Far From Home

Chapter Thirteen

(Be glad that I'm writing so much haha, I'm doing this to distract myself from all my important school work.)

"We are about to enter the working floor, I ask that you look and don't touch anything. Don't bother any of the workers and don't disturb the machinery. Keep all hands by your sides and your head up on your shoulders not in someone's business." Culan explained to everyone, all the scientists were looking very professional all used to the old stomping grounds while the funders were tittering and giggling like little children, all of my friends were interested, I really wanted to see the ship and I'm sure the others wanted to see where they'd be working. Ticks, whirs and movement filled my senses, it seemed that the place was humming but it couldn't have truly been it was simply many people all working seemingly simultaneously. Though everywhere I looked there was something different being done. "What are they all working on Culan?" I asked, slightly yelling as the tinkering was quite loud. Nobody seemed to hear me so I asked again, this time Professor Hijazi turned around "I can answer your question Adira, they're all working on either extra parts for the ship or the technology on the ship." He waited for me to walk up to him to be able to talk to me more easily, "how do they get everything done so quickly professor Hijazi? And how do they all do it in synchronisation?" Professor Hijazi turned around with a gleam in his eyes "remember Adira please call me Gunther and there's something very special about my workers do you think you can tell?" I looked around the work floor at all the rows of people, almost entirely in sync, there was something right at the back of my mind nudging its way closer. Then it came to me "are these workers all automatons?" I asked excitedly, I'd seen some before but I'd only observed them from a distance. "Can I go talk to one?" I asked Gunther, he looked at them working and adjusted the glasses on his face "unfortunately they weren't designed to talk about anything except alerting their supervisor of any problems. Their function is to be drones and only drones." I saw that the group had moved far ahead of us and that they payed no attention to any of the automatons. "That's no life for them just working all the time. Don't they get to do anything else?" Gunther looked at me like I was absurd "Do they need to do anything else? They aren't human."

After my talk with Gunther I'd sped up to the group with a deep, sick feeling inside my stomach. What if they thought that about me? Saw me only as a little cog in the big machine which was this mission, the only thing which would help them accomplish everything? I decided to leave my thoughts for later and focus on what Culan was saying to the group. I'd come halfway through the talk though and I wasn't clued in to what Culan was saying. I sidled up behind Mochrie and got close to his ear, "what's the headliner for the news Mochrie?" He turned slightly "Culan is talking about the technology going to be used on the ship. You should listen in this has got to do with you. Where'd you go anyway?" Mochrie said. The sick feeling I'd been ignoring came back as I thought about my conversation, "I was talking, it was unpleasant." Mochrie nodded in understanding, he wasn't going to press on with the conversation. I turned to tune into what Culan was saying "well let's continue our tour shall we, next up I'm going to show you the efforts of all our hard work and all your funding." Now the funders were truly getting excited and I realised we were going to see the ship.

We walked to the end of the work floor and turned right where I saw a small door in the corner. We walked up to the door and Culan pressed a button on the side, she turned to all of us and looked to be counting how many people were in our troupe which was eleven. "We're going to have to take two trips in the elevator; there are too many people to go at once." Culan said simply, Professor Goddard stepped forward "worry not Culan my fellow scientists and I can abstain from seeing our hard work once. We will let everyone have the ability to see it together." Professor Goddard and Gunther walked away like they'd done a very good deed; it was only two less people. "Uh I suppose if we all suck in we'll fit?" Culan said very unsure of herself, the lift finally arrived and we all boarded, tightly, with no personal space for anyone. I'd luckily gotten myself a corner at the front of the lift and the only person in front of me was Mia. She had a big smile on her face and her eyes were wide "hello Adira, you smell really nice." She didn't blink once while I looked at her, I was very hesitant, I didn't know what to say back "thanks I guess? Are you excited to see the rocket?" I asked trying to carry on the awkward conversation, she stared at me intently "yeah I can't wait, I can't wait to teach you to fly either it'll be so much fun!" I nodded and just stared back, it was really silent and I prayed for the elevator to say we'd reached our floor. Mia seemed to deflate all of a sudden and relax, "you are so chill Adira I love it, you didn't get freaked out or nothing by my creepy act." Mia laughed, I sighed in relief she was only sussing me out and she wasn't deciding how to wear my skin. The elevator above us dinged and people started piling out of the elevator. "Come on Adira, let's go meet this beauty." Mia said sauntering out the elevator.