Chapter 3.2: Old and new friends, old and new enemies

[zuhrovet]

Sasha has distributed flutes of sparkling water and small glasses filled with a clear liquor. She finds a clear place to stand near the edge of the party--Jedao and Alaric are to her left, the cluster of people around the mothlings falls at about 3π/8--and signals the grid to adjust the light so that she is highlighted and the other partygoers are very slightly in shadow. She asks the grid for a ringing sound and waits for people to quiet. Her voice slightly amplified by the grid, she says, "Welcome, everyone. We have a unique combination of expertise, on the Cantata. I'm glad that you are here." (It's a formal situation, so she uses the plural 'you'.) "While we are gathered, let us toast to the success of the rebellion."

Sasha waits for an answering murmur, then raises her own glass and knocks it back. The liquor tastes like snow and homesickness; but these are her people now. A slight gesture of her left hand makes illumination linger on Jedao for a moment, before the room lights return to normal.

Sasha sees Remi trying to explain that shot glasses are not for mothlings, and grins in genuine amusement.

[We have some really fascinating conversations running in the previous move. I don't want to cut them off, but please put new threads here!

Also, an out-of-character public service announcement: Remi is a youthful, apparently non-sociopathic version of Kujen, plucked from an earlier timeline. He has not yet interacted with Jedao.]

Comments

Re: Dar & Sasha, By the Kitchen

[chomiji]

"Huh. There's probably enough Kel ration bars t' feed the crew for three years, but that's not my idea of a good time. There's actually a pretty good amount of fresh foodstuffs, produce, dairy, even meat, but I'd need t' know about our suspended storage on the ship.* In between, there's enough canned and frozen stores for more than a year. But what about those other ships? They'll be drawing on the same supplies, right?"

---

*So here's the thing. The exotic effects that are discussed in the series are pretty much all aimed toward controlling or destructive ends, which makes sense because the He*archate sucks. But what about constructive ends? I mean, an army marches on its stomach, right? Can't some of that technology be put toward keeping foodstuffs usable without damage? Freezing does rotten things to an awful lot of edibles, and canning mostly requires semi-destructive heat. Can't there be some form of food storage that's basically suspended animation for food?

[on food storage in the h*archate]

[yhlee]

[There's suspended animation for food--it's implied in "Extracurricular Activities," what with Jedao's mom shipping him GOOSE FAT across interstellar distances. And anyway, most of the descriptions even of shipboard meals imply fresh fruits and vegetables, like Cheris's beloved tangerines.]

Re: [on food storage in the h*archate]

[chomiji]

[THANK YOOOU! I mean, the goose fat could have been purified and stabilized in a can, like Crisco ... . Also, Jaffa oranges used to be loaded into steamships by the crate and carried to Europe that way, so the tangerine situation didn't necessarily scream Exotic Storage! to me.]

Re: [on food storage in the h*archate]

[yhlee]

[Heh, I was specifically thinking of Korean tangerines, which I have NEVER seen outside of Korea--they don't seem to be able to be transported any distance in such a way that they can survive. I've seen Asian pears and other Korean foods imported into the USA, but never, EVER Korean tangerines. Which kills me, because they are my absolute favorite food in the whole world. Other than Dad's steak or Mom's home cooking!]

Re: Dar & Sasha, By the Kitchen

[zuhrovet]

"Ration bars are a very efficient protein source." Sasha's smiling; she knows how the next four steps of this argument go, and she wouldn't mind working through the game, but it's not exactly a priority here. "We have, oh, maybe three or four cubic meters of suspended storage. We could build it out with some downtime, but I suspect we won't get it. And yes, all three ships draw on the same supplies, as does anyone staying here on base."

[Cubic meters are kind of huge, so this implies we have at least three or four refrigerators' worth. (Why I am doing refrigerator arithmetic, I do not know.) You should also assume that nobody has gone through this space at all recently, so there is a bunch of weird stuff shoved to the back of the suspended-storage units.]

Re: Dar & Sasha, By the Kitchen

[chomiji]

[Yeah, this is what my scratch looks like at the moment:

person - about 2 lbs per day,

1 ton = 40 cubic feet = 2000 pounds = food for 1000 people for a day, or about 33 people for a month.

We have what, ~16 crew, counting NPcs?

1 cubic meter = 2,204 pounds of water

So ... I think a cubic meter is a lot more than one domestic fridge-ful. Or am I missing something? It certainly sounds like we can supply the entire crew with fresh foodstuffs for as long as 6 months, and that doesn't count freeze-dried, frozen, etc.

Also, bad things can happen on a protein-heavy diet, so I'm not into the concept of Kel ration bars any more than I was into the 1950s notion of a pill that contained an entire day's worth of nutrition. But maybe my idea of what they're like is not any better than my idea of He*archate food storage.]

---

"Sounds like we could store maybe 180 days' worth of stuff, easy. Would they let us take that much? How long will we be in travel before we can re-stock?"

Re: Dar & Sasha, By the Kitchen

[zuhrovet]

"There are a couple of possibilities for our next mission. Might be forty days, might be seventy, might be breaking down this base entirely. I expect I will be more precise tomorrow."

[I think water just packs really well--the combined refrigerator and freezer space in a standard fridge is between 1 and 1.5 cubic meters.

I am assuming that Cheris and Sasha are the only people in this multiverse who don't mind living on ration bars!]

Re: Dar & Sasha, By the Kitchen

[yhlee]

[Yeah, let's not give everyone scurvy or whatever. I don't know what's in Kel ration bars exactly because I am not a future nutritionist, but assume that they're calorically dense, approximately nutritious food intended for active duty Kel. Even most Kel don't like them. Cheris is just weird.]