Free Theme Planet by Andy Remic

and
allowed a morsel to melt on her tongue with a piquant delicacy. “Mmm,” she
said, eyes widening a little. “Delicious! Absolutely fabulous!”
     
    This was Mojojos, the “fine
authentic Japachinese restaurant” which had been recommended by Lex, their PD
PopBot. The building itself was built in traditional Japachinese white brick
and terracotta tile, with -apparently - all materials transported from Earth at
very great expense during the old Transport Days, that heady period of
Outer-Planet Colonisation.
     
    The interior of Mojojos was cool
and dark, with hanging vines and great dark pools filled with the vibrant
colours of huge Koi carp - again, transported from Earth and now bred in VATS
on the Theme Planet using Ganger technology, which although still in its
infancy, was fine for fishpond displays.
     
    Dex pushed his decapus curry
around his plate for a while. Kat scowled at him.
     
    “Go on. Eat some.”
     
    “I’m
just...”
     
    “What?”
     
    “I’m not used to being able to
actually finish a whole bloody sentence! You know, without Molly or Toffee
kicking their way into the conversation in their size tens.”
     
    “I know what you mean.” Katrina
looked around, in mock fear. “It’s way too weird. I just hope they’re okay!”
     
    Dex pulled out the KidMonitor and
placed it on the table. Molly and Toffee were in the Kiddy Kid Quad of Mojojos,
designed “For Kids To Have A Super Time! And Parents To Have A Better One!”
Molly was eating pizza, and Toffee was devouring huge “chicken dippers”
although what the chicken had been dipped in, Dexter couldn’t quite make out on
the ten inch plazzy-plasma.
     
    “They’re fine, love. Stuffing
their faces. As growing girls do,” he said.
     
    “Go on, what’s wrong with the
curry?”
     
    “Nothing... I just, well,
obviously I haven’t tasted it yet.”
     
    “Taste it, damn you!”
     
    “It looks a bit green.”
     
    “It’s a decapus curry! What
colour would you like it to be?”
     
    “Blue?” said Dex, a tad
cheekily...
     
    And the waiter was there,
removing the plate. “Sir’s wish is our command...”
     
    “No, wait,” said Dex.
     
    “No, no, please, sir, we will be
less than two minutes...”
     
    “Wait!” pleaded Dex as his
untouched decapus curry was hurtled away to the kitchens by a man in pink
pants.
     
    Katrina stared at him over a
forkful of quivering fish steak. He met her gaze. “Idiot,” she said.
     
    “I was only joking.”
     
    “Yeah, well, they take it
seriously around here.”
     
    Dex’s food was duly returned,
blue now, as requested. Grumbling a little, the sort of grumble that wasn’t
really words, just half-mumbled half-curses, Dex tried an experimental
forkful... and his tastebuds seemed to explode. He was hit with richness,
flavour, spice and heat. It whirled around his mouth and then his belly, and
finally his skull. It was a taste explosion. A sensory hijacking. Indeed, it
was the best damn curry Dexter Colls had ever, ever experienced.
     
    He looked around at his
surroundings with renewed enthusiasm.
     
    “Weil?” said Katrina.
     
    “It’s brill,” he said, with a
grin, teeth stained blue.
     
    “Not too hot?”
     
    “No. No, perfect, in fact.”
     
    “You mean,” Kat feigned mock
horror, “we’ve found some alien food you actually like? Ye gods! Wonders
will never cease, my handsome, hunky and culinarily-retarded husband.”
     
    Dex tucked in. He must have liked
it. He stopped talking.
     
    The food was great, the wine
superb, and - lulled by a sense of fulfilment and alcohol - Dex didn’t even
mind when three jajinga chimps came and played guitaviolins by their table. A
most hideous screeching noise, to Dex’s ears, but for some reason Katrina liked
it. She must be lulled by the romanticism of the whole situation. No point
destroying her fantasy, right?
     
    Later, as Lex led the children
back to the hotel and their perfectly climate-controlled rooms, Dex and