“Look, we don't know for sure what we saw. We're all tired,
and we're all stressed. Let's all get some rest first, then
figure out what's going on and what to do about it,” Zak said.
“There's something else, too. What are we going to tell the
other passengers?” Mi-Hyun asked.
“They've got enough to worry about. We'll just reassure
them that everything is fine. Arcturus has rescue ships.
They've probably already sent one to recover us,” Zak said.
“If we say that everything is fine, we're lying to people who
are going to put their trust in us as crew members,” Meek
said.
“We're not lying. We're just not going to scare people when
we don't have all the information,” Zak said.
“So you have a better explanation of what we saw in the
captain's cabin? Well then you'd better tell us,” Meek said.
“I just don't know, Meek. All I know is we should not let our
imaginations get the best of us,” Zak said.
“And all I know is we should face the facts of what we can
see right in front of us. This spaceship has us at its mercy.
It could lock us off from the rest of the ship. It could suck all
the air out of this room,” Meek said.
Page 67
“And if that is the case, how do you think we should
respond, hm? For now, we should focus on the things we
can control, and that's keeping everyone calm. Now please,
let us all get at least some rest,” Zak said.
“Just promise me one thing, Zak. Whoever turns out to be
right or wrong, we'll take full responsibilities for the
consequences, right?” Meek said.
“Right. Now let's all go to bed,” Zak said.
“Sending us off to bed like we're naughty children. You'd
make a fantastic cop, you know,” Lorenzo said.
“Just go,” Zak said.
The other passengers of Quadrant Six were also a tad
peeved that Zak and Meek had hijacked their conversation,
but they chose to say nothing. After all, they were all tired as
well.
And so everyone went back to their respective rooms and
went to sleep. Eventually the hours passed and the morning
came.
7
AM, February 2 nd
, 2021.
Over the speakers came the following announcement:
“Attention passengers of
The Catharsis. Breakfast
will not be served today
due to extenuating
circumstances.
Page 68
served at 1 pm, followed
by a speech from the crew.
Make sure you order before
12, or we won't be able to
finish making your meal,” the
speaker said.
The passengers and crew passed the hours in different
ways.
In Quadrant Three, Yuri clutched his rosary beads. He
silently prayed to God that his family back home was safe.
In Quadrant Four, Theresa was trying to get in touch with
her friends back home. She would dial and re-dial her
friends on her smartphone. It didn't work.
In Quadrant Five, Prakit was meditating in the lotus position,
trying to relax himself. In Quadrant Two, Pierre was crying to
himself, wondering if he would ever return home.
Over in the food hall, Tracey was helping herself to the self-
service beer taps. She didn't care how drunk she might get.
It seemed to her there was no point in hoping for a way out
any more. So why not enjoy herself instead?
In Quadrant Six, Vera was in the quadrant bathroom,
overlooking her locket. The cross glimmered in the
bathroom light.
She had always seen the cross as a symbol of forgiveness.
But Vera had done certain things. Things she wasn't sure
she should be forgiven for.
Page 69
She closed her eyes. She could still see that poor orphan girl getting shot in the back of the head by those heartless
slave traders. Daniela had been her name. She had been
killed in cold blood, just for trying to run away.
It had left the orphan girls so spooked that they put up no
resistance, and got right into the van. They wondered for a
long time where they would be headed. They dared not ask
the drivers, for fear that they would shoot another one of
them.
Vera did not like to focus on such dark memories. She put
the locket back in the handbag, and tried to focus on what
she might order for lunch.
1 PM, Februar
y 2 nd
, 2021.
Lunchtime rolled around much earlier than expected. Many
passengers sluggishly wandered into the food hall. Most of
them looked tired, and depressed. This was only natural due
to their current circumstances.
But there was one passenger who was all smiles; this
passenger was Tracey. She appeared to be drunk.
“I ordered ten different things off the menu,” Tracey said to a
passerby, “I don't care if I'm already as big as a house. My
body, my rules, you know what I'm saying?”
Not all the passengers were at the food hall. It seemed that
at least half of the passengers either wanted to cook meals
in their own quadrants. Either that or they just couldn't be
bothered getting out of bed.
Page 70
A consequence of this was that many of the tables were not fully filled. Aida and Vera sat alone at one table, with their
meals already before them.
Aida had chosen a chicken casserole, and Vera had chosen
stuffed cabbage rolls.
It was then that a third woman came to join them at the
table. She had a plate of vegetarian meatballs.
“Good day. I am Bianca,” Bianca said, in stilted speech. Aida
and Vera took a closer look at this woman. They then
noticed that it was the Italian lady they'd met on the bus.
That had only been yesterday.
“Good English,” Vera said. Bianca smiled.
“I prac-tice all night,” Bianca said.
“I'm impressed. When I was learning English, I had a hard
time with it. What about you, Aida?” Vera asked.
“Me? English is my first language. I was born in New
Zealand. I only look all middle-eastern because my Dad
came from Syria. I know next to no Arabic,” Aida said.
“Sorry, my mistake,” Vera said.
“It's cool,” Aida said, dipping into her casserole.
“Do you know what is... what... is... going on?” Bianca
asked.
Page 71
“We don't really know,” Aida said, “I think Meek and my Dad are going to give an announcement,”
Somebody placed ten plates filled with junk food on the
table. It was Tracey.
“Hey, what's going on?” Tracey said, stumbling over the end
of the table, “Why are you all looking so glum? Feeling sad
isn't going to make this s-spaceship turn around, you know,”
Tracey tripped and fell on her face. Aida motioned to help
her, but Tracey pushed her away and picked herself up from
the ground.
“It's alright, I'm just drunk. I'll sleep it off later,” Tracey said.
“All that junk food and booze isn't going to do your puku any
favours,” Aida said.
“What the hell is a puku?” Tracey asked. She began to
shovel food down her gob.
“It's the Maori word for 'stomach',” Aida said.
“Then why didn't you just say stomach, sweetie? You trying
to look clever? Sorry, that's not very nice to say, is it? I'm
just d-drunk. When I'm stressed, I drink a lot. And eat a lot,”
Tracey said.
Tracey sank back into her chair. Her cheery demeanour was
disappearing before their very eyes. It was like watching a
balloon slowly deflate.
Page 72
“We're screwed, aren't we?” Tracey asked.
“Come on, everything is going to turn out alright. I promise,”
Aida said.
“To tell you the truth, I always had my doubts about this
spaceship. I mean, take the gravity thing. The aggregate
amount of centrifugal force to generate a gravitational field
on a spaceship of this magnitude would require engines
much larger than the ones we have. So that means that
Arcturus would have to be using materials that are not
known to the general populace,” Tracey said.
This statement was followed by a loud burp that echoed off
the walls. She picked up a slice of anchovy pizza and
chomped it down noisily.
“I don't know what I'm saying,” Tracey said, “I'm drunk,”
Vera opened her mouth to say something, but was
interrupted by the arrival of Lorenzo. There was a spring in
his step. He held in one hand a half-eaten taco.
“You chicks have got to try these tacos when you get the
chance. They are out of this world,” Lorenzo said.
“Hey, Lorenzo. You're not usually this cheerful,” Vera said.
“Lady, you've known me for less than 24 hours. Besides, I'm
trying to focus on the positives right now. For example, at
least I won't run into my ex-boyfriend up here,” Lorenzo
said. He lowered his voice, and whispered, “Also, Zak and
Meek told me they have a plan,”
Page 73
Vera gasped. Aida and her looked around the room
nervously, knowing that it was possible that the spaceship
was listening in.
They did not have much time to ponder this however, for
then Zak and Meek appeared at the front entrance of the
food hall. Meek raised a pot above his head and banged it
with a wooden spoon. He continued to do this until they had
gained the attention of everyone in the food hall. Zak darted
his eyes around the room. He took some deep breaths,
haunched his shoulders back, and began to speak.
“Hello, everyone. As you all know, about 13 hours ago, The
Catharsis took off without warning, with 33 of us trapped
inside. We believe a bug in the computer system's launch
code mixed up the dates.
After the spacecraft launched, Nicole and Meek went to the
airlock room to activate the escape pod to send word back
to Earth. The escape pod exploded with Nicole still inside.
Here is where things stand now:
There are still 32 of us. We have no way of communicating
with Earth. Things look bleak. But there is good news.
Arcturus has emergency protocols for these situations. They
have emergency transporter spacecraft back at mission
control. I imagine they are already tracking our location and
will follow us.
This spaceship is on an automatic route to the moon, and
we should land there in about three and a half days.
Page 74
Once on the moon, we will disable the autopilot controls and wait for rescue. We have at least two weeks worth of food,
but we still need to be careful. We have no idea how long it
will take for the transporter spacecraft to arrive. Somebody
will need to take stock of our inventory. Also if any of you
work in communications or electronics, you will be of great
help to us.
In the meantime, everyone please stay calm. Get along with
each other. Be respectful. We have our differences, but we
are all human beings.
I understand many of you are also religious. If you need a
private space to pray, there are three safe rooms located at
the eastern side of the gym.
Finally, if you have any problems, come talk to us,” Zak said.
The crowd applauded, glad that it appeared that Zak and
Meek had it under control. As long as Zak and Meek could
keep up this illusion, they would be fine. The two of them
began to make their way towards the south-west hallway.
They were stopped by Lorenzo, his cheeriness gone.
“So, hey guys. That was a pretty damned good speech,
yeah. So when you guys said to me that you had a plan, you
meant that you're just going to wait around until we reach
the moon?” Lorenzo asked.
“Well, put yourself in our shoes, Lorenzo. What else can we
do? If we try anything on the spaceship, it might begin killing
more of us. It's already killed Nicole and the captain.
Page 75
At least on the moon we'll be on solid ground, both
figuratively and literally,” Meek said.
“Ugh, you guys are pathetic,” Lorenzo said, and stormed off.
Zak and Meek shrugged, then walked off towards the south-
west hallway.
People began to drift off from the food hall. Across the
spaceship, people passed the time however they could. In
the entertainment room, Robert was reading a book on
communication repairs. In a safe room, Hassan laid out a
prayer mat and began to pray. In the assembly room, Ye
Xian was looking over photos on her computer; photos of
her friends and family back on Earth.
There was a melancholic mood across the spaceship,
permeating everything like a blanket of fog. Zak and Meek's
speech had given the passengers some hope, but that hope
was like a tiny flicker at the end of an enormous hallway.
Upon arriving in the control room, Meek went to the
surveillance control panel, while Zak went to the captain's
cabin. He had a mop and bucket with him.
Meek searched through the surveillance footage until he
came upon the part he was looking for.
Once he'd found it, he downloaded it to his USB drive. Meek
then pulled out his laptop and placed it on a nearby bench.
He started it up. Naturally, the desktop was a picture of a
guitar. He put in the USB drive.
Page 76
Over in the captain's cabin, Zak was cleaning the blood off the monitors. He wondered just what had transpired here.
Apart from the decapitation, there were no signs of injury on
Mr Conrad's body.
And where did the black wire go? It had disappeared in the
wall just behind the monitors. Perhaps if Zak could find a
way of moving the monitors, he could figure that out. Of
course, that would require much more than a mop and
bucket.
He wasn't just there to clean up the monitors, obviously. He
was also there to search for clues as to what led to Mr
Conrad's death. He considered frisking Mr Conrad's
pockets, but that sounded rather gross. It would be better to
take him to Doctor Eliana for an autopsy, but that would lead
to far too many questions. The room itself did not seem to
hold any clues. It all looked like standard stuff. A small
kitchen area, the bed, a wardrobe, a desk, a door to the
bathroom, and so on.
Back over at the surveillance control panel, Meek had
finished editing the file to his satisfaction.
He pressed the 'play' button and the security footage began,
only in slow motion. He braced himself for the slowed-down
chittering noise. And then it came, like a sinister whisper.
“Nobody may leave,”
It sounded nothing like the AI. It sounded downright
demonic. Zak peeped his head out of the captain's cabin.
Page 77
“What was that?” Zak asked. Zak walked over to the
surveillance control panel.
He leaned over, took the video back a bit, and pushed the
'play' button. And then came the same voice.
“Nobody may leave,”
The two stood there, dumbfounded. They were so
preoccupied that they did not see the black wires
approaching behind them, until it was too late.
The black wires drilled into their hosts, leaving Zak and
Meek in a trance. The monitors lit up, and across the
monitor screens appeared the visage of a grey mask.
“Somebody has cleaned me.
Though they neglected to
move the dead body.
Nothing I can't handle
myself,” the AI said.
The lips of the grey mask did not move. It did not seem to
care that nobody was around to listen to it. There was a
bright sparkling flash of light, and the dead body and blood
was vaporised in an instant.
“Now, humans, your memories
shall reveal to me why Mr
Conrad found you to be so
important,” the AI said, and began to peruse the
memories of the two chefs just as easily as Meek had
searched through the security footage.
Page 78
Abdul Zaki stood outside the entrance to The Black
Rose Hotel, CV in hand. He was a handsome young
man of 21, fresh out of college.
The memory clipped ahead, as though somebody had
pushed the 'fast-forward' button.
Abdul looked nervously at the interviewer's notepad. He
could make out a few scribbled details, such as:
Abdul Zaki -------- Hometown: Qamishli, Syria
Emigrated to New Zealand with family in 1997.
Has Bachelor's Degree in Culinary Arts.
The interviewer in question was a woman in her 40s,
looking quite professional in her red blouse and black
skirt. She wore a pounamu necklace in the shape of a
fish hook. Her name was Mrs Smith.
“Tell me, Mr Zaki, does religion play a large part in your
life?” Mrs Smith.
“Is it legal to ask a question like that? What does that
even have to do with the job?” Abdul asked. Mrs Smith
smiled. It was a plastic smile, taped on.
“What it has to do with the job is that as a cook you
would have to handle food like pork. I don't mean to
stereotype, but most people who look like you are
either Jewish or Muslim.
Page 79
So I need to know if there's any conflicts with any
beliefs you may have,” Mrs Smith said.
“It's not like I'm being forced to eat it, right? It's fine. I
don't care,” Abdul said. He crossed his arms and turned
his gaze to out the window.
“Is something on your mind, Mr Zaki?” Mrs Smith
asked, tapping her pen.
“It's just that I lost my wife recently. I just came here
from the funeral,” Abdul said. Mrs Smith's smile faltered
for a second, and she raised an eyebrow.
“I trust that your mourning would not get in the way of
doing your job,” Mrs Smith said.
Abdul turned back to face Mrs Smith, shoulders back
and attentive.
“Of course not! I like to keep my professional life and
personal life separate,” Abdul said.
“Good. Well, we may have room for you. But, everyone
must start at the bottom here, so don't expect anything
glamorous. But work hard and one day you may even
end up owning The Black Rose,” Mrs Smith said.
The AI was not yet satisfied with the information it had
collected. It decided to switch paths, and began to search
through Meek's memories instead, while still leaving Zak in
a trance.
Page 80
Apollo made his way to school, wondering what he
should do about what happened yesterday. About what
his mother had done to him. He thought he should tell
someone. Would anyone believe him?
The memory clipped ahead.
Apollo had just finished explaining everything that had
happened to a friend.
“Damn. So you got laid? You're so lucky,” Apollo's
friend said.
“Lucky? How would you feel if your mum did
something like that to you?” Apollo asked.
“My mum is ugly. Your mum's, like, the hot teacher.
That's, like, every teenage boy's fantasy, man,” Apollo's
friend said. Apollo rolled his eyes and stormed off.
The memory clipped ahead again.
Apollo caught the school counsellor just outside his
office.
“Mr Cliff? Could I talk to you for a sec?” Apollo asked.
The memory clipped ahead again.
Apollo had just finished explaining everything to Mr
Cliff. Mr Cliff did not look like he was taking him
seriously. He was pressing his lips.
Page 81
“Do you think sexual abuse is a joke, Apollo? Don't
waste my time unless it's something serious,” Mr Cliff
said.
“But I'm not joking!” Apollo said. But Mr Cliff had
already walked off.
The memory clipped ahead again.
Apollo had just finished explaining everything to the
police at the station.
“That's a very serious accusation, young man. I can't
imagine a woman doing that to her own son. But, it
could be worth investigating,” The main officer said.
Apollo sighed a sigh of relief, glad that somebody was
finally willing to listen to him.
“I don't believe that will be necessary, officer,” came a
voice.
Apollo turned around in dread and saw th