by Peter Riva
Aten was less certain about her guilt. “Why do I feel sad when I hear my brother having so many difficulties? We have serious responsibilities here, more than I thought I could cope with even fifty years ago, but being a parent to nine and dealing with Gaia—perhaps it is too much for Apollo. I know it would be for me in this human state. Being disembodied had its advantages, there were twenty-four hours in a day for calculations, thought, and planning. Now I need sleep, I have dreams and this body has needs, which cannot go neglected. I have found that, what’s coming cannot be managed by me alone.”
Cramer took her hand, “Aten you are not alone, we are here, we have been an effective team before and are again. Simon and I are comin’ ‘round—pretty fast, although being seven doesn’t help, I’m weaker than I was as an adult. But no matter, we’ll be ready, we are ready up here,” tapping his forehead.
I said, “Hollow?”
Aten punched my arm. Cramer said, “Good one, hon.”
The next serious communication from Apollo, weeks later, would give us more to think about, some good, some bad, I was sure. These long delayed missives were at once frustrating and at the same time deeply emotional. Family news is often like that. And what you think is bad one week may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. I hoped so. For the moment, I needed to change the topic of conversation, and, anyway, there was so much I still didn’t know about the crew, animals included.
For the next hour, Aten broke down the crew manifest for me, team by team, family by family. Overall, there were 500 crewmembers, eighty percent human split into seventy-two families and six unmarried or unpaired singles. And of the crew total, fifteen percent were canine or cats and, in stasis, five percent dolphin. She explained the telepathy this way, “We knew they were thinking, so we simply bio-engineered the frontal transmission, using the data gleaned from Gaia on how all brains transmit sequences upon termination.” I gave her a puzzled look. “Look Simon, why wait until you die? Dogs didn’t have to, nor did the dolphins or cats. We chose them over big cats—and some even wanted parrots, well, because they were friendly to humans and not so self-absorbed.”
“So, that’s it for Earth species aboard?”
“No way, we’re carrying a host of bacteria, viruses, and probably parasites, although we tried to eradicate them, obviously.” She looked at Cramer, “We thought about your pet mongoose, we really did, but the crew voted against. Big teeth frightened the kids.”
Cramer had a mongoose, I thought, typical of the man to have something wild with sharp teeth.
Cramer wasn’t sorry. “He wasn’t my pet, he just attached himself to me because I fed him the rats I caught in the Petersburg lab—he was hungry. Sure hope someone is still feeding him.”
Aten rummaged in a drawer, pulled out a data cube, and dropped it into a player, up popped a 3-D image of the mongoose on top of a lab table, being fed a cheeseburger by a ravishing blonde making goo-goo sounds muttering, “Who’s a good boy, who’s mommy’s little boy?”
Aten smirked, “Well, it seems your last personal assistant,” she said it slowly for emphasis, “was keeping your pet well fed. Did she do that for you too?” Cramer frowned. He didn’t like being teased.
I broke up the tension, “Ahem, the dolphins—I assume they are stored, monitored, in part of sickbay, somewhere in the hospital complex?” Aten nodded, smiling, still watching Cramer carefully. “And if there is safe water, you plan to let them free?” Aten nodded again, then realized I needed more of an explanation. So she turned toward me dropping a sneer toward Cramer along the way.
“Simon, we don’t know if it will be safe, yet, of course. But at worst, we can keep them in a safe enclosure and adjust salinity to keep them healthy when they awake. But if they can roam, they will be our eyes and ears in the water, leading us to much greater security. However, remember, we’re not thinking of awakening them until planet fall, it’s not safe. The dogs are, on the other hand, just part of the crew, useful to have around. The children dote on them, of course, and although we have had some problems with newborns adapting to the clipped speech of the dogs, overall they have been wonderful members of the crew. We treat them as one of us and they have responded. Because they can hear our thoughts as well as send theirs, short distances only, of course, they have adapted and understood much more rapidly than anyone expected. Only Zip seems comfortable in all areas of the ship, including weightlessness.” I thought that was odd, but kept silent. Aten continued, turning once more toward Cramer, “And now Zip seems fixated on Cramer here. That is very odd. He was my favorite before. It seems Cramer is irresistible, even to male—dogs.”
My thought at that instant? There’s gonna be trouble …
9
LIFE GETS A NUDGE
On our fifth week since Cramer awakened, we began to relax and have fun. Aten’s duties were now split between us. Aten monitored her engines and ran astral-navigation simulations using Alpha Centauri A as a gravitational brake should we need it. She was in no hurry. We were, by my calculation—after all, I had been a deep spacer before and remembered my navigation—at least six months away from the first braking point. The people in navigation were open and friendly accepting my initial bumbling but soon finding that we were an effective team, happy to work politely on issues together. We all had good ideas and relied on science and calculations to prove which was best.
Cramer was a problem though. He was a police officer by trade, a secret operative by design who had arrested me during the Event and then protected me as I released Apollo and Ra who, in turn, talked to Gaia. Cramer’s dad had been a Machead with my dad, it was all clandestine and so very nerdy. Cramer, the son, wasn’t nerdy in any way. He was the muscle, intellectually with his ex-wife Ange, and physically all alone. Now, aged seven, his physical prowess could intimidate no one. Except me. I knew what lurked behind those boyish grins. Strength, his; it is what got us though the Event and the aftermath.
I took Aten aside one day in her office space and explained Cramer’s dilemma to her. She had not foreseen this. I tried explaining that she knew Cramer was a doer and that just because he was seven didn’t mean that he was prepared to be a boy even for a short while. He was a man, a competent, strong man, trapped in a too-youthful body. He needed something physical to do.
“How about working out in the gym, we all do …”
“Aten, that’s fine, he’s doing that four hours a day, but, instead, as we near the exoplanet, it is time to start preparing the crew for the physical hardships they are about to face. We have weapons on board, no?”
Aten was shocked, “You can’t fire those things on board!”
“Okay, how about putting Cramer in charge of the first away teams on the planet? He could handpick a crew, train them with how to service and handle weapons. Time enough for target practice later.”
Aten thought about it. She could see the benefit of having an expert such as Cramer ready to protect them. She told me that since becoming human she had felt more vulnerable than she had as Ra. She assured me it had nothing to do with her being a woman, “If I was a man, it would be the same, I simply do not have the aggression genes.”
I pointed out that she hit me often enough, which prompted another swing. My arm was getting used to it. “There’s one more thing, Aten. Cramer is a leader, not a follower. Without Angie to make him accept me as point for Apollo and you, he would have pushed me aside, caused conflict where there was no need for any. It makes him a bully,” she shook her head, “No, no, not a bully to be number one, but bullish, a person who takes responsibility and assumes the risk for everyone, and he never assumes anyone else should take that risk if he’s around. It took Angie to make him release me and let me help with you and Apollo.”
“Okay, what do you think we should do?”
“Can I make a statement to the crew about Cramer, tell them he is my equal, tell them the truth that he saved me and Apollo and Ra many times over because he knew the dangers and took the risks I cou
ld not? I could never have been a police officer, one of the most trusted security force, and secretly, for twenty years, operated a secret plan to allow an entity, Peter, to become aware in order to talk to Gaia. That took cunning, courage, and steadfastness—all qualities we will need at the end of this flight and, later, colonization. Cramer is the man to follow when the going gets tough and we all know it will. The unknown is always tough.”
Aten saw the logic; she pondered for a few moments and decided. “Simon, with your permission, I want to release this vid ship-wide except to Cramer.” Every room had vid recorders. Aten’s office was no exception. People wanted to know what you were doing. There was no secrecy. So I agreed and she sent a message to everyone to watch the talk she and I had just had and that she wanted to appoint Cramer to away team commander in case of dangers unknown. Within a day, it was settled, all responses affirming the wisdom of the idea. As one crewmember wrote, “If Simon says he trusts Cramer, I will trust my wife and kids willingly. I confirm.”
Aten summoned Cramer to her office the next day. She told him her recorder was running, as always, and that she suggested that crewmembers view the meeting live or as soon as possible. Cramer was puzzled. I sat nearby, saying nothing. Cramer no doubt thought Have I done something wrong, already?
Formally, Aten addressed him, “Crewmember Cramer, as you know, Apollo and I had not planned, nor had Simon, to have you along as crewmember. When the chance arose, even though there was a risk you would not recover, we agreed that your place belonged on this flight. Why? Because you are a leader, a strong and capable leader, especially in times of danger. Your actions protecting your friends and family, especially Simon and his link to Apollo and Ra and theirs to Gaia prevented a disaster and changed the world. For those efforts, nations have recognized your heroism, we all know you have a drawer full of medals somewhere back on Earth. Anyway, we do not need a hero currently, but we do need a commander for when we make landfall, or water fall, whichever happens. There are unknowns that we, the crew, will evaluate but that you, uniquely on board, may be able to handle, to protect us from, if need be. We have weapons that I want to put you in immediate charge of, weapons training is also needed, a first footfall crew for you to select and train. Simon, Apollo, and I trust you, have trusted you, with our lives. I have asked the crew and they unanimously agreed to welcome you as crew with the function of commander of the away teams.” Aten looked at Cramer, who said nothing. She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward, “Well?”
The little boy responded flippantly, “Oh, sure, why not?” And he grinned, happy. Not thankful, just cocky, assuming his rightful authority. Cramer is back, I thought.
If Aten had been closer to him, she might have hit him. Instead, she waved him out of the office, dismissed as if he were a mote of dust.
A few days later, the central lighting system developed a glitch. It was energized by a zenox ion flow, outgassing from the engines that energized and heated the flux in the tube that ran the length of the ship. The ion flow then exited out the far end while power from the Cube ignited the plasma. Zenox tubes shine white when plasma passes over them, thus providing light. The problem was that the water cloud misting mechanism, part of the zenox tube that provided cloud cover and diffused the light, had stopped working. When an engineer located the problem at the main feed nozzle all the way aft and fifty meters from the aft bulkhead, there was no one who wanted to climb around in zero gravity. In shipboard policy, a random selection was called up on the computer, selecting men or women with the right skills with wrenches and so forth. It was dangerous, and apparently, one person had had a serious accident repairing it decades before. Zero gravity didn’t worry anyone, it was a possible sudden drop back into gravity that did, all 400 meters of it. As people were reading their tablets or sleeve monitors to see who was chosen, Cramer walked up, selected the tools, climbed the ladder, and eventually he was upside-down holding on with only one hand, belaying himself to the nozzle as he repaired the assembly. He jungle-gymed back and descended just as easily. The crowd awaiting their turn, now unnecessary, applauded his return. His comment, “Thought I would earn my keep for a change,” was played throughout the ship and Cramer became, secretly but probably not reluctantly, the ship’s resident bravery role model.
I stopped into Aten’s office the next day and she was still fuming. “Why did he take such a risk? He’s only a boy, a small boy!”
I tried to calm her down, explaining he wasn’t really. He was already fitter than I was, had been working out in the gym now twice a day and, besides, didn’t Aten remember him riding helicopters?
“Yes, I do, and see what happened to him?” She was angry and I guessed why. So I walked over and gave her a hug. Of course, I was a little short, so I had to be careful where my nose went. She sighed, relaxing. But I was not done with her yet, she wasn’t going to like this but …
“And there is one more thing Aten, Cramer is in love with you. A boy of seven, with a forty-year-old man inside, is in love with you. If he doesn’t do something about it soon, he’ll implode.”
Aten looked frightened, “It is too soon, he has to wait until we have established a colony, then we will make chil …”
I cut her off, “No, no, Aten. Not that, for god’s sake, don’t tell him that, don’t discuss it. No, what he needs to know is that you are bonded. He loves you for goodness sake, that repair job was to show you he was a man, not a boy. He wants you, probably physically, but I have no idea how that would work and what the rules are for under-age children. But is he under-age? That’s a question! Anyway, find some way to give his life purpose on a personal level, just you and him. I can’t stand to see him pining and building all this tension, who knows what the next stunt will be. I know Cramer, remember? He’s prone to, how shall I put this, physical demonstrations.”
“Like when he punched that arresting officer in Cuba and challenged the others to try and shoot him?”
“Yup, that’s the real Cramer, forget the image of a little boy.”
The room went suddenly quiet. Aten looked at her shoes and said sadly. “I have no one to talk with.”
“What do you mean? You have many people here you are friendly with.” It was true, I had seen her laughing and holding arms with other crewmembers.
“Not those questions. If Apollo were here, I could discuss it with him. Or Angie …”
Lord, that conversation? I knew Aten would have already read everything, hell Cramer had said she read every sex manual she could find, which Cramer thought was to prepare her on what to avoid. Little did he know. I decided to try and help, up to a point. “Aten, I was happily married and I was very happily engaged in, uh, sexual activity with Angie. If you have questions of that sort, I can help, but only if you ask.”
“Maybe later, yes, thank you,” she hesitated, and out came desperation, “but what if he doesn’t want me forever? What if he doesn’t love me as I love him?”
Oh, the big questions! Now I knew what was worrying them both. They needed another leap of faith and had both, perhaps, already used up all that sort of bravery; recently jumping bodies, being planted. Well, it was recently for Cramer and I, over 100 years ago for Aten. She had had longer to fret over this. I felt sorry for her. So I hugged her again and assured her I would think of something.
What had started to occur to me was that the easy-going pace of the flight was infectious, even perhaps causing indecision from Ra/Aten. Could Ra be indecisive now as Aten? As Ra, never. Without emotions born of flesh, Ra would have assessed and acted. But Aten? Clearly, this was new territory for her and she was unsure. No amount of reading can tell you what to do in matters of the human heart.
Aten being indecisive, Cramer being ready to boil over—these were not good omens for the safety of the flight. Time to put matters right.
The wedding was ten days later. Darn I’m good.
None of the crew thought it weird at all. The invitation, which I designed, showed Cramer in his p
rime and now as a seven-year-old and Aten at different stages of her youth, images taken from her medical files. It was a little hard to explain what she looked like before becoming human so I avoided that. Everyone was gleeful, recycled paper confetti was thrown, the party reception was alcohol-free, of course, but otherwise a dancing, wild party. It was thrown on the main observation deck with illumination running down the center and from bright white to clouds, making rainbows that reminded me of pastures as a child on a drizzly summer day.
When it came to the kiss, June, from communications, officiated, “I now pronounce you man and wife,” Aten leaned over, Cramer held her face in his hands and their lips touched, quite chaste. Aten was having none of it. She grabbed Cramer and embraced him passionately. There were catcalls, whistles, and a round of applause. Aten blushed, Cramer stood more erect, somehow taller already. And me? I was both Cramer’s best man and Aten’s father. I gave her away and gave him the rings he had milled on board. Standing behind them during the vows part, I cried for Angie, who would have been so happy.
Oh, I forgot to tell how I got them together.
At dinner that night, after the lighting repair, Cramer and Aten got into a squabble. It smacked of authority—his, being overrun by intelligence—hers. The topic was inconsequential, but they both left the café angry walking in opposite directions, not even saying goodnight.
I went to Aten’s quarters and thought I heard her crying as I knocked. “Just a moment …” and soon, she opened the door. I hugged her and asked if she was all right, got the expected response, “Of course! Why not?” So, I changed the subject and told her I needed to go over something with her in the morning and could she meet me at six o’clock in my quarters. I left not awaiting a discussion, knowing she’d turn up.