The Worlds of the Sheaf

Embarkation - Part 1

     They took a whole week to make sure the voyage had had no effect upon him, and then the full crew of the Jules Verne began to teleport over. It would be the first time the ship had ever been fully occupied. Up until now, while they made sure there were no nasty design flaws or spell conflicts waiting to surprise them, the ship had only carried a skeleton crew, and that had been enough for its two shakedown missions; the investigation of the Rings of Salammis and a whistlestop tour of the planets of the Tharsolar system. Now, though, the ship was trusted to be spaceworthy and reliable. True, another unexpected space hazard might wipe out everyone aboard, as the unbelievably powerful skydeath field surrounding the planet Rama had almost done, but that would just have to be risked. The potential threat posed by the presumed Shipbuilder civilisation was even greater.

     "My first time aboard," said Lirenna, staring around the crowded hanger deck in fascination. Then she noticed the curvature of the walls and her guts tightened up in alarm at the graphic reminder of just how small the ship was. It seemed incredible that so many people were going to be spending an unknown length of time inside such a tiny sphere. How many was it? Twenty one humans alone. A trog, a dozen moon trogs and eight shae folk. All inside a sphere twenty five yards across. Surely they would all be screaming mad within the week!

     "In a way, it's my first time aboard as well," replied Thomas, squeezing up against the hull of one of the two Hummingbird class scout ships to allow a group of half a dozen Beltharan soldiers to pass. "The ship was almost empty the last time I was aboard, and I don't just mean people. Have you seen how much equipment they're bringing aboard? Where in the name of hell are they going to put it all?"

     More people were leaving the teleportation cubicle, and the two wizards decided to leave the hanger deck to make room for them. They had to climb across the decks of the two scout ships to get to the other side of the chamber, where the stairs were, and as they ascended they passed the crewmen's quarters, where eleven Beltharan soldiers, including their friend Matthew Winterwell, would be bunking for the duration of the mission. The next deck up was the officer and civilian habitation deck, containing twelve single person cabins, one of which was Thomas's. It also contained the galley and the lounge which, in a rare moment of magnanimity, the Captain had stated would also be accessible to the lower ranks.

     As they made their way to Thomas's cabin, the wizard admired the changes that had been made since his first visit. Then, the ship had had the crude, unfinished, dishevelled look of a worksite. Indeed there had still been several teams of workmen aboard working on the fittings and furnishings. Getting in the way and rendering several whole decks unusable as paint and glue dried.

     Now, though, everything was done. The final finishing touches had been added and every surface was bright, shiny and new. The wooden paneling along the walls was polished and varnished to bring out the grain and give it a pleasingly smooth feel. The brass rails and fixings gleamed in the light of the glowing globes of marble in the ceiling and the hand painted signs giving directions to various locations looked as though they'd been fixed in place that very morning, which may very well have been the case for all Thomas knew.

     Pleasant though the decor was, though, the ship was still cramped and claustrophobic, even though valuable space had been used to make the main corridors good and wide. There was even a sizable open space in the centre of deck three where a number of small chairs and potted plants created a pleasing gathering space.

     The corridors containing the crew cabins were painfully narrow, however, and two people passing each other had to press themselves against the walls while one squeezed past the other. Lirenna was visibly unhappy with it, and Thomas guessed she wouldn't be leaving deck one, the shae deck, any more than she absolutely had to. He remembered the Muellin, the shayen bird of paradise aboard which he, Lirenna and the other Claimjumpers had travelled back to Ilandia with the Orb of Proofing. That ship had been open and airy, with plenty of empty space, the way shae folk liked it.