The Terran Accord Official Standard Reference Sustenance Cube—or Synthcube for short—is the most common form of rations in the Terran Accord! Other forms of food rations are still present but none quite as pervasive as the cube.
They were invented prior to the Terran Jump Drive, a rich investor wanted to make a food so awful that people asking for handouts would eat them and work extra hard to earn enough to eat real food. Once space travel started being a thing, their convenient stackability, high density, and ease of calculating logistics made them extremely popular.
Synthcubes are three centimeters by three centimeters by three centimeters big and each contains sufficient nutrients and hydration to cover the human body's needs for a six hour period. They are flavorless and designed to reject attempts to change that. Try to cover it in ketchup and it'll just slide right off. You can't cook them; they're unreasonably flammable.
She dropped the cube at her owner's feet and sat back on her haunches. "This is a Terran Accord Official Standard Reference Sustenance Cube." She pointed down at it and waited for Thatch to lean down and pick it up between finger and thumb for inspection. It looked comically small in her grip. "A little before the invention of the Terran Jump Drive, some rich asshole got it into his head that all the problems with society were because of freeloaders coasting off of government handouts, and so developed these things. They're three centimetres by three centimetres by three centimetres and each contains sufficient nutrients and hydration to cover the human body's needs for a six hour period. They are flavourless and designed to reject attempts to change that. Try to cover this in ketchup and it'll just slide right off. You can't cook them; they're unreasonably flammable. He figured that if the only food poor people were allowed were these then they'd work harder to be allowed real food. Once space travel started being a thing, their convenient stackability, high density, and ease of calculating logistics made them extremely popular. They were—" katie paused and glared up at Thatch. The plant was too distracted by the cube to notice, so she cleared her throat to get her attention— "convenient."
- Katie Aquae, Second Floret, in Divaricated Chapter 56 by Annabool