Let’s buy some vegetables

“One of the highlights of this location is the fresh vegetables. You can buy organic food almost everywhere – and it’s not outrageously expensive!” She says. We are walking across the main axis. The sun, a line over us, is still fully powered, which means we are having at least another 4 hours of light. “Let’s buy some vegetables. Any preference?”

I hesitate to answer. As an human, I am very sensible to foreign food. The business between both planets is growing quite fine, but a lot of ground is still uncovered, the gastronomy being one of them. “Tomatoes.” I say. “I like tomatoes. Do you have of those?”. She smiles. “Yes. But they are blue – a lot of our vegetables are in my planet – I hope you don’t mind.” I nod. Then I turn my eyes to my left, where a strange buzz is calling me. A huge metallic bee is dancing over the giant flowers. “Drones.” She says. Of course. We have of those also. It makes sense to have them in such a flying ecosystem, since insects are not precisely easy to control. I run a little, just for fun. She laughs and catches me. I struggle with her, get free, and run again. We may not be of the same kind, but we are happy together. “There is the farm.” She says. I look. It’s oddly familiar to me, just one house, with the typical roof. Beyond it I can even see a barn. “Where is the market?” I ask. “Well.” She says. “We don’t have such a big crew here, so we don’t have precisely a market. You’ll see when we arrive.”

The “market” is a collection of racks showing baskets filled with goods and a touchscreen from time to time. Like a row of vending machines. “You can order what you want here ” she points at a big screen ” and then the robots will deliver it to you here ” to a little window under the screen with a flap door. Like the one of our vending machines. “Tomatoes, please. One kilo.” She says. Or I understand that. Translation is assisted, as usual. With a metallic sound, something is delivered to us. She grabs a paper basket and we walk to a table and a chair close by, obviously placed around for the purpose of snacking. “Try it!” I grab the blue ball, and give it a bite. Yes, it’s a blue tomato. maybe a little bit more salty than ours. I smile. She smiles. I’m happy. She’s happy. Life is beautiful when everything else is taken care of.