Freefall

Given that Jean's ecosystem is still very scarce and artificially built, he may just have been lucky not to run into something that would find his biology extremely cozy to breed inside of. And as he already expressed, he is concerned about evolution. Alone, he isn't much of a hotbed, but on an entire planet running on more simplistic proteins and whatnot, something harmless could first spread and then get more greedy and kaput goes the species.

Sam enjoys a challenge◊ as long as he can frame it properly.

Naomi is trying to tag along◊. Presumably, she's hiring a babysitter.

Unless she's sending her oldest daughter, thereby recruiting Florence to be the babysitter.

It's her◊. She needs a vacation from her family vacations, apparently.

Oh, I know that feeling (as I'm on day two of solo parenting while my wife is away on a trip).

Redundancy◊. Hmm... I'm not so much a fan of the half-lidded look on Naomi, especially it's essentially being used to point at the punchline in panel 3 last time and today.

Worth more than gold.◊

It's the spice trade all over again.

I submit that carrying the dried ingredients and making hot sauce on-site is a more efficient use of lifting power (assuming they have the water to spare).

They may not have the necessary setup. In space operations like that, every bit of mass is crucial, and kitchen space is something that might be left out.

The difference between the total mass of the hot sauce and the mass of its its dry ingredients is trivial for something with fusion drives like Sam's ship.

Edited by Fighteer on Jan 21st 2019 at 10:49:13 AM

Point, and point again.

Plus, water is itself valuable in space. Reaction mass, crack it for oxygen, use it for washing, drink it ...

Sure, you can harvest it from comets and so on, but that takes effort too.

Dragging up an icy asteroid is much easier than dragging the water up from a gravity well.

Hmm... the challenge is that most hot sauces require an aging process of some variety. If it really were just a simple issue of mixing the raw ingredients and putting it on food, lots of people wouldn't bother buying bottles of the stuff - we'd just buy powder, vinegar, salt, and maybe some fruit to mix with it and make our own as needed.

If I were a hot sauce entrepreneur in the Freefall universe, I'd actually set up my production facilities at or near a space station to get around these issues - the raw materials mostly come to me in dried or concentrated form (by the latter, I mostly mean the vinegar), I produce it there, and it's sold in small enough parcels that people can easily account for it on their return trips.

That, or I'd just stay planetside and sell my wares in just one location.

Naomi helps with Florence's education◊...

Edited by FuzzyBoots on Jan 23rd 2019 at 7:07:15 AM

Ah, the joys of a monopoly.

Economics! Unlike engineering, you have to deal with people, and real people aren't idealized rational actors with perfect information.

Edited by Fighteer on Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:58:55 AM

I'm honestly surprised that Sam isn't present in the room for this discussion.

Though as a side note... I'm curious as to whether Sam's species reacts to capsaicin and/or allyl isothiocyanate. It would be entertaining if he didn't react to one or both.

Also, heh, I just remembered... while vinegar is by far the most popular liquid base with which one makes hot sauce for many reasons, you can also potentially make hot sauce with alcohol. And we don't know just how much John Jones Monroevian Moonshine there is on the ship.

EDIT: Also, reflecting back, horticulture has taken some leaps if wasabi is being suggested for cultivation for hot sauce making. Wasabi in the modern day is notoriously difficult to cultivate and is also notorious for losing its bite fast. Even in Japan, they frequently use a horseradish blend instead of the real stuff outside of the really high-end places.

Edited by 32_Footsteps on Jan 23rd 2019 at 11:02:12 AM

Enter Sam.◊

Sam is getting an education◊. *nervous laugh* We're in danger.

So nice when both sides feel they came away with the better of the exchange◊.

Friends and weaponry◊

For starters, Florence is a fox. On the other hand, she is also an AI, so Asimov's laws might be in operation.

A wolf.

Also any possible violence erupting can be interpreted as causing danger to sleeping Winston, and she'll be free to do anything she wants/needs to protect him.

Whoops. A wolf. Of course. This happens when I start typing early in the morning.