[It was like a button on a fur coat] The bell ringing announcing a meal startled both of them in the communication cube; The rattling rhythm of keyboards, the short bursts of staccato interrupted by periods of silence while reading left only the hum of the cooling until then. It was so tempting to ignore the call, but the next meal wouldn't be for eight hours, and both would be ravenous by then. "Meal time." "What do you eat here?" "We have some gardens, so sometimes we get real vegetables, but mostly it's the green glop that the hydroponics lab can grow. It's got protein in it, but it's pretty bland." Ashanta made a face. "I know. We need more organic material. There's nothing to grow food in." They got in the line for the meal, each taking one of the simple metal bowls already filled with the green paste. People clustered into groups, sitting at the long tables, people who worked or lived together already deep in conversation, but the table where Ashanta and Ray sat was conspicuously empty, though everyone at the next table in either direction spent more of their time looking over at her than they did at their food or dining companions. Ray started to explain how the hydroponics worked, recycling every bit of organic waste and turning it into nutrients for at least the algae that formed most of the basis for meals. Ashanta started to ask questions, but every time she opened her mouth, someone would lean closer from each table, straining to hear, and Ashanta would stop the moment she noticed, her black eyes darting nervously back and forth. The other tables filled, two men were forced to either wait or sit down at the same table, but they both opted to loom, standing behind Ashanta, their more than two meter tall frames towering over like spiders. They made themselves look threatening despite their slight builds. Ashanta finally slammed her bowl down, the remaining green liquid spilling out on the table. "Now look what you've done. Wasted valuable organics." The man's mocking tone couldn't have been more plain. She snapped and pushed him away, hard. He fell like a snapped board, crumpling in two and landing in a pile of himself on the ground with surprising force. She lost her footing, bouncing upward for a moment, caught off guard that the ground didn't keep hold of her how she was accustomed. The meal room went completely silent, and Ray felt herself flush as she found herself in the center of attention, two meters between her and the circle of onlookers, almost completely surrounded. Ashanta was biting her lip furiously and had her hands crumpled into fists, looking like round black stones. She was strong by any standard, but she was used to lifting eight times as much, and it made her a formidable force on the moon, and everyone was eyeing her with even more caution and distrust than they had been the moment before. She squeezed her fists again and stalked off silently, like Ray had seen in videos of caged animals, managing to glide smoothly rather than bounding off the ground. Ray bounced after her, trying to keep up.