Mantrin Imperial Guard - 003 The Infinite Depths of Space

Chapter 2: The Hub

Sharing a table with a big portion of the crew in one of the enormous food courts that the Ophelion trade hub was rich in, Jetreycka couldn't find a single place to look where nothing interesting was happening. On her own, she would have avoided places like this. Overcrowded. Too much noise. Weird smells from food and visitors that didn't mix well.

Some of her crewmates seemed to enjoy every moment of it and it was more than a little contagious. She thought it was funny to see the odd bunch she called her crewmates take so much joy in trying out different kinds of food in the middle of this noisy environment. Some of the tables were large enough to accommodate the entire crew of a smaller ship, and she saw a lot of different colors and outfit styles all around her.

In the space above them and projected between the tables, holo-commercials fought each other for getting visitors' attention. From trying to trick one into buying various types of contraband in the market districts, to luring pleasure seekers into the casinos and holo-arcades. Drones swarmed and zigzagged through the air, taking bought goods straight to the buyers' ships. The roof was a huge dome-shaped viewport which offered a breathtaking view of the many vessels coming and going. Many of these were freighters on supply runs to keep up with the incredible demand.

A huge display above the food vendor counters showed the actual numbers of winners and losers on the galactic stock market. To serve those to which these numbers mattered the most, the station also featured a large trading floor and numerous corporations had established branch offices in the corporate sectors. The whole place was engineered to generate income.

"This place is quite amazing."

"Yeah, and the food is too."

Sinking his teeth into a huge roll made of a thin dough, bursting with meat, vegetables and other ingredients she didn't recognize, Weyan, who sat across from her, didn't make it a secret that he liked eating. The counters offered food from a huge variety of worlds and loading one's tray with different kinds of food seemed to be the most popular way to tackle the hunger.

"What is it that you're eating?" Jetreycka asked.

Although she had kept things a bit more traditional with her Solbrechtian vegetable mix and grilled fish, some of the things on her crewmate's plates did spark her interest. She also had to admit that the food was indeed quite good.

"They call it a Burrito. Got it over there." He pointed in the direction of a stall where humans prepared various types of food. Gazing in the distance she spotted the roll on the holographic menu board among various other dishes. "Humans really do know how to cook."

Thylun, who sat next to him, chuckled.

"You just like stuffing yourself."

"Don't act innocent," Weyan fought back. "You seem to enjoy human food as much as I do."

Indeed, Thylun's dish consisted of three thick slices of meat, interlaced with a molten yellow substance and a layer of vegetables and sauce between two round pieces of baked dough. She knew this dish was called a hamburger. They had become popular on Solbrecht ever since humans made planetfall and Thylun paired it in the traditional way with sticks made from a type of root vegetable called a potato that were fried in oil. To flush this all down, he combined it with a brown fizzy drink.

By studying the plates of her crewmates, Jetreycka observed what everyone liked to eat if everything was possible. From certain kinds of live food to raw meat and fish. And from fried fast foods to meals prepared using unconventional methods, such as using a plasma torch as the heat source.

While eating, the conversations went in all directions. From their fascinating surroundings, to personal stories. And from the upcoming experiment to the very concept of machine intelligence.