Niah

The morning break room is a relaxed space with teak flooring, soft light, and an inviting spirit of communal living. Wish and I take seats across from each other in two of the comfortable leather chairs. A cluster of four chairs is set around each of the three small tables in the room. Hart flashes off to one side of the room where he collects an assortment of packages and tubes from what looks like a long filing cabinet. "Ration bars and spirit water. These are designed to keep for millennia and are stored for emergencies." He drops his takings on the table between us. Wish snatches up the first packet, tearing into it with vigour and chomping down without really looking at the strange mash of ingredients.

I pick up a bar, opening it more carefully and examining the mix of oat-like flakes and fruit-like nuggets. It feels strangely familiar although, somehow, I know I've never actually eaten one before. My mouth and stomach react as if they already know I'll enjoy it. The mix of knowing blended with the lack of memories is disconcerting, so I bite cautiously. I'm instantly rewarded by a familiar taste that feels enhanced a thousandfold. My taste buds light up and I munch the rest of the bar swiftly, then delve around in the packets to try a few of the other assorted flavours.

The tubes of spirit water are another oddity. The chrome cylinders are secure and waterproof and the liquid inside has a thick, glutinous consistency more like sloppy jelly than water. But it's refreshing, chilled, and tastes sweetly fresh as if drawn from crisp, icy springs.

As Wish and I eat, Hart hovers impatiently and sighs. Sensing his frustration I turn to him between mouthfuls and ask, "What can you tell us about the problems with the ship?"

"There is a malfunction."

"I understand that, but what is the nature of it?"

He sighs. "You would not understand."

I raise an eyebrow. "You said I was created to complete a mission? Surely I've got some uses. You did intend to wake me up at some point, right?"

He hovers another moment and then sighs heavily before crossing to 'sit' in one of the two remaining chairs. Sit, is an odd way to consider his posture given that he has no legs as such to sit with. His body hovers above the chair, and tilts as if at rest, but is still at least two inches from the leather surface. A trail of blue from what must be hover jets seems to pool beneath him. Once settled, he continues. "Your role only becomes fundamental once we have returned to Nar."

"But surely a ship this size needs a crew."

He tilts his head. "A crew is normally stipulated and we had one. But fundamentally a crew is unnecessary. Elixr is pre-programmed to maintain systems and I am designed to control navigation and defence."

Wish leans forward. "What happened to your crew?"

Hart glances between the two of us. I wonder if he's attempting a fabrication or considering ignoring her question. Eventually he responds. "There was an incident."

It looks like Hart is about to explain but then a rapid scroll of text floods across his face. He emits a series of high pitched screeches. Wish and I lift our hands to protect our ears from the noise. Moments later, Hart's face clears. His eye orbs blink open and he continues as if nothing happened.

"The crew is unnecessary. Elixr and I can ensure we reach our destination."

"Unless something goes wrong. Something's wrong with you, isn't it?"

He huffs as if frustrated. I'm not sure if he's judging his own sense of failure or if my questions are bothersome.

"I really would like to help, Hart. How would a crew manage the problems you're facing?"

He pauses a long moment, considering my question, and I wonder if he will tell me or if he'll send us back to the sleeper bays instead.

"Hart?"

"Captain Bellamy would uncover the root of any system failures from the research lab main computer. Maintenance members would fabricate and repair damaged hardware while my Captain dynamically updated internal systems and repaired any corruptions that may have occurred to the data."

"Can't you and Elixr just fix yourselves?" Wish asks.

"We do not have the same functional knowledge of our base code or interiors. Elixr manages the circuit-to-circuit functioning as a whole but not the underlying programming that creates her network of systems."

I nod, understanding without really understanding how I know what he's talking about. "And there are faults in the underlying programming?"

"Invariably, to some degree."

"So you need someone to run through lines of code."

"Fundamentally."

"Can't you do that?" Wish asks. She's working on what might be her sixth ration bar but has finally started to slow down.

"I am a research, telemetry, teleportation, and defence unit. Understanding of interstellar computational base code is not in my core memory deposits."

I sigh. "So, that's a no. Can I help you?"

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His eyes flash as if sparked by an idea. "You are November-One-Alpha-Four, with the genetic memory of your primary DNA components."

"Um, I thought we established that my name is Niah."

He tilts his head, then nods once. "Niah, you have the automatic nerve memories of your genetic material."

"And she was a programmer?"

The dots of his blue eyes blink. "He was our captain."

I let the new information land, but find myself drawn to deal with one particular point rather than the eagrim's nest of the rest of it. "He? But I'm a girl."

"There was a malfunction prior to the initiation of your cloning sequence."

I bite my lip because I suddenly realise my whole life might be a mistake. "What do you mean?"

"Elixr and I were forced to implement some augmentations to your DNA structure during the cloning sequence. We no longer had an original source of genetic material and the resource we used to fabricate your genetic structure was," he pauses, searching for the word, "damaged."

"Damaged? How?"

"Significant data corruption occurred during the BLEEP. Oh! Excuse me." He lifts his hand to the screen where I imagine his mouth might be if he had more than flashing lights for a face. The dots of his eyes disappear behind a screen of text again. I catch the words "data recovery" and "systems memory repair mode" between his fingers but most of it scrolls past before I can fully understand it. His eyes blink back into place and the text disappears. "It appears aspects of my historical records are unable to be accessed at this time."

I grimace. "Malfunction?"

"The damage to our systems is," he pauses, "extensive."

Wish leans forward. "But Niah can help you fix it right? If she's a clone of the captain?"

The rapid nod of Hart's head is disconcerting in speed and intensity. He rises up over the chair, then darts across the room, turns, and darts back. "Yes, yes! Come!"

"But–" I reach for a final sip and feel him practically bobbing with excitement beside me.

"Come, Niah. Come!"

I grab another unopened tube of spirit water as I push myself to my feet. Wish stands beside me as Hart darts back to the door. He zips out into the corridor, so I follow the trail of his blue stream. I glance back to see Wish gather up a stash of the rations and cylinders. If the slim-line body suit she wears had pockets, I imagine she'd be stashing everything within them. Instead, she settles for as much as she can carry. I shake my head. "It's not like anyone is going to steal it while we're gone. There's no one else around."

She shrugs. "When you feel like you've never eaten in your life, it's easy to worry you might never eat again." I swallow and nod because I know exactly where she's coming from. I'm already terrified of falling asleep in case I never wake up.

"Come on, before we lose Hart for good."

She tilts her head. "Not sure that's entirely a bad thing." She winks at me. "I'm itching to explore without a chaperon."

"We have time. But first, let's go see about the programming. Maybe you can help."

She shrugs. "I've got no idea what you two were talking about."

"Want to check it out anyway?"

She nods. "Let's go!"

We have to jog down the corridor to catch up with the disappearing strands of Hart's hover stream as they turn a corner. The small bot comes about in front of a pair of heavy doors. "Come on, come on!" As we reach him, he hums and the doors open with a ping. He steps inside the small cylindrical chamber and turns to face us. He waves us in with his hands. "Come on!"

We both step inside and the doors swoosh closed behind us. The strange sensation of vertical movement tingles through me as we rapidly ascend. The doors swoosh open again on a new and unfamiliar corridor. Above us, a row of circular light panels blink on in rapid succession down the long channel. The walls are plain, smooth, white and featureless. This corridor is much narrower than any of the others we moved through downstairs. The final light illuminates a large door in the distance. It has the words "Research Lab" blazed across it in giant orange letters.

Hart whizzes off down the corridor and almost slams into the door as it fails to open. He rears back, a strange motion of backwards hovering over his own jet stream. He approaches the door again more slowly but it still does not open, so he glances around. "Elixr, activate door controls to the research lab."

A moment of silence passes, then Elixr's voice comes through the walls. "Negative. Unable to process your request."

I step forward, pull open the panel on the wall beside the door, and navigate the menu. It is second nature to me. Beside me, I feel Hart and Wish lean close as they curiously peer around me at the screen. After a few more clicks, the door slides open and the room beyond flickers into a wash of base-lit glass screens. Wide, white fibreglass desks cradle the room in a fractured oval. They ring a large round platform. Above each of the desks are large holo-screens trailing symbols and images similar to those creating light in the giant glass panels that surround the room.

"Wow!" Wish says beside me. My face mirrors hers. Although familiar in that eerie sense that everything seems to be familiar, this room is mind-blowing – beautiful even. I feel a tingle of excitement and my fingers itch to explore the high tech consoles. The screens flash with an array of information. My gaze wanders the room as I try to decide where to put my attention.

Hart crosses into the room and directly to a podium against the far wall, or is it a window? It's hard to tell because of the way the screen lights up in the glass. The surfaces are opaque so we can't actually see through them like the glass on the bridge, but they have similar floor to ceiling size. Hart turns when he reaches the podium and waves me forward again.

"You must fix the processors and regain full function of the ship. Come on."

I cross the room and join him at the podium. Its touch screen is a highly detailed input terminal. As I begin to explore the settings, instinctively familiar with the system's complexities, I glance up at the large holo display before me. Information scrolls into place and my hands move across the terminal in confident motions. I almost forget Hart and Wish are beside me as I delve into the intricate coding of the machine. Hart's soft hum – I'm not sure if it's contentment or impatience – is like a quiet bee in my ear, and the food packets crinkle in Wish's arms as she shifts on her feet. Knowing both are waiting, I focus on the primary objective; identifying the source of malfunction. My fingers fly across the screen until I find the relevant programs. I follow each twist in the ornate programming then sigh. Eventually, I tap an interface on the screen that puts the system into a diagnostics mode and turn to Hart and Wish.

"Well, have you fixed it?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. This will take several factors to fix, at least. It might even take circuits."

Wish groans. "Circuits?"

I nod. "But look, I can set up the primary controls at a workstation. Just leave me to it and I'll get us up and running again. It'll take time but I can fix this."

Hart hums again, then nods. His head turns and then his body follows. As he whizzes out of the room, he calls back. "As I am surplus to requirements, I will return to my charging station for the duration." I blink but the doors swish closed behind him before I can call him back. He sounds carefree but I'm not sure if he thinks I called him useless. Did I hurt his feelings? Do droids even have feelings?

Wish drops the packets of food and drink on the nearest workstation and throws herself down into a chair. I take the seat beside her and turn to face the screen.

A while later, I'm lost in the lines of code again, tinkering a sub-command here and tweaking a root if-then statement there. Wish sighs heavily beside me so I pause and turn to her. "How about a reconnaissance mission?"

Her eyebrows lift and she leans toward me. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, I'm stuck behind the interface here but I need to know more about the ship and its layout." I pull up an on-screen map that shows a sprawl of decks then push a button on the surface of the desk. With a slight hiss, a small handheld tablet slides up from inside a compartment. I swipe the map across to the tablet and it flicks from the large heads-up display to the small device. "Records indicate that some areas of the ship are damaged but there's no information about what kind of damage or the extent of it. I need you to go explore, make notes about what you find, and then flick it back to me. Here, I'll show you."

I show Wish how to enter notes, records, and markers on the map and then sync the data back to the main systems hub with an identity flag that will flash my terminal a notice. She nods, excited, and spends a few long deccas browsing the map before darting to the door. It swishes open as she approaches and I sigh, suddenly realising that a part of me had wondered if we might have been locked in. "I'll be back soon."

"Stay safe!" I call. She snaps a mock salute, clicks her heels together, and accompanies it with a cheeky wink. The door slides closed behind her.

Alone in the lab, I glance around. I feel as if I've been left unsupervised in a giant playground. Almost giddy with excitement, I spin in my chair, taking in the whole expanse of the room. The lines of text on the screen of my workstation remind me of my primary purpose, so I turn back to the base code and continue tinkering through it.

Occasionally, a bleep alerts me to an update from Wish. I respond to each of her discoveries as she explores every inch of the ship. As we work, a part of me wonders what Wish's genetic memories make familiar for her. We clearly have different instinctive interests. How can we be clones if we aren't identical?