passengers-jon-spaihts

96.GUS’S CABINA homey space, filled with Gus’s possessions: pictures offellow spacers and vacation spots on half a dozen planets.Books, keepsakes and mementos.Gus sits on his bed, on a handmade quilt. Coughs violentlyinto a handkerchief, leaving the cloth spotted with blood.GRAND CONCOURSE - GARDEN - MORNINGAurora stands waiting by the oak tree. Jim arrives with twocups of coffee, and hands her one. Aurora smiles, touched.AURORAThank you.Gus arrives in a fresh coverall, a steaming mug in hand. Nosigns of frailty. He hands each of them a digital slate.GUSAll right. Last night I checked tenatmosphere stations and two of themwere burned out. Twenty percentfailure rate. Unheard of. So we’regoing to see how far the rot runs.(to Aurora)You. You’re going to walk Decks Two,Three, and Four, and check everyatmosphere station. Green light good,red light bad, no light really bad.Write down what you find, I want acomplete census.Yes, sir.AURORAGUS(to Jim)You. Go down to the Ship’s Stores.Find atmosphere station CPUs and takean inventory of the spares. I knowwhat the manifest says, but listsain’t facts.Got it.JIMGUSI’m going down to the Hibernation Bayto look at our pods. Maybe I can spotwhat went wrong.Jim and Aurora exchange glances.