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After discovering a method to reverse telomere shortening, Herta of the Genius Society was able to halt the process of aging and achieve functional immortality. And while this had a number of perks and benefits, it came with one major downside that she hadn’t quite anticipated.
Boredom.
Herta had envisioned that infinite life would afford her infinite time to work on her projects, but this wasn’t exactly true. Because as productive as she was, the speed of her research was still limited by external factors. Like waiting for rare materials to ship from the far-flung corners of the universe, or waiting for her test subjects to produce enough data to draw conclusions from.
Even with several dozen automated puppets working around the clock, there was a considerable amount of downtime. Too much, really. Herta couldn’t stand it.
To make matters worse, hardly anything entertained her anymore. Taking control of her puppets was only fun for a few amber eras before the novelty wore off. Simulated Universe was interesting, but the fun stuff only tended to happen when the stellaron receptacle was around.
Perhaps becoming an emanator of Nous had permanently altered the threshold of what Herta considered entertaining. Or maybe her standards were just high to begin with. In any case, she longed for the unexpected. If only she could have something like a surprise visitor, to bring some color to the monotony of—
Buzz.
Herta glanced at her phone and, upon seeing that it was Asta calling, picked up.
“Madame Herta,” came her voice through the speaker. “Someone is here to see you.”
“How annoying,” Herta said. “Send them away.”
“Um… I don’t think I can.”
“Oh, are they like that? Just go ahead and atomize their ship, then.”
“That’s not what I mean, ah…”
A stretch of nervous silence followed.
“…she’s already docked, Madame Herta. In fact, she’s headed to your quarters now.”
Herta raised an eyebrow. They infiltrated her station without permission? And were heading her way?
“Asta,” she said, “listen carefully. This station has an emergency ship so that all the researchers can escape in the event of a disaster.”
“H-Huh?”
“I need you to load all my curios onto that ship, and—“
“Wait!” Asta said. “I think there’s a misunderstanding — the reason I can’t stop her is because her ID has a higher level of clearance than mine.”
“That’s not possible. The only people with higher clearance than you are me and…”
And…
Knock-knock.
Herta slowly turned her head towards the door, then hung up on her call. “Apologies,” she said, in a deadpan voice. “Madame Herta isn’t here right now. This is an automated message, so don’t bother leaving a—“
“You can’t pretend to be one of your puppets, dear.” An amused laugh came from the other side of the door. “Your voice is way too mature.”
Damn it, Herta thought. She knew basing all her puppets on her younger self would come back to bite her sooner or later. Letting loose a heavy sigh, she rolled her chair over to the door and opened it, favoring the woman on the other side with a blank stare.
“Did you want something?”
Ruan Mei smiled at her, then held up a little teal box decorated with embroidery. “I made sweets.”
“…And?”
“And you’re taste-testing them,” she said, stepping past her into her room. As she did so her eyes flicked between the bed and the computer desk, which were essentially the only two things the room had in the way of furniture. “A bit empty in here, no?”
“More like utilitarian, Mei.” Herta huffed. “I’m hardly ever here to begin with, so it doesn’t need to be fancy.”
Ruan Mei nodded sagely. “I have some potted flowers that would look really nice in here, I’ll send them over.”
“…Are you listening to me?”
“Oh, and if you let me borrow these pillows I can sew some lace onto them…”
Nope. Herta rolled her eyes. She needed to hurry up and get the other woman out of here before she started fussing over everything. It always started with something innocuous like home decor before progressing to have you been getting enough sleep, dear? or you’re not just eating cup noodles all the time, right? or some nonsense like that.
“What kind of sweets?” Herta asked, moving onto the bed beside her. As she did so she couldn’t help but notice the sweet fragrance of Ruan Mei’s perfume. It was simple yet pleasant, in stark contrast to its wearer.
She opened the box and retrieved what looked like a reddish ball of dough topped with sliced almonds. “These are rosewater berries. I made them from scratch.”
Herta held her hand out, expecting Ruan Mei to give it to her, but of course that would have been too easy. Instead, she was met with an insufferable smile.
“Here,” she said, bringing the sweet right up to Herta’s mouth. In response Herta flashed her a scowl, then begrudgingly tucked her hair behind her ears before finally leaning in to take a bite.
The outer edges of the dough had a lightly fried appearance, but the inside had a much softer consistency, almost reminiscent of dairy. And it must have been soaked in some kind of sweet syrup prior. The flavor and texture of the almond slices provided excellent contrast as well.
“They’re good,” Herta said, shrugging.
But Ruan Mei didn’t respond. She was too busy staring at her with that same annoying smile. Must be nice being so easily entertained, Herta thought.
“You know, I think you should make a puppet based on your actual appearance.”
Herta scoffed. “That would be a waste of time. Larger puppets take more resources and are barely more productive, so it’s a loss in efficiency.”
“But maybe you’ll attract Idrila’s attention,” she said. “Then we could have enough information to add her to Simulated Universe.”
“What? Why would creating a puppet of my actual self attract the Aeon of—“
Herta shut her mouth as the gears shifted into place in her head. Oh, you think you’re so clever, huh? Tch.
“In any case,” Ruan Mei said, a glint of satisfaction in her eye, “I’m glad you enjoyed. May I have a taste?”
“…Sure? They’re yours to begin with, so—“
By the time Herta realized that she had yet again fallen into Ruan Mei’s trap, her fingers were already brushing her cheek, sweet aroma filling her head as the other woman brought her lips to Herta’s and…
“Madame Herta!” Asta shouted, this time not from the phone but rather from the doorway of Herta’s room. “…Oh. Did I interrupt something?”
“No,” Herta snapped, turning away from an amused Ruan Mei and ignoring the heat rising to her cheeks. “In fact it’s a good thing you’re here, I had some things I wanted to discuss with you.”
Asta blinked. “R-Really? With me?”
“And I’m afraid it’ll probably take the rest of the day.” Herta gave her associate a sidelong glance. “Sorry Mei, I’d love to chat, but…”
“Oh, it’s no worries,” she said, getting up and making a reassuring gesture. “Never a boring day for us members of the Genius Society, right?”
You know, maybe boring days aren’t so bad…
“Glad you understand.” Herta cleared her throat. “Take care, or whatever.”
“You too, dear.” She flashed one last irritating smile before slipping out of the room, her fragrance lingering in Herta’s mind.
Asta swallowed. “You two seem close.”
“Not really,” Herta said, noticing at that moment that Ruan Mei had left behind the box with the rest of the sweets on her bedside. Hmph.
“S-So, what did you want to discuss with me?” A nervous expression crept onto her face. “Nothing bad, right?”
“That was just a lie to get her to leave.” Herta blinked. “Actually, why are you here anyway? Did you have something to report?”
“Yes!” Asta straightened her posture, looking proud. “I transferred all the curios to the emergency ship, like you asked.”
“Ah.” Herta stared at her. “Well, I have a new task for you.”
“Yes?”
“Go ahead and transfer them all back.”