Whatever Floats Your Boat

Photo credit: Robsalot (that's me!)

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I couldn’t breathe. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, I could breath, but the air was thick, like I was in a very small room filled with far too many people who were all talking and exhaling their hot breath and had probably just came from the gym, oh, and also really needed to brush their teeth.

The second thing I noticed was I couldn’t see. I was pretty sure my eyes were open, but I blinked a couple of times to to check. That’s when a voice suddenly cut through the darkness.

“Relax,” it said, “your eyes will adjust.”

I tried to sit up, but a gentle brush of a hand across my forehead encouraged me to lie back down. “Where am I?” I whispered.

“You’ll find out soon enough” the voice replied, “but for now go back to sleep, you still need more rest.”

I was about to reply that I felt fine, but the words never came out.

I woke up again with a start. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I was surprised to see the room was now bright, too bright. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands and slowly the room came into focus. I was sitting on top of a table, but there was nothing else in the room except the curved wooden boards of the walls and a small round porthole like window. Whoever had been talking to me earlier was no longer there. Carefully I swung my legs around but just before I jumped down a door I hadn’t noticed swung open and a rather unkempt woman appeared.

“Careful,” she scolded as she reached out and grabbed my shoulder, “make sure you have your balance before you step down.”

“What the hell is this, why am I…” but my sentence was cut short when the room suddenly shuddered and tiled at an odd angle, nearly sending me crashing to the floor. “Wait, are we on a boat? Did you kidnap me and put me on a boat?”

“Well...”

“No, I’ve heard about this, you ship captains, you drug people’s drinks, and then when they pass out you load them on a boat and force them to work for you!”

“It’s not exactly like that”

“What do you mean its not exactly like that?”

“Go, get up, look out the window, just be careful, walking is going to be a bit trickier than you are used to.”

I slid off the table, and leaning against the wall I made my way to the window, but when I looked out, instead of the endless blue horizon I was expecting, I saw blackness, and stars. I turned and looked at the woman, but before I could say anything she spoke.

“While this is a ship, as you can see, we are not at sea.”

“We’re, in space?” I stuttered.

“Yes, now sit, there is much to discuss.”