In the cafeteria, Brighand came across Dr. Ripperov eating a meal at one of the tables. The mess from before when he tested the rations was cleaned up. His meal was one of the rations, yet instead of exploding with black smoke it was giving off a nice smell. There was also a rifle on his back. Most likely the one dropped in the old ship by the quartermaster or perhaps the doctor found a gun on the way to the ship he used to escape.
“Dr. Ripperov, how’d you make that ration if the water from the tap creates a bad reaction?” asked Brighand.
“That computer, Yahtzee I think it’s calling itself now, told me not to use the water for drinking or food. So I used an IV bag. I’m hoping the funky taste is from that and not the ration itself going bad. It’s still way better than the solid and liquid gunk they normally feed scavengers. I don’t know how people can even call it food,” said Dr. Ripperov.
“You just get used to it after a while. You should probably mix some into your diet instead of eating solely those ration packs. After all, the liquid food stays better much longer and this ship and everything on it is hundreds of years old. The only relatively fresh food are the stockpiles from my old ship and whatever was in the crates we brought with us. It’s best not to get too attached to good food and save it for special occasions,” said Brighand.
“Honestly, the food here might be fresher than the stocks you brought aboard. Liquid food gets traded around a lot before it’s funneled into smaller tanks for distribution and consumption. It’s been getting made for convenient space food for over five hundred years and there’s no dating or branding on them,” said Dr. Ripperov.
The reasoning why branding and dating wasn’t used is due to the nature of space travelers. A date tells them how old the food they’re eating is, over a year passes and those born planetside get squeamish. Over ten years pass and even a scavenger might choose another option if possible. As for branding, liquid food tastes bad and people make connections. Rather than seeing the food itself as bad, they start to associate the bad taste with said brand and buy any other brand if possible. Their taste buds craved variety from the normal. Eventually everything on the market congealed into a bland simple appearance. Dozens of companies selling the same exact product in looks with slight differences in taste or nutrition ratios but never advertising it as such.
Sold in giant tanks that would be shipped around to different space faring ships, colonies, and space ports only to be seen as a last resort and never consumed to be traded away again. There was no way of knowing if the goop in one container was created a year ago or five hundred. The consistency was like honey or tree sap, making it hard for bacteria or any form of life to survive or develop in it. And stored properly in space, there was nothing to make the water content evaporate, turning the sap into a solid like amber. In a way, if someone condensed liquid food into a solid and something happened to have fallen into it during its creation, they could literally be eating a legitimate fossil.
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“If we ignore age and freshness, focusing solely on flavor, there’s a solution here,” said Brighand as he walked over to the food condenser.
“Right, that machine can turn liquid food into solid. I assume from you pointing it out, it’s one of the good models with smell or taste,” said Dr. Ripperov.
“Good guess, the answer is both. Now, the taste is disabled but the smell is amazing. Something about rationing controls by having taste turned off to prevent overeating. As the designated captain of this ship, I can turn that feature off and we can have food as good as planetside every day with just liquid foods. I’m thinking we could maybe do it once a week or whenever we pull off something good,” said Brighand.
“I mean, that’s assuming I stay here. What’s stopping me from getting off at the next port we reach? By the way, so-called captain, where are we even going?” asked Dr. Ripperov.
“Well we’re just gaining distance from the blown up space port for now. Apparently all of our names were added to a blacklist due to the disease and I’m also technically a criminal in the area. After I get something for Hiwi to eat, I’ll go pick an exact location to head towards,” said Brighand.
“I’ll come with you. I need to talk to Yahtzee about what I’ll get for being a medic aboard here and want my input considered if I’m allowed to leave. This is supposedly a secret military ship after all. Though not from a military that exists anymore so maybe I can just dip at the next dock without issue,” said Dr. Ripperov as he finished eating and tossed the rest into a trash can.
Brighand fed a canister of liquid food into a smaller pouch with a straw for Hiwi then left the cafeteria. On the way out, he saw the remains of his ration tests in the same trash can that Dr. Ripperov just used. The two of them dropped off Hiwi’s food then went to the bridge. Brighand didn’t eat as he had already eaten a short meal back on his old ship before getting onto the now destroyed space station.
On the bridge, Brighand climbed up to the top seat and checked the console while Dr. Ripperov stood behind him. It listed the current destination as empty space that was just outside of the range of the sensors that no longer existed. They weren’t too far from reaching it. Thanks to the implant, Brighand knew exactly how to operate it and zoomed out the map while checking the nearby star systems. Eventually, he zoomed in on a certain system which Dr. Ripperov pointed at.
It was a seemingly empty system with two planets. One was a frozen hunk of pure H2O on a very far orbit from the star. The other was a volcanic rock very close to the star. The star itself was a blue supergiant. Everything about the system screamed uninhabitable and worthless to human life.
“It seems that this ship never updated its maps as the colony isn’t listed here and the orbits are a bit off. Doesn’t this thing have a military grade telescope to update star and planet positions?” asked Dr. Ripperov.
“The telescope does not function in stealth mode. Would you like to set a course for this system, drop shields, and scan it?” asked Yahtzee.
“Yes, as long as it’s a system good for getting supplies or repairs,” said Brighand.
“Energy is dirt cheap there so it’s become a trading hub. If something exists, it’s probably traded there somewhere. It’ll be a good spot for picking up replacement parts for two hundred year old military ships and a place where if I’m allowed, I can leave and go anywhere I want on another ship,” said Dr. Ripperov.