"Humans are a Nuisance"

[wombat9966]

Although a little taken aback at her tone Gary relaxed a little when he heard she had just attended her eleventh funeral.
"Yeah about that. Guess I was knocked for a bit of a loop. Barely remember what happened on the ship let alone the shuttle. I only just woke up ten minutes ago but a cooks instincts kick right in. As for this stuff,well all shuttle craft and ships have to carry it. Part of the Bureaucracy that is the Government don't cha know. Now as I was saying we could hand these out one by one to people and they could try to eat them, and don't get me wrong you can eat them they just taste blah."

"Me I say we still ration but let me mix and max, create a meal that people will actually enjoy eating and keep moral up, what do you say. Won't that be better Ms Psychoanalyst lady," he said with a grin.

 

[celestialdragon]

Alexa nodded. "That's true," she said, thinking. "And not all of psychiatrists psychoanalyze. I do my best not to, Freud never really suited me."

She began looking at them, and matched them up some. "Do we even have some pots and pans?" She asked.

 

[wombat9966]

Gary started laughing. " I was hoping you could tell me. Oh well there's plenty here we can improvise with. I see some big metal storage units over there. As long as they have only had packaged stuff in them we can turn them over and cook in them. Not ideal but there you go. I can whittle a couple of useful wooden spoons and there should have been plates and utensils where you found these rations. If not well everyone will just have to scrounge up their own. Something to keep them busy hey Doc?"

 

[celestialdragon]

Alexa nodded absently. "Yep, it sure will," she said. She didn't recall seeing any pots and pans on the EEC. She continued matching the rations together, and her being a student kicked in, and a ghost of a smile lit her face up.

 

[wombat9966]

Gary had been busy sorting through the piles pulling various meals out and putting together a small pile of what he thought might make a decent meal. Looking over at the Doc he saw her pause and start to smile.
"Penny for your thoughts Doc."

 

[celestialdragon]

"Oh, just remembering when I was in school," Alexa said, laughing a little. "I used to eat MREs more often than not, I could afford them."

 

[wombat9966]

Gary cringed but laughed. "Ouch, you ate this stuff voluntarily. You must have been hard up Doc. Don't you worry though, the way I cook it you won't recognize it."

Gary got a fire going and then quickly found three Storage containers big enough and clean enough to cook in. "Oh by the way, just how many people am I cooking for?"

 

[celestialdragon]

"Forty-six, including us," Alexa said. "And yes, I ate this stuff voluntarily. I actually enjoyed it. Of course, it was only through medical school that I did it, but I do keep a few on hand. Just in case I need them."

 

[wombat9966]

Gary was surprised and halted for a second in his preparations. "Only forty six of us. My god I didn't think there was so few of us."
He then gathered two large branches and after pulling out one of his smaller knives sat down and began to whittle down one of them. He was surprised at how easily the wood shaved off. It felt strong but it just peeled off under his blade. In no time at all he had a very basic spoon carved out, and started on the second one. Once he had these done he would start cooking and if the wood was this easy to carve maybe he would make a few bowls while he waited for his stew to cook.

 

[celestialdragon]

Alexa continued to mix and match, humming softly. She caught the eyes of some of the people and waved, smiling brightly at them. She worked, and when she was done, she pulled out her copy of the DSM and began to flip through it.

 

[wombat9966]

Natalie was having little luck with the game trail. It was leading her around and straight towards the Voran settlement. She was just about to give up when she came to the edge of the wooded area and spotted a clearing ahead. Creeping closer she saw a large meadow full of tall flowering plants with dark berries on top. Large flying insects hovered over them landing on them then flying on to land on others before flying away.

If Natalie was to guess she would have to compare this behavior to Earths bee's. If this was the case then hopefully these berries might be a source of food and if they could locate the 'hive' of these flying insects there may just be a similar substance to the bees honey in it.

She couldn't do this alone of course so it was time to take her findings back to the others. Turning around she started to jog along the path she had made on her way there. She would gather some of those foodstuffs to study too she thought as she got into the rhythm of her long distance running stride.

 

[wombat9966]

Gary finished his second spoon and put his makeshift pans over the fire on a hotplate he had jury rigged up. "Okay you have your usual dried vegetable mix, just add water. Yummy. What they say is curried chicken and your basic rice and vegetables. So lets say we make a nice chicken and rice curry with vegetables. Normally it is one packet per person but doing it this way I think we can get away with twelve packets of each. That's ten meals saved right there. If we can find something to eat soon like vegetables we can cut it down even more."
So saying he began to open packets and dump them into the pots. The chicken curry into one and the other got the vegetables, rice and a few bottles of water. Soon they were bubbling away nicely and Gary was humming away to himself as he adjusted the coals under each pot and stirred them up.
"Won't be long now Doc. Why don't you go inform everyone and see if they can find something to eat this out of."

 

[celestialdragon]

"Sure," Alexa said, smiling. She marked her place and she got up. She began to round everyone up, saying that they had a meal prepared.

 

[wombat9966]

Natalie arrived back in camp carrying several berries, nuts and wild fruits. She carefully found a container and stored them away and began to walk towards the EEC to see if she could find any scientific equipment that may have survived the crash. As she neared she could see a small group gathering around a small campfire and decides to find out what all the commotion is about.