“Psh. They’re just big sandwiches on hooves,” said Jenks, walking in with a grin. “I’ve had planetside beef too, y’know. It’s awesome.”
“Oh, gross. You’re all gross,” Sissix said, laughing.
“I’ll stick with bugs, thanks,” said a male Human voice. Rosemary turned, and stood up. “Welcome aboard,” Captain Santoso said, shaking her hand. “It’s good to finally meet you.”
“You as well, Captain,” Rosemary said. “I’m very happy to be here.”
“Please, just call me Ashby,” he said with a smile. He glanced around, looking for someone. “Did Corbin give you the grand tour?”
“He started it off,” Sissix said, taking one of Rosemary’s crackers. “I took over so he could run some tests.”
“Well. That was… nice of you,” Ashby said. He stared at Sissix for a moment, asking a question that Rosemary couldn’t discern. He turned his attention back to her. “I’m afraid I won’t have much time to show you the ropes over the next couple days. We’re tunneling tomorrow, and there’s always some odds and ends to take care of afterward. But I’m sure you need some time to settle in anyway. Once we’ve put this job behind us, you and me can sit down and start going through my reports.”
“You have my sympathies,” Sissix said, patting Rosemary’s shoulder.
“They’re not that bad,” Ashby said. Dr. Chef cleared his throats pointedly. “Okay, they’re pretty bad.” Ashby shrugged and smiled. “But hey! That means you have a job!”
Rosemary laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m one of those weirdos who likes formwork.”
“Thank the stars for that,” Ashby said. “We’re a good crew, but formwork is not one of our strengths.”
“Sissix!” Kizzy cried, entering the room. “I need to talk to you about this super scandalous sexy vid I saw today.”
Ashby’s eyes fell shut. “Neither is tact.”
Sissix looked bemused. “Kizzy, I told you, I am done watching your vids. I swear, Humans are the only species who can make coupling tacky.”
“No, listen, it’s important.” Kizzy strolled behind the counter, inspecting Dr. Chef’s cooking. She had shed the grubby jumpsuit in exchange for a smart yellow jacket, a skirt that could only be described as a short petticoat, bright orange polka dot tights, a massive pair of boots trussed up in all manner of buckles and straps, and a scattering of cloth flowers woven through her hair. The ensemble would’ve been clownish on anyone else, but somehow, Kizzy made it work. “It was a multispecies vid, and I now have a bucketful of questions about Aandrisk anatomy.”
“You’ve seen me naked before,” Sissix said. “You’ve probably seen a lot of Aandrisks naked before.”
“Yes, but… Sissix, the flexibility on this guy, holy shit—” She stuck her hand toward a bowl of vegetables. Dr. Chef smacked her wrist with a spatula without even glancing her way.
Sissix sighed. “What’s the name of this vid?”
“Prison Planet 6: The Zero-G Spot.”
“Aaand, we’re done,” Ashby said. “Honestly, would one day of being polite have killed you?”
“Hey, I’m polite,” Jenks said. “I didn’t even mention Prison Planet 7.”
Ashby sighed and turned to Rosemary. “There’s probably still time for you to call the deepod back, if you’ve changed your mind.”
Rosemary shook her head. “I haven’t had dinner yet.”
Dr. Chef let out a hearty, squawking laugh. “At last, someone with the same priorities as me.”
Sissix leaned across the counter. “Kizzy, your shoes are amazing. I wish I could wear shoes.”
“I know, right?!” Kizzy exclaimed, lifting her right foot as if she had never seen it before. “Behold, my wonderboots! All the kick-ass of an Aeluon assault squad, combined with total ergonomic perfection! It’s podiatric madness! What are they? Are they big tough stompers? Are they comfy kick-arounds? No one knows! There are feats of science happening right over my socks as we speak!” She turned to Dr. Chef, who was pulling a pan of rolls out of the oven. She plucked one up and tossed it between her fingers. “Stars, these smell good. Come to my face, love bun!”
Ashby turned to Rosemary. “You’re good at languages, right?”
Rosemary dragged her attention away from the mech tech, who was doing a little dance of pain after searing her tongue on the hot bun. “I do all right,” she said. Truthfully, she was very good with languages, but that wasn’t the sort of thing one said to new colleagues over dinner.
“Well, if you’re going to live on this ship, you’re going to have to learn to speak Kizzy.”
“It’s one of those you sort of pick up as you go along,” said Sissix, who had begun shuttling heaping bowls of food to the table. Rosemary picked up a bowl filled with some mashed purple root vegetable and followed suit. As she set the bowl down beside the place settings, she was struck with an odd realization: this was the first time she’d ever set a table.
“Oh, oh, by the way,” Kizzy said, hopping over to Ashby. “Air filter’s fixed, but I was so scared I was gonna be late for dinner, and I had to change too, so I just bundled up all the wires into the wall good enough so they wouldn’t catch fire or anything, and I promise I’ll finish it up right after we eat, I promise promise—”
“If you want, Kiz, I can take care of cleaning up the cables on my own,” Jenks said. “I know you’ve got a hell of a to-do list before tomorrow.”
“This is why you’re the best,” Kizzy said. She met Rosemary’s eyes and pointed at Jenks. “Isn’t he the best?”
“Okay,” Dr. Chef said, lifting a platter stacked with steaming bugs. “Grub’s up.”
Sissix, Kizzy, and Jenks all sat down on the same side of the table. As if on cue, Corbin entered the room. He sat on the opposite side. He said nothing. Neither did anyone else. Ashby, at least, gave him a polite nod.
The captain sat at the head of the table; Dr. Chef took the chair opposite him. Ashby gestured for Rosemary to take the empty seat to his right. He smiled at everyone and raised his glass of water. “To our new crew member,” he said. “And to a problem-free day of work tomorrow.”
They all clinked glasses. “I should’ve got something fancier to drink,” Dr. Chef muttered.
“We all need water, Doc,” Ashby said. “And besides, you’ve rather outdone yourself.” He nodded at the heaping bowls of food. Rosemary clapped a hand over her stomach to muffle the growling.
Filling one’s plate was a free-for-all affair. Bowls and trays were traded back and forth without following any clear pattern. By the time the serving bowls had all been set back down, Rosemary’s plate was stacked with salad, a heap of mashed purple stuff (tuskem roots, Dr. Chef had called them), two grainy rolls, and one of the red coast bugs. Melted butter flecked with shredded herbs oozed out from the gaps in the bug’s spindly joints. Rosemary noticed that there was a tiny hatch cut into the shell, where Dr. Chef had administered seasonings before grilling them. The bug was nightmarish to look at, but it smelled incredible, and Rosemary was hungry enough to try anything. There was just one problem. She didn’t know how to eat it.
Sissix must’ve seen her hesitancy, for the Aandrisk woman caught her eyes across the table. Sissix slowly, deliberately raised her knife and fork with her four-fingered hands, and began removing the shell in a practiced manner, popping off the legs first, then working open the underbelly at the seams. Rosemary mirrored her actions, trying not to appear too obvious in her lack of expertise. She appreciated Sissix’s subtlety, but she could not ignore the irony of an Aandrisk teaching her how to eat a Human dish.