Walking towards the ship he was thinking about the reasons for this pet; it wasn’t only to keep him company but it also had a job.
Turns out that a half organic ships tended to have infestation problems, from what he had read it was similar to the caries that happens in human teeth, and the cat had been modified to hunt those things that could end damaging the ship.
He looked at the small ball of fur, from what he remembered it could be just a couple months old or so but it would grow to a nice size, about 30-40 cm long.
He entered the ship (his ship!), no need to arrange for an apartment when he already had something, and walked to his bedroom, left the basket on the bed and walked to the kitchen.
The kitchen wasn’t really that big but it had everything a house kitchen would have. The nice detail was the Italian coffee maker and he saw in the storage room enough coffee for 5 years, plus spare rubbers.
The fridge was also well provided with his preferred foods; meats, vegetables, drinks, everything was perfect.
While he was preparing his dinner he saw a bowl on the floor with water and another with some dark coloured big grains.
“Friday, what are these bowls?” - he asked the ship
“These are for the cat, I instructed the drones to put them there, is the location not correct?” - inquired the ship with a kind of guilty voice
“No, I mean, yes they’re ok. They are by the corner so I don’t think I’ll kick them or anything. Next time let me know of the changes when I come in, will you?” - he answered nervously, interacting with the ship would need some time to get used to.
“Sure thing Boss. I’ve also installed the litter box in the bathroom, it has a self cleaning system and we’ve got enough for a while.” - she informed him
He sat on the bar stool and had his dinner on the small table; afterwards decided to check on the cat. She was still sleeping, so he took the basket with him and went to the leisure room.
He sat on the couch with the basket by his side and spent the rest of his day reading about his exploration targets on the big screen.
The first two systems were, to be honest, quite boring. It made sense though even as an explorer full grade he did have to fill the quota and, until he proved they could trust him, he would get boring assignments.
So he would fill his quota to the letter, and then some.
“Friday, what am I missing from the first system?” - he asked to the AI
“Sorry, I don’t understand the question, can you be more specific?” - she dutifully answered.
“Well, I can see is a binary system with 12 planets, 3 big gas ones with a few moons each, there’s one with a ring, similar to Saturn from the Sol system but, I mean, what am I missing? Is there anything special there or just routine and boring?”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to go there and check Boss”
Well, that was obvious, and as helpful as a kick on the nuts. He looked at the image on the screen and wondered, what else is there? How can I prove that I deserve better assignments?
He checked the second one, a massive blue star that, for all accounts, had already devoured a couple of the nearby planets.
There were some asteroid belts and some other planets but the exploration drone didn’t get much more info. That would be the most interesting of the first two, he thought.
After those two he decided to put on a movie.
It was during the movie that he felt something move, the cat left the basket and laid down on his belly, purring. He ignored the movie and looked at the cat, she had her eyes closed and was rolled-up.
“And what do I name you?” - he said out loud while caressing her back
The purr accentuated and an idea came to him. She was supposed to hunt infections on the ship, wasn’t she? Then, hunter… but hunter sounded typical and boring. For some reason he had always loved and felt an affinity for the japanese language, and hunter in japanese was ryoshi, which he felt had a nice ring to it.
“Ryoshi, your name is going to be Ryoshi”
As if she understood what was going on she opened her eyes and yawned.
“Ryoshi!” - he said with a convincing voice
He saw the cat tail moving emphatically. Yep, that was it, the cat was not “the cat” anymore, she was Ryoshi. Ryoshi, Friday and Jordi on the Espurna, about to begin the adventure of their lives.
He looked at the time and realized it was kind of late, 3 am. He wasn’t jet-lagged or anything but he wanted to keep proper hours to give his brain time to rest.
Holding Ryoshi he went to his bed, left her in a corner and put on the pyjamas. It made sense for him to follow some procedures, he had to have a family meeting tomorrow after all.
The next day started with a call to Dr. Vann’hra, his psychologist. It was a quick call, he informed him that he was already on the ship, and the good doctor was already aware of the changes made to the AI, the name of the ship and the cat (even the cat! Did Friday really have to report it all? Of course she did) and he ended the call with a “Well, speak to you in six months” which got a smile in response; and a Ravnar smile was somehow disconcerting for a human, but he was pretty sure it was intentional, Friday would be monitoring his vital signs 24/7 after all.
He still had a few hours before the meeting with his family, that would be a weird one. Granted, they had spoken throughout the years, but he was an only child and really didn’t know much about his parents after all.
He knew his mother was a teacher specialized in languages, she spoke something like eleven human languages plus galactic (because of course everyone had to know galactic, that was the standard), and she would teach other races the intricacies of the human languages; from the latin based ones, the germanic ones and others, like basque, mandarin, korean, japanese, etc.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
His father was an architect, he had taken the necessary galactic courses to familiarize himself with other elements that did not exist on Earth and helped the design and construction of Empire infrastructures and buildings. He had helped South America and South Africa building cities like New York and Tokyo; obviously he wasn’t the only architect on these projects but the fact that he worked on them filled him with pride.
They were both, by all accounts, pretty amazing people, he could only wish to have an impact in the Empire as his parents did.
A couple hours before the meeting he took a shower, feeling suddenly nervous.
“Would you like something to help you relax? I have an assortment of allowed drugs that can help you, you know” - said Friday
“Ok, first, I’m taking a shower so let me shower in peace will you?” - he answered - “And second, no… I don’t want to meet my parents high as a kite, thank you very much”
He took the silence as an answer and finished showering, he would have to set some barriers to Friday. He knew he was being observed, analyzed and all data would be sent to Central to be recorded in order to improve the knowledge and treatment of humans, but there was a thing as ‘too much’.
“I’ve prepared a backpack so you can take Ryoshi with you” - Friday informed him
He sighed and then remembered that he had to have her with him for 24h.
“Will she not get nervous? We’re traveling a bit you know” - he answered the AI
“Well, she needs to be able to adapt, and from what I can see about her treatment, she’s more than ready to do so” - Friday answered condescendically
He made a mental note to read more about Ryoshi treatment, there was more about the cat that he thought and he should know all of it, for future events.
He dressed and prepared the backpack. Ryoshi was just lying on the bed, about 10cm long and light as a plume. He picked her up and put it in his backpack.
“Come on, we’re going on an adventure! The first of many” - he whispered to her
He wasn’t going to fly with the ship to his parent’s house, so he checked the public transport and there was both a bus and a train from the Starport to Mataró, where his parents lived.
He decided to take the train, if anything because as he recalled the train line was so close to the sea that he remembered hearing stories of trains having to stop when the waves were too strong.
Both the train and the tract had been improved by the Empire, he didn’t remember much but he could see the differences. The travel was smooth and he could see lots of people on it; Mataró was by the Mediterranean after all, and the mountains weren’t that far from the center, so it would make sense for some races to come and enjoy it.
He knew he was getting close because of the palm trees (not really native but they have been there since forever) and the breakwater (l’espigó, as he remembered calling it).
His parents lived in an apartment not far from the train station. He rang the bell and his mom’s face appeared on the small screen by the entrance. She was beaming.
“Oh!! Jordi!” - she said while opening the door for him.
The rest of the night was as familiar as anyone who has been in a family meeting can tell. Hugs, kisses, ‘you look thin, you need to eat more’, you know, the usual.
They were both curious about Ryoshi but once he explained they both had this face like ‘it makes sense, of course’. Suffice to say he was still intimidated by their presence.
After dinner, they had coffee (an amazing flavoured coffee he had to admit).
“So, explorer full grade, eh. And what are you supposed to do?” - asked his father
“Well, for the next years, 3 or 5 it depends, I will go to some systems the Empire has only sent an exploration drone and do a deep system analysis. To see if there’s something of value there” - he answered, dutifully.
“I think it is a really interesting job, one that can in the future provide something of value to the Empire, right dear?” - said his mom while clutching his father's hand.
“Ehem… of course, of course. I haven’t thought that far and if it is what you like, all that much power to you!” - was his father's response.
The rest of the night went as you would expect. They would tell stories and anecdotes from their jobs, he would explain some about his time on the Exxavian, it felt nice and he was feeling like they had never forgotten about him.
When they were saying their goodbyes his mother hugged him really hard.
“Remember we love you and we’re proud of you. What you’re accomplished so far is amazing and we wouldn’t have it any other way” - she said
His father looked at him, he could tell his eyes were fighting hard to not drop any tear, and he shaked his hand with a really strong grip.
“And if anything ever happens, you have a place here. We’re your family so keep in touch every now and then” - he said while keeping the tears at bay.
He stopped the shake and decided to hug him hard as well.
“I know dad, I know” - was all he could muster.
And back to the ship it was, he almost fell asleep on the train with the backpack on his lap, it had been an emotional day and he felt like his batteries were drained.
Seeing the ship in the hangar his brain kind of woke up and before he knew it he was already planning to leave the next day.
“Friday, can you please log a request to leave tomorrow?” - he asked the ship
“The first slot available is at 14 hours” - the Empire didn’t really like the am pm system, they preferred the 24h one - “Should I reserve that one? Next one is at 17h”
“14h is good, I still have a lot of space for the leisure database and the travel time to the ship system is about two weeks if I recall correctly” - he thought out loud
“It was but it has been reduced. Just this afternoon a paper has been published that improves travel time. Depending on the characteristics of the origin and destination system the speed can be increased by 75%” - the ship informed him - “This paper has the Empire in a bit of an uproar because it has been published by a 20 y.o. human junior researcher”
“That’s awesome! If I remember correctly the last improvement was about 200 years ago, wasn’t it”
“That is correct” - the ship answered - “This researcher has already received offers from all over the Empire, once her internship finishes she’ll be able to choose without having to fight for a position”
“Incredible, so, what increase are we talking about in our case?” - he inquired
“In our case we’ll reach the first system, Alkagoria, in 9 days” - was the ship response
The standard day in the Empire was 30h long, but they curiously also had a seven day week. The years had 13 months though, each month had 5 weeks, for a total of 455 days per year, or 13650 hours.
He went to bed thinking what else to add to the leisure database, he already had a huge collection of human tv shows and movies, maybe he could add something from other species.
With that thought in mind he reached his bedroom, Ryoshi sleeping comfortably in a corner, she might have been having a nice dream because she was purring softly.
He entered the sheets trying not to bother her much and went to sleep.
The next morning he spent it verifying stocks and finishing the copy of items for his leisure database. He had already thirty exploration drones ready and the 3d printer could make some more, since he had a few hours before launch he decided to program it to create a few more, maybe ten just in case.
And before he realized it was ten minutes for the allocated time, he went to the bridge grabbing Ryoshi. He sat on the chair and put her on his lap, she was looking at him with a look that seemed to say ‘I’ll allow it’.
Turned on the panels and prepared the ship for launch, as an explorer piloting was one of those things they had to master and he always received almost perfect scores.
“Are you ready Friday?” - he asked, he knew the answer but this AI was becoming more a companion than anything else
“Ready, all systems green Boss” - was her answer
He started the anti-gravity engine and released the clamping legs, his eyes looking at the timer, two minutes.
“Control this is the Espurna, ready to go” - he informed
“This is control, received Espurna, we’re having a busy day so when your timer hits zero please launch without delay” - they responded
He heard a metallic sound and saw from the exterior cameras that the hangar roof was opening, then looked at the timer, 60 seconds.
He didn’t even try to suppress a smile and waited to say out loud.
“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.. zero!” - and he started the in-planet engine, pulling up.
Even with the inertia dampeners he could feel the pressure from the acceleration, on his lap Ryoshi looked curiously through the main window on the bridge.
“And we have lift-off!” - he excitedly exclaimed to no one in particular