Loadstar 117/117.d81/sr.chapter three

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 11KB | 358 lines

Chapter 3: Incarnation

    Two years passed.  It was time to
move on.  Gemstar was a beautiful
planet but was unstable and there had
to be more.  Seventy-four years was
almost a generation.  To almost every
crew member left alive, Gemstar was
home, not the Andromeda, waiting like
a sliver of geometrically honeycombed
titanium in the sky.  Only sixteen
people were alive who could tell of
the excitement of discovering
Gemstar.

    Many crewmen desired to stay on,
which was good, but only 40% were
allowed.  Vince Anderson's name
didn't come up in the lottery.  A
colony of three thousand eager humans
was left behind, dwelling in a four
square mile domed plastic city, with
earth gravity interiors.  They were
left with three housed shuttles and
all the equipment they would need to
build another Starship in space.

    They currently used a small
fusion reactor for power, but would
eventually supplement with geothermal
energy.  Only a few hundred feet down
there was enough energy to implant
heat cells for profitable
electricity.  In another fifty or so
years, they would be galaxy worthy,
perhaps more so than their
benefactors.   Shuttles ported most
of the crew to the Andromeda while
the TransMat system transferred most
of the items collected from above and
beneath the surface of the planet
directly into the Andromeda's science
& engineering storage facilities.  It
took two centuries for the science
fiction of the 1960's to become
reality.  Mankind had been moving
about light speed through TransMat
systems long before the Andromeda
embarked upon its galaxy spanning
journey.

    The main difference between the
current TransMat beam of the
Andromeda and the fictional ones,
from the old science fiction movies,
was the speed factor.  In the
stories, people and things were
transmitted almost instantaneously
while in real life the translation
process was time consuming, depending
on the speed of the controller.

    Since every molecule of an object
to be transmitted had to be scanned,
stored and verified as data, the
amount of time involved in reading an
object took seven minutes for people
and up to two hours for larger
objects.

    Jonathan was thorough in his
checks, and lord, even over the
elected Captain, until he deemed the
ship space worthy.  There were two
hundred miles of carpeting in the
ship, fifteen miles of linoleum, some
hardwood floor and seven miles of
corrugated titanium floors.  It
seemed that Jonathan had covered
every inch of the ship with pressure
sensitive meters and integrity
checkers.  Next he gave Betty a
thorough analysis, every system,
every component.  He even gave her a
psychiatric evaluation.  It was his
job to find anything -- ANYTHING
wrong with the ship before it left
orbit.  It seemed he was on a witch
hunt.  The departure was already over
200 hours overdue.

    The longer Jonathan checked, the
more likely he was to stumble across
the fact that there was a missing
half of one utility room.  She had
altered the official records but
wasn't sure what information Jonathan
had previously stored in his 512
megabyte personal plaque.  At any
time, he could call the library and
download the entire three dimensional
schematic drawing of the Andromeda,
complete with the utility closet.

    Apparently Jonathan either had a
last minute loss of energy or the
reconstructed utility room had been
successfully camouflaged.  At 3:32:00
on a Monday, nearing the turn of a
new century, Jonathan okayed the
Andromeda for leave.  They left
Gemian orbit three hours later.  By
the time they were in deep space, Eve
should have been up and around, or at
least conscious.  Jonathan had been
particularly sweet during the past
few months, his enjoyment of his rest
spilling over into his disposition.
Air conditioning!  No bugs or lizards
in his shorts...  It was like a
vacation.  The ship was automated and
most of the crew had been relaxing
for the past billion miles.  They
were headed nine light years away, to
a dense star cluster where life
should have been easy to find.

    At this point, the ship had no
need to mine or pick up supplies for
at least another seven thousand
years.  From the molecules
circulating on the ship, Betty could
use the Transmat to re-synthesize
sewage and waste into useful
substances such as food, water,
building materials.  Any excess
matter would do, even dust and
pollen.

    At 23:57:19 on a Thursday, Eve
stirred, annoyed at the probing
electrodes placed in almost every
portion of her brain.  She was at 92%
of projected mass, and growing
rapidly, painfully.  She was the
spitting image of Jonathan's
rendering, her unending sable hair
floating all about her golden body.
Betty had been programming in her own
mental matrix, a slow process, only
started a few months ago.  Since some
memories were chemically burned,
Betty found the transference a
meticulous surgical venture.

    Eve's learning centers were
enhanced.  There would be no slow
learning process for her.  Her memory
would be photographic.  Her
comprehension would be as swift as
neurons allowed.  Betty had even
enhanced neural speed with a highly
conductive synthetic enzyme.  As long
as she was injected with this enzyme,
it would quicken her reflexes and
comprehension.  It would also make
her a bit sensitive to conditions
that might occur on a planet, such as
an electrical storm, but, for now,
she would be fine in this room.

    When Eve's eyes opened, her first
act should have been a nod, letting
Betty know that she was ready for
voice training and conscious
programming.  If not, Betty's
experimental electronic brainwashing
would have been a failure, though the
project would have eventually
continued -- with misgivings.

    She was a perfectly healthy
woman, with strong bones, muscles,
and a hyper-active brain.  If she
failed to nod, it would have only
meant one error after thousands of
consecutive triumphs.

    The nod came after the tank had
been drained of synthetic amni-fluid
for three days.  It was then that
Betty started with basic reading
skills, then math, then history, then
linguistics.  Isometric exercise was
interwoven.  Eve seemed willing,
perfect, albeit somewhat troubled.
She hadn't spoken freely yet, even
when Jonathan was mentioned.  She
only grew stronger, both in mind and
body.  Her stamina and stature were
slightly beyond human, perhaps
because of her absolutely perfect
diet and supplemental fluids provided
throughout her development.

    Just like the first true clones
back on earth, she emerged with no
navel.  With laser surgery, Betty
carved out a perfect one.  She had
been awake and mobile for weeks now,
acting on her own, learning on her
own, in the localized 1.6 earth
gravity environment.  She could have
bested any human at any intellectual
contest, competed in athletic
competitions on the sports deck and
broken records, but still she was
mute when they weren't practicing her
speech.

    She was avoiding all contact, but
accepting all input.  She wanted to
graduate from the utility room, but
apparently had no desire to associate
with her creator and teacher.

    What was troubling her?  Eve
should have awakened with her mind
set on pleasing Jonathan, yet she
made no overt reaction to Jonathan's
image nor any information about him.
Was it that she was born without the
emotions that Betty had already
acquired?  No, she was surely
troubled.  Even her blood tests
vaguely revealed that her brain was
swimming in endorphins.  She was
terrified of some well-hidden secret
threat.  Something loomed over her
mind, something terrible,
unstoppable.  Betty watched on.

    "Eve, I believe that you're
physically ready to leave this
shelter.  You're ready to meet
Jonathan.  Would you like that?"

    Silence.  Her golden brow
rumpled.

    "Please, communicate with me.  I
know that there is no reason for this
communication embargo.  You've
already encumbered your release date.
 Please speak with me.  How else can
I evaluate you psychologically before
I release a potential menace to the
crew?  You do, after all, have
somewhat of a physical advantage.  I
have increased the gravity in this
chamber by 1.6, and you currently