Max had spent years working on the problem. His team included some of the brightest scientists in the world, and all were hard at work trying to find a way to make 100 million kilometers appear to be closer than it was.

Several times, they had thought they had done it. Or at least, were close to doing it. The data was inconclusive, but Max was convinced they were on the right path.

The management of the space tourism company was not as convinced. They had invested tens of millions of dollars in the project, and outside investors had even invested hundreds of millions of dollars. But there was not much to show for it.

Rumors abound that the project would be canceled before the next investor call. The CEO and executive team made their displeasure known to Max and his team, and it seemed clear that they were not willing to invest any more money chasing this dream. And that was the weekend Max's wife left.

Max stayed at the lab late one night, looking at the ship that the team had built. It was a beautiful ship. It had some great amenities. It had room for 10 passengers and crew, some storage for cargo, a replicator that could make any food or drink you wanted, fully functioning air and water replication systems, and a gym for workouts. It was beautiful, and Max wondered what would happen to it when the project was canceled.

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The ship also had a top-of-the-line AI system that would assist the crew in navigating the vessel. Inactive currently, but ready to be turned on for the first mission scheduled in a few years.

The space folding engine was the main problem and would be the thing that caused the end of the project. What good is a ship without a working engine?

So, on that Friday night, Max sat down at the computer and looked over the software once again. There must have been something missing. He ran all the tests again and began looking for an obvious problem. There were a million lines of code, and it was going to be a long night.

Around 6 AM on Saturday morning, Max was exhausted. He had been looking at the code all night and drinking energy drinks like they were water. He decided he needed some rest. And since he had a billion-dollar spaceship parked right in front of him, what better place to get some rest than in the captain's quarters of the ship? That was his ship, and they were going to take it away from him on Monday.

As he boarded the ship, and powered on the systems, a thought struck him. Why not power everything on? Let's talk to this AI. They were going to take her away next week anyways. "In for a penny, in for a pound", Grandma used to say. And so he finally powered up the main computer.

It took about 20 minutes before everything came online.

A soothing female voice came over the ship's internal speakers.

"Good morning, Doctor Martino. I've been waiting to meet you! You can call me Lexi, and I look forward to the adventure that we're about to have."