The excitement in his eyes was contagious. He smiled at Evalene, the last to go through the door, and followed her into the compartment. It held rows of bunk beds on both sides of the long hallway. The beds stretched the length of the compartment. Each bunk was made out of a beautiful stained wood, instead of the metal ship walls, making this room feel more cozy. Every bunk had a little red curtain that could slide across the front of it to block out the light. The curtain was pulled back on the nearest one, and Evalene peeked in out of curiosity to find the sleeping unit had a thick mattress, a cozy blanket, and a pillow.
“These are the racks,” Luc said, pointing at the sleeping compartments. “If we were at capacity, some people would end up having to share bunks and take turns sleeping while the others in the crew were on duty, but as it is, we’re sailing light, so you all get your own bunks. Go ahead and stash your belongings now while we’re here.”
Evalene didn’t have anything to leave behind. Everything she possessed she was either wearing or carried in her pockets. She waited while the others chose their bunks, staring at the backs of their brown shirts as they stored their bags, and then the group moved on. Luc angled his body to talk to them as he walked down the narrow passageway. “Next I’ll show you the Head – that’s the sub name for our showers and toilets – so you can find it later if things get urgent.”
As Luc reached the other end of the hallway, he raised his voice to reach everyone in the compartment. “We’ll do introductions once we get back. You’ll meet everyone else on board soon enough, and we’ll all get to know each other real well by the end of the trip.” Evalene cringed and averted her eyes as the group of men looked around at each other, and at her. Maybe she could sneak away and hide in a bunk when they weren’t paying attention.
Luc didn’t take them into the next compartment, though. He just opened the hatch so they could peer into it. The black metal ceilings, floors, and walls of the initial compartment were here again, with a door on the left and on the right. The left door had a stick figure man painted onto it, a universal symbol that Evalene recognized right away for a restroom, and the door on the right just like it but with the stick figure wearing a skirt.
Evalene breathed in and her nose wrinkled at the smell. It wasn’t strong, but it was clear what this section was even if she hadn’t seen the symbols. Luc plugged his nose, miming a stomachache.
“Women didn’t used to be allowed on subs back when V was first built,” Luc continued, clearly enjoying his tour guide role as he waved expressively to the right side with the stick figure in a skirt. “So maybe 10-20 years or so after she was commissioned, they had to dry dock her and do a bit of maintenance to overhaul this one Head into two separate Heads. One for the gentleman and one for the ladies.”
Closing the door on the smell, Luc pointed to the door. “Past the Head is the Auxiliary Machinery Room. It takes care of Atmosphere Control, has an emergency generator, and so on.”
Luc paused to point back the way they’d come. “And in the opposite direction, where our captain went, is Operations. The control room, sonar – you name it. All the instruments we need to keep us going are in that room.”
Smiling easily at the group, Luc leaned back comfortably against a bunk. The men stood in a semi-circle around him, but Evalene hung back, trying to be invisible.
“The battery compartment, missile room, reactor room, engine room, and maneuvering room are all off limits. Just keep an eye out for the signs. But if we have time before the meeting, I’ll take you to the lower level of the sub, where we have a few more compartments you’re free to use.”
Just how big was this ship? The huge, bald man voiced the same thoughts in his deep voice. “It didn’t look that big from the docks.” Evalene stared at the rolls on his neck. She studied the other men with him, trying to figure out if they knew each other. They were all different ages, and most of them stood apart from each other, but one smaller man stood next to the bald man, nodding at his observation.
Luc threw his head back and belly laughed. “You can say that again!” Chuckling, he gestured generally at both sides of the sub. “She’s narrow, but she’s long. From the bottom of the hull to the top fin, she’s roughly 60 feet. Ol’ Victorious is definitely one of the larger subs they built, although very few are built anymore.”
Evalene felt a shift in the floor and her stomach started to feel queasy. She put her hand against one of the top bunks to steady herself, fighting the sudden urge to throw up. The smaller man bumped into the bald man, also clutching his stomach, looking dizzy and a little green. “The sea sickness will pass,” Luc told them. “After we get to a certain depth, you’ll barely feel the movement of the sea at all.”
But Evalene found that hard to believe as she continued to feel off-balance, and her already throbbing head started to spin. She sat abruptly in the nearest lower bunk, feeling faint. The smaller man sat too, making Evalene feel a little better that she wasn’t alone. The others widened their stance a bit, but otherwise seemed fine.
“You all are lucky,” Luc encouraged them, putting on his tour guide voice again. “We have Officer Welder with us for this voyage. A sub is naturally smoother sailing, especially underwater, but when he’s at the helm, you often won’t even feel the turns.”
As Luc moved back down the hallway, he waved for them to follow. “Let’s head back towards the mess deck. I’ll wrap up our tour with some comforting facts that should help you all relax. Let’s see…” As he ambled past Evalene, she worried she might empty her stomach on his shoes.
“Everyone on the crew knows how to drive a sub, work the sonar, contact tracking, damage control, you name it.” As the other men in the group shuffled past, they gave Evalene a wide berth. Staring down at her blue skirt and leggings, it was easy to figure out why. They thought she was a high Number. Luc, with his good-natured attitude and multi-colored clothes, didn’t bother them nearly as much as her presence.
Luc was nearing the other end of the hallway. Forcing herself to stand, Evalene leaned heavily on the bunks, trailing after the group. “Everyone on board is trained to fight flooding,” Luc continued. “And we’re all trained on the basics of every system on board. Even the cook knows a bit about navigation.” Evalene lifted her eyes from her feet briefly to peek at him and found he was grinning widely at his own joke as he paused by the hatch back to the mess deck.
“How fast is it going?” The bald man spoke up again, near the front of the group. He was by far the most vocal, though he wore brown like everyone else. Evalene’s focus had been on the floor and avoiding their gazes, but she guessed if she glimpsed their tattoos, his Number would be the highest.
“We typically travel at about 25 knots once we’re on the ocean floor, which means it’ll take us about two days to get to the island. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll let the captain tell you all about our destination. Don’t worry,” he added, directing his words to Evalene and the smaller man, “in just a few minutes, it’ll smooth out a lot more. You’ll be ready for breakfast and introductions.”
Nodding to each man as they passed through the hatch into the mess deck, Luc told them, “Looks like it’s time for the meeting, so we’ll pick up the rest of the tour afterwards. Go ahead and get comfortable.”
At the back of the group, Evalene’s heart sped up again at the mention of meeting the other passengers. This small group was bad enough, and now he reminded her of just how many people on board could find out her true Number. She was not going to let that happen, no matter what. Her new status and the clothes on her back were all she would have in her new life outside of Eden. If someone found out she was inferior to them, there was no telling what they might do. And she would be lower than all of them. She always was.
Mind racing, Evalene tried to decline as she reached the door, the last one to go through. “If it’s alright with you, I… was thinking of taking a nap.” That was true. She’d only slept a few hours the night before, and combined with the
emotions of the past couple days, she was exhausted.
“Oh absolutely,” he said with a nod as he ushered her through the hatch door into the mess deck, “as soon as the meeting is over, you can go sleep in the racks or relax in the mess hall, you name it. You’re a paying customer, so this is your chance to put your feet up and take it easy. We even put on a movie every night after dinner.” He said this proudly as she stepped over the threshold and into the mess deck.
At his words, the full magnitude of her escape began to sink in. It felt oddly distressing.
Now, instead of knowing what her days would look like for the rest of her life, the future was a big blank nothingness. She felt almost a twinge of regret realizing she could never go back. That was stupid. Yet, she found herself missing her old life – the bed in the attic suddenly seemed safe and comforting. What would she do when she got to this island they talked about? What if she couldn’t afford to go on to the FreeLands? What had looked like opportunity from inside Eden had swiftly transformed into an enormous risk.
Luc moved forward to greet a group of what Evalene assumed were crew members, since they all wore similar blue, black, and gray uniforms, and seemed to know each other. The room was loud, filled with their conversation and laughter, and the quieter tones of the passengers getting to know each other. The bald man and the rest of her tour group all moved into the room to sit.
Evalene bit her lip, feeling out of place. The room was filled with people in brown. She didn’t want to irk anyone else the way she had the little tour group. Spotting a chair in the corner where she could fade into the background, she crept over to it and sat.
Someone at the table in front of her elbowed his friend and pointed to the glass of water in front of him. It was slanted in the cup. The ship was turning. It took a few more seconds before Evalene even felt it. Her stomach was calming as well. Luc had been right, it was smoothing out after all.
Surveying the room filled with people, it struck Evalene as odd once again, that the passengers were all low Numbers. Jeremiah had said this was a trade ship. Maybe high Numbers avoided traveling on those? The women she’d spotted earlier sat at some tables on the far side. Most wore brown, but there was a blonde girl at the table on the far side who wore a shocking flower print dress that didn’t fit anywhere within the color laws. Not only was it covered with all kinds of blue, purple, pink, and white flowers, but the dress itself was yellow!
The girl met her eyes. She gave Evalene a friendly smile, and waved for her to come join them. Ducking her head, Evalene acted like she didn’t see. She didn’t want to sit with anyone. They would want to know her story. Where she came from, where she was going, and why.
She directed her gaze to Jeremiah as he entered the compartment from the other side, the only person in this room she knew even remotely. What had she gotten herself into?
18
Jeremiah’s Speech
J EREMIAH STRODE INTO THE mess deck where everyone waited for him. He made his way through the cramped room, circling tables until he reached the middle. He could hear the cooks behind the metal window on the side as they prepared breakfast. They would start serving shortly after he finished speaking.
New faces mixed in with the familiar faces of his crew. He was impressed they had so many recruits this trip. Almost three dozen. The last few trips hadn’t even come close to that. Though the Lower Level Employee Work Rule still worked in their favor, with no one the wiser, most members of the council had voted for this to be the last pickup.
“Welcome everyone,” Jeremiah spoke loudly to reach the entire room, his voice projecting easily. “I’m the captain of the HMS Victorious, but if you’re not part of the crew, you can just call me Jeremiah.” He left out his last name intentionally. “Luc, over there,” he pointed towards where Luc sat on the other side of the room and heads swung around to look at him, “is my second in command, the ship’s chief officer.”
The new recruits had the same furrowed brows of those who had gone before them. The girl, Evie, sat in the back corner. Her eyes were huge and her skin pale, like she might throw up. Distracted for a moment, he made a mental note to check on her once they were done.
“Most of you are here because of the Lower Level Employee Work Rule.” Everyone, in fact, except Evie, but he didn’t say that. There were nods around the room at the mention of the policy. But the way Beryl had written the work rule was so vague that none of the people in this room knew exactly what they’d signed up for, just showing up because they needed the job.
He elaborated as he always did for that reason, and for Evie’s sake, “The work rule was instated about two years ago now. It requested every available low Number to respond to the call for workers on a specific, but classified operation. Over the last two years, we’ve utilized the schedule posted with the Work Rule to periodically pick up low Numbers across the country. You all are the last group to be picked up.”
Their reactions were muted. Years of being under the thumb of higher Numbers had trained them to hide their feelings. But he caught raised eyebrows, some shifting in their seats, the way the room grew even quieter. “What you don’t know is that we’re headed toward a large island called Hofyn. It’s a country all its own, and the closest land mass near Eden, formed during one of the worst bombings of World War III.” The day he and Lady Beryl had discovered it had been the day they’d started planning in earnest, finally believing a revolution might be possible.
“It’s about a two-day trip. The people who live on this island are not part of Eden. They are Number-free.” Jeremiah studied the faces around him as he spoke. They were soaking up every scrap of information, just like he had when he’d first discovered the island. He smiled. Opening the refugees’ eyes to the rest of the world never got old.
“Tomorrow, when we get close to port, I’ll reveal the full scope of the assignment. But for now, settle in, get comfortable, and get to know each other.” The moment he dismissed them, Evie leapt out of her seat, already on her way to the racks before anyone else had finished standing. Jeremiah held his place, though he would’ve liked to follow her out to make sure she was alright. After suffering a blow to the head like she had, it wasn’t wise for her to be alone. But he was needed here.
Keeping an eye on the clock, he stayed and answered questions while breakfast began. After a half hour or so, he asked Luc, who was deep in discussion with another crew member, to take over.
“No problem, man,” Luc said with his signature grin. He never called Jeremiah Captain even though the rest of the crew did. Years of habit. His best friend probably wouldn’t call him Captain even if he told him to, not that he ever would.
Luc entered the circle and took over smoothly. Before Jeremiah had taken two steps, Luc was already joking with them. “You look like you wanna know where the toilet is. I see that jittery dance. If you’re ever lost on good old V, just check the map near the door in each compartment,” He heard Luc good-naturedly tease the poor passenger. “Go on man, hurry! It looks urgent!”
Jeremiah chuckled under his breath as the passenger ducked past him, running in the direction of the Head. Following at a more leisurely pace, Jeremiah wove around tables. Luc’s voice reached him loud and clear, even from the other side of the room, “And I’ll bet you wanna know if you can ask those lovely ladies out. Well, try to hold your horses for two days until we get to the island, my friend. There’s not a lot of privacy on good old V, and things can get kind of awkward for the rest of us, if you know what I mean. We got a saying, ‘don’t fraternize on a boat this size.’”
Laughing out loud as he reached the door, Jeremiah opened the hatch and passed into the racks, hearing Luc’s roaring laugh until the door closed and the seal cut off all noise from the mess deck.
The racks were still, a peaceful quiet compared to the previous room, although that wasn’t always the case. Jeremiah moved past each bunk, listening, wondering where Evie had gone. If not for his habit of walking on silent feet, h
e might not have heard her. A soft sigh came from one of the bunks behind him, and he turned to go back. One of the lower bunks sniffed.
Casually, Jeremiah knocked on the wood outside the box bed. There was shuffling inside. “Who is it?”
“It’s Jeremiah,” he said.
A hand tucked the red curtain back on its hook, and he saw Evie sitting inside, wrapped up in the blankets.
“Hi there,” he said, with a smile. Keeping himself as non-threatening as possible, he turned his back and moved across the narrow aisle to the opposite side, bending to sit in the doorway across from her.
Even with her calm front, her white knuckles and wide, unblinking eyes gave her anxiety away. She lowered her gaze. Years of low Number habits didn’t break easily.
Despite the fact that her disguise was meant to declare her high-Number status, her posture and behavior would give away the truth to a Regulator immediately. Jeremiah tried to think of the right words to make her relax.
But she surprised him by speaking first, soft and tentative. “That thing you said about the people on the island being Number-free?” He nodded, but didn’t interrupt. “It sounded just like this bulletin that came out in my town recently…”
Smiling, Jeremiah nodded again. He lightly rested his arms on his knees, keeping his stance open and inviting, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. “That’s probably because I wrote it.”
Startled, she stared directly at him, forgetting her usual habits. In the back of his mind, Jeremiah noted her ability to break from the rules so quickly. She was already far surpassing any other low Number he had ever met in boldness. He was intrigued.
“Did you write the first one also?” she breathed, and then ducked her head. “I’m sorry.”
Bold one moment, timid the next, yet both seemed natural. “You can ask whatever you want, Evie,” Jeremiah tried to catch her eye. “I won’t be offended.” He smiled at her and was rewarded with a tiny smile back. Twisting to reach into his back pocket, he pulled out a piece of paper as he said, “I wrote both of them. And also a third that was just distributed yesterday morning. Would you like to see?”
Evalene's Number: The Number Series Page 12