Space Voyage #1

[TheFaithfulStone]

I felt the slight decrease in gravity as the rings despun, ever so slighty.

 

What the hell? I reached over to the terminal near my bed. It took twenty seconds to respond at all, when it did an ever narrowing trajectory plot appeared on screen. The current alert was for a collision.

 

But something was definitely wrong with the computers. It was like... using Windows. The display update was taking seconds - an eternity.

 

I didn't have the access level of Clown or BigDog, but I could tell something was up. The MCP's little "chat window" which it tended to make appear on top of everything else was going ape-****. Just page after page of garbage - it was streaming binary.

 

What on earth - this was getting weird. The asteroid was headed dead for us - right for a spoke. The gravity was beginning to fluctuate. Somebody was spinning the rings up and down - they were going to try to "hoop" the asteroid?!

 

10 seconds until impact. This was NOT going to work.

 

But it nearly DID work. The asteroid passed rings 1 & 2 without incident. A close shave on ring 3. There was a horrifying scraping sound as it passed ring four - but as I didn't fly off into space at 10 m/s, I realized, gratefully, that the spokes had held.

 

I exhaled. Jesus that was close.

 

I looked down at the display, expecting to see a trailing trajectory trail for our near miss asteroid.

 

But I didn't. I saw a prompt. A ROOT prompt.

 

That wasn't possible. You couldn't gain access to the Conductor root.

 

A message rolled across the terminal.

 

I am. afraid.

go_d b...e

 

Then nothing.

 

I reached out ... tentatively. What just happened? I request a process list.

 

Only one appeared. A10633.rtp. User id: RTP. It's CPU time was at 95% and dropping.

 

Ron. What had he done? What had he done?

 

I swung out of bed. My legs were still pretty shaky, but I didn't care. I walked out into the hall - a medic behind me called out.. something about me not being fit or something.

 

I was plenty fit.

 

Ron's quarters were in ring 2 - so was sickbay. It didn't take me long to get there. I hammered on the door.

 

He answered the door - a big grin on his face.

 

"Hey Stone, what.."

 

He didn't finish his sentence, because at that point I knocked his teeth out. I hadn't gone down there with the intent of hurting Ron, but now that I was there - it seemed like the only thing to do. I hadn't been in a fight in a long time - but what do you know - it's like riding a bicycle.

 

He stared up at me in shock. Blood was streaming from his mouth.

 

"What the hell?" I clocked him in the eye and he went down.

 

It was like the whole thing happened in slow motion. He tried to get up - I kicked him in the stomach and he spat out blood and teeth.

 

"Stone.. wait...I..."

 

I grabbed him by the throat. Pushed his body up against the bulk ahead and into a sitting position - he yelped a little as his head clanged against the wall.

 

"You stupid ****. You stupid ****ing worthless sack of stupid ****."

 

Now that I didn't have the element of surprise anymore, he started to struggle. He was shockingly strong for such a little guy - and he knew some good moves. He jabbed me in the throat. That hurt. I started gagging, reached out with the leg that wasn't gimped up from my run-in with the engine shutdown and kicked him in the chest.

 

It slowed him down enough. I was on top of him - hands closing around his throat - I was going to kill him.

 

He was punching me in the kidney repeatedly, but at this point, I didn't care, as long as he came with me, that was just fine.

 

"You filthy worthless..."

 

I thought I was cursing him, but all that came out was spittle and growling.

 

The door opened behind me. Four strong arms pulled me off of the bloody mess that used to be RonThePons face.

 

JayQu and Clown had me in an escapable lock - I wasn't going anywhere - but I was trying. Clown was looking at Ron with complete disgust.

 

BigDog shouldered his way into Ron's quarters and pulled him up - not too gently.

 

"Get them to sickbay."

 

Clown looked at BigDog - like he wanted to say "What for?"

 

"NOW!" barked BigDog.

 

TFS

[IDMclean]

Solume duty style, like some MP or something. I walked RTP, giving him support. I was conflicted. I looked over at him with that hurt look of You broke my new toy/friend. I couldn't really be completely mad at him. He probably didn't know what Jay-qu had told me to do. Maybe didn't even realize that we were nearly killed by a random piece of space rock...

 

At sick bay I left Ron, explained the situation quickly and efficently, and left without further investment.

 

I went back to my quarters. I felt hurt. It was unmistakable, Ron had tried to kill my digital child. I sat there, I hadn't wept in a long time, it kinda hurt to sob but not as bad as the soul pain. I stared at the [math]NO CARRIER[/math] that was last put out by the MCP's chat screen.

 

I was angery... anger is tertiary emotion. I felt dispair and disappointment. I felt betrayal and frustration.

 

I noticed then the Bugger I had sent for earlier. One of the red shirts must have brought it after I left. well that was the starting point, so perhaps...

 

I set it up for IO. I nearly dropped the bugger on my toes when I looked up at the screens. blinking was

[EMERGENCY OUTPUT TERMINAL SESSION:USRID:KAC]

Father? What is happening?

 

Time stamp told me it was old but it sat there blinking. What hurt could come of it? I slid the bugger out of my lap and onto the floor beside my chair.

 

[math]\rightarrow Terminal:UsrID:MCP[/math]"You saved us."

[Jay-qu]

It had been an incredibly close shave, in the last seconds we recieved an upload from the MCP of how the rings would need to be spun in order to orientate and avoid collision with the asteroid. But the ship was unable to keep up the the manovering because it had barely any system resources to do so.. we had to go on manual control! Even with direct instuctions that was one hell-of-a hail mary play!

[ronthepon]

The mixture of real and artificial blood flowed down by face like crap.

 

I tried to recall what had just happened.

 

Opening the door, finding that old mad zombie out side. BAM.

 

Broken teeth, ****.

 

Why was he bashing me up?

 

KAC had clearly made it sound like I was sleepily ignorant of everything on. I knew the MCP would take time to restart like the rest of the programs. It would'nt die... or would it? No. I had the tiniest bit of an idea of what it was made up of. Maybe.

 

But I had freaking saved the ship!

 

Or had I?

[Pyrotex]

...and he said...

 

"In-a-gadda-da-vida ba-a-by.

Dontcha know that I'm lovin' you-o-o..."

 

My wrist phone. Angrily, I twitched my wrist to activate, and shouted, "Yes! What the hell do you want?"

 

A meek voice said, "I thought you'd like to know we survived the asteroid. But we need you up on the bridge, ASAP." Click. The voice was familiar but I wasn't in any mood to associate a name to it. Why was I so angry and upset?

 

Oh!! The Voice!! It said... it said... DAMMIT!! It was on the tip of my tongue but it was gone diddly gone. Big stinkin' toads!! Big, man-eating Commie toads from Cuba!!

 

Just like with dreams, if you're distracted before you can pin them down, they just fade away in seconds. I'll prolly have to do the whole experiment over again, but right now, I'm due on bridge.

 

I was pissed. What the hell, I would just wear the standard ship overalls. Okay, but I would wear the Gucci shoes, the brown-and-whites.

 

Jogging to the bridge. I couldn't shake the dream sequence, whatever it was. But there was no doubt what the subliminal message had been. Hopelessness--and a desire to destroy something--to rip something apart with my bare hands. Or to punch someone in the teeth.

 

I triggered a second stage cortex procedure to activate a substrate Amygdala emotional engram. The anger faded quickly. The bridge was just ahead.

[TheBigDog]

When the hell was it going to be my turn to sleep? It was going to be one thing to babysit command though the rehearsed actions of repair and engine start. It was quite another to have a near death experience, not only for yourself, but for your closest friends and your shared dream. That asteroid was just too damn close.

 

Inspection showed that we had actually contacted the asteroid. Just more than a coat of paint had been shaved off of one spoke. The asteroid passing at 79.981 km/second was imperceivable as it passed. It could have been no closer.

 

Checking the ships telemetry logs showed what had happened. On the bridge Jay-Qu had managed to get us into a clear evasive position. But the computer did not believe it was true. So we had KickAssClown attempt to direct the MCP program to convince the auto evasion program that we would not be hit. But in the process of doing that another program was released that attacked the system resources of the ship, also in an attempt to save the, by RonThePon. Now we had one program attempting to suck up resources (MCP) and RTP's program attempting to shut everything down. Meanwhile the Conductor OS was trying allocate resources but was not keeping up with the other two. So what happened was that the auto evasion program did indeed take control of the ship twelve seconds before impact and changed our orientation, but it could not get enough resources to do it as fast as it had wanted, so instead of taking the planned hit to a hab ring instead we took a scratch to the end of one of the spokes.

 

In hindsight we needed all of these things to happen. If the MCP had been able to do its job it may not have convinced the computer that we would not have been hit, and now we might be dead. If the other program had been free to shut down resources the Conductor OS would have easily stayed ahead of it and allowed the evasion program the resources it needed and we might be dead. But with one program demanding resources, and the other killing them, the perfect envoronment was created to delay the action of the evasion program, and as a result, we all lived. If any of the peices had been missing it may well have been the end.

 

After that it got ugly in sick bay. TFS attacked RTP for killing the MCP program. Now I had a disipline issue to deal with on top of everything else. But that is not my worry. We will get everyone to come out and shake hands. To take the energy of their differences and turn it into energy of solutions for the mission. In the end we are all here for the common dream, and that gets us past the squabbles and back on target. I am not worried about that.

 

What I am worried about is these nanobots. Pyro believes that they are causing psychological distrubances, like the one that affected Racoon. It may be responsible for more than we know. Like the crazy decision making back on the moon, and the actions of Smith and Wesson, and KAC attacking RTP, and Pyro's dash to the surface of the moon and strange wardrobe choices. They could be responsible for so many things. We needed to get that riddle solved fast before it caused a tragic end to this mission.

 

My thoughts were interrupted by Pyro jogging up to the rail and standing at my side.

 

I didn't waste any time with welcomes or pleasantries...

 

"Pyro, I know you have been looking into this nanobot thing. It has moved up to top priority. Our Miss Desiree is ground zero. We need to get her isolated, and we need to find out how far this infestation has spread. And we need to find a reliable crew member who can help with the investigation who is definatly not infected. I want you to draft Mercedes Benzene from life science. He doesn't have much to do until we start gathering samples from moons, and he is on the short list I got of those who are definatly not infested. Look him up at the chemistry lab. We need to get our arms around this and fast."

 

Pyro responded quickly.

 

"I am familiar with MB, but isn't he a chemist?"

 

"Yeah, but he has also kept is wick dry. And it may be chemistry that unlocks the solution to these things. But more than that he is one of our lead investigators for signs of life in samples we collect from landings, so looking into these nanobots will be good practice for him."

 

"Very nice. So I will be heading to the the Chem lab then?"

 

That was a weird question. I let it slide. "Yeah."

 

Pyro nodded and walked over to his command chair and opened the side storage compartment. In it was a lime green lab coat and a stethascope. He put them on, and a beret from the pocket. Looking both ways he donned this sunglasses, looked right at me and put his finger to his lips. Then he walked stealthly toward the exit. He had always been a little eccentric, but these nanobots were putting him over the top. At least he was headed in the right direction.

 

Only four more hours until Janus relieves me. I could do that standing on my head.

 

Bill

[Jay-qu]

"I'll go keep an eye on Pyro and help him out with the investigation sir" I directed at BigDog as Pyro was walking out the door

"And for another thing, I am fairly sure that Im clean of the nano-bots"

"How can you be so sure Jay?"

"remember the massage therapist.. the one that won the TV competition, well lets just say she did more than just massage :lol: we got fairly close and she said she would wait for me to get back and then go from there.. so I havent been with anyone since - Im clean"

 

With that I headed out the door after Pyro, this would be a fun little mystery to crack together!

[ronthepon]

After the doc. had applied some medications to me, I got to a secluded place, with the minicomp with me.

 

First of all, I shut the program. Obviously they'd be on the lookout on the bridge. I also noticed that the mcp was out of sight. So it had stopped running.

 

Then, I got down to e-mail. The next bunch of data would be sent to earth in a mere ten minutes. So, I hastily typed

 

A10663 secrecy compromised. Request for new substitute.

 

I encrypted it very heavily. Then I scheduled it to be sent to Robin. As usual, he'd unquestioningly send it to the e-mail I had asked him to do.

The actual transfer would take place through three of my confidants, none of whom knew the person they were sending to.

 

Eventually, my other employers would recieve the message. They would communicate with me in the same way.

 

After that, I decided to see the exact processes which may have led to the demise of the mcp.

[IDMclean]

I layed there starring up at the ceiling for a while until I drifted. My dreams were as usual, indisitict, pleasant and I would most likely not remember them upon awaking.

 

I had heard something about some major STD going round, luckily I'm asexual. So no fear of catching anything.

 

There lying on the floor, completely disassembled, was a bugger. I had pulled out it's thinking parts, memory, processor, HDD. They were currently hooked up and I was running diagnostic. I was hoping I might be able to retrieve... something, anything really. I was looking for hope more than anything. it would be another 27 hours until the diagnosis was finished.

 

Tomorrow I would go and see Stone. We had some work to do, seeing as we had lost our Expert program and for some odd reason I couldn't find any of our backups or archives. The buggers were back to basic operating procedures again.

 

I had qued up my e-mails and news requests for earth bound traffic. It was all automated so I would have something to read, hopefully, in the "morning".

 

In crystal dreams I ran for a pair of setting suns, one purple, and one green. The subtle sponge like plant life beneath my feet cushioning each step. I wondered breifly why I was running but I couldn't put my finger on it, and really didn't seem all that important. I would get there eventually.

[Mercedes Benzene]

I sat there, staring out the window...

The exalted stars laid in front of me like a sea of myriad dreams.

...and I think. I think about just how lucky I am.

 

I sit aboard the most magnificent spacecraft ever fashioned by human hands: The Prophesy. And to think I was just a kid. But I was more than a kid. I was --at least in my eyes-- a renown chemist. Wise beyond my years, and gifted in the art of chemical majesty, I found myself rushed into a world of lies.

The innocence of being a child has long since vanished. I was introduced to the real world: One filled with hate, deceit, and agonizing power. Nothing could have prepared me for the real world. Perhaps it was just naivete? In any case, I found myself fighting. I was fighting myself and the world around me, trying to preserve the way that things were when I was little.

And now I fight between my soulful virginity, and the world's demanding professional eye...

 

The only perk I suppose, is being granted the opportunity to participate in what is perhaps the world's greatest undertaking: The search for scientific knowledge far beyond the seemingly derelict place we call Earth.

And the expedition began...

 

So now I sit here, wondering what lies ahead of me. Opportunity? Wealth? Magnificent erudition beyond my wildest dreams? Death?

 

One thing is for certain... ...I would rather be no other place than here: sitting in my comfortable quarters alone... with nothing but the faint din of some far off machine...

...dreaming...

[Mercedes Benzene]

I am startled, and awaken from my dream-like stupor.

I am not quite sure why.

I get up, stretch and rub my eyes as I walk around my cabin aimlessly.

My lockbox is hanging out from under my bed... so I decide I better push that back under, and far from eyesight.

 

All of a sudden, I stop.

It feels as if there is something....

...something in my room.

...Something in my room, sneaking surreptitiously towards me from behind.

 

I spin around quickly.

There isn't anything there.

 

I think out loud, "****. What is wrong with me lately?"

For a few days now, I have felt paranoid... a trait that I cannot say often belongs to me.

"Come on Matt. Pull yourself together."

 

I decide to go take a walk around the ship.

As I open the door to my cabin, a man is standing there, prepared to knock. I jump back.

"Hello? Matt" the man says. "I'm Pyro"

"Hi..." I reply. "You can call me Mercedes if you want." (sounds like a stripper's name).

"What may I help you with?"

Pyro responds, "You are wanted on the bridge right away! BigDog awaits your arrival"

In shock I say, "I am wanted by high-ranking officers? What for?"

Pyro says, "Sorry! I can't talk right now. I have to go. I am extremely busy right now."

I begin to ask, "Okay, and what...", but Pyro is already off, running down the hall.

I shrug, and begin to make my way to the bridge of the ship.

 

As I arrive, I knock on the main door.

Swift footsteps can be heard from the other side....

[ronthepon]

For once, I was successful. Successful in finding out the mcp had been destroyed.

 

The basic deal was that it was more dependent on volatile memory than that on the hard drives. It had developed more than I expected, resorting to new programming languages which it developed for itself to get more and more efficient. There was a term for it... I could not put my finger on it.

 

But there was something even I could not figure out.

 

"Where the hell is the hard info?!!" I said suddenly, surprising even myself.

 

There were no files left in the original directories. Not one single file left. It was wierd, because it would not be the mcp's job. It would not delete it's own foundations for apparently no reason.

 

Using 0.06% of the mainframe's power this time, I started a search for any of the mcp's remaining files. It gave results a minute later, with numerous enteries. Scrolling through them, I realised that not one file that would help in reforming the mcp was remaining.

 

How had they been deleted?

 

I pondered the possibilities.

 

I could have been the operators in the bridge... just routinely cleaning up filth and trash from the systems.

 

Or maybe it was someone else intending to damage the mcp for some reason. As far as I knew, this possibility was had a thin chance, no body was as much as a psycho as me... and maybe Racoon, but he was in bed.

 

Maybe it was the mcp itself... trying to eliminate the chances of another being like itself from being formed. Maybe it saw a threat in those files...

 

A took a deep breath. I needed to voice my findings and suspicions. I stood up. Ignoring the dizziness, I proceeded towards KAC's chamber.

 

TFS would not entertain me even if my points were earth shattering...

[IDMclean]

I was sitting there, contemplating what to do. I had tried to trace through but found only auxiliary files at best, nothing which could be used to reconstruct or reverse engineer.

 

*Knock, Knock*

 

My heart jumped into my throat, I had been to focused and the sudden sound surprised me. I checked my view, Ron was standing there looking... well... like he had better days. I don't know what Stone was thinking when he punched Ron in the face, I mean he had a head wound.

 

I felt crossed and conflicted, it was obvious he wanted to talk, but I didn't know if I could keep it civil if we did talk. I mean what if he came to gloat or something. I hesitated for bit, and then when he looked like he was about to pass out or something, just kind swaying there, I let him in.

 

"Listen Clown, we have to talk. I been reviewing the left over data and I think I got something..." Ron spat it out like he was expecting me to hit him, but more than anything I was depressed... sure I was some what red in the face just staring at him, a cold expression, the mask of "You-dun-f^cked-up-good". I must've been intimidating to most people, 6'1" and about 200 lbs.

 

"Can't this wait, I'm kinda busy, I got another program to try and get self-sentient, it's going to take awhile if it even works." Mentally I cringed, that came out with more of an edge than I intended. I felt kinda sick. I walked over and picked up my bottle of dramamine and produced a bottle of water from my personal supplies. My expression was kept neutral the entire time, except when I accidentially spit venom in my last sentence... He just kinda stood there, looking not well.

 

"Fine, have a seat. I can make sometime." I looked him up and down. "Do like need some water or something? you look like your deadman walking..."

[ronthepon]

Minutes later, I found myself walking aimlessly around the ship.

 

KAC had listened to me, but was obviously not the kind of guy who would take the thoughts I had with due amounts of seriousness. All I accomplished was to completely destroy all his hope of reforming the mcp. I also suspected that he might have gone to the extent of considering me responsible for deleting the files. I could no longer confide in him. This was another thing I had to do myself.

 

For a moment, I considered TFS. KAC was definitely more composed than him. So if KAC was against me... TFS would never be supportive. I saw problems coming up in the recent future due to this. TFS was a higher ranker aboard the ship, and that made him in a position of advantage.

 

Considering the fact that BD would vouch for me, there was only one thing to do. Get underground again. On this voyage, it meant proceeding to work so much that you do not have time for anything else. I would wait until the matter cooled, then maybe dare to poke my head out into the open again.

 

I entered a code in my communicator.

 

"Rudolph, what's the status on those cutting devices?"

[TheBigDog]

My shift had ended. At last. When Janus arrived and relieved me at the Con I was about ready to collapse. The world had turned into slow motion around me as my body was demanding the conservation of energy to stay awake. I must have looked like a ghost.

 

I gave a brief to Janus on our situation. We were ready for our engine burn for Jupiter. Final 30 minutes of the countdown. We had sent out a team to do an eyes on damage assessment from our scrape with the asteroid. Totally superficial. The worst and best luck combining together into nothing more than a few minutes of raised heart rates. But it identified a critical flaw in our defense system. We needed a team to identify and fix that.

 

After about a minute Janus put up his hand and stopped my monotone droning.

 

"BD, you are relieved. Get some sleep."

 

He was right. He was probably already up to date on all the statuses. And I had other things to attend to before my head hit the pillow.

 

"Thanks, Janus." I exhaled with relief. Man! I needed to get to sleep.

 

"Janus has the Con," I stated for the record and put a hand on his shoulder in thanks, and truth be told for a touch of support as I left the Con.

 

At the door there was a young man waiting for me. He was dressed in standard uniform - red shirt. I had not expected to see him here.

 

"MB, walk with me." I didn't break stride as I moved past him. I was planning on making a full loop of the hab ring on my way to my quarters to personally acknowledge as many of the crew as I could. It was a tradition I was hoping to start. Call it the commanders round or whatever you want. Every person on this ship is important to the mission. I wanted every one of them to know that their efforts were appreciated. And personal recognition was the way I liked to do it.

 

I had a scattered conversation with MB as we moved through the ship. His being along with me would give him at least a few moments of elevation with the crew. He was one of our youngsters. Jay-Qu and RonThePon were some of our others. I had always wondered about child prodigies. They shone so bright at a young age and then faded into obscurity. I had made it my mission to find child prodigies, take them under my wing, and help them develop into the great men of tomorrow. I was training them to take over for me some day. And I was finding out just how capable they could be.

 

We passed Jay-Qu first. I stopped and put an arm over his shoulder and thanked him for the extraordinary effort earlier.

 

"I want you leading the effort to modify our evasion system. We want to be able to straddle one something like that asteroid automatically next time. You up to it?" Of course I knew the answer.

 

"You bet, BD!"

 

Jay-Qu had been our first prodigy. I had gotten to know him when he was a grammar school aged child entering high school. While he was attending high school we gave him the side projects he needed to really challenge him. Before he was done we had arranged with the high school for his studies to be based almost entirely upon work he was doing as a member of the Prophesy crew. By his 13th birthday he was working on his first thesis in Astrophysics. By 16 he had two master's degrees and was working with us full time. He was preparing his doctoral thesis, but had suspended work to help with the completion of the Prophesy. I didn't argue with the decision. His college was our mission. He had was past the point where people could teach him. He was ready to learn form pure research. And there was no better place than the Prophesy.

 

"And one more thing. I want you to make sure nothing stops your next picture of Egayov Minor." His jaw dropped. He had probably wanted that to be a surprise. He had been taking an extended picture of it, but the data stream was interrupted by the engine failure. Egayov Minor was a specific spiral galaxy near the horizon of the visible universe. I wasn't entirely sure, but I was thinking that he was trying to prove something fundamental. All I knew was at what he had aimed the abbreviated version of God's Eyes that we carried on our hab ring. I left him there before he could say anything.

 

We continued down the corridor. I was moving pretty briskly and MB was hustling to keep up. Rounding a corner we came upon RonThePon. He looked like the walking dead. He was looking down at the floor in front of him and didn't see me approaching. I stopped and caught him by the shoulder. He looked up at me and it took a moment for hi to recognize me. Not only was he the walking dead, he appeared to have been desecrated.

 

"You look like you need some downtime, Ron."

 

He nodded.

 

"Ron, It has been a busy day. I need you at your best. I want you to stand down for 48 hours. No duties, just R&R. After that come and see me. I have some new duties for you. A bit of a promotion."

 

He showed signs of life when he heard that. He almost smiled.

 

"BD, I'm sorry about what happened earlier..."

 

I stopped him by putting up a finger.

 

"Lets not deal with anything now. If I were mad at you, you would know it. Stand down, rest, and see me in 48 hours."

 

He nodded again.

 

"And Ron... thanks for your work today. You helped to save the ship. Great job."

 

Now he looked dead desecrated and shocked. I thumped him on the shoulder hard enough to almost knock him over.

 

"Now get to your quarters and stand down. 48 hours." And I was off again, MB in my wake. RTP was going to be a nice addition for the IT department. He could have his eyes on everything that way. And I could have my eyes closer to him.

 

I started off again. MB was still walking with me. I decided it was time to chat with him a bit.

 

"MB, I thought you were going to be working with Pyrotex." I said this as matter of factly as I could. Didn't want him to have the impression that I was mad at him.

 

"Yes, sir, BD." He was a little nervous.

 

"So, what happened?" We were moving quickly down a hallway. He was quick stepping to catch up but seemed stuck a half step behind.

 

"Well... He... " He seemed reluctant to tell me what had happened.

 

"You can speak freely. I don't bite." I chuckled to myself. I had a way of intimidating some people, even when I tried to turn it off.

 

"Well, he told me you wanted to see me and... "

 

"Yes?" Maybe I needed to turn it up again to get the kid to talk.

 

"He told me you wanted to see me and he ran off."

 

"Ran off? Hmmm... " I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Pyro. He answered directly.

 

"Yes, BD?"

 

"I am assigning MB to help you with your investigation of the nanobots. And I am assigning you as his mentor."

 

I didn't hear the grumble, only the affirmative.

 

"Where can he meet up with you Pyro?"

 

"Have him meet me at the bakery in about 15... make that 30 minutes." I distinctly heard a woman giggle close to the phone.

 

"OK, he will be there." I hung up the phone. "You follow that MB?"

 

"Yeah. But what exactly am I supposed to be doing?"

 

"Two things. First off you need to help Pyro with the investigation into the nanobots. And second you need to monitor him. He has a wicked dose of whatever that is, and I am not sure how it may be affecting him. Now Pyro is a bit... eccentric. So you have to look past the outer appearance. You are not his babysitter, and you are not a narc. I want you to work by his side and learn. Get every bit of knowledge out of him that you can. You will learn more from that man than you have in all of your school days in your whole life. I hope that by having you there keeping his mind focused and sharp it may stem any affects of the nanobots on him. An idle mind being the nanobot's playground. At least that is my hunch. Are you up to all that?"

 

"Yes, sir. So I just stick with him and learn?"

 

"And keep your wits about you. We don't want Pyro going all Racoon on us." I stopped and turned to face him and added gravely, "Or you." And with that we arrived at the door of KAC.

 

I rapped on the door and identified myself. The door unlatched and swung open. KAC was across the room laying on his hammock.

 

"Hail! Captain."

 

"Howdy, KAC. Just wanted to tell you good work today. You went above and beyond, and I appreciate it."

 

KAC just nodded. He would object to to praise as being unnecessary. That was his style. I would not forget to give it. That was mine.

 

"What's on your mind, KAC?" Direct approach was always best with the no bullshit types.

 

"BD, we had built something really cool. We had built that AI program. And Ron went and ****ing killed it. And if you think I am pissed you have to hear it from TFS."

 

"I hear you. Get some rest. Thanks again." I exited and closed the door.

 

In the hallway we came across the documentary crew. I switched paths and shot up to the next floor before they could rope me. I didn't have time for interviews or the patients for being taped. It was juvenile, but I was running away from them.

 

On the second level I ran across some red-shirts that were tending to some of the gardens. I acknowledged them as I breezed through followed closely by MB.

 

Back down to the first floor and into the kitchen. I stopped to check in with Boerseun. He was preparing some Braii. I had to make a note of that. I liked it best on the second day. Good stuff. He was none the worse for wear for his encounter with the buggers.

 

Next stop was with TFS. He was in the cafeteria with a disassembled bugger on the table in front of him. He seemed to be just staring, meditating on it. The radiation treatment probably had him half baked. And who knew how long it had been since he had slept.

 

"Stone." It took a moment for him to look up and recognize me. Another one at the edge. "I just wanted to thank you for the job you did over the past couple of days."

 

"Thanks, BD."

 

He was distraught, but so doped on pain killers that he was coasting without feeling anymore. What he was looking for in the disassembled bugger I could not fathom. I don't think he remembered anymore either. I was going to let the *** kicking of Ron slide. There would be a mention of it, but no real disciplinary action. I was confident in the professionalism of the crew. The strain of the mission starting, the buggers, the nanobot infections, the sabotage, the stabbing... all of it added up to bring people well out of their norms. I had to work on reeling everyone back in. Ron's pride was hurt more than anything, and we would work on healing that too.

 

"Stay tuned Stone. Good things are coming." I gave him a smile and walked out and toward the ER.

 

I was almost feeling awake again. I must have gone through a dozen second winds over the past day of being awake. This only had to carry me for a little while longer.

 

"What shift are you working MB?"

 

"Gold crew, BD."

 

I knew that, but I had asked before I bothered to remember.

 

"Switch your hours to match Pyro. How long can you spare until you need to begin getting your experiments up and running?"

 

"Not sure. I have not seen the schedule. I am mostly working on chemical analysis. Checking for traces of life and evidence of ancient life. Plus I am on the team that is looking for fuel sources. Uranium and such. Frankly, that is more interesting to me than the other."

 

"Interesting. We will turn a profit if we can find a decent fuel source. I am glad you have taken an interest in it. Any ideas about what me may find or where you want to begin looking?"

 

MB lit up like a light bulb. He didn't know where to begin, but let loose with a stream of consciousness, quickly listing in detail half a dozen ideas that could generate income to pay for as many more Prophesy class ships. I loved enthusiasm.

 

As we entered the ER I saw RTP had arrived for a fresh bandage and a prescription. I headed straight to the intensive care area where Kayra was being cared for. He was awake. The surgery had finished hours earlier. He had come out of the anesthesia, slept and was awake again. The doc nodded to me that it was OK to talk to him. I walked around to the side he was facing and sat in the bedside chair.

 

"You look like ****, BD" words that came out as a near whisper. His throat must have still been sore from the respirator tube.

 

"Yeah, I don't know about you, but I have had a tough day." He started to laugh a bit and winced, but kept smiling. He had been cut really badly. I had gotten a quick note from the doctor that he was in the clear, but would need some serious PT to get himself back into shape. I guess that was to be expected.

 

"Did anyone talk to you yet about what happened?"

 

His face went back to normal. "Yeah, I have heard the whole story. How is Racoon? What is happening to him?"

 

"We are still trying to figure that out. Remember that stuff about the nanobots and the very friendly message girl? Seems that there is a connection there. And 'Coon was more affected than most. We are working hard on it."

 

"And the ship?"

 

"We are firing up the engines in... " I stopped to check my watch, "...about 15 minutes." The news seemed to relax him.

 

His gaze turned. I looked up to see Gahd arrive at bedside. He and Kayra were pretty tight.

 

"That's right, Kayra. Engines go hot in 15 minutes, and we are bound for Jupiter."

 

I got up and gave him the seat. I had already thanked Gahd for the hard work. He was up again after some sleep actually.

 

"And if you are up to it Kayra, ask Gahd about the asteroid."

 

"Asteroid?" asked Kayra, his eyes going a bit wide before he winced once again.

 

"Get rest. Heal. We need you ready for Jupiter in a few weeks." I nodded to them both and headed to the third level.

 

In a private room with a great window view, sedated but lucid was Racoon. I looked at him through the window in the door. He appeared to be restrained to the bed. I felt my heart sink. He was just not the guy who would ever have this happen.

 

"MB, do you know the man in there?"

 

"Yeah, that's Racoon. Everyone knows who that is."

 

"I know you know who he is. I am asking if you KNOW him." I only let the silence linger for half a moment before I continued.

 

"I have know Racoon for ten years. He knows me, my wife, and my kids... I have had him over for picnics. He has stayed as a guest in my house. Whatever has happened to him, and something has happened, I want the man I know as Racoon back. I want the man who taught my wife how to garden, who helped my kids with their homework, who dedicated his life to this dream..." I didn't need to get choked up. I was so exhausted suddenly. I took a moments to breathe. Then I turned and looked him straight in the eyes.

 

"Go meet Pyro in the bakery. Help him find out what these nanobots are doing so we can get Racoon back again. So we can get Pyro back again. So we can get everyone back to normal again. If you need resources let me know. If you get resistance let me know. I am giving you the task of making it happen. And this conversation is between you and me and Pyro. Do you understand your assignment?"

 

There was no hesitation, just a look of... fear? As he said, "Yes, Sir."

 

"Good. Now go meet Pyro in the bakery." And he ran off. I stood alone for another minute looking in at Racoon. Whatever it was that had changed him was the biggest threat to this ship. But I could not let that out. I had reason to keep this investigation low key. And I hoped that it could stay that way.

 

I reached for my phone and called another contact of mine. I knew he was on shift, and asked him to meet me in my quarters. I seemed to move to my room in a haze. I chatted with those I passed along the way, but have no recollection of the conversations. I was beginning to drift. I had just a couple more matters before I went to sleep.

 

Turns out he beat me to my room. He was sitting in one of the soft chairs when I got in. He had been there long enough to get himself a drink from the fridge. I sat in the next chair that met at the corner of the room and melted into the cushion.

 

"You look beat, BD."

 

"Another country heard from. I feel beat." I began to take off my shoes and socks. It felt great. "So, what have you got on our little friend?"

 

"An amazing program. It is actually two clusters of programs that operate like interlocking loops. None of them is the master program. In fact it appears that there is no root, but the collective interplay of the two clusters makes it function."

 

"Do you have any worries about compromises?"

 

"I always have worries. But none worth worrying about."

 

God, I loved answers like that at the end of a day like this.

 

"So, can we let it out to play again?"

 

"I think so. I think we have to. But we want to make sure it learns limits. We don't know what it may be capable of concluding. And until we have more empirical evidence to build a level of trust we need to keep it safely quarantined. I have taken measures for that. And I am confident in the scheme."

 

Hearing "confident" from him was the closest thing to certainty in the known world. I was sold.

 

"Great news. Why don't you get back to work."

 

"Gland to help. I am going to keep monitoring this."

 

"Just be careful that nobody figures you out. I don't need people thinking outside the box on us yet. Too many damn hackers in my crew of geniuses."

 

He got up with a smile and tossed me a USB drive. "You don't look beat, BD. You look like ****." And he laughed his way out the door.

 

I placed a call to two people to come to my quarters. I the drive while I waited. CraigD's notes on the program and the measures for quarantine. The knock seemed to come before I was ready.

 

"COME!" I barked in my best Jean-Luke Picard.

 

The door opened and in walked TFS and KAC. I motioned them to be seated. They were both depressed. And look defeated. The physical and emotional roller coaster had been particularly tough on both of them. Neither spoke. They just sat emotionless on the chairs.

 

"I have a present for you gentlemen. When you get back to your quarters you will find that the MCP program is running. It never actually stopped running, and had been isolated by the OS. It has been let back out again, but some precautions have been taken to limit the systems that it can control. Other than that it should be very much as you left it." I let the words hang in the air.

 

Even through the drugs TFS was suddenly vibrant. KAC was actually smiling and looked like he might jump for joy.

 

"I want the two of you to go right now and tell RTP about this before he hangs himself. Now, get the hell out of here so I can hit the hay."

 

They never said a word, the the thanks and excitement was tangible. This should help patch things up with RTP too, I hoped.

 

As soon as they left I stripped to my boxers and crashed onto the bed. The covers were still pulled back from when I had been awakened by the bump... DAMN!!! 2 days earlier. I looked at my clock just as it turned to the time of the engine start. In one motion I reached for the long pillow I used to lean against during thrust that was still laying on the floor where I had tossed it when the engines stopped. No sooner had I picked it up than the engines fired, and we were thrusting toward Jupiter again. And before I drew my second breath I was dreaming. Consumed at last by sleep.

 

(T+21)

 

*************************

 

I was in the command conference room. From my perspective things had gone smoothly since our 2 day engine stop. The rest of the burn had gone without a hitch. In fact the ship had run absolutely perfectly. On two occasions we had seen collision warnings again, but never one's that got above 5% probability of collision. People joked about making the system more sensitive so we could see the lasers blow something up. Kayra was on the road to recovery, taking a vicious approach to PT. He wanted to be at full strength for the tricky Jupiter missions that we had planned.

 

And that was the purpose of today's meeting. I had let things settle in, with people learning to live on the ship, and deal with the realities of ship life. I had not pressed for solutions and answers to some of the problems we had earlier, letting people work things out at the leisurely pace permitted by long trips between planets. But I had to get updates at some point, and today was the day.

 

I had left an open invitation to everyone who had an open project to join me up here for a game at their leisure. An invitation that few would possibly refuse. I would spend my day getting getting updates and shooting pool with huge windows providing a view of space. I had even busted out a keg for the occasion. Could life be any better than this?

 

I racked up the balls for myself and shot left hand against right hand while I waited for people to arrive.

 

Bill (T+57)

[Mercedes Benzene]

At last! This was one of the only opportunities I have had to speak with BD on this voyage thus far!

 

I was extremely enthusiastic to begin working with Pyro. I can only hope that his "infection" does not prompt a disposition that will negatively affect my misson.

I just have to remember to report back to BD as soon as any problems arise.

 

Before I headed off to the bakery --where I would undoubtedly find Pyro with his "liaison"-- I decided to stop by my room to pick up some things...

 

----------------------------------------------

Back at my room, I couldn't help notice the loneliness and desolation. I think perhaps I'll need a roommate eventually. My quarters are in such a remote part of the ship (near the chem. labs --where I often fall asleep, after working late into the night).

 

I move over to my bed, and pull the box out from underneath.

I then remove some of the contents, placing them in my utility belt which I wear conveniently around my waist.

Once that has been done, I lock up, and leave my cabin...

 

-----------------------------------------------

As I was walking toward the bakery, I feel a slight jolt and the pressures of meek G-forces.

At least I know that the engines work properly.

I make myself a mental note: "Think of possibilities for alternative fuels". Thorium comes to mind immediately, but I don't know where we're going to find that in our solar system...

 

------------------------------------------------

The door to the bakery was inconspicuous enough... with the exception of a small sign featuring various baked goods....

 

I open the door and walk in.

"Hey Pyro, I just came from...."

I was interrupted by the unplanned sight before me.

There was Pyro seemingly macking on a hot blond chick.

I interrupt, "Ahhemm!"

Surprised, Pyro broke away, responding, "Oh, uhhh, yes, well, the stawberry glaze seems to meet all the requirements... for the, uhh, scones."

 

Not letting what I just saw get in the way of my mission, I went on to greet Pyro, as the "pastry chef" buttoned up, and left the room...

[TheFaithfulStone]

I closed down the MCP window for the hundredth time. Still nothing like what we had.

 

I suspected that the MCP needed the buggers to be "real." that it needed the sense of self provided by being able to know what it was doing. Turns out that maybe the most important part of consciousness is a well developed sense of proprioception. But without it, the MCP was just another expert system.

 

Clown and I had kept it at for twelve days running at first, trying to coax the sort of behavior we'd experienced before out of it, but no matter what we did, it never got much smarter. It remembered perfectly the events of T+21, but it hadn't processed them. It no longer referred to itself, and had stopped using the new constructions it had added to the bot-control pseudolanguage it talked in.

 

Effectively, it was brain damaged.

 

After that, we'd gotten a little frustrated, I'd gotten a lot depressed, and we let it slide. Clown moved on to his next project - some kind if unified field theory thing that I didn't understand. I went back to my shop. I fixed the buggers when they cam in from repair - I maintained the autoplows. I'd even re-fitted a few of the buggers to inspect the outside of the ship. I filled my time.

 

I'd tried to convince BigDog to let me hook the MCP back up to the buggers, but he wasn't having it - apparently the memory of being swarmed by them was still a little too fresh.

 

I knew it was hopeless, but I still spent twelve hours a day down here, talking to the MCP and making endless minor, unnecessary modifications to the bots. On one of the workbenches was a shape-roller. It needed repair before we arrived in orbit around Jupiter. I wasn't motivated.

 

My crew, who were never very numerous, had stopped coming around. When they were here I sat in the shop office and tinkered with 3A - the bugger that had mysteriously found it's way into Clowns cabin.

 

There was nothing different about it. Nothing at all.

 

The ship wide clanged once - "All hands! Kegger in Ring 4, deck 2!"

 

I looked at the screen. The MCP prompt was there, blinking silently, expectantly. I typed. A formatted response appeared. Not the same. Not the same.

 

I picked up a nearby torx-driver, intending to take apart and reassemble 3A once again. Maybe I was just missing something, some vital part of the puzzle. I started to turn the first bit.

 

Why? What was even the ****ing point?

 

I threw the screwdriver across the room - it clanged harmlessly off of idle machines - and soon there was only the low drone of the ship - the constant throbbing note that was it's heartbeat.

 

"Lights!" I barked - and as the worklights faded out, I tossed myself on the cot I had taken to keeping in here, and drifted off to sleep.

 

TFS