Chapter Text
She stood before the precipice. The turning point. The Rubicon. The sharp edge of destiny. The single action on which everything that she would ever do hinged on.
“Uhhhhhhhhhhh- can I have uhhhhh- can I have a cheeseburger?”
“Yes'm.” A short pause and some clacking. “That'll be $4.99 miss.”
”Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Voyager stood there with the appearance of a fish in a round bowl, eyes wide. “Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” she tried to delay.
“You need to pay miss. We take credit, debit, cash.. Apple pay.”
“Oh I have card!“ She rummaged around in the extra pocket on her violin case, before pulling out and proudly presenting-
“Miss we don't take pokemon cards. Do you have any real money miss.”
Voyager was nearly on the verge of tears at this point, wracking her brain for every bit of information she had on Earth and Earth culture and exchange. Which all-together really wasn't much. She shuffled through her bag a little more, when at last, she found it.
She pulled out a small purple bag, and from within it presented a small piece of meteoric platinum. “Here! Money!”
“We don't take rocks at this here establishment miss. If don't have any money please get out of line.”
She was almost quivering with sadness. Both at having offended Earth's customs, but also at having so definitively lost the chance at a burger.
But as she turned to leave, an old woman behind her cleared her throat.
“Ahem— I can pay for you honey, it's only 5 bucks. Here.” She handed the money to the cashier.
"You're number is 63, shouldn't be longer than 5 minutes miss. NEXT!"
Voyager, still a little stunned turned to face her savior, before stammering out "THANK YOU! THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU! You have no idea how much this means to me!!"
The older woman had sympathy in her eyes. "Oh no, I think I do honey. I've been there before. It gets better honey. Believe me. It gets better. Oh- I gotta order. You have a safe one out there."
"Thank you ma'am!!!"
Voyager was surprised, but comforted to learn that even old humans sometimes struggled to order burgers. A few minutes later her burger was at the counter. She'd never had anything so tasty in her life.
She would live long past the old woman. Live past all humans. Past the rock on which we all dwell. She would return to her voyage among the stars. But even then she would always remember that fire ass burger. And the kind lady too of course.