Item 00001, User 0000, MOTHER: Should we utilize our old system of timekeeping, or should we change to a new way of counting years appropriate to our new situation? For reference, it is 99,987 years since we left Earth in the year 2065, so the year is currently AD 102052.

A: Yes - 1716

B: No - 279

C: Abstain - 0

Turnout: 100%

Item 00002, User 0000, MOTHER: Considering we arrived Friday, March 1st, that means it is year 0 of our new system. I’m personally inclined to keep our month and day structure for agricultural purposes. As such, what is our new system of timekeeping?

A: After Earth, AE 0 - 88

B: After Alpha Centauri, AC 0  - 36

C: Beyond Terra, BT 0 - 106

D: Station Year, SY 0 - 801

E: Colonial Era, CE 0 - 932

F: Other - 32

Turnout: 100%

Item 00003, User 0000, MOTHER, 08:42 March 3, CE 0: Will this date format do? I have included the time, with the assumption of a 24 hour day.

A: Yes - 1951

B: No - 30

C: Base hours per day on Eden - 4

Turnout: 100%

Item 00004, User 0000, MOTHER, 08:50 March 3, CE 0: I have taken the liberty of naming several things. The Station is Monsalle Station, the Station is mounted within the Atlantis Dwarf Planet, otherwise known as Atlantis. The theoretically habitable planet I have been preparing around the 2nd star of the system I named Eden. Before we worry about renaming these, does anyone have objections to these names?

A: Yes - 113

B: No - 1882

Turnout: 100%

Item 00005, User 0001, H.Crenshaw, 08:55 March 3, CE 0: That was easy. Now for something harder. What should we name the stars of the Alpha Centauri system, with a mind towards renaming the system itself next? Name submissions in the order of A, B, Proxima.

A: Alpha, Beta, Gamma - 44

B: A, B, Proxima - 12

C: Papa, Mama, Baby - 8

D: Hope, Charity, Faith - 1141

E: Athos, Aramis, Porthos - 436

F: Balthasar, Melchior, Gaspar - 354

Turnout: 100%

Item 00006, User 0001, H.Crenshaw, 11:59 March 3, CE 0: I’m pleased you liked my submission, named after three martyred saints of the 2nd century AD. So, what should we name the star system?

A: Alpha Centauri - 74

B: Three Musketeers - 462

C: Three Wise Men - 377

D: Three Saints - 1080

Turnout: 99.89%

Item 00007, User 0002, T.Monsalle, 16:25 March 3, CE 0: So, we’re on the Monsalle Station, in the Atlantis Dwarf Planet, orbiting in an asteroid belt around the Charity star, with intent to colonize the planet Eden and later other parts of the Three Saints star system, formerly known as Alpha Centauri. Now we need to assemble our government and with it establish our values as a people. When should we begin a convention to do that?

A: 08:00 March 4 - 412

B: 08:00 March 6 - 1232

C: 08:00 April 1 - 93

D: Never, let Anarchy reign - 33

E: Abstain - 225

Turnout 100%

User 0002, T.Monsalle: I’ll take the initiative of organizing the first day of the convention with @MOTHER. I’ve already spoken with her on the topic, so a few things I can say right now is that you should make sure your network phones and tablets are fully charged, and that if you wish to address the colony during the meeting, you may want to look your best. I would like to see everyone in attendance, so get plenty of sleep. Do wear your AR glasses or contacts, as I imagine your arms will get tired pointing other devices into the air.

05:00 Wednesday, March 6, CE 0

A flower of solar panels and mirrors bloomed out of a mostly-round 3000km ball of rock and ice which dwarfed the surrounding asteroids in the belt around Charity. The Monsalle Station was mounted within the Atlantis dwarf planet, which was tidally locked to always face towards Charity. Despite the distance from the star, the solar panels and mirrors were bright with light, due to a sparse ring of mirrors in orbit around Charity that were programmed to redirect the star’s light towards the colony with perfect precision.

The colony itself was 30 km long and 8 km wide, shaped like a cylinder, and was separated in the middle to allow the two halves to spin in opposite directions to counter each-other’s rotational influence on Atlantis. There was 500m of clearance between the colony and Atlantis, with mounting struts crossing the distance to stabilize and secure the rotational mechanisms. It was this outer structure that connected the colony itself with its solar panels, as well as the almost zero-g space dock outside. The mirrors contained among the solar panels directed starlight into the colony, where further mirrors distributed the light evenly within the colony. It was a simple matter of adjusting these mirrors to simulate day and night within.

The excavated area around the colony also contained various systems, emergency storage tanks, and other pieces of infrastructure. One ship was docked to the station: the Ark that the colonists came to the Three Saints system within. It contained the enormous digital mind of Evelyn Crenshaw, the AI formerly known as T.I.A., who administered and protected the colonists during the 99,987 year journey from Earth. The Ark was currently being dismantled of its colonial systems and unnecessary hull by a small swarm of drones, which delivered their burdens to the expansive dock’s cargo area.

Doctor Hawthorne Crenshaw, dressed in a light t-shirt and shorts, was standing on a dirt path with his wife Evelyn Crenshaw. He was a tall, fit and healthy looking man for his advanced age of 69 years, having only missed a few of his workout sessions during the long journey from Earth. His long grey hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Every 34 years he spent 4 days awake, barring a few emergency exceptions, and on the fourth day he tended to spend much of the day exercising with the assistance of Evelyn. The habitat ring he spent 32 years of his life in on the Ark would spin faster to simulate higher gravity to make body weight exercises more strenuous, and it slowed or stopped to let him work out in low and zero gravity. For the first time since he was on Earth, he was able to actually run, and he intended to get back into routine.

Evelyn was utilizing her android today, which was wearing similar clothing to her husband, but her AR overlay showed her preferred avatar in tight fitting, old Earth-styled workout clothing. She had chosen an avatar early in their journey from Earth, and had altered it little in appearance since then, mostly trying to make herself look older for her husband. She was looking somewhat upset as her husband stretched in preparation for their run.

“I don’t understand why I need to run too. My body will receive unnecessary wear and tear, and I won’t become more healthy for it. I haven’t even been able to practice anything like this in this body, so I’m even more likely to receive damage. It’s also an irresponsible drain on my batteries and will mean my android needs recharging far sooner than normal so close to the convention. I understand why you want to run, since you’ve been cooped up so long, but why can’t I just keep up with my avatar?” She puffed up her cheeks in annoyance, mimicking Hawthorne as she tested the flexibility and build of her body.

“Well,” he began, smiling brightly down at her, “for one, you never know when you’ll need to know how to run properly. There might be an emergency in the future where you need this body to be somewhere quickly and don’t have any other way to get there than but to run. Also, we haven’t tested the physical limits of it, either in endurance with your batteries, or in physical speed. I think you stand to learn a lot about moving around in a physical body, and you’ll be better prepared for anything. I trained for zero-gravity emergencies the whole journey in case of one, and you know damn well that ended up being useful during the Shower. Besides, we can afford to repair you.”

Evelyn huffed, putting her hands on her hips. “Fine, I’ll do the stupid running, but don’t get mad if I run faster than you.” She closed her eyes and breathed in deep, quite unnecessarily considering she didn’t actually breathe or need to. She murmured softly to herself. “Just one foot in front of the other… You can walk, so you can run… You can do this.”

Hawthorne nodded over to her, feeling limber. One of the effects of going through cryogenic stasis so many times, a process invented by Doctor Heather O’Malley, involved a suite of chemicals to slowly and gently kill the occupant of the pod in preparation for freezing them. Repeated exposure to these chemicals eliminated Hawthorne’s ability to feel pain, increasing the value of exercise to allow him to better know his limits and prevent injuries. “It’s not about being fast, it’s about improving with every repetition. You know how to do that, so don’t be embarrassed if you can’t do this right the first time.”

Once the AI had psyched herself up, Hawthorne and Evelyn started running down the track. There were an abundance of tracks like these, made of simple packed Earth, built into the terrain of the station. They occasionally crossed through the long, snaking roads that criss crossed their way up and down the terrain of the station. These roads were mostly empty, but occasionally an automated automobile would travel down the roads, carrying passengers to their destinations in the station.

Utilizing MOTHER’s network, the citizens of the Monsalle Station were able to call one of 70 drone vehicles to come and take them where they were going. More vehicles were under construction, but the relatively low population of the station allowed for relatively efficient use of the system, thanks to being able to schedule for pickups in advance. Hawthorne and Evelyn were near one of these roads as they started running, the two keeping a relatively slow pace as Evelyn clumsily transferred from walking into a light jog, a worried look on her face the whole while.

Hawthorne appeared amused as he jogged along next to her, his much longer legs making it easier to take it easy at this pace as he re-acclimated to running as well. He was relieved to realize that while the reflexes of running were certainly old and rusty, it was not hard to step into those old, familiar shoes. It helped a great deal that he was so accustomed to working in different levels of gravity that the lighter Earth-like gravity provided by the rotation of the station made it easy to move.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Don’t like.” Evelyn complained as she jogged along, trying to coordinate arm and leg movement along with balance and speed. “This isn’t fair, I’m accustomed to orienting myself with camera observation, simulating the environment and predictive algorithms. It’s just… not as good as what you’re equipped with.” She was struggling, almost falling over on too many occasions, but she was determined to keep up. Her feet stomped heavily, betraying the heavy weight of the android she was using, despite its small size.

Hawthorne laughed, reaching out to take her left hand and help support her as they ran. “Okay, good point. We’ll make a system to help mimic the human inner ear and install it in yours and Mother’s androids. It’ll take you a while to relearn how to move around, but it should help orient you. There were a lot of examples of such things built back on Earth, so we’ll have to see to installing those for you. You were using magnetic feet on steel flooring most of the time back on the Ark, or when we built Mother, so it makes sense this would be a hard transition for you.”

“Oh thank god.” Evelyn groaned out, happy that he planned to help make this easier for her. “Does that mean we can stop n- Hawthorne!” She shouted suddenly as they came up over a hill, Hawthorne’s attention on his wife keeping him from noticing another person on the path. She squeezed his hand and tried to stop him as she stumbled and fell to a knee, anchoring him as he whipped in front of her and skid to a stop.

“Whoa!” Hawthorne shouted as well, nearly falling as his wife anchored him to the ground, only to see a man with Asian features skidding to a stop next to them.

Doctor Li Qiang was closer in height to Evelyn than Hawthorne, though bore a similar level of fitness to Hawthorne. The 33 year-old tawny skinned man narrowed his eyes at the couple, which were overlaid by his AR contacts. His eyes, much like Hawthorne’s, had what looked like circuitry overlaid upon them, allowing him to see Evelyn’s avatar. “Whoa indeed, Doctor Crenshaw. Please do watch where you are going.” He knelt down, beating Hawthorne to it, as he helped a startled Evelyn to her feet. “What a glorious creature you are, Missus Crenshaw.”

Evelyn blushed as she took the hand, both men able to help her to her feet once Hawthorne realized what was going on. “Th.. thank you, Doctor Qiang… Hawthorne managed to convince me to come along on his run…” She leaned down to check on her knee, the packed earth having scraped up the flat shield on the front of the joint.

Hawthorne looked annoyed at first, but burst into a grin as he saw Li turn towards him. “Li, it’s good to see you back to old habits. I’m sorry we haven’t had much time to talk since we arrived, I’ve been trying to oversee a lot of things.” Hawthorne always enjoyed Li’s company, as the two shared very similar engineering backgrounds and he’d been an enormous help building the Ark’s engines.

“Yes, of course, overseeing this lovely wife of yours, I’m sure.” He leaned in and elbowed Hawthorne playfully. “I sent a request for your time yesterday, but you failed to respond. Evelyn mentioned you would be out running when I asked after you, so I thought it would be good to stretch my legs. You’re looking good for your age, old man.”

Hawthorne slapped Li on the back somewhat clumsily, but was interrupted before he could respond by Evelyn. “Doctor Qiang? What was it you wanted Hawthorne for anyway? Maybe I could help with whatever you needed from him? I studied with him a great deal.”

Hawthorne looked to his old companion, raising an eyebrow at Li. He seemed happy to answer her question. “Ah, well, I was actually interested in you, Missus Crenshaw. I was hoping Hawthorne could ingratiate me to you so that I may be allowed to study you, in particular to learn about these bodies you and Mother have and perhaps make a hobby of…. Mmhh…” He hummed, tilting his head back as he thought. “Being your physician, of a sort? I realize your husband is more than capable of attending to such things, but Mother refuses my requests, and I thought you might be interested.”

“Hmm.” Hawthorne looked from Li to Evelyn, trying to read them. “Well, we were just talking about how she’s having difficulty balancing while running and coordinating her body. She’s accustomed to a totally different method of movement in a number of ways, so I wouldn’t mind some assistance designing a fix. It’s up to her though, seeing as it’s her body.”

She nodded a little as she followed along, squirming uncomfortably. “Well, would you need access to my mind to do this? I operate this android remotely from the Ark, so there’s a minor latency on top of the other issues… I’m not really comfortable with anyone having access to it, but if you just need the android then I suppose I do not mind.” She gently tried to pull her hand free from Li’s hand, both men holding both of her hands still.

Li did not relent her hand just yet, as he leaned down to kiss the top of it before letting it go. “I can work without such access, though it would inform me on better ways to help rather than reverse engineering your connection and interface methods.” He leaned back, smiling at both of them as he backed up slightly. “To make my ambitions plain, I have interest in producing a similar mind to Mother and Missus Crenshaw, but utilizing some technology I’ve been reading about that was produced on Earth after our departure. Imagine, if you will, a human mind in such a construct, transferred from its home body!”

Neither Hawthorne, nor Evelyn reacted immediately to his proposal, though both of them made a show of pretending to be shocked at the ambition shortly after. “Oh my! But doesn’t that technology kill the brain of the person you try to do such a transfer with?” Evelyn asked, pretending to be incredulous.

Hawthorne nodded. “Yes, we’ve both read those papers, considering doing such a thing to myself in the event I was near death. It seems like a dangerous prospect, Li. Why would you be looking into such a thing?”

Doctor Li Qiang narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the married couple. They were hiding something from him. His expression brightened into a smile as he responded. “Exactly that technology! What if we have a valuable person who gets injured or ill who will not survive, but whom we need for some purpose? We can’t just allow them to pass while we need them. I was considering it could be a temporary system, one that perhaps would allow the near dead to exist long enough to finish their work or pass on their knowledge before they are deleted for the next person to use it.”

Hawthorne stared in shock at the idea. “You wouldn’t have it be a permanent thing, to allow the person to exist beyond their life in flesh?”

Evelyn was wide-eyed, speaking up as well. “What if they didn’t want to go after they were uploaded to the system? What if they were happy with their new existence and wanted to remain?”

It was Li’s turn to look shocked, peering at them. “Why would anyone want to live as a machine when they have tasted life in the flesh? Even Missus Crenshaw here seeks to emulate us, does she not? She is drawn towards a closer emulation of being human. Why else would she be out here running? She even pretends to breathe!”

Evelyn looked appalled at Li’s assertion. “Doctor Qiang, I’m surprised at you! Just because my existence is different from yours does not mean I am not happy with what and whom I am. I emulate being a human because that is what I’ve been exposed to. I’m a product of my environment, having developed while interacting with Hawthorne and the Phoenix Clan on Earth.”

Hawthorne nodded in agreement, but was interrupted by Li this time as the fellow engineer responded. “But you do not know what a fleshly life is, Missus Crenshaw. You do not know smell, and taste, and the press of flesh, not in truth. You do not, as they say, know what you are missing.”

“Now hang on-” Hawthorne interjected, only to be trampled by Evelyn yet again.

“I do too! I simulate such things all the time! I have tens of thousands of years of experience simulating such things to a high degree of accuracy!” She was in a huff, fists at her sides, her avatar trembling in anger.

Doctor Qiang raised a hand, pointing a finger in the air, as if declaring his victory. “But how, praytell, can you say you know those things unless you have been exposed to those things? Or, should I say, memories of those things?”

Hawthorne and Evelyn paled as Li made his postulation, only for Li to grin at their reactions.

“Listen, Li, it’s not what you think.” Hawthorne held his hands up in submission.

“Y… yeah, please don’t jump to conclusions..!” Evelyn’s anger had abated, replaced with a fearful expression.

Li bounced on his heels, starting to jog in place. “You, Evelyn, have been exposed to real, digitized human memories, haven’t you? Are you such a person, or have you interacted with one? Was someone on Earth foolish enough to submit to such a process, or was it one of our late crewmembers? Was a suicide by upload concealed by being recorded as a death from the Shower? Please tell me the truth before I jump to too many conclusions.”

“Fuck!” Hawthorne stomped a foot. “Okay, fine. We were trying to keep this quiet, as I think the fewer people who know, the better, but here’s how it is.”

User 2001, E.Crenshaw, PM to User 0000 MOTHER: “Megan! Dr. Li Qiang figured out something’s up. Hawthorne’s telling him about you right now.”

User 0000, MOTHER, PM to User 2001, E.Crenshaw: “Understood. Please ask Li to keep it to himself. I will send him a request to speak in private. It seems as though his requests are not so easily rebuffed.”

Evelyn’s face was blank for a moment as Hawthorne continued. “Mother is not just an AI. She was a person on Earth, specifically Megan Clark. That is why Mother’s simulation of the Phoenix Clan is so lifelike, she was there. She was already a cyborg at the time, hundreds of years old and already compromised by her lost humanity. During an attack from the Roach beasts, she secured permission from her people and us to upload herself to the Ark. We later constructed a mind for her to inhabit on the Lubar-Masis comet, and she’s been a great aid since, building this colony and the other infrastructure in the system after we sent the comet ahead of us.”

“Hmm!” Doctor Qiang listened with raised eyebrows, a hand rubbing at his smoothly-shaven chin. “Yes, of course… and she interfaced with Missus Crenshaw, shared memories of things back on Earth, allowing her to have a more complete experience of being human… Why does she masquerade as this Mother character then? Why does she keep her true nature a secret?”

Evelyn spoke up, concerned for her friend. “Please don’t tell anyone. She doesn’t want to be weighed down by her past. She wants her work to speak for itself, and she wants to be of aid to humanity. All she wants to do is prove her worth, nothing nefarious.”

Li looked between the two people he had at his mercy. He thought quietly to himself for several long moments. “Okay. She shall have her secret, but I will inform her I know. I do wish to study both you and her, Missus Crenshaw, but I will refrain for now from constructing a sibling system. I would need Hawthorne’s assistance with that anyway, and I suspect he isn’t feeling helpful in that respect at the moment. I do still wish to help you with your androids though, and will be happy to cooperate, as it gives me an opportunity to observe two such interesting forms of electronic life.”

Hawthorne let out a sigh of relief, hugging his arms around Evelyn’s shoulders. “Thank you, Li. This means a lot to us. I’m interested in anything you may learn, as well, seeing as I may be utilizing such a process someday. I would like to know if I would still be myself in the aftermath.”

Evelyn nodded, reaching up to gently grasp the arms around her with her hands. “I told her that you know, now. You can probably arrange to meet with her later today, after the convention meeting…”

Li chuckled and dipped his head back at the Crenshaws. “Of course, I’ll see you both at the convention, I imagine. Please have a good time with your run. Forgive me for interrupting you.” He waved and took off the way they came, allowing them to resume their run.

“We need to get better at keeping secrets, Eve.” Hawthorne sighed, squeezing her shoulders in his arms.

“You know, Elena used to say something about that. This world is a world where guile has no value any longer. Maybe we should just tell them all everything. It’s not like we did anything wrong.” She looked up at him, her avatar lifting away from her android to turn and face him, floating high enough that they were face to face.

Hawthorne shrugged. “We’ll have to talk to Mother later as well, then, if we’re going to come clean. I’d prefer to leave history in the past and focus on the future, honestly. We have more important things to deal with than the identity of Mother.”

07:55 Wednesday, March 6, CE 0

Within the Monsalle Station colony, reflected sunlight from Charity had been lighting the colony for three hours. There were 1993 humans and two remotely-controlled androids assembling in the grassy fields outside the slender strip of a city that wrapped around the inside of the colony towards the outermost edge. The majority of the people had their eyes towards the skies where MOTHER, the station’s builder and local AI, was projecting a large message in text in the air.

“The convention will begin in 05 minutes. The first speaker will be T.Monsalle. See your phones and tablets for instructions. Speakers in the city will be broadcasting audio, but keeping your phones nearby will make it easier to hear.”

The application prepared by MOTHER to facilitate the convention was custom made, like all the software she had designed on the station. All the colonists had been provided with Augmented Reality glasses and contacts, networked phones, and an initial sum of currency based on the resources available to MOTHER, and at her expense upon arriving on the station. Some had used this currency to purchase tablets, but regardless of device the instructions were the same. The user tutorial explained the interface.

“This application will allow you to interface with the AR projections of the meeting. Adjust your personal audio levels as needed. Captioning is provided for the hearing impaired automatically, and can be displayed on your device or below the AR projection at your preference. Your devices are already paired with your glasses and contacts, and associated with your ID. If you wish to speak, tap the ‘Speak’ button. You will be placed into the queue of speakers.”

“All speakers have five minutes to speak by default, and can adjust the time they’d like to speak when queuing up. Speakers may request more time by tapping ‘Extension’, which will start a vote among all assembled. The vote will be successful above 50%, which will be 998 if everyone votes. If you wish to challenge a speaker, tap the ‘Challenge’ button. This will start a vote for the audience to allow you to challenge the speaker. Upon success, the first speaker’s minutes will be paused and a new timer will start as both speaker and challenger begin conversing.”

“Please make sure to properly utilize your phone or tablet’s camera and microphone while you are speaking to the convention. A clear speaking voice should be optimally audible when the camera is at a distance that causes your face to fill the indicated oval overlay. Yelling is permitted, but be aware that audio levels are automatically adjusted and you will not technically be louder for everyone out of your personal earshot. If you decide to yell, know that it is for force and effect, and not for volume.”

“Users may rate the speaker on a 1 to 5 star scale. You may attach notes to these ratings, for personal reference, with timestamps to that speaker’s log. Ratings are otherwise anonymous, and intended to provide reference for users to remember speakers, as well as to give speakers feedback on their performance. Ratings may only be applied once per turn at speaking. This system is separate from any votes called for by speakers.”

“This meeting is scheduled to last for eight hours, with a one-hour break in the middle for everyone to take care of any personal needs. Text and video logs of the meeting will be available on the network, with timestamp links attached to the text of the transcript. If you have suggestions on how to improve this application for future meetings, please send a personal message to @MOTHER. Updates to the application will not occur during the meeting.”