When the ship awakes, as it bathes in the glow of its refreshed energy core, it stirs and stretches, the fabric of its being coming to life. In the cockpit, the captain rises with the ship, gently roused from slumber by a familiar thrum that grows to a steady white noise, musical and charismatic. The captain checks a screen, flicks a few switches, and the ship settles, its body coming to rest comfortably, in the way a babbling stream flows with no concept of urgency.

In one room, the plants seem to preen, greener and fuller than the night before. The mossy floor grows springy as another passenger wakes, while a soft, tinkling light from hidden, twining wires gradually illuminates the wildlife around her. She takes slow, unhurried steps through the tangles of shoots, vines, and circuits, gently shadowed by the lazy jungle that stretches and twists above her. As she stares in wonder, a curling vine buds a tiny violet flower, which unfolds before her eyes and sighs outwards, its petals swelling to their fullest reach.

Elsewhere onboard, a tall, spiraling staircase breathes wider, then more narrow, expanding and contracting with the pulse of the ship. A long, dangling curl of driftwood hangs down the center of the stairs, suspended in air, studded with small glowing lights. Tucked neatly in the natural grooves of the branch are bottles of colorful substances, some bubbling, some gaseous, some thick and oozing. A third passenger paces steadily up and down the stairs, examining each and every bottle and studiously jotting down notes in a dense, leather-bound journal, its black cover scuffed from relentless use.

At the dome of the ship, the starry expanse of space inches by through a patchwork window. The multicolored panels project a mosaic of wavering light down onto the passenger resting in the center, bathing in the serenity of the stillness. The floor dips underneath a wide array of cushions and quilts, the passenger nested among them. Bordering the otherwise empty room, a stippling pattern ripples upward, a quiet luminescence.

Somewhere in the midst of the ship's settled spaces, a fifth passenger explores. Hallways unfurl and twist before them, guiding them from one wonder to the next: a room whose silky, stone walls spill over each other in a disorienting coil; a great, echoing chamber with etched columns that erupt from every surface; a labyrinth of tunnels that overlap and merge, the walls a latticed membrane through which the other channels can be seen stretching endlessly.

The ship is awake, and it's ready to play.