A pirate, horror!
Ruth awoke. After two nights in the hammock she was starting to get used to it, although having no day or night made it difficult to sleep. She supposed she'd get used to that too eventually. Although she was still worried about what her family and friends back home would be thinking, now that she'd had time to think about it she was no longer as upset about leaving as she had been at first. Most of her friends were here, and for a while at least she was free of worries about jobs, money, housing, all the grown-up pressures that crowded in on everyday life at home. And she felt that she had very few people who would miss her, or who she would truly miss. Her parents, of course- she felt terrible that they wouldn't know what had happened, or that she was safe (well, at the moment); and a few other friends. Goodness knew how the authorities were treating the incident- the disappearance of a building as big as that and so many people without trace! But some of the others had left girl or boyfriends behind, and others were closer to friends and family outside the society than she was. "I guess I've been part of it so long that these are my closest friends, my community," she thought. "Although I can't say I'd have chosen to spend the rest of my life with them, unable to escape- and that seems entirely likely now."
Once everyone had settled down a bit and begun to resign themselves to their situation, Will and Zoe had allocated them into teams or watches to help with all the jobs that needed to be done to run the ship.
"We're a bit overcrowded," Zoe said. "We intended to bring back twenty-one specimens, which would have been quite enough, but then of course there were you two." She indicated Claire and Agnes, the two stowaways.
"It's not our fault," Claire said. "We didn't ask to be kidnapped!"
"So anyway," Will had said, trying to move the conversation on. "There will be two watches, one with Zoe in change and one with me. That means everybody gets some time off and some time on duty. We'll split you into smaller teams for particular jobs as necessary." He pinned the list to the noticeboard in the green room, and everyone crowded round to see who they were with.
"Also," Will continued, picking up a bag that he had brought with him, "You will all be given one of these bracelets, and you should wear it at all times around the ship, as far as possible. It's got a communication device so you can speak to each other wherever you are and your watch leader can speak to you. We'll show you how to use it, but it's fairly simple- a bit like a mobile phone. It also links to the teleport system, but since that's broken it really doesn't matter if you don't know how to use it."
"You have a teleport?" Matt asked. "Where?"
"In the green room," Zoe said. "But it's been broken for months. The wretched Estates department at the university kept saying they'd supply the parts needed, but they never did..."
"That sounds like Estates," replied David.
Ruth had found herself in Will's watch, along with Tom, Patrick, Adam, the two stowaways, Charlotte, Emily, Rachel, Sarah, David and Nick. The girls were to sleep in one of the two dressing rooms which had always been used by the girls, with the girls in the other watch occupying the other, while the boys did the same with the two men's dressing rooms. Although, Ruth though, things would probably not stay segregated for long, knowing this lot. Will and Zoe apparently had their own little cabins, tucked away at the side of the building.
Being something of a mother figure, she kept an eye on the others in her watch. Many of them were unusually quiet at the moment, unsurprisingly, even Rachel, who was usually quite a chatterbox. Emily was the youngest there, a first year who hadn't been in the society long. Ruth had spent some time talking to her and Charlotte, who was one of the older people there, although she too was relatively new to the society. Adam had sat and talked with them too, or rather he had listened most of the time as was quite a quiet person. Claire had sat- or floated- for a long time that first day beside a window, looking back at earth with her head resting on her hands. Ruth wished there was something she could do to help her, but as so often she didn't know what to say. She wanted to give Claire and all the others who were hurting a big hug, and tell them that things would be alright, but she couldn't. Things weren't alright.
And it seemed they were soon to be even less alright. She emerged, cautiously from her sleeping bag-come-hammock and washed- something else that took some getting used to in zero gravity- and with some of the others went in search of Will, to find out what they should be doing. They had just reached the steps down into the foyer- or the bridge, as she was starting to think of it- when an alarm rang out around the building.
"Everyone to the foyer, everyone to the foyer," came Zoe's voice over the speaker. She sounded worried, afraid. They hurried down the steps to find Will and Zoe at the controls and a few of the other watch standing around a screen, looking worried.
"What is it?" Charlotte asked.
"Pirates!" Will answered.
The story continues...
No comments:
Post a Comment