Ryen eyed the treat with ill-humored irritation. She was about to tell the good doctor just where he could put the lollipop when the captain’s announcement boomed over the ship’s intercom. [b]“…As the reactor core of our ship begins to warm up, I invite you to listen to the following announcements…”[/b] Her ears instantly perked up when the word ‘subsystem’ was mentioned but her mood didn’t improve much from there.

[b]”Limited control?”[/b] Ryen protested out loud, [b]”Assigned rooms?”[/b] 

[b]”It seems our good captain Lazlo Czartes has everything under control.”[/b] the doctor replied when the announcement had finished, still holding out the sucker for her to take.

[b]”More like captain ‘just’ Lazlo Czar.”[/b] Ryen mumbled stretching out the last word. The outstretched candy seemed to have an inner glow under the florescent lights. [b]”Is it lime?”[/b] Ryen said, changing the subject.

[b]”Snotsberry.”[/b]

[b]”Good enough.”[/b] Ryen was too disgruntled to even take offense when the man patted her head once again before standing back up. Surprisingly, even though the taste was bitterer than she would have liked, she did actually feel better. However, by the time Ryen remembered to thank him, the doctor had disappeared into one of the doors down the hallway, leaving her alone. 

Sitting all alone on the pristine floor of the ship’s corridor, licking her newly acquired treat, felt almost surreal. [b]”This morning I woke up in my apartment. By tonight I’ll…”[/b] The whisper caught in her throat, the taste bitter in her mouth. So much had changed. She’d never really appreciated what she’d had and now it was all gone. And it wasn’t just her apartment with its neat, organized closets or her big plush bed with Sandarian silk sheets. Her job, her friends, her father. Gone. All gone. Sure she’d been warned about the possibility, that one day she’d have to flee off planet, she’d just never really thought, well, it was possible. And now here she was, practically a stow-away on a ship bound to who-knows-where with a bunch of strangers and an overbearing captain. A single tear trickled down from her cheek and Ryen hurriedly reached up to brush it away. She wouldn’t cry, at least not where the others would see her. Mentally shaking herself, Ryen forced her body to stand. 

[b]”Ship…er… I mean, Maria?”[/b] Her voice quavered a bit.

[b]”Yes?”[/b]

[b]”I would like the location of my quarters.”[/b]

Her assigned room was only a few doors down from the substations although safely on the other side of a main airlock. Ryen pressed her palm against the reader outside the door, registering her prints to the assigned room. The door slid open as the overhead lights flicked on. Ryen was in the process of taking in her new home when the floor rushed up to greet her. By the time Lazlo switched back on the anti-gravity, and avoided hitting the ceiling of the docks, Ryen’s face had been intimately introduced to her cabin’s carpet. As if to offer an excuse, the captain’s voice buzzed over the ship’s intercom.

[b] ”My apologies for the sudden movement… just in case of further turbulence, I suggest you find an anchor somewhere on the ship.”[/b]

[i]”Make that overbearing and slightly incompetent.”[/i] she mused to herself. She hoped he figured out what he was doing before he wrecked the ship, or worse, kill them. If it did come she hoped it was in the form of a fiery inferno versus the slow suffocation of an air leak. 

Following directions, Ryen stepped inside her room. Like the rest of the ship, this place also held an impersonal feel to it. It was small, easily fitting in the bedroom of her old apartment, but with some personal touches the place might eventually earn the term ‘cozy’. One wall was made entirely of metal shelves framed with clear plastic doors meant to secure and house personal artifacts. Opposite of that was a small metal desk bolted to the wall. A few buttons revealed that it could be folded up and pushed in to give the inhabitant a little more room. Other than that there was an uncomfortable metal chair, a bed, ergonomically designed to conform to one’s spinal column, and an oval-shaped window that let out to the exterior of the ship. 

Ryen sat down on the bed and watched as Syrae’s surface fall away. Below them the bubble shell of her city shimmered under the late afternoon light, a crystalline bubble in a merciless snow globe. Ryen’s thoughts turned inward as she worried at her bottom lip. Eventually the view revealed that the ship had just breached the planet’s stratosphere. Nimbus clouds, heavy with snow that fell almost perpetually to the planet’s surface, spread out below like bunches of cotton down below. In almost no time their distinct shapes blended together forming a white blanket. The sky in the distance was still blue, but soon enough it would darken and take on the empty blackness of space. 

[b]”Oh!”[/b]

 Ryen almost jumped out of her skin as an almost hidden door next to her desk slid open. The face of technician from before appeared from behind the panel. 

[b]”Sorry,”[/b] she said hurriedly, looking around Ryen’s cabin. [b]”I didn’t realize our rooms were connected through a central washroom.”[/b]

Ryen continued to stare at the other woman, not quite sure what to say. Her thought had been wandering so far off that her mind could have been on one of the planet’s moons. [b]”That’s good to know,”[/b] she finally replied, offering up a genial smile.

The two women looked at each other as the awkward silence continued. Ryen quiet know how to excuse herself without offending the fragile technician. Just when she was about to blurt something, the other woman spoke up. [b]”You don’t happen to have any soil in that bag do you?”[/b] Ryen shook her head. [b]”Blowtorch?”[/b] Ryen shook it again. [b]”A sotz-blaster? Hyperium alloy? Gogenium fabric?”[/b] Each time the woman suggests something Ryen shook her head. [b]”It’s mostly clothing.”[/b] Ryen supplied. Mostly but most certainly not all. Guiltily she remembered that she hadn’t disposed of her father’s journals like she’d promised she would. Well she could worry about them later and their presence aboard the ship wasn’t something she felt like advertising. She doubted if any of the crew would even know what to do with them.

The room went silent again and was only interrupted by the tiny gurgle of the young woman’s stomach. [b]”Sorry,”[/b] Ryen confessed. [b]”I don’t think I’ve eaten anything since breakfast.”[/b]

[b]”There might be some food in the Galley,”[/b] the technician suggested. [b]”I could show you… if you like.”[/b]

The Galley, as it turned out, was further down the hallway on the same floor. Ryen wasn’t too surprised to see that both the good doctor and the solider were already there. A centralized metal table held enough seating to accommodate a group of seven while metal cabinets filled up the walls.

[b]”Welcome ladies to our combination food court, recreation hall, war room, and sickbay!”[/b] the solider announced as he popped a small jelly-topped cracker into his mouth.

[b]”Sick bay?”[/b] Ryen questioned.

[b]”Sick bay.”[/b] the doctor stated as the women took seats opposite of the men, keeping the seat at the head of the table empty. [b]”It’s the only table I’ve found large enough in the ship to perform surgeries on.”[/b]

Both Ryen and the technician grimaced at the prospect, especially when a rough piece of lox splattered on the table’s mirror-like surface.