Eden of the Stars: Book I: The Ancestor

Festival pursuit

"Ew."

"It's a delicacy Evangeline."

"I can see that!"

"Be a good girl and eat."

"But it's moving Akira!"

He chuckled from the seat beside her. "That means it's fresh."

Evangeline groaned in frustration as she stared down at the warm bowl of soup, which apparently had things swimming inside it. After leaving the hotel behind them, silently agreeing that they would never step into anything similar again, Akira led Evangeline through the markets of Utah.

The artificial sun, a hologram above the glassy dome, was an indication of the day, the time and the weather. Akira had mentioned that in some cases, they replicated rain and snow, in order to help people remember the different weather cases. And sitting on a food stall to eat was the last thing Evangeline wanted.

"When will we go to the HQ Akira?" Evangeline placed carefully the bowl on the table, taking a sip from the nutrition smoothie Akira had ordered for her. The sweet flavor exploded in her mouth and she moaned, pleased.

"I want to make sure Alec will be in HQ. That idiot always wants to make an entrance. And besides," Akira pointed at Evangeline's bowl smirking, "you must eat. The shots Shi-oh gave to me might not last long. I don't want you to starve." He pushed gently the bowl and Evangeline sighed.

"In my time, we never ate something that moved inside our plate." She picked up her metal spoon and looked at Akira.

"I understand, but the hiti worms are a delicacy in these parts of the system. They are rich in flavor and they do not add fat."

She took a spoonful, catching also a moving worm. Evangeline didn't stay to examine it and quickly she ate, letting anything that moved roll back to her throat, not daring to chew.

"By the way, letting them go down like that, will take longer to digest them."

"Ugh..." Evangeline clutched her stomach, but she felt full for once.

"Add never to eat moving things in my to-do list Akira." She tapped the translating device on her head, making sure it was safe, before pulling the hood over her head.

Akira smiled and brushed his wrist, paying for the breakfast and followed Evangeline into the crowd. They stepped through stalls and shouting people, they saw aliens and human alike as also some androids smiling too eagerly as they promoted their bosses products.

He liked this simplicity with Evangeline. She was eager to learn, to understand everything around her and for the first time he was glad to know everything about his galaxy. Making sure they were close to each other, they passed the narrow roads, full with stalls and exited on the gravitational road. Three silver rods were parallel, creating two sides and different kinds of hovercrafts flew, inches above the ground.

Evangeline watched mesmerized remembering Lan's promise to teach her how to fly one of them. She tightened her grip on Akira's hand and the boy looked at the road's direction. "Come on, it's not far." He pulled her along and they made their way towards the Commandant's HQ.

The building loomed above everything and the girl wondered why they hadn't seen it before. To Evangeline, it looked like a thing huge rocket with sharp edges, ready to launch into space. A pair of flying vehicles seemed to levitate around the top of the tower, making slow circles around it. Akira pulled her gently towards the entrance, whispering to her, "Let me do the talking." She nodded and the sliding, glassy doors opened, revealing a wide lobby where screens covered most of the walls and a desk stood on the center of it.