A tantalizing smell woke me from my sleep. I slowly opened my eyes and blinked a couple of times. I feel great. In fact, I feel wonderful. I sit up, scratched my head and yawned like an evil spirit is flying out of my mouth. I was still yawning when I turned around and found a nurse standing beside my bed holding a bed tray table full of deliciousness. I quickly shut my mouth and stopped stretching. Good thing I don't blush because that was embarrassing. I wonder how long she was standing there.

The nurse smiled at me and started adjusting the MediBed to accommodate the tray.

"Had a good rest Mr. Mayon? I've brought you something to eat." She said. She brought some very fresh croissants and some butter, a couple of sausages, a small bar of chocolate, and a mug of green tea. I don't know what time or day it is but I know that I'm hungry.

"Yes I had a good sleep. I feel really recharged. What day is it? I know that I can sleep twelve hours when I'm really tired." It does feel like I slept for a long time. I stretched my arms above my head to pop a few bones. The nurse just gave me a bemused smile.

"You were asleep for less than two hours, sir. You were in a medically-induced sleep to help the nanites in your body finish rebuilding the lingering damages. The cooling feeling you felt earlier is a liquid compound the nanites use as a binding agent. It would have taken longer if you were moving. The fully rested felling you have right now is an indicator that the regeneration was successful and you are fully healed." the nurse explained. She finished laying out my meal and stood back to talk to me.

"Doctor Sahvi will be seeing you after your meal. Is there anything I can do for you Mr. Mayon?" She asked.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks for bringing me some food. I'm starving." I replied. I quickly grabbed one of the crescent goodness and started slathering it with some butter. It's practically making me drool.

"That because we used your own body reserves to rebuilt itself. All the nanites and replacement liquids we used are just there to help the process. Your body is now demanding you to replace the stores that were lost, hence the hunger. Doctor Sahvi will be giving you a nutritional guide that you would have to follow for the next few days. Frankly, I envy you. You get to eat whatever you want and how much you want until your stores get replaced." She jokingly complained. She pinched her sides to make a point.

"Please enjoy your meal and call if you need anything." She gave me a parting smile and left.

I continued stuffing my face until I cleaned the table. I even ate all the butter. It was both disgusting and totally worth it, eating a small stick of butter.

I moved the now empty table and looked at the controls beside my bed. I fiddled with it a little bit until I found the reclining function. I had the bed fold up to a comfortable angle so I could sit back and just relax. I didn't really have anything to do since the CPM has my ArmCom so I started looking around for something to do. I found a reader on the table beside my bed so I grabbed it and started browsing the news.

"Nothing about me or the girl. Don't know if that's a good thing or not." I thought.

I even did a targeted search and came up blank. That's impossible because the death of a police officer is always in the news. The only conclusion I can make is that the authorities decided to keep this close to the chest. I don't know why and how long they will be able to do that so I didn't dwell on it. I accessed my Star Friends account and posted a message saying I'm fine. I debated about posting the story as to why I'm in the hospital since the CPM officers didn't tell me not say anything about it but I decided that just saying I got jumped is probably the smartest move here. It also made me realize that since the officers are not censoring me from sharing, the need for withholding the information must be over. Is that important? Again, I know nothing about law enforcement so... don't care.

I was engrossed in a vid when the door slid open. I looked up and saw Doctor Sahvi striding in. I put away the reader and greeted the Inugorian.

"Hey doc. Thanks for leaving a reader behind. I haven't considered that my friends probably don't know where I've been the past two days. They must have been freaking out." I said. It would have been just a curiosity if I didn't have such a public business. A closed eatery during normal operating hours without any announcement will garner attention. Even if my friends don't normally eat at my place, my regulars would have made some noise.

"It's a common result of an unexpected hospital confinement. We normally inform your next of kin but according to your records, your closest relative is five gate transitions away. We could have sent a message through courier drone but you would have been healed and discharged before the drone arrives at its destination. We decided that you could make the decision to inform your family or not." The doctor explained. He took a scanning wand out and started waving it around my body. He was looking closely at his medical ArmCom as he continued conducting his wand. A soft beep sounded after a few moments and the doctor pocketed his wand.

"Your healing is now complete. You can now leave at any time. All I need for you to do is to give me your DNA signature in this reader and we will be done." The doctor presented me a smaller reader showing an accounting of my injuries and the services the hospital have performed. The numbers at the end made me blanch. My bill is more than what I could earn cooking food in a good year. Now that I think about it, I'm in a private room and had access to a regeneration gel bed. I started panicking a bit since I don't think my government medical insurance can cover even a quarter of my bill.

"I can't pay for this, doctor. I... I'm thankful for everything you've done but I don't think I have enough in my bank to pay for my medical fees. I mean, I could get a loan but that would kill me. I'm still paying for my eatery. What am I gonna do? Why am I even in a private room? Aren't I supposed to be in the general ward? I can't pay for this!?" My shaky voice rising to soprano heights by the end of my litany of despair.

The doctor quickly assuaged me that my fears are misplaced.

"Calm, Mr. Mayon, be calm. You're in a private room because your benefactor, Admiral Chander, requested you be placed here. He is also covering all of your incurred expenses. A beginning of his gratitude for you, from what I understand. Your DNA signature is just simply for a verified document saying that you are satisfied with our performance and that you have been properly taken care of. I think our staff did that to the best of our ability. We assure you, you will not have to pay a single credit for your stay here." The doctor confidently announced.

I took a breath and calmed my fast beating heart. I don't deal with financial stress too well. I took the reader the doctor have outstretched and thumbed the appropriate recess. A slight tickling feeling confirmed that it got a scraping of my skin for a DNA sample and then my stamp appeared on screen.

The doctor took back the reader and gave me last minute instructions in taking care of my body. He then pointed at a vac bag on the coffee table containing my repaired and cleaned outfit. With the documents signed and post-treatment care delivered, the doctor made his goodbyes and left the room.

I stood up for the first time since I came to and gingerly straightened myself. I was expecting to be dizzy or hurting but I felt perfectly fine. I did a little hop to test my repaired leg and it felt good. I grinned and did the running man dance move I learned from my historical earth class during secondary school. Mrs. Jensen would be so proud if she learned how much I practiced her teachings of pre-contact history.

I quickly ended my momentary jig of happiness when I remembered that I haven’t locked the door and I’m not used to freeballing.

“Hospital, privacy lock and mirror mode please.” I don’t know why but it doesn’t matter if I’m talking to a person or an A.I., politeness has been beaten into me by my parents that it’s become automatic.

“Door lock engaged. Only hospital staff has access. You will be notified before allowing access. Please face the south wall.” The calming female voice of the hospital intoned. I heard that the voice package for all hospitals is the same. It was designed to have a calming effect that applies to all known sentient races that respond to auditory signals. The wall on the foot of my bed changed from a soft blue painted wall into a mirror. I opened the vac bag and took out my clothes. They smell good and were properly pressed. I took a moment while dressing to get a good look at myself.

There was no visible scarring. I didn’t expect there to be given the competence of the staff of the hospital. Any Inugorian leaving a scar behind would be unworthy of the title doctor and would be shunned by his people.

Turning around to make sure my clothes are in order, I could see myself moving quite well. A solidly built man is staring back at me from the mirror. He’s 1.8 meters tall with an unremarkable built. Neither fat nor slim, the man on the mirror still projects a look of good constitution and vitality. A slight bulging on the shoulders indicates some lifting work help developed his upper physique. The man has light brown skin but generally, smooth from overt blemishes. His face is not the face you would easily pick out from the crowd. A rounded face with traces of long ago acne, it is still a face that is well used to smiling and laughing if the crow’s feet is any indication. The man stopped turning and patted his ear-length hair down since he didn’t have a comb. He looks good. Not in the attractive sort of way, but in the ‘Hey, that’s Albert. I like that guy” kind of way.

He would have looked better if not for that bright yellow shirt with a print of an angry Hippo pissing on a car while giving you the finger.

Fully clothed and ready to get my life back on track, I exited my room and started looking for the exit. Asclepius General Hospital is a huge, sprawling complex as seen from outside and it’s even bigger inside. I was passing multiple rooms and dozens of staff, patients, and visitors were moving along the corridors too. There are clear signs everywhere, most of it was warnings of what not to do or bring in the hospital, so I was able to find myself approaching the main doors. I took a slight detour and approached the reception. I thanked the staff and left a note of my eatery’s address to the receptionist. I’m giving them a 10% discount in my eatery for the next month as thanks. I also left a note for Doctor Sahvi and his operating team for a free meal. The receptionist was understandably happy and promised to pass the message along. It’s not going to do wonders to my bottom line but then again, having an in with the hospital staff is to my benefit too. A smaller profit now for a bigger investment in the future. Who knows when I will need a doctor again? I might even have a doctor in the dining room the next time somebody has an allergic reaction to something. There are always those that don’t read the food warnings.

I stepped out of the hospital, making sure to not hurry a hobbling woman that was entering the premises, and took a gander of my surroundings. It was late afternoon if I were to judge the position of the sun. I reflexively brought up my left arm to check my ArmCom and was already poking on my arm when I realized my ArmCom in with the CPM.

“How am I going to call a car now?” I thought in frustration. I was going to go back inside to ask the receptionist to call me a car when I heard somebody calling my name.

“Hey! Hey Albert! Over here! Go get ‘im girl!”

I looked up and tried to find whoever was calling my name. There was a lot of foot traffic in front of the hospital which so I didn’t immediately find whoever it is that wall shouting my name. A sudden commotion drew my attention when people started yelping and screaming. A path suddenly opened in the crowd. Before I could register what was going on, a massive animal pounced on me. I was taken by surprised so I was not able to brace myself. I went down in a heap with the animal on top of me. A vision of large, sharp teeth crowded my sight before a massive tongue sloppily covered my entire face.

“Fuck, baby! Get off! Oh stars, your spit got in my mouth. Move it!” I tried shoving off the excited sabre and swing my head away from the very wet tongue but it was a lost cause. She was just too massive for me to throw off. I had to deal with a face washing whether I like it or not. I could hear somebody laughing close by as I spat on the ground.

“Well, somebody misses you. She’s a good kisser, no? Probably the only girl that kissed you since your mom stopped giving you goodbye smooches before going to primary school. C’mon girl, let the man up.” The voice mockingly said.

“Hello to you to Flower and screw you. I would have you know I was in the company of a beautiful woman a couple of weeks ago and yes, I kissed her. She said I was good too.” I proudly replied as I stood back up after baby deigned to get off me. I dusted myself off and looked at a grinning man patting an oversized sabre.

Flower has been my friend ever since I moved to Ceres. He’s a tall man, just shy of two meters. He has a very athletic built, honed from hours and hours of practicing various kinds of cardio exercises. He has a light skin tone that accentuates his long chestnut hair. He normally ties it in a ponytail so it won’t get in the way. His angular face and prominent cheekbones make his face look like a frustrated sculptor took out his anger on a block of uneven granite. His main draw is his gray slate eyes that look like he’s staring at your very soul every time he looks at you. He looks like the perfect villain in an action vid. The way he dresses just supports the idea. He’s currently wearing a fitted sleeveless white shirt and a pair of synth leather pants. He was also wearing some heavy duty stompers. A scarf wrapped around his neck for accessory and a pair of form glasses decorate his eyes completes his outfit. I don’t know how well or bad he dresses because I’ve no fashion sense myself.

He was one of the few passengers I met during the trip here eleven years ago and we hit it right off. Flower is from an agricultural world about three gates away from Ceres and was looking for a fresh start. From what I understand, he didn’t have the greatest of family members and decided to distance himself from them as soon as he can. He didn’t want to end up in the family business, whatever that is, so he took the quickest qualification course he could find. There was a lot of demand for zoologist and conservationist during the third development cycle of Ceres’ biosphere. Ceresian ecologists were trying to introduce new species in the environment and needed experts to study the effects of transplanting flora and fauna to the health of the planet. Flower caught on early by closely following the SecNet and was able to get his license as a zoologist after he passed his qualification exam. He always had a fascination with animals so he passed with flying colors. He now works as an expert with big cats, or an approximation thereof. The sabre beside him is a testament to his skills and understanding of these animals.

He hand-raised the cat after it was abandoned by its mother. The cat formed a bond with its surrogate mother and made it impossible for the zoo to separate them. The sabre was deemed unfit to be reintroduced back into the wild but they also can’t keep her at the zoo. There simply wasn’t any space for her. Other zoos couldn’t also accommodate her. Her species were not endangered and there are enough wild sabres to keep the environment balanced. They decided that she would be euthanized until Flower started lobbying hard against it. Long story short, Flower is the only being on the planet that is able to walk in public with a sabre. He has a special license granted to him that is certified by the Ceres Environmental and Forestry Ministry. He was able to successfully convince them that he could keep the sabre from mauling everybody in sight. It helps that the government didn’t want to kill the animal too. I still have no idea what he did to change the mind of the government.

We were seated together by chance during our trip coming to Ceres and became good friends after the two weeks trip. We regularly see each other over the course of the years and I consider him my family now.

“Paying somebody to kiss you is just pathetic, man.”

“I DID NOT PAY HER! It was a legitimate date that went smoothly.” I confidently proclaimed.

“…right. Whatever you say. Did you at least get her contact info?”

“Well, no but she said she’ll be dropping by the eatery again.”

“Wait, you met her as a customer? She was eating at your place.” Flower asked. He stopped petting baby and gave a raised eyebrow.

“Of course! How do you think I met her? In a bar?” I snorted at the idea. “You know I don’t go to Hibiscus street. I must say, I was pretty suave. I gave her a free meal after chatting her up a bit. We went for a drink at Golan’s later that day. She had a really good time and gave me a kiss.” I was reminiscing and found myself smiling at the memory. Flower just stared at me and gave me a slow shake of a head.

“You poor, poor man. I suppose you felt that it was a real date?”

“What do you mean? It was a date… wasn’t it?”

“Didn’t you consider that it might be that she was just thankful for the free meal? She didn’t give you her contact info and probably gave you a kiss on the cheek right?”

“Well, yeah. You don’t kiss a girl on the lips right on the get go. So what if she didn’t give me her info? She’ll be back.” I confidently said. Mentally, I hope she’ll visit again.

“I rest my case.” Flower said with finality. He started walking towards the parking lot and I drew level with him. Baby was gracefully striding beside us, switching sides often, bumping our hands to get a scratch and generally just being cute. It’s so incongruent with the big, dangerous predator calmly walking beside them it’s almost ridiculous.

Sabres are endemic to Ceres. They are the largest predators on the planet. They are huge cats that grow as big as panthers but have the temperament and behavior of a tiger. Their 5-inch long fangs gave them the name ‘Sabre’ after the prehistoric earth mammal. They are not as big as their namesake but they are ferocious just the same. Their dark blue fur coloration easily blends them in the evening background making them almost completely invisible to the naked eye. One of the earliest lessons learned during the colonization of Ceres was not to be outdoors after dark. Sabres are nocturnal creatures but do not shy away from day hunting when the opportunity for easy prey is available.

Baby is an incredible specimen compared to her wilder cousins. Due to the great care she gets from Flower, Baby is larger, faster, and stronger than most Sabres. Her diet consists of some of the best Ceresian Plains Antelope. Flower gets them alive and kicking and lets them loose at the nearby nature preserve beside his workplace. If baby wants to eat, she would have to catch her meal. It keeps her from being lazy. It also keeps her natural instinct for the hunt from manifesting when in civilized locations. You know she hasn’t had a good maiming for a while when she becomes snappish. Flower tries to keep that to a minimum with regular hunts at least twice a week. Flower pays a premium for live prey but he can afford it. Baby has become the official ambassador for the Illustratum City Zoo. They regularly parade her during school trips and environmental conferences. The zoo covers most of the expenses of her upkeep. The antelopes are also so prevalent that during hunting season, baby can hunt as much as she can for free.

We arrived at the parking lot and approached a large lev car with a closed carrier attached to it. The car is currently assigned to Flower by the zoo. Nobody really ‘owns’ a car now. It is so much easier and cheaper to just call for one. Just the parking alone will kill your savings account. Only government officials, companies, and rich people own cars. Flower requested for one so he could drag baby around when he goes somewhere. The Illustratum City Zoo logo is prominently displayed on the dark orange paint job.

After securing the protesting sabre in her carrier, we got in.

“So, where to?” Flower asked.

I gave him a big smile and responded,

“Albert’s Kitchen. I still have enough time to cater to the evening crowd. It’ll be great to be back behind the counter.”

“Alrighty then. Might as well get a meal there. Of course, my meal is free.” Flower gave me a pointed look as he started messing with the car controls.

“Naturally.”

The car got off the ground and gently floated towards our destination.