5:00am SST Saturday 11 January 2085
Zak awoke.
He had gone to bed soon after dinner, disregarding advice to stay up and adjust to onboard time. What was the point? There was no daylight to govern his sleeping pattern, and he presumed all facilities on the ship would be open twenty-four hours a day.
The cabin appeared in complete darkness. He waited for his eyes to adjust, but in vain, as there was not a single source of light. He whispered to the bedside light control, and set it low. Skye was sound asleep.
He had been so tired the night before that he hadn’t bothered to change the room’s colour scheme. Skye had set everything to pink.
He replaced it with a strong blue.
As arrival was on the 18th January, he would have seven whole days on the ship. It was certainly large enough to keep him amused. But this morning, he intended to learn his way round it completely, while scouring it for the two saboteurs.
It could be exciting, but he was quite comfy in bed, and didn’t fancy getting up just yet. So instead, he decided to play Arctic War 3. He took out the Mind Mat and laid it on his pillow. Lying flat made the body a little sleepy, and therefore sluggish in the game. But for now, that was a minor problem.
He soon encountered three major problems. First, there was no-one to team-up with, as the list of players was empty. He wondered if anyone on the ship would want to play, but he hadn’t yet seen any boys of his age. Second, he was playing missions he had already completed. Third, there was no cheat code available for the ship’s onboard network, leaving him stuck on the junior version.
He plodded on for an hour, but gave up through boredom. It reminded him that he must call Tom.
