"Welcome to the med bay," a woman dressed in a white shirt and white trousers said when they walked into the medical bay after the doors slid open and Hiro gave her a once-over. She wasn't dressed like the crew members on the ship and her shirt had 'Assistant' written on it.
"I'm Ribbon, doctor's assistant. Let me know if you need anything," she said monotonously and Thaniel headed towards one of the beds arranged on the left side of the room and plopped down on it. Ribbon's face lit up when she saw Nikki as the rest of the group spread out and she headed towards her.
"Doctor Martinez, welcome to Boundless. You're the first doctor I've seen today," she started and Nikki raised her brows, wondering how the woman knew her name, while Hiro realized that the woman was a humanoid robot when he saw the charging port in her neck. "I'm Ribbon, doctor's assistant. Pleasure to meet you."
She stretched out her hand to Nikki and Nikki glanced down at it before taking it, giving it a firm shake. Hiro's eyes went to the people testing out the body scanner in one corner of the room as Ribbon lead Nikki to a computer in another corner of the room. The rest of the group were by the scanner or on the beds, talking to other people, and he suddenly felt overwhelmed.
The people he had met so far were nice but he didn't want to be here. Not here as in the med bay, here as in on the spaceship. He wanted to go back home, he wanted to go back to his sister. He inhaled slowly as his mood became sour and he decided to go to his room. He would continue the tour aloe later, he needed some time to himself right now.
He took a couple of steps backwards and stepped out of the med bay when the doors slid open before making his way down the hall. He turned on his tablet and typed his room number in the search box at the top of the screen. The map showed him the different ways he could take to his room with the time it would take him to get there and he followed one of them. The green dot on the map moved as he walked to his destination and he learned the hallways he would take to his room before turning off the tablet.
He was the only one in the hallway but he could still hear some people's loud voices like they were here with him. He sighed again and let his head loll back, hoping he would stop feeling this way soon but he knew it would take a while... a long while.
A clanging noise in a vent that was at the bottom of a wall caught his attention and he lowered his head to stare at it. The noise came again and he stopped in his tracks, right in front of it. He glanced back at the hallway and then stared straight ahead, wondering if it was made by anyone approaching but decided that it was definitely from the vent when he saw that he was still the only one in the hallway.
The noise came again and this time it sounded closer, like whatever or whoever that was making it was about to come out of the vent. Hiro's eyebrows shot up and he wondered who the hell was in the vent. Most, if not all, of the crew members were touring the ship and even if some people were not doing that, they would be in their rooms, their workstations or back in the great hall were they all received a message from different presidents. Nobody should be in the vent.
... Or could it be a humanoid robot like the one back in the med bay?
Hiro hunched over, still staring at the vent, before lowering himself to a crouch, wanting to see what was there. He knew that he probably shouldn't do this and should just keep heading to his room. Most of the victims in the old horror movies he and Omi had at home died because they did something like this; trying to find out what was going on somewhere, wanting to know what was making a noise. But he was curious.
He almost let out a laugh because if this was a movie, he and Omi would be yelling at the guy to get the hell out of there. He then decided to be logical, there wouldn't be a serial killer on the ship because everyone here had background checks performed on them, and there wouldn't be a monster on board either.
'Space monster perhaps?" popped into his mind and he wasn't able to stifle the laugh that bubbled out of him. His tablet slipped out of his hand when his watch buzzed suddenly and the device fell to the ground before his eyes went from the vent to the device, hoping its screen wasn't cracked. He reached down to pick it up, not noticing that the vent was being opened slowly but before whatever or whoever was in it could make themselves known, someone called out to Hiro from behind.
The vent was quickly closed but it made no noise and Hiro glanced over his shoulder to see Ashley heading towards him. He picked the tablet up and rose to his full height, pulling the strap of his backpack.
"Where are you going?" she asked as she came to a stop in front of him while he glanced down at the screen of his tablet and saw that it wasn't cracked.
"To our room," he replied because she was his roommate and he wondered how many people were going to be in a room and how the room looked like. "I just need some time to myself," he added and she nodded as she realized that he was probably home sick.
"Oh, okay. I'll join you soon."
STOP READING HERE! THE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS ARE UNEDITED SO STOP HERE! THEY WILL BE EDITED SOON. THANK YOU.