Garden meal

Meli took far longer than Dustin to get a series of pictures she was happy with. For his part he’d been content enough to follow her direction, standing or lying this way and that in the light of the stars beyond the window. At least, at first. Meli had been right about it being a lot colder on the observation deck than it seemed when you were undressed, and he was glad when she finally finished and he was able to pull his clothes back on. “Next time, we should pick somewhere warmer. Or ask Rye to reconfigure the life support in here to be a little closer to tropical.” He mused as he finished doing up his jeans.

His fiancé smiled at him and picked up the blanket they’d been using, depositing it and the two tablets on a waiting transport drone. As Sola carried their things off to wherever Meli had sent them, Dustin stepped over and took the Velca’s arm in his. “Well then, Li’ah’a, shall we go and eat?” He said softly, earning him a smile from his partner before the pair moved as one towards the lift. Hydroponics three was higher up on the ship, the observation deck being almost as far down as you could go, and not for the first time Dustin was glad of the swift elevator. There were ladders for emergencies between the decks, and he’d scrambled up a few floors on one once to estimate how long crossing the entire vessel that way would take. He didn’t like the answer he’d gotten; he understood afterward why it was lifts only and no stairwells despite the exercise stairs would offer.

The pair made idle talk as they rode the lift up and then walked down the long corridor past the first two hydroponics bays. When they reached bay three, Meli paused. “Have you been in the bays since we launched, Dustin?” She asked, gesturing at the door in front of them. He shrugged. “I popped into hydro one once - lots of algae in tanks for oxygen processing - and hydro five of course for fresh herbs for the meal I cooked the Feliax. Not bothered to look in the others - without a chef on board, vegetable and fruit production’s not a major deal, and they’re mainly for life support anyway until we finish our mission and can start really exploring. No pure xenobotany team on board, so no point in picking up random plants and not being able to care for them.”

The Velca nodded, then pushed open the door. “In that case, let me welcome you to hydro three - one of my favourite places on the ship to sit and study.” Dustin’s mouth dropped open. From his memory of the first and fifth hydro bays he’d been expecting a sterile room filled with plants growing in watery tanks. What he hadn’t expected was what appeared to be a lush and temperate forest clearing. Pausing and looking closer as the dark-haired woman on his arm steered him inside, he realized that the clearing was actually a trick. Behind the thick tree cover around them were the same sterile walls of the other hydro bays - just artfully decorated. The shrubs and trees themselves were all planted in the same hydro containers as elsewhere, it was just that here they were also covered over so that they appeared to be buried in dirt. The bulk of the floor floor however… he prodded it gently with his boot, half expecting the grass to give way and sink into more of the watery growth material that filled the hydro containers. To his surprise, the ground was firm and resisted his attempts to disturb it.

Seeing his study, Meli’s ears flicked into amusement with a hint of the desire to inform. Guessing she knew what was going on, he gave a half shrug and pointed at the grass - offering her a chance to explain as they walked over to where a table and chairs had been set in the middle of the green space. “The grass here is growing on a substrate gel. It transfers moisture and nutrients the same as a standard hydro setup but is a lot more solid and thus can be safely walked or sat on once the plant matter has reached a suitable level of growth. Technically it shouldn’t be covering the entire floor and should be in strips to allow for a range of grasses to be grown, but given it is easy to remove grass and substrate gel and as you have previously stated we have no xenobotanists, when I saw the rest of the room I indulged in creating a place that reminded me of images of our home worlds.”

Dustin nodded, turning to take it all in briefly before the pair settled into their seats at the meal table. “It’s fine. Though, when we do get xenobotany set up we’d need this to be back to it’s proper usage.” He mused as Meli called over a waiting drone holding a set of trays. “What are you thinking?” She asked, taking her own tray and gesturing for him to collect his. Dustin lifted the lid and looked at the plate in front of him, Meli’s question temporarily forgotten by the presence of their food. Some kind of thick dark sauce and what looked like rice, with a splash of colour from some fresh sliced vegetables on top. “Korean?” he queried, glancing over at Meli’s plate which looked very different. “And… is that beans on toast?”

Meli smiled and nodded. “Partially correct - as far as my food is concerned, you are right. I wanted to try more human foodstuffs after the stew the other day, and my research indicated this would be the simplest. As to yours, it isn’t Korean, it’s Velcan. A childhood favourite of mine, although I did substitute the traditional topping with Earth plants as we don’t have any top’ah’k on board. I believe cucumber and onion should provide a similar flavour and texture profile.” Dustin took a tentative bite and grinned. Pointing down at his plate with his fork, he swallowed and said “see, this is why I was bugging you to try cooking for us - or at least let us arrange meal nights with more than just Earth food for everyone. This is really good.”

The food was hard to describe. Not spicy like he’d expected but instead almost the opposite, like the chill of menthol coupled with a creamy almost tomato-like taste. What Velcan plants had gone into creating it Dustin wasn’t sure, but he got the feeling the flavour would almost certainly not be possible to recreate with ingredients from Earth - at least, not without the dish gaining a terrible aftertaste. The rice turned out to actually be a kind of pasta; the slightly chewiness complimenting the rest of the food wonderfully. Meli too seemed enraptured with the cuisine, giving appreciative noises with every mouthful despite the simplicity of the dish. When the pair had at least eaten enough to resume talking, Dustin tapped his fingers on the table for a moment. “Recreation bay six.” Meli glanced up from her plate and looked at him quizzically. “It’s close enough to environmental systems that Rye should be able to patch through additional water supplies. We don’t have any significant green spaces on board; let’s reproduce this room on a slightly larger scale - maybe throw in a few flower beds and a wider lawn patch to let the whole crew have someone to relax in nature even when we’re miles from a planet.”

From her seat, Meli nodded thoughtfully. “We’d need to recalibrate a few systems. I can work on that in my downtime, and I’m sure the others will want to help out. It’ll be a big project with just the four of us though, even with Sola doing most of the heavy lifting.” Dustin shrugged before lifting dessert from another drone and handing Meli hers - they both appeared to be having some kind of trifle. “We’re in no rush. Until we get more crew we don’t need this room to go back to normal, so we can afford to spend time on a project like this. And it’ll give us all something to work on together that is super low pressure which will be nice to help us all bond.”

The pair lapsed back into silence at that point to focus on their desert, and it wasn’t until they finished the very last mouthfuls that Meli spoke once more. “I’m looking forward to planning a garden with everyone Dustin. It will be interesting to see the opinions of different species on planning and design.” Dustin nodded in reply, then stood and walked round to her, holding a hand out to his lover. “Me too. Although, speaking of designs - how would you say our date has gone? I’ve certainly enjoyed myself, but what about you?” Meli rose and leaned in for a kiss. “I would say that it’s gone well so far. We’re not done yet though.” Dustin raised an eyebrow at that, the woman’s ears had dropped into a position he had long since recognised as being linked to seduction. In response, Meli winked at him. “Exactly, Dustin. Let’s cross the hallway and go lie down somewhere soft together first; I don’t particularly want to get grass stains. Or more accurately, I don’t want to have to deal with Rye making lewd comments about where and how I got grass stains.”