Stepping into the store, Von paused to take it in. Canned food lined the shelves alongside breakfast bars, tube-shaped nutritional supplements, and food cartridges. He also saw something too weird to possibly be food: disgusting creatures preserved in formaldehyde.
"They've got a lot," he mused. The whole place was packed, every shelf full.
"Yup. What do you want to buy?" Mia asked.
"I don't know. What's good? Got any recommendations?"
"If you've got a cooker, why not just buy cartridges?" Mia suggested. "And if you've got some extra spending money, you could go for artificial meat."
"Artificial meat…?" That sounded weird to him.
"That's what I said. It's efficiently cultured protein. The stuff's a lot more expensive than other food, but it tastes great."
"What about normal meat and veggies?"
"Only the richest of the rich eat that stuff. Mercs make a lot, but it's not typically in our budget."
"Wow, that's crazy," he replied.
So livestock meat and cultured vegetables were high-class foods here. That made sense; after all, it couldn't be easy building a farm on a space colony.
Mia stared at him rather dubiously and asked, "If the phrase 'normal meat and veggies' comes to you that easily, does that mean you're some kind of spoiled rich boy?"
"Hell if I know. My memories are too vague. Do I look like one?" He shrugged helplessly.
She shook her head, unconvinced. "Nah, I guess not. Still weird, though."
Then Von guessed he wasn't a rich boy after all. He picked a few more groceries at Mia's recommendation. He could also order water here. Though it was a little expensive, he splurged on some of that artificial meat, too. Apart from that, he stuck to food cartridges and non-perishables like breakfast bars, along with some liquid food in tubes. Mia also suggested picking up some of that jerky-like stuff.
"How about the canned food?" he asked.
"I wouldn't. If you open that in zero gravity, it could be a disaster," she warned.
Yikes, so the moment he opened it, it would spew everywhere.
"Got any carbonated drinks?" he said.
"Carbonated? What's that?" she asked.
"What? Uh, I mean, like soda. Some people call it pop. It's sweet, fizzy, and the best thing ever created." He hoped she recognized soda at least.
"Um?" Mia cocked her head in confusion. Oh God, she really had never heard of soda!
"Okay, so you know about flavored drinks, right?" he started over.
"Yep! There are tons of flavors."
"You take that and you add carbonic acid—to carbonate it—and it makes the drink all fizzy."
"I've never heard of that," she said.
"What?!" Did carbonated drinks seriously not exist in this universe? He tried asking one of the grocery store workers, but they just apologized and gave him the same line as Mia.
"God is dead," he muttered in defeat.
"You sound like some religious nut who just lost his faith," Mia replied.
In all the galaxy, not a single carbonated drink. Not one. No, wait. Didn't he read an article once about how you can't drink soda on a spaceship? Maybe it was the lack of gravity. Maybe it was the air pressure. Either way, it seemed the complications had made his beloved soda obsolete in this universe.
But wait, shouldn't he still be able to drink soda in a place with normal gravity and air pressure? Why not drink it in a colony? Was there a problem with the pseudo-gravity created using centrifugal force? He didn't know. His brain couldn't even begin to conceive of it.
Okay, what about a normal house on a planet, then? Maybe soda would be popular there?
"I've decided." Steeling his resolve, he declared, "I'm going to buy a detached house in a nice residential area on a planet."
"Wow, that's sudden," Mia said. "What about this carbonation stuff made you want to do that? Neighborhoods on planets are really expensive. I mean, in the Duskthorn Empire, only the top-class citizens have the right to own land. I hear you need hundreds of millions of Vetra to buy that right."
"You must be shitting me. That's enough to buy a whale-class cruiser."
"I'm serious," she said. "An imperial soldier told me that."
Hundreds of millions of Vetra? That was too much, but he really wanted some soda! "Well, a man needs lofty goals."
"Do what you want, buddy."
Mia may have shrugged, but this was a life-or-death problem for him, one he intended to figure out. He ordered his food and water. Most of it was sent to his ship, though he had a little bagged so he could snack before they left the store. He even played it cool and paid for Mia's order, though all she got was a drink.
"Remember, you only got off so easy because you had me to guide you." The poor little space elf smirked as she jabbed a straw into a bottle made of some mystery material Von had never seen before.
"For sure," he replied dismissively.
The second they left the grocery store, a scream pierced the air. Von followed the sound in horror.
"Ah! N-Nooo!"
"Stay still, dammit."
"Heh heh, finally got you."
"She's a little dirty, but hey, I don't mind."
"Let's get to it already! I can't wait any longer."
A group of thugs dragged a girl toward a back alley as she kicked and thrashed. It was all too easy to picture what they planned to do to her. Von's hand went right for his laser gun, but Mia tugged on his belt to stop him before he could reach it.
"Stay out of it," she warned.
"Are you telling me to just ignore that?"
"Do you know her?"
"Well, no, but…"
While Mia and Von debated, the thugs yanked the girl closer to the alley. She looked right at him, her wide eyes pleading for help.
"Then it's not your problem. Stay out of it," Mia repeated.
"But…" Von hesitated clinching his fist .