Of The Stars

Chapter 3: Orientation Part 2

The Cafeteria was MASSIVE. It was comprised of 3 rooms, one huge room and two smaller rooms, all connected by 'scanner access' doors. One of the rooms was accessed through a locked scanner door in the larger main room. Only Officers, Commanders, etc. could enter and it had nicer seating with some better dessert options from the looks of it. Perks of a higher rank.

The other small room was on the left and was meant for visitors. It offered smaller tables; similar to the way the diner and Mr. McDonald's restaurant had been setup, and could only be accessed through the hallway. Non-Garrison personnel were not permitted to enter the main room and therefore had their own, smaller buffet setup.

The large main room was the general cafeteria area and boasted a large buffet along the back wall and rows of long tables with benches for seating. It reminded him of the dining halls back on base. Stars, he hoped there was meat here!

Ina took a seat at one of the tables, her back straight as an arrow; clearly her programming didn't include 'how to sit like a Human'. Keith smiled at her, when he got back to the cabin tonight he was going to message Regris and tell him all about how advanced Earth's robotics departments were. The Humans may not be space faring yet, but they sure know how to make incredible droids.

He stood behind Nadia at the buffet line. Nothing looked familiar; nothing! He started to panic a little, not wanting to grab anything he wouldn't like, but also not wanting to look even weirder by grabbing nothing. He decided to just follow Nadia's lead and grabbed what she did. They filled their plates with various fruits and veggies, Keith being sure to grab anything that was a meat product, and headed over to join Ina.

"OH DAMMIT! We forgot to grab drinks!" Nadia scowled at her tray and Keith looked around the room, he hadn't seen any drinks anywhere. Suddenly a large dispenser unit, exactly the same as the one in Mr. McDonald's restaurant, came into view. It was sitting on a metal counter top off to the side in a far corner of the room.

"I can get them." He offered and she blushed, looking up to smile broadly at him.

"My hero!" he rolled his eyes and walked over to the drink station, filling his glass with iced tea and hers with ... oh stars! He forgot to ask what she wanted. Reading the labels was useless, the words made no sense at all. What the quiznak was a 'Fruitopia'? Or for that matter, what was a 'Dr. Pepper' and why did it have a medical degree if it was a beverage? Was it medicinal? Oh Duh! Its inventor must have been a doctor and therefore it was named after him and given his title! He felt so stupid, he almost face palmed. In the end he had filled both glasses with iced tea.

Setting her drink down in front of her, he took his seat and began to eat. The 'watermelon' was ok, a little bland but otherwise decent. The 'strawberry' was amazing though and he filed it on the list with coffee, BBQ sauce, pancake sauce, and Mac'n Cheese. That list was growing substantially, he decided to solely keep track of the things he didn't like instead of both.

"So, you never answered my question? Why the Texas campus?" He blinked at her having actually forgotten all about that.

"Dad lives here."

"Oh ok, yeah that makes sense. Why is your dad in Texas if you're from Denmark?" Keith glanced up from his 'Sand-Witch' and gave her a puzzled look.

"Because he lives here?" he deadpanned the blatantly obvious answer.

"Right, I get that. But WHY does your dad live in Texas but not you?"

He groaned. She wasn't going to drop this anytime soon. Putting his Sand-Witch down on the tray he met her eyes and, with the goal of making her as uncomfortable as possible, he proceeded to tell a heavily simplified version of his early life. "I was born here. Mom left when I was 3 and took me with her. Now I'm back to get to know my father and attend the Garrison."