Fortune Favors the Foolish

Now that we had narrowed down the cooking methods, we could also narrow down the ingredients! In an excited mood, I searched up what ingredients came from those two planets.

...Right, they were destroyed early and their cultures weren't even visible in the modern age. Why didn't I think that most of their ingredients would also perish together with their planet? I sighed in disappointment as I looked at the ingredient list from both planets, which fitted very nicely into one page.

Combined, the known ingredient list from both planets barely made 20. And even if I added the ingredients from the neighboring planets, the list couldn't even hit 50.

...

Gritting my teeth as the only lead I had for the preservative neutralizer proved to be far shorter than I had thought, I discreetly waved at Sazzy to catch her attention. Then I explained my reasoning to her.

[... Might as well give it a try. If the ingredients don't work, then we can try to rack our brains to come up with something else.]

I agreed with Sazzy as we both left the barrier once more to head to the necessity store. The necessity store most probably didn't have all the ingredients we needed, since it shouldn't have everything right? Maybe after we looked for what the store had, we could order the rest of the ingredients online and have them shipped to Vastum.

[It's not as if we are lacking in UC. But we might need to borrow someone else's account. Honestly the personal terminal isn't exactly the most private of devices.]

Sazzy said as she referenced the time we had the police called on us in the middle of the stream.

"Yeah. Maybe we can ask either Tom or Ralph to order it for us?"

Hearing both their names, Sazzy gave another roll of her eyes.

[That's the least they could do for us!]

Reaching the necessity store, I referenced the several windows I had open on what each of these ingredients looked like. For now, we decided to only experiment with the ingredients from both Hostia and Bellum. There was no way we could finish experimenting with 50 ingredients in one day. There was also a probability that we couldn't finish experimenting with all 20 ingredients by today.

I picked up around 3 of each ingredient we could find and placed them into our basket. Since it was the first time we were gathering so many ingredients, we took a basket from near the door of the store. The capacity of the basket could only hold around half of our list, so around 30 ingredients. Even then, the basket was so heavy that it left imprints on my arm after carrying it for a short period of time.

Carrying out our haul, we walked back to the research counter and started our experiments.

"The Colonizers were incredibly technologically advanced compared to everyone else, but the fact that they bothered to bring such a poisonous dish into space probably meant that there must be some sort of obvious change or sign that could indicate that the poison was neutralized. Otherwise, I don't think they would bring it to other planets."

Rationalizing the Colonizer's actions as much as I could, I set up five small containers with the preservative inside them. Into these containers, I placed each one with a single different ingredient and boiled them for 5 minutes. Then I left them inside darkness for another 5 minutes.

Within these 10 minutes, I repeated this experiment again with another batch of different ingredients. Of course I labeled all of the containers to avoid mixing them up.

After 5 minutes was over, I used the cylinder analyzer Ralph had passed to me before the two of them left to measure the toxicity of the preservative.

During the past three days of working with the two of them, I had picked up how to tell what chemicals were present, and how much was present, while using an analyzer.

I recorded the data and the success of each ingredient at lowering the toxicity of the preservative. Using the data that I had collected through previous experiments when trying to determine the right ratio of ingredients to recreate the original preservative, I compared the results with the ingredient to the toxicity levels of that experiment. If the results were significantly lower, or lower than I expected them to be, I would underline this ingredient in my notes and set it aside. If there was no significant change, I would just record the data, write a 'failure' next to its name in my notes, and pour out the mixture.

In this fashion, I tested all the ten different ingredients and narrowed them down to two 'successful' ingredients.

Now it was time for the second stage of our experiment.

I set up five containers which contained the preservatives as well as one chosen successful ingredient. Then to this ingredient I would add another different ingredient. I would then let them soak in darkness for 5 minutes. Then I measured and compared the toxicity levels with the toxicity levels of the preservative plus that ingredient. I repeated this for each successful ingredient with all the other ingredients, noting down all the results, until I ran out of ingredients.

We would then head back to the necessity store to grab more ingredients. But this time I prioritized getting the other half of the list to increase the number of successful ingredients.

Surprisingly, the necessity store had all the ingredients we needed. When I had reached the store, Sazzy had told me to follow her and led me to all of them. With a proud look, she explained that the previous time we had come there, she had been looking around the store and marking out all the areas where the 20 ingredients were. Glancing at her personal terminal, I saw a crude outline of the necessity store with red circles, arrows and labels for each ingredient location.

"Thank you Sazzy. That was a great help."

Whispering to her my gratitude, I saw her smile stretch to her ears as her face turned a slight shade of pink.

[No problem! You can always count on me!]

With Sazzy's handy map, we made quick work of the store and headed back to the research counter in no time.

Repeating all the experiments I did before, this couple of batches of experiments netted me another three successful ingredients.

Looking at our list of successful ingredients, Sazzy and I sighed in tiredness as we decided to call it a day. Between all the testing and analyzing, we had gathered a lot of data that we needed to sort nicely into another note so we can better organize and interpret from it in the future.

Pressing the off switch on the barrier, I threw out all the failures but kept all the successes. Stuffing them into the box, we noted down the time as we left for the canteen.

All that work had us quite hungry, and without Tom and Ralph to set a schedule for eating and resting, we had thrown ourselves into experimenting without a single concern about food. Thanks to that, the canteen was currently quite empty except for a few night owls.

Heading to the vending machine, I let Sazzy choose the meal, picked it up and sat at the nearest table. Scooping the delicious food into my mouth, I could feel all my tiredness fade away under the sweet lingering taste of the dish.

[Do you think we can search for the recipe for this and make it ourselves once we go back to Mors?]

Sazzy was drooling as she 'tasted' the food.

Pulling up my personal terminal, I searched for the brand that I had seen on the vending machine and went to their webpage. Clicking on the 'Recipe' button, I was redirected to their recipe page where I could see all the ingredients used in the meal. There were also some general steps on how the dish was made.

Showing this page to Sazzy, her eyes lit up brighter and I could almost see drool leaking out from the side of her mouth.

"Once we go back to Mors, I'll make some for you if you want."

Closing my personal terminal and going back to my food, I tried to hide my smile as I saw Sazzy's already bright eyes light up so much that I thought I could go blind from looking at them.

I scooped the plate clean and stood up, preparing to place it in the dishwasher and head back to the apartment, when I heard two familiar voices bickering.

"I told you I would find her here around this time! Look! I won! So you owe me a meal!"

Ben's voice rang out loudly in the canteen, sounding very proud and haughty. It was followed by a scoff.

"Yea, but you guessed that she would only be here after two days! I guessed the closest, at five days! So by technicality I win!"

Wilber's voice also boomed in the small canteen. They weren't even trying to hide that they saw the separation of our team, and even betted between themselves on it!

Placing my dishes in the dishwasher, I turned around to face the two loud mouths that were now in front of me with wide grins on their faces.

"Hey Alex! You should have just finished with your work right? Want to join us for some stress release?"

Winking, Wilber's laughter then vibrated through the entire canteen. Beside him, Ben also winked as he added on.

"We booked the soft room today. Figured you needed some rest after working so much. After all, without a healthy mind, how can you have a healthy body!"

Half dragging me, the three of us walked all the way to the stress area where the soft room was.

When Kyle was introducing me to the company, he had also introduced the soft room to me. But we had only peeked at the inside from outside the door. This time, Ben and Wilber directly pushed me inside and closed the door behind us.

My first impression of the room was that it was built after its name, and not named after the room was built. The entire room radiated the word 'soft'. The cushioned floors and walls sank as I walked on them, and the room was littered with soft toys small and large. They were everywhere.

Behind me, I heard a rustling sound. Turning around, I saw the two men stripping themselves of their full body suit and placing it into cube shaped lockers.

"I recommend you remove the suit. It makes the experience so much better."

Wilber stated as he folded his suit and stuffed it into one of the lockers. He then wrote his name on the electronic nameplate.

As he placed the nameplate on, he closed the glass door of the locker, and whirling sounds immediately came from his locker.

"The lockers here clean your suit while you're relaxing! It's incredibly convenient!"

Ben smiled as he did the same.

Following his actions, the three of us then headed deeper into the room. I looked around at the toys, wondering what to do, when a large teddy bear the size of myself caught my attention.

It was huge. And looked very soft.

Going over, I plopped myself onto its lab and hugged its large body.