23
Nix flipped a thin metal switch on the console and pressed a finger down on one of the screens. The screen filled up with an encoded message. Several seconds passed with Liam and the crew holding their breath. Finally, the Ansaran voice came back.
“Your flight plan has been cleared. Godspeed.”
The voice cut out and Nix closed the channel. Liam breathed out a sigh of relief. He asked, “What did you send them?”
“I arranged for us to deliver goods to the Disciples on Garuda’s moon. Even the least pious Ansaran wouldn’t want to risk angering the gods.”
Nix was hiding a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. Without warning, Nix pulled back on the control handle and the ship shot up toward the sky. On their way up, Nix retracted the wings until they were once again facing the rear of the ship, conforming to the lines of the vessel. Through the window of the cockpit Liam could see the craft heating up, though the metal didn’t turn orange like the mining craft. Whatever hardy material it was made from was meant to go in and out of an atmosphere at will. The vessel hardly shook at all as they breached the upper atmosphere into outer space.
Liam felt the familiar feeling of weightlessness creep over his insides. Nix seemed to feel the same sensation, because he quickly said, “Sorry, I almost forgot.”
He flipped a copper switch and Liam’s feet hit the floor, his insides feeling like they just hit the bottom of a roller coaster. The Dinari’s artificial gravity technology was far beyond their own, though Liam couldn’t discern how it worked. It was indistinguishable from being on the surface of Garuda, still just ninety percent of Earth’s gravity, but at least enough to know which way was up.
Nix accelerated the craft as they left the atmosphere, gaining speed until they were traveling far faster than their old mining craft was capable. Liam read the numbers on Nix’s screen, which through his translation chip he knew meant they were traveling seven hundred and fifty thousand kilometers an hour and gaining. Nix released his grip on the handle and pulled his arm out of the loop. He pressed a few commands on the screen and sat back in his chair. “It will be about an hour until she reaches the moon.”
Liam examined the star charts on his screen and nodded. “Enough time for breakfast. Where do we eat on this thing?”
“Follow me,” Nix replied. “I’ll make you the dish of my people.”
•
The galley was a compact room with sturdy metal cabinets along the wall across from the entrance and a single table with a cook-top in the center, positioned in the middle of the chamber. Nix was feverishly adding ingredients to a pan with no regard for measurements while Liam, Ju-Long, and Saturn looked on in awe. The ingredients he was using bore similarities to vegetation on Earth, but with striking differences. The colors were mostly a deep purple that Liam remembered seeing on the surface of the planet.
Nix turned off the flame at the center of the table and removed the copper pan from the heat. Inside, several plants swirled in a creamy broth. The odor was pungent in Liam’s nostrils, prompting him to cover his nose with the back of his hand, his eyes watering. Liam watched Nix continue to add all manner of ingredients while stirring the concoction steadily to mix in the spices. It looked appetizing enough, but smelled like feet mixed with curry and mold.
“This is Leguma,” Nix said while dishing up four bowls and passing one to each of them.
The mixture didn’t cook for long, but it was bubbling from the heat even after it was poured in a bowl. Nix didn’t provide any utensils so Liam waited to see how Nix planned to eat it. The dish was more of a stew, with bits of meat and vegetables and a long plant that looked like purple seaweed churning around the creamy orange broth. Nix picked up his bowl and said “Dinevra.” For a moment Liam thought his translator had broken before realizing there must not have been a translation for the phrase. Nix raised the bowl up to his tilted head and poured from several centimeters above his mouth, the stew boiling as it touched his tongue but not phasing him in the slightest.
Liam looked around at Saturn and Ju-Long, who each were fussing with the heat coming off the soup, blowing continuously to cool it down. Liam raised the bowl to his lips and took a sip of the broth, slurping loudly to cool it as it went down his throat. The taste was sharp, several spices dancing on his tongue as he tried to decide whether it was a pleasant or repulsive flavor. To his surprise, the spices overpowered any of the less enticing smells and the effect was a delicious, albeit scalding, dish.
Liam took a sip of water to cool down his mouth and watched Nix smile with his set of pointed teeth. His bowl was already empty and he was patting his stomach, slightly rounded from the meal. Liam had never seen him so elated or relaxed.
“What do you think?” Nix asked Liam.
“I think I need to let it cool down, but it’s delicious. It’s not what I would have expected. How’d this dish come about?”
“A long time ago, the Dinari ate mostly meat. Animals were plentiful on Ansara. Thousands of species to eat. On Garuda, very few plants grow and they are usually found along the water. This dish represents everything we could find on Garuda. Our resources might be scarce, but our imaginations are anything but.”
Saturn and Ju-Long each tried a sip and their expressions turned from skeptical to that of surprise. Ju-Long seemed to like it the best, because he slurped down most of the broth in a single sip and started picking out the vegetables and forcing them in his mouth. Ju-Long was about to put the long purple seaweed into his mouth when Nix stopped him.
“The Nerva plant has many benefits when eaten, but that’s not its only use. Give me your hand.”
Ju-Long put the hand Saturn had stabbed with a fork on the table, Nerva plant still in his grasp. Nix removed the makeshift bandage he wore and wrapped the purple length of vegetation around Ju-Long’s scabbed hand. Liam watched as the purple plant took on a darker and darker shade until it was withered and black. It took only a minute to shrivel to half its size, the plant’s moisture absorbing into Ju-Long’s hand.
“It feels hot,” Ju-Long said.
“It will fade,” Nix replied. “The Nerva Plant’s oils are a stimulant to cell repair.”
Saturn looked confused and asked Nix, “What happens when it’s eaten?”
“I assure you it will do no harm. It’s mild on the stomach and it helps with digestion.”
Ju-Long removed the shriveled black plant from his hand and observed his palm. The punctures where the fork had struck looked like they’d progressed several days in the healing process in a matter of minutes. Most of the scabbing had flaked off and the punctures were red around the edges. Ju-Long flexed his hand and made a fist. “Most of the pain is gone,” he said, smiling wide.
Liam picked up his bowl of Leguma and slurped down the rest of the broth, chewing the chunks of vegetables last. To his surprise, the taste continued to grow on him as he ate it. When he was down to the purple seaweed Ju-Long reached into his bowl and snatched the long piece of vegetation, wrapping his broken hand.
“Really, Ju-Long?”
“Hey, I need it. If you want some maybe you should lift a finger in this operation.”
Liam scowled. Despite the progress he seemed to have made, Ju-Long was still as ill-mannered as ever.
Nix was the first to stand up from the table. He collected the bowls into the empty pot and put them in one of the metal cabinets, sealing it tight behind them. Nix pressed a button on a panel next to the cabinet and then it began to shake, slowly at first and then growing in intensity until it was vibrating at such a high frequency the movement was hardly noticeable. Reading Liam’s confused face, Nix said, “Sonic washer. No use wasting water in space.”
A red light flashed on the ceiling, pulsing along with a soft tone. Nix regarded the light and his expression changed. He turned serious and moved quickly toward the doorway. At the edge he turned and said, “We’re approaching Garuda’s moon.”
The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key Page 23