Chapter 4 #2
“This is Captain Hakon speaking. Congratulations, crew. That was a flawless takeoff. All systems are online, and our trajectory is clean. Command personnel are to report to the captain’s ready room, mission staff to lecture hall alpha, and maintenance to start rounds.
So far all systems are reading accurately, aside from a small glitch I am sure tech will be on top of very shortly.
Our crew is nine hundred ninety-nine strong, but we’re reading a thousand at the moment.
Ghost in the machine, perhaps. But it’s good luck, I’ll wager. ”
My blood runs a little colder for realizing that nobody on the ship knows I am here, but the ship knows I am here. They’re going to try to fix that, I bet. Let’s hope it doesn’t lead to me being revealed before I’m ready.
My plan right now is to wait until the first shift goes to sleep, and then steal a maintenance uniform. I will be able to wander the ship with impunity then, I bet.
The door to the office opens. I stop breathing. I can peek out through a fine sliver of gap in the desk and I see a tall blonde woman wearing an officer’s uniform.
“I’m in Botanicals,” she says. “We’re looking for plant specimens on a dozen planets.”
“Oh, nice,” the man behind her says. “We’re doing geological surveys.”
Scientists. They’re smart, but probably distractible the way very smart people are. I note that the female officer has a small ration pack with her. Yummy. It’s been a while since I ate, and I am kind of hungry.
“All surveying officers to meeting room Ur,” a voice comes over the speakers again. I wonder if they’re going to keep making ship-wide announcements, or if that’s playing through here because it’s a geologist’s office.
Regardless, the officer puts her ration pack down on the desk and leaves the room. I slide my hand up to snatch it, and find myself with a generous serving of dried fish and flatbread. Delicious.
I eat the rations as fast as I can, crouching beneath the desk like a little goblin. I am well aware that what I am doing is entirely outrageous. If the bards hear of this, they will not stop singing of it for generations.
I hope that this is all worth it, and that my sacrifice, such as it is, pays off.
I left a note for Freya, telling her that I’d been accepted to the expedition. I did that before I even left, because I knew one way or another, I wasn’t going back to stay with her and Ragnar, or Mila and Skor. If the family home is gone, then so am I.
I stop thinking about my family. I can’t risk doing that now. I have to focus on the insane thing I am currently doing. I want to change my loading overalls for a maintenance uniform. I need to be able to blend in, or I’m going to get caught literally almost immediately.
Fortunately for me, the loading overalls also came with a ship schematic in the pocket. I am not very far from maintenance now.
I slip down the hall. There are a lot of people on this ship, but there’s even more ship than people. That means a lot of empty passages for a stowaway to sneak down.
It’s as easy to get a maintenance uniform as it was to get the overalls. To be honest, there’s basically no security here whatsoever. I don’t think they ever thought anybody would do what I’ve done. It’s fun to be the first to an outrageous notion.
I have to turn the cuffs of the maintenance suit up at the wrists and ankles. I wonder if that’s why they rejected me out of hand. I don’t fit the clothing. That’s going to be the least of my problems. Now I have to convince everyone else on this ship that I belong here with them.
Over the next few days, I slowly ingratiate my way into the fabric of the ship.
I glide between locations, never really doing anything.
Carrying a sonic mop makes me pretty much invisible to most people.
I don’t attend anything where specific units are required, or where I might be obviously ID’d.
So far, so good. Most of the people on this ship are far too busy settling in themselves and becoming accustomed to their roles.
Occasionally someone will give me an order, and I will follow it. It’s not hard to clean up after people.
I do end up getting introduced to some of the maintenance team, but I am careful to also stay away from supervisors, or anyone who might be doing rosters. I am a ghost in the machine, and I am getting quite a great deal of satisfaction out of it.
I stay in the loop by listening in on other people’s conversations. So much information is passed loosely around this ship. It’s like there’s no such thing as a secret. I love it.
“Have they fixed the thousand glitch?” one person says to another. I think they might be in the geological survey, but I am not sure.
“No. It’s stubborn. They’re looking at reformatting some of the drives, but it’s risky. It could mean we lose capacity for some time, and there’s indications that we’re moving through hostile space.”
I love it when they refer to me as a glitch, but this story starts getting even more interesting in very quick order.
“What kind of hostile forces? Alien?”
The person being question shakes his head.
“Vikar.”
I hear the word being whispered by various people. It’s not a word I ever thought I would hear in my lifetime. It’s like hearing a nightmare from a children’s tale being spoken about as if it’s suddenly real.
Vikar are a whole other kind of human. They are a tribe of our kind who, according to legend, left Earth long ago to roam the stars. They are raiders, berserkers, pirates. They are hostile to everyone and everything.
If we have run into Vikar, then this ship is about to go on a battle footing.
The notion excites me. I’ve always found our society a little too boring, and a lot too orderly. The Vikar might suit me better. If they board our ship and take over, they won’t care that I am a stowaway, so that would be cool. I hope I get to experience some true adventure before too long.
For now, my plan is to keep fitting in, no matter where in the universe I end up.