by Scott Baron
Daisy sighed and finally resolved to get up, sliding her feet to the warm metal floor. She cautiously rose onto her slightly off-balance legs, hoping she hadn’t hit her head harder than she thought. Of course she was fine. The artificial gravity just always felt a bit off near her bunk at the far end of the sleeping pod. An annoyance, but one she’d finally grown more or less accustomed to.
“Okay, that’s not so bad,” she muttered, then slipped into her workout sweats. Ready to start the day, she cycled open the pair of airlock doors and headed into the belly of the ship.
No compartment in the entire vessel was sealed by a single door. The redundant airlocks not only provided an extra layer of security against catastrophic air-loss, but were also an essential element of the ship’s re-configurable pod system.
They varied in size, the largest ones nearly twenty meters long, while crew quarters and storage were far more compact. The design allowed pods to be moved, reconfigured, and aligned with one another according to mission needs, and should a true emergency need arise, they could even be sealed off and jettisoned into space.
Daisy began a slow jog to warm her muscles. The workout facility was located in an outer section pod, portside, and was large enough for the whole crew to exercise at once if they so desired. Fortunately, at this hour, it was most often just Daisy and Sarah.
“Good morning, Daisy,” Mal greeted her warmly as she made her way down the corridor. “The time is 08:23.”
“Thanks, Mal.”
At least the crew pods were off the AI’s non-stop monitoring grid. That privacy, she was grateful for. It was a little thing, sure, and Daisy knew there was a good reason for the design, but it still felt weird having the AI keeping constant tabs on not only the ship’s systems, but its crew as well.
Finnegan Hay was prepping vegetables for the evening’s meal at his work station in the galley as Daisy passed through to grab an electrolyte pouch en route to the gym pod.
Finn’s right arm was speedily dicing, far faster than a regular human-grown limb could. It was a replacement part of shining metal from just above the elbow, and like Tamara’s, it blended perfectly into his flesh, though his was a less bulky design. Part of that was due to the nature of Tamara’s work needs as the ship’s botanist. With her much sturdier arm, she could swap her hand out for a wide variety of gardening equipment attachments, all of which were most useful as she tended the ship’s garden pods.
Tamara the farmer. With her gruff manner and sturdy build, Daisy was shocked when she learned the muscular woman was a vegetarian.
“You all can eat whatever disgusting clone meat you want,” she had said when asked about it. “I’ll stick with things that I know where they came from.”
“But, Tamara,” Daisy teased, “it’s just ship-grown cow and chicken muscle fiber. No animal was hurt putting these steaks on our tables.”
Tamara flashed her a look.
“They tell you it’s cow. When your meat just shows up in perfect little trays like that, how can you really know? You might be eating people steaks for all you know.”
“Gross, Tamara.”
“Just saying,” she had replied, only half-joking.
In any case, they had all benefited from Tamara’s gardening prowess.
Fresh produce in space. Daisy never stopped marveling at how lucky they were, and Finn possessed a near-magical ability to make almost anything taste delicious without resorting to heavy sauces. He liked to call it, “Seasoning food with food,” and had spent a few months working with Tamara on some hybrid herbs and spices. Once they were mature enough for harvest, his recipes had become consistently exceptional.
“Hey, Daze. Off to see Sarah?” Finn asked, not looking up from his cutting board.
“Yep. She’s teaching me Tai Chi now.”
“Ooh, Tai Chi. Cool. Stop by after. I’ll whip you up something nice and healthy for breakfast.”
“Savory or sweet?”
“Hmm… I don’t see why not a bit of both,” he replied with a knowing grin.
“Ya see, Finn, this is why we get along so well.”
“That and the fact that you’re happy to be my culinary guinea pig. Tell Sarah the offer stands for her, too.”
“Seriously, Finn, just tell her.”
“Tell her what?” he said, blushing faintly.
Daisy groaned. “Fine, but one of these days she may take a liking to Barry and leave you kicking yourself. Remember, it’s better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t.”
“Well, fortunately for me, Barry’s a cyborg, so he’s not exactly her type.”
“I don’t know,” Daisy laughed. “I hear he may have a multi-speed—”
“Lalalalala! I can’t hear you!” Finn cried out. “Go on, you. Shoo! Stop procrastinating and go work out already.”
Daisy laughed and opened the airlock’s inner door.
“All right. See ya in a bit,” she said, then flashed Finn a wicked grin as she made motorized vibrating sounds.
“Oh, come on!” he lamented, her laughter cutting off as she cycled the airlock door closed behind her.
“You’re late. I was about to start without you,” Sarah said, looking up from her splits on the floor.
“Damn, girl, that flexible and still single?”
“Well, you’re the one who jumped Mr. Sexypants only a few hours after we thawed out. I never stood a chance!”
“There are other options, you know.”
“Yeah, yeah. There’ll be plenty of men to choose from once we get home. Now come on, let’s get started.”
For the next forty minutes, Sarah led her friend through the one hundred twelve complex movements at painfully slow speed. Daisy’s thighs burned from the effort, just as her mind ached trying to memorize all the new moves while simultaneously problem-solving the day’s pending repairs in her head.
“So, I was thinking,” Daisy said mid-move. “If I take Faraday suit number three and add a reverse-polarity buffer, then route it all back through a miniature pulse feed, splitting all the frequencies into segregated positive and negative channels, it might create a solid base for my retrofit idea.”
“Which is?”
“Well, if it’s then looped into a micro-mesh layer on top of the existing dampers, it should effectively block out not only the standard stuff we’re worried about, but pretty much every EM blast imaginable as well. I figure it’s the spare suit, so why not give it a try?”
“Interesting idea. So if you could make it work, we would be able to spend more time in the open portside pods near the damaged bits, even when stronger pulses are coming in?” Sarah looked impressed as she flowed into the next motion. “Huh, that’s really clever. I mean it’s far beyond the suit specs, and something even Mal never thought of, but in theory, it should work. You want help wiring it up?”
“Well, I kinda already did. Just thought I’d run it by you before taking it for a spin.”
“Of course you did. Never stops churning, that brain of yours. I’m amazed you ever sleep.”
“Good old gray matter,” Daisy said, tapping her head with a chuckle. “The one thing we have over the AIs. Thinking outside the box is second nature.”
“Always with the tweaks and modifications. You’re such a tinkerer, Daze.”
“Just call me MacGyver.”
“Who?”
“It’s an old entertainment program from the captain’s videos. Vince and I binge-watched it a few months ago. I can lend it to you, if you want.”
“Cool. I’m happy that you two are still going strong.”
“Yeah, it’s crazy, right? I mean, who knew a quick adrenaline-fueled fling would actually turn into something substantial?”
“Substantial? You don’t mean—”
“Maybe,” Daisy replied, distracted enough to mix up the next sequence of Tai Chi moves.
“Concentrate. Arm like this, then the leg like so.” Sarah showed her the move again. “Anyway, you were say
ing?”
“I was saying that we talked about maybe getting a place together when we get to Earth.”
“Wow, that is pretty serious. Hang on. It’s the left arm over, right arm under.” Sarah broke her pose and put her hands on Daisy’s wrists, guiding them to the correct position.
“I’m sucking at multi-tasking today. Sorry, Sarah.”
“No worries, it sounds like you have a lot on your mind.”
“If you’d stop being such a prude, maybe you’d have a lot on your mind too. There are still a few eligible men on board. If you don’t mind replacement parts, that is.”
“Yeah, count on you to get the only guy without any metal bits. Although, now that you mention it, maybe I’ll just settle for Barry. I hear he might have a multi-speed…” She flashed a wicked little grin.
“Oh my God, I was just saying that!” Daisy chortled. Both women lost their composure for a moment, and the Zen of Tai Chi went out the window in favor of a robust belly laugh between good friends.
Chapter Five
“Daisy! I’ve been wanting to speak with you.”
Doctor Leah McClain, the woman pulling double duty as both ship’s physician and psychologist, hurried her pace to meet her patient.
Oh hell. All Daisy wanted was to be left alone as she headed to quiet the steady rumble in her belly.
No such luck.
“How is your energy these days, Daisy? Are you sleeping any better? You know you’re a bit overdue for our next session,” the doctor said, intently watching Daisy’s face in that disquieting way some shrinks have made into an art form.
“Yeah, I know, Doc, I’ve just been busy. I promise, I’ll come see you soon, okay?”
Doctor McClain stared quietly a moment longer, then relented.
“All right, but don’t wait too long.”
Daisy quietly breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the older woman walk away with the slightest of limps in her step. She was most definitely not a fan of people digging in her head, even if it was only with words.
Daisy strode up to the galley doors and punched the open command on the keypad.
Captain Harkaway nodded a greeting as she cycled through the dual airlocks and entered the large crew mess hall. He was seated at the galley table, holding a mug of brass-cleaner strong coffee you could smell from across the room. When the grizzled, gray-haired man brewed a pot himself, it was a safe bet no one else on the crew would touch it.
Tamara sat with him, sipping a mug of herbal tea, made from plants she had grown in one of her garden pods. A far cry from the captain’s mug of bitter hot death. Behind the counter, the ever-festive madman chef was whipping up breakfast for the pair.
“Hey, Daisy,” he said, waving a cheerful hello.
“Hey, Finn.”
“Got that grub for ya. Made something special.”
“Thanks,” she said, reaching for the offered bowl. It was a yin/yang swirled oatmeal of some sort.
“I know it’ll be delicious, Finn, but what exactly is this?”
“Well, since you were practicing your Tai Chi, I thought I’d go with a dichotomy of life theme for breakfast. Dark and light. Male and female. Hard and soft.” He smiled and pointed with his spatula. “The lighter side of the taijitu is a spiced apple flavor with a tiny hint of vanilla and almond essences. Very delicate and sweet. The savory half is a bit stronger. A relatively mild mélange of slightly spicy grilled jicama, diced and mixed with smoky black sesame and minced soy protein.”
Daisy was impressed, both with the quality of the food, as well as the thought the deceptively flippant chef put into the dish. More than once she’d thought there was more to him than met the eye.
“You never cease to surprise me, Finn.”
“Then my mission is a success,” he laughed as she took her bowl and crossed the long room to join her crewmates.
“Swarthmore, what the hell did you do to your head?” Harkaway asked as he got a better look at the lump growing above her eyebrow.
“Just whacked it, Captain. No biggie.”
“Don’t go concussing yourself. I need you clear-headed, unlike this nutcase.” He gestured to the man in the kitchen.
Finn chuckled and continued his meal prep. Daisy watched his hands fly as he mechanically diced the fresh vegetables. His metal arm and hand moved in a blur, as if they had minds of their own, which, given the electronics embedded in them, linked to his neural inputs and providing a reflex-relay, technically, they sort of did. From time to time, though, she noticed, his arm would jerk a little from the speed. Just a tiny bit, and almost unnoticeable if you weren’t looking for it, but it seemed to her almost as if his own meat and the metal limb couldn’t quite mesh.
Replacement parts. She held back a shudder.
Daisy never could get used to seeing them stuck to real live people. The cyborg, well she expected it from him, but ironically, despite being entirely artificial, his metal skeleton was hidden, completely covered with flesh and blood. Only the humans sported their shiny bits exposed for all to see.
Some, like the captain, you’d never notice if you weren’t paying attention. His hip-down replacement was always covered by the same pressed trousers. Only on exiting the cryo pods had Daisy ever even caught a glimpse of it. She had no idea what had happened to him all those years ago, but his leg was of a much older design than the rest of the crew.
Unfortunately, in the early days of replacement parts, the more severe cases resulted in a permanent implant-to-flesh bond that could not ever be removed and replaced. What you got was what you kept. The captain walked with a little hitch in his giddy-up, and though he took great care of his aging limb, nevertheless it was showing signs of wear. It was durable, but only to a point.
Tamara was using her more slender lower arm and hand attachment at the table. Of all her assorted options, this was the one that most closely resembled a regular human forearm and hand. It allowed for fine motor skill uses, while also permitting the user to wear long sleeves and a glove to go unnoticed if they so desired. Mind you, Tamara’s sturdy build and scowling gaze meant she’d probably never go unnoticed, but being able to cover the arm at least helped somewhat.
Reggie was a skilled co-pilot whose lone visible replacement was his left hand. The metal was perfectly fused to his arm just above the wrist. What she knew of him beyond that was that he had several artificial organs as well as five replacement ribs, a metal femur in his left leg, and a handful of composite vertebrae. Some disease had ravished his body, and only the most aggressive of treatments had saved his life. All it cost him was fifteen percent of his humanity, more or less.
“Gus, how’s the pulse drive refill coming?” Captain Harkaway inquired over the comms. “There was a pretty strong solar wind. We need to capture as much of that charge as we can.”
“I’m adjusting the flow as we speak, Captain,” Gustavo replied. “We hit a bit of an unexpected lull, so the next pulse will be delayed by”— he ran a quick calculation—”five hours.”
Gus. Now, his replacements actually spooked Daisy.
Massive head trauma had resulted in a partial jaw, cranium, and full left eye replacement. The new eye was able to see multiple spectrums, including radio and radiation waves, but it just looked creepy. Worse, at least in Daisy’s mind, were the several access ports on the back of the metal portion of his skull. A partial AI had been installed in his head, helping him jack in and communicate with the ship’s systems directly. He was human, but Daisy couldn’t help but wonder at what point in receiving replacements and upgrades someone would cease being one.
“All right,” the captain said. “Keep on it. I want to make sure we have a maxed-out charge by the time we reach Earth’s orbit and Dark Side base. Gotta be primed for full maneuverability should we need it.” He glanced at Tamara, who shared a knowing look.
What’s that all about? Daisy wondered. Dark Side base should be a relatively simple approach, and any drastic maneuvering shouldn’t be requir
ed.
From what she knew of it, the facility located on the dark side of Earth’s moon held a repair station as well as much-needed parts. Despite Daisy and Sarah’s diligent efforts, the Váli was in dire need of work they simply couldn’t do with their somewhat limited resources.
“Hey, guys!” Sarah chirped as she cycled in through the airlock door. “Captain,” she added respectfully when she noticed he was joining them this morning.
“Ooh, what’s that, Daze?”
“Finn whipped up some Tai Chi-themed oatmeal.”
“Finn, sweetie, can I pleeeeease have some too?” She flashed him a warm smile.
“No,” he replied.
“Um, what? Why not?”
Daisy glared at him, mouthing, “Dude, what the fuck?” from across the room. He ignored her as best he could.
“Because,” he began, “I have a far more interesting meal in mind for you. Allow me to tempt you, if I may, with a multi-plate offering of sweet and savory. Protein and clean carbs, the way you like.” He slipped a quick glance at Daisy. “And yes, it will stick to the morning’s theme.”
A smile replaced her frown. “Okay. I trust ya, Finn.”
“And that was your first mistake,” Tamara grumbled with a little grin.
“How’s the re-routing of the long-range nav-transponder coming?” Captain Harkaway asked as she pulled up a seat. “Whatever bit of space crap we ran into left us flying a bit more blind than I’m comfortable with. I’d hoped that would be fully operational by now. You two have had nearly six months.”
“Still working on it Captain,” Daisy replied. “Sarah’s been fine-tuning the life-support arrays and tracking down all the burned-out relays inside the Narrows while I’ve been re-re-reconfiguring the replacement module. It’s getting closer, but I’ll still need to do another few EVAs before my jury-rigged gizmo will be ready to test.”
“I can fabricate any additional parts you require, Daisy,” Mal chimed in. “My facilities are repaired and in excellent working order now and are well-equipped for a wide array of production needs. Please let me know if my resources can be of assistance.”
