Maeve walks out into the main corridor. It is filling up with guests, many with questions about what happened. They look at her, mouths wide open. She brushes past. This is the first “urgent” message she has received; her heart is throbbing.
A few minutes later, she reaches the small lift that will bring her to the deck. A few years earlier, this lift was strictly off limits. It became somewhat magical in her mind, a portal to a forbidden land. No longer.
The door opens to a panoramic view of the Earth in the distance. A wrinkled woman with long grey hair, her mother, glances back at her while looking at a holograph display of the ship. There are two other people present. One is a bald, pensive-looking man, her father, and the other is the head of customer care, Helen Johnson. Helen, a short, chubby woman, is usually happy and good-natured. Now, she is pale and vacant.
“What’s happening, Mum?”
Her father speaks. “It’s nothing to worry…”
Her mum glares at him. “The solar flare has damaged key circuits in the ship
Maeve is dumbfounded. “But how?”
Her Mum averts her eyes. “Too many cutbacks over the years.”
Mark's Writing Corner 