Astronomicon: Icarus

5 - Familiarisation

Ishaan was working his way through the many storage compartments that filled the back wall of the tiny kitchen area. A few of the plastic cupboard doors had scrawled labels stuck to them, to announce the contents, but most were unmarked. He found plastic sacks containing all sorts of meal components, mostly dehydrated bio-meats, powdered vegetables and irradiated pasta or rice. There seemed to be little in the way of seasonings and spices.

In a cardboard box crushed into one of the larger compartments, he found a large collection of dehydrated sauces; everything from a range of curries, chilli and Chinese sauces to white wine sauce, Bolognese and gravies. He reckoned that, with a little bit of creativity, those could double as seasonings too.

The food preparation equipment in the kitchen was standard enough; two rehydrators, a couple of microwave ovens, three warming drawers for food sachets, a sealed mixer, a dishwasher and a vacuum food disposal. Things like a hob, traditional oven or anything else which got properly hot was too dangerous, and simply unnecessary, in a variable gravity environment.

In the base of the short serving counter, he found a surprisingly large chest freezer, mounted sideways so that when the lid was open it lay against the floor of the galley. Stored inside that he mostly found frozen potato products, chips and wedges. He had told the Captain he would avoid salads, but they were not even going to be an option given the restricted range of ingredients he had to work with.

He had barely finished his casual stock-take, when Dmitry and Hugo clunked their way into the galley.

"Hi, gentlemen. What can I get for you?" he asked, standing up and holding onto the handrail that ran along the back edge of the countertop.

Hugo laughed warmly.

Dmitry smiled, then said in a surprisingly deep voice, "It's been a while since we have been called 'gentlemen'."

"Well, I'm guessing that that is because you are not a gentleman," Hugo chuckled.

"Hey, that's not fair," said Dmitry, "Where I come from, I am considered to be an exemplary gentleman."

"Yes, but you come from the N.S.R.. If you were to hold the door open for a lady, your people would assume you were royalty."

"Have you ever visited the New Socialist Republic?" asked Dmitry, beginning to sound genuinely offended.

"Not as such..."

"Well, what do you know then!" retorted Dmitry, "I bet you didn't leave your beloved Argentina until you decided to leave the planet. Your country is so good, you decided to get as far away from it as you could."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Can we just eat?"

"Now on that, we can agree," laughed Dmitry.

They both walked toward the counter.

"I have not had time to cook lunch yet, gentlemen," said Ishaan, "But I can whisk up a snack to keep you going."

"Soup?" asked Dmitry.

Ishaan raised an eyebrow.

"A nice thick soup, something meaty. And some hot rolls to go with it," Dmitry elaborated.

Ishaan remembered which compartment held the soup powders, turned around and opened it.

"I have chicken or beef, if you want meaty. Otherwise, it is mixed vegetables, spicy parsnip or tomato."

"Beef then," replied Dmitry.

"Or there's mulligatawny, tucked away at the back of the compartment," observed Ishaan.