Marina shakes her head at the exchange over their resident Companion.
"Shiny," Marina says when Harmony enters and announces their arrival time. "Lunch would be fantastic, Harmony. What'd you have in mind?"
She also notices Gabriel enter. "You must be a newbie freeloader!" she says warmly, intentionally going for the awkward introduction.
Harmony looks at the can of protein sludge she'd been planning to heat up for herself, and then at the crew. "...Sure, I guess I can make something actually worth eating..." she says, "Let's see what we have..." She puts the can back on the shelf, and starts looking through the rest of the mess, trying to find whatever useful ingredients she can. After a few minutes, she settles on beef-flavored protein powder, a small amount of actual beef jerky, some feh chun old vacuum-sealed noodles, and some of her personal collection of spices. She pours a fair amount of water to a pot, and then adds all the ingredients she's scrounged up, before setting it on the stovetop to boil, stirring occasionally. "I hope no one minds noodle laksa. It's not exactly proper, but it's better than the ri shao gou shi bing protein salad I had planned."
"Protein salad? Why would anyone want to eat that?" Phillip asks. "I'm sure noodle laksa is ten times better than whatever goes into that go se."
He turns to Nadra, blushing for only a moment.
"Pardon my language, miss."
-
Meanwhile, Kelly is going to go to say hello to Alan.
"Holding up okay?" he asks, leaning against the doorway of Alan's makeshift bunk in the engine room. "Always the quiet one, you are."
"Couldn't be better, sir," Alan says with a smile. "I actually liked our short visit to Rubicon, nice and quiet, few people, all that fancy terraformin' equipment. Though all those merc's put me off a little..."
Out of all the crew Kelly is the one Alan's most comfortable around, mostly out of gratitude for not being kicked out when the captain first found him stowing away on the Gan Ying.
"Because, it looks like salad, and you can put salad dressing on it..." She says, still stirring, "...Though that's pretty much where the similarities end. After that, it's just... protein goo with salad dressing on it. But at least it tastes better than anything spiced with ionized, depleted engine plasma... Bet you didn't know that's actually edible, right? Caught me by surprise, too."
"It's one of the ingredients that goes into Alliance navy rations, apparently. My father insisted I learn how to prepare it, just in case. But I doubt it will ever be necessary; at least not on this ship." she smiles back at Nadra, adding some more noodles, protein powder, and spices to the pot to account for the growing number of people interested in her cooking. "Oh, and it's actually not as bad as it sounds. It's not so much bad as it is... well, totally lacking in any flavor whatsoever."
(Here is my source on that. As well as the recipe for the dish.)
"You're... you're not going to be puttin' that engine plasma in there, are you?" Phillip asks. "That's downright disgustin'. Meant to be cheap, though, right?"
When Shaftoe makes his comment, Phillip turns to him.
"What makes you say that?"
-
"Mercs?" Kelly asks. "Harlan didn't mention them when you all showed up. Funny that they'd be there. Any case, they're far behind. Not like we'll be on Rubicon again any time soon. Fuel rates cost an arm and a leg."
"Well, there's another interesting little fact I had never before thought about..." Nadra says, not sure whether to be amused or disgusted by it.
"And don't worry. Considering I wasn't even aware such a thing was edible, that should give a clue as to whether or not engine plasma is served on this ship."
"No, it won't be included, not in any meal I cook." Harmony says, stirring vigorously for a moment, before taking the pot off the stove. "Besides, I don't even think Alan saves it. It might be worth a small sum on the market, though I have no idea who'd pay for it." she adds while pouring the contents of the pot into seven fairly large bowls, arranging them on a tray. She reaches into a drawer, grabs a handful of packaged chopsticks, and places them next to the bowls, before bringing the whole arrangement to the table. "Well, lunch is served. Beef noodle laksa. Dig in, while it's hot." She takes her own bowl, and then a seat- across from Nadra if she can manage it.
(At last count, there were seven people in the common room- if I'm missing anyone, well... let's just assume she pours everyone a bowl)
Kenneth slides into the seat across from Nadra just before Harmony can sit down, grabbing a pair of chopsticks from the pile and pulling his bowl over in front of him. He's unable to resist giving Nadra a little wink.
The doc' takes an experimental bite, swallows, wipes his mouth and smiles. "Great job, as always, Harmony."