Chapter 1B: Seed Ship
A7619B woke up covered in sweat. The pain and fatigue hit him full blast as soon as he opened his eyes. Doing his best to endure it, the thought of giving up once again flashed through his mind. But it wasn’t the only thing flashing through his mind.
Memories of his past slowly flowed through his mind. People say when you are dying; your whole life will flash through your eyes. The boy wondered if this was happening to him. His birth, his parents, their enthusiasm heightening as his genetic potential is revealed by the nurse AI, and finally the day his illness was discovered after he collapsed in the corridors. He remembered the feeling of dread as he saw the hope and expectation slowly fade from his parent’s gaze. The way they distance themselves from him gradually as his health deteriorated.
Tears that have dried from last night started to pour again.
“Why me?” He clutched his chest in grief.
The once hopeful eyes gave away to darkness and tears.
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Moments later, after the pain faded and the residual fatigue left him breathless, A7619B got out of bed slowly to get some water into his body. Sweating profusely and constant tears dehydrated him over the night. The wall opened up and revealed a filled cup of water as if knowing his needs. On the ARK, the AI is always watching. There were cameras everywhere, including the cleaning robots. Thankful for the AI’s thoughtfulness, the boy drank the water. The cool refreshing liquid flowed down his parched throat, giving him some strength back.
“Mother, what is my schedule today?” The boy asked with a hoarse voice.
“Today is the weekend, nothing important is due. At 11 am will be your sector’s scheduled cleansing.” The AI replied with a cheerful tone.
This AI is a personal attendant version of Mother. It doesn’t have much personality, but it does perform simple tasks such as recording memos and keeping a schedule.
“Ah, today is cleaning day…” His mind wandered.
With a vessel as massive as the seed ships, it required constant care to remove dust to prevent wear and tear. A monthly cleanse will occur to wash the hallways. The ceiling will drizzle fluids down like rain for a good three hours, washing and cleaning the walls and floor with chemicals. Then the halls are heated to dry and ventilated before it can be opened for public use again.
The people who live near the scheduled sectors are to either evacuate or to bunker down in their room.
“I can’t stay here for the whole day,” A7619B said as he got dressed, “I might as well go visit old man G4240B.”
The old man was long past his prime. Nearing his fiftieth birthday, he was eternally stuck at C rank. Although brilliant, his ideas were far too eccentric for the AI to consider it purely beneficial to humanity, or rather that’s what the old man told the boy. With all the time they spent together, the boy was very trusting of the old man, so he believed him.
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Underneath a glittering metallic tree, an old man was tinkering with various scrap metal from broken tools. A large shaded magnifying glass extended out of an exotic headgear and was placed in front of his good eye. His other eye wandered off towards the other end as if it had a mind of its own. In his hands were a small sauntering gun and an alligator wrench. Bright flashes sparked as the sauntering gun was melding two pieces of metal together.
Suddenly, a noise made the old man pause. He lifted up his magnifying glass and turned around to find his favorite chatting companion.
“Hey kid, how’s it going?” Turning back to his work, the old man said nonchalantly.
“Not so good in the health department, but otherwise good.”
“I see, keep up with your medication. Even if the AI doesn’t provide the top quality meds, what it does provide will keep you alive,” The old man said with concern.
“Will do.”
The old man frowned as he heard the depressing tone of the boy’s voice, but it was his policy to not pry any further into the kid’s personal life.
A7619B sat under the metallic tree and looked up at the lightbulbs hanging from it like ripened fruits.
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“What are you working on now?” The boy asked with curiosity.
“Ah, you see, I am making a living metal tree,” G4240B replied with glee.
“A living metal tree?”
“As you know, a tree use photosynthesis uses the energy from light to react carbon dioxide with water to produce sugar molecules and oxygen. What I am trying to replicate is to make a metal version with a programmed AI that duplicates the photosynthesis process without any light but instead uses electricity.”
“Isn’t that inefficient?” The boy asked.
“What I’m trying to do is the get a positive net gain of energy over time,” The old man replied.
“But how?”
The boy suddenly regretted asking as the old man started on a rant about the Calvin cycle and conservation of energy. He never really showed promise in the chemistry department in class. After a long time, the old man finally realized he had lost the boy’s interest and stopped talking.
G4240B went back to tinkering, and the boy continued his observation. They enjoyed their silence as the hallway behind them closed. The sound of chemicals pouring down could be heard as it splashed onto the metallic walls and floor. A faint sour smell leaked out from the tightly shut door.
“They need to do maintenance on the seals on the door again. If we ever had a hull breach, that small gap will shred the door open due to the pressure,” The old man sighed after getting a whiff.
As if it was always listening, the AI properly responded. Perhaps only the inside of your mind was safe from the AI’s constant monitoring.
“Maintenance scheduled on the door in Sector 78K. Thank you for your report.”
“I wish I was there when those old egg heads invented the AI. The thing’s a piece of genius that trumps anything I could ever invent,” The old man nodded with a yearning sigh.
It has been a very long time since the vessel left earth. None of the geniuses who planned the ARK boarded their creation. They chose to stay behind and die with their home, a real captain of their sinking ship.
The hours passed by quickly.
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When the boy left, the old man looked at his lonely back with a sympathetic eye. Suddenly, a bright idea spawned in his noggin.
“Would it work?” He asked himself. “Maybe…just maybe…”
He took out a pen and started to draw out a blueprint.
His mind feverishly working to save the boy.
Suddenly, he stopped.
“It will work, I just need a pawn,” The old man said after wiping his forehead of sweat.
His search began with finding a suitable target. He quickly left for the medical bay.
A7619B went back to his room. The sour musk slowly faded away after the hours of aeration and the hallway was still steamy after its humidification. Chemical baths caused the environment to dry up. The metal walls and floor were rust proof anyways, so the corridors were humidified during the last step to ensure a comfortable living environment.
Feeling the usual fatigue, the boy slowly crawled into his bed. Another uneventful day, but he was satisfied. He didn’t have long left anyway; he might as well spend his remaining days doing what he liked. With that thought, he got himself comfortable and went to sleep.
A dreamless sleep overtook his mind as he drifted off into slumber. It would seem he would have a painless night tonight. Meanwhile, the old man diligently searched through the medical bay for his pawn.
He finally found his target as the morning artificial sun rose. The perfect specimen.
“This will have to do. The kid will complain a lot, but beggars can’t be choosers,” The old man laughed maniacally as he stroke the wispy chin hair he called a beard.
The following day, the boy had class again. They covered basic orbital mechanics and what to do in emergencies if your escape pod enters the upper orbit of massive planets. It was a review, but the AI wants to drill the information into all its passengers. Fate is a bitch at times, and you can never expect when the next disaster will occur. At any moment, a catastrophic failure may cause the loss of an entire seed ship. You can never be too safe in space, a place that is just far too inhospitable for human beings.
The AI reviewed the location of the escape pods and their navigation controls. Then followed by the history of its manufacturing and the inventor of the device/vehicle.
Just another dreary day aboard the seed vessel. The boy suddenly felt like this is a waste of his time. He doesn’t have long left, why should he stay for repeated classes made for people who have less stellar memory?
A7619B wanted to ask the Teacher AI if he could leave, but he needed an excuse. It would be hard to fool an AI who can know your entire schedule just by communicating with his personal AI, so he needed a legitimate reason to leave.
Suddenly, he got a message. Then an idea popped into his mind. It was the same kind of message he received yesterday, a jump scare scam. People don’t change; they keep trying the same thing over and over again if it works once. Perhaps he could put it to good use. Instead of immediately opening it, he took out a small metal sphere from his pocket. It was a gift from the old man from his last birthday. He opened it up, and a little monitor displayed above it in the form of a tiny holographic square. Silently plugging it into his visor, he began to use to alter the message he received.
This gift was a small tool used to alter most programs not monitored by the AI. Any application not directly controlled by the AI is free game to anyone with the smarts to change them. This means the small jump scare program attached to the message is alterable. Quickly, it became something else entirely. He sent it back to the sender and awaited the results with a sly grin. Deep down, he also thanked the old man for his useful inventions. G4240B was the boy’s mechanical cat, his purveyor of technical doodads.
Suddenly, one of the students leaped out of his chair. The visor that was still attached to the table tensed and dragged him back down as he face-plants the desk in front of him. Everyone stared in shock.
“What happened?” The teacher AI asked in confusion.
Seeing the student in the fetal position on the ground with a nosebleed, the teacher AI decided to end today’s class. The boy was quite ecstatic. He got his revenge as well as the rest of the day to do what he wants.
Whistling while he strolled out the class, he played with the small sphere in his pockets.
“Thanks, old man!” A7619B said to himself with a sneer.