The gravity beam of the shuttle made the loading of their game an easy task, not even requiring the assistance of the team, much to everyone’s relief, and within minutes they were on their way back to the city and ready to start telling the planet about the good news.

Canis had been isolated for a long time, and news of another ally and trading partner would be huge news for them. They had almost everything that they needed, and they lived simply, but some things, like the Replicators and materials printers, were such a luxury that they were willing to let outsiders on their planet in order to obtain them.

[Will all residents that wish to participate in a post-hunt feast please gather in the city park for an announcement by our beloved leaders, who have hunted a giant crocolisk for us to roast.] An announcement was playing throughout the city, and thousands of residents were already on their way to experience the festivities.

With this many people, even given its size, the crocolisk would barely qualify as a meal, let alone a feast, but Max detected that most of the adults were bringing a covered dish with them. That implied that either this was a standard mealtime for most of the city, or they had announced the return of the hunters far enough in advance that locals had made dishes for a potluck.

It seemed like a fun tradition, like on Founders Day back home when the government sent out busloads of candy and snacks for the kids. They would chase the bus around until they had their fill, often running right out of their own neighborhood.

Nico was thinking of a very different event, the harvest festival, where her family would all gather, and everyone brought a dish just like this. There was an art form to that tradition as well, as despite having large families, not all of the Tarith women were good cooks.

On a daily basis, they hired a chef for their meals, but it was a point of pride to show up with something you made yourself, and the others would know instantly if your chef had made the dish for you.

So, the children who were tasked to set the tables carefully curated the items that started nearest to them in the room so that by the time the truly awful dishes made it to them, they were empty, and the children wouldn’t be shamed into placing them on their plate, which would inevitably lead to them being forced to eat them before dessert would be served.

Holiday Desserts at the Tarith family house were a fond memory for Nico and Max as well. The first time he had her mother’s secret recipe cake, they were at her house for winter break, the first and only year they were in the Academy on Kepler Terminus.

“What are you thinking about?” Nico asked as she noticed Max’s mind was elsewhere.

“Our first winter break and your mother’s secret recipe cake.” He replied honestly, making her laugh.

“Good luck getting that recipe, even I haven’t earned it yet. But there is hope for the future, and I will make a number of other cakes today with the replicator in the shuttle. Rill, what parts of this thing aren’t edible?” Nico responded, looking outside at the crocolisk being suspended below them.

“The side hide. The scales aren’t edible either, but they’re useful. So, pick the side hide to make the cake and let the locals see you do it. They will love you even more than they do for bringing back a feast.

The rhythmic thumping of her tail as she answered proved the truth of her words, and Max reveled in the fact that he didn’t have to read anyone’s mind to know if they were telling the truth. The Canis locals were terrible liars, and Nico only lied if she was messing with him.

Most of the time, if someone thought she was lying, it was because she planned to do something so outlandish that their brains couldn’t process it.

The crocolisk was set down on a roasting spit built over a huge fire for exactly this sort of occasion, and the chefs got to work cleaning and skinning the enormous creature.

“Save me the useless hide. I will do a demonstration of the capabilities of the Replicator for the feast. Today, it will turn the useless waste scraps of the crocolisk into delicious cakes.” Nico announced, then whispered to Rill.

“You can eat chocolate, right?”

The big woman laughed and nodded. “We might have some canine features, but we don’t suffer from any of their allergies.”

Hundreds of locals moved so that they could see Nico operating the replicator using the scraps cut from the beast, watching through the limited angles available through the open rear cargo door, but when the first trays of cake began to appear, and the heavy chunks of leather disappeared, the doubters were instantly silenced.

There was no fooling a Canis nose, and that food smelled very good.

“Since so much sugar isn’t good for the teeth, how about we collect some more scraps and make some brisket?” Max asked.

“I have just the thing. Give me like three blocks, and I will be back.” Someone in the crowd announced.

Max looked to Rill for an explanation since the man’s thoughts said that blocks were a measure of time and not distance but weren’t a measure he was familiar with.

“It’s the standard time that it takes to jog the length of one habitation block. About one minute in standard measure.” She explained.

“Can you use this? I run a butcher’s shop, and none of this has buyers, so we compost it along with the rest of the waste.” The man explained when he returned, pushing a huge two-wheeled wheelbarrow full of some sort of hide and offal.

“Park it in front of the replicator’s feed bin. It has a bit of range, so you don’t need to feed it manually. Then stand off to the left but in front of me, and I will hand you the brisket.” Nico told him.

He parked the wagon, and Nico entered the data, then handed him the brisket on the plastic tray when it came out.

“Best trade ever. One wagon of scrap for a beautiful chunk of premium meat.” The man cheered, holding it up for the crowd to see, then began to walk away.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going? There’s like a thousand kilos more material in that bin. Pass off the brisket and come grab the next one.”

The look of shock on everyone’s face when the meat kept flowing out of the machine as the offal wagon emptied was priceless. He had brought more offal than the Crocolisk weighed after it was deboned and dressed, turning their crocolisk hunt feast into a roast brisket feature, with people just walking up and pressing the button to get a huge chunk of meat, then walking away laughing as they tore it apart with their teeth.

“To think, we just threw an entire feast with one hunted beast and a garbage wagon from the butcher’s place.” Ramba chuckled as the event wound down for the night, well after midnight.

“Watching children tear apart an entire roast with their mouth because it took two hands to hold it was hilarious. How are your laundry services? These will either have to become topless events, or you’ll be wearing out a laundry machine after every party.” Max asked.

“We managed to obtain modern auto laundry a few hundred years ago from a rogue merchant, so we are good there, but topless feasts do have a certain appeal to them,” Ramba replied with a wink.