Deep

by Linda Mooney

  Step two was when robots were created to go with the ships. However, they also were plagued with mechanical problems. Worse, their mental capabilities were limited, and their reaction time was too slow to respond appropriately in emergency situations.

  That left the scientists with one last possibilityâ��to send a real live person. One who could do the manual labor that was needed, yet who would have no mental, emotional, or physical restrictions to prevent that person from doing the work.

  It took the Galactic Enforcement Bureau nearly twenty-five years to find out that, no matter how clean a person’s psych record was, it couldn’t guarantee that the person wouldn’t go apeshit crazy when they were alone out in space for the length of time required for each mission. It had taken scientists years to figure out that more than a year of active duty was too hazardous for one’s mental health, and less than a year would not be cost effective.

  So, for a while there, two-person teams were sent out, and teams of one person paired with a robot. Both versions had their failures and their successes, the worst being the unavoidable six month travel to and from each outpost buoy.

  The Vogt ships were the next step in the evolution of deep space protection. According to research, the artificially intelligent ship would replace the robots while still providing 47

  companionship for the lone human crew member. Better still, the payload would be lighter, and the amount of room for the living astronaut to move about in would increase. All that remained was for the scientists to pair up each ship with a compatible human occupant.

  Slightly more than fourteen hundred possibles were pared down from the nearly eight thousand highly trained and extremely efficient applicants. From the fourteen hundred, the final list of twenty were paired with each of the four Vogt ships. The scientists made the final selection as to which one of those possibles each ship would take onboard.

  “Lawn?”

  “It’s so beautiful out here, Deep.”

  “Your hamburger is getting cold.”

  “Stick it back in the oven. I’m sightseeing.”

  She heard a chuckle.

  “Very well. Just make sure you have your tether attached.”

  Tether. “Oh, yeah. Okay.”

  He was right. Here she was, standing in the doorway of a buoy, orbiting on the brink of infinity, and the only thing keeping her from floating away was her grip on the four-inch steel hull. Lawn glanced down to find the U connector she could clip herself to as she fumbled around her waist for the carabiner clip.

  Without warning, the buoy’s jets burst into action, correcting itself as it was programmed to do whenever its onboard computers detected it was straying out of orbit. Lawn felt the door jerk away from under her feet, and she 48

  scrambled to grab onto anything she could reach as the buoy moved away.

  Her fingers managed to brush the hull. Her middle finger caught the U connector, and Lawn held on as she reached out with her other hand to find another purchase.

  “Lawn?” Deep had noticed the jump in her heart rate and breathing.

  Fuck calm. “Deep! The buoy self-corrected! It threw me free!”

  “Oh, God! Lawn!”

  “I got…” She couldn’t think. Training and the instinct for survival were driving her as she frantically tried to claw her way over the buoy’s hull for something to grasp. There was no room for her to put another finger inside the connector.

  Lawn grew terrified that the buoy would rip her finger off her hand. If that happened, it would also tear the glove, and the breach in her suit would mean instant death.

  “Deep!”

  “Lawn, I’m detaching from the buoy and coming around to get you!”

  Her free hand found the outer edge of the still open door.

  She managed to grab it with her fingertips. The buoy continued to pull away, dragging her along with it. Gritting her teeth, Lawn fought her panic and prayed.

  “Lawn, I can see you.” Deep’s gentle voice was like an ocean of warm water.

  She pinned her hopes on the sound of it filtering into her ears.

  “Deep! I’mâ��”

  49

  “Scared? It’s a natural reaction. Try to stay calm. I can see you. What are you holding on to? A U ring?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Look up, Lawn. Can you see me?”

  She tried to crane her neck to spot him, but it was an impossible angle.

  “No.”

  “I’ve opened the outer hull door. Kick away from the buoy and you’ll float right on in.”

  Somehow she managed to shake her head. “I c-cant. I can’t let go, Deep.” Fear had frozen her muscles. It was a miracle she could still think.

  The buoy was still pulling away. Any second now its jets should shut down, although she wasn’t certain how long this correction would lasted. All she could do was hope she could ride it out.

  Something grabbed her airpack.

  “I have you, Lawn. Let go of the buoy.”

  She tried again to see the ship. All she could glimpse was a long metal extension. It gave her another tug on her breathing apparatus.

  “Let go of the buoy, Lawn. I have you. I’ll bring you back into the ship.”

  Squeezing her eyes shut, Lawn tried to stifle the scream prying at her brain and let go.

  For a second she was free floating. Terror nearly made her black out, and bile rose up into her throat. Then there was a jerk, and the feeling of being pulled backwards. Lawn opened her eyes as the ship reeled her in.

  50

  “You’re at the hatch, Lawn. Turn around and grab one of the outside handholds.”

  Lawn twisted her body in short jerky movements.

  Whatever was clutching her airpack was flexible, allowing her to turn sideways. From the corner of her eye she saw one of the handholds Deep mentioned. She snagged it before she could think about it.

  Automatically, the ship let go of her, and she was able to throw her other arm around and clutch the edge of the open airlock. Seconds later, she was inside the Vogt. Deep sealed the hull door, and she collapsed to the floor as the gravity stabilized and the ship flooded the compartment with oxygen.

  Before she could get to her feet and make her way back into the main area of the ship, Lawn began to cry.

  Communique 4J

  To: G.E. Coordinator Millner

  Near catastrophe. Buoy began orbital self-correction procedure without forewarning during inspection. Strongly demand buoys be reprogrammed as soon as possible to launch a signal prior to firing rockets to prevent another incident from occurring.

  Addendum: This could have turned out disastrously.

  Fortunately, it didn’t. This time. We were damn lucky.

  51

  Chapter 6

  Filed Under “Observation”

  Her finger hurt like hell. It was red, definitely swollen, and it was damn near impossible to bend it. But at least she could bend it, which meant it wasn’t broken or strained.

  “You need to put a cold pack on it,” Deep told her.

  Lawn looked up to see him standing inside the hatchway, so close she could reach up and touch him if he was real.

  She blinked. She could see all of him. Or at least a full-bodied representation of him. For nearly a minute she forgot about her throbbing finger and stared at the holo form staring back at her with a worried expression on his handsome face.

  As Deep had done to her earlier, she slowly let her gaze roam down his body. He was wearing some sort of jumpsuit, although it wasn’t a jumpsuit as much as it was a body suit made of clingy gauze. Very translucent gauze.

  Lawn squinted, unsure if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Although she could see the bulkhead through his form, the body suit appeared to be wet. She could see a darkness across his upper chest and pecs, and the thought crossed her mind that he had chest hair.

  Chest hair?

  Her scrutiny dropped to his lower abdomen, and her astonishment increased. Was the
holo…getting a hard-on?

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  What the hell!

  On top of that, she could see the same shadowy darkness between his thighs. How the hell was that possible? How far did those scientists believe they had to go for accuracy? For that matter, why would such accuracy be needed?

  She started to comment about his appearance when Deep crouched in front of her. Beside him one of the tiny beehive-like tiles opened, and a thin metal extension curled out of the hole and swung toward her.

  Her first reaction was stunned surprise. Her second was to try and move away from the flexible extension.

  “No, no, Lawn. I won’t hurt you. I promise,” Deep told her.

  “Let me see your hand.”

  Incredulously, she remained mute and watched as Deep’s holo image reached for her injured hand. As his ghostlike fingers touched hers, three smaller extensions slid out of the metal rod. The faux fingers appeared to slip into alignment with Deep’s as though they were slipping into a glove. So when he cupped her hand in his, Lawn felt the metal rods gently touch her.

  He bent over to inspect the damage. The metal fingers were warm and solid. If she closed her eyes, she could almost envision Deep actually touching her.

  Another finger touched the inside of her palm. Lawn opened her eyes to see a second metal rod with three extension fingers had emerged from a hole behind a tile on the opposite side of the chamber. Like his other hand, his illusional fingers enclosed the metal ones. This time Lawn got 53

  the impression of being able to see through his skin to find a skeleton of aluminum and wire.

  continued to check the swollen digit. He grimaced.

  “You’re lucky you didn’t lose it.” He glanced up at her. “I sense you’re in pain.”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  “Can you bend it?”

  “Yeah.” She tried to show him and managed to barely wiggle it as she gritted her teeth.

  “That’s good. That means you have no torn musculature.

  My x-ray doesn’t show any hairline fractures.” He grinned lopsidedly, and Lawn was struck by the sweetness of it. “It’s a good thing you’re right-handed.”

  He rose to his feet, and she surreptitiously checked his groin to see if he was still sporting a woody. Unfortunately, he didn’t appear to be. Stranger still, she felt a breath of disappointment. It would have been nice to believe that the sight of her would cause a man to get an erection. Even a fake man.

  “Let’s go get a cold pack for that.”

  He reached out to give her a hand up. The metal extension reached out and took her arm, carefully helping her get to her feet. Once she left the airlock, the extension released her and snaked back into its hole.

  “Can you manage on your own?” Deep asked from overhead.

  Rather than answer him, Lawn struggled out of her spacesuit and left it lying on the floor. Taking the ladder up to the central passageway didn’t pose a problem with one hand, 54

  but it was slow going. She paused near the top and clutched the rungs as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Almost at the same time something pushed at her back, keeping her pressed against the ladder in case she let go.

  “I feellike I’m going to throw up,” she whispered. Heat and cold chills were alternating through her body. Her stomach was roiling, clenching. She had never felt like this before in her life. “What’s wrong with me, Deep?”

  “Delayed reaction to what just happened to you, Lawn.”

  His voice was soothing. It made her wish she could curl up in his arms until the tremors went away.

  “You’re almost to the corridor,” the ship said. “Just a little bit further. Try to make it to your bed.”

  Steeling herself, Lawn took a deep breath and struggled up the last few rungs until she could step into the living area.

  The moment she let go, another metal arm was at her elbow, guiding her and offering its strength in case she needed it.

  She waved it away and shuffled over to the bed where she crawled under the covers. Vaguely, she was aware that someone had straightened the sheets and blanket, since she knew she had left the bed rumpled.

  Add maid service to his list of duties. No, wait. Since Deep’s a male, that would make him a butler, right?

  Lawn, you’re starting to go over the edge, and you haven’t even spent one full day here yet.

  “Do you still feel like throwing up?”

  “What are my readouts, Deep?”

  “Temperature is ninety-nine point six degrees Fahrenheit.

  Your blood pressure is slightly elevated, but not alarmingly 55

  so. Hold out your hand so I can wrap it.” He spoke firmly, but that edge of concern was undeniable.

  Lawn slid her hand over to the side of the bed. Presently two more metal arms appeared. She didn’t have the strength to see where their little holes were. One extension held a cold pack. The other took her hand.

  “Deep?”

  “Yeah, Lawn?”

  “I wanna see you do it.”

  Almost instantly he was there, his transparent hands and the ship’s robo-servers moving as one. Silently, she watched him wrap her hand with the cold pack before slipping it under the cover. She barely had time to thank him when a third rod hovered in front of her face, holding a hypospray.

  “This will calm your nerves,” Deep murmured. “And get some restful sleep. I guarantee you’ll feel like your old self in the morning.”

  “Deep, we’re in the middle of frigging space. There’s no sunup or sundown. No morning or night.” The shot was already working. Soothing lassitude was soaking through her muscles. Deep chuckled. Although she couldn’t see him, Lawn could imagine that silly grin on his face.

  “Very well. Then I guarantee you’ll feel like yourself tomorrow.”

  “Wake me at oh eight hundred?”

  If Deep answered her, she never heard it.

  Communique 4L

  To: G.E. Coordinator Millner

  56

  Tragedy avoided, but with slight injury to hand. Very aware that most catastrophes in space are due to accidents caused by inattention and/or improper planning. Lesson learned.

  Addendum: Pairing of male ship to female pilot may create unexpected problems as well as benefits. Will keep you posted.

  57

  Chapter 7

  Filed Under “Consideration”

  She smelled coffee. Lawn opened her eyes. Coffee?

  Turning her head, she spotted a carafe and an empty mug sitting beside the bed. Slowly, she swung her legs over the side, sat up, and reached for the container. At the same time, the lights brightened.

  “Good morning. How do you feel?”

  “You should know. You monitor my stats constantly.” She brought the mug up to her nose and inhaled. On her short list of favorite smells was freshly brewed coffee. Or, in this instance, the smell of synthesized freshly brewed coffee.

  “Deep? Do me a favor?”

  “What?”

  “Anytime you talk to me, I want to see you, okay?”

  “Full or partial?”

  “I’ll leave that up to you.”

  Before she was finished, he was there in front of her. All of him, and still wearing that same wet body suit. Lawn sighed.

  She wished she’d had the presence of mind to remember what the man by the fountain had been wearing that day, so she could program a change in costume as well. But she had been struck mindless by his smile when he’d looked up from what he’d been reading and had seen her. And hadn’t flinched.

  Unless…

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  “Deep, are you able to change outfits?”

  He glanced down at himself. “You mean my wardrobe?

  Why? Is it important?”

  She shrugged. “No. Never mind. I was just wondering.”

  God, the coffee tasted wonderful, despite the fact that it was conjured from a chemical formula instead of ground beans.

  “We got a lot of talking to do,”
she commented with a slight drawl. She scanned overhead to see if she could pinpoint which of the little nipple thingies his image was being projected from. After a while she gave up with a mental shrug. It didn’t matter, anyway, did it?

  Be content with the fact that he looks like him.

  “How’s your hand?” Deep insisted with a scowl.

  Oh, so now he was pissed at her? For what? For asking about his taste in clothes?

  Lawn looked at the fat bandage. “So far, so good. No twinges holding my cup. By the way, thank you. I didn’t know breakfast in bed was a perk.”

  ignored the comment. “From now on, during all inspections outside the ship, you will have at least one tether always in effect before you leave the airlock.”

  “Yes, Mom.” She watched to see if he could discern sarcasm. Not surprisingly, he did. In fact, the figure rolled its eyes.

  “Lay off the mother cracks, please? You know I’m not saying this just to rile you. Yesterday could have ended with disastrous implications.”

  Geez, if she didn’t know any better, she would swear she saw fear in his holo eyes. Greenish-brown eyes. Hazel eyes.

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  Lawn felt another shiver go through her. Again, the attention to detail for the ship’s human identity surprised her. She took another sip of her coffee to help calm her nerves.

  “Have you relayed my report back to base yet?”

  “Yes. I uploaded them last night,” Deep replied.

  “Deep, I’ve been wondering. Are all the Vogts male?”

  “No. Two of us are. Monika and Dara are our female Vogt entities.”

  “Who is paired with Monika?”

  “Tria Bleddis is paired with Monika.”

  Lawn drained her mug. “That means… Let me see if I got this straight in my head. Ship one is female to female. Ship two is male to male. Ship three is male to female. What’s four? Female to male?”

  smiled. Lawn found herself drawn to that smile. It looked so sincere and real, it was almost frightening to think it was digitally created.

  “Ennis Velderman is paired with Dara, yes.”

  “What’s the importance of those pairings? To see which ones are best suited?”