Oil, grease, rot, sweat, and burned electrical components assaulted me. The passage was wide enough for one person at a time, or if two passed each other they would have to turn sideways and after passing each other they would be intimately familiar.
“Cabins six and eight,” Captain Stone called ahead to me because I led our little troop.
Each door had a number stamped into the metal. The floor, walls, and the air vibrated with running machinery. I heard the whoosh of air pumped through conduit, the clang of a metal door closing, and angry cursing from farther along. The last was probably from another virgin traveler, like me.
Door two was on my left, door one on my right. That made it easy. I looked back at a pair of faces as unhappy as mine, along with the captain, and behind all of us were the four large travel cases as tall as my waist and barely narrow enough to fit through the passage.
Soon, we located cabin six and entered. The room adjoined cabin eight with a connecting door. I looked around, astonished that I was on a passenger starship.
The rooms were semi-clean and small by any measure as if constructed by and for a race slightly smaller than humans. Each cabin had a pair of short, narrow bunk beds, one above the other, freshly laundered sheets and blankets lay on top of stained, bare mattresses. We would make up our own beds. Against the opposite wall were built-in narrow drawers, about a dozen of them in each room. With the bulky travel cases waiting politely in the passage, there was little room to move, less if anyone wanted to turn around.
The Captain motioned for Bill to shut the door to the corridor. I did the same for the other cabin. When we had done that, she faced us and said grimly, “Okay, we need to do a little planning. I am in charge so listen up.”
Her eyes centered on the two pair of Bert’s eyes appearing from the fur on top of his head. She shifted her attention to Bill and me and her manner of speaking turned more official, much like I’d expect a starship captain to speak.
She said, “The initial trip will only be five days to Franklin, where we will transfer to another, smaller ship. While on this one, we will eat with the other passengers, spend time in the various lounges, where you will do no drinking, stims, or gambling. I want as little interaction with the crew and passengers as possible. Any infraction of those rules and I will bribe the medical staff to sedate you for the rest of the voyage.”
We all nodded silently, which seemed the correct response.
She continued, “Now, get these damn travel cases inside here and unpacked. The contents go in those drawers so we can put the empty cases out in the corridor. The crew will store them. Right now, I don’t have room in here to change my mind.”
“Who sleeps where?” Bill asked as his eyes flitted up and down the captain.
There were two sets of bunk beds, and the possible combinations were limited. She was caught off-guard and started to have Bert and me together, which suited me, but she realized that meant she and Bill would be together. Her eyes shifted to me and I thought I’d be sharing her room, but she surprised me. “Bert, would you mind taking the top bunk in my room?”
Bert said, “Not if you don’t mind me gathering spare blankets and clothing to make a bit of a nest to sleep under.”
The captain continually surprised me. Trying to outthink her was impossible, because of choices like that. I’d have anticipated her wanting me to room with her, or possibly Bill because of how he had filled out and the smile he had directed at her. I had no idea why she chose Bert. Nor did she object to Bert’s nest building, which had always been a task never completed. I could imagine the near future. He would gather anything to improve his tunnel system, no matter how temporary.
It didn’t matter. I was far more comfortable with Bill sleeping in the same room as me, as he had been doing for ten years, or thereabouts. I couldn’t remember the last time I woke without his soft snores soothing my nights.
Some people complain about their mate snoring. For me, hearing Bill means that all is right in our untidy world, and the few times I didn’t hear it, he was outside guarding our camp against intruders or thieves.
It turned out, as no great surprise, some of the clothing I’d chosen didn’t fit or suit any of us. I’d gone for frippery and cute. We tossed those on the top bunk where Bert would be. Some were hideous and I wondered if the clerk who had worked on commission while selling ugly clothing had tossed in a few things the store had a tough time selling when I was not looking in her direction. After all, I was going off-planet and wouldn’t open my bags until aboard the ship, so I couldn’t complain.
If she had done that—good for her. I could respect adding to her personal credit account where there could be no recourse. I also appreciated that she had probably considered it payback to the client who had treated her so poorly. That would have been me.
The pile on the top bunk grew and we also requested additional bedding from a passing ship’s steward. Then a loudspeaker ordered us to enter our bunks and wait for the crew to check on us before liftoff. A knock sounded at the door and a young woman in the ship’s uniform hustled inside and ensured
