Start from Chapter One
Chapter Five
Stirring
“The ship can do
anything for us” Jay Johnson told Tamita “It makes our food,
tailors our clothes, can even operate on us if we need it”. She was
now dressed in the same khaki slacks and shirt that Jay Johnson was
wearing.
“I read the
brochure too” she responded, sitting at a table next to a big
device. “Okay, computer, give me groundnut stew with some cassava
bread”
Gopher took off
quickly and left the room.
“Where's it
going?” she asked
“To get your food
of course” Jay told her, sitting across the table from her.
She looked at him
like he had lost his mind. “It can do it that quickly? Make
something like that?”
Jay nodded. “It
can make a hamburger as fast as any odd or rare dish you can think
of. I've been here a while, I have seen many things. When they built
this ship they were prepared for almost anything to happen to it on
the voyage, it can repair or make any part it might need. It is quite
impressive”
She shook her head
“It was all in the manual, but it's still hard to believe”
“This ship is
huge, its miles long and wide and a mile deep, at least” he told
her “I haven't even explored half of it”
“So why are we
here exactly? Does the computer need us for anything? Are we supposed
to learn how to repair things? Make space walks? I don't get why it
needs to have humans alive and walking around” she asked “It
doesn't make sense”
He shrugged “I
never had to do any of those things. I'm not really sure why it needs
one... or two of us to be out of suspension, but it has to abide by
the rules that were made for it”
Gopher entered the
room with a tray and laid it on the table in front of Tamita, her
eyes widened just looking through the transparent dome over the food.
“This looks exactly like it should”
She took off the top
and took a big spoonful and a smile crossed her face. “Like a taste
of home” she said “This is fascinating”. She continued with her
meal, seeming to enjoy it for a while but by the end she was looking
sad again.
“Homesick?” Jay
asked, she nodded. “I know how that feels... let me show you
something that might help a little.”
She followed him
through the corridors before noticing something, “Hey”. She
stopped and went to look at something on the wall. A rough scribble
outline of a man hunting an antelope. “Did you draw this?”
“My cave art
phase” he acknowledged “Not my best work but it catches the eye”
“The computer
doesn't mind you drawing on the walls? I wonder why it lets you do
this?” she asked, he just shrugged. Then he waved for her to follow
and soon they entered one of the biological habitats, this one was
very large, 16 acres, but half of that was a simulated ocean.
“How could we make
this more like your country, so you'd feel more at home?” Jay asked
while chasing a small rabbit through some tall grass, but it ran into
a wooded area and lost him.
“We would have to
build some dirty, crowded slums” she answered
“No, no, no” he
said, putting his hands on his hips “The part of your country that
might be on a postcard or something, the good parts”
She shook her head
“I don't know, I'll think of something later. I guess the markets
where the women sell the gara cloth and all sorts of foods and spices
would be one of the most idyllic”
“The computer
could make you some traditional clothing from your country, if you
would like to wear things like that” he told her, trying to find
something that would interest her. She was just sitting on a rock
looking at the roiling dust clouds and stars through the transparent
top of the habitat. “I wonder when sunlight will ever pour through
it again?” she asked.
“Crew member Jay
Johnson” The main computer intoned “I require your presence on
the bridge”
“That's a new one”
he said, then he looked at Tamita who was still sitting in the grass
and now watching the tides on the simulated 8-acre ocean “Are you
coming?”
“No” she said
lightly “Unless the computer needs me to do something”
“Okay” Jay said
heading toward the hatch “You know the way home, right?”
“Home?” she said
to herself, just waving her arm for him to go.
Once on the bridge
he looked around, it was as dark and quiet as usual. “What is it?
Why do you need me?”
The computer
answered “A rover failed to respond to inquiries, it was on the
exterior of the ship. Then its beacon vanished and I could no longer
track it. I launched a drone to fly to the location and I found
damage, here is an image of the damaged area”
Jay looked closely,
then he shook his head “That wasn't done by a rock or anything”
In fact it looked
like someone or something had been removing panels and shielding from
the ship, he wondered if the rover had gone rogue. “The rover must
have malfunctioned” he said “It can happen”
The computer
responded “I considered this. I checked the logs and there is no
sign at all that any of its programming was damaged or altered. I
have deactivated the rovers until my investigation into this is
complete, the drones cannot do the work either. I need you to go out
there”
“Me?” he asked,
then looked at the holographic display again “You want me to go out
there?”
The computer turned
off the holograph. “I need you to assess the damage, it looks like
everything under the paneling is intact. I just require you to put
the panels back.”
After years of being
asked to do nothing Jay almost felt like a freeloader for a second
until he remembered he didn't want to be there. He wanted to still be
in cryogenic suspension so that he could someday step foot on New
Eden like he was promised. He threw his hands in the air “Whatever,
where do I need to go”
“Section B, deck
80” the computer said
Jay thought for a
second “That's the underside of the ship? On the bottom”
“There is no up or
down in space, Jay Johnson” the computer said “There will be
artificial gravity during your excursion, it will almost be a normal
walk”
He took the lift all
the way to the lowest deck and then moved to B section, near the
front of the ship as far as he concerned. He wondered if the computer
would argue that there was not really a front either. Soon he was at
a ready room, spacesuits in transparent lockers covered the walls.
The computer directed him to a spacesuit that would fit and
instructed him on putting it on.
When Jay and the
computer were both sure the suit was on correctly and the life
support system in the small backpack was functioning he entered the
airlock. He could hear the air being sucked out of the chamber and
then as he watched an exterior door swung open.
“First you must
pass the green line and then walk up the wall and stand on the
ceiling before exiting” the computer said. He found the green line,
about two foot deep, it went up a wall and onto the ceiling above
him. It wasn't a natural thing to do but this is how one walked onto
the bottom of a deep-space vessel, or something.
“I'm upside down,
on the ceiling now, I'm going out now” he told the computer but got
no response, so he just walked through the exit. He was on the
outside of the vessel, looking side to side he couldn't see the
edges, but space was everywhere when he looked above the horizon.
“Which way?”
“Straight ahead”
the computer said “You might be able to see the drone floating
around soon”
He kept walking,
which surprisingly felt like walking anywhere on Earth or inside the
ship, because of the artificial gravity. It was still a little dark
and he had to pass through a forest of domes, squares, antennae
forests and other things.
Then he stopped. He
had seen something moving amongst the surface blisters. “Computer,
are you sure you cannot track that rover?”
“Affirmative” it
said “Why do you ask?”
“I thought I saw
something moving to my right” Jay answered “Maybe your drone is
looking in the wrong area”
“I am ordering the
drone to search the area around you again”
He continued to
walk, but he was wary. Something felt very wrong, there were chills
running up his spine. He saw the drone fly over but it didn't make
him feel any better. Just keep walking, he thought to himself. Then
there was a small clearing and the missing panels, this was the right
place.
“Do I need tools?”
he asked
“Negative. Once
the panel is positioned properly it should do the rest” the
computer said, Jay shook his head, even the bolts were high-tech.
Wonders never ceased. He picked up the first red panel, it was taller
and wider than he was but it felt very light. Once he laid it on the
opening and pushed it flush with the panel next to it, he saw it lock
into place, moving inward a bit when tightened.
“Are you sure the
drones couldn't do this?” he asked “Seems too easy”
“Drones have no
hands “ the computer said “Try to hurry”
That was alarming,
he stopped what he was doing and looked around“What do you mean,
what's happening?”
As if to answer his
question a drone flew over and then hovered in the clearing but at 15
feet up and it spun around to face the way it had come. Then he saw
something else come around the corner quickly and pounce into the air
and grab the drone, pulling it down to the surface and smashing it
into the ground. The rover was a big mechanical tiger and it was now
looking right at Jay.
“Oh give me a
break”
He backed up,
holding one side of a panel up, the other touching the ground. Maybe
he could use it as a shield, for all the good that would do. Then the
rover dived right onto it and it slipped out of his hands, it was now
flat on the ground with a mechanical beast on top of it.
“I suppose running
would be pointless” Jay said, to nobody in particular.
“Reach into the
exposed area and grab a wire or a pipe” the main computer said into
his ear-piece “try to do that quickly”
He dropped down and
grabbed whatever was handy. He looked to see the rover launching
itself towards him, but then another drone slammed into the airborne
rover, at the same time Jay felt his feet and then his body raise off
the ground. “Whoa”
When he looked back
up he could see the rover tumbling through the sky, drifting away
from the ship with a broken drone nearby. The other busted drone and
panels were hovering a foot or two above the ground. Then everything fell to the surface at the same time.
“The threat has
been eliminated” the computer said “You can finish with the
panels now”
“How did that
happen?” Jay asked standing up and examining his suit.
“The impact of the
drone just as the artificial gravity was disengaged flung it into
space, where it cannot threaten you” the computer said.
“I meant, how did
that thing go nuts in the first place. You said you examined its logs
and found nothing, so what is up with that?”
Jay Johnson was
angry again, the computer noted. This instance would be added to the
study logs along with the other 562 times the computer had noted
anger from him. He had his companion, but so far this was not an
improvement in his personality or function. More study would be
required.
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