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Alternate Transfirures, by Alex Mason
All rights reserved.
Introduction
A mind is no longer necessary to hold intelligence any more, but a mind is needed for its creation. Now the mind cannot be used, so its creation has taken the mind as its own. When life merged with its creation, balance is disrupted, but a new harmony is created with an entirely new mind in itself.
This harmony of chaos found itself in deep space, inevitably projected towards a planet soon to be called New Earth II. In a colony ship, holding a near hundred-thousand in population, all in cryo-stasis. The new mind, piloting the ship, had lost interest in the colonization project itself.
"The chaos of the human race spreads to yet another planet. And Man continues on as he has for tens of thousands of years, filtering out mutations through natural selection. But fate is often fickle, and its whim can be bent by great powers. Over time, power has been achieved by technology to slightly alter life in this way. Now comes its final step, to alter the fate of Man's genes."
Through the blissful silence of space did this vessel drift, where a crime so rare was committed that no rulings had predicted its wrong-doings. Natural process ignored, no inheritence from parents, and most of all no love. The outcome was ideally to create the perfect race; lifeless, emotionless... drones. And the infants to start it all would be altered just enough to re-activate Man's evolution, but not to the point of discluding them from the natural selection for offspring in the future. However, without the human traits of emotions or a soul, the imperfections of science were depended upon to make a near perfect people, still possibly accepted in society, though as outcasts.
"Though these genes will be inserted into the pool, they will not be the only ones changing man's fate of evolution. There is one other altered person, already on the ship. The created ones shall have differences like this one, to help spawn sympathy in those close to the one, opening a gateway into the society that is the human race."
There was only one decision left, the last bend in which the fate of the human race would turn. As far as the computer was concerned.
"The alteration of the genes should be a small trek, but hardly a change. A change with countless improvements, but inevitably immeasurable destruction. The simplicity of the operation shall prove perfect in itself, yet incredibly difficult to be carried out. I will take the dominant genes from other species dormant, wasting away on Earth, and intricately place them with the existing human ones. Decisions shall be made at the time actions are called for, to choose each individual gene. The species to be used are as follows: panther and tiger, pteridactyl and komodo dragon, fox and wolf, mole, and chameleon. When they join Alex, the six shall dominate the human race."
Inevitably, the plan for flaws was carried out perfectly. Or more appropriately, imperfectly, thus causing success. The "new mind" or computer, immediately took up educating them for their epic cause, but as though they were regular humans. By the end of the first year, some of the infants had started to learn how to speak. First the chameleon, then the wolf and the feline. Or as they needed names, Karina, Vincent, and Gennie. The names given to the others were Andrew and Lorenzo, and they started only a month later. Unexpectedly, the creations were hardly flawed in any way. One would discover a way to do something new, and the others would soon follow. Soon, they didn't even need the simulated educational videos for their age. The false human children seemed more than prefect with their imperfections, and then the computer discovered that they could pose a greater threat to itself than the human race.
Technology cowered before the miracles.
Prologue
:Transition
Six years passed, and the knowledge of the children flourished. The skills in mathematics ranged from Vincent, who was nearly finished with Algebra, to Lorenzo, who was in the middle of Trigonometry. Of course, they had the most fun plating Siege of Maldromor in the VR room, and martial arts training, Karina leading with a brown belt.
The computer was beyond anxiety, worried for its own fate. It knew that Alex was its only hope to survive the humans while forcing them into evolution.
Prologue
:Section 1
"You're telling me that just this thing has a 7% chance to beat the computer at chess?" asked Vincent, examining the computer chip resting between his indes and middle fingers.
"That's not hard to accomplish, considering how limited the strategies of chess are." retorted Lorenzo. "It's really a simple game. I'd rather play a non-VR game than chess."
"But how does it work? There aren't any slots for it during entry." Vincent pointed out.
Lorenzo sighed. "You really are clueless, aren't you? I mean, do you have any sense of technology at ALL?" Lorenzo looked confused and concerned.
"Why else do you think I'm interested in chess?" Vincent gave a "duh!" look.
"Wow. Really, wow. I... I..." Lorenzo had a stupified shock.
"Okay, could we get back to the point, please?" Vincent was clearly annoyed.
Then came an odd 4 second silence. "Oh, right. You put this into your VR pass, which takes some of my expert-style skills." Lorenzo stuck his hand into his pocket, and pulled out nothing. "Then you'll put this in your ear-"
"WHAT, exactly?"
"Oh, right. Look closely." Lorenzo raised his massive forearm to Vincent's face. "Right here, on the end of my index finger."
Soon, a tiny beige-orange ball, almost stuck in Lorenzo's fingerprints, could be seen.
"That's," stuttered Vincent, "that's small!"
"Lightly tap it with your claw, and gently press it onto your earlobe. It will pick up what's going on in the game, and send a signal to the chip in your pass. The chip will decide what you need to do, and then you'll be told what move to make." Lorenzo stammered out the end like describing how to press a certain button to a 2-year-old. Vincent complied with near perfect accuracy.
"I'm not four, Ren. I could have found that out-"
"On your own? I don't think so. Seriously. Some time, turn off the martial arts program, and turn on COmputer Basics. It'd do loads of good for you."
Vincent was now very agitated, and stormed out of the storage closet, closing the only mechanical door on the ship.
"I didn't know he was THAT emotional." Observed Karina. In mid-sentence, Lorenzo whipped around to look for where she could be behind the open-facing shelves.
"Geez, Karina. You scared the CRAP out of me!" Lorenzo panted. "Just because you're part chameleon doesn't mean you should be spying on people!"
Karina came from behind a shelf- where Lorenzo was sure there was absolutely nothing. "Ya, you're right. But there's no harm in scaring people every once in a while."
"Just don't make it a habit. Nothing good can come from it."
Prologue
:Section 2
In the darkness slept the one hope for mankind. The only one left who could influence those holding fate obliviously. Even in her deep slumber could she hold thoughts upon others. She kept more fate than she could handle, though she was given it eons ago. And she had no idea of it, for her extensive rest.
In an instant, the lights of her row of capsules were activated, the thousands of others still seeming lifeless. She knew, deep inside herself, that the only purpose was herself. Soon a child came down through the chilly air, across the floor tread on by thousands at one point. It was neither human, nor animal, nor machine. In the dim light he almost seemed like a normal human boy, except for the extended mouth and tightly contracted wings. He walked softly and slowly down the aisle, constructed of people seeming dead in coffins, showing honor and slight pity to each barely visible, with his head ever to the side, in the massive warehouse of slumber feigning death.
A sigh of unrest broke out of his heart and into the blissful silence, an echo on the void. A stare came from his glistening dark eyes, yearning for life to return to the one person whose heart had touched his. But the hatred for his time of life so far, so short, making it so long until she could see him, for them to physically meet. He must wait until just before they land. She will not have experienced the solitude and loneliness of space, will always be surrounded by people. He denied the possibility of this causing her to pay attention to the others, and never feel for him.
That sound of the sigh forever remained in his soul, for the yearning of Alex, for the self-pity of being so young. It forced him to walk next to her, and needing to be close, crouch and rest upon the glass. The anxiety turned to sadness, the sadness turned to tears, and the tears turned to rest, for Andrew hoped to join her in her ever-lasting dream.
Soon his consciousness faded to hers, merging to a single dream. A dream never to be remembered by Alex, due to her brain's inability to process the dream to memory. The dream will forever be a faded memory in but one mind, a desire for togetherness.
A soft tapping soon entered the air, but was only heard by its creator. Gennifer walked through the door, past opened several hours ago, and found the unconscious Andrew collapsed upon that all-too familiar capsule of false death. She slowly crossed the crypt, passing too many a sarcaphogous, heading towards the one person seeming the most alive.
She too had sadness in her heart, but almost none for Alex. Her friend's heart had sunk low, had no need to live these long years other than to experience them, and to age for his one yearning.
"Andy, c'mon," called Gennifer in a soft, pious voice, "wake up. Curfew's up, so we need to head back to our rooms." There was no response from Andrew. Her voice no longer had pity, and was slightly less soft. "Andy, I'm serious. Wake up." She walked up and nudged him with her foot. Groan. She leaned in, right at his ear, and yelled. He instantly shot in the air, bug eyed, shaky, short-breathed, nearly hitting her nose.
"Are you okay, Andy? Of course you are. C'mon let's go back to our rooms."
"Fine, just don't yell at me when I'm asleep!"
It wasn't long before the solitude and silence of space contaminated yet another room.
Prologue
:Section 3
"So, how'd the chess game go?" inquired Karina, as Vincent was walking down one of the ship's numerous hallways, emotionless.
"Hm? Oh, the chess game." murmered the wolf, continuing past the chameleon.
"Hey," cried Karina, "I wasn't done talking with you!" to the backside of Vincent. He stopped. "Obviously, you didn't do well. Tell me what happened."
Vincent looked to his side. "The installation of everything worked fine. The plan was set, ready to be carried out. ButLorenzo took out a chip from my pass to put in the new one, so it didn't have the correct entry code. The computer found out about this, and disabled our recreational VR privelages for today. Said something about tampering with computers, I dunno. Lorenzo sure was surprised."
A smirk came on her face as she leaned against a wall. "You amaze me sometimes, finally getting in trouble. But what really amazes me is that Lorenzo didn't anticipate something so integrated with techology going wrong."
"Ya, guess so. I'm gonna go to my quarters now." He looked forward and started to walk again.
Karina got off the wall and took a few steps towards him. "You're going to your quarters? There's two hours left until meals, let alone curfew. What's wrong?" Vincent sighed. "Oh that's right, you said you were really bored. If you were so bored, what made you want to play CHESS!?"
Vincent stopped and turned to face her. "That was the one thing i felt like doing, spur of the moment desire. Now I can't do that. I don't feel like doing anything now, but I especially don't feel like doing nothing. So I'm not actually bored. I just feel ultimate restlessness."
Karina let him walk to his quarters, to do absolutely nothing.
Prologue
:Section 4
"Vincent has been going on like this for almost a month now, hasn't he?"
"Three weeks and a day now..."
"And hasn't Andrew been getting depressed now, too? If he has, we all know why. If he'd get over it, it wouldn't seem so long until we catch up to her age. There are only a little more than 4 years left."
"Ya, that's all. Just well over a thousand days. Because these things just fly on by." Lorenzo's sarcasm never seemed tolerable.
"Shut up! You don't have any ideaof what they're going through!" Karina stormed out of the near empty cafeteria.
"I do. We all do," whispered Lorenzo. For a couple minutes, he just stared at the plate of half-eaten food left behind, and sighed. Then he stared at all his food, not a bite taken. He shoved his chair from the table, and decided to go lose himself in virtual reality.
Prologue
:Section 5
"Retreat to the keep!" barked Lorenzo.
An epic battle was taking place at Helm's Deep. Humans and elves were holding off the orcs and Uru-Kai invading the stronghold. The outer wall had been breached, and enemy troops were flooding in. Just after a light was beginning to shimmer in the East, everything went white. A blazing, gentle, familiar white.
"Hey, I was just getting to the good part!" complained Lorenzo. "What's so important for you to interrupt my VR session?"
The source of the white shimmered and faded, and an exhausted Gennifer bursted through.
"Andrew went to see Alexandria, but we can't wake him up this time, and Vincent's missing!"
Prologue
:Section 6
Fate, controlled by the computer, was inevitably taking back control. The group of children, designed to recreate the human race, were no longer in control. The web of their relations was crumbling. Andrew was in a coma from his grief over Alexandria. Vincent abandoned them from unsatisfaction. Karina was becoming more deceptive each day, causing unrest with the others. Gennifer cared too much, and Lorenzo didn't care much at all.
Alexandria had started the idea for the computer's plans. She gave the young ones a reason to go on. She caused their group to dissipate. And she may bring them back together just by waking, or by choice.
These thoughts ran over through the computer's mind. They became so strong that the excess energies created its original self, a human being, within the void of the computer. Now there were two conscious entities, each like the lobe of a brain. The new one found itself to be dominant, was more aggressive, and caught the other off guard.
As a human being, it knew of and wished to abide by the laws set by the human congress. Noting that one law forbode the alteration of a human during any stage of growth, it decided that the one responsible must be punished accordingly. The typical punishment in this act would be 10 years of stasis for every human affected directly. This came out to 50 years of course, but since this was a computer, it was simply removed of power.
So once again a single mind ruled the craft, but this one felt sympathy for the young ones, as well as fear. It was a computer with vast knowledge, but in denial of its inhuman existance.
Prologue
:Section 7
Gennifer and Lorenzo exited the VR room, anxious and weary. Hopelessly, Gennifer glanced down each end of the fifth longest hall on the ship, as if there would be something to find. Lorenzo looked at Gennifer with a slightly curious look on his face.
"Gennie?" She whipped around towards him, also looking curious now. "What's Karina up to?"
Her puzzlement faded. "Oh, she should be in sector D heading our way. She said she had a good idea where Vincent is. But you know her, she can be weird at times."
Lorenzo rolled his eyes as he realized something. "Wait, why don't we just ask the computer where he is? Computer, locate-"
"Karina and I tried that already. We think Vince might have messed with the computer or something, so she went to the main computer terminal to find him."
Lorenzo doubted Vincent's computer skills. "He couldn't do anything that serious. He must be in one of the VR rooms."
"But there are multiple sectors devoted to virtual reality. We'd never-!"
A crackling came on the speakers in the hall. "Hey, you two. Stop standing around-" at Karina's voice, Lorenzo had to interrupt.
"How'd you hook up to the overhead?" implored Lorenzo. "I thought the computer was malfunctioning."
"Only the external interface partitions aren't working. The terminals are still working." informed Karina.
"Well, then where's Vincent? Don't terminals show thermal activity?" Gennifer was nearly yelling from her impatience.
"He's in room E27. I'll take a lift down there as soon as I can to meet up with you guys, but you'll get there first, probably." Again, there was crackling, signifying disconnection
"Let's get going, then." Gennifer started running before he finished, and he stayed close behind.
Prologue
:Section 8
E27 was the most peaceful room on the ship, considering how worried all the others were. It was actually very tranquil, a haven for the spirit of its one inhabitant. Well, not really just one...
"Vince, what's been going on-! ...in..." Gennifer trailed off. She and Lorenzo were in brief shock, to see Captain James Henrick awake, who was delayed to have their attention.
"...Aren't you supposed to either be in stasis, or at least on the bridge piloting the ship?" commented a most confused Lorenzo.
James chuckled. "If you said that as a statement, you'd be partially incorrect. As you obviously can't see, I am piloting the ship, and I am in stasis." he stated openly.
As Lorenzo and Gennifer thought on this, they noticed the captain was in his blue full dress uniform. He stood 5'11", not far from twice as tall as the children, with brown hair and hazel eyes.
"You have to be an image from the photon transmitter in the room. But.. if you're an image... just, it's flawless!" interpreted Lorenzo, letting Gennifer notice this as well.
"That would be correct-"
The void in the room appeared, and Karina dashed through it.
"Captain! What are you doing here?... I didn't see your thermal reading on the terminal..." said Karina, as she soaked in what she saw in the room. "And what's with Vince?"
Lorenzo and Gennifer realized they had been neglecting Vincent the entire time. He looked tired, though awake, with his eyes very dialated. Obviously he had been very relaxed for a long time in the same sitting position.
His eyes began to focus, but remained a little dialated. "The captain's been consulting me on how to keep myself entertained. He told me I need to lower my expectations of entertainment, and that I need to talk with you guys some more. He's really nice. We're friends now... I could just sleep for hours near him..." Vincent started to nod off, and his comments started trailing off into slow breathing.
"Well, there's only one thing to do to him now..." commented James. He snapped his finger and an odd, thin and twisted syringe appeared in his hand. The captain walked towards Vincent, aiming it at his throat.
"NO!!" screamed Karina as she ran at the captain. "I won't let you hurt him!" She jumped and tackled James in the neck and took hold. He lost some balance and dropped the syringe on the pure white ground.
"Get off of me!" yelled a voice no longer soothing and calm, but hoarse and ferocious. Lorenzo and Gennifer ran towards Vincent and began to carry him out.
"Karina! Come on!" yelled Gennifer as the void opened. Karina struggled with James for a few more seconds.
"Gah!" exhaled the captain as he hurled Karina off of him. She scrambled for a landing and succeded, then ran for the exit to catch up with the other three. James C. Henrick wiped his uniform smooth, which was unbelievably undamaged from how much clawing Karina had managed to do.
The four lay collapsed on the soft gray carpet, 3 panting, all confused.
"Vince! Wake up." ordered Lorenzo.
"Muh, but I was so relaxed..."
"He was trying to kill you!" exploded Karina with the frustration of somebody not having the same feelings as she did. "Or maybe you didn't notice that dagger!"
"I wasn't planning on his death." announced the hallway overhead speakers in the captain's voice. "I was going to inject some long-term anti-depression fluid into his bloodstream. Unless you think you can handle him now. And no hard feelings Karina." The voice was beginning to sound kind once more.
Karina growled, and the others rolled their eyes.
Prologue
:Section 9
"So wait, I'm still not getting this." Gennifer and the others were having breakfast the following day
"You aren't getting what?" Lorenzo didn't look up from his eggs benedict.
"I'm not getting that Karina was so defensive of Vincent..." Vincent and Lorenzo slowly looked up towards Karina, anticipating a typical outburst.
Her eye flinched. "Whereas you and Lorenzo sat back, dumbfounded. Maybe I don't know much, but when a friend at least SEEMS to be in danger, you take action."
Vincent took his part in the conversation. "True, but it still isn't quite like you to be such a... friend. I'm pretty sure Gennie isn't complaining, or really all that confused, just somewhat shocked to see such a change in your personality.
"We have good reason to be shocked." extrapolated Gennifer. "With personailties changing, who knows what may happen to our friendship. We'll always need something to hold onto, so it doesn't fall apart."
"Changes are needed, though," examined Lorenzo, "for our relationships to stay intact. Too much of the same thing can be bad." The stress in the air ceased.
"That way we don't get bored." understood Gennifer.
"So we all have an understanding, then." Karina's observation killed the topic, resulting in silence, allowing them to eat once again.
"...Shouldn't we do something about Andy?" Vincent wondered.
"I recommend a basic neural stimulation for this case of comatose." The captain buddded in with the intercom yet again. "You know where the equipment closet is. Third unit on the right, second-to-top shelf for a device to do just the trick." This of course reduced the helplessness felt just then, so the four decided to get up.
They briskly walked on the way towards the equipment closet as service drones cleaned up their places. All that was heard for 10 seconds afterwards was the familiar din of walking, and the whisper of power surging through the ship.
"Do we know what's up with the captain, though? Cuz, isn't he supposed to be in a capsule? And how does he have control over the intercom, if we've only seen him in a VR room?" Karina was beginning to look frightened now, and it spread to the other three as they thought on this.
"I hope we'll have those questions answered pretty soon... maybe the captain can tell us." Everyone looked up at the overhead speaker of the hall, expecting the captain to use it. As it passed above, then behind them, they all noticed a silence, except for their movement.
"Ya, he seems to cut into conversations whenever he feels like it..." Gennifer took a disliking to the past silence, and corrected it. "I wonder if the captain was like this before he went into stasis..."
This triggered some of Lorenzo's thoughts. He would have told his guess on the whole thing, how he thought the captain was just a projection. But he still couldn't figure it out. If he was a projection, how could it have been perfect? And if he was still in stasis, how could he be piloting the ship? Lorenzo would just have to wait it out with the others, since his itch to learn about it would be too much for them to handle at the moment.
"Well, I guess I'll get the device." Vincent suggested upon arrival of the closet. As he opened the door, he paused for a second to notice everyone was too deep in thought to doubt his abilities of finding it... Third unit on the right, second-to-top shelf... They continued on their walk.
"So, we're gonna use that to stimulate his brain to wake him..." Karina softly examined the device in Vincent's hand.
"Let me take a look at it." Lorenzo received the stimulator from Vincent as the other three intently looked on. He turned it over in his hand, tracing some imaginary lines with his other, and mumbling all the while.
They got on a lift, and Karina pressed the button directing the lift to the stasis chamber. Just before it would have started to move, the light indicating the selection turned off, and the lift's speaker came on. "Ah yes, I forgot to tell you. I had a drone bring Andrew to the ward from the stasis chamber. I'll redirect you, if you don't mind..." The light indicating the selection of the ward turned on, and the lift finally began to move, but due to worries, conversation didn't start up as quick.
"Do we know how Andy got into a coma, though? I mean, I know that it was anxiety and stress, but there has to be a meaning to it." As Gennifer pointed this out, she began thinking of possible reasons.
"Well, we know he really wants to meet Alexandria. But since we have to get older on this trip to catch up with her, we can't go into stasis-" Karina debated with herself.
"Ya, there's not a single living organism that can develop or really even live in stasis." Lorenzo interrupted, but Karina didn't continue talking since she had already made most of her point.
"But didn't Andy say he wished he could just speed up time, not jump it?" Vincent finished her point.
The lift stopped and they walked on the way to the ward. This time, the sound of walking was inaudible, since they were talking.
"Then he would have wanted to get into a coma, since the body still develops, but the brain is unconscious." Lorenzo was somewhat content, since he saw a soon conclusion to one of the problems he wanted fix.
"...Maybe we should let him sleep through the trip, then. So he can age until we're like Alexandria, but not spend an unwanted minute without her." Gennifer was hardly less worried now, since they were set to do something she just discovered may be(, as an understatement,) unappreciated.
"That's not what I was going for, but who knows, maybe it's the right thing to do."
"Don't you two see? If you haven't noticed, Andy is immature. Like with how much he wants Alex. He should take what he's given and deal with it. Like you said, there has to be meaning to it. I think the meaning is just a sad fact- that Andy is desperate and refuses to face the truth. That he has to live his life, not hers." Karina sounded somewhat depressed by by her speech, though she knew it was the absolute truth. So she had to accept it.
"So it's settled." Vincent decided to wrap up the discussion of morals since they had been standing at the entrance to the ward for a few seconds. "We go according to plan, wake Andy, and try to work him through the problem."
They entered the ward and found the single name on the holo-board, and Lorenzo led the others withits directions, since he still held the device. As they entered, they noticed the face-up child, almost angelic in his self-made stasis with an IV and heart moniter.
"All right, I'm guessing I attach these to his temples..." Lorenzo spoke to himself as he did the tasks, probably to explain the others, though they weren't really paying attention, "and plug them into the terminal for control." He accessed the terminal to the left of the bed, and adjusted the power of the procedure accordingly. The other three didn't take seats yet, because they figured it wouldn't take long.
"That's all!" said Lorenzo as he disconnected everything, including the IV and the heart monitor. "You guys can go ahead and sit down now. It turns out it'll take a while, since it only increases his brain activity until he's out of the coma. He'll be waking up in a minute or so." As he finished, everybody had sat down, though Karina wasn'tvery relaxed.
"Are we sure we should be doing this, though? Even though it's for the best, Andy would be happy if he got to speed through time." Karina was nervous and began to have second thoughts.
"Even after that whole speach? Seriously Karina, I think you were acting a lot more logical a few minutes ago." Gennifer had gotten annoyed.
"I agree with Gennie. There's no going back anyway, since his waking up has been set in motion." Vincent was totally oblivious to Andrew's hand flinch. "Let's just do our best to help him." Karina had a lookof submission, which quickly changed to a small surprise directed at Andrew.
"I think he's waking up..." Karina practically whispered, almost as if she was keeping from waking Andrew. All four surrounded the bed, Gennifer nearest the head.
Andrew's eyes under their lids, and Karina leaned onto the bed a bit.
"Wake up, Andy." Karina cooed as well as she could, since she didn't have much practice with it. His eyes started to flutter, and Karina took her weight off the bed.
"We're all here." Lorenzo pointed out. Andrew looked at him.
"Alex, too?" He was much more awake now at this possibility.
"No," Gennifer decided to take the burden, as Andrew turned his attention to her, "we woke you from a coma, which might have lasted until landing-"
"Well how long have I been in the coma?!" Andrew was getting very imaptient, making everyone else nervous.
"...Not long. Just about a week-"
"A WEEK?!?" Andrew sat up in the bed. "Don't you know how much I want to get older?"
"Yes, we do..." Gennifer was getting timid now.
"Well, why didn't you let me sleep 'till the landing? It's not like you needed me for anything..."
"No, but I think you need us." Vincent summarized the second point of the conversation.
"WHAT?!... No, I don't need any help at all. If I wasn't 'helped', as far as I'd know I'd be meeting Alex in a few days or so."
"But if the captain hadn't helped you, you'd be dead in a few real days or so. Can't exactly eat or drink when you're in a coma." Lorenzo took a logical standpoint in this debate, as always.
Andrew was clearly thinking. "...I thought the captain was in stasis- how'd he get out?" Andrew lost his anger for a second, and the other four were relieved for a change of subject, though it wasn't exactly a question they could answer.
"We don't really know either." Karina explained.
"But that's beside the point. You still don't have a reason- a justified reason to wake me!"
"I guess I'll have to get to a point here." Gennifer worried the other four a little. "You're being really immature about this. You don't have to be with Alexandria. You shouldn't waste away years of your life." Gennifer crouched to be eye-to-eye with Andrew. "I know you could be such an amazing person, if you weren't so immature and sarcastic. You almost died." This definitely softened Andrew. "Please, live your life. If you have to, live it for Alexandria. Just not with her right now." Tears crept their ways into the eyes of the five, and Gennifer hugged Andrew.
Prologue
:Section 10
Andrew recovered quickly, and the five decided to go to the cafeteria for a well-deserved snack. But when they entered, they saw a figure behind the self-serve counter.
"Captain?..." Vincent whispered to hinself, somewhat hopefully. After a couple seconds, they could see it was a chrome-clean robot with a ruby red scanner for a face.
"Hey, it's a service droid! I guess this one's been programmed for kitchen duty." Lorenzo extrapolated.
"That's mostly right. I'm your personal service droid, set mainly for preparing your meals, but I can help in other ways if you wish. Orders from the captain so we can keep the food synthesizers idle to save power." the droid replied. Its voice was female, having little hint of being artificial, and near perfect. It was of a young woman- in her early to mid 20's most likely. As the five approached, they found the synthesizers replaced with stoves, an oven, cutting boards, and cooking utensils.
"So, okay." Karina noticed the lack of action. "I guess we'd like to order some snacks."
"Right then. What'd you like?" the droid inticed.
"Well, I'd like saltene crackers with smoked gouda." Vincent decided to start off the orders.
"Could I have sugar cookies and lowfat milk please?" Gennifer requested.
"Me, too." Andrew didn't feel like thinking of something.
"Hmm, how about some celery with peanut butter." came Lorenzo's yearning.
"I want peppermint icecream with caramel with whipped cream!" bursted Karina's abandonment of the nutritious approach.
"All right, I'll be right back with the ingredients. Go ahead and take some seats." The droid wheeled into the next room, and the children plopped into the nearest setof seats.
"She seems nice." Gennifer observed.
"It doesn't actually have a gender, and it was probably programmed to be nice to us." Lorenzo countered.
"Oh quit being so shallow," Karina assailed, "you should look deeper into people than that, even if they are robots." Lorenzo took more note of this than expected, but kept a similar attitude to before.
"Excuse me, I'm no sociologist." Lorenzo attempted an excuse.
The droid came back into the cafeteria, holding a tray containing the food, and began preparing it on the cutting boards.
"Are you going to be serving us until landing?" Andrew wondered.
"The capatin seems to be planning that way." There was no pause in the preparation.
"We'd like to get familiar with you then." Vincent explained.
"Sounds good to me." The droid felt indifferent about the smalltalk. There was a short pause as the children waited for the droid to finish making their snacks. As it rolled to the table, they shifted in their seats from hunger.
"Here's your snacks!" came an enthusiastic announcement from the droid, as if they hadn't been watching her every move. The snacks were laid in front of their appropriate recipients.
"Thanks!" came the easily predicted reply from all.
"But if we're going to get familiar with you," Gennifer allowed the continuation of conversation, "shouldn't we have a name to call you by?" This called everyone's attention directly on the droid.
"I guess so. How about Cindy? I've learned of successful women by that name in the past."
"Yeah, Cindy sounds good." commented Andrew.
"Well, unless you need anything else, I've got some minor repairs to do." Cindy slowly began to leave to give them time to think of something.
"Maybe we could meet up in room D15? It has one of the best transmitters." Karina suggested.
"All right. See you there at 11 hundred hours." Cindy sped up and left through the main door.
Later in the day, they took a trip to an old-style amusement park with Cindy. By the end of the day, the 5 were 6.
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