Chapter Eighteen:

Eating separately from the ‘clan-cultivators’ felt… off considering his position as a direct disciple to the clan head. He’d used his time wisely the night before and looked into what exactly his position (or his alleged position meant.) He recognized that he’d never gone through any official, clan induction ceremony. However, his hunger drove a lot of the thoughts away. As he lined up behind the sergeant, he marveled over the buffet he could see ahead of him. For each option he chose he gave a polite thank you, and a smile. The smile was mostly for the abundance of food piled up on his tray. They were a combination of Confederation Breakfast foods like scrambled eggs and French toast, as well as foods from around the world (rice and a delicious fish soup Leo had seen in videos but never tried for himself) and utterly alien foods like a purple bluish mushroom looking stir-fry, and what appeared to be roasted cottonwool that Leo avoided simply because he didn’t know if or how he could handle the texture.

The workers behind the line were both surprised by, and receptive to his thanks, and as a result they proved willing to explain some of the dished to him. A young girl, perhaps the first non-human he’d ever met was enthusiastic enough to follow him down the line and point out items he had questions about. She was a bubbly young woman, maybe a year or two older than himself, with the pointed ears of what Earth had called elves, though he knew they had their own name in the coalition. Just something else he’d have to learn.

Her name was Sarai. She was a tiny curvy thing, barely passing 5’3” if he had to guess. Her skin was a rich brown, several shades darker than his own, and she was also a cultivator in the core formation stage. Leo had barely said three words to her and happily let her speak the entire time he picked out his food, elbowing some other servers out of the way in order to ensure she personally ladled, scooped, or plucked every piece of food he ate. The other workers seemed fondly exasperated rather than unhappy with her, so he took that as a good sign. Plus, Leo found himself oddly entranced be her adorable, bubbly presence. At least there was one person here who didn’t hate him on principle, he thought.

Despite his initial giddiness, Leo knew entirely too much about human biology – even cultivator biology – at least at his stage and with no body cultivation, to know that eating too much, too rich, or too fast would only get him sick. He had a feeling he’d want all his wits about him for the rest of the day.

The sergeant actually left him alone while he was being familiarized with alien cuisine, though he wondered just how different cuisine might get the farther out of Earth’s ‘Sol-System’ as the planets that orbited Earth’s sun had been dubbed. If anyone questioned him and his culinary tour guide, Leo figured the military man would make an excellent scapegoat.

Besides, for all the intimidation, and theater, Leo was being fed. For someone who knew what it was to be hungry, to be ravenous, to feel your body start to break down bits of itself as fuel, to feel your teeth grow weak and your bones become brittle, to heal sluggishly, to move slowly, to think lethargically and be barely able to function because your body simply couldn’t support you anymore. Well, for the food alone Leo imagined that at some point he could consider nearly, sort of, kind of, almost, maybe being somewhat grateful to his captors. Though ‘lack of starvation’ wasn’t exactly a high bar to jump.

Stolen story; please report.

So, from things familiar and strange, he asked for two slices of toast: one with butter and jam, the other with peanut butter. A scoop of scrambled eggs. A cup of mixed fruit. Two sausages – and they were actual whole sausages, not those pre-packaged breakfast sausages or manufactured sausage patties (not that he’d ever had many of those) – but actual sausages in actual casings with the links still attached to each other. Leo could literally see the chunks of ground meat, herbs, and spices in them. He also ordered two strips of thick-cut, perfectly fried bacon.

Then he went over to a station where there were a variety of drinks, including coffees, more teas than he’d ever seen, and so many different types of juices, milks, sodas, and otherwise that he was quickly overwhelmed. After having his food explained by Sarai, then collected, Leo followed after the quickly departing sergeant.

However this day was going to turn out, Leo decided he was going to savour this breakfast.

Leo waved a polite goodbye to Sarai as he sat at the table the sergeant directed him to. He wondered idly if he’d ever get a name from the man while he robotically set out his cutlery.

Etiquette had been literally beaten into him by one of the many families he’d lived with before they dumped him in the group home when he got too big for the few people to whom that kind of thing mattered, especially as a chronic illness case.

Leo had bounced around a lot before they just stopped caring that bits and pieces of him liked to explode on occasion. Group homes had mandatory healing staff, usually trainees from some sect or another, or one of the many groups or clans that got tax benefits for providing practical experience for those with affinities that skewed towards healing.

Thoughts of that time jolted him out of his reverie and back into the present. Food finished he deposited his tray alongside the sergeant, and waited, idly, as the man had him standing at what he knew to be ‘Coalition Parade Rest’ for almost an hour, just outside of the cafeteria hall.

It was a humiliation ritual. Leo knew. Eyes turned to look at him – at least those who were awake the ungodly hour of 4:15am. It was a truly useless intimidation ritual. While he preferred to hide in the corners, he wasn’t unfamiliar with the hazing he was receiving. Mostly he was confused about his status. As a direct disciple of the matriarch, he should be above both reproach and the petty machinations of clanless bodyguards, but Malia’s genuinely awful, bordering on non-existent introduction of him had about to bite him in the ass.

Once again, he would be the collateral of someone else’s lack of foresight.

Honestly, Leo was just glad his food had time to settle before he was whisked off to any type of physical exercise.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, Leo considered as he was led to a stop on a line just behind the sergeant and another man who had been in front of them. All eyes were on him. All of them cultivators. Many of them were at the ignition stage like him, and most of them had passed him being put on display outside the cafeteria. Two of them, however, he could tell were 3rd Circle, or upper 2nd Circle at the lowest, and they were powerful. Something in Leo’s vast experience let him know that these were the people who would be pitted against him.

He was tired already.

Many of his future assailants felt mana-dense and vibrant. Something was making them stronger. Some sort of body cultivation, perhaps? He’d briefly poked his nose into cultivation when he’d been given the chance the night before. For all his exhaustion, he couldn’t help it. Especially since some of these people just felt… More.

Leo really needed to go through what the AI had told him, but he was glad he’d grabbed what little sleep he could while he had the opportunity.

He itched to head back to his room, to talk with the AI… if not companion, then at least temporary educator? The different types of cultivation (there were different types?) fascinated him

He also wanted to know more about the layout of the ship.