To say we were excited to eat would be an understatement. Barbecue was a favorite North American customary food, and as such you could find restaurants featuring it almost everywhere. A little bit about human dining habits before we feature the events of the restaurant itself.

  Humans are an exceptionally social species, and as such ‘dining alone’ is seen as inherently sad even when the person doing it is actually content with their life. Eating alone is seen as indicative of loneliness or unhappiness, and even today if you observe their films, if a director or storyteller wants to show that someone is lonely or a loner, they will almost always show the subject eating by themselves.

  Food is social, and as near as I can tell, always has been. Food is a sign of safety as people do not typically eat when in danger unless they have no choice. Food is a sign of luxury or poverty, what people eat shows what they have access to, and what they have access to grows or shrinks based on their access.

  Even on the modern Earth, there are differences to be found… but I had yet to learn how much so.

  We arrived at the parking lot and slid out of our seats, the parking area was nearly full, but this was to be expected. It was a Friday evening after all and even though work schedules for humans were flexible, certain hours were generally expected that the vast majority of people would be off.

  This ties back into their socialized natures, while it isn’t uncommon for dlamisans to eat together, on my homeworld this was purely about efficiency. You ate, you got back to work. You were allotted the equivalent of thirty minutes to consume what you needed to and then returned to your tasks as fast as possible. The large meals we consumed existed only because it was more efficient if everybody ate at once and if all the sustenance was in the same place.

  Taking joy in eating? Actually, spending resources on just making it enjoyable? The long socialization of a two-hour dinner just talking and savoring one course after another?

  Despite months on Earth, this was proving to be as hard to adjust to as it was delightful to learn.

  We entered with wagging tails for the dlamisans and hungry bellies for us all.

  The rich smell of barbecue sauce and smoked meat was so heavy that I would swear that even if we’d stuffed our noses we would still have smelled it.

  We made our way through the sea of booths and tables, guided by a woman who, to put it simply, would have fit well on the football team, but had a smile on her dark skin that was as bright as day. “Hey y’all, welcome to Babi Bac’z.” She said and led us with a confident saunter that could have belonged to either an assertive soldier or a confident cheerleader.

  She led us to a long table with enough chairs to spare, but I really didn’t notice anyone or anything except of course for my sister. Bau’s tongue was lolling out as she stared at the food, and I noticed that the way she walked had a kind of almost frantic urgency. She would have overtaken the server if the woman hadn’t taken up the better part of the pathway, and might have tried to do it if there had been a chance of getting the food one moment sooner by doing so.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “How long since you’ve had a full meal?” Bonny asked her as we sat down and the server said…

  “I’ll be back with your bread and some water to start, go ahead and place your orders as soon as y’all are ready.” She gave us all a warm round of smiles and politely left us to converse with each other.

  Bonny wasn’t the size of Boatswain or Byron, but like most scouts of the dlamisan military, she had undergone modification. Like humans, our people learned a long time ago that big people tend to survive more fights than short people, and part of the modification process for our military includes a little ‘fiddling’ with their genetics. This meant that Bonny grew a full head taller than my sister.

  So, my sister looked up at her and said, “Is it that obvious?”

  “Yes. I live on a ship that spends months at a time in the void, even with modification to reduce our food needs, we still have to ration. Sometimes we have to ration a lot. So, how long?” Bonny explained, and Bau put her hand over her belly as it rumbled.

  “Since I got to Earth. I live in the ruins of what used to be Chicago.” Bau said, and the humans at the table stared at her in open disbelief.

  “You can’t be serious.” William asked.

  “No way, that’s got to be a joke. Isn’t the radiation there deadly?” Rebecca asked and pursed her lips for a moment before she clucked her tongue and said, “It’s not nice to make jokes about that, a lot of humans died there. It’s just a radioactive grave now.”

  “I’m not joking. And yes there are still people there…winning their trust has not been easy.” Bau answered and the table was quiet for a moment just as the waitress returned and set down several bright red baskets full of golden bread that looked as if it had been baked already slathered in butter.

  Beside each basket she set down several small glass bowls with a scoop to add yet more butter to it, and then she began placing cups filled with ice water down by each of us. “Y’all just push the button on your table if you need somethin before you’re ready to order.” She said and left us alone again.

  The ‘button’ she referred to was on the little screen which sat in front of every seat at the table that we would use to select our meals for the evening. Bau was already going through her screen, panting with hunger while we spoke.

  “That’s not exactly true.” Byron said, contradicting Rebecca, “The radiation levels have been decreasing for years, though I’ll be damned if I know how people could be living there long enough to see that happen.”

  “The same reason I was able to survive there.” Bau answered.

  The answer clicked for Bonny Red immediately. “You were modified. What was your designated career before you ran off?”

  “I was an RGC Specialist.” Bau said it as if that should mean something to the rest of us.

  “Radioactive Gene Control Specialist. My job was to work with radiation to induce mutation in biological life to find useful ones that we could use for general improvement of our species. All of us were modified to make us resistant to radiation as a safety precaution. And before you ask, no! I did not like the work.” Bau explained her specialty and I saw expressions of understanding dawn on others.

  Fauve though, had questions of her own. “That sounds interesting, why didn’t you like it?”

  “Because I had to work on biological life.” Bau explained.

  “Like plants and simple cells?” Fauve asked.

  The dlamisans at the table were silent.

  “Like plants and multicellular bacteria, then…right?” Fauve pressed.

  Bau’s silent stare was answer enough.