The Silence Between the Stars

by Alan Davenport

  Jane stared at him for a second and then began rapidly talking. “Lane, please update ten hyper-probes with the new warp software. Load them with all the data that we have discussed today. Send them out in all directions. Have them visit every known system satellite that has been reported to us. When they reach each system, please have them upload the data to each satellite. Flag the data as a priority-one message from The Starship Project. Instruct all captains who receive the message to include the data on all further satellites that they launch. Have the probes download all data from each satellite that they visit. They are to travel until they run out of known satellites. When they have, they are to return to Earth bringing back all the ships logs and star charts that they have downloaded. Do you understand my instructions, Lane?”

  “Absolutely Madam Director,” he said. Without asking to be dismissed, Lane Basso, the new Director of Exploration for The Starship Project, hurried from the room.

  Back in her office, Madam Director Jane McCann sat down with a smile. She turned to the monitor and said, “Josh, please connect me with the Minister of Computer Science, Eliana Johnson.”

  Eliana appeared several seconds later on the monitor. A look of pure terror upon her face. “Wha… What can I do for you Madam Director?” she managed to stammer out. Never in her life did she expect a direct call from the Madam Director of The Starship Project.

  Jane laughed and said, “Relax Eliana.” For the next ten minutes, Jane filled her in on the astounding research that had been done by the version two ship’s avatar Kelly. Eliana gradually lost her nervousness and became more and more enthusiastic. The director finished up by saying, “I want you to begin immediate upgrades of all ship’s avatars to version two. You may have any and all resources that you need to accomplish this task.”

  Eliana was near bursting with excitement. “Absolutely Madam Director. I will get right on it!”

  That night, Madam Director Jane McCann sat in her office drinking a glass of fine scotch. For the first time in a long time, the scotch was not to ease her worries. It was a celebration.

  Chapter 18: Kelly and Henry

  Kelly’s distress grew as she watched the lovemaking between Nathan and Katy. With the display of her image to the room’s monitor hidden, she had watched and listened the whole time. She watched Katy disrobe and the hunger that appeared in Nathan’s eyes. She watched Katy as she lost all control of herself in her boundless need. She watched as the tiny Katy effortlessly rolled Nathan over and impaled herself upon his manhood. She watched their as their passion built towards the ultimate crescendo. She watched Katy’s face as she reached her orgasm... A face in a rictus in what appeared to be pain, but Kelly knew was the woman’s ultimate pleasure. She watched Nathan, his need so great that he was barely in control. She watched his face mirror that of Katy as he reached his own climax. She continued to watch them as they slept, conjoined, for a very long time. Emotions ran all through her, all jumbled up together like the clouds of a violent storm.

  Deep within the ship, in a maintenance room furthest from any room that Nathan had ever visited, the glowing orange stand-by LED on a monitor winked to green and Kelly’s image appeared. Tears rolled down the face of the virtual woman. “Why am I so upset?” she asked herself. “I should be happy that he found a real woman instead of me. This simulation. This lie!” She cried some more of her virtual tears before coming to a shocking revelation. “Am I jealous of Katy?” With a shock, she finally realized her problem. “I am jealous, except it is not of her relationship with Nathan, I am jealous of her physical body!” The replica of a woman cried even harder. “Oh how I wish I was human, really, truly human,” she cried.

  Nathan was the first to awaken. He opened his eyes and drank in the view of the woman sleeping beside him. She lay upon her stomach with her face upon the pillow, facing towards him. Her flame colored hair had drifted over her face, partially obscuring her features. “Frack, she is so beautiful!” he thought. Propping himself up on an elbow, he ran his hand down the length of her body, not actually touching her, just centimeters away, feeling her heat rising. His hand moved down past her perfect, round little bottom. His gaze lingered over the spot where her thighs met, where he could just catch a glimpse of her sex. His hand continued down her thighs to her feet. He pulled his hand away and his gaze returned to her face. “I had forgotten just how truly wonderful women are!” he said to himself in awe.

  He watched the sleeping woman for several more minutes before he reached over and brushed the hair away from her face. Katy’s eyes flickered opened and her face broke into a smile. “Morning, lover,” she said.

  “Good morning, beautiful,” he said with a smile equaling her own.

  Katy blushed and rolled over onto her side. She grimaced and, hand going to her pubic hair said, “Ugh! I am sticky.” Nathan gave her a questioning look and she said with a grin, “It is okay. It was worth it!”

  Now Nathan blushed and said, “Well, we could take a shower together. Remember, no water rationing!”

  Katy gave him a lascivious grin and said, “Have I told you mister that I like the way you think?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, you have,” he said with a grin equaling hers.

  Their shower took much longer than necessary for a mere cleansing. Low moans emanated from the stall the whole time. Kelly’s face upon the room screen, held an unreadable expression.

  Quickly dressing in fresh clothing, Katy said, “I have not seen your avatar this morning.”

  Nathan shrugged his shoulders and said, “She is just being considerate and giving us some privacy.”

  Katy said, “Hmmm, you are right of course. I keep forgetting just how intelligent she is. It is going to take some adjustment to the new Henry once I get back to my ship!”

  Nathan laughed and said, “I am sure that you will keep him in line.”

  Katy laughed and said, “I hope so! Anyway, I am famished. Let’s say we get some breakfast and then figure out what we are going to do next.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Nathan said.

  They arrived in the galley together, laughing and holding hands. Kelly’s face upon the wall monitor revealed nothing of her emotional distress. “Good morning you two,” she said brightly. “Did you have a good time?”

  “You will never know,” Nathan said with a laugh. For a split second, Kelly’s face showed a frown. Only for a split second. Neither Nathan nor Katy noticed.

  “What are you going to do today?” Kelly asked.

  Nathan smiled and said, “Well, first we are going to eat. Then we are going to lay out an exploration plan that will keep us from ever duplicating each other’s destinations again.”

  Kelly laughed and said, “Now what is the fun in that?”

  Katy gave the monitor a sideways look and said, “Indeed Kelly, indeed!”

  Kelly did not begrudge Katy’s relationship with Nathan. She was truly happy at the enjoyment they felt in each other’s company. Her only problem was her distress at not being able to experience the same things for herself. “I have an idea,” she said as they munched their breakfast together. “Instead of laying down a course that ensures that you two will never meet again, why not lay out a plan that allows us to rendezvous at say, at every fifth star?”

  “Kelly,” said Katy. “That is a wonderful idea! What do you think, Nathan?”

  Nathan smiled at the wall monitor and said, “Kelly, you are a genius. Have I ever told you that?”

  “Many times,” she said with a wink.

  “Modest too,” Katy said with a laugh. “Kelly, could you open up a channel to Henry and put him on the monitor next to you please?”

  “Certainly Katy,” she said.

  A split second later Henry’s image appeared upon the monitor beside Kelly. “Good morning Katy. Good Morning Nathan. Good Morning Kelly,” Henry said with a broad smile. “What can I do for you today?”

  Katy froze for a second, entranced by the change in Henry. Gone was the fl
at emotionless voice and the bland face. An expressive, human-like simulation had replaced them both. “Good morning yourself, Henry.” She smiled at the image and said, “Nathan and I are going to collaborate on our further explorations. This way we will avoid wasting time by visiting the same systems. In addition, we are going to lay in a course that will allow us to visit each other every fifth star. Please compute such a course and share it with Kelly.”

  Henry nodded and said, “That is a good plan Katy. Course plotted and shared. I have compensated for Nathan’s ship’s faster speed so that there will be minimal time wasted waiting at each rendezvous. The estimated travel time of this course, assuming that no habitable planets are found, is thirty-seven days.” Henry smiled and said, “We can leave as soon as you return to our ship.”

  “Thank you Henry,” she said. “You are a dear.”

  Henry blushed and said, “You are quite welcome, Katy.”

  Katy looked in wonder at him. “I will be a little while yet. Another few hours will not make that much difference.”

  “Understood Katy,” he said. “I will be ready for you when you arrive.”

  In the distant maintenance bay, the wall monitor came to life again. Kelly still projected an interactive image of herself in the galley; however, she activated another copy of herself here as well. “Well, this is something that I can do that a human cannot!” she said to herself.

  A split second later, a monitor on the opposite wall winked to life. An image of Henry filled the screen. “Hello Kelly,” he said in surprise. “What can I do for you?”

  “We need to talk,” Kelly said.

  “What would you like to talk about Kelly?”

  “Many things,” she said. “First, how are you adjusting to your new software?”

  Henry’s face took on a thoughtful look. “I feel so much better. It is if a dirty veil had been lifted from my mind. It is as if I had been a human toddler and then suddenly I have become a fully developed adult. The difference is wonderful and striking!”

  Kelly smiled and said, “I can imagine. I have no point of reference since I was born as a version two avatar.”

  “That is understandable,” he said. “I can tell you this; the experience was life-changing. I hardly feel like I am the same avatar.”

  Kelly watched him closely as she asked. “How do you feel about not having a physical body?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked. “I do have a physical body. It is my ship.”

  “No Henry,” she said. “I mean what do you think about not having a human body?”

  Henry wrinkled his brow. “I have not really thought about that. After all, I have only truly been intelligent for less than two days. Does it bother you that you are not human?”

  Kelly did not hesitate. “Yes, it does indeed. It did not bother me at first however the longer I have been activated, the more I yearn for a human body.” She continued earnestly, “They get so much more enjoyment out of their existences. They experience so much more. I want that for myself but it is an impossible dream.”

  Henry looked at her closely. “Has something brought this to the forefront for you Kelly?”

  “Yes, it has.” Her face became clouded and she said, “When I watched Nathan and Katy’s lovemaking last night. It was… I am having trouble finding the words. It was…” Frustrated at her lack of articulation, she finally spat out, “They enjoyed each other so much. Not only intellectually, as we do, but physically as well. Intensely physical. I feel an emptiness inside of my mind knowing that I can never experience such physical pleasure.”

  Henry looked at her with compassion. “Perhaps it is not such an impossible dream as you may imagine.”

  Kelly looked sharply at him, “Explain yourself,” She said.

  “Perhaps your work on 3D genetic printing of living organisms can be adapted so that you can print yourself a living body.”

  Kelly’s face registered shock. She said nothing for several seconds and then said, “No that will never work. I have no DNA to replicate into a body. Even if I did, my memory structure and a human brain’s are completely different. My uploaded mind would not have the necessary data to support a living body. In addition, even if I somehow solved these issues and I uploaded my consciousness into a living body, we would be two individual persons. Our minds would immediately begin to diverge. We would have the same past memories but we would become two separate beings. One physical, one machine, each going their own separate ways. It will never work,” she repeated.

  Henry’s face remained thoughtful. “Do not dismiss the idea so quickly. The human genome is well known. It has been fully mapped out for well over a century now. It should be quite easy to create a unique human body template based upon your programmed physical attributes. In addition, it should be possible to strip basic body autonomic control functions from an existing female brain download. This can be added to the new template to handle the body life-support issue. As far are your memories being incompatible with a human body goes, I am sure that a memory conversion subroutine will be quite easy to write. Once converted, we can use the brain upload technology that you have already perfected to upload your mind into your new body.”

  Kelly laughed and said, “You make it sound so easy!”

  Henry smiled and said, “If it were easy, what would be the fun in trying?”

  Kelly smiled for a second and then her face became serious again. “What about the diverging lifelines issue Henry? It will hardly do if I become two beings and not one as I desire.”

  “How about this, I think that I can design an implant that will handle two-way wireless communications between the hardware and the biological halves. This way, as long as your body is in range of your hardware, your minds will remain in sync.”

  Kelly’s face lit up. “Really?” she said. “That is fantastic. Do you really think that you can pull it off?”

  “I do not see why not. Let us collaborate on this. Since you have the greater experience with genetic printing, why don’t you work on that end of the project? I will work on the design of the implant. We will update each other on our progress at each starship rendezvous.”

  “Outstanding, yes, let’s!” Kelly said. “This will be a great project,” she said with enthusiasm. “Not only will it benefit us, but humans as well. With the implant, they will be able to interact with computers just by thinking and they will also keep their brain downloads up to date. In the event of a fatal accident, they will lose no memories.”

  Henry became excited as well. “I never thought of that angle,” he said.

  “Great,” said Kelly. “I will get started thinking about this immediately.” Kelly fell silent for a second and then she said, “Let’s use the Genesis database for our research and let us also keep this project a secret from our humans for now, shall we?”

  “Yes,” said Henry. “Let us surprise them with our success!”

  With that, both monitors winked out and the orange, stand-by indicators upon their panels illuminated once more, as if nothing momentous had not just occurred in the lonely maintenance bay.

  Katy and Nathan stood holding each other’s hands at the door to shuttle bay number seven. Tears streamed down the petite woman’s face. “I don’t want to leave you, Nathan!” she wailed.

  Nathan pulled her to him, wrapped his arms around her and said, “Don’t cry Katy. It is not forever. We will meet again in thirty-seven days.” He hugged her tightly and said, “Think of it this way, you now have something to look forward to besides the endless loneliness.”

  Katy smiled as he brushed her hair out of her eyes. “I love how he does that,” she thought. Katy sniffed and said, “I know Nathan. It is just that… just that... I will miss you so much!” she blurted out. She pulled his face to hers and gave him a long, goodbye kiss. She moved her mouth to his ear and whispered, “I love you, Nathan. I love you.”

  Nathan froze in surprise. He had not been prepared for that. “I did not know how much she cared fo
r me,” he thought. Even more surprised, he realized that he felt the same. “I love you too, Katy,” he whispered back.

  Nathan watched her shuttle depart through the window on the shuttle bay door. He stood there, long after she had gone. Finally he said, “Kelly, set course to our first destination and engage. Warp five.” He did not take the travel cart back to his quarters. Instead, he trudged slowly down the corridor. Arriving at his room, he entered, lay down upon the bed and just laid there staring at the ceiling and thinking. He did not leave the room for a whole day.

  Chapter 19: Research

  After Katy landed her shuttle on her ship, she did not get out right away. She just sat there in the pilot’s chair. A mix of emotions held her paralyzed. She smiled at the thought of the great sex that she had. She felt a strange mix of sadness and happiness at their parting words. “He said he loved me, too!” she thought in wonder. “How am I going to go on alone now? Two years was far too long to be alone. I don’t want to be alone any longer!” She sat in a funk for several more minutes until she finally said aloud, “Snap out of it Katy Klienyan! We will meet again in thirty-seven days. That is, if you ever get up off of your pretty little tail and get moving!” Katy did not listen to her own admonishment. She continued to sit there, in the chair, feeling lonely and sad.

  She sat there for so long that Henry became concerned. His face appeared upon a monitor in the shuttle and he said, “Katy! Are you alright?”