When Ralph reached the top of the stairs, he was weightless. This had nothing to do with the ship de-spinning. Even at full spin, the central corridor extending along the spin axis never held gravity.

He took hold of a handlebar and propelled himself forward, towards its bow. The walls floating by, he enjoyed the utter ease of his motion.

This was the part of Hope he loved best. He had spent hours in this place, floating, gyrating, drifting, enjoying the utter sense of freedom and the silence that ruled up here. But he knew that this would be his last time ever. Once the ship had landed, gravity would reign over every part of Hope. It would pin him down for the rest of his life.

It took him only minutes to reach the forward end of the spin corridor, where he opened a hatch and entered the dock. Closing the hatch behind him, he inspected the circular dock room. Twelve numbered doors were arranged at regular intervals along its outer, curved wall, all of them closed. Behind each one of them used to be an escape pod, a small vessel designed for short out-of-ship trips. They were not needed anymore, so Sophia had already jettisoned them. All but one—Ralph had made sure of that, yesterday night, by blocking the ejection mechanism of pod 7.

He deactivated the lock of its door, and the pod opened. The craft was tiny, providing room for only two passengers. And the blocked ejection mechanism would prevent it from ever flying again, so it was basically useless.

But it held two acceleration couches. And that's why Ralph had come here.

He closed the door behind him and strapped himself into one of the couches.

Then he settled for the wait. He was nothing but cargo now.