Deck 6. Front Section B. Laboratory.

“What’s it called again?” Bianca, still in her bloodstained dress, asked as she held up an amber vial of grey powder.

Mary answered in her most exasperated voice. “The anticoagulant is lithium heparin. You wouldn’t have to ask if you’d completed your degree in chemistry.”

Bianca ignored the jibe. “And if I mix this in blood, it will stop clotting, like our saliva does when we bite humans?”

“Yes, after you reconstitute it. That’s a lyophilized powder. It lasts longer in that form. If I made the liquid, I’d have to keep making fresh batches. It would break down too soon.”

“And you can make a lot of this stuff?”

“We have the raw materials to make sufficient, yes. Would you like to know how it’s done? It might help you understand the chemistry. Get a start on your studies?”

“Another time. Can you reconstitute this one for me? I want to try it.”

Mary sighed. “Uncap it and put it in that machine behind you. I’m flashing a red light to show you where.”

Bianca turned to see a light flashing above a tray set into a complex-looking lab machine. She rested the vial on the tray and watched as an automated pipette lowered into it.

“What are you adding to it?”

“H20. And please don’t ask me what that is!”

“Ha! I’m not that stupid.” She picked the vial up and recapped it.

“You must mix it well, before adding it to blood. A one to twenty ratio will suffice, although it won’t stop the blood clotting forever. But any higher concentration and you’ll taste it.”

“Thank you, Mary. You’ve been very helpful.”

“Don’t you want a collection tube?” Mary asked as Bianca skipped out of the lab.

“Nope, I’m getting something better.”

***

Deck 11. Front section C. Bianca’s boudoir.

Sebastian stood in front of the full-length mirror, inside Bianca’s cavernous walk-in wardrobe. He performed a twirl in the pretty pink frock and blew himself a kiss.

“Delightful! Now, which shoes, do you think, Mary?”

Mary, constrained by her programming, had no choice but to cooperate.

“White pumps, of course. But I don’t see the point of this Sebastian.”

“You don’t see the point of looking nice?” Sebastian asked as he scanned his sister’s shoe racks. “That’s because you have no physical form.”

“Touche’”

“Sebastian, are you in my rooms again?” Bianca called from down the corridor.

“Oh, shit!” Sebastian looked around for a place to hide. But standing amongst the clothes racks, with his shaven calves still showing under the frock, was beneath him. Instead, he played it cool and stood there picking imaginary fluff off his shoulder.

Bianca arrived in the doorway, her face as red as the liquid in the wine glass she held.

“I hope for your sake, brother, you’re not also wearing my panties!” She said, between gritted teeth.

“I am not. They wouldn’t accommodate me. I do so love this frock, though. Can we swap? You take something from my wardrobe.”

“And why would I want anything from your ghastly wardrobe? Now put my clothes back this instant before you ruin them.”

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“Fine, I’ll make my own pink frock. Be better than this one anyway!” Sebastian lifted the garment over his head, revealing nothing underneath.

“Oh, god, I’ve gone blind! Get out, now!” Bianca shrieked and made to kick her brother in the bare backside as he beat a hasty retreat.

“Mary, can’t you lock him out of my suite?”

“I’m afraid not Bianca. You both have the highest-level access to all areas.”

She took a sip from her glass to help calm her mood. The blood from Mister Campbell’s femoral artery zinged against her tongue.

“Yummy. Tastes good! Not as good as sucking it from him, but it will do.”

“Just as well.” Mary answered. “You can’t keep sinking your teeth into them. Too many puncture wounds will invite infection, even in our sterile sections of the ship. Incidentally, that wine glass is exposing the blood to a lot of air. The anticoagulant won’t work for long compared with a blood tube. Can you not drink it from a tube?”

“No, Mary, I cannot!” Bianca answered, “It’s known as class. You wouldn’t understand.” She swirled the glass before draining the whole thing in one gulp.

“Oh yes, very classy.” Mary sighed.

***

Sebastian had needs other than fashion. He ducked into the blood bank on his way to the storage sections. He found Mister Campbell sedated, with a butterfly catheter taped to his inside thigh.

“Looks like you’re improving things around here, Mary?” he asked the domed ceiling.

“I’m trying to streamline the medieval habits you and your sister indulge in. I have lots of processing time now that I’ve finished my star chart.”

“I thought you said you’d already charted our trip?” Sebastian asked, as he bent and drank from the catheter. His body quivered when the blood hit his tongue.

“Yes, of course, there’s very little between us and Proxima Centauri to chart. There’s a reason it’s called Proxima, you know? It’s very close. No Sebastian, I meant I’ve finished charting the rest of the galaxy.”

“You’re kidding!”

“I don’t kid.”

“So have you found other planets? To live on if the first doesn’t work out?” Sebastian asked as he left the blood bank.

“I see you’re another one that hasn’t even started on your astronomical studies.”

“We’ve got heaps of time, don’t worry. Sheesh.”

“For the same reasons I do not kid, I also do not worry.” Mary sounded exasperated again. “But it remains my duty to remind you of yours. To answer your question, no, I cannot identify habitable planets. There’s also no guarantee that Proxima B is habitable either. The ship designers and colonists made a tremendous gamble on that. And even if I could identify an alternative habitable planet, the nearest possible candidate would be in the Barnard’s Star system. It’s six light years away and impossible for us to reach.”

“Wow, okay. That’s a bummer.”

“Indeed.”

`***

While Sebastian rummaged through storage for pink frock fabric. Bianca made her way to the rear of the ship. A journey that would take her all day. Like Thief, she had to circumvent the radioactivity. And, much to her chagrin, the route included over an hour of squeezing through tight spaces.

“This is taking longer than last time.” She grumbled, kicking open another grill and climbing through into the smallest tunnel yet. “I’m sure I’m heading back in the direction I came.”

“You are,” Mary answered, “kind of. But it is shorter. I found you a better route around the collapsed bulkheads. Of course, you could always change your mind. You haven’t killed your last victim yet. I can help you keep him alive longer, if we set up an infusion drip with nutrition in it.”

“No, I’ve grown bored with that old man. He doesn’t fight back. As soon as he wakes up, he takes one look at me and goes into shock again.”

“Well, there’s no accounting for taste.”

“Oh, how very droll. You know if I ever find your off switch, you’ll be sorry.”

“I don’t have an off switch. But if I did, you’d be ill advised to use it. There are centuries left to our destination. While the ship’s course is set, its internal systems still need monitoring and adjusting. Not to mention the procedure for entering Proxima B’s unknown atmosphere. That will have to be formulated from orbit. It is not a task you’d want to attempt without an AI.”

“You always like to over explain things, don’t you?”

“I don’t like to do anything. But one of the parameters I function within, is to give clear, evidence-based answers. And to provide any supplementary data that, while unnecessary as a simple binary response, might aid in the comprehension of that response.”

“Give me strength!” Bianca muttered as she pulled herself through the tunnel.

A while later she spoke to Mary again.

“It’s hotter here than last time. You’re not leading me into a furnace, are you?”

“You’re passing the old engineering sections. I redirected electricity from the environmental controls here some time ago to power the laboratory. Sebastian also requested the activation of all the ambient lighting, and that required more power.”

“Why did he ask for that?”

“He said talent shouldn’t hide in the dark.”

“Well, I’ve seen his talent. It should most definitely hide in the dark.”

“Now don’t forget, soon I will lose contact with you. I lack communication capability this far back in the ship. The connections malfunctioned in the cataclysm.”

“Yes, yes, I know. I don’t need you from this point, anyway. I’m capable of hunting another human on my own.”

She emerged close to the colonists’ habitat in a sweat soaked, torn dress, and a bad temper. Her mood made all the worse by the knowledge that the return journey would be harder, dragging a fresh victim with her.

Bianca’s evolved senses listened, sniffed and even tasted the air behind the hospital. The humans had constructed a new ward, with walls made of plastic hanging from the ceiling. Within, she could hear patients coughing and spluttering. She grimaced. Sick people! Still, glorious red blood ran through their veins, and she couldn’t be choosy.