“No, it’s just a natural satellite of the Earth. Speaking of which, I wonder why it seems that no rescue ships have been by.”
“Perhaps they figured that there was nothing left to salvage?”
“Perhaps, although some of the research equipment below used some very rare and expensive components. They should have at least come back for those. Some very delicate experiments were always being carried out in those labs. Most of it was top secret. Quite a bit of it dealt with research of the military of some sort, although no one outside of the research teams knows exactly what went on down there. We might be able to go check it out later, see if we can find anything. I can also show you the other side of this satellite and let you see Earth.”
“Would we have time?” asked Max.
“Well, the engine has been cold for several hundred years. Repairs should only take a little bit of time before we can start the engine warming up.”
“How long does it take for the engine to warm up?”
“Probably a few days. At least.”
“Wow. Well, we should be getting back,” Max said. “there are some things wrong with the engine, and we can salvage some parts from our wrecked ship.”
“You go ahead, I’m going to make inspections of my own. I don’t trust that computer diagnostic tool. It only reports things that are broken, and not things that are about to break.”
“Could you show us the way out first?” Mark asked politely. He didn’t want to wind up wandering around the ship again for hours lost.
Richard led them down corridors which all looked the same, and through doorways which had no distinction from each other, nor were room numbers or hallway names to be found on any surface that they saw.
“How can you navigate through your ship without any signs?” Mark finally asked. The question had been puzzling him after following him through the ship and realizing that he knew exactly where he was going once they reached the airlock that they entered through.
“It’s real easy. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time on this ship, and other ships like it. I could find my way through it blindfolded. Sometimes when they land, they land rather roughly, and either the lights break or the power fails or something else which causes the entire ship to become dark. So I found the need to be able to walk through it without seeing, and to know exactly where I am at all times,” Richard replied. “So sings aren’t really useful, unless you have never been on one of these ships before.”
“You could have portable lights,” Mark suggested.