Origami is fun, I hope Max is happy with what he can make now! It's also surprisingly mathematical when you start looking at how the real masters do it... :)
And I've run over again, sorry. I do try and keep these scenes self-contained, but some of them appear to be more detailed than others :(
The papers Stef was leaning back against a bench-top, his arms folded across his chest. Kraulik was standing in front of another bench holding the papers, the table with the ornament between him and Stef. And I had finally given in and gone to look over at the books. The silence in the room was oppressive, and it seemed like Stef was determined not to speak first. There was no way I was breaking that silence either, given all of my comments in the last half-hour weren't worth the breath it had taken to speak them, and Kraulik was... angry. The books were, unsurprisingly, in that weird language that Chuckles apparently could translate. There were six of them in total, and they were numbered. It looked like they should be sequential, but numbers 1 and 5 were missing. Which got me to thinking: Chuckles had had one of these books, which was now in my cabin and I hoped it was number 1. But where was number 5, and why had it been taken. My fingers reached for my pocket unconsciously and when they touched the lump of metal there I wondered if Chuckles had locked it away somewhere. And why. I stood back a little, taking care not to bump the table in the middle of the room, and thought harder. The books weren't here for us to find, though Chuckles definitely had. So they must be here for a purpose, or they had been left because they weren't important. I tapped my teeth together lightly, thinking, and a nasty thought slipped into my mind. What if they were here because they were being disposed of, like the rest of the ship? And all of us on it.
I decided to check the floor in case Chuckles hadn't taken two books away. I couldn't think of any reason he would take two, and if he thought he could translate books that thick that fast, why not take the first two? So I found the outline of the hatch in the corner by the bookcase without much difficulty at all. I considered saying something, but a glance at Kraulik's face made me sure I didn't want to speak first, so I just hauled it open. "Why bother?" Kraulik's voice was so sour it could have curdled milk. "We're payment for something. There's no escape." I looked down into darkness. There was a ladder at the side. "Because I have to do something while I'm waiting for all our souls to be devoured," I said. "Plus... that contract didn't give an exact number, just a lower bound. So I reckon there are more than five hundred of us on this boat, and that means that three of us leave without upsetting anyone." "There's no way to leave!" Kraulik's shout echoed around the room and Stef unfolded his arms and looked ready to run. I climbed down the ladder into darkness.
Stef came after me, and I hoped Kraulik would follow too, but there was no noise from above us. Lights came on as I reached the bottom of the ladder and revealed another engine deck. This time there was a faint thrum and vibrations through the floor, and I guessed that we'd found the engines that were keeping the ship on location. Stef moved away from the ladder, looked around, then pointed up. Brassy cables were running through the ceiling and across it, over to the large engines at the end of this hidden deck. "I think the toy upstairs is responsible for keeping us in place," he said. "In theory we could move." "We've been here six months," I said. "Think there's enough fuel left to get anywhere?" "Probably not." We walked across the deck side-by-side. "Think Kraulik will do something stupid?" "He seems pretty angry," I said. "I don't think he liked the deal that those papers laid out." "Nor should he." We found a door, opened it, and walked through. The doorway was thick and padded with rubber; it looked like it was a bulkhead of some kind. On the other side was a moonpool, a hole in the ship open to the ocean below usually used for small submersibles or maybe divers. It looked hastily made and roughly formed. And there was something swimming in the water there.
Greg - yeah he's having a good time with it for sure.
The missing book is intriguing. The discovery of the lower engine deck with the actual working engines is also interesting but I think your narrator is probably right - after that much time staying in place, they're not likely to have enough fuel left to get anywhere interesting. But maybe just getting away from this place would be enough?
And... the moonpool and its inhabitant are not at all worrying.
3 comments:
Origami is fun, I hope Max is happy with what he can make now! It's also surprisingly mathematical when you start looking at how the real masters do it... :)
And I've run over again, sorry. I do try and keep these scenes self-contained, but some of them appear to be more detailed than others :(
The papers
Stef was leaning back against a bench-top, his arms folded across his chest. Kraulik was standing in front of another bench holding the papers, the table with the ornament between him and Stef. And I had finally given in and gone to look over at the books. The silence in the room was oppressive, and it seemed like Stef was determined not to speak first. There was no way I was breaking that silence either, given all of my comments in the last half-hour weren't worth the breath it had taken to speak them, and Kraulik was... angry.
The books were, unsurprisingly, in that weird language that Chuckles apparently could translate. There were six of them in total, and they were numbered. It looked like they should be sequential, but numbers 1 and 5 were missing. Which got me to thinking: Chuckles had had one of these books, which was now in my cabin and I hoped it was number 1. But where was number 5, and why had it been taken. My fingers reached for my pocket unconsciously and when they touched the lump of metal there I wondered if Chuckles had locked it away somewhere. And why.
I stood back a little, taking care not to bump the table in the middle of the room, and thought harder. The books weren't here for us to find, though Chuckles definitely had. So they must be here for a purpose, or they had been left because they weren't important. I tapped my teeth together lightly, thinking, and a nasty thought slipped into my mind. What if they were here because they were being disposed of, like the rest of the ship? And all of us on it.
I decided to check the floor in case Chuckles hadn't taken two books away. I couldn't think of any reason he would take two, and if he thought he could translate books that thick that fast, why not take the first two? So I found the outline of the hatch in the corner by the bookcase without much difficulty at all. I considered saying something, but a glance at Kraulik's face made me sure I didn't want to speak first, so I just hauled it open.
"Why bother?" Kraulik's voice was so sour it could have curdled milk. "We're payment for something. There's no escape."
I looked down into darkness. There was a ladder at the side.
"Because I have to do something while I'm waiting for all our souls to be devoured," I said. "Plus... that contract didn't give an exact number, just a lower bound. So I reckon there are more than five hundred of us on this boat, and that means that three of us leave without upsetting anyone."
"There's no way to leave!" Kraulik's shout echoed around the room and Stef unfolded his arms and looked ready to run.
I climbed down the ladder into darkness.
Stef came after me, and I hoped Kraulik would follow too, but there was no noise from above us. Lights came on as I reached the bottom of the ladder and revealed another engine deck. This time there was a faint thrum and vibrations through the floor, and I guessed that we'd found the engines that were keeping the ship on location. Stef moved away from the ladder, looked around, then pointed up. Brassy cables were running through the ceiling and across it, over to the large engines at the end of this hidden deck.
"I think the toy upstairs is responsible for keeping us in place," he said. "In theory we could move."
"We've been here six months," I said. "Think there's enough fuel left to get anywhere?"
"Probably not." We walked across the deck side-by-side. "Think Kraulik will do something stupid?"
"He seems pretty angry," I said. "I don't think he liked the deal that those papers laid out."
"Nor should he." We found a door, opened it, and walked through. The doorway was thick and padded with rubber; it looked like it was a bulkhead of some kind. On the other side was a moonpool, a hole in the ship open to the ocean below usually used for small submersibles or maybe divers. It looked hastily made and roughly formed. And there was something swimming in the water there.
Greg - yeah he's having a good time with it for sure.
The missing book is intriguing. The discovery of the lower engine deck with the actual working engines is also interesting but I think your narrator is probably right - after that much time staying in place, they're not likely to have enough fuel left to get anywhere interesting. But maybe just getting away from this place would be enough?
And... the moonpool and its inhabitant are not at all worrying.
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