3 To Ganymede 2

Shall I tell you the wonders of a passenger starship? The wonders of eating nothing but paste-like food who might as well be used to eat with a toothbrush. Despite the marvels that humanity has reached during these ages of 'scientific progress' we are still stuck eating MRE-like ration. This pasty shit ruined the trip for me and I found myself playing VR simulations or assisting anyone in the ship for a bit of money that may hopefully land on my barren pockets that are empty as a radiated planet.

Captain Regina was eating the pasty MRE garbage with disinterest. She told me, "Only need to stay full, that's all that matters." while keeping this calm exterior made me want to stay in our room. The Captain really doesn't care about the food and water. We were provided by the starship through these drones that sound like they are mowing grass, they are hard to not notice, so there was no problem in knowing that 'food' has arrived. There's a dining hall inside the starship, you can find many peculiar freelancers and agents that know something about any sector or galaxy.

I met a moron named Salon who sold cigars in outer fucking space. He said that the cigars he sold came from this place called Cuban, a place from the earth where these cigars were famous. I would have been sold to his garbage if I didn't know that there was a sprinkler system around the starship, at the best you would be detained, your belongings checked and the worst is that you'd be killed for smoking the cigar.

It's not an exaggerated punishment, you know? There have been cases of sabotage by the use of smoke-producing materials or contraband's like cigars and cigarettes. The moron named Salon probably didn't know that, he said that it was his first time in a passenger airship. I told him, "Were you a drop trooper? You look like one."

"I am! Are you a free folk now too? That is wonderful, do you want to smoke cigars? Or do you want some thousand-year-old brandy?"

He was a moron who couldn't keep his mouth shut. I left the dining hall and escaped away before he drags me to his foolish bullshit. I may sound pissed as I narrate, but I am indeed pissed off, and I would honestly like to swear at the whole crew, the designer, and all responsible for the starship's interior design, and to the paste-like food they should call toothpaste food. To describe these horrors, they are like that fruit-flavored toothpaste that tastes horrid when put inside your mouth, the disgusting flavor, is by no means good for your taste buds. Maybe I absolutely loathe those things and that's why I am shitting on it.

I do not know how the Captain could put those things in her mouth and look like she couldn't care about it. She's been invested on her PDA, not even the scene I saw back in her personal VR world made her care. She said to me, "You already saw them, what need is there for me to fret over it?"

She was stolid as ever, it made me realize that the Captain's actually made of solid stuff. I asked the Captain why she's firm all the time. She glanced at me, her other eye clearly on her PDA and said to me, "Keep a stiff upper lip, they taught me that on Earth."

I don't know what it meant until I searched the NET for it. It was a part of the British People's brand of stoicism. Captain was an earthling so it didn't surprise me that she would have that as her way of keeping calm at almost everything. This made me realize that truly, the Captain's deeds and feats weren't pure luck. Her obsessive behavior and tendency to single-mindedly study is quite astonishing.

I guess that's the difference between me and the Captain, she's someone who could focus and ignore the environment as long as she could do what she wants. I wish that I have her extreme concentration so I can ignore the shitty living conditions of the starship. I have taken note to avoid all cramped starship ships.

Did I even mention how absolutely horrid it was when the starship arrived on jump points? Traveling through wormholes, in a passenger starship is absolutely spooky. Military starships are at least equipped with systems that allow us to survive space travel. We were sheep cattle to slaughterhouses, but at least military fleets allowed us to have comfort and actually endure the living conditions of space.

We are told to die fighting these alien freaks but at least we got enough 'comfort' before dying. Public passenger Starships are terrible. Not to mention that there were fewer dampeners, I felt the wall move away, my stomach ached, my blood went cold as my eyes then turned bloody red, I was also hyperventilating and I was experiencing slight vertigo and space sickness.

My blood pressure went up, I was suffering false diarrhea as well. It was so bad that I have to wear a space suit inside the fucking ship to reduce the burden of the travel. To my horror the starship only jumped through five points, and that there were still fifteen jump points ahead.

Captain actually felt sorry for me, she gave me an injection that allowed me to calm my nerves and resist the burden of space travel. The injection worked like magic, she told me that it was a nano injection that stimulates the body, allowing mild-regeneration effects on my body.

It doesn't do anything grand but I know it worked since I felt less shit when we jumped to another point. I was grateful to the Captain, she's sharing and humble, not to mention he doesn't mind me whining about the starship. She just listened silently while reading the PDA that seemed to have taken her long to read. I almost wondered what she found interesting, I tried to know what the Captain was reading, but her silence said it all. I didn't want to bother Captain so I didn't interrupt her reading and just internally whined about the starship while cursing the MRE-paste food that's given to us. By God, I would have killed for a burger at that time.

...

...

Thankfully, the starship needed to be maintained to function. Ganymede was still wormholes away so it was nice to get out of the starship and sit on the restaurant where I could actually take a seat and order some food that I can and chew!

"You look excited."

Captain sat in front of me with her arms folded. She wasn't reading her PDA and her usual blank face was looking at me weirdly. She probably thinks that I am exaggerating about this all. But I can assure her that I am not. The horrid taste of that MRE-paste-like food can now go away.

"Real food. Captain, do you know my suffering lately?"

"Hmm, you do look like you've eaten garbage. I do not understand. The MRE-style food that we are given are eatable, there's nothing bad about them, why are you so picky?"

"Because I can't stand that toothpaste looking 'meal'. How am I supposed to know that the Starship will only serve those kinds of food? I rather wait a month or so for another cruiser!"

"And we'd be stuck in Begin-01's space station, waiting for the army to pick us while they scorched-earth the planet near it. We were lucky to have a starship that would allow us to go to Ganymede. Besides, the Starship was meant for taking in as many passengers as it can. They don't have time to fit in life-support systems like the ones in this space station."

The space station we are in now was more of an outpost and a fortress. It is built on top of an icy-mountain that floats around a cold star that placed this icy-mountain in an ideal position. So unless someone puts a bomb on the space station and destroy the core of that cold star then I doubt this place will crumble.

"I understand that they want to cut those life-support systems. But shouldn't they be looking for a solution to these inedible paste-like shit they call food?"

"Nix," she sad to me. "You are the only person that I know to hate absolutely loathe this food. Do you know how loved this food is by the military front? MRE used to taste worst and this improvement was a God's Blessing to them."

"Then they should have thought better."

I'll be firm about my hate against this abomination of a food. I frowned and kept a straight look on my face as the waitress glided to us with a tray on her hand. She carried two plates with her, the other one with the burger and fries almost made me want to grab the food. I let the waitress do her job. a few seconds won't matter.

"Here you go, burger and fries, and a fresh steak with hot sauce."

The waitress introduced the meal to us before gliding away. I looked at the plate of fresh steak on the Captain's plate. I can smell it from my seat and it smelled good. But what bothered me was that the Captain draped hot sauce all over her steak, I also noticed her taking a green bottle.

"Captain Regina, is that wasabi?"

She looked at me calmly, her hand still flicking the wasabi to her hot sauce.

"Yes, it is wasabi. Do you want some?"

"You have wasabi on you all along this trip?"

"Yeah, I bought it from the dining hall. Solid food is not allowed on the Starship, but it didn't mean that you can't use condiments to enhance their taste."

My heart ached badly, it felt like I was just stomped on my chest. Why didn't I think of that? The dining hall surely would have something like that! But still I was curious about something so I asked her.

"But wasabi of all things? Do you want to ruin your taste bud with that?"

She continued applying to her already god-forbidden food as if she was deaf.

"No."

"So you are used to it. Please don't mind me then."

Arguing with the Captain is useless. She was already eating her steak as if I didn't exist. I didn't want to ruin this lovely food in front of so I started to eat as well. I bite on my burger and put three fries on mouth. The taste was a like an oasis in the middle of the desert, I cannot help but feel like crying. I heard someone laughing. I looked around and found no one. Was it my imagination?

"Nix, I have a question for you."

The Captain asked while she was coating her steak with that god-forbidden sauce mixture. She looked at me with a pretty serious expression, it was also the look...of a heartbroken woman. I never noticed it before, but the Captain has the look of someone who has seen a lot. I knew that she came from earth, I knew that she saved ships and handled situations, but what made the Captain this serious?

"Don't look at me like that," she smiled. It was rare for her to do that. "I am just asking a question, I read it about on a forum, it was a popular question that many have asked."

"What is it?"

"What would do if you find yourself stuck in an endless loop where you have to watch everyone and everything die and get destroyed over and over again?"

"Get away from the things?"

"That's an answer."

"Yes, why would you stay with things that break your heart? Escape, if you have spent countless time on that place, and you still think that you are a hero, then, might as well get away, make use of these loops to get the fuck away from the tragedy."

Captain smiled yet again, this time there was a trace of sadness on her face. She nodded her head silently, she looked at her meal and started eating again.

"That's all. Thank you for answering, Nix."

"Not that much of a big deal?"

I said while looking at the Captain's face. I then turned my head outside to look at the white mountains floating around, various ships and rocks floated around, the brilliant stars were like droppings of milk. That place would be where the milky way galaxy is. Just a few jumps and we'll be back home to our solar system.