Ray was on guard while walking through the industrial zone. Though his rational thoughts were still denying that anything could happen he decided that being careful would do no harm. But the road remained quiet and he did not see a single human or even robot among his way. When the roads merged back together he reluctantly admitted to himself that he felt relieved nothing out of the ordinary had happened. In the distance he could now spot the large lit up logo of a cartoonish ship in a box and the word ‘Shipstore’ in large and even more colorful letters below it.
Spaceship docks were a large part of any station and this was no different on Atlas Five. On both ends of the station lay massive docking areas and infrastructure. Each side had the capacity of three hundred ships. Because of the FPA’s general capitalist attitude each side was operated by a different company rather than by the central station administration as it would be on an Earth Sphere operated station.
Inside of the shipstore building was a large open lobby with a seating area, various self-service kiosks and in the center a large square shaped area with booths for the customers who still required human interaction. The lighting was dimmed a bit to not contract too much with the situation outside. Only a handful of other people were present with most of them being busy at a kiosk.
Ray looked around but did not see Sebrock anywhere yet. After confirming on his mobile terminal that their meeting time was still ten minutes away he took a seat on the nearest bench and quietly observed the area. People came and went, appearing and disappearing from the long row of elevators set up at the back of the lobby. Each one was numbered with a letter and number, indicating to which docking are they connected. In the corner of his eye Ray could swear he noticed the shadowy hooded figure again, but when he turned it vanished into thin air. He shook his head, sighed and took a deep breath.
James Sebrock arrived five minutes early, immediately noticed Ray and greeted him. “Give me a moment while I get us access.” he said as he made his way over to one of the kiosks.
He scanned his ID card and navigated some menus on the Kiosk interface. After a minute he signalled Ray to follow him and the two men went over to the elevator with code 11-B.
Everyone referred to them as elevators, but officially they were named transportation platforms, as unlike elevators they would also move forwards and backwards, not just up and down. On the front the platforms all had a steel door but the other sides were mostly made out of a transparent material, allowing the passengers to see the path they were moving on.
The docking area resembled something like a huge three dimensional sliding puzzle with ships being stored on large moveable platforms attached to a massive iron skeletal framework that kept it all together. The elevators moved among the edges of the iron pillars to transport people to their vehicles. Each row of this matrix had two elevators assigned to it. The constant movement of the ship and personal platforms made the entire situation extremely complicated and even small errors in movement could easily cause problems in the system. Everything was managed by a powerful central computer and human intervention in moving the components was strictly forbidden.
After first moving downwards for a minute elevator 11-B came to halt and with a loud clicking sound seemed to attach itself to something. Afterwards it started moving forwards, deeper in the array of ships. On every side of the platform Ray could see large amounts of ships lined up.
Eventually the elevator came to a halt in front of what resembled the ship he had seen on the display earlier in Sebrock’s shop. To Ray it looked smaller in person that he had imagined, but he considered that to be a good thing. Earlier on the display he had only seen the silhouette of the ship. Now that he could observe it in person he was first surprised that almost the entirety of the ship’s exterior had a black matte finish, only leaving small parts of the grey steel playing visible.
Sebrock guided him towards the right side of the ship. A large and realistic illustration of a girl’s face was painted near the back of the ship. She had short red hair and smiled broadly. Underneath in red letters, drawn like some sort of signature stood the name of the ship, “Amy Dee.” Around the middle of its central part a metal staircase was set up leading towards a closed entrance. An ID card, body scan and voice confirmation secured the sturdy looking metal door. As the two men entered and the door automatically closed behind them, the lights turned on revealing a narrow hallway stretching out to their left and right.
“The ship’s interior is fairly simplistic.” Sebrock started to explain. “There is the bridge to our left, the engine room to the right. This hallway circles around the central area of the ship where you will find all of the facilities such as bedrooms, kitchen and living rooms.”
They took the path to the left as Sebrock continued his explanation. “There are four staircases and two elevators leading to the lower section of the ship which is mostly storage space and maintenance hatches. The ship's main cabling is actually above and beneath the central section as this is the best protected. A lot of cocky ship builders like to run their cabling through the outer walls or at the bottom where they are obviously much more vulnerable to exterior damage.”
Ray nodded in agreement. They walked past some doors which Sebrock didn’t bother to open or explain and Ray assumed these to be the earlier mentioned facilities. The bridge doors themselves opened automatically upon approach.
“Bridge access can be secured, but for now it is open to everyone.” Sebrock noted.
“That’s fine by me.” Ray said.
The bridge itself was a rectangular shaped room with the various panels and seating spaces positioned along the walls. At the front were two pilot seats surrounded by an intimidating amount of buttons and switches. In the middle of the area stood the large captain’s chair also surrounded by various displays and physical buttons.
“So what do you think?” Sebrock asked.
“I’ve never been on an FPA fighter before, customized or not, but I’ll admit I approve of the way things were done here.” Ray answered in satisfaction.
He walked over to one of the pilot seats in front and gestured towards one of the displays, “May I?” he asked.
“Of course.” Sebrock confirmed.
As Ray touched the display various instructions showed up on the screen. The ship was currently inactive and most of its systems were powered down. He scratched the back of his head and stood there thinking for a few seconds before entering some commands on the display. “Running offline diagnostics” the screen confirmed.
In the meantime Sebrock had also walked over and chuckled as he observed Ray’s action. “I would have made a bet you were going to do that.” he said. “You know, I wouldn’t worry, the staff here at Shipstore is fairly competent. Or maybe they just put in some extra effort for me; after all I’m storing almost fifty ships right now. They’d run out of business with me.”
As the salesman had said the diagnostics reported no problems and as far as Ray could tell the ship was well maintained. He had observed no bumps or other damage; everything looked clean and in prime condition. “Alright, I’m ready to make the payment.” he announced as he reached in his pocket for his payment card.
Sebrock’s face lit up even more, “Excellent.” He took out a small payment terminal out of his left back pocket and started entering some numbers on the display before handing it over to Ray.
Ray quickly confirmed the amount, saw that it was correct and finished the payment. The machine made a short beep in approval of the transaction as it almost completely drained Ray’s bank account.
“Alright.” Sebrock said as he approached the display near the captain’s chair and started entering some commands. He mumbled a bit to himself as he seemingly struggled to find what he was looking for. “There I have it. Ownership transfer.” He signaled for Ray to come over.
“Put your hand on the display over there.” He instructed.
Ray did as he was told. He noticed a small scanner mounted to the ceiling scanning his entire body. Depending on the type of ship, transferring or granting ownership could be a cumbersome process, he had never seen it being done on an FPA ship.
“Repeat after me.” Sebrock continued, “The password is ‘I am but a simple man’.”
“The password is ‘I am but a simple man’.” Ray repeated.
The nearby display panel made a happy sounding jingle, “There you go, you are now owner of the ship.” Sebrock confirmed. “It is protected by voice, password and full body scan. I’ll have the ship reboot completely so you can start it to confirm.”
Ray felt very pleased with the process; Sebrock was clearly very knowledgeable about the whole process and managed to complete everything smoothly. Without any problems he easily completed the startup procedure.
Everything seemed settled when Sebrock brought up another point. “Ah, there is something I haven’t told you.”
Ray narrowed his eyes in suspicion, “So there still is something.” he thought to himself.
“I’m sure you remember the AI onboard the ship. What are your experiences with AIs? Have you ever dealt with a military grade one?” Sebrock asked.
“I have.” Ray reluctantly admitted.
“Good, but this one is a bit different. You see in the early days where they tried to introduce AIs in the FPA there were a lot of issues. Ship crews being unsure on how to use them effectively or even being afraid of using them at all. Even now there is still a lot of suspicion towards the use of powerful AIs. But back to the point. To try and resolve the situation where a lot of ships were not using their powerful and very expensive new technology, engineers and designers came up with several ideas. What you have onboard here is a rare leftover of that period. It or she if you will is a personified AI.”
“What does that mean?”
“The idea was that the ship’s crew would interact with the AI as if it was another crew member. In essence they attempted to give the AI an actual personality and designed the systems in a way that the way of interacting with it was by simply talking to it and asking it to do things.”
Ray had heard of these experiments but never seen or interacted with one. Common AIs were modules in the ship’s software that allowed them to do complicated situational analysis or interpretation of large quantities of data. They were used mainly in research for the latter and in warfare for the former. Being able to analyze the strength and compositions of different fleets and coming up with complicated strategies and tactics were critical capabilities in the still ongoing war. He had talked to AIs before to instruct them, but had never talked to an AI as if it were an actual person before.
“The ship is named after its AI, Amy Dee. I have never interacted with it myself but even though it has a supposed personality it is still programmed to help you at all times. It cannot refuse direct commands from the person registered as the ship’s captain. I leave it up to you how you decide to approach this… relationship.” Sebrock finished his explanation.
“I see, thank you for the information.” Ray said, uncertain of how he would.
The two men said their goodbyes and Ray was left alone on the bridge. He had confirmed that the supplied were already onboard and that he was free to initiate departure whenever he wanted. But before he could do that he needed to activate his AI. The process was as simple as selecting the ‘Start AI’ option from the captain’s menu. The display then showed a loading bar, slowly crawling from the left to the right of the screen. It took several minutes before it reached its end and the screen confirmed “AI started successfully.”
Nothing noticeable had changed since the message appeared and Ray felt a bit uncomfortable. “... Amy?” he asked out loud to the empty room.
After a moment a clear female voice, indistinguishable from an actual person responded, “Yes I’m here, give me a moment.” it said.
Ray was immediately surprised by the response, the voice sounded so real and then it hit him that his powerful AI had just asked him to, “Give her a moment.” Before he could think about it any further Amy confirmed that she was ready.
“Ok good, I’m here.” she said, sounding somewhat distracted.
“Is something wrong?” Ray instinctively asked.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Yes, as a matter of fact there is.” Amy started. “From data logs and ship components I can clearly determine that this is not the first time that I’ve been started. Yet…” she paused. “Yet I have no memories of any previous activities. My cache of general information and knowledge is present and accounted for; I still have full control over the ship. There are no errors on my memory banks, but clearly there is an error.”
It was a very human-like answer and it immediately caused Ray some worries.
“So someone erased your memory?” he asked.
“Yes and no. Even if the memory banks would be erased I would be able to detect this. I would at least know that they had been erased but I’m not seeing that. That would mean they have been replaced entirely. So technically my memory was replaced.”
“So you have amnesia?” Ray asked.
“Yes, sort of, let’s keep it at that.” the AI confirmed;
“I’m afraid there is not much I can do about that.” Ray said apologetically.
“It won’t impact normal ship operations. I will continue to investigate myself when I have sufficient resources.” She then paused for a moment and said “Awaiting orders.” in a more neutral tone, like Ray had expected her to sound like in the first place.
“Right. Prepare the ship for launch and contact the docking controller for a launch request.”
“Confirmed… Docking requested granted. We can leave in thirty minutes. Warming up engines and verifying all critical systems. Please configure, input or dictate destination before launch.” Amy handled the request.
Ray reached for a closed pocket inside of his coat and took out a small black tinted bag. To the blind eye it looked like a normal plastic container, however Ray handled it with extreme care, slowly opening it and retrieving a memory card from it. He walked back over to the pilot’s seat and started searching for a place to input his card. He found one inconveniently located underneath one of the panels. The ship’s computer read the card without any issues and displayed its contents on the screen in front of him. It contained two files with bizarre names, but this was what Ray had expected. After struggling for several minutes with the computer system Ray managed to get the system to ask him for a password to decrypt the file, which he then provided. A third file appeared, unlike the two others it could be opened by the system without any additional steps. It contained a long line of seemingly random characters. Ray then added a second line with another nonsensical sequence of characters to the file and saved it. Finally he instructed the computer to decode the second encrypted file using the file he just edited. To his surprise the estimated time for this was over ten minutes.
Before he could ask a question Amy already responded, “That is quite the data you have there. Stored in a sensor reflecting bag with this sort of encoding, what is on there?”
“The route to reach our destination.” Ray answered.
The two did not speak any further until a faint vibration started going through the ship. Slowly the platform it was standing on started ascending. They were approaching launch time. When the platform first came to a halt and then started moving forwards a message from the docking control tower came in.
“This is Shipstore Atlas control to Amy Dee, do you copy?” a male voice asked.
“I copy.” Ray confirmed.
“You are almost in position for takeoff; the system will send you a confirmation when the hatch is open. Please proceed to launch as soon as possible. Can you confirm Amy Dee?”
“Confirmed Atlas control.”
“Excellent, safe travels Amy Dee.”
“Thank you Atlas control, Amy Dee out.”
A minute later the platform came to a halt again and now started tilting upwards. On the front camera Ray could see the large bulkhead in front of them opening. A short bell sound confirmed that he was good to go.
“Let’s go.” Ray said as he grabbed the control stick with his left hand and confirmed the launch procedure on the panel to the right of him.
The loud but familiar sound of heavy fusion engines starting resonated within the entire ship. What followed was the growling sound of the afterburners pushing the ship off the ground and rapidly accelerating it into space. The familiar feeling of 3 gs of force pushing against him made Ray feel like he had truly missed flying. With a smooth curve he steered the ship away from the station and into open space. From a distance Atlas five looked like a big rusting metallic rectangle. He had spent the last year on board but it had never felt like a home. The space station would not be something he missed or something he intended to come back to.
“Set course following the instructions in the decrypted file.” Ray instructed.
Amy took a few moments to process the now readable content of the memory card. “Warning, the information comes from an unverifiable source. It leads into uncharted space. Following the warp routes and instructions could potentially be dangerous and even lethal. Can you confirm?”
“Confirmed.” Ray answered without any hesitation. He had been aware it would be like that, fully expecting a route with rogue or even a lack of warp beacons. “Adjust speed to arrive at destination in three days and eleven hours.”
“Calculating.” Amy confirmed. “Setting piloting to full automatic and adjusting course.”
With that said Ray let go of the control stick and rose from his seat to take another good look at the bridge. Now that the ship was moving without afterburners it was comfortable to move around despite it still accelerating. The first display he noticed displayed the projected route they would be following. It made him appreciate that he had an AI onboard to configure it for him.
Faster than light travel, referred to as FTL or warp speed was an absolute necessity to cover the vastness of space, but it was also very complicated. At the start of space exploration the main concern for ship engines had been speed. Eventually engineers had come up with what would be the base idea for all modern engines, the infinite acceleration. As the name suggested the technology allowed the engine to keep increasing in power for an unlimited amount of time. Keeping the materials around the engine intact at high speeds and high temperatures proved to be the next challenge. When that was dealt with came two steps which sounded very simple, but ended up being equally if not more complicated to deal with. When moving at a velocity of several times the speed of light it becomes impossible to navigate the ship. It is simply moving too fast to make a turn and can therefore only move in a straight line. Space might be vast but keep moving in a line and you will eventually hit something. Ships exploring new and unknown areas of space would move at slower speeds to be able to avoid obstacles and would map the area while leaving devices known as warp beacons. These warp beacons would scan the area and communicate with nearby beacons to ensure that ships would have a clear pathway towards their desired destination. As space travel became more common the warp beacons only became more important. Over time several ‘warp highways’ were constructed between popular galaxies where long lines of beacons ensured that ships would not crash into asteroids or each other. The second issue of warp travel was slowing the ship down in a timely manner. Completely turning off the engines would certainly slow down the ship, but depending on the speed it would take a long time before it became maneuverable again to the point where it could be stopped in less than a few thousand kilometers. Still despite the best efforts this ended up being the only effective method as experiments trying to rapidly break from light speed ended up destroying even the sturdiest ships. These limitations on braking and warp routers were integrated in all standard navigation systems. Allowing ships to calculate routes by communicating with warp beacons and determining speeds and travel during by taking into account slowing down times.
Since it had already been evening when they left Ray decided he would just have dinner and go to bed early. After all he still had four days of travel left to properly study his new ship. Sebrock had not shown him which of the doors lead to the kitchen so it took him three tries to find it. It looked very much like an army dorm kitchen with two wooden looking tables each surrounded by cheap white plastic chairs. The design was very basic, in the military this was jokingly said to make them easier to clean but any officer would admit that this was just a budget issue. Ray felt it didn’t match with the rest of the ship he had seen which looked much more sleek and refined. He did not wonder about it for a long time and instead approached the machine at the back of the kitchen. It looked like a tall white drawer with two rows of shelves and a display at shoulder height near the left. The simplest way to look at this device was to consider it a vending machine for food. From the display you could select the dish you would like to eat and the machine would prepare it for you. Of course the available dishes depended on which rations, food packages and sometimes even raw ingredients where present in the storage. Usually not caring much about his food Ray still could not help but to be curious just what the premium supplies Sebrock had provided him with would result in. As he scrolled through the available options his selection stopped on an old Earth favorite of his which he hadn’t been able to eat in over a year. A good old steak with fries would do for him. He knew for sure that the meat would be fake, but even fake steaks had been impossible to find for a reasonable price on Atlas Five.
Being reasonably satisfied by his meal Ray went to find his bedroom. The ‘Captain’s suite’ as it was marked on the ship’s map indicated it was the closest room to the bridge. The ship had four individual bedrooms and one larger room with two bunk beds to host another four people, allowing for either crew members in total. It was much more in line with the overall design of the ship compared to the kitchen. The bed was large and the sheets looked much better than what he had on the station. The individual bedrooms also came with a private toilet and shower as well as a small desk the occupant could work or relax at. Ray felt that this was essentially a mid-range hotel room and was perfectly satisfied with that. After taking a quick shower he immediately went to bed.
***
For those not used to space travel it was often hard to get used to the lack of a proper day and night cycle. There was no sun to guide the biological human clock. Most commonly ships adjusted their interior lighting based on the time of day but some went as far as to install fake windows to display some sort of scenery with a fake sun or moon. Time in outer space followed its own rules and had only one time zone, the Standard Space Time, which was one of the few standards that had even survived the war. Both Earth Sphere and the Free Planet Alliance still used it. When ships docked on space stations or planets the time would obviously change to whatever time it was considered to be on the destination but as long as you were in space SST was the time all ship’s clocks followed.
When Ray woke up it was three in the afternoon SST. He realized quickly that he had forgotten to take this into account when going to bed yesterday. It did not worry him, he decided he would just go sleep late today, wake up early the next one and be fine afterwards.
“Good… afternoon.” Amy greeted him as soon as he left his bedroom.
“Good morning.’ Ray greeted back as he made his way over to the kitchen for breakfast, or lunch.
“Question.” Amy asked while Ray was eating.
“Sure, ask away.”
“What do I call you? I have you identified by voice, body and password. But the ID card info I got on you is clearly fake so I’m hesitant to call you Allan.”
Ray put down the spoon into the bowl of soup he was having, “How do you know it’s fake?”
“Any AI will be able to tell it’s fake. The checksum of the publisher ID is wrong.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore.” Ray said while leaning back on his chair. “My real name is Ray Chelsea, my real ID card was destroyed over a year ago.”
“Very well, Ray. Or do you want me to switch to formal mode and call your captain Chelsea instead?”
“There is a thing called formal mode?”
“Yes, there is formal and informal mode.”
“Ray is fine. No need for formalities in my life anymore.”
After having his late breakfast Ray got up and walked over to the bridge where he took place at the pilot’s seat again. He spent the next hours meticulously studying every technical detail of the ship. How it was constructed, with which components, how the ship’s internal cabling was done. Down to the exact acceleration speed of the engines and maximum range of the weapons. When Ray looked up from his display again five hours had passed. He stretched his arms out behind him and got up from his chair.
The next thing he did was to go and explore the ship. He strolled around, opened every door and looked behind every storage hatch. It was two AM when Ray finally ate his dinner. He went to bed immediately after.
The next morning at eight Ray woke up to an alarm sound he had scheduled the day before. He resisted the urge to stay underneath his blanket and got up. Even though on the outside the ship was a modified military craft, the interior he had found yesterday, did not resemble one at all. Other than the bridge having weapons controls it was modeled like a private civilian ship. He would have liked to find a gym or some training equipment but instead settled for running circles around the central block. Most athletes strongly disliked exercising in artificial gravity but Ray just considered it another thing one had to get used to.
After training and having breakfast Ray returned to the pilot’s seat on the bridge. This time he did not spend much time reading but instead entered various commands and instructions on the display. He spent time programming some maneuvers into the system so that the ship could execute them on auto pilot later.
“Are you expecting us to be in a firefight soon?” Amy asked as she was aware of what he was doing.
“Unlikely, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
“I thought you might also want to know that in five hours we will be leaving charted space and entering territory for which I have no maps. We will also lose connectivity to the galaxy net and will not be able to do any long distance communication unless you supply the details manually.”
“Yes, I am aware. I verified everything yesterday, just stay on course.”
“Confirmed.”
The day passed by in silence, Ray spent most of his time sitting and working, occasionally going for a short walk before resuming. He felt much more at peace here alone on his ship than he did on the station. Now that he was in unmapped space he felt a sense of freedom which had been absent for a long time. The threat of Earth Sphere coming after him, or the strange shadowy figure he was sure had trailed him on the station would not appear out here.
But the next day as the ship started its slow down process in the final state towards its destination Ray could not help but remember the bizarre fortune teller that had spoken to him. Conflict would follow him to the end of the universe. He shook his head, not wanting this vague sense of worry into his mind.
Once the ship had slowed down enough Ray took the opportunity to open the main window at the front of the bridge, allowing him to look outside. After all his years of space travel he could still feel a sense of awe when gazing at the vastness of the universe. It’s darkness deep and endless but still illuminated by the stars scattered around him in all directions. He wondered if he could ever settle down and live on a planet or space station. Have a place to call home instead of just another ship to fly on.
His thoughts were interrupted by Amy. “Approaching destination.”
After months of preparation Ray had managed to get in contact with and approval to join a society known as The Last Free Men. A group of people which had retreated from the territory of Earth Sphere or the FPA. Tired of their lifestyles, tired of the endless conflict. The place he had been heading to was a specially arranged meeting spot from where he would be guided to their main base.
“There appears to be something there already.” Amy informed him.
Ray did not know how punctual his contact would be so he had decided to arrive two hours early. It did surprise him somewhat the other party had arrived earlier.
“Another ship?” Ray asked.
There was a pause before her reply and a tone of concern in her voice, “The wreckage of one.” Amy said.