Distant Gardens: Ten Stories of Exploration, Biodiversity, and Found Family by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Space Wizard Science Fantasy
Published: 2021-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

Epilogue

Bacon pizza. You couldn’t just walk into a pizza place and order that these days. Mel had tried printing it in her kitchen, but her printer was one of the cheapest on the market. Her apartment was too small and dinky to have a real kitchen, even if she could afford the ingredients to bake a real pizza.

“You chose that life.” Erin opened their shiny, stainless steel oven. The scent of melted cheese, tomato sauce, and bacon wafted out. “Every time you accumulate a little wealth, you give it away.”

“Instead of hoarding it like a dragon?” Mel’s stomach was growling like an angry one.

“There was one of those in that weird book you made me read.” Amaryllis walked into the room. Drops of water dripped off her curls onto her cheeks. She smelled like flowers and coconut. The shirt she’d borrowed from Erin was a little too small, so curves and muscles strained against an image of a muscular green monster. Her skin, still damp from the shower, was smooth. Scars, blemishes, and the tiny crow’s feet she’d been getting around her eyes were gone. The excess healing energy Erin and Mel had poured into her might even extend her life by a decade or two. She sniffed the air. “Whatever you just cooked smells…weird…and delicious.”

“It is one of the best foods to ever exist,” Mel said, mouth watering as she gazed at the bacon, half sunk in melted cheese. When the pizza was cool enough to cut, Mel cut a slice of it. Facing Amaryllis, she took a bite, closing her eyes as her mouth exploded with flavors she hadn’t tasted in years.

But she didn’t just devour the slice. She set it aside, cutting a second one, and carrying it over to Amaryllis, slowly lifting it to her mouth. “Take a bite.”

Amaryllis took it, nibbled at first, then took a big bite.

“That is good,” she said through a mouthful. “Wow.”

Mel used her finger to wipe up a speck of sauce that Amaryllis missed, and licked it off her finger. “When I was in college, the first time, a place near campus sold it. I miss pizza shops.”

“Quit MedCorps, work with me, and you can have your own pizza oven.”

Mel turned around.

Erin leaned on the counter, next to the steaming pizza. They wore loose black pants and a t-shirt with crossed lightsabers. Beams of red glowed on their black nail polish. “I’ll be put on the Board of Directors. You can be Phoenix Corps’ conscience. An angel sitting on the corporate devil’s shoulder.”

Amaryllis slid her arms around Mel’s waist, sending a burst of buzzing warmth through her body. “I took a job when they offered me one.”

“Of course you did.” Mel folded her hands over Amaryllis. “It meant you got to fly all the newest jets and not worry about anyone shooting you out of the sky.”

“Sometimes prototypes malfunction and crash, so I need you around to heal me. You can’t do that if you’re running around the planet hunting contagions.

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