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“It’s a beverage?” he asked, frowning at the black liquid sloshing in his mug.
“I drink it black, so I guess you do too. We could ask for cream and sugar.”
“Cream?”
“It’s the liquid baby cows drink from a cow’s udder.”
His face took on a greenish cast. “No cream.”
“You’re right. It’s best black.” Turning, I took my mug over to an empty table and he followed. I sat and closed my eyes, sniffing the brew. “It smells just like coffee.” My words came out giddy, but I’d been nursing a massive headache from caffeine withdrawal. If this was crystal alien decaf, I was going to cry.
Riding in stasis must’ve put withdrawal on hold.
Last night, after we’d feasted on veggie tacos, Aizor was skeptical at first, but then he joined Team Taco. After, we’d placed our plates on the counter. Aizor turned and walked away. I watched as the plates melted into the surface. He told me it had been this way since they moved into their crystal homes, that the plates and food would appear whenever they had need and disappear when they were finished. Many tools and weapons as well. He told me they’d only lived among the gods for a year and were amazed at first but had gotten used to their assistance.
I could get used to this too.
Today, I was going to take an inventory of what the crystal aliens gave and what they didn’t. And while I wouldn’t push it, but one day soon, I was going to ask for pizza.
“What do you think?” I asked after he took his first sip of coffee.
He grimaced. “You enjoy this.”
“Very much.” And it tasted exactly the way it should. How had the crystal beings gotten it right? “Are your gods everywhere?”
“Everywhere as in beyond this planet?” He shrugged. “I live my life here and in this moment only. I’ve never considered what might be happening elsewhere. But if our gods are here, why wouldn’t they live and thrive on other planets?”
I remembered people speculating that aliens built the Egyptian pyramids and scoffing. Now, I wondered. But he was right. If I chose to remain here, it wouldn’t matter what happened on a planet far from this one.
I drained my mug and looked longingly at the pitcher. Aizor lowered his nearly full cup to the table.
“You don’t need to drink it,” I said.
“You like it. I want to like it too.”
“We’re different people. We can share things, but we don’t need to adore everything the other does.”
He nodded. “You won’t be insulted if I don’t drink it?”
“Not one bit.”
“Wonderful.” With a smile, he went up to the counter. He returned with the pitcher and refilled my mug, then went back and requested breakfast, lowering the two plates onto the table.
I stared at my crystal meal and wondered how my body would digest it and if my teeth were up to crunching through it.
I wrangled my way through the meal, glad much of it was softer crystal fruit and something that vaguely tasted like a salted caramel protein bar, and we returned our plates to the counter. Like a little kid, I watched them ooze into the surface, leaving only smooth crystal behind.
We were leaving when I spied the small creature from the day before sneaking along the right wall in the main room.
“Wait here?” I said to Aizor, pointing to the animal. “And don’t attack it.”
“It’s a pest,” he said, but he patted my shoulder. “I won’t kill it. Yet.”
I hurried to the counter. “Pet food, please.” Feeling a bit like Captain Picard, I watched as a plate with crystal food appeared on the surface. It looked exactly like what I’d eaten for breakfast and my belly had so far accepted. But since the creatures on this planet appeared to be at least part crystal—except for the Zuldruxians—maybe the small beast adored glassy food.
I took the plate into the big room, finding Jessia and four male warriors bristling with crystal swords and spears gathered around Aizor. All of them stared at the creature.
“What is it?” I asked when I joined them. “As in, what do you call that small beast?”
