Space didn’t look how Ash had expected. Sure he had been told what to expect several times by his instructors but he had always held on to the hope that it would be magical and full of stars, it wasn’t. He could see some stars, of course, but they were very very far away. It was mostly like being underwater in the middle of the night.
Night was a funny concept to think about now that he had no planet to block the sun’s light. There was no night, just numbers on the clock and his own fatigue to tell him what time it was. He needed to power through this night, take one for the team, so that Kate would be ready for her first shift tomorrow. Ash wondered if she was even able to sleep after the excitement of the launch. He got an idea.
“Charlie, is Kate sleeping?” He said to thin air.
“Yes Commander.” The Ai voice answered without hesitation.
Ash chuckled internally and wondered how far he could push Charlie before she, or it, wouldn’t answer a question but thought better of it and focused on his duties. His duties were mostly sitting in the pilot’s chair and being available in case of an emergency. There was very little piloting to do once the main course was set.
“Charlie, is Jayden still awake?”
“No Commander, but I can wake him if the need arises. His quarters are very close to the engine room.”
Ash was surprised that she had understood the question behind the question and given a more detailed answer. AI tech on Dottir was rapidly advancing and had come a long way from making weird drawings based on prompts and self driving vehicles. Charlie was far more advanced than that. The rumor mill had decided that she was top secret military tech that was dumbed down for civilian use but no person or country had ever taken credit for her development.
She just simply was, and every nation with space capability had access to her. He thought it more than odd, but was thankful that she was aboard on such a dangerous task. The run itself wasn’t very complicated or dangerous. Fly 65 million miles to the moon, Ingrid, over the course of about 6 months and unload the cargo which was tools, food, water, and other necessities, then load with the various ores that have been mined from under the surface and fly back. Simple but dangerous.
“Charlie can you play music?” Ash asked an hour later.
“Yes, I can relay radio stations from Dottir until we are out of range. I also have over 100 terabytes of music and movies stored.”
“That is fantastic news, go ahead and play whatever you like.” Ash said as he flipped through various status reports on the primary screen.
“I do not know what I like, please choose a genre and I can play a random artist.”
“Okay then, how about classic rock.” He replied and put his feet on the instrument panel.
“Playing Van Halen, a classic rock band from Earth, please remove your feet from the instruments, that is not safe.” Charlie said in her matter of fact way.
"A band from Earth huh? How do you have music like that?"
"The song is called Jump."
Ash cocked an eyebrow, not really understanding how an Ai assistant could ignore a direct question from the captain of the ship but he didn't ask again.
Morning seemed to have come very quickly to Ash. He wondered if he had dozed off a few times as the battle to stay awake was a bloody stalemate between 0400 and 0600 but he was pretty sure that he hadn’t. Kate walked out of her quarters and straight to the kitchen. Her boots were still untied, her gray jumpsuit top was left dangling from her waist, showing the white tank top underneath and her hair was a mess.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Good morning sunshine.” Ash said, turning back around to face the front.
“Yeah yeah, I know I’m a mess. This is going to be an adjustment, not having any birds or sounds of the city to wake me up. It doesn’t feel like morning.”
“I know what you mean.” Jayden said as he too walked into the mess area behind her. Unlike Kate, the brown skinned engineer was in full uniform with his jumpsuit fastened and boots tied.
“Are we there yet?” Jay said, looking over Ash’s shoulder at the tiny white dot that was Aegir.
“I’m not even sure we’re moving.” Ash said with a smile.
“We are moving at a speed of 34,500 kph and accelerating” Charlie said through the speakers above the cockpit.
“Like a three legged dog trying to bury a turd on a frozen pond.” Ash said back to her but no reply came. He liked to think she was laughing, however a robot laughed.
When dinnertime came, the crew sat around the small circular table that pulled out from the wall in the kitchen area and ate fresh chicken thighs with various wing sauces. The Solent was stocked with enough fresh food to last for the first leg of the journey, but they would be eating canned and packaged rations for the trip home, along with a few months of slim emergency rations so the crew could survive long enough to be retrieved if the emergency was bad enough to stop them, but not bad enough to kill them. So, it was best to relax and enjoy the good food while they still could.
“This is great Jay, if the mechanic thing doesn’t work out, you could easily get a job at a shitty restaurant.”
“Thanks Ash, I’ll keep that in mind when you get me fired.”
Kate smiled and looked up from her plate. She had been mostly quiet thus far, only speaking up when she had something important to say. “Do you guys know each other?
Ash laughed and said “Yeah, I’ve met him. He used to curse at me when I limped my broken equipment into his shop back at the VFC. That’s normal though, I don’t think I’ve ever met a mechanic who was happy to see a busted truck.”
“A whole year of specialized training to work on a freaking starship and imagine my surprise when it’s Captain Miller waiting for me on the landing pad. The man who smashed his mirror off of a school bus. A parked school bus. twice!” Jayden said, spreading his arms in exaggerated bewilderment.
The days dragged on and turned to weeks as the excitement of being on a starship started to fade and become more like a job than a vacation. An amazing job, of course, but the picture outside had barely changed in that time. Aegir was still a small bright light, maybe slightly bigger now, but then again maybe not.
Ash ran a loose ship. He let the “kids” do what they needed to do to stay happy. Morale was a top priority on such a long journey, he knew that from his time as an over the road driver and the same concept still applied. He didn’t force them to always be in uniform when they were outside of their quarters, if they wanted to wear a hoodie and sweatpants, that was fine. If one of them had a headache or didn’t sleep well, he would stay on duty for a few extra hours.
That was no problem. He was the old man, the Captain, and the leader for the first time in his otherwise lonely career. He really wanted his crew to like him. He never felt any disrespect or felt like they were brushing him off. If he asked for a system to be checked, Jayden would drop what he was doing and make sure there wasn’t a problem. If he woke up to use the restroom and checked on Kate, she was there in the cockpit, wide awake. He didn’t miss the solitude of the open highway, sleeping in the parking lot of a gas station, the noises of the driver next to him farting or screwing a lot lizard at two o’clock in the morning. He was a space man now, with a trusty crew, and he liked it.
“I wish I had packed some board games or something else to do. I know Charlie has every movie known to man and a lot more that aren't, but even that gets old after a while.” Ash said as he joined Kate for the morning shift change. She was dressed in a pink hoodie and jeans, a favorite of hers.
“I know what you mean, I read all of my books in the first few weeks. I really didn’t think this through.” Kate said.
Charlie spoke into the cockpit “I can simulate a board game using the holographic console in your office Ash.”
“What? Really? I thought that was just for ship diagnostics and reading messages.”
“Yep. Any game that I know about, I can display it on the table.” Charlie declared proudly.
“Okay, let’s see it. Can you do Chess?” Ash said, smiling and motioning for Kate to follow him to his office. Before he opened the door, Charlie had already displayed a 3d chess set on his desk, but the black side was against the wall.
“Don’t worry, I can flip the board between turns.” Charlie said, seeming to read his mind.
Ash smiled bigger and waved toward the board. “Your move Kate, do you know how to play?”