…[ JACY ]…
Frea and Kacy had been waiting for her in the waiting room for guests. Not that they were guests but still. Kacy had hugged her immediately, and stayed there for long. Jacy didn’t mind, but Frea also wanted a hug. So they had been forced to separate. From there, it was a one way trip to her and Frea’s apartment.
It felt nice to be back in their apartment again. In a way, she had missed it; in a way, she had not. As little as her luggage had been leaving, it was still the same on her return. Only maybe a kilogram heavier due to the amount of photographs she had printed. The printers on board the ship had been considered something unnecessary. But as the days became weeks, and then months; they had started to see use. And soon enough, they were being used constantly. They had been used too much that they had run the risk of running out of paper. Two more weeks out, and there wouldn’t have been any spare paper on the whole ship.
“How has life being on Earth?” Jacy asked as she returned from her bedroom. It had looked different to her. Or maybe she had just gotten used to her quarters at the ship.
“Fun, without you here to clog the shower.” Frea said. “Or the toilet.”
“I am so not the reason they were clogging.” Jacy defended herself.
“The facts state otherwise.”
“What facts? Present them.” She came and stood in front of Frea at the sofa.
“Fact one:” she held up a finger as she spoke. “For the seven months you have been gone, neither the shower nor the toilet, have clogged. Not even once.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe you have been clearing them up before they get clogged.”
“Say what you will.” Frea moved to the other side of the to continue watching the television.
“Besides, where are the witnesses to collaborate that fact?”
Kacy chose that moment to enter the living room. “I think your toilet is clogged.” She announced as she moved to the kitchen sink and began pouring herself a glass of water.
“Damn it!”
Jacy turned to Kacy as Frea started uttering curses that weren’t healthy, even for an adult. “How was your seven months?”
“It was fine.” She said. “Except for the crew training program, everything was fine.”
“What was—” Jacy began before Kacy interrupted her.
“Scratch that. Everything was hell. The training program turned everything else to hell.”
“Oh.” Kacy was still in that mood. Things didn’t look promising. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s fine. Everything is fine now.” She said, after taking a few sips from the glass.
“I see. So, what will you been doing now?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Kacy asked confused.
“Like tomorrow? The day after? Next week?”
“Training. There is nothing else to do nowadays.”
“Oh…” Jacy was taken aback by that. Maybe she read the situation wrong.
“What?”
“She thought you quit the training program.” Frea said what she couldn’t bring herself to say.
“What? Why? I would never do that.” Kacy replied aghast, her voice raising with the sentence.
“Well, your last message kind of…” Jacy tried to no avail to find words that she could explain what she had assumed from that message. Why was she twiddling her thumbs? Stop!
“It was what?” Kacy insisted, leaning forward on the kitchen counter.
“It had a lot of quity vibes.” Frea came to her rescue, with her straight forwardness. And it got quite the response from Kacy.
“Oh. That! I was going through a rough time.” Yep, she was definitely blushing. She could see the faint of redness creeping up Kacy’s cheeks.
“You can say that again.” Even though Frea wasn’t watching them, she seemed to be enjoying herself. Like she already knew how Kacy would be behaving. “She was miserable, I felt sorry for her.”
“Hey, that is not nice.” Kacy tried to sound reproachful, but it was a weak attempt.
“I’m your friend. I am allowed to feel sorry for you.”
“What was the problem?” Jacy asked her, trying to get behind what the other two were talking about.
“It’s nothing. Forget it. Besides, it’s over now, so nothing to worry about.” Kacy hurried tried to dissuade her, but she pleaded even more,
“Come on. I want to know. Please?”
And the blushing was back in full swing. “It’s embarrassing.”
“Now I’m good. Four more months and I will be crew for the next expedition.” Kacy was back to her high spirits as they joined Frea in the living room. Telling about it seemed to have worked great.
She knew that Kacy wouldn’t like it one bit, but it still needed to be said, “Not exactly.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean? There will be another selection?” This got Frea’s full attention too.
“Not another selection.”
Kacy seemed to have been the first one to figure it out. “No. No. But I’m barely surviving this one.”
“What are you talking about?” Frea seemingly still in the dark, turned to Kacy for explanation.
“She… she means another whole training program. Right?” She nodded at the inquiry. She wished Kacy wouldn’t sound so devastated.
“But… then what is the point of this one?” Frea asked after a while.
“Besides the obvious?” She kept her focus on Frea, leaving Kacy to her own demons.
“If I only want to be on the next expedition and not the luxury cruises, then there is no point in attending this training program.” Frea made a statement Jacy knew a lot of people will be thinking, and making, once they knew of the upcoming schedule.
“Technically, no. There is no point.” Jacy knew it to be true. A well skilled person could just as easily take the General Crew Training program and pass, without ever having taken the currently ongoing crew training program. “There will even be one kids can pass.”
“Wait… what?” This got Kacy’s attention.
“Yeah. If you feel this is hard. You can wait for the easy ones next time.”
“Easy ones? Just how many are there?” Frea asked.
“As of now, four. Three of them, you can decide to take and no one will stop you. The fourth, you can only submit a request and you will only be allowed to take it if the request is approved. If you don’t pass the ongoing crew training program let alone take it, your chances of passing the others, other than the Basic, drops dramatically. Less than one percent.” Remembering the Grading the crew of the next expedition would have, she added. “Trust me, you don’t want to have only passed the Basic.”
“So, it’s like Math. You have to understand basic arithmetic to hope to understand algebra.” Jacy assumed Kacy was right in her analogy. It was like Math. But the analogy itself was weak, but she wasn’t going to tell Kacy that.
“When do they start?” Frea asked.
“Immediately after this one ends.”
“There will be no break?” Kacy appeared the most surprised by that. But Jacy could tell that Frea was disturbed too.
“You can take a break if you want. There will be iterations of the programs until months before the expedition starts. You can take any of those iterations. But best to take the first one.”
“In case you fail on the first try,” Frea said with what looked like a resigned smile. “When will you start?”
“Immediately.”
“Fuck.” Yeah, she could now say with certainty that Frea was disturbed. She had looked the most composed of the two. Had it all just been a farce? Trying to keep Kacy’s spirits up? It wouldn’t surprise Jacy if that were the case. But her stomach grumbled, reminding her of other things that need taking care of.
“I’m feeling hungry. Anyone else?” She said as she moved to the kitchens.
“Hey! I still have questions that I need you to answer.” Frea recovered quickly. Was it the promise of food? Or was she serious about those questions?
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“And there will time enough for that. I’m not going anywhere.” And she needed to eat more than anything else.
“I’m pretty sure you are going to work tomorrow.” Frea countered.
“Of course. There are things—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
With that kind of warning, she chose to return to her more pressing pursuits. “There is nothing to eat in the fridge.”
“There is plenty of food there. Are you sure you didn’t turn blind in space?”
“But there is no meat. Today is… Oh, I’m here.” She had been running on ship time. By now, supper would have been ready and anyone could go eat at any time. It was no longer so anymore.
“Don’t sound so disappointed.”
“Do you need help? I can help.” Kacy excitedly said behind her. She was sure she flinched, but Kacy didn’t move away or comment on it. Maybe she hadn’t.
“Don’t let her cook anything. Cutting yes, but no cooking.”
“Hey, I have improved my cooking skills.” Kacy said, stilling hovering behind her. She turned, and Kacy turned with her, moving to the kitchen counter with the fledgling ingredients she had managed to scour.
“Yes. From black to somewhat less black.”
“I’ll need to call my family.” The thought came out of nowhere. One moment, she had been roasting onions, and the next she was thinking about her family.
“Why didn’t they come to pick you up?” Kacy asked her as she finished slicing the tomatoes. With the way she handled the knife, Jacy was starting to doubt Frea’s earlier comment. But since her stomach wasn’t in the mood for compromises, she wouldn’t try to see what Kacy actually knew about cooking.
“That is how we are.” That was the only answer she could give. You had to meet them to fully understand them.
“I wanted to meet them.” Of course, she would say that. But it was not to be. Not for a while.
“You can’t meet my family yet!”
“Relax Casanova, it will just be as friends.” Frea said from her place on the sofa. She had returned to watching the television. But every once in a while, she glanced at the kitchen. If she wasn’t so hungry herself, Jacy would have made fun of her. She was sure she had just seen Frea swallow what could only be saliva.
“I wouldn’t mind however way you introduced me.” Kacy brought her back from her crazy brain. To a crazy reality.
“See. That is why. We are too fluid right now. It will just be messy and embarrassing. When we figure things out, you can meet them if you still want to.”
“What if we are far away in another galaxy then?”
“We will fly all the way back just to meet them.”
…[ MATIVO ]…
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Mũtethwa asked.
We were back on another board meeting. More like a family semi-meeting to me. It was three weeks after my arrival back on Earth. I had wanted a meeting immediately, but the amount of catch up I needed to do proved a little too much.
“Not really, no.” I said truthfully, the more honest I was the easier things always were, I had figured. Unless someone tried to take advantage, that is. “I’m still trying to work out the logistics of the venture. And predict the financial gain I would gain from it. As of now, it is enough to make it worth it. But only barely.”
“You also need to figure out what she gains from it. And how it might affect us in the future,” Father said.
“Yes. Yes, I haven’t forgotten about that part of the equation either.” He had been in business for a lot longer than I had been alive. He knew that decisions that seemed inconsequential in the near term could have huge repercussions in the long term. Compared to him, I was still a toddler.
“Why does she want a partnership anyway?” Mũtave asked. “I thought Union Space was doing fine.”
“Fine is not something you want to be doing in business.” Father said.
“There is also the fact that the Asteroid Belt isn’t limitless. Sooner or later, we are going to run low on the precious metals again.” Mũtethwa added a more on point reason.
“Don’t forget the fact that we are taking over the luxury part of her business.” Mũtethya said. She seemed happy about that. The taking over part, or the us having a luxury space business, I wasn’t sure.
“She is also a businessperson. She is looking at the profits she will rake in.”
“Can’t we just start our own branch to take care of what she offers?” Kanyele asked.
“There are three reasons we can’t. First, it would take us a lot of time and resources to reach the level of technological advancement and skill expertise she currently offers. And I don’t think she will sit pretty waiting for us to catch up.
“Second. The two of us, the most likely candidates for heading such a venture, are currently occupied fulltime on other projects that I don’t think either of us would give up on for the venture.”
There was a prolonged silence, with everyone in the room still staring at me. I fast got uncomfortable,
“What?”
“What is the third reason?” Mũtave asked.
“What third reason?”
“You started by saying that there are three reasons we can’t,” Mũtethya said.
“I did?” I was starting to sound like a broken record. Even to myself.
“You did, brother. You did.” Katũnge smiled at me, but I could see a little worry in her eyes.
“There isn’t. I just misspoke.” There must have been a third reason; I was sure of it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have started that way. If what they were saying was true.
The discussion about the partnership continued for more than two hours before we settled on a probationary basis of partnership. Any slight, and we would sever ties. We also agreed to have our own research teams working on building technologies that could compete with Union Space Industries if the need ever called for it.
Then we moved on to the expedition I was planning on going on next.
“How far out are you planning on going?” Mũtethya asked.
“With the speeds Kanyele has promised, we will barely make it past the human radio bubble.”
“How far is that? Ten? Hundred light-years?”
“Sixty-five light-years.” Mũtethwa answered her question. Mũtethya talking about the distance in light-years had surprised me. Mũtethwa knowing the exact number was more than surprising. I guess that with faster than light travel came with more people knowing what light-years meant.
“That is… small? I don’t know. How big is the Milk Way?”
“Hundred thousand light-years across. But the place of import is roughly eighty-five thousand.” Mũlwa said.
“Import? What does that mean?” Mũtave asked.
“Where most stars can be found.”
“At the current speed, the one Kanyele called Light 7 something, how long would it take to cross that distance?” Katũnge asked.
“Around five hundred years.”
Okay, the conversation had been enlightening. I didn’t know the whole facts at hand, but I was sure they were mostly, if not entirely, correct in the information they had. It spoke volumes of them. and maybe, just maybe, they were ready. Only time would tell.
“Anyway. The ship will carry a crew of around two thousand. That figure could and will change as the planning of the expedition gets finalized. That means a bigger ship, bigger everything in general. More details of the expedition are to be found in the report I handed to you. Go through them before asking questions. And remember, this is only a draft. You saw how the last one changed as the tests and the training and the simulations progressed. This will be no different.”
“I see here that the crew is to be divided in Grades this time.” Katũnge was the first to ask a question. “Wouldn’t that cause, I don’t know, class problems?”
“Corporate hierarchies are divided as so. With low-level workers at the bottom. This will be no different. We are one huge organization in a spaceship.”
“But you also have civilians. This is more of a society than an organization. You might be biting too much this time, brother.”
“To be honest, I don’t really care what they feel. If someone has any issues with the Grades, they are free not to come. Anyone who gets on that ship will have to have accepted how things will be run on the ship.”
“You can never be sure. They might accept it here, but have a change of mind out there.” Mũtethwa said.
“That is where the Training Programs come into play. Weed out as many of those as possible. I’m not saying it will be hundred percent, but I will be more than ready to deal with dissidents however way they need to be dealt with.” Yes, I meant it that way.
“Will they know that?” Mũtave asked.
The ship and the expedition were not government ventures fueled by the taxpayers’ money. It was all private property, and it would do well for the crew to remember that. They were interlopers, coming on that expedition of my own good will. I could have easily build robots to do anything they could do, and do it much better.
“Those smart enough will.”
“Two years? Will that be enough time? Or are you just visiting and not fully exploring?” Mũtethya suddenly asked, changing the topic entirely. I wasn’t even sure she was aware of the first discussion we had been having.
“There aren’t that many stars to begin with in the vicinity. Plus, we can’t go and do everything. We will just be determining what can work for us and what might need some work. And what is completely useless too.”
“Discovery. This will be a discovery expedition.”
“Isn’t that what exploration is all about?” I asked her, but still addressed the whole board. “The explorers discover new places and things, while the colonials behind them try to understand and utilize everything to their own betterment.”
“Colonials. I see.”
“Why aren’t any of you interested in being on the expedition? I would have thought at least one of you would want to come.” It was something that had been on my mind for a while. They had expressed zero interest in being in the expedition before, and they were still showing no signs of being interested in the next one either.
“We are not really explorers like you, brother.” Katũnge began, and there were nods and murmurs of agreement all round. “While you are off light-years away doing whatever it is you do; we will be here enjoying the luxurious cruises around the Solar System you made possible. When you come back, we will be part of these colonials you speak of. It is like you said, we will utilize what you discover.”
Well, that was that. Mũlwa asked the next question, breaking his hours long silence and pushing the meeting along.
As the meeting came to a close, I was very tired. There had been too much talking, way too much talking. I leaned back on my comfy seat and closed my eyes. We really should have less comfortable chairs here. They were a huge contributor to sleepiness during some of the less interesting board sessions.
“We need to talk.” Nothing ever good came from that statement. And I pretended not hear it at all. “Didn’t you hear what I said?”
I groaned at that, and opened my eyes. Just enough to let Kanyele know he had my attention.
“Not here.”
I slowly sat upright and looked around the boardroom. Everyone had cleared out except for the two of us. I thought we had privacy. The recording cameras would always be there, but I didn’t think whatever he wanted to talk about would need privacy even from that. But to him, it did. So, I acquiescently followed him out of the boardroom and, well, all the way outside. We didn’t talk for the whole fifteen minutes it took us to make it to our cars.
“Let’s get into mine,” he said as I moved towards my car. “You can have yours go back to your apartment. I will take you there.”
“Are you trying to kidnap me, brother?” I asked in jest. “I’ll have you know; it didn’t end well for the last group that tried that.”
“What? I need you alive more than I need you dead.” He sounded indignant.
“That is what a kidnapper would say.”
“Just get in.” he said angrily, as he shoved me into his car.
“You really are a kidnapper.”
He got in after me as I settled myself. In the inside, his car was very different from the normal car. There was no driver’s location. No steering wheel, pedals, gearstick, or anything that would signal that the car could be manually operated by a human. The seats were arranged on the sides facing each other; but they looked like they could be repositioned to face forward. Any direction really, I found out on closer inspection. Ten minutes we spent inside with no one saying anything. And I went back to sleeping.
When I woke up, I found him staring at me. “What?” I asked him.
“You really were tired.”
“Aren’t you?”
“I don’t know.” What kind of answer was that? It was either he was tired, or he wasn’t. “I can get you Light 12. Maybe even higher.”
That had me fully awake. “How much higher?”
“12.5 to 12.6. Light 13 if you want it decommissioned like the shuttle at the end of it.”
“Why didn’t you say so at the meeting?” Why the secrecy, brother? What are you afraid of?
“First. It is still in the testing phase. And second. I thought we might want to keep it under wraps.”
That didn’t really answer the questions in my head. But if it was to be kept a secret, as secret as it can be with so many people already knowing, then announcing it at the board meeting was a no-go. They were my family, but that didn’t change the fact that some of them were blabber mouths.
“How long will it take to be ready?” The fact that it was still in testing phase was a slight downer.
“I’m not sure of yet. This is completely new technology than the one we used on your last expedition. Even different from the one I was working on before.”
“The core is different than the one that can get to Light 8?”
“Yes. But the engines are still the same. We finish on the core, and it will be ready.”
“But doesn’t it need new engines?” A core that much more powerful would need engines to match. Logic dictated that.
“Are you willing to wait for me to design, build and test new engines?” He had me there. I just smirked at him. “I didn’t think so. By the time you return, things will be very interesting.”
With a promise like that, I couldn’t wait.