"You look done," Naari commented once we were out.
"Just tired. I didn't sleep much, and I've had strong emotional shocks lately. But give me a few days, and I'll be fine."
Or scared to death.
The reunion room was on the first floor, also called the bridge, half of which was used by navigation and communication units. The Infirmary, an impressive medical center, was also on that floor, although sick rooms were distributed on each level. There were twenty-five surgeons and doctors on board.
The second and third floors hosted private accommodations and dining rooms. Since the ship could never be left unattended, there were two teams: the Blue one on the second floor, and the Green one on the third. I'd be a Blue, like Naari, Khiru and Vhar. Nur was a Green, but as a member of the Officer Corps, she could be called at any time. However I wouldn't see her again until we entered Khyra's solar system, fourteen Khyrian months later.
We left the elevator on the Blue floor where ceilings diffused soft dim lights, as if the sun was setting and casting feeble rays into our closed corridor.
"It's the end of the day here," Naari explained. "The Blue Team is having dinner right now, and they'll go to sleep in a couple of hours. The Green Team is taking over as we speak. If you want to peek downstairs, you'll see that their floor is lit by fresh morning sunlight."
That was pretty cool. But my bedroom held better surprises. I half expected a boring cabin, hardly better than a hospital room, but my new abode was simply charming. Its set of light wooden furniture was basic – a bed, a desk, a chair, and a cabinet – but tasteful. The sand-colored walls held animated pictures of meadows and lakes under a Khyrian sky displaying various shades of green, from the pale aquamarine of early morning to the vivid lime intensity of noon. All were more real than life. They gave a cottage feel to the bedroom.
"You may change the mediaframes if you want," Naari said. "Pick a sea theme. Or a mountain landscape. Whatever you like."
A door on the right led to a fully equipped bathroom.
"Sorry it's only a shower," he said as I stared in awe at the luxury of it all. "We can't afford tubs here, but there are common baths and pools on the entertainment floor."
"I'll be fine, trust me. This is wonderful. And the view..." I walked closer to the window to look at the stars, and touched it. It wasn't real; it was a screen, too.
"This is the view taken by one of the cameras on top of us. See, the ring we're in turns around the central pivot to create a gravity effect."
I looked down at my feet as if I'd just realized we were not floating in the air.
"If this was a real window, you'd get sick very quickly. So we installed cameras turning at the same speed as the ring and constantly feeding us the same panorama, as if we were traveling straight."
And unless you had your nose stuck to the screen, like me, you couldn't tell the difference. Simple and ingenious.
"Does that mean there's no zero gravity on the ship?" I asked, with a hint of disappointment.
"Believe me, you wouldn't want to live in zero G for four years. But there are zero-G units on the ship. There's the inner ring, a restricted area where scientists carry out special experiments. But more interestingly for you, we also have three exploration decks above the outer ring. They don't rotate like the rest of the ship, and offer wonderful static views. From there you can follow our progress and watch the stars through telescopes."
I made a mental note to visit them. Watching stars in zero G, that's what I call space entertainment.
"Tomorrow you can go shop for more clothes," Naari continued, opening the empty cabinet. "I'll ask a good friend to go with you. In the meantime, are you hungry?"
"I'm starving."
While we made our way along quiet corridors to the common Blue cafeteria, Naari gave me more explanations on the ship structure.
"The engine rooms and other machinery units are on the fifth floor. That's also where we park most of the shuttles. And then, there's the fourth floor, Skeda. It's our social activity center. Sports grounds, galleries, a park with a greenhouse, theatres, dun.... well, all sorts of fun things to do."
"A park? A greenhouse?"
"Yes, we're not living on canned food here. But you can see the park tomorrow. First you'll taste the results of our crops."
Ahead of me, the murmur of hundreds of voices grew louder and louder.
Nervously, I followed Naari into the dining room. Many eyes turned to look at me, and for the first time, I was acutely aware of my alien-ness. Most of these people had had no close contact with Earthlings, and suddenly, there I was, with my pale skin, clear eyes and (gasp) protruding ears. Too conscious of myself, I scurried alongside Naari to a large counter running along one wall, and focused on the selection of hors d'oeuvres. I let him place a bowl of food on my tray and activate the juice fountain.
When we were all set, Naari led me across a maze of low chairs and tables. I would have loved to observe the room, but couldn't take my eyes off the tray. I only looked up when Naari stopped. We had reached a corner of the dining room, and a red-haired woman was smiling at me.
Naari introduced her. "This is Myhre, my very best friend. And her lifepartner, Jova."
They both got up and held my hand. Jova was two heads taller than me, but Myhre was my size, which came as an unexpected relief in this land of giants.
She caught my stare and laughed. "I know, I'm short."
I instantly liked her.
"Myhre," Naari said, "was on location in that part of Earth you call Africa. She learned one of their dialects as well as English."
"You've just returned to the ship, too?" I asked.
"We came back five days ago, yes. With lots of dirt and stones and fossils. I hope all those days digging in the sun were worth it. Some are always luckier than others." She grinned at Naari.
"At least you were in a quiet, desert zone. Unlike us, who had to keep a constant watch against intruders."
I was going to ask Naari if he alluded to the squirrels and foxes prowling the woods around the cave, but Myhre turned to me first.
"So, Megan, how do you like our intrepid and comfy Noncha?"
"I haven't seen much of it yet, but I'm already impressed. And I love my room."
"A bit small, if you ask me, but they do nicely. What do you say to a full tour tomorrow?"
While I agreed and listened to Myhre's plans for the next few days, I searched the cafeteria for any ongoing erotic scenes, but couldn't find anything worse than couples kissing and cuddling. Granted, half of them were gay, but that sexual preference was hardly a problem anymore, even in my priggish town. Even though homosexuals usually avoided public displays, those were no longer looked upon as indecent. Surely, this couldn't be what Nur had warned me about.
My new friends were chatting in their own language, so I continued to observe my surroundings. As already noticed in the reunion room on the bridge, the chairs and tables were unusually low. The pastel-shaded couches formed circles around tables, and seated three to four persons who were lounging rather than sitting. Food was served in compartmentalized bowls easily kept in one's lap, and since ingredients were pre-chopped, only spoons or forks were necessary. The whole idea indicated a longing for comfort and conviviality. My grandmother would have scorned the lazy and gregarious postures, but I applauded them.
However, the most striking feature of the cafeteria was its nature decor. A profusion of plants and shrubs were scattered amongst the tables, and I had to remind myself that, yes, I was on a spaceship. A bigger cluster grew next to a wide mediaframe that projected a splendid vision of the surrounding cosmos. The contrast between the stars and the leaves was astoundingly beautiful.
If anything, this place was more romantic than erotic.
Then again…
When Naari and I left the cafeteria, my eyes fell upon a girl who'd been previously hidden from me by the set of luxurious plants between us. The girl was kneeling between a man and a table. She was
naked and wore a lively fuchsia collar connected to a leash that was resting on her partner's thigh. The collar was wide and high, forcing her to keep a straight posture. Her hands were bound in her back, and her breasts pointed tautly.
The man was chatting with friends while she remained silent, eyes turned to the floor. He was casually caressing her shoulders, and she looked peaceful.
Naari motioned me forward, and we stayed silent until we reached my room.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.
"No. Don't worry. I know it's a consensual game. It's just, it's a bit weird to see a scene like this in a cafeteria."
"You'll see many more of them around the ship. I take it Nur told you?"
I nodded, but too confused to make further comments, I bid him goodnight and switched the sliding door shut. It was a relief to be on my own after such a long and challenging day. I was overwhelmed with too many emotions for my own good.
My last thought was for Khiru. I hadn't seen him since we boarded the ship. Would I meet him for breakfast?
Chapter FOUR
The next day, I made a disconcerting discovery. I had never considered that basic notions of time could vary from one species to another. I knew that days were shorter or longer on each planet in our solar system, but since they were unpopulated, it didn't seem to matter. However, our 24-hour day was no universal rule. For Khyrians, days were shorter by one hour and twenty-six minutes; they were then divided into twenty "hours" that would last seventy minutes on Earth. Weeks counted five days; months, five weeks; and years, fifteen months, or 375 days.
The good news was, I was slightly younger on Khyra; the bad news was, I was deprived of over an hour of life every day.
When I complained, Naari told me my biological clock would adjust more easily on Khyra when the natural alternation between day and night would work on my system. They had similarly adjusted to our longer days on Earth. In the meantime, I coped. I would be fine for five or six days, then collapse and sleep for twenty hours on the seventh. Because Khyrians were prone to laugh at every twist and turn in life, my plight became a source of endless jokes, which finally made it a lot more bearable, too.
The day after my arrival, Myhre took a day off from her duties and gave me the grand tour.
Myhre was a geologist, and her main task during the return trip was analyzing the samples her team had brought back from the African Rift, although she insisted they would do a much better job once they could use the superior equipment on Khyra. So she wasn't terribly concerned about the on-board tests, especially since they were primarily meant to keep the staff busy and less anxious to be home.
"Now that you're here, I have better things to do," she said as we strolled the corridors on the bridge in search of interesting rooms to visit.
So far, all I'd seen were machines and mediaframes displaying words I couldn't read, and graphics I couldn't comprehend. Technical engineers offered to explain the intricacies of their work, but since none of them spoke my language, I became impatient to start learning theirs.
The main pilot room was more exciting, thanks to the huge mediaframe that showed our flight path through the galaxy. I recognized a stylized drawing of a ringed planet at the edge of the frame, and got excited at the thought of catching a much closer glimpse of what would undoubtedly be Saturn. For the time being, the Noncha was on hold in a distant orbit around Earth, and it would take three more days to check all systems and start the formidable engines that would propel us faster than light.
Myhre explained that the mediaframe could be programmed to show real images, but it was more convenient to use a graphic map where pilots could incorporate the latest flight data.
I was reluctant to leave. Even on a quiet day, the heart of the ship fascinated me. And there was another reason for my stalling.
"Does Khiru work here?"
"Certainly not when the ship's in standby. But even when we travel, he's more likely to work in his office or in the engineers' room to analyze incoming data."
Can we please go there?
"I suppose they must be busy now?"
"Yep, preparing our departure. But do you want to spy on them?"
What a delightful idea.
I followed Myhre into the security room, around the other side of the ring. After a long stroll through brightly lit corridors, we reached a restricted access zone.
"Megan, our very special guest," Myhre said to the first officer who stopped us, "would like to see the engineers' room, but we're afraid of disturbing them. Do you think we could peek at the surveillance screen?"
The man hesitated.
"You don't have clearance for that."
"C'mon, be nice. We won't look at anything else."
He sighed, then opened a door for us.
"Stria, these ladies would like to watch our engineers in action. Can you take care of them?"
A young brunette turned around and staggered when she saw me. She spoke to Myhre and motioned for us to sit down.
On our left, the wall held two rows of five frames. A few of them were turned on, showing clearly defined views of an engine compartment, the bridge, and more technical rooms. Facing the wall were three armchairs and a table. Behind them hung a large switchboard with hundreds of controls.
In front of us, another mediaframe extending from floor to ceiling represented a beach merging into the ocean. Waves crashed on the sand; birds flew across the emerald sky; in the distance, flimsy trees danced under the breeze. The dreamlike vision contrasted with the machinery sounds purring in the room, and almost made me lose my balance.
Stria giggled.
"Stria says most people don't like it," Myhre translated. They say it's too distracting. But when it's her turn to stare at the screens, she needs its soothing effect. She says we can choose something else if you'd rather."
I indicated I didn't mind at all and sat behind the table next to Myhre while Stria switched on one of the mediaframes and searched for the correct program.
There it was.
The engineers' room was as big as the pilots' room, but more disorientating. A dozen people were at work, so captivated in their tasks they looked like they were going to launch the ship in the next five minutes.
Here, there was no distracting beach landscape. Mediaframes with graphs and figures covered all sides; panels and controlling units ran along each wall. The middle of the room was a mess of desks and chairs and black cubes projecting images up in the air.
"What are those?"
"Computers," Myhre said, "with 3-D monitors. Engineers have a problem understanding two-dimensional graphics."
She laughed out loud with Stria, but she'd lost my attention. So had the computers. Khiru was on the screen.
Dressed in the Mercurian gray uniform worn by all pilots – his was adorned with a black hexagon on the chest to show his belonging to the Corps – he was studying a graph on a mediaframe and talking about it with a sturdy-looking woman. He frowned, listened to her, then pointed at a detail on the screen and gave a long explanation. Satisfied, the woman walked to the other side of the room while Khiru summoned more graphs on the wall. Struck by a thought, he walked to a young engineer working at a desk in the middle of the room. Replying to Khiru's question, the man retrieved what looked like an electronic book reader from a drawer. Khiru scanned page after page attentively, then patted his colleague's shoulder, said a few words and walked away. Even from a distance, it was obvious the young man was beaming with pride.
"Tell me more about what they're doing," I asked Myhre after a long silence.
"They're basically flying the ship, with all the problems that involves."
"But what do pilots do then?"
"They carry out the engineers' instructions."
Myhre shared more details that I didn't hear. Khiru was now talking to another engineer, one I recognized as a member of the Officer Corps. They were both relaxed, as if they were sharing vacation memories. Then Khiru laughed, and his
smile sent a heat wave through my body.
Myhre shook me out of my reverie. "You haven't heard a single word I said, have you?"
"What? Oh, I'm sorry. I was watching–"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. C'mon, Stria needs to work, and I don't want to be busted by someone less amenable. Before lunch, I'd like to go to the Infirmary and get your scan data."
During our return stroll along the first deck, Myhre jabbered incessantly while I remained lost in the vision of Khiru laughing. Khiru talking. Khiru touching. I was on the verge of becoming insanely obsessed.
Myhre and I reconnected when we reached the Infirmary. By its size and its equipment, the medical center was a miniature hospital. Myhre requested the results of my scan, and I was pleased to hear I was a healthy person, at least physically. After making appointments for additional inoculations in the weeks to come, we left the bridge and took an elevator down to the fourth deck, Skeda, the entertainment floor I'd been eager to visit since Naari had mentioned it.
Our first stop was the Galleries. A dozen cute stores offered a selection of clothes, books, small essentials like soap or pencils, and pre-packed food and beverages. Some of them clearly showed Khyrians' interest for sexual activities. The lingerie shop, although impressive by its selection of articles, was tame compared to its neighbors specializing in kinky clothes and bondage accessories.
"Let's find you some appropriate clothes," Myhre said excitedly. "Then we'll hit the pools."
Appropriate is in the eye of the beholder.
True, in my Internet days, I had mused over erotic costumes and lusted over rubber gloves and thigh-high boots, but that didn't mean I was ready to wear them. And in public, too.
"You don't want me to put this on, do you?" I protested when Myhre pulled out a purple topless corset under the watchful eye of a bemused male assistant.
"For the evening, darling," she cooed. "You'll look smashing with those wonderful big breasts of yours."
Big, my breasts? They were an average size C, but Myhre was definitely staring at them with envy.
"Smashing or not, I'm not walking around with my breasts exposed."
Worthy of a Master: The Tale of a Perfect Slave Page 4