6 On the Erebus Part 1 (teaser for paid story)

Originally hosted on https://illoria.wixsite.com/annamittower/anthology-of-speculative-scribbles

I lay flat on my stomach on my bed, idly flipping through a dictionary on my tablet. I was trying to find the spelling and definition of a word I'd heard one of the adult passengers use which I thought would work in my essay, but the other words were just too distracting to ignore, impeding my progress.

I worked my way slowly through the 'A's and 'B's collecting words that sounded interesting. I couldn't resist reading the definition of the next word that caught my eye. "Compossible," I read aloud. "Possible in coexistence with something else. Well it's the opposite of compossible for me to find the definition of a word without reading twenty others in the process." I was getting a little mad at myself for dallying so long over looking up the definition of one word so I advanced the reader in larger sections. However, The 'E' section slowed my pace once again.

Griseous amused me because I felt it could completely apply to my uncle's hair. Mansuetude I felt I could use to describe my mother. Olid was perfect for a bully back home by the name of Stewart Lambert. "And he wouldn't even know what I was talking about!" I giggled at the thought of his face screwed up in attempted concentration to figure out the meaning of a word so beyond him. Luckily I overheard a scrap of conversation about him and his family before leaving. It sounded as though his family would be leaving our ship to strike off on their own. Good riddance in my opinion.

Periapt suitably described what I remembered of the spaceport where I transferred from the Celina to catch this ship, the Erebus. It had been filled with such trivial items that the sellers claimed worked "like a charm" but were actually a waste of money. They had been pretty though. Mom and Dad had thought that they were more like recrement than anything of value. There was one seller in particular that claimed to sell periapts that would attract the perfect mate. That booth in particular seemed quite well populated by the various species represented at that spaceport.

I stared at the dictionary. "R? How did I end up there? I was only looking for a word in the F section." I quickly flipped back and just as quickly found the word I'd been looking for. Fubsy—short and stout; squat. "Obscure, odd, and archaic. Perfect. Just what I needed." And the word went into my essay for school. Personally I didn't much like writing essays for school, but school was a necessary evil. If I ever wanted to do anything, I'd need to "have an education" as my parents were always saying. I couldn't see any use in most of the stuff I learned in school, however. I just wanted to sail the space routes and trade like my parents. All that needed was hands on learning on how to bargain, buy the right kind of stock, and run a ship, not essay writing.

I sighed and flopped over onto my back to gaze up at the ceiling. It was smooth and metallic, just like everything else on this ship. I was very bored after almost four weeks of travel already. I really was being banished to the middle of nowhere. Of course, my parents were behind all this. They, for some strange reason, had decided that it would be safer to stick me in an outer colony at the edge of colonized space than a large central planet that was heavily guarded while they made the run through a recent war zone. I had done my best to persuade them otherwise, but they were adamant in their decision. The result was that they put me on this dinky transport ship headed off to Kaja colony to stay with an old spinster Aunt of mine. She may have never married, but my parents felt that I would be safe with her because she ran the children's home at that colony. I felt like I was being sent to prison. See, I hadn't seen this Aunt in years, not since I was four, so I really didn't remember that much about her except that she had a lot of gray hair and she was my dad's older sister.

There was only one transport ship a year that made a trip to Kaja Colony so I had to leave the Celina before my term at school had ended. That was why I was sitting in my tiny room writing an essay for school to be turned in when I finally went home again. Thankfully, by the time we got there my schoolwork should be done and it would be vacation time. However, that would mean that I would have no excuse to stay in my room all day and not talk to anyone.

"How am I going to ever get myself out of this mess?" I muttered to the ceiling.

I didn't know how long I lay there, but a beep at the door broke me out of my reverie.

"Dinner will be served in ten minutes," said a voice through the com.

Ten minutes, I mused. That was barely enough time to get presentable. I knew from experience that if I was late, there wouldn't be any food left, so I straightened my clothes and was out the door five minutes later.

The mess hall bombarded me with noise when I came through the door.

"Hello there, Lwyn!" came a cheery voice from behind me. Sylvia was standing in the door to the kitchen with a flowery apron on. She didn't like to cook without some kind of apron on and it always had flowers on it.

"Hello, Ms. Sylvia," I said and gave her a hug.

"Now you just come on into the kitchen and eat here. The mess hall's too crowded for such a young girl as yourself to fit."

"I'm slim," I teased her.

"You know very well what I mean, dear child. Now come on in before you say another word."

"Yes ma'am," I said cheekily before I ducked past her into the warm kitchen. This was the warmest and coziest place on the ship, besides the engine room perhaps. I was only guessing on that point because I'd never been down there and wasn't likely to be allowed any time soon. It was my dearest wish to somehow get in and have one of the engineers teach me how to work the engines. With that thought in mind, I finished my food quickly and headed out of the mess hall as soon as I had eaten the last crumb.

I was on a mission to find Scott. I'd become friends with him recently and he, as the chief engineer, was my sole way into the engine room with permission. I'd considered trying to sneak in there one time, but there was a high probability of getting caught and then I'd be confined to the passenger deck. I hated staying with the other passengers, most of them were boring, and I quite valued my time on the other decks. That was the only reason I kept my curiosity at bay. It could get me into more trouble than I could handle and there were still two weeks left in this voyage. Provided the captain didn't "detour" again.

I trotted down passageway after passageway and still I couldn't find Scott. Though, I had wasted some time looking out a window at the glorious Nebula in the distance. According to the captain, it was recently discovered and they had decided to detour by it to show us passengers the beauties of nature. However, I didn't believe him. It was more likely that we were off course somehow and had unintentionally ended up in this area of space. They had already done it once, and that's why we weren't at Kaja already. The original schedule had said we would arrive at Kaja colony in four weeks. The voyage was one day shy of four weeks and Kaja was nowhere in sight. The only comfort was that at least one person on board knew what they were doing and where to go and the captain was finally listening to them. Fusby would describe the captain to a 'T'. He was short, squat and had a very short temper to go along with his short stature. His proud and stubborn nature along with his overly large ego made it very hard to get along with him, especially for a whole month in close quarters. Every time I saw him I silently thanked my lucky birth star that I wasn't crew. I could escape from his clutches and had done so the minute he was done formally taking over as my guardian from my parent. The crew couldn't.

At last I arrived at the door to engine room. The metal door remained shut tight and locked as usual and I could hear no sound except the throbbing of the engines. I reached out my hand and placed it on the wall beside the door. The throbbing of the engines was even more pronounced, the vibrations rippling through the wall and into my hand. Seeing no other option, I sat down with my back to the wall and waited. Scott would most certainly come this way even if he wasn't in the engine room at present.