Breakfast is Served - Ian (37)

I woke up with just about the worst headache ever - whatever Ellen had put in that coffee had some pretty strong side-effects. I was kind of angry, really. I'd trusted Ellen and Geg, and they'd turned and pulled something like this. Greg was already up when I woke up - I don't think the guy'd slept more than a few hours.
I looked at my watch: it was 7:45. That meant we'd be leaving in an hour and fifteen minutes. I was excited, and at the same time scared out of my wits. The whole coffee incident had made me rethink trusting the others, which left me with really just me. And Scarlett - I knew her well enough, she wouldn't turn on me. Just then, Greg interupted my thoughts.
"Good," he said, not turning to look at me, "You're up. You should have time for a quick shower before we head out,"
I took a shower. It was very clean, with one of those really fancy mounted soap dispensers. I used the soap I'd brought, though- I was afraid they might have put something in it. When I got out of the shower and got dressed, Ellen and the girls were waiting by the door. Ellen addressed us all.
"Are your bags packed?" she asked me.
"Pretty much," I answered, "I just have to grab a few things,"
"Well hurry,"she said.
I did. I was back out there with everything in five minutes.
Ellen led us all down a long corridor to a Cafeteria where, for the first time, I saw other agency workers. The majority of them were pretty normal looking people. One, however, stood out. He a had long, curling tail. Scarlett noticed him as well - I caught her staring as he walked by. I didn't ask - how do you ask about something like that? - but Greg noticed my curiosity and explained anyway.
"Human evolution varies slightly from dimension to dimension. In what we call the Omicron subset, we never lost our tails,"
I didn't understand much of it at the time. Eventually I would start to understand the complicated system of naming infinite dimensions.
"So," I asked Ellen as we waited in the line,"What did you put in that drink, anyway?"
"Hyper-sleep compound," She answered, "You got twelve hours of sleep in just six. Another useful byproduct of time-travel,"
"You could have warned me," I objected.
"You wouldn't have drunken it," she replied.
We reached the beginning of the line. All the regular breakfast foods were present - bacon, eggs, ham, - plus what looked like centipedes. Moving centipedes. Much to my surprise, Ellen took a small spoonful of these and put them on her plate, then dumped a wriggling spoonful onto mine.
"They're not as bad as they look," she explained. They contain a nutrient that helps the body deal with the strain of Perpendicular travel,"
"You couldn't have cooked them?" asked Gillian.
"Delutes the nutrient," Ellen answered.
"You couldn't have killed them?" asked Scarlett, horified.
"They continue to produce and secrete the stuff from inside your stomach," Ellen answered, matter-of-factly, "And it's a good thing, too. Before we discovered these, half our recruits died in transit,"
We sat down, and stared horrified at the centipedes. Well, most of us. Gregg casually began mixing them with his scrambled eggs, and Ellen split open a croisant and placed the insects inside.
"They go down better with other food," said Greg, "They taste kind of like lime, if that helps you,"
Eventually, Gillian got up the courage to try one of the critters, after smothering it in Jam. She grimaced as it wriggled down her throat, then looked around, got up, and ran off. Ellen ran after her.
I decided to buckle down and try one. Taking Greg's suggestion, I stuck all three of them between halves of my english muffin and shoved the whole thing in my mouth.
It was an interesting sensation, to say the least. Greg was right, though - they did kinda taste like lime.
Scarlett absolutely would not eat hers. She was indignant.
"There was nothing about eating live bugs in that contract!" she complained.
"You can choose not to eat them," said Greg, "But you risk turning yourself inside-out in perpendicular space. Besides, they're good for your cholesteral,"
Scarlett continued to refuse the centipedes, until Ellen returned and told us it was time to disembark.