We threw off some clothes before we went outside to join Eva and her smoothies as it was still rather hot for the evening.

When we walked outside we saw Eva sit at the table that was set up beneath a straw-roofed gazebo. She was lounging leisurely, sipping from her own smoothie from a straw. She was completely in holiday mode already.

“Lounging already?” Lauren chuckled as she sat down on the bamboo chair, luckily they had some rather comfy pillows to soften them a little.

“Yep.” Eva sighed contently. “Looks like there’s not many insects around here either. I love the place already.”

“Do you like the inside of the hut too?” I asked.

“Yes, everything is very neat and tidy. I also really like the style. Maybe we should take some inspiration for the officer bar on board the ship?” She smirked at Lauren.

“Well, we could change it up once in a while I suppose.” Lauren took hold of her colourful smoothie and took a sip. “Wow, this is really good.”

“Blended fruit is hard to mess up.” Eva chuckled.

I took a sip from my smoothie as well. It was nice, quite sweet but also a bit sour. It was quite to my liking.

Eva looked at me expectantly.

“It’s nice.” I nodded. “What did you put in it?”

“Some lime, pineapple, bananas, you know, tropical stuff. Very healthy for you. Lots of vitamins.”

“Watch out, you might get back into work mode before you know it.” Lauren joked.

“Would give me more work if you two developed scurvy.”

“What do you think we eat on a regular basis?”

“Just kidding.” Eva smiled. “I just like smoothies because it’s healthy and tasty, that’s all.”

“It’s definitely tasty.” Lauren replied, she’d already drunk a quarter of her smoothie. Well, we could always make some more if we really wanted to.

The sun set rather quickly but thanks to all the torches around, it wasn’t really dark. Neither did it get cold fast either.

“I think I’ll order some food.” Eva said, taking her holostick out. “As I said, I still haven’t eaten much yet. Do you two want anything?”

Lauren looked back at me. “What do you think, Luna?”

“Maybe something small like a wrap or something like that?”

Lauren smiled and gave me a nod. “A wrap sounds good to me. Do they have that here, Eva?”

“I think so, I’m pretty sure they have anything you desire.” She scrolled up and down for a bit. “Chicken, beef, lamb, hot, warm?”

“Warm chicken with mayo for me please.” I smiled.

“I’ll take the same.” Lauren continued.

“Alright.” She tapped on her holo stick and after a minute or so she laid the stick back down and went back to lounging back in her chair. “Should be here in around fifteen minutes.”

“What did you order?” I asked.

Eva smiled. “You’ll see when it gets here.”

I pouted. “Now I’m even more curious.”

“That’s the point.” She laughed. “The pictures next to it looked very good too, yumyum.” Her smirk almost reached from ear to ear.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Don’t tease Luna too much, she has the tendency to retaliate.” Lauren said, to which I bonked her softly against the shoulder. “See, such aggression.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She smiled smugly.

While we waited on the food delivery we just kept sitting and looking around us. This was such a different environment than I was used to. Lots sand, tropical trees, the heat, the architecture, the sounds, the smell, it was all so new and fun to look at.

“Want to go take a walk around our island after we had our food?” Lauren asked. She must’ve noticed that I was looking around.

“I would like that.” I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

She chuckled when I did that.

It somehow made me think back to the days where I was even scared just being around her. Now I was already giving her kisses out of nowhere. It was progress I was very happy with.

“Mind if I join or do you want some lovey dovey alone time?” Eva asked, just as smugly as before.

Lauren looked at me for a response.

“I don’t mind at all.” I smiled. “We are on this Holiday together.”

“Just asking to be sure.” Eva sat herself a bit more upright and drank from her smoothie some more. “It’s a good last hurrah before getting back on the ship.”

“Assuming they will send us back to space, yes, that’s true.” Lauren replied. “I just hope we will get enough leeway, if we can go back to our ship, so that we can go pick up our comrades who we left behind on the planet.”

“Yeah…”

“How do you think they are doing out there?” I asked.

“Well, I trust Jacky’s capabilities, and our people who we left behind too. With all the supplies that they got, I don’t really doubt they are doing just fine.”

Eva put her drink down and looked at Lauren, tilting her head ever so slightly. “And you are not worried for them at all?”

Lauren was quick to reply “Of course I am worried for them.” She admitted. “I’m their Commander, we’ve flown on the same ship for quite a while and I can call some of them my personal friends. Of course I’m scared of something happening to them. That’s why I want to go back as soon as possible.”

Eva nodded and looked at me. “What about you, Luna?”

“I’m not concerned in the same way Lauren is. I wasn’t close to many of them and while they were also my subordinates, I don’t really feel the same kind of responsibility Lauren is feeling… But I do get the feeling of being far away from home on a planet that is not your own and that alone is already quite scary. On the other hand, as Lauren said, I do think we gave them the best possible shot at succeeding.”

Lauren nodded and drank from her third smoothie of the evening. “And what about you, Eva? As the ship's doctor and the poser of these questions?”

“The Dokazuuk are a thrifty people and I believe they are survivors at heart. Together with some of our people who are best selected for colonization attempts…” She shrugged. “I have to say I’m not really worried. But for their mental wellbeing, it might be best to at least establish communications with them as soon as possible. That’s the only real thing I’m worried about, is them worrying about us.”

“I hadn’t looked at it from that point of view.” Lauren replied. “Now we definitely need to get there as fast as possible.”

“Yeah… but before we get too much into work, let’s get back into holiday mode for now.” Eva said. “We can’t really change anything anyway at the moment. So we need to make the best of it. I’m sure our friends on the other planet would not want us to spoil our happy times for us. Maybe they are even drinking coconut milk straight from the coconut as we speak right now. Who knows.”

Lauren chuckled. “That’s true. And knowing the Dokazuuk, they have probably already built an entire spa resort by now.”

“Does that mean we can continue our holiday on that planet?” I asked.

Lauren and Eva looked at each other before they started laughing. “That would be a great idea, babe.”

Chatting like this made time fly, in no time there was a little delivery bot with our food. A wrap for both Lauren and I and an entire food spread for Eva.

“You ordered an entire Indian spread?” Lauren chuckled as she took the wrap in her hand.

“Yes, I was really craving Indian food for some reason. I think I’m going to eat a lot of meals here that consist of smaller dishes. The climate lends to it I suppose.” She shrugged as she took some bread and dipped it into her food.

I took a bite from my own wrap. It tasted really good too. When Lauren and I made them ourselves in my opinion it tasted better but this is definitely not bad. But just as Lauren had said, when you put in the effort to make something yourself, it does automatically taste a bit better too. Unless you really mess up.

“By the way, if you two don’t have enough with your wraps, feel free to take some of my food too.” Eva said, her mouth stuffed with bread already.

“Did you order too much?” Lauren had already taken the first bite off her wrap.

“I did expect it to be a bit less food, I’m going to be honest about that.” Eva admitted. “I can still finish it by myself, I think, if I try hard enough… But then again, then you might have to call a doctor and that’d be pretty ironic and it would make me feel pretty bad about myself because of that.”

“Well, if Luna and I still have some space left after our food, we’ll look at helping you a bit, right babe?”

I already had a piece of bread in my hand that I took from Eva’s set of plates and I was just about to put it in my mouth too.

That, together with Lauren’s pause after seeing me, must’ve looked very amusing to Eva as she almost spit out her food herself.

-Whoops.-