Maria's questions

I found Maria on the terrace, staring out into the fog over the harbor.....she looked to be in her early twenties, and was dressed in the uniform of the Treaty Forces. She seemed to be pretty calm, for someone who had been abducted from humanity and brought to a ghost town. She turned as I approached, and gave me a critical look, frowning and backing away a bit.....

"Are you human?" she asked.

"Well, more or less..." I replied, quite truthfully. "You see, I have been with the ghosts for so long that the biological aspects of my human nature have been almost completely leached away and replaced with ectoplasmic analogs of the various bodily functions."

"What do you mean?" She looked confused.

"Would you like something to eat? Are you thirsty?" I asked...."You don't in fact feel any hunger or thirst, do you? Are you having any trouble breathing?" I asked her as gently as I could...Of course then she gasped, or tried to gasp....but her lungs couldn't take in any air....she was wrapped in a thin haze of ectoplasm, as am I.

"You see my dear" I try to explain....."Here in this dimension people did not evolve from animal precursors....they evolved from gaseous waveforms interacting with energy fields.....there is no need to eat or drink or breathe bits of matter as such....no need for the Ladie's Room either, you will find...." I tried to offer a bit of levity...

"Oh." was all she could say....

I went on to explain to Maria that if we could obtain the assistance of the pertinent powers or authorities .....we might be able to find out how to get her back where she belonged, before her nature was sublimated to any great degree......I would have to pull some strings, call in a few old debts perhaps.....she began to look hopeful, and asked me to please do what I could.....she had no desire at all to remain with the ghosts, if that could be avoided.....

"Then we'll go back to my place and start making calls..." I offered.....

Out on the street I asked her "What do you think of my ride?"