Chereads / Starship System Iconoclast / Chapter 8 - Walk On The Wet Side

Chapter 8 - Walk On The Wet Side

After what she felt was an age of waffling about on the exit ramp - which subsequently made Tala miss the food at Waffle Manor - Tala spent her first hour on a strange new world just taking in the local forest.

After almost a week in the confines of the ship with nothing but her own body odor, the sights and smells hit her like waves of relief.

Even the sampaguita-like flowers smelled wonderful, though somewhat more citrusy than what she remembered of Earth's version.

Before she knew it, she'd walked a kilometer, discovering she hadn't so much landed in a forest as a marshland. Only her suit's scanner and waterproof nature enabled her to make good time as she simply scanned and then crossed the most shallow pools on her way toward the alien city.

I wonder if they'll have hot dogs... I could really go for a hotdog. Maybe with some peppers and caramelized onions... Banana ketchup and a smidge of soy paste... Ooh, make that two hotdogs. One a chili dog with chips and onions in it... And a dessert taco. Barbecue-salt-and-vinegar fries... A milkshake...

Unfortunately, her scanner didn't reveal the edibility of the local flora. And the only fauna she saw, so far, were tiny bugs.

All the movies have giant bugs on the first planet you land on... but I guess they're limited by the amount of available oxygen and the ability to respirate through their skin...

She knew that from watching documentaries, her preferred pass time when waiting for the maintainers to finish between flights back home... Well, second most preferred if there was someone pretty nearby. Third, if there was a combat flight simulator available in the local arcade. Fourth if she was hungry.

Point was, she felt comfortable enough in her knowledge to not expect giant bugs.

Sure, she stepped in what seemed to be a pit-trap made entirely out of needle-nosed looking beetles that all tried to attack her foot - her flight suit stopped it.

Sure, at one point a bug the size of her hand hitched a ride on her hair, and she didn't feel it until its antennae were tapping her face, causing her to panic and scream and do a funky dance trying to shake it off.

Sure, at some point she spotted the cutest little bulb of a bug, like a flying honey ant with an abdomen that was swollen with glowing nectar. Which exploded into an actual fireball when she poked it, singing her eyebrows and face... (What a way to defend the species though.)

But she was having a good time, even with her belly rumbling every fifteen minutes, right?

"Gyaaaah! I'm so hungry! This sucks!" Tala shouted into the canopy when she couldn't take it anymore.

She crouched down, her stomach gurgling its needs again as she stared around.

Moss... Slime... Yellow moss... Gross caterpillar-slug thing with yellow highlights... Mushroom...

Mushroom?

Right in front of her was something so common to Earth she hadn't even noticed. A mushroom, brown on top and cream-white on the bottom... And absolutely the size of a dinner plate.

Mushrooms are generally safe, right? Unfortunately, mycelial documentaries were not common amongst the ones she'd watched. She couldn't quite remember.

"Should be fine if I roast it, right?"

She reached down and plucked it, pausing as she suddenly felt an odd sensation. As if someone in the distance had screamed... But looking around, she didn't detect anything amiss.

Wanting to make a fire and managing to in the middle of a marsh were two completely different things, however. But eventually, Tala remembered something she saw on * Trek.

"Here goes nothing..." she said as she pointed the gun she'd taken from the ship at a decently sized rock. Hopefully, the blast would vaporize all the scum and dirt on top. She didn't know if it was a phaser or a-

Skrrit... BOOM!

As soon as she fired, a tiny bead of blue light flew swiftly from the end of the pistol, blasting away a cone of material not only in the rock but the ground behind it, leaving molten slag in its wake.

"Okay... that's a disruptor for sure..." Tala looked down at the weapon and saw that it now displayed a small bar... that was 50% depleted. "There a way to adjust you or..."

She tapped around the weapon - extremely careful of the trigger - and found nothing. Then she checked her suit and found there was an interface for the weapon. Built into her wrist computer.

It allowed her to control the power, on/off status, and even make the weapon self-destruct... But that was it.

"Let's try this again..." she put the weapon on its lowest setting. A little pleased after a minute to discover it was recharging itself. She hated to think what her situation would be if she needed ammo...

Three shots to a different rock later, she had a decently hot rock for cooking her platter-sized mushroom on.

As she fried it she smelled... nothing. But she did hear a bit of a weird sound coming from inside the mushroom. Poking it with a stick, she beheld small puffs of spores flying up in little circles like cigarette smoke out of the domed-portion, from little weak points that didn't appear until the mushroom started to dry out.

She decided to wait until no more of the little puffs emitted before eating.

Might as well let you reproduce, little mushy friend...

It tasted... Bland. Not bad, and the mouthfeel was more like trying to chew through already-chewed gum that had been allowed to harden, but at least it was filling. Still better than 01.

I miss chili dogs... Or just a well-made cheeseburger...

At least with the domy bit, she could pretend it was a bun.

Even after polishing off the (slightly better than Nutritional Paste 01) mushroom, she was still hungry.

Suddenly she heard voices.