Please Specify

“She's a spaceship, not a rabid dog. She won't bite. Just go ahead and tell her what you want, kiddo.” He shouted back from the cockpit. The ship wasn't very big, just big enough for a single corridor stretching from the cockpit in the front to the galley in the back, with a door on either side.

“But...” How do you ask a spaceship to make you something that you don't know how to make yourself? “I... Okay...”

Felix had been alone for four months, trapped planetside. He hadn't always been alone. At the beginning, there were resources, and tools, and... family. But that seems so long ago. Better not think about that. Sentimentality makes you blurry, loses your edge. Gets you killed. That he knew.

But he wasn't planetside anymore. He didn't need to keep the edge. Didn't need to be the blade. Right?

He was standing in front of the food replicator still. Staring. He hadn't eaten anything he didn't find or kill himself in... longer than he'd been alone. He knew exactly what he wanted, but... to finally really get it...

“Space... ship. Computer. Space computer. Computer.” he coughed. He closed his eyes. It's fine. Just... ask and you can have it. It really is that easy. You're not dreaming, you checked. “Computer... I would like... a Hot Chocolate.”

“Please specify temperature”

Of course, there's always complications. “Uhh... hot. But! But not too hot. I want to drink it... now.”

“Please specify – White or Dark chocolate.”

“Dark, please...” The hope was draining out of Felix with each question. This was going to be all wrong, he could tell. It wasn't going to be right at all.

“Please specify- ammount”

“Uhhh... a mug? A mugs-worth? Enough to fit... like... in a mug.” He made gestures with his hands to indicate the size of a mug before he remembered it wouldn't help. Despair set in. This was a mistake. He would never have a hot chocolate like mom used to m... it didn't matter. His eyes shut again, heavy with defeat.

The Felix that drank hot chocolate wasn't Sharp anyway.

“Drink complete.”

He opened his eyes, to see a lightly steaming ceramic mug of hot chocolate on the tray.

It had marshmallows floating in it.

Just like mom used to do.

He smiled a little, and sat on the floor, staring at the mug.

And Felix cried.