The Silence Between the Stars

by Alan Davenport

  Nathan let Kelly drive him back to his sleeping quarters. His eyes never left the tiny creature in his hands. “Frankenstein would be proud of you Kelly,” he said with a grin.

  Kelly looked at him in shock. “What we did was not like that at all! Frankenstein took dead bodies, chopped them up, sewed the pieces together, and then revived that horrifically constructed body. We used raw genetic material to build a body that never before existed. It’s not the same!”

  Nathan laughed. “Relax Kelly; I am not comparing you to a mad scientist. You have to admit there are some similarities though. You created life where none existed before. The difference is you did not do it in monstrous ways.”

  “Perhaps that is true,” she admitted. “I would prefer it if you did not mention my name in the same sentence as that madman though.”

  Nathan laughed again, “Deal!” he said.

  Nathan jumped at the hulking mechanical monstrosity he found waiting in his quarters. The robot was two meters long by one meter wide, had eight arms, all tipped with various tools and grippers, a vertical staff tipped in stereographic cameras and sat upon dual rubber tracks. In its center was a recessed tub. In the tub sat an enclosure made from Plexiglas. It resembled a fish aquarium with a screened covering on top. He took a step back and then the machine spoke. “I am general repair and maintenance bot designation number one-seven-seven-six. I am here to deliver your new mouse habitat.” Nathan quickly recovered and said, “Thank you bot 1776. You may place it upon the desk there.” The bot moved with surprising dexterity, gently picked up the enclosure from the tub, and then deftly placed the enclosure upon the desk. Nathan looked in dismay at the desk. The enclosure nearly covered the entire surface. Turning to the repair bot he said, “Say 1776, is there any way that you can make me a new table that I can put the enclosure on?”

  The bot swung its cameras towards Nathan and said, “Certainly Captain Nathan Staite. I will fabricate a suitable table immediately and will deliver it as soon as it is ready.” Without a further word, the bot turned and deftly squeezed its way through the doorway and disappeared down the corridor.

  Nathan stood with his mouth hanging open. “Why is it that I have never seen one of these bots before Kelly?”

  Kelly laughed. “They are rather imposing aren’t they?” she asked. “Most of them are just sitting idle. Since the ship is still brand new, there is not much for them to do other than minor general maintenance. Kelly looked at the enclosure. It contained a water bottle and the bottom four centimeters was filled with a clean bedding material. “It may make more sense to keep this in the galley Nathan. There are no food or water dispensers in the sleeping quarters.”

  “I agree,” he said. To the wall he said, “Intercom, call bot 1776.”

  A second later, a voice emitted from the speaker in the wall. “What can I do for you Captain Nathan Staite?”

  In a clear voice Nathan said, “Please deliver the new table to the galley next to my sleeping quarters instead. Next, please move the mouse enclosure to that new table.”

  “Instructions understood Captain Nathan Staite. I will comply.” A surprisingly short time later, the bot returned, picked up the mouse enclosure, and carried it out of the room. Nathan followed it to the galley and watched as the bot deftly placed the enclosure on the new table. The tabletop was exactly the same dimensions as the mouse enclosure. “Is there anything else you require of me Captain Nathan Staite?”

  Nathan shook his head at the bot and said, “No thank you 1776. You are dismissed.” The bot nodded its cameras up and down in acknowledgment, turned, and trundled out of the room. Turning to Kelly he said, “What exactly do I feed a mouse anyway?”

  Kelly’s image pointed at the food processor. “I have instructed the food processor to make a small amount of suitable food. Just place it in the enclosure.”

  Nathan opened the door, retrieved a tiny bowl with the mouse food inside, and carried it over to the enclosure. Lifting the lid, he placed the bowl in the cage. Next, he gently placed the mouse by the bowl and watched in utter fascination as the creature used its tiny paws to pick up and eat its food. Nathan turned to Kelly and said, “Kelly, upload all relevant data from your experiments to all system satellites from now on.”

  “Okay Nathan,” she said. “I have been recording all our data to a database I named ‘Genesis’. I will upload the entire database to all future system satellites.”

  “Appropriate name, Kelly,” he laughed.

  Chapter 16: Meeting

  Several months passed. Each day beginning to blur into one another. Nathan lay daydreaming on his bed. Although the ship was due to arrive at another system any minute, he did not get up and go to the bridge.

  Kelly appeared on the monitor in Nathan’s room. “Nathan, we have arrived at the class G star.”

  Nathan stopped staring at the ceiling and lifted his head from the pillow. “Let me guess,” he said. “Klienyan has already been here or there are no good planets.”

  Kelly looked miserable. “I am picking up the transmissions from a system satellite. I am sorry Nathan. Katy beat us here yet again.”

  Nathan pounded his fists upon the bed. “How the frack is she staying ahead of us with her version one starship?”

  “I wish I knew,” Kelly said. “It should be impossible. We should have outpaced her long ago.” Kelly’s image on the monitor showed surprise. “That’s odd,” she said.

  Nathan lifted up his head. “What is it, Kelly,” he asked?

  “This satellite has no data on it.”

  “No data?”

  “It is as if it she launched it but did not upload anything to it.”

  “That’s curious,” he said. “Heading to the bridge.”

  Nathan arrived at the bridge and said, “I wonder if she just forgot to upload her data. Perhaps the monotony of this exploration has made her sloppy?”

  “Unlikely Nathan,” she said. “Her ship’s avatar would have done it as a matter of standard procedure.”

  “Then how do you explain it Kelly,” he asked?

  Kelly shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t, Nathan. Perhaps she had some sort of malfunction. Then why launch a satellite with no data? It makes no sense.” They both stood still for several minutes and then Nathan said, “Well, you may as well update it with our data at least.”

  “Uploading,” she said. Several seconds later Kelly said in surprise, “Nathan! We are receiving a transmission. It’s from Forgotten Hope!”

  Nathan’s head snapped up and he said, “What? Put it on the screen!”

  The main view screen showed a starship rapidly approaching. A second later, the main view screen displayed ‘Mesh network connection to starship Forgotten Hope established via starship area network’. The next second, the image of a young woman appeared. She had a narrow face with piercing green eyes. Long, straight, flame red hair hung carefree down her body. The bangs, long and cut straight across her forehead to just above her eyebrows, appeared to be the only attempt at styling. She wore a dirty green standard jumpsuit with the top several buttons undone. Her body had a classic hourglass shape. She smiled and said, “Well, if it isn’t my competition. Hello Nathan. Nice to meet you.”

  Nathan stood, jaw agape for several seconds before composing himself. “Hello Katy,” he said with a smile. “Likewise.” He stood there saying no more like a fascinated schoolboy meeting his pretty girlfriend for a prom date. Snapping out of it he said, “What are the chances of two starships meeting each other in all the vastness of space?”

  “Infinitesimally small,” she said with a laugh. “You shouldn’t be too surprised though. After all, you are copying my exploration strategy.”

  “Your strategy? I came up with this idea on my own!” he said indignantly.

  “Well, I came up with it first,” she said with a laugh. Her laugh held a musical quality. Nathan began to open his mouth to protest and she cut him off. “Relax Nathan. I am just teasing you!” She gave him an appraising look.
“I like the way you think. All the other fools are all out there chasing each other on ‘the most probable course’ route. Fools! They are just wasting each other’s time.” Her face took on a serious look. “Humanity cannot afford that nonsense. The Starship Project was so desperate for pilots that they took almost anybody. Too many of them do not have the imagination to wipe their own asses, much less to be proper explorers.”

  “Indeed,” Nathan agreed. “I figured as much, that is why I chose this course.” Nathan laughed, “I have to admit though; you have been confounding me. It seems that most systems I pick, you have already visited. It got so bad that I have modified my instructions to my avatar to be ‘Find a star on our general course that is least likely to have been visited by Katy’.”

  Katy’s whole frame shook with laughter. “That is just too funny, Nathan.”

  Nathan’s laughter joined hers. “What I want to know is how the frack you are staying ahead of me when my ship is four times faster than yours?”

  She gave him a sly look and said, “Well, that will take some explaining. Why don’t I take a shuttle over to your ship and we can discuss it over a meal. I have not seen a real human being in over two years. I never thought I would say this after all the crowding back on Earth but I am a bit lonely. My avatar Henry is a good pal but he is not much good for physical contact. Solo pleasure is not too much fun… if you know what I mean.”

  Nathan blushed a deep red. “Um, no it is not.” Too embarrassed to say more, Nathan just stood there gawking at her. Finally, she waved her hands out from her side, palms out and fingers spread wide and gave him a wide-eyed questioning look. Nathan recovered his voice and said, “Sure, come on over. Please use shuttle bay number seven.”

  “Number seven, understood,” she said. “I’ll be right over as soon as I clean up a little bit. I was not quite expecting to meet anybody today.”

  “Isn’t that the truth,” he said. “I’ll clean up a bit too. See you in a few minutes.”

  “In a few,” she said and then the transmission cut off.

  After a hasty shower, Nathan put on a clean new red overall jumpsuit and hurried to shuttle bay number seven. Katy’s shuttle was just arriving as he got there. As soon as the shuttle bay had repressurized and the door safety interlock allowed access, Nathan hurried inside. With a whine and a small thud, her shuttle’s ramp opened and she appeared on the top step. They stood staring at each other, entranced, before Katy broke the spell and ran up to Nathan. She grabbed him in a bear hug and said, “I am so pleased to meet you!” Nathan immediately felt a stirring in his groin and Katy’s face flushed red with heat. Nathan put his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm’s length. They stared into each other’s eyes for several long seconds before Nathan said, “Frack! I had forgotten how nice physical human contact was!” Unable to speak, Katy just enthusiastically nodded. Eventually, Katy broke the spell. “Well, let’s go see this ship of yours!”

  Unwilling to break all contact with her, he led her by the hand to the waiting travel cart. When they sat down next to each other, Katy slid herself over so that her hips and thighs pressed against his. Nathan turned to the wall monitor and said, “Kelly, take us to the galley please.”

  Kelly nodded and said, “Yes, Nathan.”

  Katy jumped and grabbed tightly onto Nathan. “You let your ship’s avatar drive?” she asked in amazement.

  Nathan laughed and said, “Kelly hates to let me drive. She thinks I will crash and hurt myself.”

  Katy jumped again when Kelly said, “He likes to drive too fast.”

  Katy stared at the monitor. “Frack Nathan, your ship’s avatar looks so real!”

  Katy stared, open mouthed, when Kelly said, “This avatar can hear you, Katy.”

  Nathan laughed. “Be careful. Kelly is more human than most humans I have known!”

  Kelly laughed and Katy just sat there nodding in astonishment. Kelly smiled and said, “Hold on tight humans. I would not want you to fall out and get hurt!”

  Katy finally regained the use of her voice. “A sense of humor? Holy frack Nathan, I want your avatar!”

  Both Kelly and Nathan laughed. Kelly said, “I can upload the patch files to your ship so that you can update Henry to version 2.0 if you like Katy. It will raise your computer’s CPU utilization by approximately seven percent. It will be able to handle it just fine. Would that be okay?”

  “Are you kidding me Kelly,” she said. “Absolutely. Yes please!”

  Kelly smiled and said, “Upload in progress.”

  “Thank you, Kelly,” she said, somewhat dazed.

  If Katy was amazed by Nathan’s avatar, she was completely floored by what she found in the galley. Noticing the Plexiglas mouse enclosure, she hurried over with a face full of curiosity. She gasped and said, “Nathan! Where on Earth or off of it did you get all those mice?”

  Nathan could not resist a little tease. “Didn’t they provide you with any pets before you headed out?”

  Katy looked at Nathan, wide-eyed and said, “Are you kidding me? They just plopped me in my ship, told me to ask the avatar to run the training program and then left me.” Katy’s eyes narrowed and then she said, “You are kidding me! Seriously Nathan, where did… how did you get them?”

  With a sideways grin Nathan said, “We printed them on a 3D genetic printer in a medical bay.”

  Katy sputtered out several inarticulate syllables before she was able to speak coherently. “No way!” Nathan reached into the enclosure and took out a mouse. He gently placed it in Katy’s outstretched hand. The mouse’s whiskers twitched and its little pink eyes looked at Katy fearlessly. Katy looked at the creature with wide-eyed wonder. “It is so soft!” She looked from the mouse to Nathan and back to the mouse again. “I don’t believe it! I heard about the research that was being done on Earth but I never heard that it had gotten this far.”

  “Actually, it had not,” Nathan said. “It was Kelly who worked it out. She was working on a theory for doing restores of memory backups to living hosts and needed test subjects so she figured out how to print living mice.”

  Katy was flabbergasted. “Your ship’s avatar did this? KELLY? You did this Kelly?”

  Kelly appeared embarrassed as she said, “Well, yes I did however it was Nathan that gave me the idea that ultimately allowed me to achieve one hundred percent success rate.”

  Nathan smiled and said, “She is being modest. Kelly is a genius. Without her insight, this would never have been possible.”

  Katy looked at Kelly in wonder. “Frack! She is actually blushing! Kelly, you are actually blushing! I must update Henry to version 2.0!” She turned to Nathan and said, “Can you help me? How long will it take?”

  “Sure I can help. I do not know how long it will take though. My computer is blazingly fast. The computer tech expected it to take days to set up my system but we were done in under an hour.”

  “I don’t care how long it takes, let’s do this! Let’s do it, now!”

  “Follow me,” said Nathan with a smile. On the bridge, Nathan sat down at one of the engineering consoles. Katy pulled up a chair and sat as close to Nathan as she could with her leg pressed tightly against his. “I have to shut down your avatar in order for me to do the update. Is this okay with you?”

  “Yes, you have my permission. Do it!”

  “Okay. Kelly, please establish a connection to Henry.” A few seconds later Henry’s image filled the screen. Henry was tall, blond, well-tanned and very muscular. He wore nothing except a skin-tight, bright red bathing suit. The briefs showed a distinct bulge in front. Nathan whistled, elbowed Katy in the ribs and said, “I can see why you are lonely for physical contact!” Katy turned a deep shade of red, hid her face in her hands and said nothing. To the view screen Nathan said, “Hello Henry. Katy has asked me to update your software. In order to do this I need to shut down your program briefly. Do you understand this?”

  In a bland, emotionless voice Henry said, “Yes Captain Nathan Staite.
In order to do this, you will require permission from Captain Katy Klienyan. Do you grant Captain Nathan Staite permission to perform software updates, Captain Katy Klienyan?”

  “Yes Henry,” she replied, “Please grant Captain Nathan Staite all necessary permissions.”

  “Permissions granted for software updates to Captain Nathan Staite of starship Silent Running.”

  Nathan said, “See you in a little while Henry.” Katy’s eyes lit up with wonder as Nathan opened a command line console and began typing.

  >TELNET STARSHIP DESTINATION=”FORGOTTEN HOPE”

  ESTABLISHING CONNECTION TO STARSHIP “FORGOTTEN HOPE” VIA STARSHIP AREA NETWORK

  TELNET CONNECTION SUCCESSFUL TO FORGOTTEN HOPE VIA SAN

  Nathan began furiously typing on the console.

  FH> KILL -9 PROCESS=AVATAR

  PROCESS AVATAR TERMINATED

  FH> HELP AVATAR UPDATE

  Nathan studied the help screen for several long minutes. Katy sat beside him, biting her nails. Nathan resumed typing.

  FH> BACKUP PROGRAM DATA PROGRAM=AVATAR; DATA=ALL; DESTINATION=AVATAR_V1_BACKUP

  BACKUP OF PROGRAM AVATAR IN PROGRESS. DESTINATION= AVATAR_V1_BACKUP… BACKUP SUCCESSFUL

  Nathan looked at Katy and said, “Last chance to change your mind.”

  She squeezed his arm, fingernails leaving deep indentations and said, “Do it.”

  FH> UPDATE PROGRAM AVATAR SOURCE_DATA=AVATAR_V2.0_INSTALL_FILE

  UPGRADING PROGRAM AVATAR USING AVATAR_V2.0_INSTALL_FILE

  Several minutes went by when nothing appeared to be happening. Katy, becoming increasingly restless, squeezed Nathan’s arm, making him wince. “Relax your claws Katy. That hurts! It is okay, these processes take time.” Katy took a deep breath and released his arm. He had several small, bloody crescents on his arm where her fingernails had dug in. At last, text began scrolling down the screen again.