Page 70 of Dancing for the Minotaur

Terra looked at the green vines in surprise.

“You plant the basket?”

He nodded.

“Yes. If you keep it watered, it will eventually grow into a tarka vine.”

“And what does that do?”

“It produces edible purple pods that are not unlike your Earth vegetable called edamame,” Taurex told her. “They are delicious steamed and served with kafoola oil and salt.”

Terra stared at the basket in wonder.

“So your grocery bag turns into more groceries?”

Taurex nodded.

“That is the idea.”

Terra sighed.

“Meanwhile, we have plastic bags floating around in the ocean for five hundred years.” She shook her head. “I think your people might have us beat on this one.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Only on this one?”

Terra nudged him with her elbow.

“Hey now, Bull-man, don’t get cocky.”

Taurex rumbled laughter and took her hand again as they moved farther into the Market.

Terra couldn’t help noticing that they had barely let go of each other since leaving Commander Rarev’s office, and what was strange was how natural it felt.

On Earth she would have been acutely conscious of holding hands with her boss– especially a boss she had once danced naked for–but here on the Mother Ship it seemed different somehow. Maybe it was because everyone around them was doing the same thing.

Everywhere Terra looked she saw Monstrum males walking with women tucked close beside them, their hands entwined or their arms around one another. Some of the women were human and some were clearly alien, but they all seemed comfortable and happy.

It gave the entire place a strangely romantic feeling…or maybe that was just because Taurex was holding her hand.

They came next to what Terra first thought was a bakery, due to the warm, yeasty smell in the air, though again there was nothing resembling an oven anywhere in sight. Instead, enormous pods about the size of watermelons hung from thick brown vines overhead, each one giving off a faint glow from within.

“What are those?” she asked, pointing to the enormous pods.

“Fargas,” Taurex rumbled.

Terra frowned.

“Wait–that’s the bread? But I thought you said you were going to make it?”

He nodded.

“I am.”

Terra was confused.

“But…you mean the bread grows?”