There were aisle ways, with rows and rows of seats. The seats went vertically, along the platforms and walls of the shuttle. Chester thought it reminded him of jail cells, where the cells were all alined on the walls and their were scaffolding used for cheap walk ways. The shuttle had expensive looking platforms instead of cheap scaffolding, but the design scheme was very similar.
On daytime television shows, jail's would have a lunch room in the center, on the first floor beneath them. The shuttle too, had a place to congregate on the first floor. He had never seen a prison cell in person. He compared the shuttle to the interpretation of the jail's he had pictured from gathered information off shows and movies.
In order for passengers to reach their seats, they had one of two choices. One of the unlikely options passengers chose was to physically go up the ladder provided. It was used as an alternate option to the main option.
The main option was to be transported by a capsule tube. Chester was weighing out his options. He was not in the mood to wait. He did not want to wait in the long lines that lead to the capsules.
The people were waiting for their turn. They would have their harness clipped inside the capsule tube by the capsule attendant. It was the capsule attendant's job to make sure the passenger was be locked in place.
After they were securely locked in place a button would be pushed. This button was pushed in order for the pulley system to activate and pull the passenger up to the platform where they were seated.
There was 4 sets of 5 shuttle assistants on the shuttle. Each set was at the North, East, South, or West corridor. Ino looked pass the sea of people, she was impatient and looked up. She was curious on the number of passengers there were. Subsequently, she counted the vertical rows as she waited to be clipped into a castle and pulled to her platform, where her seat was located.
10..20.....50..100.. Ino counted to help time pass, while waiting for her turn. She counted as far up the shuttle she could, until it was about to be her turn and she was on deck. She noticed that the higher up the shuttle went, there were less seats. That would make sense considering the shape of the shuttle.
Chester had wanted to take in the view and understand the layout of the shuttle. Because of this, he decided because he did not want to wait in line and he was a able bodied. He didn't mind taking the hard route he would resolved to climbing up the latter to his seat. It seemed faster a lot faster than waiting in the lines for the capsules.
Everyone had to be seated in their assigned seat and securely harnessed to the wall, before the shuttle would launch. That was one of the requirements for the platform attendants to ensure. The platform attendants had to check every passenger before pushing a button to light up a green light confirming they were ready for take off.
Ino specifically had to be harnessed and strapped with a special pregnancy belt. It was to help support her belly and keep her from feeling critical turbulence, while the shuttle made out of the Earth's atmosphere.
Zzzzzip, The shuttle assistant had pulled her up onto her platform, where the aisle attendant retrieved her.
The aisle attendant was in charge of the row, she was on. She thought to herself, she must mind her manners and show courtesy to this person. Ino was always polite to everyone, but she liked making a mental note of who to be extra polite to.
The attendant assisted Ino to her seat. The seats swiveled and locked. She positioned her seat, so she could be facing Chester. The large window was to her left side and the large window to his right side. The assistant clipped and strapped her in.
"There you go mam, is everything comfortable? Do you need anything?" the attendant politely asked.
"Yes, am comfortable," Ino gave a smile and "No, I don't need anything. Thank you." Ino replied.
"The common's lavatory will be open for use after take off. The commons area will also be open and food will be readily available, after we are out of The Earth's atmosphere. Pod's were assigned according to the type of boarding pass purchased. Do you have any questions or concerns?" The assistant said with a faint smile.
"Nope." Ino said, while staring out the window. With that answer the aisle attendant took his leave.
She looked over at Chester. He was 10 years her senior. He had short black hair, dark brown eyes and was shorter than average, but still taller than her. Only 5' 10" tall. He was looking out the huge window, behind the seats.
They were in row 22, seats 9 and 10. It was high enough to where she felt the people outside looked bigger than ants, but smaller than beetles. She looked to her right side. There was a glass fence attached to the platform.
The glass was about 5' high. She wondered if it was made that tall, so no one could accidentally fall or to prevent anyone from jumping down? The platform overlooked the commons area. This was where the food, entertainment, showers, and lavatory were.
She thought to herself the first thing she would do, when she was able to unbuckle was spring towards the lavatory. She started to think to herself, how lucky she was to have been chosen for Zoltan this soon.
A loud and slow thud, from a heavy door closing, echoed throughout the ship. Everyone on board seemed as though they were anticipating it and were respectfully quiet, when an alarm sounded.
A prerecording of a woman's voice, set off loudly, through the loud speakers, "Lucky passengers, we are about to prepare for take off. Please pull on the front of your harness."
The voice paused, as if giving the passenger time to check. Ino and Chester both took heed and pulled their harness.
The voice continued, "This is to double check and make sure it is secure. Your seats should be locked into position. Aisle assistant's should have securely clipped you, into your assigned seats. Please try to swivel. If you are able to swivel, you are not locked in."
The voice paused for the second time. Ino tried to turn back and forth in her seat, but it would not budge. She reassured herself that it was locked in place. Chester looked down. He held both hands on the arm rest and tried to forcefully move back and forth, with all his body weight.
"Chester, your going to break it!" Ino glared at him and warned.
Chester looked up at Ino and retorted, "The seat is not going to break from me suddenly jolting it. In the event that it does, then it is not secure and it would not withstand turbulence."
"Touché!" Ino agreed.
"It seems secure to me." Chester said satisfied with the outcome of his little experiment.