Voyage (Powerless Nation #2) (2 page)

Sena left, feeling unhappy that not only had she lied, it had been pointless anyway. She knew she should have stood up to Charity in the first place and told her she wouldn’t do it, but Sena avoided conflict whenever she could. Although she didn’t care if Charity liked her, she didn’t want to make her mad.

Sena decided to eat dinner on the Lido deck. There was an open buffet and the amount and variety of the food was nearly overwhelming. 

As she approached the buffet table, she had a flashback to another buffet: a hotel breakfast buffet when she was eleven years old. 

She had sneaked in the side door of the hotel when a guest exited, and followed her nose to the breakfast lounge. In front of her was a hungry child’s dream, but she didn’t pause to admire. This wasn’t the first time Sena had scavenged a meal from a hotel buffet and she knew what she wanted. She piled a plate with fruit, bread, packets of peanut butter and jelly, and a couple of containers of yogurt. Pretty much anything she thought would survive being in her pockets all day. She also took a packaged blueberry muffin for her mom. Those were her favorite.

When she turned away from the buffet she felt a hand on her arm. “Not so fast, missy. I’m going to need to see your room card.”

Sena looked up and saw a big man wearing a name tag that read: Mark - Hotel Security.

She was in big trouble.

“Sure,” she said, trying for cool despite the squeak in her voice. She didn’t know what they did to thieves. If they put her in jail she didn’t think anyone would come get her out.

Sena went through the motions of checking her pockets for the nonexistent key card while the guard watched with obvious impatience. Other people in the breakfast lounge were taking notice and her heart began to flutter in her chest like a scared bird.

“I guess you’re going to tell me it’s back in your room?”

Sena nodded, not looking at the security guard.

“Which room would that be?”

Her voice came out in a whisper, “I don’t remember.”

“Listen, kid, I don’t want to see you in here again, and I’m giving your description to the other hotels in the area. Eat breakfast on someone else’s dime.”

He held out a hand for her plate. Sena looked longingly at her food, and then placed the plate into the guard’s hand with shaking fingers.

A touch on her arm snapped her back to the present and Sena gave a surprised yelp. She’d been so caught up in the memory she hadn’t noticed what was going on around her. Kade stood looking at her with a bemused smile on his face. “Holding up the line again, Sena?”

Sena was so unsettled by the unhappy memory and disconcerted by the fact he knew her name that she was at a complete loss for words.

Kade shook his head and stepped around her. Sena followed along at his elbow, struggling to find her voice. Kade piled the food so high on his plate she was afraid the whole thing would topple over. She didn’t know what half of it was.

“Do you like the cruise so far?” Sena wished she could take the words back as soon as they were out of her mouth. What a stupid question. She sounded like a nine-year-old.

“Sure,” Kade replied easily. “What’s not to like? I can’t wait to see some icebergs. How cool will that be? Soaking in a hot tub and seeing icebergs float by.”

A female voice called Kade’s name and he turned to look at a table where some of the other kids from their high school were sitting. 

“Kade, come on, we’re saving you a seat.”

“Hey listen, I’ve gotta run,” he said to Sena. “I’ll see you around.”

She sat apart from the other kids at dinner, listening to their laughter and wishing she knew how to fit in. Whenever she tried, something from her past slipped out and things got awkward. As much as she wanted to have some friends, or even
one
friend, it was too complicated. It was easier to follow the rules, do what people said, and try not to draw too much attention to herself.

After dinner, she checked in with Ms. Friedel well before curfew and then went to her cabin for the night. She rolled her eyes when she discovered the cruise staff had delivered three large suitcases. She wondered why her roommates needed so many suitcases when their clothing was all so skimpy.

She changed quickly into pajamas and then turned on a small book light before climbing the ladder to her bed. From a pocket of her backpack, she pulled a creased and much-read letter from its envelope and read it to herself. Though she’d memorized it, she still liked to see the ink on the page and think of her mother taking the time to write to her.

The bed was soft, the small pool of yellow light was comforting in the dark room, and it wasn’t long before her eyes closed and the letter came to rest gently on her chest. 

Sena fell into a sleep so deep she didn’t hear the laughter of her roommates when they came in much later than curfew, or their cursing as they tripped and struggled to maneuver around their mountain of luggage.

CHAPTER TWO

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
S
ENA
joined some of her classmates for a special tour of the ship. Their guide was an energetic young woman neatly dressed in a jacket and slim fitting skirt with a scarf tied at a cheerful angle. She said her name was Lydia, and, hearing her accent, Sena guessed she was from England.

The tour started in a large theater where the group was escorted backstage to meet some of the cast and production staff. They were preparing for a sold-out performance that night, and Sena was amazed by how friendly and calm they all were.

Sena noticed one actress in particular — the star of the show. She was very beautiful and the other actors treated her almost like their queen bee. She introduced herself as Mona, before smiling graciously at the students and excusing herself.

Next they went down to the galley, which Sena learned was the nautical word for kitchen. Florescent lights reflected from shiny stainless steel metal surfaces everywhere. Even the ceiling and walls were stainless steel.

Workers dressed all in white with tall hats and pristine aprons scurried around preparing the day’s meals. Sena was fascinated by the efficiency of their movements while they laid out plates for over six hundred salads and assembled them with astonishing speed and beauty.

The ship also had its own bakery where all of the day’s bread, rolls and cookies were baked each morning. The rich, dense smell of fresh baked bread was tantalizing, and Sena’s mouth began to water.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to buy the bread already made?” one of the students asked.

“It would,” said Lydia, “but space is a major concern on a cruise ship, and baked goods take up a lot of room. Besides,” she said with a smile as she passed out warm scones to the group, “isn’t this better than Wonder Bread?”

While they ate their scones, the guide walked them through the grill area and pointed out that the ship galleys had everything that a traditional hotel or restaurant kitchen had except for one thing. She looked to see if anyone knew what it was. “I’ll give out a free soda voucher to anyone that can tell me what’s missing.”

Sena studied the room. One chef cooked rows and rows of hamburgers on a giant griddle while another stood on a stool to stir a tub of pulled pork with a spatula so big it could be used to row a boat.

“I’ll give you a clue,” said Lydia. “Look at how he’s cooking the burgers.”

One of the boys shouted out, “No fire! He’s grilling without fire.”

“Exactly. Fire is the biggest danger to a ship, so no open flames are allowed in cruise kitchens.”

“How do you explain my crème brûlée last night?” asked a female student.

“Aren’t you smart?” said Lydia, amused. “While we do have an exception for crème brûlée torches, those must be used in a specific part of the galley, next to the fire extinguisher. Who can guess how much food the kitchens will prepare in a typical week’s cruise?”

There were a few wrong guesses before Lydia said, “On this trip we will go through six tons of beef, chicken and seafood.”

“So is that, like, two tons of each of those?”

“No, it’s like six tons of each of those.” Lydia was rewarded by the group’s collective sound of amazement.

“Not only that, we’ll use over seventy thousand eggs and more than three thousand gallons of soda pop on this trip. Now, does anyone want to see where we keep it all?”

They all did, so they headed to another deck where most of the food was stored. A long hallway with a bumpy rubber floor going the length of the ship stretched out in front of them, with stainless steel doors on both sides.

“We have over thirty different refrigerator and freezer units down here, and a few on other floors as well,” she said as she opened door after door to let them see inside.

A massive freezer room held frozen fish and meat at one temperature, and another kept ice cream at a different temperature. One entire walk-in refrigerator room stored the produce for salads, while another held fruit and yet another was full of sides of beef and fresh, whole chickens. The ship even had its own butchers.

“How do they keep track of so much food?” asked one of the teachers. “I hardly remember what I’ve got in my fridge at home.”

“I’m glad you asked. We have a high-tech meal count system that uses a scanner to log every plate prepared in each of the ship’s eight kitchens. A computer screen in the main galley shows our executive chef exactly what’s being served, so he can precisely control the menu.”

As they began to walk out of the seafood freezer, Sena caught a glimpse of a room that looked surprisingly similar to morgues she’d seen on TV shows.

“Excuse me,” she asked the guide timidly, “what’s stored in there?”

“Funny you should notice that,” said Lydia. “It’s not part of the tour, but since you asked I supposed I can mention it. Have you ever thought about what happens if someone dies in the middle of a cruise?”

Sena's classmates began pushing to get a glimpse at the room, peppering the guide with questions.

“Are there any bodies in there right now?”

“How many people have died so far this year?”

“Has anyone ever been murdered on your ship?”

The tour guide held her hands up to try to stem the tide of questions. “No, there aren’t any bodies in there right now, and no, no one has ever been murdered onboard the
Duchess
. You may have noticed there’s a higher ratio of elderly people on the cruise, and it’s inevitable that now and then someone will pass away of natural causes. All cruise ships are required to have their own morgue. Ours is refrigerated.”

Lydia held up her hands to discourage any more questions about the morgue and said, “Let’s go see the engine room.”

The engine room reminded Sena of a war room in a military movie. Every wall was covered with computer screens. Some showed camera feeds from different parts of the actual engine area, while others tracked and displayed an unending flow of information about the ship’s operations. There were several panels of buttons and switches and a large table covered in Plexiglas that showed detailed diagrams of every level of the ship.

“Brilliant!” Lydia said. “Our Chief Technical Officer, Chief Huang is here this morning.”

A man in a white jumpsuit rose to his feet and smiled at them. He had intelligent, brown eyes.

“Welcome to my world,” he said, gesturing at the room. “This is where we generate the power for pretty much everything that happens on the ship. Think of it as the heart of the ship. In here is where my technical team monitors every detail of the ship’s operations, from the speed of the propellers right down to the water supply in each of your cabins.

“Running a ship takes an unbelievable amount of energy and we generate almost all of it right here. The electricity we generate powers the mechanical system to propel the boat and the water desalinization system which provides most of our drinking water. We use electricity to maintain water pressure, lights, and satellite TV signals to all of the cabins, and we power the food storage and preparation areas you just saw.”

“What happens if there’s a power outage?” asked one of the girls.

“Since we generate our own power, electrical outages are pretty rare,” Chief Huang answered. “The biggest risk to our power comes from an engine overheating, which can cause fires.” He indicated several of the screens with video feeds. “See this right here? This is one of the engines. Notice how no one is in the room? That’s because it’s over 140 degrees Fahrenheit in there.”

“So what if there
was
a fire?” asked Sena, realizing he hadn’t really answered the question. “What happens if the ship loses power?”

“In the unlikely event that the ship loses power, we have backup generators next to the main generators, and they would kick in. They wouldn’t produce enough electricity for the whole ship, but we could keep critical systems online, like water pressure, lights, and power to the kitchens.”

“Would we still be able to move?”

“Yes, in all but the worst case scenario. Now,” he said, abruptly changing the subject. “Who wants to meet the captain? Your final stop is the bridge.”

The bridge was on a much higher deck. When they walked in, Sena saw four people. The captain was a pale, middle-aged man who looked up in surprise when they entered. Next to him sat Mona, the lead actress Sena recognized from earlier in the theater. He whispered something to her that made her giggle and they both rose to their feet.

“Welcome to the bridge of the
Duchess
, kids. Sorry I can’t show you around, but my crew knows the ropes.” He turned to one of the other two crewmen and said, “Staff Captain Brady, you have the bridge.” 

“Aye, aye, Sir,” responded one of the crewmen. He stood up as the captain took the actress by the hand and led her off the bridge. Sena searched the faces of the others in the room; if this behavior was unusual, she couldn’t tell by their expressions. 

The view from the bridge was so amazing, she soon forgot all about the captain. The room had floor to ceiling windows on every side, allowing for an unobstructed view of the sea all around them.