The humans told Kemm that he could find Matriarch Oz in her garden. He couldn't help but notice that it wasn't "the ship's garden" it was very definitely her garden. The ship just happened to benefit from it.
The closer he got to the Matriarch's lair the thicker the walls and bulkheads became. Kemm got the odd sensation that he was seeing a ship within a ship, a defensible self-contained vessel capable of surviving whatever the universe could throw at it.
He opened the final door and blinked in disbelief as he stepped onto the soft grass and felt warm sunlight radiate down on his face. He had expected hydroponics, a sterile lab-like environment. Instead he saw fruit bearing trees and rows of vegetables growing from rich dark earth.
He took a pinch of soil and rubbed it between his fingers. Wherever it had come from, it wasn't lab made. This was honest dirt, complete with pink wriggling earthworms. He couldn't contemplate the cost of transporting this much organic matter into space or why someone would choose to do so when hydroponics were so much more efficient.
The door clicked closed behind Kemm and he turned around just in time to see it waver and vanish. There was no wall, no sign of the ship, just rolling green hills and a blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds. It looked natural enough, but he knew it had to be a hologram.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Kemm grabbed a stone off the ground and tossed it gently towards the invisible wall. Instead of hearing a dull thunk and seeing it clatter to the ground he watched in surprise as it rolled and bounced down the hill, picking up speed as it went. Frantically he bolted towards where the door had been, arms out to protect himself from the wall he knew had to be there. But instead he found… nothing. There was no wall, no door, no escape. He was trapped in the Matriarch's garden.
"Fuck." Kemm cursed. He didn't know if this was a pocket dimension or if he had passed through some kind of stable wormhole but he was definitely not on the ship anymore.
"There's really no need for that kind of language." Admonished the Matriarch, appearing at his side as if she had always been there, a basket of fresh produce under one arm. "Besides, this is a temple world so swearing here is in remarkably poor taste."
"Temple world?" Kemm asked, dumbfounded.
"Yes. I'm the caretaker here. And "here" is the Temple world of Quinn. As the Matriarch of the order of Ivy I'm responsible for maintaining this sacred place and seeing to the pilgrims that come visiting." She explained, then almost as an afterthought looked down to her basket. "I also sell fresh fruits and vegetables to the cooks on the ship, but that's really more of a side gig."
Kemm tried to get a handle on the situation and just failed completely. This was high technology, almost verging on magic. Whatever method had been used to transport him here was so far beyond his comprehension that it made a warp drive look like a wind up toy.
"How?" He finally managed to ask.
"Oh it's surprisingly simple." Matriarch Oz explained. "You see, once upon a time there was an engineer named Rachel…"