What Dreams May Come

Chapter 1: first impressions

"How can you stand it?" I heard a voice query.

Alcott swung up into the room and inspected my work with a sniff. Carefully, I removed the ion blades and placed each blade in the UV bath, waiting patiently for the ultraviolet to kill the bacteria, mold, or anything else that was stuck to them.

"You're just minutes away from meeting your soul mate," she told me dramatically, flinging her arms wide. I had to duck to avoid being hit. "And you're working like none of that matters."

The bath chimed, and I began the process of placing the blades back into the turbines.

"Nothing I do this morning is going to change who he is or when they're waking him," I scoffed. "And my madre says he's not my soul mate. He has the right amount of genetic variance."

"Dylan, you are taking the excitement out of romance," she sighed. "I will weep on your behalf."

I rolled my eyes, snapping the last turbine shut. The blades began to whirl once more and I breathed in a job well done. Alcott had grown up with her match: Marcus Dubois. He lived in a corridor down from me. She was two years older, and that was pas mal by her; they were already fast friends.

"You're done, yeah? Sunshine!" She pushed me towards the ladder and I reluctantly descended. Marcus, little surprise, was waiting for us.

"Greetings," he remarked. "Would you like company?"

"I don't need any," I said.

This was ignored by Alcott, and promptly ignored by Marcus as they walked with me down the hall.

"Is Lully coming?" Alcott asked behind me.

"He's in trouble again," Marcus responded.

We all sighed. Lully was a good friend, a great friend even, but he was...difficult to be around sometimes. He would get stir-crazy during the storms and this led to only trouble. Unfortunately, this cycle had record storms and winds; I hadn't seen outside my window for ages.

We walked past offices, and then crept around the hydro bay. Marcus's papa was in charge of filtration; and was always looking for idle hands to scrub carbon filters. Today I had more important things do to.

"I wonder what he'll look like," Alcott remarked. "What's his name?"

"I still haven't looked," I confessed.

"How have you not looked?" Marcus hissed. "You've had the file for a whole cycle!"

"He doesn't know anything about me!" I pointed out. "I thought it was only fair."

The file in question was on my bed with doodles on the front. I hoped that I didn't have to return it and explain myself. My madre knew I hadn't read it; she had read parts of it for me. But I couldn't defend the need to be on equal footing. I knew that he had been the ship's historian and that he was shorter than I was; my madre wanted to print him something of his own. I didn't even know his name.

"Still sounds moonshy," Marcus grumbled. "I guess you'll have something to do with your free week. Lucky."

"We'll get ours," Alcott told him, linking arms to walk in front of me. "Just as soon as you hurry up and turn eighteen."

They laughed together. My hands were grimy from the ion blades, I noticed. While I didn't care, my madre would.

"I'm going to wash up," I called, heading left at the next junction. "See you there?"

"Don't be late!" Alcott called.

I couldn't be late, I scoffed. They were waiting for me. Unsurprisingly, my madre was at our berth, sitting at the table as if she hadn't been expecting me. I moved to the sink and scrubbed my arms up to the elbow, drying them off on a towel. My madre handed me a soft brown hat that had a short brim and a light pattern of sand ripples. I pulled off my work cap, letting my dark curls down for a moment to replace the hat.