Memories from last night flit through my mind, and my body heats. Desire pools, but my rumbling stomach distracts me from the growing heat. Olo chuckles before going to the closet and grabbing a large shirt.
He tosses it to me and says, “I’ll be in the kitchen, so come out when you’re ready.”
Olo walks out and I stand, shirt clutched in my hand, and head to the bathroom to clean up. Wen had washed me up as best as he could last night after our… copulation, but nothing beats a fresh shower or bath.
I don’t linger, just get in and out before drying off and slipping into the shirt that, from scent alone, tells me it belongs to Wen. It’s massive size, hanging well below my knees.
Stepping out into the kitchen, I spot Olo chopping something on the counter. He looks up with a smile and asks, "Would you like to help me prepare lunch?"
"Lunch?" I glance out the window hanging over the sink as I wash my hands.
Olo laughs. "Yeah, we all slept in today, even Wen, which is a rare sight to see."
“Where is Wen?” I dry my hands and step to Olo’s side, ready to work.
“Can you slice the purplant, please? It’s the thin purple one. We’re doing a stew.”
I salivate while Olo sweeps mushroom look a-likes into a bowl and moves to the sink to start washing a vegetable that looks like a potato. I replace him at the cutting board and start to slice. The purplant is essentially a cucumber with no seeds, deep purple insides, and light purple skin.
“Wen’s out hunting,” Olo answers as he pats the potatoes dry.
He grabs a second cutting board from a cabinet by the sink and stands beside me to start slicing the potato into French fries. I watch him out of the corner of my eye and bite my lip, debating whether to ask my next question. I don't want to offend Olo.
"You don't… have a replicator?" I ask with no small amount of hesitation.
He chuckles, still cutting, as I resume my own job. "Oh, we do, but we don't use it much since coming to learn what foods are safe to eat and what tastes like what here. We can get some foods that taste pretty similar to Earth meals, with a few small alternations to the recipe. Like this pobal I'm cutting—it looks like a potato, but tastes more like mushrooms. The frusi over there, the ones that look like mushrooms, taste similar to onions. I've got a lot more fruits and vegetables in the garden, and Wen hunts for the meat. We use the replicator for seasonings, most flavored drinks, and all the desserts."
"And did you name all the foods yourself?" I stare at them in wonder, eager to try them. It'd be a mindfuck for sure, since they look so similar to foods I'm used to, yet taste completely different. I'm excited.
Olo shakes his head. "They were named by the community as a whole when we first landed. It was mostly trial and error for a while, and the naming came with that."
I nod, humming under my breath as I think about it. I mean, it's similar to how we would have been on Remona, I imagine. We were going in mostly blind when it came to the vegetation and food. It's why every room was equipped with a replicator until we could assess the flora ourselves.
We work in silence for a few clicks, and I consider what my life would have looked like on Remona and how different it'd have been from this planet. It wouldn't have been without its own challenges, that's for sure.
"I'm sorry for sleeping so late."
"You don't need to apologize, Lyra; you didn’t do anything wrong. Besides…" He looks at me with a frown. “…it’s been a rough few cycles. I’m sure you’re exhausted.”
“Still, I should have been up to help sooner.”
“You don’t need to help,” he says kindly. “Well, you don’t need tofeellike you need to help. It’s going to take time for us all to settle into a new routine, and that’s okay. We want you to feel comfortable enough to tell us what you want or don’t want without feeling obligated to do things you don’t want to do. It’s okay to ask for things you want.”
I keep my head down as I continue slicing the last purplant, tears welling in my eyes. Warmth builds in my chest at his words, and I don’t fight my smile.
“When you’re done cutting that, do you want to help me gather some zilco from the garden?” he asks.
I have no idea what a zilco is, but I nod. “Of course.”
The moment the four purplant are placed in a bowl, I wash my hands and follow Olo outside. I glance down at my shirt-dress and shrug it off, sighing contently when my bare feet sink into the soft grass. To the right of the house is the garden, and it’s amazing. I’ve always loved nature, always wanted a garden of my own, and it was one of the things I looked forward to the most on Remora.
It was an opportunity to start fresh and make the garden of my dreams, and to grow things I could barter with our fellow colonists. I had thought that dream was over the moment the captain handed me over to the Galactic Space Federation. Perhaps I can still pursue my own dreams here, with Olo and Wen at my side.
My smile widens. “I’ve always liked gardening.”
He glances at me with a matching smile. “Me too, and there’s still room to expand it. Whatever you want to plant, we can find a way to make it happen.”
“Thank you. You know, it’s so strange here. The colors are so vibrant and odd compared to Earth and the pictures we saw of Remora.”