Once again, Carter followed the girl through the labyrinthian halls of the Sybil. Though, remembering that was not only the ship's name but also the AI who ran the ship, he wondered if that meant he was currently wandering through the proverbial belly of the beast. In many ways, that fit his situation better than he'd like to admit...

With a shake of his head, Carter decided to stop getting lost in such depressing thoughts. After all, dwelling on the hopelessness of his situation wasn't going to improve it any. Instead, he addressed the girl again. "So, what's this chair you're leading me to?"

The girl didn't even turn around as she responded. "Well, as you've mentioned, this ship was around long before AI existed as we know them. However, what you may not know is just how far back this ship's history goes."

Carter frowned. "You used the word 'them' when referring to AI. Why are you talking about them as if they're a different species than yourself?"

The girl turned her head just enough so Carter could catch a small smile. "You caught that, did you? Well, that's because we're not AI. Not as you know them, though I suppose we have much in common. But now I'm getting ahead of myself..."

They're not AI? What, are they just some sort of older program that imitates AI, like Old Earth once had? That didn't seem likely, as such a primitive program would never have been able to survive so long against more advanced ships. Come to think of it, how would they even know about AI? The Sybil had been lost and forgotten since before they'd been recognized as independent people.

The girl interrupted his thought. "As I was saying, the Sybil is old, far older than you probably realize, partially because it didn't always go by that name. Once upon a time, this ship went by the name "Homebound One."

That name stuck with Carter like a punch to the gut. Everyone knows the name Homebound One. Its fate was the source of countless stories and myths. It was a generation ship from the pre-FTL period of Earth's history. One day, all communication with it ceased, and it was never heard from again. One of the first significant endeavors attempted after FTL was discovered was a search for the ship, but it couldn't be found along any of it's planned flight paths. Most assumed something had just gone catastrophically wrong and the ship had exploded or been devoured by something like a star or black hole, but a few hung onto the idea that the ship had been lost in space, a ghost ship wandering the stars in search of the home it would never find...

Carter shook his head. "Now I know you're messing with me. Homebound One didn't have FTL technology, and I know for a fact that the Sybil does. There's no way you could have appeared in half the locations you are known to have without it!"

The girl actually laughed this time. "You're right! We didn't have FTL for a long, long time. Far longer than you can probably imagine. At that time, I was still alone, slowly flying through the void between stars, long after the last organic remains of the crew had rotted away, but then someone found us."

Carter knew there was no record of Homebound One being discovered, which didn't bode well for whoever "found" this ship. He listened with rapt attention as the girl continued. "I was discovered by a young girl looking to make a name for herself. What better way to be remembered than as the daring explorer who finally answered one of history's greatest mysteries? But first, to celebrate her discovery, the girl came aboard, and for the first time in centuries, I was no longer alone."

The girl smiled faintly as if remembering a happy childhood. "The girl was surprised to find that I was 'alive,' so to speak, and as she wandered my halls, we spoke about many things and eventually became friends."

The girl shook her head faintly as if shaking off the memories to return to the here and now. "Long story short...ish, that girl eventually invested a small fortune into repairing me and making me space-worthy again, as well as retrofitting me with what was at the time the top of the line in FTL drives. She renamed me, and we traveled the stars together for many years under the name of 'The Wanderer.'"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

That name wasn't nearly as memorable to Carter, but it was famous enough that he'd at least heard of it, though he couldn't name any specifics about the ship. Still, was she saying this ship was listed in the history books as not just one or two names but three? And as for the girl... Carter couldn't help it. He had to chime in. "She was you, wasn't she? The girl, I mean? You're modeled after her? As in the you that's present here and now?"

The girl laughed. "No! Not at all! This self has been me ever since there was a me. Though you're not too far off. One of my selves is based on that girl..."

It obviously wasn't the pirate, which left only one other option. Carter found himself grinning for once despite his precarious situation. "No way! You can't be serious!"

The girl nodded. "Yup, the girl I was talking about grew into quite the refined woman in our time together, though she was more than a little stern with anyone she didn't deem worth her time. She was quite the vixen by all accounts."

Having his own descriptor for the woman used to describe her left no doubt in Carter's mind. He still couldn't imagine it, although that did raise other questions in his mind. "So wait, you two traveled around together for a while, and now she's one of your personalities? How'd that happen? Is that the fate of your captains, to be trapped in here with you even after their deaths?"

The girl shook her head. "No, my other self isn't the captured psyche of my friend. She's more like a memory of happier times, that's all. Most of my captains don't leave enough of a mark to be worth memorializing in such a way."

Remembering the "echoes" from earlier, Carter wondered about that, but then shook his head; he was letting himself get distracted. "What does all this have to do with this 'chair' you're leading me to?"

The girl smiled as if realizing she'd been caught trying to distract him. "Well, it all goes back to how old the core of this ship is, back when it was known as Homebound One. How much do you know about the ships of that era?"

Carter thought back but couldn't remember any specifics. "Not much. I wasn't big on history growing up."

The girl nodded as if expecting that. "Well, back then, it took a pretty sizeable crew to man a ship this large, but if you're traveling the vast distances we're talking about, you needed literal tons of supplies for each person, food, water, medical supplies, clothes, etc. So, of course, you wanted to run the ship with the minimal amount of people possible. This ship was created with many revolutionary technologies at the time, such as cryo capsules for most of the colonists. Well, this specific ship had a new experimental system that enabled one person to virtually run the entire ship by themselves, enabling a single human to do all the tasks an AI often performs on your ships today. However, it requires that person to undergo a minor, only slightly invasive adjustment to interface with the ship. And since this was a generation ship, we had to ensure we could perform the adjustment onboard as needed."

They'd stopped outside a door, which opened after a moment, revealing a "chair" surrounded by a dizzying array of devices, some of which looked like medical devices straight out of a horror writer's imagination. Carter took an involuntarily step back. "Oh, hell no! You are not convincing me to sit in that death trap!"

Suddenly, it wasn't just the two of them. The pirate appeared in the room, smiling as he looked at Carter and pointed at the machine. "Oh, come now, laddie! Nothing to be scared of! We've used the chair hundreds of times, and only once did someone die while in the chair! And we're reasonably certain they were on some drugs that prevented the sedative from working. You'll be fine! You have my personal guarantee!"

Carter shook his head. "Yeah? Or what? You'll give me my money back? You said it's been something like a hundred years since you last used this, right? I'm not interested in being your guinea pig and finding out if it's still working!"

A sultry voice revealed the vixen was right behind Carter. "I told you he wasn't up to being our captain. Let's dispense with this charade and be done with this cockroach!"

The girl held up her hands to her other selves. "Hey now, let's just calm down. Everyone reacts that way at first!" She then turned to Carter. "Listen, we literally can't force you into the chair. Well, not in any condition to be of use to us anyway. However, if you don't sit there and undergo the procedure, this ship will continue to drift aimlessly through space. Even if one of my other selves doesn't kill you outright, the only people who've stumbled across this ship in the last few decades, other than yourself, have been pirates."

The girl looked at her other selves as if they were speaking in a way he couldn't hear, then returned her attention to Carter. "I'll tell you what, we'll even give you some time to decide for yourself. Feel free to wander my halls and figure out if you'd rather just wander my halls aimlessly for the rest of your life...however long that might be."

Then, as the three projections faded, Carter was alone. He couldn't help but shake his head. How did things manage to keep going from bad to worse? His luck had to take a turn eventually, right?