Marina watched it all and thought it was lively and so much more beautiful than just walking to work. It was a parade full of life. Her own life circled around so few levels that she saw little of what happened in the rest of the silo. As it was now, the only people she recognized were the two who traveled with her. It was a curious sensation to be among so many strangers.
The family bunched together again as traffic intensified, Joseph apologizing as he bumped into her pack after he himself was jostled by others leaving the stairs. On the landing of Level 50, a wide fan of people funneled down to a single moving thread that crept forward slowly as each person joined the flow on the stairs.
Marina wondered where they were all coming from as she wended her way through them toward the doors leading to the hotel. It was a mass of color, gray and blue, red and green and even a few wearing the faded pink of services. So many faces at once were confusing. She hurried through them, muttering her excuses as she pressed past and only feeling comfortable once she reached the doors. Once inside, there was an immediate surcease of noise. It was only then that she realized exactly how loud the sound of so many feet on metal had become.
They approached a counter directly in front of the entrance. Though it was open to either side where hallways led away at angles, it provided an effective mental barrier. Joseph pushed the button for service as the battered and faded placard instructed. He was about to push it again when they spied a woman hurrying down the hallway on the left.
She waved and held up a finger to indicate it would be just a moment and then began drying her hands on a towel she plucked from the belt of her coveralls. She rushed up to the desk, bringing with her a waft of air tinged with the scent of disinfecting cleaner. She smiled at the group, one after the other, and asked how she could help them.
Their check-in went quickly. They were handed a combination card and told, with another high voltage smile, that their room was near the outer edge of the hotel. It was one of their largest rooms.
The attendant, now revealed as Wendy, beamed at them and strode with a no-nonsense gait down the hallway to escort them to their room. Her voice lowered as if to avoid disturbing occupants, she gave them a brief rundown of the hotel and the services available.
“Wendy, what’s with all the traffic outside? The landing was packed. I didn’t realize this floor was so busy,” Joseph asked as he accepted the key card from her.
Wendy gave a little shake of her head, “You got here just as all the meetings are breaking up. There’s a big one going on at the conference center about the aquaculture re-fit. You know, the one on 30? We’ll finally get fish on a more regular basis again!”
At the confused looks on her guests’ faces, she elaborated, “Oh, well, you may not know since you live so far away but two of the aquaculture tanks in hydroponics on 30 had to be shut down over the past couple of years. The whole thing needs repairs and now they’re having problems on 49 too.” She pointed up to the ceiling. “That’s right above this hotel!”
All three of them joined Wendy in looking up, as if expecting to see a crack form and water come pouring out.
“Anyway, the council decided that a refit has to be done to get things back up to the mark and there’s a big meeting there with dozens of people working on the planning for it. It’s going to be a big deal.”
Joseph eyed the ceiling suspiciously and asked, “It’s safe, right?”
Wendy straightened up and said, her tone a bit aggrieved, “Absolutely. You can be sure of that. It wouldn’t matter if every one of those tanks burst, the concrete between us and them is sound. I assure you.”
Joseph nodded but Marina could tell he was looking at her with a lawman’s gaze, looking for the truth behind her words. He was apparently satisfied because he said, “Well, thank you, Wendy. We probably need to get cleaned up before dinner.”
“Do you need me to arrange that for you?”
Joseph answered, a broad smile cracking his face, “Nope. Not today. We’re eating in the Wardroom.”
Wendy’s eyebrows crept up and she turned up the wattage on her smile a few clicks, “Then I certainly won’t detain you further. You’re in for a treat!” She took a practiced step backward, bringing her neatly out of their way and then turned to leave. She gave one quick little wave and wished them a good evening before striding away.
The room turned out to be quite nice. Sela rushed past, gave the smaller bed an experimental bounce and pronounced it suitable. Marina stood at the threshold and took it in for a moment. She had always been less comfortable with change than the rest of her family and she needed these moments. The room smelled vaguely of the cleaning solution recently used to ready it and the floor was swept and mopped to perfection. The dust that plagued so much of the silo was entirely absent here, each surface gleaming and clean. Marina liked it, right down to the soft beige paint on the walls.
The other side of the partition from Sela’s bed held a larger bed, meant for two. It was neatly made and covered in a cotton blanket that had faded and softened to a pale shade of green Marina found lovely. That part of the room could be completely shut off from the rest of the compartment by means of a curtain, now pushed to the side for maximum space. It wasn’t the kind of privacy they enjoyed in their own compartment but far more than she had expected in a temporary room.
Aside from the two beds and the thin partition wall that stood between them, there were few furnishings. Metal shelves jutted from the walls above the beds, most of them empty but one holding a neatly folded blanket, this one a less faded yellow color. Lamps attached to movable arms protruded from bases screwed into the wall above each bed.
The space between the door and the smaller bed was taken up by a round table just big enough for three people to eat from if they were careful with their elbows, and three straight backed chairs. Those were tucked tightly to the table to leave the illusion of space but Marina guessed that anyone actually sitting at that table would be no more than an arm’s reach from the foot of the bed or the wall or the door, depending on which chair they chose.
On the other side of the door, most of the space opposite the larger bed area and the metal doors of the shallow closet next to it had been walled off for a very small bathroom. She supposed that having a bathroom is what made it a better room.
She opened the door to take a peek inside and found it tiny, but very nicely appointed. The floor and walls were tiled top to bottom, and only a few of the tiles were cracked. Each cracked one stood out, the bright white bead of sealant breaking the symmetry of the regular squares.
The shower was small and had a door that folded rather than slid like those she had in her own residence because of the limited space. The metal sink and toilet were crammed in such close proximity that one might almost wash their hands in the one while still taking care of business on the other. She lifted a small jar of dark soap from the sink and caught the sweet, astringent scent of rosemary.
“Well, they have really nice soap. Mind if I go first?” she asked as she poked her head back out.
Joseph was lining up the vegetables he had taken from Sela’s pack on one of the shelves, carefully inspecting each for damage first. He didn’t turn from his task but said, “Go ahead.”
Sela was deeply involved in smoothing wrinkles from a long tunic and a pair of beige cotton pants. She stroked the fabric, already spread out as flat as possible on the bed, but it didn’t seem to be doing much to fix the problem. It was a rare occasion that brought out anything other than coveralls and Sela appeared both nervous and excited as she examined the wrinkled cotton.