The tiny restaurant in the station was still open, and the air was warm inside. He pulled off the aspirator, shutting off the battery.
The counterman didn’t even glance up as he entered. Feldman gazed at the printed menu and flinched.
“Soup,” he ordered. It was the cheapest item he could find.
The counterman stared at him, obviously spotting his Earth origin. “You adjusted to synthetics?”
Feldman nodded. Earth operated on a mixed diet, with synthetics for all who couldn’t afford the natural foods there. But Mars was all synthetic. Many of the chemicals in food could exist in either of two forms, or isomers; they were chemically alike, but differently crystallized. Sometimes either form was digestible, but frequently the body could use only the isomer to which it was adjusted.
Martian
