Read Online Embarkment 2577 by Maria Hammarblad - Free Book Online

and pretend.”
    “Again, moot point. No one pays for
anything anyway.”
    They sounded as if they’d gone through
the same ritual countless times before. I grinned and shook my head, and Adam
glanced over at me and smiled. Best day ever.
    It only took a couple of minutes before
a tall man with thick blonde hair and beard came up to us. He wore civilian
clothes, but still reminded me of a Viking. It was easy to imagine him with a big
and heavy sword.
    I was comfortable, perched on my stool,
feeling pretty and protected, so I flashed him a smile and ignored him.
    The man nudged Adam. “Hey, Commander,
this your girlfriend?”
    Interesting question. Maybe I could
finally get some closure in the matter.
    The bartender rolled his eyes, and Adam
answered in a detached voice, “Well, she is a girl, and my friend, but not
technically my girlfriend.”
    The man let a heavy hand fall down on my
shoulder and murmured, “Good. Then you won’t mind if I buy this cutie a drink.”
    Adam’s expression never changed. He
lifted the man’s hand off effortlessly, and as he answered, “Actually, I do
mind,” the man’s face wrinkled with pain.
    “Alex, this is Leonard who runs a
multispecies club further down the promenade. Unfortunately, he was just
leaving.”
    Leonard bobbed his head up and down in
agreement, and groaned, “Pleasure to meet you, Alex. Dude, please let go of my
hand, I wasn’t going to have her join the show or anything.”
    “That’s good, because I will throw you
out an airlock before that happens.”
    I could visualize it, and deeming from
the papery colour on Leonard’s face, he could too. I smiled and waved my
fingers in the air, “Bye, Leonard.”
    The Viking jogged towards the door as
soon as Adam’s grip on him loosened. The bartender leaned his elbows against
the counter. “That man never learns. Remember when he tried to make Anya join
the show and she shot his beard off?” Turning to me, he added, “You like your
drink hon’? Want another one?”
    I most certainly did.
    Once we left the pub, the masses of
people had thickened. My eyes darted around, trying to take in everything at
once.
    “The afternoon shift is over. There will
be a new burst of people at midnight.”
    It made sense. “Where are we going?”
    “Just a little further.”
    He took me to a restaurant, and
disregarding most of the guests wearing uniform and the waiter being a shiny
robot on three wheels, I could pretend we were on Earth. Adam even ordered food
to keep me company, but mostly played with it. He built a fort of potatoes on
one side of the plate. It was cute, and I wanted to say something about it, but
I couldn’t think of the right words, so I pretended not to notice.
    I’d seen him eat and drink. What did he
do with the stuff? Asking about his inner workings seemed intrusive. He was so
sweet and I didn’t want to offend him. My curiosity would have to wait.
    Evening turned into night, and we
strolled through the dimly lit arboretum. Adam sounded apologetic, “I guess the
plants are sleeping. We’ll have to come back in daytime.”
    “I’m impressed with how big it is. I
wonder how many different kinds grow here.”
    “There should be thirty four thousand
eight hundred and thirty seven. There used to be more, but we dropped some of
them off not long ago.”
    I tucked my hands around his arm again.
“Thirty four thousand? That’s crazy.”
    “Not really. There are about three
hundred thousand kinds of plants on Earth, and that’s one planet. These come
from many places.”
    Considering the size of the ship, the
area could be huge, stretch over several floors, even. It was more than large
enough for me to get lost.
    Adam paused in front of a little bush.
“This one, right here, is a part of a bush from California. It’s more than
thirteen thousand years old.”
    We moved on in silence, and my mind
played with the same questions as always. Now might be a good time to talk
about it. “So… When are