Aurelia

All the homebots on board want makeovers, now that the official robo-surgeon (aka; me) has arrived. Illion was good enough to give me a desk of my own, and before I even got there a long line of unhappy homebots were lined up next to it, waiting for me.

It’s nearly lunch at this point, and I’ve barely got through one-third of the bots. They all seem to want facial readjustments, and a few need new wiring, but it’s not as terrible as I’d expected.

“Give me a button nose!” Cries a small waitress doll. Her current nose is a little square block, with ‘20¢’ written on it in gold. The rest of her face looks like any other girl’s might; save for the blue skin.

“One sec.” I squint through my eyepiece at the edges of the little square, aiming my laser pen carefully so I don’t cut the wrong parts off her face. With a short bzzt, the square falls from her face onto the floor, leaving a burnt spot.

I grab the prosthetic button nose from my desk, and before the bot can scream, I slap the nose on and weld it in place. A few little dabs of paint around the edges, and she looks perfectly new.

“It’s lovely!” The waitress exclaims when I hold up a mirror, “it’s beyond peachy!”

And pretty much that’s how it goes, all day long. Slice, slap, glue, paint, mirror, repeat.

It’s nearing 6pm, and I’m just finishing up the last bots, when Illion decides to join me.

“You look sleepy.” Is the first thing he says, sliding up to me while sipping on a milkshake.

“And you look…” I eye him down suspiciously, taking note of the oil splatters over his uniform, “oddly dirty.”

“Thanks?” He pulls a chair up beside me, watching as the last homebot comes up for a new set of hands.

Its current hands are malfunctioning; spasming like an epileptic. Most of these poor things haven’t had their circuits redone for a century.

Illion watches me work, keeping quiet, which I must say is a rare feat for him.

I’m done in a few minutes, and the last homebot wanders off to find its compatriots.

“I was wondering…” Illion says as I’m trying to put my equipment away in the right places, “if you would like to go to dinner with me tonight?”

“Tonight?” I purse my lips, shoving a few bands of wires into my desk drawer, “I’m supposed to be meeting Enea later, I think.”

“Oh, of course, that’s entirely understandable.” Illion stands from his seat in a bit of a fluster, brushing his suit out, “entirely understandable, I suppose I should be going too; shift at seven and…”

He trails off, pushes his glasses up, gives me a quick nod, and is gone from the mechanics lab before I can get a second word in.

What was that all about?

I take off my mechanics apron and wash up in time for the evening bell. Enea is meant to be waiting for me in the main cafeteria; I shouldn’t be late.

But Illion-

Illion’s gone off somewhere, I’ll see him later anyway.

Letting my braids down, I hurry out of the mechanics lab to the nearest elevator. Once I navigate the pastel maze of corridors, I finally make it to the cafeteria.

It’s full of hundreds of people, all mulling around, chatting to each other; a dull monotonous drone of voices.

I don’t see Enea anywhere; I’m sure she’ll be here soon.

I join the line for food, keeping an eye out for anyone I might recognise.

“This place isn’t half bad.” Someone says behind me.

“I was expecting a fucking hellhole.” Laughs someone else in response, “but it just reminds me of the good old days I had with grandpa; he used to have old computers and wallpaper like all this.”

The first-person chuckles, “my grandma used to dream of going on The Marillion.”

“My aunt too; dreamed of seeing the galaxy.”

“Didn’t think it would be like this.”

“No.”

They relapse back into silence, and I inch forwards in the line.

What will happen to the billions left behind?

What are they even thinking right now?

Three months still unlike the Zyxien come. It must be awful just knowing that you’re going to die brutally, and there’s nothing you can do.

I don’t even feel like I deserve this place. What if there was someone better? A mother? A child? A doctor?

There’s a tight feeling in my throat now, but I choke it down.

I didn’t make the choice. I didn’t make the choice. It was a lottery; it was fair.

Was it?

Being chosen as the captain’s wife? Was that really a lottery?

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Then again, look at the others he could have chosen. The other women who signed up were all gorgeous; clearly, they thought he was going off looks – but clearly, he wasn’t.

It must have been a lottery.

“Move up!” The person behind elbows me in the back, and I trip forwards in a panic; there’s a massive gap to close between the person ahead of me.

Once I’m at the counter, I collect my food in a hurry, and go to find Enea. There are so many people at every table, so much noise, children screaming, people yelling and arguing.

Fuck.

I don’t see her anywhere, even after walking around hundreds of tables. She could be anywhere.

Eventually, I give up and sit at the end of a small table. There’s a family on the other end, and we’re separated by a single chair.

It’s a bit awkward, but I eat in silence, as quickly as possible, and leave.

Ditching the tray at the clean up station, I speed walk out of the dining hall.

What am I going to do now? Enea’s nowhere to be found, and I don’t know my way around The Marillion much, and besides, wherever I go, there’s hundreds and hundreds of people.

The library is a child zone. The first-floor gardens are a day care. The play zone on floor three is still a play zone. The gym is packed with all the fit adults, and all the lounge areas and theatres are filled up with everyone else.

The Marillion is a massive ship, but with overloaded capacity, even that’s not enough.

And for some reason, floor two is off limits. Some kids tried to sneak down there earlier but the homebots caught them; I heard about it over the loudspeakers.

I’ll just go back to my room then. Illion has some books, so maybe there’s something to read. And for once, it will be quiet.

Illion

First day back on the job, and I botched my first repair.

The engine convertor I built from scratch seemed to be working just fine, until I plugged it into the actual engine and the whole thing splattered me with engine oil and burst into flames. Now I have an engine convertor to fix, as well as a new crankshaft, and there’s still no water on floor two.

Talk about a massive screw up. I’m a massive screw up.

Floor two! It should be open by now! The passengers are all boxed in too tightly as it is, and the kids are getting antsy. There’s going to be chaos if I don’t sort this out quick.

Tassle had to take apart the main engine for water conversion after the crankshaft exploded (thanks to me), and now it’s even worse than it was before.

Lolli-N is on my case to take a rest, but for pity’s sake no one has time for that right now. I already asked Aurelia if she wanted to go to supper and she said no, so there’s no obligation to stick around at this point, when I should be working!!

If this isn’t fixed by tomorrow, we’re in a real boggle!

I pull out my walkie talkie, “how’s the wire rerouting?”

“Almost done, just a…. a few more…there.” Tassle’s voice echoes off the enclosed walls of the lower pool rooms. It’s eerie but comforting. Abandoned swimming pools at night; nothing better.

“Good. I need the main system ready in five minutes, I think I’m getting close the backup engines.” The map is hard to read in the dim light, but I think my flashlight is doing well enough.

The path along the edge of the pools is rather thin, and since the only light is from my flashlight, and a staff room three storeys above, at the other end of the pools. As you might guess, it’s a bit tough to make sure my foot is going in the right place.

“Pool six has the tunnel.” I mutter half to myself, and when I look up, there it is. Pool six, a nice egg-shaped pond, with a dark maw leading into a tunnel. There’s a maintenance rim along the edge, so I can shimmy along the side and inch my way through against the wall without going in the water. It’s a tough move, but I manage it.

Once inside, I keep myself firmly pressed against the wall, pushing further and further into the darkness. My light dances off the waters, and the quiet gurgling helps mask my nervous breathing.

Please don’t let me fall in, it took me twenty minutes to do my hair this morning, and these are my good boots. Please!

But as luck would have it, my feet are just as loose as my mind today, and halfway into the tunnel my genius ass misses a step and – SPLASH!

Into the unheated pool I go.

In a frantic, cold, panic, I scramble back onto the maintenance ledge shivering and soggy wet. I’ve lost the map in the water, but my flashlight is strapped to my wrist, thank the universe. And my walkie talkie is in my suit pocket.

“Fuck. Tassle I’m in the water.” My teeth are chattering as I try to flick the walkie talkie back on. “Tassle!”

“Captain?” Tassle’s voice pierces the freezing air, “are you alive?”

“Barely! I lost the map.”

“Do you know which way you came from?”

“Yeah of course.” I turn around quickly with my flashlight, expecting the exit to be behind me – instead, three separate tunnels spread out in all directions. A quick turn in the opposite direction reveals the same thing. “Oh. Fuck!”

“Captain?”

“I think I’m a bit lost.”

How did that happen? I just came from one tunnel and suddenly there’s three. There’s only supposed to be a tri-intersection if you turn left! And I was on the right side!

“Can you describe your surroundings? I’m at the Cerebellum with Lolli-N, we’ll direct you.”

“There’s three tunnels in either direction.”

“Tri-intersect?”

“Yes! But I didn’t take a turn. I shouldn’t be here.”

“Your tracker doesn’t work properly on the second floor at the moment, so we can not confirm that.”

“Illion, did you fall into the pool?” Lolli-N’s voice crackles over the speaker, and I wince.

“Yes.” I hug myself tightly; I’m going to get sick this way. I need to get back to the main deck.

I think the way out is behind me. I’m pretty sure that’s where I was coming from before I fell in.

“Just, pick a tunnel, and keep going. Once you find something on the other end we’ll know exactly where you are.” Tassle says.

“Four of the tunnels end in water filters. If I fall in, I’ll be pulled under; and right now, I don’t want to risk it. I’m battling pneumonia as it is.” My teeth are chattering so much right now I’m seriously wondering if they can understand what I’m saying. I shove the walkie talkie in my pocket – they can’t really help me anyway – and decide to turn around.

I just need to get back.

I’ll get sick if I don’t.

I can finish this tomorrow.

Something hits me like a sledgehammer. A burning pain in my head; a million needles to my skull, a hammer and thirty nails, all at once, digging into my mind like a vicious toddler stamping on a sandcastle.

I don’t have time to brace myself. My vision is like a kaleidoscope and then I’m falling – SPLASH! Into the water again.

My glasses are gone, lost in the waves. My hands are grasping out at nothing, just water, water, water, air, water, air. I can’t see anything, my flashlight is at the bottom of the pool, and the darkness is grabbing at me with sticky fingers.

I scream, and the walls scream back. My head screams back. The nails scream back.

The burning scratches through my ears, through my eyes, through my bones and through my brain.

It’s dragging me down; I can’t fight it. It’s screaming louder than I ever could; a weight like fifty men on my shoulders. I’m sinking, I’m sinking, and I can’t stop, I can’t breathe, I can’t think I-

And then it’s gone.

And it’s silent.

I’m floating in the pool; shaking and shaking because it’s so cold, but I can hear again. I can breathe.

Where am I?

Still in the tunnels. The flashlight has gone off. It’s so dark I can’t see anything.

Please don’t let me be in the tunnels that end in filtration.

I reach out all around me, hoping to feel the ledge at my fingertips; nothing. Swimming further out to where I hope the sides are; still nothing.

Maybe I’m going the wrong way. Maybe the ups and downs are really side to side, and maybe the side to sides are really the ups and downs.

I kick to where I think the tunnel continues further and there! I feel it. The ledge.

With trembling, weak pathetic fingers, I drag myself up onto the side.

Now what?

Either way could lead to the exit, or the maze. And I have no idea which way is which.

The walkie talkie! My hand flies to my suit pocket, desperately feeling for it. Nothing.

It’s gone in the dark, just like my glasses, and the flashlight, and the map. Just like me. Lost, in the middle of the tunnels.