Stale Air

Evan took his time walking to his destination, as his friends that he had messaged would only be getting there in a half hour. It was pretty short notice, so Evan really couldn't complain that they all were doing something and couldn't come immediately. He made the best of the time he had to wait though and took the long way around the ship to one of the many recreation rooms. The hallways and pathways were well designed and easy to navigate, with minimal signage overload to assist in moving around. This was a part that the designers knew they would need to have properly studied and implemented when building the fleets, and thus much research went into the design of these areas. After all, if moving around the ship was un-intuitive, that might affect the mental state of those living on the ship which would be detrimental to keeping the future colonists productive.

As for his destination, the recreation rooms were as the name implies; rooms with an assortment of games and activities for residents to use freely. The purpose of the rooms being quite obvious to the benefits, and there were quite a few of them on each ship in the fleet. Mostly recreation are separated into three types; first of these was filled with artificial grass and some sand lots to allow for physical sports, and some were equipped with swimming pools. Second was much smaller in the space it took up comparatively, which mostly was filled with tables and projectors to allow for table top games or video games. The latter of the two games was generally more popular, but many people still found enjoyment in playing the table top games. Last of the recreation rooms were similar in structure to the Heart that Evan had just left,and was mostly designed to be a sort of park that was purely for relaxation, though obviously not as extravagant as the Heart.

Evan never spent much time in those of the first kind due to his condition, but he did go every couple of months when he was cleared to do so by the doctors of the medical bay, and by extension his parents. His target for today was also not going to be of the first kind, at least not initially. The plan was to meet in a second kind and play some games there before moving to the first. This was by Evan's own request, which had caused his friends to be slightly puzzled, but none the less happy to hang out as doing any physical activity with Evan rarely occurred and was great fun. It is important to note that while Evan's condition did leave him severely lacking in stamina and physical prowess did not mean he couldn't participate in games; only that he had to be clever and skillful when playing.

His more strategic view of games often helped him excel in team games, but any solo game that relied on pure athleticism and skill left Evan in terrible shape. This of course always made the young man feel inadequate, but his friends never let this shape their opinions of him. Mallory's Disease wasn't something that he could help after all. With his condition in mind they never were rough with him either, often to Evan's gratitude. There were exceptions of course, where Evan was hurt even with their best intentions, but these accidents were simply accidents and never tore apart the group.

Thinking of one of those occasions, Evan smiled while he continued his walk and could clearly remember the first time him and his friend Alex played in a physical recreation room. The two were roughly 7 years old and after Evan got hurt due to Alex not being aware of Evan's condition, he was chewed out by his mother as Evan's mother rushed the injured boy to the medical ward. 'Injury' is also a bit of an overstatement, as all that really happened was that Evan landed badly after jumping to catch a ball Alex had thrown a little bit too high. Even after being yelled at by his mother, Alex and Evan remained good friends up to this day.

Walking on, Evan gets to one of the 'elevators' of the ship and jumps down onto the lower level. There weren't any traditional elevators on any of the ships in the fleet, instead they were just areas that are between levels of the ship that have their artificial gravity disabled to allow people to jump up or down the levels without the usage of any electricity. These sorts of energy saving measures are quite prevalent throughout the fleet, and while some waste for leisure and comfort was accounted for, using up resources just to power a machine that might breakdown and need replacement parts while traveling would be far from ideal. So the designers took the much simpler and elegant solution, just turn off the gravity! The solution was a big hit with the children as well, which was a good thing to keep such little minds engaged with the wonders of space.

The level that Evan had just jumped down to was the level that he needed to be on, and so he continued on his way towards the recreation room. People were walking through the hallways happily, which contrasted with the dread that was in Evan's stomach; it's not often you tell your best friends that you'll be dying in a couple days after all. For Evan, this had happen once before; but the major difference between the two was the last time it happened, only one of his organs failed and the community rallied to get him a replacement. This time, there was no replacing the dozen of organs that were failing. The prior experience had made Evan understand his lot in life perfectly though, and that everything he held dear was temporary.

Shaking his head, Evan rid himself of the sad thoughts and put on a smile as he approached his goal. Stepping into the recreation room that him and his friends had agreed upon, Evan was greeted by a crowd of very familiar people. Evan was able to spot his friends inside of the crowd and his heart felt much lighter as everyone yelled out with bright smiles.

"Surprise!"