10 Chapter 9

The door slid open to reveal a hallway which was bathed in a light blue glow that shone from the walls and Hiro took in a deep breath before taking two steps out of the room. The door opposite his began to slowly slide open and Hiro pressed his lips together at the thought of seeing someone after not seeing anyone for two months.

"Jesus!" the woman in the room next to Hiro's exclaimed after she stepped into the hallway and he jolted at the sudden noise while she pressed a hand to her chest, taking a step back. She let out a harsh breath and blinked rapidly just as a man walked out of the room in front of Hiro. "Sorry, I just- I haven't... Hi, I'm Nicole... Martinez."

"Hiro," he mumbled as a couple of other doors in the hallway opened and the eyes of the man in front of him darted from him to the woman on his right. "... Tachibana."

"James," the man said, a playful smile growing on his face, while other people began to step out of their rooms. "... Taylor." The corner of Nikki's mouth curved up as she wondered if they were all going to take a pause before saying their last names.

The lights suddenly went out, plunging the hallway into darkness, and a couple of people made panicked noises before lights shaped like arrows which all pointed to the left came on in the floor.

"I guess we're to follow those," James said as he glanced at the floor and a couple of people began to talk amongst themselves while following the arrows but Hiro could barely see their faces because the hallway was really dim.

He soon realized that Nikki and James were no longer where they had been and he glanced around before guessing that they had followed the crowd. He didn't want to call out their names because they didn't actually decide to stick together before the lights went out but he didn't want to be alone so he decided to find them.

Hundred as a number didn't seem much when he first heard that there would be hundred people on the ship but now it seemed damn much. He got pushed into a closed door and someone instantly stated, 'Sorry', while he wondered why this door was still closed because all the other doors were open. Could the door still be closed because the person in it failed the medical scan that was meant to unlock it?

Hiro shrugged and kept moving because he definitely wouldn't get any answers here. He would find out if a person was missing when all the people currently in the hallway got to Boundless. After a little while, he could finally see the huge metal door that led to the main ship. The door finally opened when it started to get crammed and he sighed in relief as people started moving again.

He hadn't even spent up to five minutes here and he was more than ready to go back to Earth.

"Hiro," a voice called out and his eyes darted to his left to see Nikki squeezing past a couple of people to get to him. The people around him glanced at the both of them with confusion evident on their faces because they thought the two knew each other on Earth. The organizers of the journey to Boundless had told them that none of them knew each other and that was why they were confused.

"Hi," she said when she got to him and gave him tight smile. She seemed shy and he guessed she came to meet him for the same reason that he had been looking for her and James.

"Are you a scientist?" he asked when they began to walk side by side while she pulled a white key card out of her pocket and she raised her brows.

"Ah, no. Doctor," she replied as she held up the key card. It had her picture, job on the spaceship, a twelve digit number and a barcode. The key card would assign them to a room and be used to unlock doors to different places in the ship, among other things. "You're a scientist?" she asked and he nodded.

They eventually came to a narrow hallway and everyone began to walk in groups of twos till they got to a checkpoint that needed key cards to allow entrance. Hiro took off his bag to get his key card as they got to the line of people that were waiting for their turns. They card fell to the floor as he pulled it out and Nikki instantly picked it up for him while he fought with the zipper of his bag.

"Thank you," he said after he slung his bag back over his shoulder and collected it from her. Conversations were going on behind them and in front of them as people quickly made friends and groups that they would most likely stick with for the time they would all spend on this ship.

"Gee, it's like high school all over again," Nikki muttered to herself when the two women behind her started to talk about how handsome Hiro was rather loudly. They were obviously hoping that he would turn around and pay attention to them just like the guy in front of Nikki was doing to the girl next to him but Hiro kept his gaze straight ahead.

The line was moving quite fast and soon enough they got to the glass doors which had the number '18' in a display above them, counting the people that were going through it. The people on the other side of the let out 'whoops' as they ran down the hallway and Hiro and Nikki pressed their key cards to the scanner which flashed green after a couple of seconds. The number above the doors instantly changed to '20' while 'H2' appeared on the scanner after he pulled his key card away.

That was his room number.

The door slid open and the 'H2' was replaced by a 'PROCEED'.