03-01-24
I was on a large, strange ship as a sort of passenger/test subject/staff member. The ship was somewhat biological in nature. It was vaguely humanoid in overall shape. The cruise the ship was going on was more meant to isolate everyone from the mainland for a week to conduct some experiments on people that required a near total cut off from society. Among the other passengers were my father and brother. Oddly enough, there were some children, maybe 25-30, of around ages 10-14 who were also going to be experimented on.
On the day of the cruise, we were shown around the ship by the guide. The guide was a man with dark hair and eyes in his mid to late 30s. He was also the head administrator of all the experiments we would be participating in. The hallways twisted and turned as we progressed. It seemed to me that the passageways were built keeping the ship’s biology in mind, having to avoid the organs. There were few colors to be seen throughout the ship, with almost everything just being bare steel, with some painted white. I did not notice any viewports that would allow us to see outside the vessel, nor was there any area of the ship that was exposed to fresh air.
Some of the rooms on the ship included, but most certainly not limited to: an emergency medical center, which was only staffed as needed, but otherwise was stocked fully; several test rooms that included sleep pods that themselves doubled as test equipment; various playground sets where all of the childrens’ experiments would exclusively take place; a single, but large, common area to be used by everyone as a place to relax and socialize when not participating in experiments; and lastly a fitness center complete with a full-size basketball court with a wooden deck. The basketball court also doubled as a large meeting hall for important meetings where everyone aboard the ship was to be in attendance.
The tour concluded in the basketball court, where tables were set up for a meeting and dinner. We were divided up into groups to sit at the tables, as well as test groups. Each test group had a sort of leader that would be responsible for their group in terms of experiment performance. I was randomly selected as one of these leaders (I was not particularly happy about this), and I took the seat at the end of the table of my group, which was seated at the very end of the basketball court away from the tables with the staff that would be running the experiments. While seated, my group exchanged brief greetings while the meal was served. Each table included at least one child that the group would be responsible for throughout the cruise.
After the meal, the guide/administrator told us when and where we should report to tomorrow for the experiments. Additionally, we were informed that we must ensure that all of the children report to the same test playground in the morning. We also had to have a member of the group present to pick them up after their experiments ended for the day. By this point the children had mostly all wandered off and were playing with each other in the hallway outside of the basketball court, including the young boy assigned to our group. After some time, we were allowed to go and find some sleeping pods and get some rest.
It took me a while to track down the child we were assigned, and I only found him long after lights out had been called and all the passageways were greatly dimmed. While trying to find a sleep pod for him, I noticed that the emergency medical center was in use, since the door was wide open. I saw an unconscious child with severe burns lying on a table and hooked up to an oxygen mask. The two heavily dressed medics present were preparing treatment materials. His breaths were laborious. Very quickly after I noticed this, one of the medics turned around and noticed me. They then closed the door.
I looked at the kid I was with and asked if he knew anything about this. He said that the burned kid had tried sleeping in the basketball court, but it ended up flooding. He then left the court and tried using a piece of test equipment to dry himself after some other kids said they noticed something that looked like it blasted hot air in one of the testing rooms we were taken to earlier. He did this, but the machine ended up setting him on fire. I asked if his group knew about this and the kid said they didn’t tell them. My thought at hearing this was along the lines of ‘Oh my fucking god, why are children so difficult this is only the first day’. Eventually I found him a child sized sleeping pod, and told him to get in the pod some rest, which he did. All the other sleeping pods in the room were taken, so I went to find one for myself.
I noticed my dad was still awake and watching TV in the common room. I asked him where my brother was and he said he didn’t know. I told him I was going to sleep and departed since there were no sleeping pods in the common room. He stayed to watch more TV (why there was TV on the ship when everyone was supposed to be cut off from society, I don’t know). It took me a while to find a pod. I thought I had found two unused ones, only for two women to walk in the room shortly after, saying they were already using them. The room they had chosen was rather windy, yet stuffy at the same time so they had changed into some of the test jumpers designed for the room. The jumpers had the word ‘omnivent’ written diagonally across the chest, from their right shoulder to the left waist. The jumper clung to them tightly.
At this point I had given up my search, heading aft in search of some nook where I could sit when I came across the guide. He was heading towards the bow. I remarked that maybe I’ll just stay awake for the entire week. He said there’s no need for that and showed me to an additional test room that was not included in the tour. This room was meant for high pressurization, which is why he didn’t include it on the tour. There were some sleep pods which were shaped like pressurized gas tanks. Sure enough, these pods doubled as exactly that and could be activated and pressurized by anyone outside the pod. Though only the staff members were supposed to do this. I asked if there was a chance I’ll wake up to find I’ve been pressurized. The guide said he’ll put out a notice to all the staff that this room has an occupant and to check for me before energizing anything in the room. With that, he turned and left as well as turned off the lights to the room with me still at the entrance. ‘Dick move’ I thought, since the room was now pitch black and I didn’t even notice where the light switch was. Then I woke up.