The Mockingbird
Jemma grunted as she swung her extremely heavy briefcase onto the precarious ramp up towards the space ship, “The Mockingbird”. She was a high class vessel, mainly transporting diplomats and politicians so it was a vacation vessel as much as a simply a transport.
This was Jemma’s first time ever in space, in fact she had never even taken a airplane before, there was never any need too in her life. She had graduated from the same college with a ,masters degree and had immediately began working for that same university, preserving and cataloging old old books. Although the old fashioned method of reading on paper had long since died out, many universities still held onto a certain amount of copies for history’s sake.
And Jemma Simmons was in charge of those books, taking pristine care of them and even indulging the curiosities of certain students to hold a real life book in their hands. She didn’t know why she was chosen for this job, transporting the five volumes to the Planet dominion of Tah-U-Oh, actually she did, she was the foremost expert on hard copies and ancient technology so she had the qualifications to move them and relocate them safely. However, as said before she had never gone anywhere besides the places she visited in stories and the idea of being in space made her stomach churn and her cheeks turn green.
Although, it was said that space travel was as safe as in atmosphere travel nowadays and was used by millions of people a day, knowing that information didn’t help her nerves. She had read up thoroughly on ever thing that could possibly go wrong and the best way to survive in nearly every situation. She was probably more prepared than everyone else on board, but they seemed to only care about the few days off while they were traveling on the elegant vessel.
“The Mockingbird” was an engineering and architectural masterpiece as far as Jemma was concerned, not only was it the quietest and smoothest vessel on the market, it was beautiful, a true visionary’s piece of art. The hull was a shiny gold color with “The Mockingbird” printed in silver lettering.
An attendant stood at the very top of the ramp and took tickets from the passengers. She was dressed in the same uniform as everyone on the vessel with a post navy looking hat, she was short with thick brown hair tied uselessly under the brim of the hat. She smiled and made conversation with everyone coming on board.
Jemma braced herself for the interaction, trying to will away the nausea that was building in her stomach as she heaved the briefcase with the priceless printed books stored in pods inside. The couple in front of her, a diplomat and his husband moved forward and she put up a fake smile for the attendant.
“Good day, Madame, may I see your ticket please?” The woman, whose name tag said, Daya, smiled brightly and reached a hand out expectantly.
Jemma obliged and handed her the ticket, she secretly hoped that something went wrong and she would have to go back to her safe home and never have to go to space. But alas, Daya, inspected the piece of paper and handed it back to Jemma with a smile, “Welcome to “The Mockingbird” Miss Simmons please enjoy the journey.”
Jemma nodded but her smile faded as she walked into the ship and the churning in her gut became increasingly worse. A man stopped her just inside the hatch, “Would you like me to help you with your bags today, Ma’am?”
Jemma gripped onto her suitcase tighter, “Um.. No thank you, I’ve got it, thanks.” The man tipped his hat and gave her a questioning look but smiled and pointed her in the right direction. Her room wasn’t very hard to find as they had the numbers labeled above the doors clearly and she was thankfully on the first deck so she didn’t have to stay on the elevators for very long.
She glanced at her ticket and then at the corresponding door, room 218A, she swiped the ticket in the scanner and the door quietly pulled open. Upon looking around her room she relaxed instantly, it was a warm, homey looking room and besides the window on the far side she could almost imagine that this wasn’t happening.
She jumped, however, when a voice carried over from the speakers, “Hello honored guests, this is your captain speaking, welcome to “The Mockingbird” I hope you enjoy your experience with Marvel travels. We will be arriving at our destination in five days time, until then please enjoy our entertainments, such as all day buffet, theater, running track, swimming pool, and live music from our house band. Medical bay in on level 10, please consult our doctors for any and all ailments, your comfort is our priority. Captain Bobbie out.”
From the pictures that she had seen of the Captain Morse, she did feel in good hands at least. The woman must have been at least 6’3 with broad shoulders and straight blonde hair, she didn’t look like the captain of a simple transport vessel, in fact she almost looked military.
Jemma sat down gingerly on her bed still holding on to the briefcase for dear life, she glanced around the room and sighed. This wasn’t going to be so bad, even if she didn’t want to leave her room there was room service and a TV, The others had the right idea, this would be a vacation.
She rolled over on her bed and laid there with her eyes squeezed shut as she felt the ship take off, along several more safety announcements from over the intercom. She would have plenty of time to sleep later she though as she held the briefcase to her chest and tried to calm her breathing down.
And it seemed like she rarely left that position in her room, at some points she really wanted to go to that awful window or maybe even go and mingle with the rest of the guests but she didn’t, for three whole days actually, she remained in her room reading or watching the television. Three times a day some polite attendant would bring her high quality food and then come back to take the plates, every time they rung the little buzzer on the side of her door she would jump and imagine the worst.
It wasn’t until the fourth day that she woke up in slightly higher spirits, she was beginning to get used to the feeling of hyperspace and as long as she didn’t think about the void just outside she was able to keep the nausea to a minimal.
It was about 10:00 on the fourth day when she stepped through her door, cautiously glancing right and left in the hallway. No one was coming in or out of their rooms, many of them were probably still sleeping the late night off. She took a deep breath and began to walk towards the elevator at the end of the hall. Everything was quiet and muffled on the deep blue carpets.
Once she skittered into the lift the doors closed and a cool feminine voice filled the small area, “It’s good to see you out of your room Miss Simmons. Which floor would you like?” The ship’s AI seemed just as polite and charming as her crew.
“Um.. I would like to eat some breakfast.. Please..” Jemma shifted around the cabin, eyes scanning the walls and ceiling.
“61st floor then.” The AI answered coolly and the lift sped upwards. Jemma could see their movements in the gears at her sides but she couldn’t feel the momentum upwards and a few seconds later the doors opened presumably on the 61st floor.
“Please enjoy your food. We are glad to have you with us today.”
Jemma mumbled a small thank you and shuffled out into what appeared to be the eating hall, it was rather empty at the time of morning save for a few early birds such as herself. She picked a double table and sat herself down, a few moments later a young woman who couldn’t have been over 17 came to her table.
“What can I get you to drink, today” she practically cheered,
“Uh, Water would be fine, thank you. You’re awfully young to be on a ship like this aren’t you?” Jemma felt slightly bad for inquiring but the young woman didn’t seem to mind.
“Yeah, my dad’s one of the techs here so I go with him sometimes, and at least waiting tables gives me something to do.” She smiled, “I’ll have that water out for you in a sec.”
Jemma got her food and sat back down at her table where a fresh glass of water was setting for her, as she ate her meal, more and more people stumbled in looking for food and refreshments and the atmosphere became louder and louder but, as Jemma realized, it never got too loud and the place remained rather relaxing. She soon became more accustomed to the idea of being out of her room.
She spent the rest of the day doing many of the activities that she had missed out on on the previous days and she really did have a good time. She even made plans to see the house band play that evening, a rock band by the name of “Nebula and the stars”, perhaps being in space wasn’t so bad after all.