Baker Point: Kathryn

My conversations this afternoon had left me unsettled . Unsettled? Hell, let’s try terrified. I take a minute to compose myself before I open the front door. No sense in upsetting the family.

The stench hit me as soon as I walked in. And even after all these years, I still knew what that godawful smell was. Someone let Neelix in the kitchen, it seems.

In the kitchen, my family was gathered around a suspicious-looking casserole.

“Oh, dear gods,” I breathe.

“Oh, Katie,” Mom says, wrinkling her nose at the smell. “Neelix programmed this into the replicator. Said you ate it a lot on Voyager. It’s …”

“Oh, I know what it is,” I interrupt. “Leola root casserole. And believe me, it doesn’t taste any better than it smells.”

Will gives me a grin that says, “Let’s see about that,” and gets a spoonful of casserole before Mom can stop him.

“Small bite, Will … consider this a warning,” I say.

He didn’t last long … the first bite was spewed all over the floor, with the groans and dramatic gagging sounds that only a 10-year-old can produce.

“Anyone else want to try?” I ask.

“Er, no thanks, hon,” Jack replies as he hands Will a cloth and motions for him to clean up his mess.

“By the way, where is Neelix?” I ask, glancing around. I certainly don’t want to insult him, but …

“Relax,” Jack reassures me. “Sam and Naomi picked him up a half-hour ago.”

“Just what the hell is this stuff?” Pujli asks as he fiddles with the replicator. A quick punch and it produces a pretty fair representation of the leola root. I make a quick note to eradicate any trace of it from the databank.

“We have this on Briori,” he said, examining the offending plant. “We feed it to livestock.”

Will’s head pops up from under the table. “Mom, did you really eat this stuff on Voyager?”

“Afraid so,” I tell him as my family fixes me with a collective gaze of horror and pity.

“But why? Didn’t Voyager have replicators?”

“Yes, but we had to save our energy to run the engines and life support, so we had to ration access to the replicators. That meant we had to eat whatever we could find on various planets.”

“Well, that explains why you were so thin when you got back,” Mom says.

“Yes, well, there are some things I never want to be reminded of.” I sigh. “Look, not a word about this, and that includes you two,” I say, giving Will and Beth my best glare. “Neelix means well, and I don’t want to hurt him.” Not that Neelix has never faced criticism over leola root. “We’ll just say it was quite a surprise.”

“Well, that certainly is the truth,” Mom cracks.

“Thank you. Now please, throw that in the recycler. And someone turn on the air purifier.”

“What do you want to eat?” Jack asks.

I think for a moment. “I’d like to try that new Italian place up the road. I’m pretty sure they don’t serve leola root.”





You must login (register) to review.