Chapter 7

A month later Paul and Tim were finishing up after another hard day's cataloguing.

"I'm just going to go and say hello to Richard," said Tim as he picked up a bottle of glass polish and a cloth.

"Give him my love while you're there, would you?" called Paul

Tim strolled through the ship before he came to a door all by itself and quietly pushed it open. On a rigged timer a cathedral choir began to sing softly from a record player set up by the entrance as in the darkened room, on a raised dais, a crystal casket inlaid with gold leaf slowly became visible to Tim's light-blinded eyes.

It was surrounded by candlesticks in tall holders and incense burnt in a pair of censers, making the room hazy and lending the whole place a bit of atmosphere.

And within the casket lay Richard, his head resting serenely on a pillow; looking to all the world as though he was merely sleeping, just waiting to be awakened by a kiss.

There had been a fad for a while for experiments into Cryogenics and, inspired by Snow White, at least one had been built to resemble her glass resting place.

With a sense of solemn duty Tim replaced the stubs of candles that had burnt down to nothing from a box on a side table and relit them before approaching the transparent coffin.

"Evening, Sleeping Beauty," he said cheerily, squirting cleaner on the casket's surface.

"What a week we've had," he laughed. "To start with Flacco had us testing new Shitzu Tonka drugs; it was all a bit Alice in Wonderland to be honest. Paul believed himself to be a baby seal and spent the day balancing balls on his nose and making seal noises. I of course kept a cool head at all times and don't let Paul tell you otherwise. Then at the end of the day Flacco turned up again dressed as a white rabbit and we all had a tea party. I mean surreal doesn't really cover it. Then…"

For the next hour or so he continued to regale Richard's unresponsive form with tales of their recent adventures, embellished only slightly in the telling.

"Would you believe that Flacco has taken up the guitar? We've been trying to teach him our songs. You'll be pleased to hear he's not a patch on you; especially when it comes to singing along, but he's got pretty good in a remarkably short space of time…"

When he had exhausted his store of news for the week he gave the casket a final polish and turned to go before remembering something with a smile.

"Oh yeah, Paul sends his love."

He gently closed the door behind him, leaving Richard once more to his endless rest.