Shell can now move her fingers, so she mimes the movement of her worry bead meditation. The Captain, Ragtime, still hasn’t answered, which is concerning.

“Ragtime, alternative protocol. Untether me.”

If the Captain is non-functional, Shell has a lot of work ahead of her. The first bots arrive to detach her from life support. She starts with the first awake physio and TENS machines and sips of fluid through a straw. She spits some out to confirm artificial gravity. Confirmed.

Her first long-haul flight, her first voyage with MaxGalactix, and already the ship malfunctions. She should have gone to NASA.

“This is a recording for… Michelle Campion. It will require you to respond to prompts. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“To help you recover from the disorientation of Dreamstate, Ragtime produced this recording to tell you where you are, so that as soon as you can walk, you’ll be able to find your way around. The Ragtime is composed of a stem made up of an integrated truss structure. There are two toruses aft, and a cupola with temporary crew quarters fore. Between them, on the outside, a solar array. Can you see the graphic?”

“Yes.”

It turns like a ghost in Shell’s visual field, transparent, insect-like, solar panels like wings.

“Thank you. You are in Torus 1, in one of the passenger pods. Your position should be glowing.”

“It is.”

“Thank you. The entire ship is modular so that the parts can come apart and be used on other designs after decommissioning. The toruses are composed of pods like the one you’re in. The truss is composed of nodes, numbered zero to seven. The cupola is on Node 0. To get to the cupola, you would exit your pod, exit the torus through a spoke to the truss, then follow the fore directional arrows through each node till you get to zero. If the node number is increasing, you’re going aft, the wrong way. It’s a straight shot, so you can’t miss it. The route should be glowing on your graphic.”

“It is.”

“Thank you. Airlocks and docking ports are off Node 1, as are temporary crew quarters. You would have seen these when you embarked. There are two nodes off Node 5: Node M, starboard, medical bay, and Node E, port, the experimental wing. You are forbidden from entering Experimental. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you. Waste disposal is off Node 6. I’m told to warn you not to dispose of waste out of the airlock. Acknowledge.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Thank you. For power…”

Shell tunes out. She knows this information because she overlearned it on Earth. Power is bioreactor, fuel cells and those solar panels. Limited solid fuel for engine burns. The subroutine requires her verbal responses, so she goes through the motions. Something to do with Legal, no doubt. She puffs her cheeks and blows air out of pursed lips.

Gonna be a long disembark…

Day fourteen.