One of my most important duties aboard NOAH 1 was making sure the humans woke up on time for their duties. This often meant heading to the Navigation Deck, where I’d usually find a petty officer slumped in his chair, sound asleep when he should’ve been alert. My job? To wake him so he could rouse the rest and get the day started. I’d spring onto his chest and deliver a firm thump to his head—wake up! Wake up!
Startled, he bolted upright, nearly toppling off the chair before regaining his balance. Rubbing his eyes, he’d glance out the window at the faint light of dawn creeping over the horizon. That was his cue. Grabbing the horn, he’d march through the ship’s hallways, from the topmost deck to the very bottom, his blaring call echoing through every deck, impossible to ignore.
The scavengers’ departure, however, was different from the lively wake-up calls. It was always a quiet affair, their journeys beginning long before the first light of dawn. On the day Louis and his crew departed, I woke from my own makeshift bed—a tin tub lined with a blanket, just large enough for me—placed opposite Alan’s bed. Stretching and yawning, I shook off the last traces of sleep and made my way through the little plastic-flapped opening at the bottom of the door.
As the leader of the scavengers, Louis was always first in line to receive my personal wake-up call. padded down to the Kelping suite, a deck below, where a similar opening allowed me to enter.
“Wake up!” I called, scampering to Louis and Sarah’s closed door. Scratching at the wood, I shouted again, “Wake up, Louis! It’s that time—another sea adventure awaits!”
Inside, I heard the soft stirrings of movement—slippers sliding on, footsteps shuffling—and the door opened with a click. Sarah stood in the doorway, wrapped in a dark green robe, her face still heavy with sleep but smiling faintly.
“Page, you’re going to have to help me wake him,” she said, moving aside and opening the door wide enough for me to go through. “He’s being stubborn and refuses to budge.”
I didn’t need further prompting. I launched myself onto the bed and landed squarely on Louis’s chest. I licked his face until he stirred awake, groaning and swatting me away half-heartedly.
“Alright, alright,” he grumbled, stifling a yawn. “I’ll get ready now.”
Sarah laughed softly, crawling back under the covers to plant a lingering kiss on his lips, while I found myself squeezed snugly between the two of them.
“You know I’m right here, don’t you?” I meowed indignantly, though they didn’t seem to care.
