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The first thing Elnor noticed was vibration. It felt like the humming of insect wings against the soles of his boots, but magnified by thousands. It made him unsteady and he shifted his stance as if moving might remove the sensations. If he had been alone, he might have pressed his ear to the ground and listened.
"Elnor?"
Elnor looked up sharply, reaching for the leather strap across his chest. It made him feel more secure somehow. Picard gestured to a strange bearded man who looked at him kindly, as if he had known Elnor all his life.
"Yes?"
"I said 'would you like to see your quarters?'"
Elnor frowned, uncomprehending. It didn't help that he still felt stung by Picard's angry words to him earlier. Tenqem Adrev had chosen not to live despite Elnor's warning. Elnor had saved Picard's life. He ought to have been grateful.
"Your room," Picard added, resting his hand on Elnor's shoulder. Elnor pushed it away instinctively. He still felt upset but the most frustrating part was that for the first time in his life he couldn't find the words. He couldn't understand the look on Picard's face, but then Picard was moving away from him.
"Wait--" Elnor said. But again the words failed him, he was so very distracted by the vibrating under his feet that wouldn't stop.
"Don't worry," Picard called out over his shoulder. "You'll be in good hands with... Mr. Hospitality."
"That's me," said the strange man. Elnor took a step back. He was not used to men being kind to him, but before he can ask the man walked away.
"Stop!" Elnor shouted. His voice sounded strangely muted inside these walls, as if he were calling from the inside of a barrel. He felt his reaction was petulant and childish, but in this frightening moment he didn't care. "Where am I?"
"You're on board the La Sirena," Mr. Hospitality said. "It's a spaceship. Have you never been on one before?"
"Only once, when I was a child," Elnor said. "But I don't remember it." He gripped the leather strap tighter as he heard a soft sound that was unnaturally of a high pitch. It didn't sound like any bird he recognized, but then he supposed there was no wildlife on a spaceship. The vibration was still thrumming through his feet and all the surfaces looked too shiny, like the bottom of a brass pot.
"I'm the Emergency Hospitality Hologram," the man said, punctuating each word as if he spoke to a child. "But Mr. Hospitality is fine, it's better than some of the names I get called. It's my job to make your stay on the ship a pleasant one and create your room to your specifications."
"How does one create a room?" Elnor asked. He heard another distant sound, as if a static shock had color to it. A door in the wall had opened up in front of them and there was a noise that seemed like it ought to be wind when the doors had opened, but he felt no breeze. He set his jaw and stared at the man. "Do we have to go in there?"
Mr. Hospitality smiled, but not before glancing down to a black tablet in his hands and pressing it a few times.
"I think you'll feel better if we do."
---
When Elnor followed the man inside, something startled him. Before he could realize it was only the door shutting closed, Elnor suddenly unsheathed his sword, his feet set and arm cocked in readiness. But there was nothing there but that strange, dark surface.
"Oh!" Mr. Hospitality held out his hands in a pacifying gesture. "My, that's quite the sword, but would you mind putting it away? I'm just a hologram, so fortunately that thing can't hurt me, but I have a feeling of dread regardless."
"Sorry," Elnor mumbled, feeling the heat rise to his cheeks. He ought to have been better prepared for this, but then he recognized that he had no way to prepare. When he woke up this morning he had not expected Picard to arrive, let alone everything that happened afterward. He sheathed his sword and looked around the interior. There was a strange window in the room that was almost as tall as he was. He'd rarely seen windows in the village and those were usually scratched and dirty.
"This is outside?" Elnor pointed at the window, looking nervously at the man. "The night sky?"
The man walked over and put his hand on the wall. His hand did not go through the wall to the outside, but remained there as if he touched the darkness.
"It's a window," Mr. Hospitality said. "But yes, that is indeed space out there. I like a nice, airy room with plenty of windows. I could make the whole wall this way if you'd like!"
"No," Elnor said. "I think I would be afraid that I might fall."
Elnor carefully walked over to Mr. Hospitality's side and put his hand against the window. The depth of space seemed to go on forever and he finally felt some tiny part of him grounded to the reality of this ship. He had seen the sky from his home, the night sky. He was now in it.
"Perhaps if you described your home, I could create something similar?"
"I do not have a home," Elnor said.
Mr. Hospitality looked at him, curious. He glanced down at his tablet. "You are Romulan, your last current residence on Vashti? I mean, you do have a home?"
"No," Elnor said. He had expected the thought of home to make him sad, but Zani had been right. She told him that once he had found his qalankhkai, he would find his purpose. His new place. The world he had lived since he was young seemed like a pleasant but distant dream. "My home is with Picard now."
"I see," Mr. Hospitality folded his arms across his chest and regarded Elnor quietly for a moment.
"You're making me uncomfortable," Elnor said.
"My apologies," Mr. Hospitality said with a smile. "For a hospitality hologram, I seem to have that effect on people."
"So I'm not the only one who finds you strange," Elnor said, content in his assessment.
The man laughed. "You could say so."
"What about your home?" Elnor said. "Perhaps you should 'specification' my room to your home?"
Mr. Hospitality's smile faded a little.
"I've offended you," Elnor said, bowing his head slightly. "I apologize."
"No, no, not at all," he said. Elnor thought his smile looked sad. He did not like this; it was a look too frequent upon Zani's face when she spoke of Elnor's future. But before he could respond, Mr. Hospitality snapped his fingers. "You know, you're right. Why not?"
Elnor saw the man's eyes flicker in a peculiar way, like lightning crossing the surface of his pupils. Around him, the room changed slowly. The shining walls became more earthen, almost like clay, but he smelled nothing that reminded him of rock or soil. Elnor made a nervous sound in his throat, but Mr. Hospitality's voice calmed him.
"Close your eyes," he said. "It'll probably be easier for you, I imagine."
"I do not want to," Elnor said, but he obeyed nevertheless. The images moving had hurt his head, so perhaps this was the better way. He strained to hear anything changing, but he only heard the odd random sounds that he now understood seemed to be the life of this ship. The vibration under his feet was still there and so he pulled his consciousness toward that feeling. It centered him.
"Ah yes, just like that."
Elnor heard the man singing a tune, one that sounded pleasant.
"You have a nice singing voice," Elnor said, his eyes still squeezed tightly shut. Mr. Hospitality laughed.
"No one has ever told me that before. Go on, you can open your eyes now."
Elnor opened his eyes slowly and saw that the odd walls were now covered in wooden slats. Under his feet was a colorful braided rug, though he had not been conscious of it being put there. There was a bed with mismatched knitted blankets. Elnor walked to the bed and carefully sat down, running his fingers over the fabric. To his surprise, it felt soft. Where the large open space hole had been, there was a wood framed window with white, gauzy curtains that reminded him of Zani's weavings.
"Where did this all come from?" Elnor said with amazement. "It wasn't here before, I didn't feel anything move." He paused and then looked down at his feet. "I still feel the ship."
"I'm afraid I can't do much about that," Mr. Hospitality said. "But you will get accustomed to it in time."
"This bedroom," Elnor said. "It is your home?"
"It was," Mr. Hospitality said as he held his black tablet close to his chest. Elnor was reminded of how he would clutch his doll to his chest when he had been scared, when he was a child. "There are things I don't remember clearly, but I have memories of sounds and smells and… many things. I suppose you would call the ship my home now, but… one's mind does wander."
"I am sorry for your sadness."
"It's not really that," Mr. Hospitality said as he sat down next to Elnor. "You may not feel it now, but perhaps one day, a long time from now, you will. It's a word called 'homesickness.'"
"When you become ill at home?"
"No, no," Mr. Hospitality laughed. "It's a feeling you have... when you miss your home. When people on a spaceship live here for a long time, they tend to make places that remind them of things they care about."
"But I do not miss my home," Elnor said. "I am bound to my cause. That is my purpose. It does not make me ill."
"As I said," Mr. Hospitality said, glancing out the window, "you may not know it now, but when the feeling comes you will know it. Listen; what do you hear?"
Elnor followed the man's gaze and expected to hear more of those strange ship sounds, but to his delight, he heard birdsong.
"I hear birds!" Elnor jumped up and ran to the window. A woman was standing outside in the sunshine, hanging clothes on a line. She was singing a strange language, but it had the same lilt as Mr. Hospitality's song. "Who is that?"
"A fond memory," he said. "The light outside will change like the natural night and day of your world. It'll probably be easier for sleeping."
"Why did you make this for me?" Elnor said. He could see the wind blowing through the clothes and yes, he now felt something that was like a breeze. There was a smell; he thought perhaps it was bread. The insect-like vibrations beneath his boots felt less persistent now that he could smell and touch things that seemed real.
"Because you gave me the opportunity to do so," Mr. Hospitality smiled. "Would you like a meal from my home?"
"I would," Elnor said. He sat down cross-legged on the rug, feeling the sensation underneath his fingertips. The vibration no longer felt strange to him, but as if someone was humming through him. Singing along with the woman outside.
It seemed to Elnor that ships were like dreams. Perhaps sometimes, like in dreams, even though you know it's really a ship you can forget it's a ship for awhile.
He liked that.