SAM

  I took my seat again, admiring my pasta bowl. Before I could dig in, Cora gasped, “Is that Chicago deep dish?!” pointing at the pan in front of Jax.

  It was black metal and held a buttery crust filled with smooth tomato sauce.

  “What’s Chicago?” Jax asked airily.

  “THAT!” Cora yelled. “That is Chicago in a pan, right there.”

  “This is called pizza, Earthens,” Jax corrected, and Cora and I erupted.

  “No, that’s Chicago deep dish that someone brought here—“

  Ree interrupted Cora’s rant, “Or pizza that someone took to Earth and named ‘Chicago style.’”

  Now there was a thought.

  “Want a bite of Andromedan deep dish?” Jax asked wryly, holding out a fork full of cheese and tomato-covered faux meat.

  “Wait, are you eating it unsliced, like soup or something?” Cora grimaced.

  “Sliced? Like pie?” Jax wondered, clearly confused, and Cora and I giggled again, taking the forks of deep dish.

  It was excellent. I’d never had Chicago pizza, but if it was anything like this, it had to be good.

  “Mmmm,” Cora appreciated. “A very good imitation, even if you are eating it straight outta the pan like a Neanderthal.”

  “What’s a Neanderthal?” Jax wondered, and we laughed again.

  After the heavy discussion of exploding starliners, the levity was welcome, and I looked at my pasta dish appreciatively.

  A gorgeous nest of linguine was swirled with paper-thin sliced veggies, covered in cream sauce, and topped with six plump shrimp. I speared one, taking a bite of tender, succulent crustacean.

  “Oh wow, this is the best shrimp I’ve ever tasted!” I moaned.

  “You like it?” Jax asked, pleased. “Freshwater shrimp, mussels, and fish are the top non-plant proteins in Five Spheres. So abundant we can harvest them year round. We cut through the ice in winter, and feed everyone without causing degradation to the species. And we still have enough to export. They’re very popular off sphere.”

  “Really?” Cora wondered

  Jax nodded, “We call them ‘ice shrimp’ for drama, and that’s caught on wonderfully. Piggy-backing on the success of the ice berries. We followed in the steps of the Shurwinn, exporting one-of-a-kind foods. Ice berries grow nowhere else in the Cosmos, you know."

  Jax scooped up pizza with a fork then went on lecturing about the produce, "The native fruits were too bitter to enjoy, but we hybridized them with a Trauton berry. They tasted divine and grew like weeds everywhere. If you want, two weeks from now, you’ll be able to pick your own to your hearts content. Eat them plain, cook them in a pie, freeze them for winter. Doesn’t matter what you do with them, they’ll be delicious. We ship them frozen all over the 9 Galaxies.”

  “Charging an arm and two legs,” Ree snickered.

  “That’s genius!” I grinned.

  Jax continued the history lesson, “Oh, we make a killing from ice berries, but you haven’t asked what our top export is.”

  “Uh, I’m guessing it’s not pizza,” Cora deadpanned.

  “Indeed!” Jax laughed. “Far more mysterious,” they whispered, waggling their eyebrows.

  “Achem, Sam. I’m not a plural. It’s either ‘he’ or ‘ee,’” Jax corrected my thought.

  “What?” I asked, lost. Were we still talking about exports?

  “Jax is referencing the local parlance for non-binaries. Here on Uno, we have a lot of languages like Trauton and Shurwinn that have gender-neutral words. But since Universal doesn’t include the necessary pronouns, we decided to update the language. And it’s spreading—very slowly,” Ree explained.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  A pad flew from beneath the table, text scrolling for me and Cora. Convenient, Ree.

  Search: So you’ve moved to Five Spheres enby code

  Result: link

  I scanned the article and found a whole new world.

  QUOTE BLOCK:

  Born male?

  He = Ee

  His = Es

  Him = Em

  Born female?

  She = Se

  Her(s) = Ser(s)

  Don’t know?

  Ask. We’re not shy about it.

  I sat back, dumbfounded. “You’ve changed Universal?”

  Ree nodded, “Generations ago. Don’t worry if it takes you awhile to adjust. It’s a leap, but people get used to it pretty quick.”

  “Now that we’ve handled that, do you want the actual interesting part of what I was gonna tell you? Hmm?” Jax raised es brows, and I decided to try thinking in the enby code I’d just learned.

  I nodded to em.

  Ee leaned in, conspiratorially. “Our number one export isn’t a food or textile or plant of any sort. No, it’s far more mysterious.”

  A wide grin looked like it would split Jax’s pale face. “It’s marble—pink, red, purple, and blue. Colors found nowhere else in the Known Cosmos, but abundant under the ice of all five frozen spheres here in this system,” ee winked.

  “Hot damn!” Cora cursed. “Borden Sloan did that, didn’t he? Made sure there was a commodity under ground that could be harvested for centuries? What did he do? Reshape the ground beneath our feet and turn it into high-value marble?”

  Jax just grinned and shrugged, chewing a huge bite of pizza.

  I nodded appreciatively at the genius strategy. If you had the power to shape stone and needed to build a civilization, why not bake a high-value material into the ground?

  Something struck me all at once. A question I hadn’t yet considered.

  On Shurwinn, Bitsy told me they didn’t have a registry of Talented, so there was no head count. But in the hundred years since Five Spheres had been colonized, millions migrated and had children, so the population could be a billion now.

  How many Talents had surfaced like Borden’s?

  My eyes flicked from Jax to Ree, certain my thoughts were displayed for any and all telepaths to hear. Jax grinned, raising a hand near my face and plucking air. Yeah, ee could grab my thoughts whenever, and that didn’t really bother me anymore.

  Why were the two of them so eager to tell all? We’d asked questions, but our hosts demanded nothing in return.

  Jax shrugged, “Grandmother seems to think you’re important, but mostly, we like you. Dreamers are a special lot. Yeah, we get them, but they can be standoffish, especially newbies. Afraid. Which you are, but you’ve got a fire in you,” ee said, eyes alight. “Something wants to be born, and I do not want to miss that.”

  Well that veered into creepy.

  “So, you’re a prophet now, Jax?” Cora teased, lightening the mood.

  “Everyone’s finished with dinner, right? I want dessert!” Ree chimed in.

  “A sweet for my sweet?” Jax asked, kissing her nose.

  Gag.

  “We could make him do Ice Berry Slippers,” Ree said mischievously.

  Jax rolled es eyes, “The show off would probably love that.”

  “Are we still talking about dessert?” Cora asked frankly.

  Jax sighed dramatically and waved a hand towards the kitchen. “He’s already working on them. Don’t miss the show. Far side of the kitchen.”

  Cora and I slid out of the booth and made a beeline for the glass-enclosed kitchen. On the far side, a chef in a black-embroidered charcoal grey uniform had his back to us, but the hair and build were familiar.

  “Is that . . .” Cora started.

  We circled around, watching the knife-wielding man. He looked up at our approach, and Pitch’s smiling eyes met mine.

  “You’re the one who made all the food in Shurwinn!” Cora snapped her fingers. “You’re a chef! Here at Encore!” She motioned to the display cases lined with artistically arranged fruit platters.

  Pitch whittled away at a pink-striped white melon the size of my hand, scooping out the pale pink flesh and shaping the rind into a slipper. Then he put on a little show, twirling the knife through his fingers and tossing it over his shoulder. He plucked it out of the air behind his back, all while looking straight at us.

  “Holy fuck!” Cora laughed. “HC was right. The whole Joon family’s insane.”

  I mimicked clapping and did a fan-girl happy dance, making Pitch chuckle.

  He picked up a pastry bag and piped purple mousse into the slipper then plated it, garnishing it with pink melon flowers. Once he had four of them ready, he nodded to the pick up window and slid the gorgeous desserts to us.

  “Thanks, Pitch! These look amazing! Can’t wait to try them,” Cora mushed.

  I blew Pitch a kiss, and he laughed, catching it and putting it on his cheek.

  Once we’d placed the desserts in Jax and Ree’s eager hands, I spooned a bite of Ice Berry Slipper into my mouth—yum! Sweet and creamy, and just fruity enough to be delicious without overbearing.

  “Wow!” Cora moaned, elbowing me. “We should’ve had him making dessert all that time on Shurwinn. Think he can do those white chocolate trees?”

  Bong! Our pads both pinged a new message at the same time. Odd.

  Wondering if something was wrong, I flicked open my messages.

  Pitch: Wanna go to The Cabin for Thanksgiving?

  I stared bug-eyed at Cora.

  “Hell yes!” she nodded.

  Sam: You betcha!

  Cora: Yep!

  Pitch: Inviting Marjorie and Rhoda too. Reunion. ??

  Sam: Can’t wait! ??

  So, Pitch was messaging now? Not speaking to us, but writing to us? Interesting. The image of his ivory book Unknown Cosmos popped into my mind, and I tried to not think about it due to the inconveniently principled telepath at the table with me.

  Jax looked at me, spoon held aloft, one eyebrow raised. Damn em. Ee was watching our thoughts like a K-drama. Bastard.

  Ee grinned, and there was something devilish in it.

  “Honey,” Jax started. “How about we take our new friends to Uru tomorrow? Show them something a little more exciting than Nineton?”

  “I’m game,” Ree nodded, swallowing the last bite of mousse.

  “Pack a bag, ladies, and meet us at the train station at 3:00 PM tomorrow. Come hungry,” Jax said enigmatically.

  Cora looked at me, and I nodded.

  Why not? Who knew what kind of adventures we could have with a telepath and hacker of dubious morals?

  Good ones, Sam. Good ones.