by Divya Singh
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the way, I was concerned about whether the Navigator may have something to show me or even if he has, would he allow me to have a look? Does Authorization also mean unrestricted access to all the data they have on the ship? Anyway, I have the right to know and I will insist that they give it to me.
As I reached The Navigator’s room, I saw him standing in front of the screens. It was good that he was in the same form as I met him the last time, so I could recognize him instantly. He turned around to look at me and said-
The Navigator: “Hi case DS! I was expecting to see you sooner. But it doesn’t matter anymore because you are here now. I can clearly see that you are doing very well in your new life. You have been given unrestricted access, with the effect of the authorization passkey to this floor and everywhere else. So, feel free to look around and involve lesser of me for your own best in your exploration.”
I nodded in yes, as I moved towards the 1st room on my sharp left facing towards the bow of the ship. As I entered into it, a young man gave me a welcoming gesture. He said-
Young man: “Hi miss! I am Albert. What brings you here? I do not get many visitors so please pardon my excessive formal behavior, eh!”
I said: “Hello! I am Danielle brought back from the past. I came here for accessing information about whatever you might have for me. Anything, that you might think would be of some use for me.” I had figured out that the excessive formality Albert was exhibiting was a clear reaction to my physical appearance. I had decided to maintain a modest composure.
Albert: “Here, we have a spare computer in my room. Feel yourself at home!” He said, pointing towards a glass screen.
I did not actually know how this touch screen was operated upon. It was held in the air without touching anything. It placed itself nowhere and then faced me when I approached it as if it had heard that I was being told about using it. I sat on a stool in front of it, which was uncomfortably high. Then, I took out my right-hand pointer and touched it, something opened up which consisted of the navigation manuals. I took out the earphone headband and wore it on my head plugging them into my ears. I touched the screen further hovering my finger over the options available. The heavy masculine voice from my earphones began reading the options that I would hover my finger over and the voice would read for me.
“a) History of the ship
The menu that got opened consisted of headings as the design of the ship, interior of the ship etc. I looked at Albert and said-
I asked: “Where can I get the history of the ship?” I moved aside so as to make more space for Albert to come forward and show me how to operate this thing before me. But it did not happen as supposed. Instead, the screen which was suspended from nowhere turned towards him and two eye-scan arms moved themselves to focus on his retina, then he called out loud-
Albert: “History of the ship!”
The computer echoed in my ears ‘history of the ship’.
Albert: “Now you can use it with voice commands as I have logged into it.”
The Computer: “The Ship Asclepius set off to sail at 10 am, on 23rd December 2281 to an uncharted ‘higher’ destination from the port of Los Angeles, as California was seismically graded vulnerable, after the occurrence of the Grand Tsunamis it was like living on the edge of a highly active volcano.
It was constructed by shipbuilding French Giant- SNS Magnifique Inc. It was first largest ship of its kind to be built for the West Coast. It was initially titled as ‘Asclepius’ but after the tragic intake of The Contaminated sample cases and embryos, which led to a high percentage of death of passengers, due to the furtherance of the Contamination, The Navigator resolved upon to alter its name to ‘Perpetua’, partly to part with the dreaded history thereof, and partly to be used as a symbol of building spirits brighter, rather than maintaining the medical title of the ship.”
The computer continued-
The Computer: “This ship was not a result of a preplanned voyage rather it was, more of a nature of an Evacuation procedure. We had 10 hours 32 minutes 59 seconds to evacuate and step aboard the Ship in the given time, before the First Wave of the ‘The Ripple’ was predicted to hit the West Coast. People who had signed up for the rescue mission were intimated with an immediate effect. They had been given time, just enough to pack up all the valuables they had ever possessed and could carry with them and then embark on the journey to start the mission.”
I began itching for more information on it.
The computer continued: “The ship was reserved for 6,157 passengers, but still a lot more could be accommodated for a lifetime fee of just, USD 21, 599. But to our dismay, only 4002 passengers succeeded in boarding the ship, making for about a mere 65% of the ship’s expanded capacity. Much more could the hitherto Asclepius could hold aboard, as much as double in the stretched out and strained out capacity.”
The machine before me seemed to take a break for a pause in its speech. It continued-
The computer: “This fact itself was considered as no less than a disaster in itself. ‘The Ripple’ came as predicted, punctual and enormous. The San Andreas Fault almost had wiped out various counties, Los Angeles, San Fransico, San Diego and in the south up to Baja California, hitting as high a tremor as Mw 9.8 on the Moment Magnitude Scale. Then along the Cascadia Subduction Zone an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred but the pressure built up under the sister faults, was partly released by the San Andreas major eruption. An aftershock has never been recorded to exceed a maximum magnitude of 1Mw less than the first major tremor. In a period of 15 days, two more tremors of magnitude higher than a magnitude of 7 on the Moment Magnitude Scale were felt along the Cascadia Volcanic Arc, a tail of the Pacific Ring of Fire, killing a meager portion of the 10,000,000 lives put at stake. Although the loss inflicted to property was much higher. This rubble of places such as Portland, Seattle, and Washington was rendered largely unfit for residential colonies.”
The computer would break the sentences and reassembled data with a recall of statistics.
The Computer: “But we had managed to leave destruction behind us; the aftermath Tsunamis of ‘The Ripple’ were caused by the huge enormity of the earthquakes and went ahead debasing most of the Western Coastal America (The Pacific Coast). But we had safely charted out a course into the ocean before The Ripple would hit us. When we were actually confronted by The Ripple Tsunamis, the waves had receded and went past us, leaving us unharmed floating in the Pacific.”
I intervened: “Describe ‘The Ripple’.”
The Computer: “The Ripple was a series of Earthquakes, Tsunamis and sudden rising up of the sea water level so as to cause widespread destruction on a massive scale to person and property along the coastal world and islands.”
I asked: “What kind of destruction was caused to the countries other than American Continents?”
The Computer: “I am sorry, but the detailed information was not put into my records. This is all my records have at this time. I am dependent upon human interface for further information required to be put manually.”
I said: “Tell me about the ship and its people.”
Albert interrupted me, saying: “Sorry madam, for more information you must go visit the adjoining room, which keeps the record of people, their health and so on. We also know them as the personal department of the ship. For information about the ship you are free and welcome to pay a visit to me and present me with an opportunity to better serve you again.”
I said: “I understand. Thank you, Albert,, for your kind assistance.” It was time for me to move onto other places and explore about the people on the ship. As I came out I realized the only adjoining room was that of the Navigator. So I decided to go into the room in the front.
As I reached there, it read, ‘Ship Design and Engineering Department’ on the board over my head. But by the time I realized that this department was not the one I might be interested
in, I had already stepped inside of it. Then I thought I must comb every nook and corner before my mind would start drifting towards what I wanted to avoid drifting it to. So I decided to take a stroll ahead. The doors slit-opened; as easily as all the other photosensitive doors as soon as I approached them.
A man, middle-aged, turned his chair to face me as I began saying-
I introduced: “Hi! I am Danielle Spearhead. I have authorization passkey to explore the ship. If you may please allow me to have access to some information from you department I will be highly obliged.”
I was expecting a surprised treatment, but the man remained in a composed posture and replied back-
The man: “Hi! I am Gayle! I have seen you around here. You are welcome to work and look at the extra screen I have right here. We basically have the ship’s dimensional and engineering information in our department. Please go well and detailed, through it all. It is all yours. You can ask me for anything you feel you will need.”
I nodded in agreement. Exactly what I needed. He turned one of the screens towards me and invited me to it. Bigger the screens the better to read the information through it, I fumbled-
Okay, so here I am again transfixed before the computer. Good thing, they don’t bite you when you touch them! Let’s see what we have got here-
Ship Engineering, Ship Information, Ship Interior, Ship Amenities, Ship Redesignable, Ship Biology, etc. I decided to go ahead with the 2nd and easier option because the first one wouldn’t be catchable by my antennas.
With a voice in my headphone-
“ b) Ship Information
The ship ‘Asclepia’ was built by SNS Magnifique Inc. in April of the year 2281. The shipbuilding contractor Quinny Parable and associates handed it over to Viva La Vida LMN international cruise liner who fleeted it in Los Angeles Shipyard at 8:00 am on 22nd November 2281.”
“Gross Tonnage 261581, Weight Displacement 131000 tons, Length 1381 feet, Hull weight 59000 tons, 3 open decks, open porch, Retractable Roof covering, 6600 rooms with adjustable boundaries and dimensions…..”
But this information was also pretty technical for me to understand so I decided to go to the ship interior option-
“c) Ship Interior
The ship is built with almost identical room structures with expandable or retractable dimensions. We have 3 decks with a circular structure similar to an inverted dome, as an opening, with balconies of rooms opening over each other. While the center of the first deck is kept open, though coverable by retracting opaque roof when the need be. The circular opening is provided till the five first floors, representing an inverted dome structure.”
“The inverted dome is meant for plantation, vegetable and fruit bearing trees, basically, we had been self-dependent ever since embarking on the voyage. To cultivate fresh water we have a Desalinization plant, employing a technique called Electrochemically Mediated Seawater Desalinization. From various sources of energy e.g. from Salinity Gradient, Tidal Power, and Solar Energy, we have succeeded in living this far given the most energy efficient equipment and machinery’ low energy consumption.”
“With present capacity, we can harness almost 3000 KW a day, which is about for the full capacity of the ship’s needs. But especially when we are not deploying even 15% of our capacity, our needs have been sufficient just by the solar power we generate from plants stretched across the roof and other open spaces of the ship. We are producing soil at an impressive pace, by recycling wastes, by chemically curing sewage, growing healthy bacteria…………..”
Okay, so in a nutshell, we are living off pretty well on this ship, it is what I thought and touched ‘The Ship Amenities, icon-
“d) Ship Amenities
The ship holds 6 restaurants, 5 markets, 6 gymnasiums, 2 playing grounds for basketball, skating or football, 6 schools, 1 medical college, a hospital, 11 security cells, 8 prison cells, 5 engineering colleges, 8 research facilities, about twice latest and most efficient medical and research equipment, 3 pools, 3 orchards and 8 small vegetable gardens. All drainage and sewage are mostly brought back into recycling to produce dirt and soil often after treating in refinery plants and subsequent to incineration of harmful and useless components……”
I murmured: “Okay! Everything appears exceptionally well here too.” I dragged my index finger to the next title-
“e) Ship Redesignable-
We can redesign the ship without having to abandon our places because it has been designed by an excellent engineering acumen and is one of the finest examples of modern day advanced engineering. Our civil engineering department is able to move walls, cabins, fixtures and even research facilities remotely, so as to be able to alter the dimensions of inner cabins, rooms or enclosures. We have two retractable roofs, one which produces enough glass house effect so as to allow ample light and heat to our flora to flourish and solar plant to work at full capacity. While the other retractable roof is opaque, water, and air-proof so that when the need arises, the whole ship transforms into a submersible watercraft for a longer duration as a week or so……..””
I had expected it to be better in the future, which the computer was telling and showing me in fine and carefully made animations. But now I was concerned only about the ‘worse’ part of this future and find ways to make my contributions in rendering it better off.
So, eventually, my fingers moved ahead in the main menu pushing for the ship biology head-
“f) Ship Biology
The ship contains, 85% of the species of plant seeds and fruit-bearing trees. But we have till now succeeded in planting only 57% of them on our ship. But keeping drawbacks behind, we have an ecosystem of flora on the ship. But for the animal kingdom, we only have a few apart from human beings; we have, all dairy and fishery animals, fish, cows, horses, rats, pigs, snakes, birds etc. for research and petting.”
It was all, this subtitle contained. The voice stopped and the main menu showed up again, for the rest of which I only selected Ship Safety, which I decided as the being the last information in this cabin. The voice read again-
“g) Ship Safety
The ship complied with all the safety regulations set by the International Maritime Safety Agency by a 100%. We have had enough lifeboats with all the basic life support system, as to support all the persons of the ship’s fully expanded capacity. We have backup engines and propeller systems in case we lost our main systems. We have had an advanced Z-rated Iceberg Alert System and Post-Collision Redressal System based on the extent of the damage. The ship had always followed the hitherto set regulations for combustible compounds and machinery on the ship. We have ……….”
…………..and I pushed back to reach the Main Menu, rechecked if there was anything worth paying my attention to before I took off my headphones. When I thought there wasn’t any, I thanked Gayle with a smile and bid adieu until the next time.
I left The Navigation chambers and walked out to the main corridor, I suddenly I realized that, by adjoining room Albert didn’t mean the cabins in the Navigation Hall, rather the adjoining hall to it which lay extreme right to me right now as I was stepping outside on the corridor.
I then decided to take the first right door towards the first hall with transparent glass walls, I spotted a little glass cabin, where a young tall woman sat in her black seat. As I entered, she looked a bit alarmed but calmed herself down soon. I made the first move and introduced myself-
I introduced: “Hi! I am Danielle Spearhead. Is this the Personnel Department? I seek some information, all categorized as the general type. Can you please help me, madam?”
She said: “Oh! Hello, Danielle! I am Larissa, Personnel Coordinator of the ship. I will feel glad to share any kind of information with you if you have proper authorization with you now.”
I replied: “Yes, I am duly authorized to access information freely, as The Navigator said my Passkey is DS Reborn 01……”
She cut my sentence midway saying: “Oh then tell me how to help you
exactly and excuse me for excessive formality procedures, you know how it is these days? So what information exactly do you need?”
I replied: “Any information which I may find useful and relevant to me and my situation, starting with general information about the people on the ship.”
Larissa: “We have 353 people alive on board, excluding 27 clones and 7 successfully resurrected people, including you, Danielle. But I am sorry I couldn’t recognize you because I have not seen you before and what is the story with blue skin?”
I almost giggled in disbelief and said: “You are telling me, 353 people live in this Super Gigantic, Super Specialty, and Technologically Hi-tech ship? Tell me, you are joking! But I must let you know that it is not the right time for the frivolous stuff. I need serious data!”
Larissa looked a little surprised in disbelief as if she had held her ground firm and wasn’t kidding me. I still could not trust the reflection of truth on her plain slender face. I was meant to say something but it went like I was unable to as I was struck with a lightning jolt. I sat on the seat next to her left with the impact-
I cried: “Come on Larissa! There was this ship, occupied by more than half of its relaxed capacity, 4002 people passengers Larissa! Where did they all go?”
Larissa: “From the history of the ship, we know that they were lost to fatal chronic genetic diseases and deformities, formally known as Contamination. Those people with such diseases were incurable by the level of medical advancement we have ever had on the ship. We have had one solution that we quarantined the affected and got rid of the deceased to the bottom floors.”
I said: What do you mean by ‘Quarantine the affected’? Deprive them of the necessary medical attention? Isolate them to solitary confinement? And how horrid is it about ‘Getting rid of the deceased’? Throw them in the ocean without proper and appropriate final crematory rituals? Deny them the respect they deserve post death? Is that what you mean by the last statement you just made? Is it the building block of the society of today?” I was furious with the detailed explanation of inhumanity being manifested before me.
Larissa: “Yeah! Almost the same as what you just figured out by yourself!” She was getting annoyed now, I could smell that.
I said interrupting her voice, to annoy her more: “It is inhuman. In fact, it is beastly animalistic. Is this what civilization is like today?”
Larissa: “But that was an indispensable solution, otherwise every human on this ship would have got his/her life risked, or for worse suffered himself/herself from the wretched diseases.”
I reclined against the counter sitting on my seat and said: “This does not get any less than disgusting.”
Larissa: “But human lives are much more valuable now than they were in your era. We get humans created with a lot of effort and difficulty. We make in-vitro embryos of human from rarely available original human beings and others by cloning. Very rarely do we have them unaffected genetically. Minimizing risks is our top priority.”
I said: “Really? Then how are you actually creating humans on the ship, when they were already dying; how and where did you get the basic raw material from?”
Larissa: “Well Dani! It is actually meant to be asked of a technical person. But as much as I know we have had 75000 viable embryos initially, almost equal number of them have been used to fabricate humans as the new ones made. So we still are having a storage of about 70000 embryos intact as my roll on the computer says. We have a safe future!” said Larissa looking towards the computer screen through her glasses.
I asked: “Where are the embryos stored?”
Larissa: “The last level.”
Chapter 20: revisit to Despondra
