“There is something I want to see,” I say to Sally as she folds up her holo platform and slips it into her jacket pocket.
“And I know what it is,” we leave our seats and wander around the medium sized commercial vessel. “You’ve never been on a passenger ship right?”
“Never, I’ve only been on the one flight, the cargo ship from Earth to Jasper’s.” She leads me into the dinning area where a few passengers are already sitting at tables sampling what the galley has to offer. Most of the passengers on board were already on board before the ship stopped on Jasper’s World. There is a gym, an entertainment room and a room sectioned off with personal boxes. Each section with just enough room for one person to change clothes and there is a bed for sleeping in each box. Two deck hands come out of a room with engine room written on the door in white block letters.
“Excuse me,” Sally says to the deck hands. The man and woman dressed in dark blue jump suits stop and wait. “Can we look inside there?”
“It’s generally off limits to passengers,” the lady, about the same age as Sally and myself answers with a smile.
“This is Trenton Jennings and…” Sally starts.
“The Trenton Jennings,” The male deck hand reaches out his hand to shake Trenton’s. “The one who stowed away in a fuel cell container? You’re famous man.” He looks at his fellow companion for approval and she nods, grinning. “Sure you can look around. I thought after what you did you might never want to see an engine room again.” The lady opens the door and motions us in.
“I never really saw much of the engine room, just the inside of the container.”
“How did you take care of things man. That was at least seven years ago right? That run used to take six or seven days.”
“It wasn’t pleasant,” I look around the engine room and realize at once that these are not memories I want to dredge up. I look around quickly, thank the deck hands and reach for the door.
As soon as the deck hands leave Sally says, “So…no more engine room visits right?”
“Let’s go check out that entertainment room. This is a much better way to travel.”
Passenger flights have always been faster than cargo vessels but the vessel that takes us to Earth is a newer model and the entire flight only takes three days. There is much more to do on board ship than there ever was to do on Jasper’s. Sally and I keep busy and are almost disappointed when it is announced we need to strap into our gravity seats for a landing on Earth.
david blankenship 