The Girl in the Tank: Galactic Consortium, Season 1

Episode Three: Spiders and Clackers ch.8

"Hey, Dan," Kleppie greeted Dan when he got back from his blue treatment the next day. "What're you getting from the catalog?"

Dan waved the question off and ducked into the toilet facility. He barely made it.

"God! Do they got air spray in there?" Kleppie joked.

Dan stuck his hand out of the toilet and flipped him off. When he was finished and cleaned, god bless whoever had invented this automatic cleaning system, he stepped out and said, "You ain't no better, so shut your trap." He found a small can of air spray and sprayed the area down for good measure. "Besides, that's the first time today. I think I'm turning the corner."

His stomach felt hollow and empty. He found a can of nausea drink and a small box that contained a snack.

He joined the other three at the back of the cramped cabin. Madsen ran his hand over his scalp, his hair patchy in places. Dan and the others had already done the sensible thing and had the ship's hairdresser, they had two, simply cut off what remained of their hair. It was an increasingly common style among the crew and those others that had braved the fall out to rescue them alike.

Dan stared at the holo-display, currently a grid work of icons and writing. "I haven't thought about it. I guess I should."

"Yeah, orders need to be placed today, by four," Jensen said.

Dan looked at the display. He didn't have a clue what to order. He'd probably end up asking for some extra snacks or something. He'd browsed through the clothes earlier, and he might grab a shirt, but he was fairly satisfied with the basic outfits they were provided. Otherwise, what did he need?

They knew more slates were coming, and Dan was looking forward to having his own. "So what are the rest of you getting?" he asked.

"Neanderthal porn," Kleppie said. Madsen groaned and Jensen just shook his head.

"Please, tell me your joking," Dan said.

"We wish," Jensen muttered. "He's been on this kick since breakfast."

"Cultural icons," Kleppie said, pulling up a submenu, "includes a number of data packs available. There's music, plays, shows, lectures and...porn."

"Prostitution is legal in the Consortium," Madsen said, "so why not?"

"Legal, but highly regulated," Dan said. "Or so I've been told. They don't seem to have many hangups when it comes to sex, but Neanderthal?"

"One of the cooks was talking about this woman," Kleppie tapped the display and brought up a picture, "Simha, she's a huge sensation back there."

A three dimensional display popped up on the table top, rotating slowly in space in front of them. Her broad shoulders, small hips and heavy brows spoke of neanderthal heritage, but for all that she was strikingly beautiful. Her pose and her skimpy outfit and flirtatious smile reeked of raw sexuality.

"There's a compilation pack of ten full length shows," Kleppie said. "And I've always said, when in Rome..."

"You better not watch that shit when we're around," Jensen groused, "or be keeping us up at night with your fap, fap, fap."

Madsen broke out into laughter and Dan joined in. Kleppie blushed and muttered something about "nineteen years old god damn it, what'd you expect?"

"How about the rest of you, anything good I should look at?" Dan asked.

Jensen tapped his slate. "This," he tapped the display and brought up a necklace. It ended in a teardrop crystal that contained blue swirls buried within.

"That would look great on you," Kleppie joked.

"Shut up," Jensen snapped back. "I am thinking if I find one of the crew, someone whose quarters are as far from this part of the ship as possible, and have them keep it for me, maybe it won't take on too much radiation. If it passes testing at the end, I can take it to Nicole."

"That's a great idea," Dan said.

"It's from a gas giant," Jensen went on. "They found this race of, I don't know, space whales or something. They are huge creatures that live in gas giants anyway. They are intelligent, but it's nothing like our intelligence and even the exobiologist in the Consortium don't fully understand them. But they work together. There are levels of a gas giant where it essentially rains diamonds. The whale things will swim through the rain and bring the diamonds to special stations, where the Consortium will give them chemicals, gases, what not, in return, like feeding them fish I guess.

"Most of the diamonds are tiny and used for industrial purposes. Some are larger and near perfect. But the most valuable ones have internal imperfections, different colors or shapes. Imagine that for a present, a unique gemstone formed in a distant gas giant. One of a kind."

"Nicole is lucky to have you," Dan said. "Here, I was thinking of a shirt and maybe some extra snacks for around here."

That night was some sort of minor feast day within the Consortium. Dan never found out exactly what they were celebrating, but they were celebrating. Supper was "appetizers" but Spanish "tapas" was perhaps a closer translation. Every table in the lounge was set with lazy susans filled with snack items that defied descriptions.

Vegetables, both raw and cooked, and breaded mushrooms were among the more identifiable snacks. There were strips of a jerky-like thing called Mycobactim. They had seen it in stir fries before but now it was coated in seasoning and set out in strips.

"I asked about that," Jensen said. "It's some sort of engineered fungus."

"Eww, gross," Davies, one of their next door neighbors said.

"You say that," Madsen said, "just as you stick a mushroom in your mouth."

"So?"

"So? A mushroom is a fungus."

"It is?"

"Yes," Dan put in, "it is."

"Anyone know what this is?" Kleppie asked. He held up something about half the size of his finger. It was roughly cylindric and fried in some sort of batter.

"No clue, try it," Madsen prompted.

Kleppie hesitated a second and then shrugged. He chewed. "Not bad, but I still haven't a clue. Taste kind of familiar though."

Jensen tried one of them as well. "Yeah, not bad. Can't place it though."

Kavi entered the room. She spied the spread. "Ooh, crickets," she squealed. She leaned over Dan and grabbed one of the batter fried pieces off their tray and popped it in her mouth.

Jensen went pale. "Did you just say crickets?"

"Good, no?"

"That's it!" Kleppie said. "Remember Thailand? The fried grasshoppers? That's what it reminds me of."

Madsen had a cricket in his hand but he quickly set it on his plate.

"Hey, here's an idea; Kavi, would you sit down and walk us through what these things are?" Dan asked.

"Sure, just let me get a drink."

As she went towards the drinks, Madsen leaned in. "Crickets? They eat crickets?"

"Hey, a lot of the world eats insects," Kleppie said.

Dan nodded. "It's true a lot of cultures do. They claim they are a good protein source and easy to raise in small spaces. I guess in space that's probably doubly important."

"Yeah, we had fried grasshoppers in Thailand," Kleppie said.

"You did," Madsen corrected. "And I still can't believe we talked you into that. I wonder if they've served us crickets before?"

With Kavi's help they got through the remainder of the feast. The only other truly exotic dish was a calamari-like dish made up of some sort of deep sea tube worms that they grew in aquatic tanks onboard most space ships. The feast ended with a treat composed of mashed up figs packed inside a bright edible flower.