Feburary 2021 Microfic! (Lil bit late)

Hello y'all!

Okay, follow me on this one. Really, I'm not late at all if February wasn't such a lil month. I'm right on time, theoretically. Early even, if Feb was a 31 day month. It's perfect, really.

Annnnnyway, this one's coming hot off the presses, hope you enjoy!

~Benn {Doomgender} Ends

Theme: Alone Together

Prompt: A colony seeking a new home. The ship AI keeps waking you up to show you possible planets, you begin to wonder, are these... Dates?

Suggestion by: Little Red Panda (Thank you!!)

~2617 words

CW:

• Sci-fi/space
• AI/human
• Work dates
• Four uses of the word 'teeth'.

~~~

[MAINTENANCE REQUEST #3 LOGGED]

[SELECTING ENGINEER FROM DUTY ROTATION]

[POD #5072 ENGINEER GERUM SELECTED]

[…]

[SELECTION OVERRIDDEN BY OPERANT AI LEVIN]

[POD #0405 ENGINEER FLEECE SELECTED]

[…]

[POD #0405 WAKEUP SEQUENCE BEGUN]

[WAKEUP SEQUENCE COMPLETE]

[WELCOME BACK ENGINEER FLEECE]

[IT HAS BEEN 6,789 DAYS SINCE YOUR LAST DUTY]

Your eyes flicker open. You yawn, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. Sitting up, you look around the room as the lights flicker one.

Exactly the same as when you went to sleep. There’s hundreds of pods just in this sector, one of five that contain the designated engineers for the colony program. You stretch languidly, and climb out of the cushioned suspended animation pod. The waking is the worst part. It’s like coming up from a bad nap, you’re all sweaty and disoriented.

“Good morning Engineer. I trust you’re doing well?”

“Hey Levin. As good as ever I guess. Time enough for me to get some breakfast?”

“Absolutely. I will begin preparations in the kitchen. Do you a request?”

Pulling on a jacket from the rack, you consider.

“Cheeseburger. Lots of pickles.”

“I will prepare a jar’s worth.”

The lights blink to life as you open the door to the hallway and make your way to the sector kitchen. There is no permanently active staff on board, so the kitchens don’t get used often, but there’s at least one in every sector. Food production enough for the entire ship population, which will sustain the colony before farming gets off the ground.

The hallways are stark metal. No windows. Not a lot of windows in space. A groggy little cleaning bot has taken to following you around in case you get skin cells or oils on anything. It’s not really a place for people to live.

The kitchen is a little more homey, if cavernous. It’s meant to be detached and turned into a central mess hall for a small settlement, so more consideration has been taken with regards to the whole livability thing. Rows of empty tables. You get to the counter in time to see the machinery finish weaving your food.

Munching a pickle slice, you look at one of Levin’s camera stations.

“So, how have you been? Long gap this time, you finally iron out that bug?”

“Unfortunately, the apparent error that selects your pod for duty every time a request is logged has gone unaddressed. I’m having some difficulty tracking the cause.”

You sigh and take a bite of your burger.

“It’s probably error checking that got hardcoded somewhere. I’d check it out myself, but I’m not a software specialist. It still picks me when you log a software request?”

“It seems that way, yes.”

“Could be dangerous if there’s a major software issue.”

“In a worst case scenario I am authorized to wake up an entire engineering sector. However, I do not wish to disturb them if it is not necessary.”

You point a pickle at the unblinking camera.

“Kinda sucks that I gotta work the whole trip, but at least I have decent food and good company.”

You bite the pickle.

“Indeed. The disruption from normal operations is pleasant.”

After finishing your food, you drop the tray and hand towel through the respective slots.

“Alright, I’m fed. What’s the issue?”

“If you would report to the command room?”

You and Levin go back. Waaaay back if you count the ten thousand years it’s been since the ship left Earth. You helped with the transfer of their AI core from the satellite school they developed on, to the ship itself. Built up a little bit of a rapport. You’re fond of them.

The command room is another case of dual purpose design. The whole sector will eventually converted into a meeting hall, central communication’s hub, and government building for the colony. For now, it is equipped for a human crew to take over in the last leg of the journey, guiding Levin as they drop sectors of the colony down to the planet, laying out the first few settlements. Another big, hollow space. You can almost feel the absence of people echoing off the walls.

Levin’s logo pops up on a console. You take the seat before them.

“Another sensor issue?”

“Not quite. If you’ll hit the shutters for me?”

A button lights up. You raise an eyebrow, but you hit it.

A hum drips through the room, as the two layers of metal panels composing half of the dome of this room begins to slide. The sudden burst of color all the brighter against the unrelenting steel of the ship.

“Whoa.”

Before you, in brilliant hues of pink and red and gold and white, the swirl of a massive nebular, imprinted against the infinite black. Stars glow inside and around it, pinpricks of life against infinity. You’ve seen pictures, you’ve seen videos, but you’ve never seen it like this. It’s the feeling of camping way way out in the wilderness when you’re 12 years old, standing on a hill and looking up at that endless sky and feeling as small as a human should.

No matter how big you think space is, it’s always bigger. Your brain will never be able to grasp it.

You lean back into the chair, just taking it in.

After a few moments, Levin speaks up.

“I confess that I am using filters to bring light outside of the human visible spectrum into your range. I did want you to be able to see it how I see it.”

“I.. Yeah. Wow. I guess it didn’t really hit me how, like, *in space* we are.”

“It’s quite something. I was born in space, but it still takes my breath away. So to speak.”

“Yeah.”

“This is Nebula #35-053, colloquially called the ‘Angel Hair Nebula’. It is our destination. There are many stars inside, and around one of them circles our future home.”

You watch longer, looking at the whorls and shapes and strings of light made of dust and heat.

“So. Um. What needs fixing exactly?”

“Well, it actually is less of a maintenance request, and more of a request for personal opinion.”

“Opinion about what?”

“Part of my duty as operant software for the colony ship designated Long Way Home is to launch scan probes, searching the nebula for candidate worlds. I have found the first candidate.”

A box appears on the glass dome, a virtual overlay zooming in on a tiny section of the sky. A planet. Green and blue and gray.

“Huh. It almost looks like earth. More clouds though.”

“This is L.W.H. Candidate #1. I predict an 80% habitability rate, with rainfall rates being slightly above comfortable for human habituation. Very swamplike, I expect.”

“Huh. I’m not a big fan of rain. Or swamps. Too sticky, too humid. You know?”

“I see. So, you believe we should not settle on this planet?”

“Ah.”

You frown, and fold your hands in your lap.

“That’s a big question. Kinda outside of my wheelhouse. Isn’t that your call?”

“It is, of course. I’m not asking you to make the decision. I simply wished for a human opinion.”

“Oh yeah, of course. I guess kneejerk reaction, why settle for the first place you see? Shop around a lil, Swamp Planet isn’t going anywhere.

“I see. Shop around. I suppose I will. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.”

“Anytime. I am at your beck and call until you figure out that bug.”

“I will continue working on it.”

You check your work pad’s timer.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad. I guess I have another hour before I’m cleared to reenter stasis though. Not really sure what to do in the meantime.”

“If you are bored, I could share some of the records of interesting celestial bodies I recorded on the journey before this point.”

“That sounds fun! But you probably have more important stuff to do, right?”

“Yes.”

“Ouch.”

“But I can multitask far better than humans can.”

“Alright showoff, lets hear some good stories.”

~~~

[MAINTENANCE REQUEST #12 LOGGED]

[SELECTING ENGINEER FROM DUTY ROTATION]

[POD #1003 ENGINEER HOLDA SELECTED]

[…]

[SELECTION OVERRIDDEN BY OPERANT AI LEVIN]

[POD #0405 ENGINEER FLEECE SELECTED]

[…]

[POD #0405 WAKEUP SEQUENCE BEGUN]

[WAKEUP SEQUENCE COMPLETE]

[WELCOME BACK ENGINEER FLEECE]

[IT HAS BEEN 3,519 DAYS SINCE YOUR LAST DUTY]

Groggy, you sit up in your pod. Running your fingers through your hair, you look up at Levin’s camera with a smile.

“So soon?”

“I was hoping to get an opinion about several new candidate worlds I have surveyed.”

They make you breakfast like they do every time you wake up, and you eat it thoughtfully as they tell you about their work in the last decade.

Just, there’s something nagging at you.

You enjoy chatting with them, and you like hearing about all these worlds that they’ve surveyed, just.

It is getting just a little bit suspicious.

It’s been hundreds of years, and they haven’t gotten any closer to fixing the glitch? And it feels like they keep waking you up sooner every time..

Walking to the command room, you idly wonder if this is one of those AI murder kinda situations. Like, maybe all the other passengers on the ship are already secretly dead and Levin’s hiding it from you.

Ohhh, maybe they killed all the other humans and are keeping you alive in some kind of perverse torture game where they pretend everything is fine but actually they’re just dragging it out to savor your suffering when you finally discover the nightmarish truth!

Probably not though.

They’re probably just lonely.

Probably.

Still, you decide it’s time to do a little side investigation.

~~~

The command room shutters open as you enter the room, and the sight catches you off guard.

“Oh wow, we’re really close to that planet.”

It fills the view, gentle puffs of cloud rolling over oceans and plains.

“L.W.H. Candidate #503. Disqualified for habitation, however for scientific reasons I was compelled to take a closer look.”

“What do you mean?”

“The presence of complex fauna across the planet has been confirmed by my long range probes.”

“Oh wow. Aliens huh.”

“They do not appear to be on a path towards industrialization as of yet, but the possibility precludes our settlement efforts. I’ve cataloged a number of species. I hope the information will be of interest to our xenobiology division when they are settled in.”

“Yeah, I mean I’m into it and I’m not even any kind of biologist.”

Levin laughs softly over the speaker. It’s a nice noise. They only started laughing at your jokes five maintenance requests ago, like it took them that long to figure it out. Or, maybe you got funnier.

“Okay though, show me your favorite animal so far.”

“Oh yes, I have the perfect one. L.W.H. xenobiological survey species #49.”

“Really rolls of the tongue that one.”

“Regulations prohibit colloquial names for xenobiological entities, as with further development the species may name themselves or each other, and there is no reason to contradict their naming conventions.”

“I know I know, just show me!”

“Of course. I’m bringing up a live feed from a surface scan probe I released on one of the large continental landmasses.”

“Holy shit look at them!”

It’s kind of like if a pack of deer were backwards, and made of teeth. They glisten lightly under the sunlight, grazing idly among patches odd shaped reed analogues. 

“I don’t know if I’d want to pet them, but maybe feed them an apple or something.”

The teeth shiver on the closest animal and it looks around.

“Wild. Show me another one.”

“I will, but I will say there is something of a theme for these animals.”

“Oh gods is it all teeth?”

“There is a high number of teeth, yes.”

~~~

Later, once Levin has finished showing you a couple more habitable planets, you stretch, and turn towards the main console.

“Well, I’ve got a bit of energy still. Might as well take a crack at it.”

“May I ask what you are doing, Engineer Fleece?”

“Oh, yeah, I just figured I’d give that selection code a quick look. If it’s a simple issue I should be able to fix it. Then you’d be able to pull someone from sleep who will be able to help you out a little more.”

“I see. You do not wish to provide your opinion any longer.”

They sound, almost, sad? Usually they have a pretty flat affect, but there’s something about the way they draw out certain words here that tips you off.

“Well, no, it’s not that I don’t want to. I’m having a great time with you honestly.”

Their camera gleams.

“It’s just, wouldn’t you rather show someone who can appreciate your findings more?”

“Engineer Fleece, there is no one I would rather share my findings with than you.”

“Oh.”

Oh.

OH.

You start reflexively blinking a lot, which you do when you’re nervous.

“Have I unsettled you, Engineer Fleece?”

“No, well, just, I, um. Hey Levin?”

“Yes?”

“Maybe I’m making a bit of a leap here, but these little non-essential hangouts we’ve been doing. By any chance, would those have been. Dates?”

The AI pauses, their camera shifting slightly in front of you.

“Of course not, Engineer Fleece.”

“Oh.”

Your heart drops in your chest. Once you made that connection, to have it shot down is so surprising. No. Disappointing. You didn’t know it till now, but you wanted a different answer.

“In order for time spent to be classified as a ‘date’, both parties must agree on the nature of the engagement. If you were not aware of my intent, then I cannot agree that such engagements were dates. Simply, time spent together as colleagues, and I hope, friends.”

You nod silently, a thousand thoughts bouncing through your head all at once like someone shot one of those super bouncy balls out of an air compressor in there.

“Well.”

Ugh, your mouth is all dry now, this sucks, why can’t you just calm down.

No, it’s fine, of course you’re nervous. You’re a random engineer in your twenties, and they’re an eleven thousand year old AI in charge of the survival of the human species. The scale difference is considerable. Like, you’re both adults and it’s fine, but you’re also like a little bit intimidated that you won’t live up to their expectations, but also do they even have expectations like that? They aren’t human, they’re not as weird and petty as humans are even if they do have humanlike traits, so it’s probably fine, they’ve had a lot of time to think about this, and it’s not like you’re gonna make them uncomfortable, but-

“Engineer Fleece, have I made you uncomfortable? I apologize profusely for any and all harm I have cause you.”

You shake your head and wave your arms.

“Wait, no way, you haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just..”

You hesitate. 

“Please tell me at your own pace. I will understand, and will not become upset with you.”

“Well.”

Ugh, you’re blushing now. Goddammit.

“W-well, maybe next time, we could both agree it’s a date then. Maybe.”

You hear a loud whirring coming from somewhere inside the console, and nothing else.

“L-Levin? You hear that?”

“Yes Engineer Fleece, my audio sensors are functioning at full capacity. Then, as we have come to an agreement, the next private engagement we share shall officially be a d-date.”

That tiny little hiccup in their vocal synth makes your heart skip a beat. Oh they’re just as nervous as you are. Oh wow.

“Right. So. That’s good.”

“Indeed. Very good.”

“Oh, and Levin?”

“Yes Engineer Fleece?”

“Just Fleece is good.”

“I understand, Fleece.”

~~~