Mirror, Mirror by Christina Engela

Author:Christina Engela [Engela, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moon Books Publishing

Freedom was a large, roomy vessel, and so a lot of the public spaces accessible to the paying guests had high ceilings with lots of decorations and swooping curves and twirly bits that looked like fancy plaster borrowed from some European palace or building of state! Bunches of grapes seemed to feature strongly, as well as large leaves to cover the interesting bits of passable imitations of neo-classical sculptures – and cherubs. Lots of cherubs. Andy Niksn had no idea why cherubs featured so strongly – they were a hint of something from the extremely distant past – weren’t they supposed to be the representation of dead infants or something? Whatever.

The gym, the swimming pool, the movie theater – he passed through them all. He avoided the medplex just in case Dr. Revere tried to talk him into therapy again. He avoided thinking about Mandy too – he was growing tired of inventing reasons to not be in a position where she would try to comfort him… both emotionally – or physically – which only inflicted more guilt upon him.

The highlight of his day turned out to be watching passengers ooh and ah as they watched Mars and the giant orbs of the outer planets smoothly slip past on a multitude of viewports around the ship. Andy had seen it already countless times – even on simulations and including dry-runs at the Academy – and by now he was pretty much over it!

Filled with the glistening smooth regularity provided by routine – and his careful avoidance of deep thought – his day passed quite uneventfully. Before long, it was almost 1800 hours, and dinner time aboard the Freedom – and he hadn’t caught so much as a glimpse of Mandy Fringle since that morning.

The First Class dining room was very grand, yet understated – and shiny, yet also quite bland and impersonal. The Captain’s Table was table number 1, situated off to one side of the large room – which due to the triumphs of science, seemed very airy for a room that was basically a tin box inside a larger tin box – and nowhere near a planet with real natural air. The dining room was surprisingly light inside, and tastefully lit by a large crystal chandelier at the center of the room. The lighting was augmented by recessed light panels, lighting strips and windows onto space all round. Soft dinner-music was already playing, low enough for conversation to remain audible.

Passengers had already started arriving for dinner – which like any first class establishment was sumptuous to the point, almost, of decadence. The tickets for first class were, after all, not cheap. Neither were they impossible to afford, but attainable if one were determined enough to treat yourself and perhaps your partner and any children to an unforgettable holiday!

A truly diverse crowd of people filled the dining room – young and old, light and dark and a variety of skin-tones between them – skinny and obese, short and tall… human and non-human.

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