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“Oh good—I’m hungry!” Teebra exclaimed.
“Let’s go see what they’ve got for us today.” Kissie nodded at Mia. “You better stick with us—it gets kind of crowded.”
They made their way to the end of the open aired kitchen to the far table where a large kettle of some kind of stew had been set out. There were fresh baked loaves, obviously made from the pink dough they’d been kneading, and large bowls of something Mia hoped was fresh butter, even though it was blue.
The stew smelled delicious—like a cross between spaghetti and the vegetable beef soup Mia’s mom had made when she was little. But just as she was getting excited to taste it, two of the women put a lid on the pot and, working together, lifted it by a thick iron ring and carried it away. Some other women wrapped up the fresh-baked bread and bowls of blue butter and followed them.
“Hey…” Mia’s mouth had been watering and she watched in disappointment. “Where are they taking the food?”
“Oh, that’s notourfood, silly,” Teebra told her. “That was for the men folks—the husbands.”
“You reallyarenew here if you think we’d get real food to eat,” Kissie said, giving Mia a skeptical look.
“Well…whatarewe going to eat then?” Mia demanded. It had been a long time since breakfast and all she’d really had was the fake grapefruit smoothie from the Nutrient Crème spout—she was getting hungry!
“We’ll have whatever the tubes give us,” Teebra said primly. “Come on—the line is over here.”
She led the way to a long line of women, which the three of them joined. They all filed past a stack of extra large, insulated cups—the size of a massive Big Gulp back home, Mia thought. She took one of the cups since everyone else was. As the line moved along, she saw that it ended in a row of brass tubes that hung straight down from the ceiling, just like the Nutrient Crème dispensing tube in her kitchen did.
“Hey,” she said frowning. “Is this stuff Nutrient Crème?”
“Some form of it.” Kissie shrugged. “They change it up pretty regularly so we don’t get bored with it.”
“All the wives have to drink it—it’s for our own good,” Teebra lectured.
Mia felt a twinge of guilt about consuming yetmoreof the apparently ubiquitous Nutrient Crème, especially when she remembered how strongly Sev felt about it. But her partner wasn’t there to judge her and she wasn’t about to go hungry just to please him. Pushing her guilt to one side, she moved on down the line.
The three of them reached the tubes and when Mia stuck her extra-large cup under one of them, it belched out a strange, chunky mixture that looked surprisingly like vegetable soup—though of course, she didn’t recognize any of the vegetables in it. It was hot, too—so hot she could feel its warmth even through the insulated cup.
“Hey—it’s some kind of soup, I think,” she said, looking down at it.
“I got fiddle-fish broth.” Kissie nodded in apparent satisfaction.
“Mine’s broken-berry glaze—my favorite.” Teebra smiled dreamily. “Hey, let’s go sit on the grass while we eat, all right?”
Kissie didn’t seem to mind and Mia followed the two women to a spot under a large plant that looked like a tree but had huge, tropical, fan-like leaves as big as a person. The leaves were blue and purple and provided shade from the bright beams of the artificial star overhead at the top of the Dome.
“Mmm, this is so nice!” Teebra sighed, sipping from her cup. Whatever was inside was a deep reddish purple that reminded Mia of black raspberry pie filling.
“It’s not bad,” Kissie admitted. Her own cup—when Mia got a peek—appeared to be filled with murky liquid that had many tiny silver fish darting through it.
Mia’s own cup still seemed to hold vegetable soup, which was actually very tasty—almost exactly like what her mom had made when she was little. She sipped it, wondering how to bring up the topic of getting out of the Dome. At last she thought of a way.
“Do you think it’s safe in here?” she asked, nodding at the shimmering rainbow walls which surrounded them. “In the Dome, I mean?”
“Safe?” Teebra frowned. “Of course it’s safe—why do you ask?”
“I’m just a nervous person, I guess.” Mia looked around anxiously. “I mean…what if there was an emergency—is there any way out of here besides that one doorway that leads to the tunnel and the Docking Cave?”
“No, I don’tthinkso,” Teebra said, frowning.
“I’ve heard there is,” Kissie said unexpectedly. “I’ve heard the Prophet has a special back door—a way out in case things go wrong…ifyou know what I mean.” She nudged Mia with her elbow, almost spilling her fishy broth in the process.
“Really?” Mia looked at her with wide eyes. “Where is it?”
“Don’t know.” Kissie shrugged. “I suppose one of the Concubines might. It’s just a rumor, anyway,” she added. “The Prophet does what he wants around here and there have been some rumors that not all his Concubines lost their husbands by accident—you know? Which might make some people angry, if the rumors turned out to be true.” She gave Mia a knowing wink.
“Kissie, howcanyou?” Teebra looked almost ready to cry. “Howcanyou speak ill of the Prophet? He is blessed by the Universe itself to lead and direct us! How can you be so sacrilegious?”
