Serenity

"Well, I haven't weighed myself since I lost my memory," said Stacy looking down at her body and running her hands down the sides of her thighs. "about 130 pounds," she said, bashfully folding her arms in front of her breasts that looked like they were ready to burst out of her blue overalls.

Astra, who was taking a sip of coffee, snorted, spurting coffee back into her cup. "150 more like," she said trying but failing not to smile.

"What's that in non-hallucingenic units?" asked Machiko.

"What?" asked Stacy.

"Kilograms," said Michiko. "Oh never mind. I think you'd better just weigh yourself." She fetched a weighing scale and sat down at her computer.

Stacy stepped onto the scales. Astra looked over her shoulder and read out the result. "152," she said. "I told you! I have an excellent eye for these things."

Stacy looked at Astra. "You know I think I like you better when you're drunk."

Astra shrugged and went to sit in the window and watched the star-scape slowly rotate.

"I'm sure this isn't right. We've got to take into account the weight of the clothes."

"You can take them off if you want," said Michiko, not looking up from the computer while she furiously typed. Stacy had her hand on the zipper when Michiko added, "but it won't make any difference. I'll use 69 kilograms in the calculation."

Stacy came and stood next to Michiko and looked at the strange incantations, glowing white on black, that looked vaguely mathematical. "What is all this."

"Tomato ketchup," said Astra taking a bite of sandwich.

"What?" asked Stacy.

"Michiko told me it was something to do with tomato ketchup," said Astra with her mouth full. "Right, Michiko?"

Michiko stopped typing and took a deep breath but didn't turn around. "Source," she said. "I told you it was source code."

"Oh yeah, that's it," said Astra wagging her half-eaten sandwich at Michiko.

A rig that looked like a coffee machine next to Michiko's computer started whirring. Michiko put a glass vial in the center and a glowing white liquid was injected into it.

Michiko took the vial and held it up. "Pure serenity. I've coded it up so it's the right concentration for your body weight." She handed the vial to Stacy who looked at it with suspicion.

"Chin chin," said Astra, holding up her coffee cup and taking a swig.

"You want me to drink it?" asked Stacy.

"Yes," said Michiko.

"And that will bring my memory back?"

"No," said Michiko, "but as I said it is pure serenity, encoded from the very fabric of the universe. It will put you in the right state to allow the the next part of the procedure to work..."

1. The next stage involved a tank of gunge

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