Transplant Read Online Free PDF Page B

room is opposite to that which you entered from. You will be guided back to your quarters.’
    ‘Thank you for your co-operation, that is all.’ The faintest of clicks indicated that the Captain was no longer on line, and they were alone in the bowls of the great ship.
    ‘I hope the device which gives directions hasn’t broken down,’ Arki offered, ‘or we shall be in real trouble.’ Before anyone could answer the door slid open to reveal a dark passage ahead, and they hesitatingly moved forward thinking over what Arki had said.
    The door of the decontamination room slid to behind them with a definite click, and they knew there was no way back in as there were no controls on what now looked like a normal passage wall, and there was no sign of where the doorway had been.
    The corridor ran to left and right, the left section being more brightly lit, so they headed along it, hoping they were doing the right thing.
    They had been walking for some minutes when a section of the corridor wall slid back, and they all stopped.
    ‘I suppose we are intended to go in,’ Glyn commented, ‘I don’t go much on the ‘directions’ we are supposed to receive.’
    There was nowhere else to go as the lights up ahead in the corridor had dimmed, the lift now offering the only fully lighted area.
    This time they felt the surge as the lift went upwards, stopped, moved sideways, changed directions several times and then went up again.
    When the door opened into a now familiar section of the ship, they were totally confused as to where they had been, and feeling not a little dizzy.
    ‘Thank goodness we’re back in one piece, I really didn’t think we’d make it.’ Brendon said, smiling for the first time since breakfast. Glyn gave him a pat on the back and said,
    ‘We’d better report back to the others and tell them what’s happened to Bolin. Let’s dump the equipment and then it will almost be time for the next meal, so we can tell them then.’ Without realizing it, Glyn had taken full control over the little group, and they had accepted it quite naturally.
    After laying out their equipment on the long bench like shelf along one wall of the equipment room, they left it for the machinery to check over and store in the appropriate sections for reuse at a later date.
    A few diners had arrived when the trio trooped in, and Glyn said that it would be best to wait for all to assemble before relating what had happened, and the others agreed.
    Slowly the room filled up with the other members of the ship, and when all were seated Glyn stood up to make his announcement.
    ‘I have some sad news for you all. Bolin is no longer with us. He had an accident down in the hydroponics chamber, and there was nothing we could do to help him, even the Captain couldn’t help. I won’t go into the unpleasant details of what happened, but he is no more, and as far as we can tell, didn’t suffer much. He will be missed by us all, I’m sure, and as we can’t say farewell to him in the normal manner, I suggest we hold a one minute silence, and think about him.’
    After the look of shock had passed, they bowed their heads and a minute of silence began, extending into several minutes as no one wanted to be the first to break what little respect they could pay to a much loved member of the ship.
    Most of the meal was eaten in silence, and it wasn’t until after the fruit bowl had been passed around did any real conversation take place, and then it was only of a trivial nature. It was a rare thing to lose someone accidentally.
    Fortunately no one asked Glyn for details of what happened to Bolin, and he was glad, as he didn’t want to go through the horror of the incident again.
    As the meal time break ended and the diners departed to go their various ways, Mia turned towards Glyn and asked him, ‘Will you be going to the sunning room, dear? You missed your session this morning.’
    ‘No I don’t think so, I’d rather go to the book room,