Chapter 7

Several days later Samantha was rapidly improving on the ships command console as well as the consoles on the stasis deck. She wasn't as proficient as those who'd been trained on them, but she was learning and improving daily.

Samantha had also gone through the cellar and did a more complete inventory, matching what was in the printed logs. Over all she was quite surprised by all the items she'd found.

In addition to freeze dried meals she'd also found packages of flower, sugar, powered eggs and milk, various herbs and spices, coffee, crackers, cookies some candy and energy bars oatmeal, rice, various canned goods among other things. The freezers contained various frozen meat and vegetables along with TV dinners and breakfasts, and various microwaveable foods such as hot pockets and burritos. There was even a small supply of ice cream in various flavors.

The kitchen, tiny as it was, was just as surprising. In addition to the standard appliances; stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator/freezer with ice maker, and dishwasher, there was also a coffee maker above the microwave, and a tiny meat slicer, and ice cream maker under the tiny sink.

She was dismayed however to find there was no powdered chocolate, nor were there any marshmallows. There were plenty of various kinds of flavored drink mixes but there was no chocolate. She could cook a multi-course meal including fresh baked bread and fresh ice cream for desert but she couldn't enjoy a cup of hot chocolate afterwards. Neither could she enjoy chocolate milk at breakfast. Fortunately she'd brought a can of powdered chocolate, and a bag of marshmallows, with her but she sighed when she thought of having to ration herself.

When asked later how her day went she mildly complained, "It was good. There's so many things down there it's like having your own store, only there's no powdered cocoa. There's all this coffee I'm not going to drink but no cocoa"

Her mild complaint was met by silence. Samantha thinking she'd insulted them quickly apologized saying, "I'm sorry. I guess most people are coffee drinkers so you just buy accordingly. I guess I could try making coffeecake or something. Or I guess I could try drinking it. I mean it does smell nice and there's lots of sugar and creamer"

By that time the control room personnel were either laughing of shaking their heads. Most of the complaints they received about the food concerned the taste of the powdered and freeze dried food. There'd even been a few complaints about there not being enough coffee. No one had complained about a lack of cocoa though.

Laughing he said, "Its OK Sam. You don't have to force yourself to drink the coffee"

"Oh ... but I don't want to put anyone out"

"Its OK. Don't worry about Sam. The reason there's no cocoa is that no one thought to include any"

Samantha was shocked, "What do they do if they want a glass of chocolate milk with breakfast or a cup of hot chocolate before they go to bed?"

"They don't. I suppose if they really got desperate though they could grind up a bar of chocolate and use that"

Samantha sat stunned. All of these astronauts and cosmonauts tested and not one of them drank chocolate milk or hot chocolate?

"I'll make a note of it and see what we can do about adding some to the flight manifest" The tech said as he made a note on a pad of paper.

"Oh! You don't have to go to that trouble"

"No trouble Sam. You've actually got a pretty good idea. Flavored milk would give some variety as well as cover the taste of the powdered milk some."

Samantha made a face. She'd tried the powdered milk during breakfast. "It really isn't the best tasting milk but it's better than nothing"

The tech and the rest of the room laughed. Then he asked, "Any other ideas or questions Sam?"

"Um ... well ... I was just wondering why there wasn't a sonic clothes washer."

The tech gave her a wry smile. "There are but they're still in development. The engineers haven't been able to agitate the clothes so they get clean. Loads end up being very small or the clothes in the middle of the pile don't get cleaned. Why do you ask." He asked curious.