When Simone re-entered the tavern she saw Veronika at the bar in awe of the sushi train, Kelakis, the beefy old bartender wearing a cooking apron over soft brown armor, had set up on one side of the counter. He kept his amber-red dread lock hair tied back with a sackcloth headscarf.

“This is raw fish?! It’s so small. Can it be filling?”

Kelakis huffed and grumbled, but kept his attention to his food preparations.

Veronika leaned low on the counter to eye the pretty plate of cut fish over rice, so low her nose was nearly pushed into a rice ball as it was inching closer to her.

“Pretty aren’t they?” Simone sat next to her.

Veronika raised her head and nodded. As they watched Kelakis work, she learned from him that the rice was imported from Starcharter’s businesses on Earth. Originally for their human workers, but the food item slowly found its way as a staple to the lakionian diet.

The fish was locally caught from the Great Veridium Lake in the northern mountains. Unlike the drab gray river trout she had caught with her bare hands when she was Wu Chen, the Veridium Lake fish carried a bright rainbow color through their flesh. The flesh was sliced so precise and thin, it laid over the rice like a teeny tiny blanket.

Kelakis dropped a few tiny pink blossoms on the fish slices, turning them into a food sculpture. There were powered fish versions, which Kami didn’t seem to like.

“It’s sushi. You humans’ invented this art.” Kelakis coolly noted as he masterfully finished off a row of sushi sculptures for her to enjoy. “Right. All done. Eat up.”

She looked horrified. “But I can’t eat something beautiful!”

He gave her a wry look. “Eat it.”

“Roger that.” She grabbed a piece and nibbled on a corner. He eyes lit up with glee: she gobbled up the entire plate he had laid out. Then let out a hearty burp, and gave her stomach satisfied rubs.

Kelakis looked pleased to see the empty plate.

“Delicious. How do you cut the flesh so thin. Are you a swordmaster?” Veronika eagerly asked him.

The old bartender looked smug while wiping a glass clean. “Skills with a knife. My mother was an artist, I inherited them from her.”

Simone nodded. “Kelakis can make any food look like a work of art.”

Veronika frowned and asked. “Then way call this place Fast Food Tavern?”

Kelakis plainly answered, “I can make food fast.”

He returned his focus to cleaning duties.

Veronika kept blurting her questions, as she watched the plate train slowly go round and around the bar. It would disappear behind the counter and reappear with fresh servings.

“Not every part of Expanse is metal waste. The ecosystem thrives on many insects, relying on a forest of deciduous trees that slowly shed their leaves. Painfully slow, but good for agriculture. Some trees came from Earth after human scientists did extensive study to prove that oak trees not only thrived well in Seria’s conditions but purified water supply,” Simone answered one of Veronika’s blurted questions.

“Then why have I only seen hills of technology junk?”

Simone sighed. “Politics and credits.”

She explained that the Star Council used Starcharter crews to gather space debris across the galaxy and keep the universe squeaky clean. Recycling debris was one of the company’s many joint ventures with the council, who was responsible for the junk storage before going to a recycling plant on one of Starcharter’s planets. But the council ran out of space at their storage base stations. So considered storing the junk on planets instead.

At first, they looked to unsettled worlds, but realized the junk still needed to managed, and it was easier to dump the rubbish directly to the recycle plants. Seria was famed for the Starcharter mines and recycling plants. So the Star Council agreed to a substantial deal with the planet’s human leaders to drop their waste in the Expanse. Cutting Starcharter out of the deal. Due to the treaty, the lakionian’s had no say against it.

“What?! So they made this area a rubbish tip?” Veronika was horrified.

Simone nodded. “A Concordat carrier arrives at the end of a solar cycle to drop a mountain of space debris. Mainly pieces from ship wrecks or damaged tech. Fortunately, you missed this cycle.”

“As for human food and customs, we eventually come to accept them.” Kelakis sighed, but he didn’t seem angry about it.

Still, it made Veronika feel like punching something at hearing this. It sounded no different to what she had lived through as Wu Chen, with slave trading, sect oppression, and political corruption to make people miserable and starving.

“So not only did humans claim the lakionian’s native right to the planet, they also made sure whatever living areas left to them was a rubbish pit. I have no words other than to say how despicable that is.” She groaned and smacked her forehead with keen understanding.

“Hah. Now you know why people like Creed hate your kind here.” Kelakis added to the conversation, while wiping the bar counter clean around her.

“Do you hate humans, Kelakis?” she innocently asked.

“If they were like you, I wouldn’t have a reason to.” He sighed. “I know not all humans are evil. People like Madam Ross do their best to bring fairness and compensation. So far, you check out alright. But they did take the planet from us, so the bias against your kind is strong.”

“Fair. And I don’t expect that viewpoint to change anytime soon, while situations on the planet haven’t.” Veronika nodded, making a decision to not take insults directed at her being human seriously. But, Kelakis did say something that made her smile.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Hey, Kelakis. Thanks.” She bowed to him, which made him pause his counter-wiping with a raised eyebrow in a look of interest.

“For?”

She thought about it for a split moment and decide that thanking him for thinking that she was human and not a clone sounded lame. So instead, she said, “The sushi train is really cool!”

He seemed pleased with this and told her to eat up. Then went to give attention to his bottle stacking duties. Kran sat down on the bar stool next to her.

“Don’t worry about Creed.”

She shook her head. “It’s okay. He has a right to his own feelings. At least humans weren’t able to take that away.”

Kran nodded and began drinking his ale that Kelakis had placed before him.

A snippet of her memory on Khyslaka words around being dominated flashed into her mind. It bothered her, but she wasn’t sure how to voice her concerns and whether she should. There was still a level of distrust surrounding her. So, it was better to confirm there was nothing more to this ‘dominated’ aspect. Instead, she kept the flow of conversation going from the last subject.

“You seem more accepting of humans.”

“I wouldn’t be a kotta chief if I couldn’t talk with other races and judge a person’s character on first glances.”

“Am I transparent?”

“You’re young and idealistic. But…” He faced her with a level of scrutiny that seemed genuinely interested to hear her story.

“But?”

“Who are you really?”

“Who do you think I am?”

Kran frowned. “At first a Concordat Clone who is made to be a soldier. Goes by the name of Veronika Shepherd and just helped saved a mine. Albeit, blowing up a couple of chambers within it.”

“That was because of enemy soldiers.” She moped.

He chuckled and patted her back. She pressed for a bit more from him.

“And your impression now?”

“You’re an idealist. That idealism has to come from somewhere.”

Veronika waved over Kelakis for another round of ale, and stared at her frosted bottle on the counter as she spoke. “I was grafted ideals into my brain when I was in the tank. So maybe I got the best ones.”

Kran shook his head. He wasn’t buying it that she didn’t hold to her own values. He knew a lot of clones: killed many. Worked with many. None believed in anything for themselves, as they were completely dependent on their virtual intelligent modules. Take away a clone’s VI and that made them brain-dead. She was an abnormality. If she was cloned to think and be human without the need of a VI, that was a scary thought to him.

“Who made you?”

Veronika thought hard. She had come this far being in their care, so they had a right to know some of her specifications. But she wasn’t sure herself.

“System. Do you have the name of the laboratory of where I came from?” She asked in her mind.

[I have a block that prevents this information from being known. All I can say is it is somewhere in the Exodus System of the Del Cluster]

“Blocked?”

[Correct. I have a block on my memory nodes, which prohibits me from providing more information] System went offline.

Veronika sighed. “All I know is that I was made somewhere in the Exodus System.”

Kran’s face paled as he paused on his sip of his beer. “Exodus System?”

She nodded. “Do you recognize it?”

“Not personally. Only bad rumors that the system is ripe with slave trading. Those who are shipped there either never return or never return the same.”

“Oh.” She gulped and suddenly felt queasy.

But Kran saw her uneasiness and patted her shoulder again, thinking she was just as much of a victim caught in the crossfire of white collar crime and political activities. It added more perspective to his view of clones, and why he was willing to give them a modicum of sympathy. It wasn’t their fault: they were only doing what they were made to do. She probably was no different. And if she was to be a danger to them, she would’ve done so by now. Even clandestine clones would reveal traits of their nature, as the VI relied on pre-programmed profiles to dictate responses. It wasn’t possible to adapt and adjust to unmapped situations. Nor would she have held to strong ideals that aimed to protect innocent people, no matter what they were. So, he was willing to take a risk and trust her. It seemed she was willing to trust him too.

“Why do you call yourself by two names? Most clones go by identification tag numbers.”

Veronika stared upward, trying to recall why and where she had received it but returned blanks. In the end, it was likely on the whim of the scientist who had christened her release from the tank.

“Not sure. Probably a joke or smart-ass whim. Like how a captain would name his ship when it’s finished being built.”

“But you continue to use it.”

“Why not? I like my name, which makes me more human.” She groaned, “Although, after what I’ve learned about your kind’s dealings with humanity, it might not end up being an aspiration in the end.”

Kran chuckled, then calmly sipped some more ale before telling her that the humans weren’t as bad as they were to each other. She listened attentively to the time before humans had arrived.

The lakionians were a tribal and war faring species by nature. For many years, the planet was divided among kotta who always schemed to conquer their neighbors.

“We were once a proud and vicious people. Slave trading was a strong part of our culture back then. As well as ritual sacrifices to our deities, who all represent war virtues.”

“Really?”

He nodded and continued. Because their kind were originally mono-gendered, there was a lot of forced submission among the kotta. At one stage, being seen as the breed partner was considered weak. So those who were doing the breeding were kept veiled and hidden away in harem clutches to raise the children safely. But war between kotta units was bloody, ongoing and gradually corrupting their planet.

“Then the humans came, and my kind were just as brutal to them as they were to each other. But we never expected, for what looked like a weak species, to fight boldly, take over the planet and change our way of life.”

Veronika frowned with her question. “Do you regret it?”

Kran sighed. It was a good question. “Sometimes I do. You have to understand, when our kind signed to a treaty, we had surrendered our right to our cultural heritage. But, it hasn’t all been bad. Some balance was restored, with a peace that wouldn’t have been possible in the pre-human days. Our fights between kotta aren’t so bloody anymore. There’s cooperation between neighboring kotta. Having Cretarian breed partners has calmed us down a lot.”

She nodded. “It sounds like your people found a way forward despite the adversity you faced. A means to survive.”

“Yes. Some changes for the greater good need to be destructive, unfortunately.”

Her mind wandered to her current situation and the next bomb she had to save. “Well, let's hope blowing up mines with ancient giant bombs isn’t part of the greater good plan.”

Kran nodded.