Page 56 of I Fell for an Alien Popstar

The market was carved into the moon itself—a long, low tunnel bored through the rock, with stalls cut into the walls on both sides. Light panels ran along the ceiling in a warm amber strip.

The air was thick with steam and spice. Vendors called out in overlapping languages that my translator turned into a layered mess of competing pitches.

There were handmade gravity filters, crystal jewelry, and knockoff tour shirts for bands I’d never heard of, like Little Star and Shimmering Nebula. Zhari had to translate the names for me in English, and the Orinian language sounded just as pretty.

There were bolts of fabric that shifted whenever you walked past them, changing color in the light. Some stalls had holographic price tags hovering above the goods; others used handwritten signs on scrap metal, numbers etched in with something sharp.

A kid with bioluminescent freckles wove through the crowd, selling skewers of something on sticks that hissed faintly in the air.

“Get your fire-fried Gwoni! They are crispy and full of flavor!” the kid shouted.

My eyes wandered in every direction, trying to take it all in.

“This place is amazing,” I gasped.

“I know,” Zhari giggled. “It’s one of my favorite markets. I think the overall ambiance here is incredible. It’s filled with such humble creatures and the most unique things.”

She squeezed my hand tighter.

The food stalls were scattered everywhere, but the one Zhari wanted to visit was at the far end.

Steam billowed into the walkway in thick clouds. Shiny tables were bolted to the ground, their surfaces carved with symbols and words I couldn’t read.

I sat down on a bench that pulsed faintly from whatever ran through the rock beneath us. The vendor was a stocky alien with ten fingers on each hand and no translator chip, so Zhari ordered for us.

She walked over to the table and sat beside me. A minute later, two wide, shallow bowls were placed in front of us.

The food inside was unlike anything I had a reference for. Thin strips of something dark and slightly translucent were layered over a bed of pale grain that puffed and crackled faintly when the hot broth hit it.

The broth itself was the color of burnished copper and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. On top of a dried bed of greens, scattered like broken glass, were thin, translucent shards that dissolved the second they touched my tongue. They left behind a sharp, salty sweetness that made my whole mouth wake up.

“What is this?” I asked, already going in for a second bite.

“It does not translate well,” she said. “The closest human-language description would be something like slow-cooked mineral stew. It is kind of like the one we have on the bus, but this is traditional food here on Orin. The strips are a type of dried fungus, and the grain is local. It only grows on this moon.”

“It’s incredible,” I said, because it was. The grain had a weird, satisfying pop when I chewed it, the broth was warm and rich, and the fungus strips were chewy in a way that made me want to eat the whole bowl and order another one immediately.

“Better than Nebs?” she asked, watching my face with open amusement.

“Don’t make me choose,” I said. “That’s like asking me to pick a favorite child.”

“You don’t have children,” she said, then paused. “Do you?”

Her face turned serious as she stopped eating.

“No, I don’t. I definitely would have mentioned that.”

I pulled the stew close to my mouth and smiled.

“Nebs and this stew are my children now. I am raising them with equal love.”

She laughed and stole one of my fungus strips. I let her because I was in a generous mood, and also because watching her eat with her fingers instead of utensils was cute.

She looked like a little feral goblin.

We ate while the noise of the market drifted around us. Somewhere along the way, we’d started leaning into each other without even noticing—our shoulders brushing softly together. Beneath the table, her knee pressed against mine, and neither of us moved away.

“What did you imagine,” she asked after a while, “when you were back on Earth and thought about this?”