Vance and Calley stepped into the galley, their senses immediately inundated with the scent of sizzling grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, accompanied by the tangy, zesty fragrance of phillangro fruit. They catch the last snippet of disagreement between John and Buzz.
“…if I had done that, I guarantee that there would have been something burned and inedible,” John states.
“What culinary advice did Buzz offer up today?”, Vance queries.
Buzz explains, “I wanted him to coat the inside of one slice of bread with ground mustard and the other with mayo, then dip the sandwiches in egg before grilling them. When they were done he could have sprinkled them with some powdered sugar and provided some strawberry preserves for everyone to use.”
Alina also enters the galley as John speaks up, “That’s when I told Buzz that it sounded five steps too complicated for me to successfully prepare.”
“Is Buzz trying to make you burn down the ship again?”, Alina asks.
John sighs, “For the record, I have never burned the ship down.”
“But you have caught food on fire,” Alina interjects.
“Was it supposed to be some sort of flambe?”, Cally asks.
“No,” John groans.
Cally shifts her attention back to Buzz, “Regardless of whether the man is capable of cooking or not, mayonnaise is disgusting.”
Vance speaks up, “Normally, mayo is nothing more than a food lubricant, but what Buzz was suggesting is called a Monte Cristo and would have been wonderful.”
“At least the Captain knows something about cooking,” Buzz allows.
“We are back to what Alina pointed out,” John states, “I would have caught something on fire. Would everyone please just sit down and grab the sandwiches I DID make.”
As everyone moves towards a seat Cally insists, “Mayo is disgusting, so thank you John for not making something that required it.”
While everyone is eating Alina asks Cally, “So how is your training with Buzz going?”
Cally replies, “You should probably ask Buzz.”
Cally shifts her attentions to Buzz.
Buzz responds to Alina’s gaze, his luminous form pulsing gently as he speaks, “I must say, Cally’s progress has been quite impressive. She managed to keep up with my banter. Not only is she capable of navigating this giant space bucket, but she is well on her way to mastering the art of navigating my nebulous wit.”
“With respect to navigating this bucket, we should move you over to the pilot’s seat after lunch. Even though you have flown more than a couple of ships before, the are a lot of additional screens thanks to Buzz and John. Even if you never need them, you should learn what’s on each one,” Vance states. “Also, because I do have some work to do myself,I’m going to trust you to not crash us into anything while Buzz continues his tutelage.”
Cally nods, implying understanding.
Alina speaks up,” I’m cooking tonight, and as it’s our game night I plan on making things that should help accommodate that goal.”
“Game night?”, Cally asks with a questioning tone.
“Once a week we’ll make a point of getting together and playing a game,” states Vance. “It’s gives us a chance to hang out and relax together when we’re not working on our other duties, and it’s more interactive than staring at a holo-vid.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’ve certainly played games with other people in my unit, but it would usually just be an impromptu card game while we were waiting.”
John, speaking around a mouth full of food, “Sounds like we should stick to card games when we play tonight in honor of it being your first full day as part of our crew.”
The crew continues to converse for a while and eventually they all head to their respective tasks.
———
As Cally shifts herself into the pilot’s seat Buzz floats into the cockpit and fills the general area where the copilot would sit.
“I noticed during lunch that John set food in front of you and part way through the meal you pushed it back towards the center of the table so others could grab it instead,” Cally remarks.
Buzz responds, “I’m pretty sure that there is supposed to be a question hidden somewhere in there, but you didn’t actually ask it.”
Cally clears her throat and asks, “Why did John set food in front of you? Everyone knew you weren’t going to eat it because you are actually consuming all the dead skin cells I shed in the chair where you are hovering now.”
“I take meals with the crew so I can observe everyone and interact. I like food to be set in front of me because it helps me to feel like part of the crew.”
A look of amusement crinkles the corners of Cally’s mouth, “I’ve seen the way everyone talks with you and even how they talk about you when you’re not around. You are definitely part of this crew.”
“Thank you, but I may have had to work hard to be accepted, and my acceptance was not based on the fact that I can actually do my job, but instead that we could all enjoy each others’ company.”
Cally pauses with a thoughtful expression, “Regardless of running a job for someone that is likely a mafia boss, they do seem like a really nice crew. So my next question is, how do you know so much about cooking when you don’t even eat our food? I had never heard of a Monte whatever it was called before?”
———
Later that evening, everyone gathers in the galley again. Alina is explaining the meal she made to everyone.
“The drink is called agua fresca. I used a type of strawberry grown on Agros to make it. I put a piece of dry ice and an umbrella in the one for Buzz with the hopes that it would remind him of home.”
What sounded like a sigh of almost child-like joy comes from Buzz as he moves in closer to watch the mist pour out of his glass.
Alina continues, “The arepas are a corn meal bread. I stuffed some of them with an avocodo salad and the others are stuffed with a pulled pork and feta cheese. For desert I made cinnamon churos and a dark chocolate sauce to dip them in.”
Cally looks at everything, “Wow, I have never had any of these before. Do you always go all out like this? I mean everything looks and smells amazing.”
Buzz can be heard making an almost staticky purr while enveloping the mist coming off his glass.
While moving towards her seat at the table Alina looks to Cally and declares, “Oh heck no! This is way more effort than I normally expend. This really is intended as a welcome aboard meal on my part.”
“Thank you.”
As they begin to enjoy the arepas and churros, John raises his glass. "To Cally, our newest crewmate! May your wit be sharper than Buzz's banter, your flying smoother than Vance's charm, and your blaster faster than the next guy’s."
Everyone clinks glasses together in a toast and Cally can’t help but smile at the comradery.
Soon Vance produce a deck of cards. His fingers fly through the deck, shuffling the cards with a fluid motion. Each card seems to blur into the next as Vance's hands move with precision and agility. A satisfying flicking sound can be heard as he continues to effortlessly shuffle them. “So were playing classic card games tonight, what is everyone thinking? Poker, triad…”
John speaks up, “How about fizzbin.”
Vance smiles, “I haven’t played that in a while. Any objections?”
“If we’re playing fizzbin, there are a couple of things we need to establish. Since we follow time based on the capitol of Oceania this is Tuesday, but how do you determine whether it’s night time or not when were in the astral?”, Cally questions.
Alina has a data pad out, “It looks like the sunset for Vega is about 45 minutes from now. So I say we switch to the night time rules for fizzbin then, but I want to be in bed before the Tuesday rules expire.”
Vance gives everyone a stack of chips, then he starts dealing the cards with everyone receiving six cards except for Cally, whom got seven cards, since she was on Vance’s right.
Buzz gets all excited, “Look Cally has a Jack, she’s already got a half-fizzbin!”
———
Retiring to her room at the end of the night, Cally finds herself smiling. She realizes that she has probably smiled more in the last day and a half than she has in the past year and a half. She looks at her room and still places her pillow on the floor and braces the door with a chair recognizing that it’s going to be awhile till she truly trusts everyone.