Dome of Souls (Book 2 of 2, after Story Less Told)

Ch15: Breakfast with Charlie

"And there's breakfast." Greg said, placing down a pile of steaks, bloody and externally charred, topped with barbecue sauce that had never even considered having anything sweet in it. Rika looked up at him with amazement as Mari debated on weather or not to even try it.

"How can you be this old and not have mastered cooking?" Rika asked.

"I'm gifted." he sighed.

"No seriously." she added. "You've lived long enough to master every hobby and talent you want, and you managed to never get even fairly good at making food, something you eat 3-6 times a day." she noted.

"Did it ever occur to you that I'm actually a very good cook, I just have taste buds that don't match anyone's preferences because I'm unique and alien, even to my own kind?" he asked. "Maybe to my tongue, this is gourmet shit right here. I also happen to consume more alcohol than food, and I AM considered one of the top brewers in the empire. Also, when you're drunk, everything tastes better so why bother?" he shrugged.

"I wanted pancakes." Mari whispered.

"Well the food printers are damaged from the storm and I pissed off my one cook by making her my one concubine. You don't need to know the details about that. It's not pleasant, mistakes were made and now I have both of them protesting and using my master suite. This is why we backup everything, kids. Redundant copies and backup redundant copies. If and when something goes to shit, you got more. In the mean time it's either the frozen dinners I stocked the other day, or cooking with Grampa Greg." he smiled.

"You know...cooking this bad could actually get a lot of fans on the internet." Rika noted.

"Nah, I got more things to keep busy with that are far more productive than impressing humans on the internet. It will be a sad and boring day when your old Grampa puts on a cooking show for human entertainment. A sad and boring day indeed." he squinted as the door opened and Charlie arrived to pick up the girls and see the catastrophe.

"Hey dad...see you decided to enlarge the pool to basically the entire first floor. Not my original choice, but creative." Charlie said hitting Greg with a high-five and a pulled-in bearhug.

"Haven't seen you in ages. You're growing up so fast." Greg joked.

"Yep, 6 foot 5. Only took 68 years to get there. What were you, 6 foot 5 by the age of...ten?" Charlie asked.

"Fifteen ish. I hit a growth spurt after that. Got you some breakfast." he said holding out the plate.

"Yea, I'll pass on that if you cooked it." he nodded. "So given the destruction to the house I worked hard designing and building...I assume the girls had a fun and entertaining time?"

"We mostly just watched." Rika bluffed.

"I doubt that very seriously. Anyway, I'm taking the girls to Osiris 2 for camp, so tell your degenerate grandfather bye." he half-joked. They hugged him and headed to the teleportation pads.

"Great kids." Greg nodded.

"Rika has her...mischievous days, but yea. So you gave Zephyr a ship?" he asked abruptly.

"Complicated story." he yawned.

"Dad you know I support you and I prefer to not know the details of the majority of your plans...but you gave Zephyr a ship?"

"Basically foolproof plan that would work even if it failed, too dangerous for a non-Osirian and too sketchy for anyone respectable to volunteer for...like you."