Probably part of the reason that Tori stood out. She didn’t smell like that. She smelled fresh and clean—a wash that cleansed the breathing, and possibly even the spirit a little.
He brought her a tray of food—it wasn’t anything special, just nutrient bars and some soup, and a piece of bread.
She looked at the food for a moment and picked up the bread. “It’s kind of gray. Is it still good,” she asked, her voice quiet in a whisper.
Olmed nodded. “It’s blue grass. Normal. What color is bread on your world?”
“White or brown. Tan. Really dark brown. Depends on what kind of ingredients.”
“As is ours. Blue grass, though, is in most things. It travels well, and works in space better than most ingredients. So it is a very important commodity.”
Barnak leaned in. “You don’t have blue grass?”
Tori glanced at him. “Not on my world, no.”
“What world is that?”
“What?”
“The world.”
“What world?” she asked.
“The world you’re from.”
“My world.”
“Yes. Your world.”
“What about it?”
“You don’t have blue grass on your world?”
“No, I don’t. Didn’t we just cover that?” Tori asked.
Barnak waved his arm. “You have fun with that.”
Olmed glanced at Tori.
She winked at him.
They finished eating their meal and he walked her up to the ship’s bridge so she could see the main control of the ship.
“Come, you can take a look,” Olmed said. There were very few beings on the bridge. Scotts, and another crew member, but certainly not a full compliment for the seating.
“I don’t want to interfere,” she said. “Too many sci-fi movies. The visitor goes on the bridge and accidentally tries to blow up the ship or start a war because she poked the wrong control panel.”
Her stories about the fiction on her world. They must make a lot of fiction stories there! She always was equating to them as they spoke of different things.
“I guarantee you will not break anything.” He held her tiny hand and tugged her out of the entrance.
Scotts was watching from his seat. “Yes, you’re going to be fine. We won’t let you do anything drastic.”
“A lot of these panels are coded to their users,” Olmed said. “See?” he touched the panel, and nothing happened, since he wasn’t the authorized user of the ship.
“Oh, well that’s reassuring,” she said and put her hand on nearby panel.
A light underneath lit up.
