“I picked a wide selection of food,” Austin said. He sounded pleased with himself. “All from the local markets, naturally.”
Kailee stared at him. How rich was he? There was no one in her apartment block who could have purchased so much food, certainly not to honour guests from another world. They’d serve algae-based foodstuffs, perhaps with some flavouring if the guests were lucky. It was staggering wealth, wealth beyond the boundaries of comprehension. She wasn't the only one staring at Austin either. Several of the girls were obviously considering trying to seduce the colonial boy.
Yates surprised them all by laughing. “How much do you think this is worth?”
Gary tried to answer. “A hundred thousand credits?”
Kailee saw surprise clearly written on Austin’s face. “Not that much,” he said, sounding rather stunned. “A bare handful of credits at most.”
Yates nodded, motioning for the girls to sit. “The food here is simple, but plentiful,” he said. “And it is real. There aren't any algae-farms on the surface of the planet.”
Kailee sat down, eying the meat dubiously. It looked ... odd. One of the girls let out a yelp as she saw a fish lying on the table, its sightless eyes staring at nothing. Austin picked up a knife and a long fork, then started to cut into the fish, revealing its innards. He seemed rather surprised by the expression of disgust on Yuki’s face.
“There isn't any packaged food here either,” Yates informed them. He took a huge chunk of meat, then cut it into long stripes and started to hand it out. “The food here is all natural.”
“But healthy,” Janet added, softly. “And you may even feel yourself becoming more energetic after you eat.”
Kailee hesitated as Yates put a piece of meat in front of her, then cut herself a slice and nibbled it carefully. It tasted ... rich. The flavour was strange to her taste buds after years of eating algae-based products, but it wasn't displeasing. She chewed it, then swallowed and reached for a glass of orange liquid. Unlike the drinks they were given at school or afterschool care, it was thick and slushy. But it tasted heavenly.
“Most of the food you will eat in the cityblocks has been heavily processed,” Yates said. “I believe that even the real foodstuffs, imported from the nearby systems at great cost, have also been treated. Here, the food is all natural. Humans have eaten this kind of food for centuries without ill-effects. Indeed, a proper diet of natural food does wonders for the human system.”
Austin sat down at the head of the table and smiled at them. Kailee found herself smiling back, even as she studied him thoughtfully. Was his rude health merely the product of eating and drinking proper food? It wasn't a concept she knew enough to understand, not when the sole lessons she’d had on basic human foodstuffs had focused on the wonders of algae and the importance of not wasting resources. Would she return to Earth healthier than when she left?
He is attractive, she thought, ruefully aware that most of the girls were also doing their best to stare at him without making it obvious. It was a survival skill on Earth. Looking at the wrong guy for too long could be taken as an expression of interest, which could go badly wrong if the man felt like being pushy. But why?
Kailee had never really been attracted to any of the boys – or girls – she knew in the CityBlock. Part of it had been her awareness that she needed to keep herself as pure as possible, part of it had been simple disdain; there was no real advantage in being boy-crazy and she knew it. Men were unreliable; no matter what the girl did, she would always be dependent on the man and helpless if he abandoned her. She’d seen it happen before, when a long-term relationship broke up. The girl’s status had plunged from diva to whore within days. No, dependency on a man was dangerous.
And yet she found herself attracted to Austin.
She tore her gaze away from him and looked at the other boys. Gary seemed as nerdy as ever, although he’d managed the walk from the spaceport to the city remarkably well. Darrin and Barry still smelled of cleaning fluids; Kailee had been careful to keep her opinion to herself, but she rather admired Yates for daring to actually punish the two brats. Neither of them seemed very impressed with Austin, although she caught Darrin throwing yearning looks at the colonial boy whenever he thought no one was looking. Could he be attracted to him too?
But it seemed unlikely. Darrin had cut a swath through the more available girls in the CityBlock, without touching any of the boys. Unless he was one of the weirdo boys who were ashamed of liking their own sex, she considered, but he’d never struck her as being that sort of person. The homosexual boys would be glad to have another and the straight boys would be delighted at having less competition for the girls. It wasn't as if anyone would pick on him for liking boys.
She pulled her attention back to her food and ate, carefully. The vegetables tasted funny; she discovered that she liked raw carrots – once she got over her instinctive revulsion at eating uncooked food – but actually disliked cooked carrots. Some of the meat was very good; the beef and lamb were excellent, the pork was rather fatty and she didn't like it much. The fish tasted appalling and she refused to take any more. But, on the whole, she found herself enjoying their first meal on the planet. It was definitely very different to anything they would have eaten on Earth.
And if this is cheap here, she asked herself, how much does it cost to produce the wood?
“We intend to take you on tour around the city tomorrow morning,” Yates said, when the plates were finally clean. Austin stood up, without being asked, and gathered in the plates, carrying them over to a smaller table set against the wooden wall. “There will be time for you to see and admire the various occupations practiced on this world. Then, in two or three days, we will head out to a farm.”
Kailee wondered, absently, just what that would be like. She’d been on holographic tours of algae farms and other such installations, but she’d never seen a proper farm outside of a handful of entertainment flicks. And, given that they’d all been frankly pornographic, she rather doubted they bore any resemblance to reality.
“You’ll find watches in the drawers under your beds,” Yates continued. “Breakfast tomorrow is at 0800 precisely, followed rapidly by departure at 0900. Anyone who doesn't get up in time will be dumped in a cold bathtub and woken up that way.”
Kailee groaned. She wasn't the only one. The time they’d spent on the starship had spoiled them, breaking their habit of rising early to go to school. Yates hadn't been quite as bloody-minded as the school authorities, ready to ignore blatant bullying but come down hard on anyone who dared to be more than a few minutes late for school. And she wasn't sure how long they'd even have to sleep. They were still attuned to Galactic Standard Time.
“Do not fret,” Yates said. “I rather doubt you will be sleeping in tomorrow.”
He smirked at them, then motioned for them to stand up. “One other word of warning,” he said, as they stood. “Behave yourselves. You are not on Earth, not now. There are different standards here and woe betide you if you break them.”
Kailee was still puzzling over what he meant as Janet led them back into their side of the house and then into the washroom. Earth was all they had ever known; what other standards of behaviour could there be?
“This is a bathtub,” Janet said. She briefly demonstrated how to turn on the taps, then how to shut them off again. Kailee was surprised at being told that the water was effectively unlimited until she remembered the rain pouring from the sky. If there was one thing the planet had in abundance, it was water. “I suggest that you take a bath now, before you go to bed, then shower in the morning.”
The girls all looked surprised, but it was Honey who put it into words. “Why do you want us to wash and shower all the time?”
Janet gave them all a rather sardonic look. “This is not a clean environment,” she pointed out, dryly. “You will be muddy, you will be sweaty ... and believe me, being dirty is not regarded as very pleasant or healthy here. And since the water is available, you
can use it all the time to wash yourself clean.”
Kailee wondered, suddenly, if Austin thought they smelled. Water was tightly rationed in the cityblocks and the starship hadn't been much better, even though Janet had told them more than they wanted to know about how dirty water – and other liquids – could be cleansed and recycled. Kailee hadn’t really wanted to know such details. She’d had to force herself to drink again after discovering where the water had been. But it had been purified ...
“We’ll get you all proper clothes tomorrow,” Janet continued. “I’d suggest that you check your bags, pull out anything that is wet – or even merely damp - and hang it up to dry. Other than that ...”
She nodded towards the curtain. “Yates and I will be sleeping outside,” she concluded. “If you need us – and it had better be important – feel free to call.”
***
“So,” Yates said. “What do you make of your new friends?”
Austin frowned as he washed the plates clean, one by one. He was mildly surprised that none of the newcomers had offered to do the washing up – it was regarded as a guest’s duty, when staying at someone else’s house – but they were tired after their long trip. And most of them had stared at him, their expressions hooded and unreadable. He didn't know what to make of that.
“They seem a little surprised to be here,” he said. Some of them had even looked as if they wanted to turn down the food, preferring to starve. “And they seem ... pale.”
“They didn’t grow up in the fields,” Yates told him. He moved over to stand beside Austin and began to dry the plates. “And this is a very different environment to anything they have experienced beforehand. I'm expecting some of them to have problems when they discover just how wide and open Meridian actually is.”
Austin shrugged in incomprehension.
“Other than that, I’m sure we’ll get along,” he said, when he realised that Yates was waiting for a response. “Why weren't they so keen on the food at first?”
Yates snorted, although Austin could tell it wasn't directed at him. “Most people on Earth cannot afford to eat anything more than algae-based products, like ration bars,” he said. “It would surprise me if many of our charges had ever eaten something more natural. And even then, it comes in packets and they are often unaware of the source. Here ... there is not only real meat, but it comes in chunks that were clearly once part of an animal.”
“Strange,” Austin said. He finished the last plate and moved on to the glasses. “And they all kept staring at me.”
“Strangers can be dangerous on Earth,” Yates said, neutrally. “It isn't a very safe place to live.”
Austin looked at him in surprise. Everyone knew that Earth was the homeworld of humanity, the cradle of mankind. How could it not be safe? Meridian had hundreds of dangerous animals in the countryside, including some that had developed a taste for human flesh and others that were harmless to humanity, but dangerous to the local environment. He’d heard his father ranting often enough about the fools who had introduced rabbits to the planet's ecology. They’d bred like ... well, rabbits.
He looked back at the sink, then finished washing the knives and forks. The newcomers hadn't had very good table manners either, he'd noticed. Most of the boys had eaten with their bare hands, something that would have earned Austin a clip around the ear if he’d done that at home. His mother would have told him that it was only acceptable when in the countryside. And the girls ...
There was something about them that puzzled him. They were nothing like his sisters, or his brief girlfriends from school; they almost seemed weak and fragile to his eyes. It was easy to imagine them breaking if they fell, like glass dolls. There was little life in them at all. But it wasn't something he could ask about, not when there was no way the question couldn't be made inoffensive. Yates definitely seemed to take the safety of his charges seriously.
“I’m looking forward to showing them the farm,” he said, although he wasn't sure if that were true. What would his father’s farm look like to someone from Earth? Would they be charmed by the animals or disgusted by the manure? He'd seen the girls squirm when they’d ended up with mud on their clothes or even their bare skin. One didn't spend time on a farm without getting dirty at one point or another. “And showing them around the city.”
“I’d like you to spend some time with Darrin and Barry,” Yates said. It took Austin a moment to place the names. But Barry wasn’t easy to forget, not when he was oddly-oversized. “They might find a place to fit in here.”
“Yes, sir,” Austin said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Chapter Eighteen
This might have been solved if teachers were allowed to give honest feedback to the children (and their parents). This was not, however, permitted. The fads decreed that telling the children that they were failing would damage their self-esteem, thus teachers were forced to look for ways to compliment even the very worst of students.
- Professor Leo Caesius. Education and the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
Gary jerked awake as he heard a noise – something screeching – coming from outside the house. For a long moment, he didn't even know where he was; the bed felt very different to his bed at home or the bunk on the starship. And then he remembered. Reaching for the watch – the sole piece of technology he’d seen in the house – he checked the time and blinked in surprise. It was barely 0700, local time, and yet he felt completely energised.
He cast a nervous look at where Barry and Darrin were sleeping – Barry snoring so loudly that it was a miracle that anyone else was asleep – then padded towards the washroom and closed the door. He’d never dared spend long in the shower on the starship, even without the water rations. Now, through, he locked the door and turned on the taps, marvelling at how the water came out and filled the tub. Before he'd come to Meridian, he’d never seen clean water in such large quantities. He’d certainly never dared to go to the public bathhouses.
The water was warm enough to make him relax, but he knew he didn't dare relax completely, not with Barry in the next room. He scrubbed himself clean, then stood up and dried himself with a towel, rather than the hot air they’d had to use back home. Outside, Abdul and Steve were stirring too; Gary pulled on his clothes rapidly, then walked through the curtain and down into the living room. Austin was already there, building up a fire in the fireplace. He turned around and smiled at Gary before Gary could decide if he wanted to slip backwards and hide.
“Good morning,” Austin said. “Have you ever built a fire before?”
Gary shook his head, wordlessly. First the weapon, carried so casually, and now building a fire. They’d been taught, time and time again, never to play with fire, not even on the smallest possible scale. It was dangerous, they’d been told, and it could easily spread out of control. But Austin seemed to be building up the fire with easy competence.
“There’s a handful of papers at the bottom,” Austin said, pointing into the fireplace. “Above them are some twigs and other pieces of wood that should catch fire easily, allowing the flames to spread through them and up into the larger pieces of wood. Once they catch, the fire will continue to burn as long as it is fed with fuel.”
Gary nodded. “What stops it from burning down the whole house?”
Austin give him an odd look. “The fireplace is made of stone,” he said, finally. “Stone doesn't actually burn, so as long as the fire stays inside the fireplace the house is in no danger.”
He held out a box of matches. “Would you like to light it?”
“I ...” Gary hesitated. Part of him wanted to try, part of him was too scared even to touch the box. What if something went wrong? They’d all seen the videos showing the schoolchildren why playing with fire was so dangerous. And yet ... “I’ll try.”
He took the box, opened it and regarded the matches doubtfully. None of the videos had been very clear on just what the user should do to start a fire; it took him several moments t
o realise that he had to rub the matches against the side of the box. The first time he did it, nothing happened; the second time, the match flared to life so brightly that he dropped it in shock. Austin hastily stamped on the match and suggested that he be more careful next time. It still took several tries before he managed to get a lighted match to touch the paper and ignite the fire.
“Watch,” Austin suggested, as he took back the box of matches. The wasted matches were already dumped into the fire. “The flames are only starting to make their way through the fireplace.”
Gary watched, feeling a strange sense of almost childish wonder. The flames were growing brighter as they consumed the paper, then slowly working their way up through a web of ever-larger pieces of wood until they reached the biggest pieces of all. Flames licked and crackled around them and slowly, very slowly, they began to burn.
“It’s lighting the fire without a match that is really difficult,” Austin said, as he stood up and led Gary through a small door. Behind the fireplace, there was a large metal structure and a colossal basin of water. “I had to do it before I won my first scouting badge.”
He picked up a pile of plates, then passed them to Gary. “Put them on the table,” he added. “And then help me sort out the food for you and your friends.”
Gary nodded. He’d never really understood how much work went into cooking food, particularly on a primitive planet. It was so much easier to have blocks of algae-based material, even though they tasted of nothing in particular. Austin seemed to enjoy it; he produced great strips of meat, fried them in a large pan, then put it to one side as he fried large vegetables and pieces of bread. Gary felt his mouth watering as he smelled the cooking food, even though he had his doubts. They’d been warned, more than once, that cooking their own food was unhealthy.
“You’ll have to get someone else to help clean up afterwards,” Austin warned. “Can any of you cook?”
The Empire's Corps: Book 07 - Reality Check Page 16