Free Transplant by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

few seconds, but now the air was sweet again and when he looked down the corridor the barrier was no more. Nor was the one behind him. All was back to normal.
    Except for him. He didn’t feel normal, he was still shaking, although his heart had now assumed its normal regular slow beat.
    He didn’t feel like going on to the book room now, he just wanted to be among his friends and in familiar places until he had calmed down again.
    There was little doubt in Glyn’s mind now that something was trying to say something to him in a way he wouldn’t forget in a hurry, and they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
    It was a quiet and rather trite Glyn who sought out his friend Arki, asking him to come to the equipment room.
    They went in, shut the door and sat down on the returns bench.
    ‘OK, what’s happened, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost or something even worse.’ Arki opened the conversation as Glyn just sat there.
    ‘Not sure where to begin.’ he eventually offered, and then the whole story came out in one continuous flood.
    ‘Good God, that wasn’t very nice, I must say.’ Arki responded when the story was finished. He paused for a moment, as if wondering how to phrase what he wanted to say.
    ‘I think it was a warning, to show the power and ability the Captain has at his disposal should he ever need to use it. I’m sure he wouldn’t harm you or anyone else if there was any other way of stopping you from doing something which was against his wishes or the laws of the ship.’
    ‘From his response to your last attempt to squeeze information out of him, I would think he found that quite acceptable, but to go into parts of the ship which we are not supposed to enter could well be stopped by an action the like of which you have just experienced. Well, that’s what I think anyway.’ Arki leaned back against the wall to see what Glyn made of his offering, but he just sat there, looking glum.
    ‘I feel sure what happened to you was just a warning, a way of saying there are limits to what you can do, that is shall we say, unconventional. Come on Glyn, what happened wasn’t all that bad, you didn’t come to any real harm, you just got a nasty shock.’
    ‘Yes, I suppose you’re right. But it was a most unpleasant shock.’ Glyn replied.
    ‘How about we both go to the book room, just to prove the point. I don’t suppose there will be any restrictions to your movements now that the Captain’s made his point.’ Arki offered, trying to cheer his friend up.
    ‘Not much point really, only one of us can go in at a time because of the breathing helmet which has to be used, thanks anyway.’
    They sat there in morbid silence for a while, until Arki just couldn’t stand it any longer and he made one last attempt.
    ‘Let’s go and try to trick the chef into coughing up something vaguely resembling food, I’m feeling a bit hungry.’
    Glyn agreed with little grace, and they both made their way down the corridor towards the eating room.

Revelations
    F or the next three days everyone was kept very busy, whether by accident or design it was hard to tell. Glyn was his old self again, grumbling at some of the jobs allocated to him as he deemed them pure time wasters and not at all necessary to the functioning of the ship.
    On the fourth day after Glyn’s unpleasant experience on the way to the book room, everything was back to normal, only one team of two being required to replace a pump in the water system, and he had free time on his hands again.
    The book room called with its offer of more interesting stories from the past, and the temptation was too much for him. The sting had gone from the memory of his last attempt to reach the room, and once the midday meal was over he was on his way.
    This time there were no barriers in his way, and the past events were soon forgotten as he opened the diary at the last page he had read.
    My name is Roget Block, I am fifty four years old measured by ship time, and it