The lower maintenance zone was constructed along the same lines as the upper, but appeared more vast. The curvature was gentler, so it was possible to see further around the ship. The rooms were a lot bigger than the cabins, some taking up multiple slices and quadrants, evident from the large curved roofs. Also, unlike the upper floor the view along the ship was restricted by the solid wall of a hamster wheel.
‘Behind that wall must be reception,’ said Zak.
‘Yeah, that’s right. After a while, you recognise where you are from the shapes,’ said Ragboy.
They reached the ground of the lower floor, but could hear a growing clamour of alerted engineers.
Zak had noticed that the ladder continued down through another dark hole in the floor.
‘Where does that go?’ he asked with trepidation. ‘Out into space?’
‘I dunno, I never went down there,’ said Ragboy, no longer grinning but looking as uneasy as Zak. ‘But maybe we’d better try it.’
They had no time to debate options. They heard footsteps approaching from the rooftops. The hole was the only way out.
They lowered themselves in, to discover a very narrow gap between the floor they had been standing on and yet another floor. The gap was only a metre high, so they had to lie face down and crawl along it. Zak presumed that they had finally reached the outer shell of the ship, as the floor was featureless. There was no covering, just bare metal, with thick steel columns connecting it to the ceiling. Pipes and cables protruded from the ceiling, but simply ran along it and entered somewhere else.
‘This is creepy,’ said Ragboy.
‘It’s the wierdest place I’ve ever been,’ said Zak.
Zak found that on each level, the geometry of the ship created a different effect. Here, he couldn’t quite see all the way to either end of the ship, but only because the floor and ceiling seemed to meet in the distance. Despite being out at the least curved part of the ship, the minimal height meant he could only see a few metres to either side as the floor curved up.
