>>5864201You read the status report while sipping herbal tea. What sort of cultivar is this? Green tea, black tea, maybe matcha? You never had much of a taste for tea before, but that might change soon if all tea in Liteia is like this. You help yourself to the few remaining bite-sized balls of sweet sticky rice before setting the breakfast tray aside. You would be more picky if you were still on Luna, but now you just feel glad that you are not stuck with food-processing-studded algae bars. At least not yet.
You lean around the corner of the partition to the common mess hall, hoping for a miracle. Nope, not even God can move the long line waiting before the soft serve ice cream machine. There's Dornholm, bandage wrapped all around her body like a thick coat and a cuirass's worth of bone casts on top. There's Johnson, whistling a wet tune and tapping beat to an old shanty. There's Achebe, stuffing as much ice cream into his mouth as quickly as possible so he could run off back to his post, streaks of white still rolling down his shirt. He should take a cue from Moynihan instead, who is probably enjoying a sundae while coolly monitoring all sensors right now. But then again, it is rather hot and sweat-sticky down there in the reactor room. There are also many whose faces you did not recognise, guests from Ienaga's. Most likely, your own men are also lining up before the Japanese drink-dispensers over there as well. Elysium is passing by, wait, is that kid cutting the line? Before you can yell at him, a stern cough seizes the boy. Silas looks up from his tablet in what you could only imagine as the most blood-chilling stare possible. Like a puppy, he returns to his rightful place at the end of the ever lengthening line. Well, looks like you will have to ask one of the cooks to bring you a cup afterwards.
Later that day, you and Ienaga meet up to discuss future plans, each holding a cup of sundae in hand. He likes banana as well, good. You present to him your discovery of a local pirate base, “These outlaws, egg-eaters as the Qyngur calls them, could prove valuable allies. This far out from the Director's light.” Suppressing a smirk, you continue, “I'm sure there won't be any complaints. Enemy of enemy and all that.”
