So what is your favorite food?
Levi: Well, don't start with a hard one on my account. I'd have to say plum. No, tomato. Listen, if you had grown up with freeze-dried foods you would love anything with some flavor to it. I'm not picky.
Surely Earth didn't pack just a metric ton of freeze-dried food. Didn't they grow their own?
Levi: Esperanza says they started to a couple years later. It's hard to really imagine a 100-year journey. Planning for next cycle is difficult enough, but planning for generations of people who will be directly impacted by your decisions? I'm glad it wasn't me.
Really? After your father was supposed to make you captain?
Levi: Ha! I have no interest in being captain. Dylan can have that honor if she wants, but I think it sounds like a thankless job. People are a long way from getting along, and I'm not...diplomatic enough. "Commanded always by the greater gust; such is the lightness of you common men," you know.
We've noticed you quote a lot of Shakespeare.
Levi: Oui? I know a lot of Shakespeare...
Do you have a favorite play? Or are we going to get another tomato/plum answer?
Levi: ...
Sorry.
Levi: One of the reasons that Shakespeare was so important on Earth was because he has so many characters, so much diversity. My father clearly liked Hamlet the best, but I thought he was too indecisive. I've always liked Merchant of Venice. It's a weird one, but I can definitely sympathize with Antonio. And Portia is amazing; a great strong female character. It's a little weird because I'm sure I'm missing the subtlety of Jewish culture and the idea of interest isn't something that we really use anymore...am I boring you?
...sorry.
Levi: Eh, I tend to prattle on. Even Dylan starts to get a glazed look in her eye. Did you have any other questions?
Just...you know, what was it like on the Aeneid? Seeing space and the stars?
Levi: You make it sound more glamorous than it was. The quarters were small, the windows even smaller, the food odd and the water had a weird smell. You would think you'd get used to it, but I never did. Seeing the planets as we passed by was pretty astounding, but it was hard to fill up our days. I read a lot, I worked on the computers, there weren't really others my age. I love living on the planet surface much better. Looking up at that lavender sky, there is nothing like it. I miss walking down the hall without crutches, but I guess no place is perfect.
If you could go back to before O'Keefe put you into cryo, would you do it differently?
Levi: My gut says I'd do it all over again, but...it's hard to say that for sure. Taylor would still be alive if I hadn't. And who knows, maybe I could have convinced congress in those four years to save the Canary and it wouldn't have crashed and I wouldn't have gone into cryo. But Dylan didn't manage to convince them in that time and I'm not sure what good dwelling on the past is.
So if you're not dwelling on the past, what's your plan for the future?
Levi: If I'm stuck in archives for now, I want to make Earth and its resources accessible to everyone. People here need to learn to take time off and I think films, books, plays, and games are all good ways to do so.
That sounded like that was directed at someone.
Levi: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Sure.
Levi: And that's just my start, I also have all the Earth data to sift through. Now that I'm on Congress... I think we need more holidays. We can't be frantically working week after week, we should be celebrating our achievements. We're still alive. We have a whole planet to explore. Sometimes it feels like we've been marooned here and we're just making do until some ship from Earth picks us up. You know, like Robinson Crusoe?
Yeah, that makes sense. If you could change one thing on the base, what would it be?
Levi: I would remove the position of captain, for sure. I just don't think we should be making decisions for the base with one person. Either the decisions can be made on a department basis or more than one person should be involved.
Last question on a happier note: what's one food you'd love to try?
Levi: I would love to learn how to make ice cream. Walsh doesn't have a recipe, but I've read books with ice cream in them and sometimes they eat it in the films, but I've never had it. Well, I've had freeze-dried ice cream, but it was not as delicious as I hoped ice cream to be.
Maybe Tyson would know how to make ice cream?
Levi: Ooh, you're right. I should ask him!
Well, thanks for joining us, and you keep being you, Levi!
Levi: No problem. What did you say this was for again?
...yeah, kinda hard to explain. Goodbye!
___
I had a lot more fun writing this than I expected. Who do you want to hear from next?
YOU ARE READING
If Jove Stray
Science Fiction{✨Book 5✨} Earth. Light years away, and yet now that some on the base were born there, it seems so...close. As communication with the mother planet seems more and more likely, Dylan and Alcott have to wonder if Earth really has anything to offer to...
