Voyage (Ch. 2)

There’s a quiet panic in the Jump Room as the lights flicker up above, and we’re left to wonder what’s going on when the speakers don’t offer anymore information. Everyone is whispering to one another, trying to desperately figure out what’s going on. The people who have never been through a jump portal ask if this is normal, while those like me who have, sadly let them know it’s not. It doesn’t help the others in this situation, and just leaves everyone with more questions.

My mom quickly passed back out the handheld games to my little brothers as a way to get them to stop asking questions, and turns to my dad to ask his assessment of the situation. He shakes his head at her. “Sorry, Mable, I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I think we went off course.” I turn my head quickly in the opposite direction of my parents. There’s six seats in a row, and my family only takes up five of the seats. Beside me sits a young man, not much older than me. He looks forward, eyebrows furrowed, deep in thought.

“I’m sorry?” I say, unsure if he’s the one who spoke. He gives me a sidelong glance.

“I think we went off course.” He repeats. He doesn’t sound worried, exactly, but the look on his face is full of confusion.

“What makes you say that?” I ask. I come off a little snippy, even though I don’t mean to. I’m not sure I like the idea of going off course of our destination.

“The Amnite Jump Portal is a natural space vortex, right?” He asks. He’s now looking me full on in the face. The lights that flicker above us keep sending shadows all over his strong features - making his looks match the mystery of his words.

“Uh, yeah, I think so.”

“Yeah, the natural ones are a lot less predictable than man made ones. They try to use them as little as possible now.” He explains, very vaguely, anyway.

“What are you saying?” I ask him. Between his lack of detail and confusion over what’s going on, I’m starting to feel a little irritated.

“The natural jump portals aren’t as predictable. The man made portals are controlled by technology and things like that, while the ones that are just floating around in space aren’t made, they just exist. The technology they use to get us where were supposed to go is one sided when you go through the natural vortexes. Whatever calculator they use doesn’t always work with the natural ones because we can’t actually control the vortex, we just kind of give it a suggestion.” He says. I start to open my mouth to respond but he quickly continues. “With man made jump portals, we can calculate the destination in both the portal and the ship, and it insures we get where we’re going.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Doesn’t it?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, I guess. But they have technology that controls the natural jump portals.” I counter.

“Yeah, but it’s not as fool proof as they want us to think it is.”

“How do you know all of this stuff?” I ask sharply. “What are you, captain of this ship?”

“No, just his son.”

“Oh.” I say. I wanted to argue that he clearly didn’t know what he was talking about, but maybe he did. Then another thought comes to me. “Wait, if you’re the captain's son, why aren’t you with the crew or whatever?”

He gives me a funny look, a look that seems to ask if I’m stupid. “I’m his son, not the crew. Also, I kind of am with the crew. Or at least with the people on this trip who are here for work.” I take a quick look around, not really seeing any difference in between passengers. The only major difference is some passengers whose ancestors started on planets that weren't Earth.

“This whole column of seats are people who are going to Earth for work, not vacation. My dad works on the ship, and I go with him.”

“Oh.” I say again, lamely. There seems to be a lot I don’t know about these voyages and how they work. I had come to think of myself as a pro by now.

With the knowledge he’s sharing with me, I know I should be more concerned than I am. However, it’s kind of comforting knowing that someone has an idea of what’s going on. “Can they fix it?”

“No clue. I could be wrong for all I know.” He shrugs. So much for having an idea of what’s going on.

“Well, thanks for the info, uh…”

“Simon.”

“Thanks for the information, Simon, but I think I’m just going to assume it was just some crazy turbulence. That’s the obvious answer.” I add the last part in mostly for myself.

“Suit yourself...uh, what’s your name?”

“Elise.” I say. He smiles, winks, and rests his head back against his seat, closing his eyes.

What a weird guy. I think to myself.

About twenty minutes pass before the overhead speakers boom back to life with another announcement. “Passengers, it seems as though we have gone a little off course from our destination. We have found a solution for this problem, and will be back on course as soon as possible. Sorry for the unexpected inconvenience. In the meantime, feel free to unfasten your seatbelts and feel welcome to return to your previous activities on the ship. We will be back shortly with more instructions.”

There’s a sigh of relief from everyone in the Jump Room. My parents start working Jace and Miles’ harnesses while everyone else starts to unstrap from their seats. Beside me, Simon says, “I told you so.” I look over at him, his eyes are still closed and he hasn’t bothered to start unstrapping himself. I quickly unbuckle myself and turn to my parents.

“I think I’m going to go to the Rec Hall, are we meeting for dinner?” I ask them.

“Sure, we’ll meet at the diner around 7, how does that sound?” My mom says as she unbuckles her harness.

“Sounds good.”

The Rec Hall is actually five different rooms. The first room is a movie theater - you have to pay for the movies except for on Tuesday night when they play a free family movie. The second room is a gymnasium where you can play various sports as long as there isn’t a scheduled games. The third room is for children and has activities to keep younger passengers from dying of boredom. The fourth room is for general recreation. They have weekly art and music classes, as well as board games and books. That’s the room I head for. Just as I start to open the large, glass door I notice the last room - the observation room - is blocked out. A sleek, metal door with no handle or hinges has slid over the glass door. I take a step closer to check it out. I push on the metal, but it doesn’t move. I’ve only seen these metal doors - or metal sheets, I’m not sure - over doors to areas of the ship that have closed for the night. The observation room has never been closed before, not on any ship I’ve been on. The observation room is a big room, similar to the theater, but one wall is made entirely of glass, allowing whoever is in the room to see out into the open space. They play soothing background music at all times, welcoming anyone to come in and relax and enjoy the beauties of space. I can’t help but find it strange. Maybe it has something to do with us going off course?

I head back to the creativity room and read and play some board games with a few other teens while time passes. It doesn’t seem to take too long before six thirty rolls around and I head towards the diner to meet up with my family. I find it strange that with all the time in between we haven’t heard any announcements letting us know what’s going on. I try not to worry too much about it, though, and push it out of my mind.

The diner isn’t the fanciest place on the ship to eat, but it’s the only one my family can afford to go to. When we sit, the table lights up, and a cheery voice emanating from it tells us to look over our menus and a server will be with us shortly. Menus pop onto the tables screen in front of us and we swipe to look at the options. There’s a large variety of things to choose from, even for a cheap diner. A majority of the dishes are dishes that are enjoyed by the human race, people whose ancestors thought that came from Earth. But some dishes cater to the likes of other humanoid races that have merged with our own over our races’ expanse into the universe. They’re weird and exotic, most with meats of animals from these other planets. My dad actually tells us he’s going to have Obic, a dish that has some weird space fish, meat from an animal that is strikingly similar to bison but completely bald with bright pink skin like a pig, and mushy rice. My mom and I get cheeseburgers, while my brothers get chicken fingers.

Our meal goes smoothly and we head back to our room for the night. My dad turns on the TV once we’re in our room to watch some news, but when he does the screen turns to the standard star display. “That’s odd.” He says. “I wonder why it wont connect?” I can’t help but wonder the same thing, and wonder if it has anything to do with us going off our course. I can’t help but wonder where we are, either. I had noticed earlier on my way to the diner that all the windows on the ship were blocked out by the metal sheets, blocking out any view of space. I wonder if all of these things are connected. I look at the clock and it says it’s eight-thirty. It’s been six hours since the jump portal spit us out at somewhere other than the Milky Way Jump Portal. We should be back on course by now, right?

I have a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach. What if we’re not able to get back on course?

Check out Chapter 1 with this link if you haven't already read it.