HOT SUN RESTAURANT and Bar
Kingston, Earth, Sol system
March 6, 2033, 17:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Williams took a seat in a crowded restaurant not far from the Radiance Embassy. His belly demanded it while his mind wanted a place to pass the time before his transport ship was due to depart. The Carl Sagan was officially out of dry dock and several crew members he had recruited had started to arrive and make themselves at home in their quarters.
The restaurant was different from the rest in the area as it had a menu suited toward humans and aliens, and oftentimes fused the cooking styles of Earth and Radiance to create unique dishes that all could enjoy. At least one third of the menu was vegan, which made sense considering both the Aryile and Javnis races were herbivores. The rest of the menu was carefully crafted to suit the needs of humans, Linl, and Rabuabin, while a tiny section had meals made from insects, Vorcambreum feasted on bugs exclusively. Escargot was a huge hit here.
Williams’ lunch consisted of barbecued ribs, smothered in spices found on Talsyk the Rabuabin home world, served with poached vegetables from Foicanta, a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. A dish with ingredients from Earth and two other planets in the galaxy, describing it as something out of this world was an understatement, his taste buds could attest to that.
A finger tapped his shoulder from behind. He turned around, and saw nothing but servers taking orders from newly seated patrons in the restaurant. He then heard someone take a seat in front of him.
It was Foster, playing tricks on him as she smiled warmly at him. He almost didn’t recognize her through the sunglasses, blue summer dress and matching hat, with flip-flops.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her.
“Sorry can’t let you have all the fun!”
“I’m just doing paperwork.” He nodded at his data pad on the table as psychedelic images of its screensaver danced across the screen.
Foster made a face at his data pad and then from her bag, she pulled out a pad of her own. Only it was different, it projected a holographic screen as it powered on, one that she could interact with.
“What the hell is that?” Williams asked.
“Jealous?”
Damn right I am!
“It’s a holo pad,” she explained. “It’s gonna replace data pads in a few years. Least for us it is, doubt Radiance will use ‘em.”
“So, it’s just like a data pad?”
“Holographic interface rather than a touch screen, and its human-made.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Our new chief engineer, it was one of the last projects she worked on before, uh, going off the grid. I managed to convince command to let us use ‘em. May as well, as any new technological advancements will remain here and not with us in Sirius.”
“We got an engineer, progress.”
“She’s pretty cute too,” Foster added with a chuckle.
As far back as Williams could remember she was always trying to play the role of a matchmaker for him. It didn’t always work, and the few times it did the relationships he had didn’t last longer than two months. Nevertheless, like a big sister looking out for her adopted brother, Foster kept an eye out for women and pushed Williams to talk with them.
“Any progress on your end?” Foster said as she put the fancy, new age device away.
“Yeah we get to pick between a rookie ship psionic and an old psionic soldier.”
“We ain’t a warship, so I’d say take the rookie.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Williams tapped his pad and then lifted it up for her to view the contents of his screen. “Until I read this report on psionics. Their skill takes years to develop and a rookie might have a rough time with ESP, bridge gravity, and telepathic communications with Earth. Whereas even a combat psionic could still perform those duties provided they developed their mind after all those years.”
Foster stroked her chin in a sage like manner. “Hmm.”
“Yes, hmm indeed. I’m down for giving newbie’s a chance, but he’s useless to us if he can’t do those duties reliably. And remember we’ll be all alone out there.”
“Ain’t no backup or new recruits comin’ our way,” she said. “I’ll leave it in your capable hands, Dom.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
“The Carl Sagan is officially operational, we’ll be boarding it soon and therefore this will be the last chance to relax on the beach before its exploration, science, and discovery time. And I for one have a really daring bikini to try out before we do all that.”
They laughed heavily at her statement. Williams couldn’t blame her for sneaking in some last second R and R. Sirius was a star that was brighter, larger, hotter, and emitted more radiation than the sun. Sun bathing on a planet there would probably get you killed within hours. Sure, radiation shields could be built and probably were going to be used for the future colonies if they were on a planet that lacked a strong enough ozone layer, but where was the fun in that?
Foster was getting ready to get up from her seat as Williams went to finish his lunch. She stopped, almost frozen in time, as she saw his meal.
“I’ll be right here if you need me,” he said.
“On second thoughts,” she sat back down and leaned in closer to look at his dish, “I’ll join you for lunch.”
“You just want this because you saw it.”
“And smelt it. Shit that looks amazin’.”
Williams called for a server so that Foster could order a dish for herself. Idle chitchat followed, and they caught up on what they had been up to the last few days. The most shocking thing she revealed was that she broke up with Mike. The breakup itself wasn’t a big deal, as he himself had ended a relationship when he learned he would be leaving Earth for years. The shocking bit was that she seemed so eager for him to take a break and hang out on the beach with her. It was a tempting thought. He had been working out quite a bit prior to their assessment, but she was always like an older sister to him. It would feel odd for the two of them to walk on the beach together showing off their sexy beach bodies for the masses to see, as if they were a couple.
The server came back later to clear the two empty plates that were on their table and asked. “Enjoy ya meals?”
“Amazing,” Williams replied.
“It’s the chef’s last day,” said the server. “He’s retiring to go on a spiritual journey or something.”
The server’s reveal got Williams thinking. He checked the list of crew positions that still needed to be filled on his data pad. A head Chef was still vacant, and regardless of what psionic he’d end up selecting, they were going to need to eat food suitable for their species, and the chef here proved to be able to pull that off with ease.
“Mind if I have a chat with the chef when he’s free?” Williams asked.
“Sure, mon!”
Foster raised her eyebrow as the server left. “Dom?”
“If we’re going to be separated by eight point six light years, lets at least get some good grub with us.”
“He’s retiring though.”
“For a spiritual journey. What better way to do that than to go out to the stars, away from civilization, big cities, and such?”
5 FOSTER
Transport en route to ESRS Carl Sagan