Chapter 10Camila

Chapter 10

Camila

Cami carefully filled the baked shell with the aromatic meaty filling, resisting the urge to "taste test" this one as well. She'd had two testers already. If this continued, there wouldn't be enough left for the crew, which kind of defeated the purpose of cooking for them.

Cooking in the ship's galley was a little different than in the fully-functional kitchen of an inner Dominion merchant's home. Also, the Revenge lacked a lot of the herbs and spices she was used to using, though it did have basic ingredients. To her surprise, they had a handful of Earth spices as well.

She'd gotten bored enough in her room that she'd begged Delaney to give her something to do. Delaney had taken her to the barely used food production lab and handed her a spare personal portable computer with the manual on it.

Currently, Delaney was using a corner of one of the food lab's hydroponic beds to propagate seedlings and cuttings for the greenroom. There were signs that someone had tried to get the tepin enclosures started, and there was dirty substrate still in two of them. Clearly, the project had been abandoned after they'd eaten the first batch of the tasty birdlike creatures, at least Cami assumed that was what had happened.

Delaney said she'd grown a few things in the lab, but since no one on the ship really cooked, much of it had gone to waste. It was just easier to buy their foodstuff at port pre-processed and ready-to-eat than to grow it themselves. The best they'd done in the past was to overcook and char some tepins. There had even been talk of converting the food production lab into storage so they could simply keep more ingredients on board for their food replicators.

After finding out that most of the crew survived on replicator food, she'd offered to cook them a real meal. Not that replicator food wasn't real food. It was, and it was a hell of a lot better than the stuff she'd been getting, but nothing beat home-cooked.

She knew her way around a Tallean kitchen, and the ship's galley couldn't be that much different, right? After her merchant owner had gotten bored of her in his bed, he'd often asked her to do the cooking. She didn't mind because it meant she could sneak a few pieces of food here and there…you know, to test it.

Uctarr had enjoyed her cooking, even though she'd simply followed a cookbook someone had translated into English. She didn't have that book now, but she had memorized how to make a few of the meals that he requested the most frequently.

She worried that the crew would have different tastes until she realized that she was missing many of the seasonings anyway, and the ones she did have were old and had lost much of their flavor. But she did her best, making it up as she went along and substituting the missing Tallean spices with Earth ones that she thought would go well.

The dish was called Hunter's Purses. The golden, meat-filled packages visually reminded her of samosas, but instead of being filled with peas and potatoes seasoned with chili powder and cumin, they had chopped up, heavily spiced meat and fresh herbs inside. Cami found the meat in the ship's cold storage. It was already pre-cooked and seasoned, but Cami threw it in the pot again and reheated it with a few additional complementary spices.

When Cami had first tasted Tallean spices way back, she'd found them strange and wasn't sure she liked them. But it was better than the bland slave rations, and she'd eventually acquired a taste for them. Mixing Tallean and Earth spices would be so good. She salivated, just smelling the wonderful aroma drifting up from her pot.

Unlike Earth-style samosas, which were deep fried, the wrappings for these were shaped into triangular bowls and baked before being filled with meaty goodness. They were traditionally served on a bed of raw, fresh greens which were meant to be eaten along with the golden meat-filled purses, with fresh herbs sprinkled liberally on top. But herbs and greens like that were delicate and didn't survive cold storage. Those were the types of plants the food production lab was for.

Cami hoped the crew enjoyed them, even with the missing ingredients.

She hadn't seen Berus since the greenroom incident a few days ago, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. A part of her was disappointed that Berus hadn't come to her room or at least contacted her through the ship.

Was it because he'd gotten what he wanted and wasn't interested in her anymore? Was he busy? Come to think of it, did she even want him to pay that much attention to her?

She remembered how he'd jealously asked why she cared what Rehden thought. Surely that was a red flag. She should be glad that she was spending time away from him. She already had too much unwanted attention from Rehden. She didn't need another…suitor? That word didn't quite fit, but close enough. At the same time, she kind of missed Berus.

Dex had come by to apologize for the whole mix-up. And Delaney had apologized again, profusely. Cami understood. Honestly, she'd have done the same if she'd been in their position and heard a woman screaming like a banshee. She had to admit, her screams were particularly shrill.

In addition to the manual to the lab, Delaney also bookmarked some information for Cami about Reka 5 and their process of accepting new colonists. Apparently, each new colonist was given two Rekan 5 years to become "contributing members" of the colony. This meant being able to support oneself financially, either by finding a job and a home or by mating or marrying—Reka 5 recognized both Tallean matings and human marriages— someone who was able to support you. At that point, you were granted full citizenship.

During the two years you were getting established, the colony provided the basics, things like essential clothes, a room (shared, of course), and just enough food to keep you healthy. They set you up with a credit chip, personal identification, and a contact code. They even had public access computers so you could check your communications. Since most jobs required some degree of fluency in the Tallean language, they also provided resources for learning it, either through independent study or via group classes.

Anything else was extra. So, if you wanted a place of your own or tastier food, you had to work on making yourself employable. According to the information, many humans had branched out and made a living on the colony by starting businesses of their own. Reka 5 had grown a lot over the last few years and was now the home of many large startups, including the Wildview Starliner Company and Hullean Vision.

Cami had heard of Wildview before. The company offered luxury cruises with a twist in that their cruise liners visited wild, untamed, often dangerous planets. They'd made headlines recently when pirates attacked their flagship, the Star Beauty . Hullean Vision sounded familiar as well…something someone had said recently…but she couldn't quite remember.

She had scanned the colony information twice. She was excited to be given a chance to start over and make a life for herself. She'd long given up on Earth, especially since she'd heard updates about her home planet. Her chances of having a good life were much higher on Reka 5.

Maybe one day, she'd end up back in space, like Delaney. With the right crew, she wouldn't mind at all, especially since she wanted to explore the galaxy. But she didn't have anything to offer right now. Perhaps she could do what Delaney had done and take a course. Working in the food production labs looked interesting.

The only thing the Revenge needed to set up right away was the tepin enclosures. And that was because of Nibbles.

The plan with Nibbles was to keep him on board until they had the chance to head back to the mining planet. Then they'd drop him off in his tunnel or at the caves near Rehden's abandoned shuttle. Hopefully, his parents would take him back. Regardless, until then, they need to keep him fed with a lot of protein. The amount the little creature ate was staggering. It had only been a few days, and it seemed as if he would eat them out of house, home, and ship.

They suspected that the species only ate like little hoovers when they were juveniles and still rapidly growing. In the short time Cami had known the little creature, it had gotten visibly bigger. It was still really cute, though, and didn't resemble its scary mature form yet.

The door to the galley opened, and Cami turned around, expecting Delaney or Roxy. But it was Berus who stood in the doorway.

And he looked hungry.