The Oceans of Emptiness

by Tiffany Weems

  “Oh, I thought you knew.”

  Teral placed his hand on the captain’s door and entered the room.

  Patricia shook her head. “You’re married to the captain? To him?”

  “Of course. I know he comes off a bit crude at times, but he’s really a big softie.”

  Patricia waited until she disappeared inside the room as well before going into her own room. John was laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

  “Did you know that the captain had a son?”

  John rolled over, facing Patricia as she crawled into the bed. “We do not talk that much.”

  “Well, he does have one and it’s the quiet kid. The one I have no clue what to do with in my class.” Patricia buried her face in her hands. “As if I didn’t have enough pressure already to choose the right placement for every student that enters my room. If I send the captain’s son the wrong recommendation they’re going to jettison me for sure.”

  “No they won’t. They’ll freeze you.”

  Patricia pulled her hands away and stared at John. “Excuse me?”

  “Oh, that’s right. You didn’t know about that. In lieu of a brig, the Capena Space Initiative Committee came to the conclusion that cryogenically freezing any troublesome individuals would be far more beneficial. The people then could be unfrozen upon arrival and used in set up until a trial can held for any misconduct.”

  “Um…that really doesn’t make me feel any better. Thank you though.” She laid down beside him. The ceiling was nice. The bed was warm. She wanted to go to sleep when that excited rush went through her once more. “You heard from them.” She rolled over to face John.

  He smiled. “Yes. We received our first communication today. The captain provided a status report of all that’s happened since our ascent. However, Capena was unable to provide much of a status report on their end.”

  “You mean they haven’t heard back from the Earth mission yet?”

  “From what I understood, they have heard something, but are unable to communicate any results at this juncture. Capena was triple checking their data before communicating much else.”

  “Any word on Gerald or Thomas?”

  John shook his head. “You know we probably won’t hear from either of them again.”

  She nodded. “Yeah I get that. It still would have been nice to hear about them. Anything, really.”

  “They can’t do that for two hundred people, they’re certainly not going to do it for one.”

  Patricia rolled back over. “Don’t forget, we’re supposed to meet with Xana tomorrow.”

  “Let me know how that goes.”

  “John, you have to go. So don’t you dare try to get out of this.” She crossed her arms in front of chest. “Besides, I’m not doing this alone.”

  “Have you seen Xana or Tuft since the first night?”

  “No. I figure they’ve been busy with work. I’ll try to find Tuft on my day off tomorrow. He’s probably ready to burst with a good story.”

  “Again, have fun with that. I think I will pass. His stories have a tendency to drag out far too long.”

  “I don’t know anyone else like that.” Patricia tried to mask her sarcasm. “Get some rest. We should get an early start if we want breakfast before our meeting.” She heard him sigh, but moments later the snores began to encompass the room. Patricia, however, took far longer to fall asleep. She had to find a good recommendation for Teral.

  . . .

  Patricia stood in the hallway on the first floor, waiting for John to show up. They were already fifteen minutes late. She was about to go search every bit of the ship to find him, when he walked around the corner.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said with a sheepish grin.

  Patricia rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just get inside before I decide to kick your butt.” She followed him into Xana’s office. She had a small office, barely big enough to fit three people comfortably. “Sorry we’re late. John got held up.”

  Xana smiled. “Don’t worry about it. So, I know you both are aware of why we are here.”

  John shifted in his chair.

  Patricia placed her hand on his leg to steady him, but he just brushed it off. “We know why we’re here, but you know the odds are a bit of a long shot with us.”

  “Patricia, you’re not that old.” Xana reached down. “I just need a blood sample. From each of you.”

  Patricia felt John stiffen. “Why?”

  “Final screenings for every passenger.”

  “Shouldn’t that have been done on Mars?”

  “They were. Everyone on board was cleared at least a week before the voyage, however, a screening will be done now and another will be done when we arrive at our new home. It is the hope of Capena that we are able to identify the consequences of such travel on the human body.”

  “And?”

  “And the captain would like to know who has the best chances for population purposes now. There are not that many children yet. We’re going to need to reproduce now or it could be a while before we are able to have another generation, if at all.”

  “So you’re testing mainly the couples for that, but what about you? You boarded the ship single.”

  “I am young enough to bear children, but the captain has agreed to not force it upon us if project embryo works.”

  “I’m sorry, project embryo?” Patricia pulled away from John and leaned on Xana’s desk. “Would you care to elaborate?”

  “I can’t tell you what it is. And believe me, I’m not sure you want to know.” Xana’s smile faltered. “Now if you don’t mind, you two have held up my schedule long enough for the day. Just hold still, this won’t take long.” She pulled two digital syringes from her desk which she then brought around and stuck into their arms. Then, handing these samples to the bot in the room, Xana resumed her seat. “You can go. Just be sure to see me if you experience any uncommon physical reactions to your new environment.”

  Patricia shook her head with a smirk. “We spent a lot of time in space already. I highly doubt we’ll get sick.”

  “This is different. We’re traveling, further, faster, with far more of a capacity. Your body may not react in the same manner.”

  Patricia put her hand on the door and motioned for John to go first.

  “Take this seriously.”

  Patricia rolled her eyes as she too left the office. “That was pleasant.”

  John scoffed. “I have to get back to work. I’ll see you at dinner.”

  “You better. Or I’ll come find you. I don’t care if you’re in a meeting or not.”

  John walked away, mumbling something under his breath.

  Patricia continued through the hall. She hadn’t been up to the first floor yet. It was only slightly larger than the sixth. There were several rooms that weren’t labeled. Those were the ones that Patricia was dying to open, but she knew it wasn’t worth the risk of spending the rest of her trip as a popsicle.

  Finally she reached the elevator and stepped inside. It asked for the floor she wanted. That was a good question. Perhaps she wanted to get something to eat or maybe some virtual fun was in order. Neither sounded very fun. At least not alone. That was it. She needed to see a friend. She called out level four and the elevator zoomed straight for the correct floor.

  The doors opened and she had to squeeze out past the hoard of people pushing their way on. It must have been getting close to a shift change somewhere on the ship. She walked along the hall, reading the numbers beside the doors carefully until at last she found the one she was looking for. With a quick knock on the wall, Patricia took a step back.

  The door slid open and Tuft stood in his boxers and a shirt, stretching tall. “Hey. What’s up?”

  “Could you please put some clothes on?” Patricia asked. She looked past him to the laundry already scattered everywhere from the floor to the dresser to the bed. “It looks like you’ve got plenty to choose from.”

  Tuft shook his head and motione
d for Patricia to follow him inside. Then he grabbed a pair of pants and wrestled them on while Patricia found a relatively clean spot to take a seat. “What you want?”

  Patricia shrugged. “I don’t have anything to do today. I graded all my assignments after class yesterday and I thought maybe you’d be free to explore the ship a bit. John has to work.”

  Tuft took a seat as well. “I’ve already seen enough of this tin can.”

  “You’ve seen everything? Even the rooms up on the first floor?”

  Tuft shook his head. “I don’t have clearance for those rooms.”

  “So who cleans them?”

  Tuft shrugged.

  “What about the second level? What recreation did they bring on board?”

  “Nothing much. They got some virtual simulation tubes.”

  “What?”

  “You ain’t never seen them? You can be anywhere and do anything you want.” Tuft got a goofy grin plastered on his face. “Anything.”

  Patricia tried to ignore the statement. “So how was your first week on the job?”

  “Great. I got to meet all those people who work for me. I got to see most of the ship. And this week I get to clean up the outside of the ship.”

  Patricia looked at him through narrowed eyes. “I don’t understand. What could you possible do outside of the ship?”

  Tuft shrugged. “I ain’t sure what they have in mind. I just know I get to put on the puffy suit.”

  “I don’t think the suit’s going to be puffy. When are you doing that?”

  “In three days, early morning.”

  Patricia nodded. “I’ll try to get permission to bring the students to observe. It’s so much easier to teach them when we’re not actually in the classroom. At least then I don’t have to worry about Lance hacking into the system and changing his classmates’ answers on their assignments.”

  “He did that?”

  “I’ve only actually caught him once, but I know he’s done it more than that.” Patricia sighed. “So is there something you want to do?”

  Tuft shrugged. “I guess it’s up to you.”

  Patricia dramatically threw her hands into the air. “Fine.” She wondered if level two would be any fun. Then she thought of her students. That’s probably where they went to blow off steam on their days out of class. She couldn’t invade that space. “There’s one level that I haven’t been on yet.”

  Tuft smiled. “Let me grab a shirt.”

  With a roll of her eyes, Patricia moved out into the hall. A small gaggle of girls strolled by with their eyes glued to their tablets. Judging by their age, Patricia was confident that she would be seeing them in just a couple of years.

  “You ready?” Tuft asked.

  “Yeah.” She led him in the opposite direction to the further of the two elevators. She didn’t want to ride in the elevator with all the teenagers. As the door shut, Patricia leaned precariously against the wall. “Do you miss it yet?”

  “We ain’t been on this tin can long enough to miss Mars yet. You ain’t missing it already, are you?”

  “I don’t know. I guess not, just maybe realizing how long it’s going to be until we see solid ground again. Just the thought of it makes my stomach uneasy.”

  “Nah, I think that might be the food. I haven’t been feeling real well for a few days.”

  Patricia eyed him suspiciously. “Maybe you should get checked out.”

  “Xana’s got enough to worry about. I’m good.”

  With a shrug, she turned away. “If you say so.” The door opened up on the seventh level. A man stood just outside the door with a taser holstered and a metal baton in hand. “Um…hello.”

  “What’s your business here?” he asked.

  Patricia raised her eyebrows at Tuft and then turned back to the guard. “We were just taking a stroll.”

  “You can stroll right back into that elevator and head back to where you are supposed to be.”

  Patricia tried hard not to laugh. She knew he wasn’t kidding. “What are you hiding?” Patricia playfully tried to look past the guard. He didn’t appear amused.

  “I’m going to need your names.”

  Patricia put her hands in the air. “Alright. We’re leaving.” With a strong hand, she dragged Tuft back to the elevator and waited for the door to close. “What the hell?”

  “You got us in trouble.”

  “Whatever. It just makes me want to go down there that much more.”

  “Well I’m hungry.”

  Patricia sighed. “You’re always hungry.” She leaned against the wall with a slight nod. There wasn’t much else they could do.

    

  Patricia could hear the soft hum of the alarm, but she wasn’t ready to get up. She peaked through her eyelashes to see a figure stumbling around, trying to get clothes on. “Shouldn’t you be gone already?” she asked with a yawn.

  “And should you not be getting up?” John asked.

  Patricia sat up, stretching high. “I think I’ll skip class today. They don’t need me anyway.”

  John scowled at her. “Get up. I don’t need another lecture from the captain.”

  “I already said sorry for that. I didn’t know he’d be able to figure out who I was.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed. “If the captain really had a problem with it, he should’ve talked to me.”

  John scowled again. He grabbed his tablet and left the room.

  Patricia waited a few minutes before she got herself ready. She wanted to be sure there was no way she was going to run into John again on her way to the classroom. She had been on the ship for about two weeks and she was beginning to learn the schedules of several different departments. At the hour she had to be up, only the educators and officers needed to report to work. The next group to report for first shift were the scientists and the medical personnel. Often, Patricia was done with breakfast before the next group made it to the cafeteria. She liked it that way. It was quiet; made breakfast almost enjoyable, if it weren’t for the food.

  The classroom, on the other hand, was far from enjoyable. With each passing day, she knew the time was coming when she was going to have to make a decision on Teral’s assignment. She also knew that somehow Lance needed to actually start listening to her or her time with him was only going to get worse.

  The second class was supposed to start, the door opened and the three students walked in as they did every day. She was sure they were waiting until the last minute on purpose. Like her class was someplace awful to be.

  Patricia smiled. “Welcome. This morning we’re going to take a trip. No need to activate your desks.”

  “Where are we going?” Cubina asked.

  “You’ll see. Another ship exploration mission. Today’s assignment will be to provide a three byte essay on the benefits of the assignment we are about to witness.” Patricia dropped the smile. She spoke to the class, but her eyes only locked with Lance. “I had to make quite a few requests and promises in order to get this trip. No one is to act out or cause trouble in any way or I’ll be forced to take action.” Out of the corner of her eye she could make out Cubina and Teral’s heads move up and down in acknowledgement. Lance, however, just stared back at her, unblinking. It was going to be a long morning. “We’re headed up to level one. You can leave your personal items here if you’d like. Or bring them with. Either way.”

  Cubina stood up and exited the room first. Patricia followed. They walked through the hall toward the nearest elevator and all four rose to the first level. Her heart pounding, the door opened to reveal First Mate Troubalene.

  “You’re late.”

  Patricia glanced at her wrist where a watch would have been, had she been wearing one. “I don’t think so. We left as soon as we could.”

  “Well you should have left sooner.”

  Patricia heard someone snickering behind her, as if she didn’t know who it was. “Well, I’m sorry. He hasn’t started yet, has he?”

  �
�No. We’re prepping him now.”

  With a simple nod she ushered her students in front of herself down the hall. Then Patricia hung back with Troubalene. “I wanted to ask you a question.”

  She scowled. “I cannot divulge any more to you than what the captain has already done.”

  “The captain hasn’t said a word to me.”

  “Exactly. Patricia, I implore you, do not take further action in this matter. I would hate to have to find another educator when we haven’t even begun our jump.”

  “When are we doing that anyway?”

  “We should be at the jump point in a fortnight. Most systems on the ship will have half a day off in order to celebrate the auspicious occasion.”

  Patricia shook her head. “Okay. Could the students witness if first hand?”

  “No. We will not allow any unauthorized personnel on deck. But the event will be broadcast for viewing in the gathering area.”

  “Go in that door there,” Patricia said to the students who were still meandering through the hall. “To your left, Lance.”

  The three students disappeared.

  “Have you had any luck determining a recommendation for an assignment for Teral yet?” Troubalene asked.

  Patricia took a deep breath. “No. You wouldn’t happen to have a suggestion, would you?”

  Troubalene raised her head slightly so that her nose pointed high in the air. “I cannot do your job for you. You are the only one on this ship with this responsibility and you alone can carry it out.”

  Patricia placed her hand on the door and it slid open. “Thanks for your help.” She followed Troubalene into the room. It was larger than her classroom. Along one wall was a panel that slid open to reveal the suits, one of which was missing from its hook. There were computers and monitors and a touch board along the opposite wall. Then, straight ahead, there as an airlock door. Tuft was suited up, standing in front of the door with a tech making sure the suit was on properly.

  “You made it!” Tuft said.

  Patricia smirked. “I said I would come.” She then turned to her students. “Who here knows what they’re about to do?”