”
“And will we be eating Reima Two food too?” Ellie asked. She was surprised the dining room lacked decorations as everywhere else she had been had felt like an alien Earth in terms of aesthetics.
“That’s also what is special about this restaurant. For every course, the room will transform itself to a different area of Reima Two using holographic imaging. Also, with every course we get correct, we will rise towards the top of the building so at the end, if we have answered at least 38 questions correctly, we’ll be on the roof eating dessert in Lina.”
Ellie knew that Lina was the capital of Reima Two from her quick reading on the GC site. “Great. I’m ready to begin,” she loved a good game.
“I appreciate your enthusiasm. Unfortunately, we must wait for the computer to ask us the first question,” Valentin said before taking a sip of wine.
It wasn’t too long before their little private dining room went dark and the computer lit up with a pink spotlight again, “Elloisa, first question, does Valentin have any siblings?”
“No siblings,” Ellie responded confidently.
“Your answer is correct. You have won the first dish. Valentin, what are the names of Elloisa’s siblings?”
Ellie looked at Valentin and was going to be surprised if he knew this answer, but then again, she supposed their names must be mentioned somewhere in her GC file.
“McKenzie and Brad,” Valentin answered without hesitation.
“Your answer is correct. You have won the first dish.”
The computer barely finished speaking when wait staff entered their room with two dishes and the walls, floors, ceiling and even their table transformed into a tropical paradise at midday. Ellie couldn’t believe it, she really felt like was on a tropical beach. She could even slightly taste the salt in the air.
“The first dish is like an Earth clam, “Valentin said. “The staff would normally tell us but since they aren’t supposed to talk to us…” he trailed off.
“And you know every dish? How many times have you been here? Do you take every woman you are thinking about marrying here?” she was only half teasing.
“I preordered the dishes and I checked what you usually order from the Earth Store and Human Food Two. It wasn’t difficult. And not that I think you deserve an answer for such a cheeky question, but I’ve only been here once before,” he defended himself. He didn’t like the insinuation that he came here with different women all the time.
“And when you were here with another woman did you reach the top?” Ellie didn’t know why but she did feel jealous and incredibly competitive about this other woman.
“No, we only made it halfway up,” Valentin admitted. “It wasn’t a real attraction and we hated each other’s answers the more we learned about one another.”
After they finished their small clam and it was taken away, the computer returned with the same pink spotlight. “Elloisa, question two, what is the name of Valentin’s flagship?”
Ellie actually had to think, she wasn’t fantastic with names, but then she remembered, “The Song.”
“Your answer is correct. You have won the second dish.”
“Valentin, what was the time and date that you saw Elloisa for the first time?”
Valentin made serious eye contact with Ellie, “Before the start of the Yoli race, Alliance Planet Two, Alba, 4th day of the 1st week of the year 18907 at about roughly 7:50 in the morning.”
“Your answer is off by four minutes and eight seconds, but it is still within the acceptable range. You have won the second dish.”