High Tea Room, Diplomatic Square Gardens, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
For the first time in quite a while, Kaios Richter booked the entire high tea room at the Diplomatic Square Gardens for foreign envoys. As Director of the Third Department of Foreign Affairs, usually the groups of envoys he met numbered no more than six-plus guards, so the envoys would all fit comfortably with him at a table or two. The American mission here had brought more than five times that not including their military escort.
Shimon and Volentine had stated that they brought four-wheeled cars armed with light mechanical cannon ashore, of which two had escorted the Americans here and now parked near the middle of the square across from the squad of dragoons stationed here. To his knowledgable eyes, the odd splotch painted green, brown, black, and tan vehicles appeared similar to the grey-wheeled cars the Holy Milishial Empire used. However, it did not seem like they were additionally equipped with any anti-armour-guided missiles comparable to the Milishial's light charge-cannon vehicles.
"Have you decided on the tea you want Mister Leach?" he asked in Lourin.
Once the female translator converted his question, the lead American envoy looked at the piece of paper in front of him containing the handwritten translation of the menu. As with all high tea establishments, Diplomatic Square Gardens' menu merely contained a large selection of teas, with the food that came with the tea always being the same set.
"I think I'll go with the gold tea here. Smooth and low bitterness without milk sounds fine." The American passed along the paper to his subordinates.
"You have good taste. Gold tea is the finest of the non-milk teas available. Of course, portions are smaller. From my knowledge of Lourin though, aurum is not the most exact translation describing the colour of the tea. The tea's colour contains more of a red kind of colour."
"Oh, I see. Dr. Banks here believes then the English term for it would be orange tea."
"Aah-range," attempted Kaios.
"Oh, Director Richter. Not aah."
Kaios took out his special personal crystal and put it on the table. He switched to its translation dictionary mode with some taps of his stylus before turning it towards them. Light blue characters appeared on the black display surface of the crystal.
"Madam, would you mind repeating your word for it into this crystal please?"
"What is that?" asked the lead envoy.
"A personal crystal. It's a crystal that runs spellware on it. The model I have is called the Thinker 3, and it can compile voice recordings into a translation dictionary. It can store line drawings and writing in what we call its memory engrams."
"So it can take notes just like my PDA." The American took out a black brick from his suit pocket. He pressed down on one of the circles on its bottom, and black text appeared on the object's green screen. Pressing another circle, he took out a black stylus and then wrote something on it. "This is a PalmPilot Professional, which I first got a couple of years ago."
Kairos was alarmed by the man's assertion that he had a mechanical device which could perform the same function as a crystal that fits in a pocket. The navy had informed him that American devices were so large that they were built into tables and walls. He calmed himself down and began asking questions.
"What's the black shell around the screen?"
"Ah, this is its plastic casing. It protects the internals of the Personal Digital Assistant."
"Is there a reason why the screen doesn't go all the way to the sides like with my PC?"
The female translator coughed before translating.
YOU ARE READING
The Big Ones
FanfictionFor years, the United States of America has dominated the skies with SAC's nuclear-armed bombers and fighters since the nuclear annihilation of Germany in WW2 in the event known as The Big One. Now suddenly transported to a New World during the earl...
