The Door
Grayson fiddled with the lock, but the mysterious heavy steel door open.
You’d think that after years of learning and building electronics and mechanics opening a simple Elytra E-Door would be easy, but not a chance. With the proper tools maybe…
Grayson ran his greasy hands through his short black hair. He’d been trying to open the door for weeks. Not for the first time, Grayson wished he had something to unlock or break down the door.
He looked around the small corner where the door was located. It was at the bottom of the ship, near the colossal engines that powered the place he called home.
The ship was headed towards (hopefully) a better place to live than the planet they had left behind in 2997. He looked around the rusted room for something to help him bust the lock. He finally settled on a heavy metal pipe that had broken off an oxygen tube, one of the many that moved the oxygen through the ship.
Oxygen was a byproduct created by the Ion Combustion Engines that moved the ship. As he bent down to pick it up, he noticed something on the floor. It was a box. And inside, there was a PowerWelder® 285 Model B (It said so on the box.) Grayson laughed aloud. All this time wishing he had some decent tools and there was a PowerWelder under his very nose. Grayson grabbed the welder, made sure it was charged (check) and promptly melted the padlock he had spent so much time trying to break. It wasn’t the only broken thing in this ship, he thought sadly, as he waited for the door to cool.
The huge ship wasn’t as new as it was before, and the pressurized Ion container was leaking. That was a big deal since pressurized Ion fueled the ship (Oh, and also, the escaping pressurized Ion was extremely volatile). After 747 years and 6 months in space, it was no surprise the ship Exo 3 was falling apart. Grayson had always thought the name Exo 3 was kinda lame, because Exo was the name of the company that made the Exo ships. Why not name it after some cool extinct animal, like the blue whale.
He pushed the door in with his shoulder, and the door squealed in protest as it opened. Grayson peeked in the door, holding the welder in front of him. He had done it! He would finally know what was behind the door…
Aly marched down the first class promenade, exactly 109 levels above where Grayson discovered the door.
Aly had straight blond hair, and she walked briskly towards the bridge. She kicked the door open with a regulation shiny knee high black boot. Her dad was one of the many captains that made decisions aboard the ship
She slowed as she walked past the long window out to space. She glanced out, watching the small shuttles glide past, accompanied by the occasional cruiser, as they blocked the window completely.
Then she kept walking, boots clicking on the white polished floor, the sound echoing on the white polished walls. She stopped at a white polished door. Aly pressed her finger into the fingerprint lock to the right of the door. The scanner glowed green and she heard the buzz as the lock undid.
Aly stepped into the white and polished room. It was a spacey room, with a large window overlooking the greenhouse. There was a big white bed, so soft you could sink into it, blanket and pillow that adjusted to your body temperature, and a fridge/heater, where any type of food you could dream of would be delivered by servers at the press of a button. It also included a nice HoloVision 56. It was an older version, but it could play any types of games you could dream of, and any shows you could imagine. And she hated it. She hated all the whiteness, and she hated how polished it was, and most of all she hated all the rules and regulations.
Aly sighed, tossed her fancy black hat on the bed. She changed from the fancy black jacket, pants and boots into her normal pants. She put on the plainest heated jacket she could find (also grey), and some comfy grey boots that didn’t go much higher than her ankles. Aly flopped down on the bed. She thought about playing a game, but she’d played most of them many times. She wasn’t feeling like watching a show, so in the end she ordered a hamburger. And as she waited, she played a game of HoloChess against the computer. Not for the first time, she wished she had someone who would play HoloChess besides the computer. There were plenty of kids that would be happy to be her friend. But almost all of the hundred kids in class Alpha thought they were better than everyone below their rank. Aly heard of times when humans still occupied earth, that people judged you by the color of your skin (of all things), your ancestry (which was now mostly just “My ancestors lived on earth! That’s all I know”). Now mostly people judged you by your ship class.
Aly sighed, and got back to her HoloChess game. Meanwhile, Grayson was about to make an interesting discovery...
