Just as the first abstract dream images flashed into life on the backs of her eyelids, a knock at the door made her jump. She slumped forward, feet banging loudly against the floor. She thought she had only been asleep for a few seconds, but her sense of time was completely muddled. Looking at her slate, she saw that just over an hour had elapsed since the pep talk on the command deck. If it could be called a pep talk.
"Who is it?" she called.
“It’s, eh… Darwin,” a familiar voice called out from the other side of the door.
Tira’s heartbeat quickened as her natural attraction to the surprisingly handsome mechanic leapt into the forefront of her mind.
“Just a minute please,” she called out just as she launched into a quick attempt to freshen up before answering the door. Her movements were somewhat frenzied but with surprising ninja-like stealth as she didn’t want to make any weird noises whilst scurrying around her room.
“It’s unlocked,” she finally said just before popping a mint into her mouth. “You can come in.”
The door opened after a few seconds and in stepped Darwin, who immediately locked eyes with Dr. DuVernay, while he shut the door behind him.
"Hello, Darwin," Tira said with a nod.
He furrowed his brow at her. "Did I wake you?"
"No. Not really,” she lied.
"I did, didn't I?"
"No. I was just taking a little break. Maybe I started to drift off a little, yeah, but I didn't really want to."
"Why not?" he asked, pulling a seat over and falling into it heavily. He was still holding a coffee cup, but fresh steam told Tira it had been refilled at least once.
"Because I need to be available," Tira told him.
Darwin shrugged. "Asher told us to take care of ourselves. I already had a good nap, and anyway I'm too tense to go back to sleep now. So taking care of myself entails sucking down an unreasonable amount of coffee."
He smiled at Tira, with such charming warmth that she had no choice but to return it.
"If you feel like you need some sleep," he continued, "than maybe you should get some. Everyone's busy right now, anyway."
She shrugged. "Tobias and some others were just in here."
"Oh yeah?" Darwin leaned back with a sigh, spreading his legs luxuriantly. Settling in for the long haul, it seemed. "What did you talk about?"
"Among other things, ourselves."
"Oh? How so?"
"We talked about who we are… how we ended up here. All that yackity yack. You know. Just killing time."
"I see. It sucks that I missed it," Darwin nodded.
“I was thinking that’s why you stopped by. Because you had heard about our little group therapy session,” Tira smirked.
“No, I just wanted to see you,” Darwin confessed, with a sly smile. “If that’s okay with you, of course.”
“You’re fine,” the doctor replied with a warm smile.
“That’s good to hear,” Darwin beamed. “Well since I did miss the ol’ group therapy session I hope you don’t mind repeating your life story again."
Tira smiled, leaning back and putting her feet on the desk again. "I don’t know if you want to hear my life’s story. I’d hate to bore you to death."
“You seem like a fairly interesting person. I don’t suppose I’d be that bored,” Darwin joked.
“Oh, that’s it? Just ‘fairly’ interesting?” Dr. DuVernay joked.
“Hey, give me a break, okay. I’m a mechanic. My brains not quite as big as yours.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I don’t have as many adverbs in my vocabulary as you. I’m open to suggestions though, Doctor.”
“Well, at least you know what an adverb is,” Dr. DuVernay smirked. “I’d say that at least puts you ahead of two-thirds of the crew.”
“Your words. Not mine,” Darwin said with a sly laugh.
"Okay," Tira finally said, with half closed eyes. "I'll tell you about myself. But only if you agree to return the favor."
"Deal.”
"Well, then," said Tira, "I was born in the city. My dad worked in infrastructure. Mostly public stuff. Fixing roads, landscaping in parks, those sorts of things. And my mom was a teacher."
"Oh yeah? What'd she teach?"
"World literature." Tira smiled wistfully, reaching into the past. "She was a very cultured woman. The opposite of my dad, pretty much. She thought teaching world lit would help remind the younger generation of what it means to be human. What it means to be a flesh and blood being with emotions, dreams, and abstract thoughts and such... The arts, according to her, were the real heritage of humankind. The crown jewels of our species, so to speak."
Darwin's eye twinkled, as though he could see everything she saw. As though he knew exactly how she felt. The doctor was impressed with the mechanic’s unexpectedly adept listening abilities but a part of her wondered if he was actually good at listening or simply good at pretending to do so.
"Where's your mother now?" he asked.
"Dead. She was killed by a drunk driver, a year or so before manual driving in Michigan became illegal." Tira sniffed, shaking her head.
“Geeze. Sorry to hear that, Tira,” Darwin said. “God that’s awful.”
"It's a weird universe we live in, Darwin,” Tira said, straightening her posture and wiping her eyes. “One strange and vast, maybe endless, universe where anything can happen. I guess my mother’s death was just one of those infinite amounts of possibilities that happened to come to fruition.”
Darwin was frowning, although he probably didn’t realize it. His lips were pursed tight as he tried in vain to conjure an appropriate response to the Doctor’s words. He took a sip of coffee, looked at her for a moment, then took another sip, still desperately hoping for the perfect words to pop into his mind.
Suddenly Dr. DuVernay burst into laughter which took Darwin completely by surprise. She continued to wipe tears from her eyes, however, she was now crying due to the amusement brought on by the look on Darwin’s face.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she choked out between gasps and uncontrollable laughter. “I didn’t mean to get all existential on you,” she continued prompting nervous laughter from Darwin.
“Existen—-what? What does that even mean?” Darwin asked as he too burst into genuine laughter.
The two of them laughed together for several minutes before they began to catch their breath. It was Dr. DuVernay who attempted to speak first once they surpassed the climax of their laughing spell.
“It means—”
“I’m just kidding,” Darwin interjected, as he and Tira finally regained their composure. “I know what it means. I was just trying to make you laugh.”
“Well you did good, kid. You did real good,” Tira mocked.
“Happy to be of service,” Darwin beamed.
“You should have seen your face,” Tira said, chuckling as she briefly revisited the memory of Darwin’s uneasy, blank-faced frown.
“I’m just glad I didn’t come here for depression or anything. Otherwise this session might have pushed me over the edge," Darwin chuckled.
“That’s not funny, Darwin,” the doctor replied, although her sheepish grin said otherwise. “And this is not a session. This is just two crew members shooting the proverbial shit.”
“You and your big words.”
“Proverbial is not a big word.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“I always do,” Tira beamed.
“How’d you end up in your line of work?” Darwin asked.
“I think the interest started back in middle school. I was always great with computers and back then I really thought I would end up working primarily in tech, but one day I realized that the human brain and a computer are essentially one in the same. Just different parts of the digital/organic spectrum. Think about it; our brains can be programmed. In fact, they are programmed, even before we're born in certain ways. No matter what, algorithms w
ill form in it as the human being grows and perceives the world around them. The eyes, the ears, the mouth and nose, and every other sense... they’re all basically channels through which data flows into the computer that is your brain. I guess I just realized that the world was full of data, that everywhere you looked it would enter your brain without your realization or permission. There were already plenty of people out there, politicians and teachers and parents, trying to give you their own brand of programming. I didn't want to do that sort of thing; there was already enough of it going on. It occurred to me that all computers need occasional debugging and troubleshooting, and people were turning toward new and better drugs to debug their brains. But drugs are like a Trojan Horse, sneaking in the backdoor. They're effective in some cases, but you can never be sure what they're doing when your back is turned. Ultimately, I suppose I just wanted to do the debugging directly.”
“Okay,” Darwin said with a blank stare. “I’m not pretending this time. I really have no idea of what most of that means.”
“Sorry,” Dr. DuVernay said, smiling.
“No need to apologize. It’s not your fault I’m so stupid,” Darwin joked.
“You’re a lot smarter than you let on,” Tira said.
“And so are you,” Darwin replied.
“You think so?” Dr. DuVernay asked curiously.
“Absolutely. I had a cousin like you. Probably the smartest person I’ve ever met besides you. When we were growing up it always seemed like he would dumb stuff down when he was around us as opposed to when he was hanging out with his… let’s just say… more intelligent friends. It never felt like he was dumbing it down as a way to insult us though. It almost felt like he was ashamed to let us know exactly how smart he was. Afraid we’d call him a nerd or something I guess. Funny thing is he spent so much time worried that I’d tease him for being smart all the while I worried about him possibly teasing me for being dumb. Well not dumb, but dumber than him. Well… you know what I mean.”
“Did his intelligence intimidate you?”
“Back then, I guess. Maybe it did a little. You know. Good grades and all that.”
“What about me? Does my intelligence intimidate you?” Tira asked.
“Not really. I wouldn’t be here if it did. I actually find it kinda sexy,” Darwin admitted.
“Oh, just ‘kinda’ sexy?” Tira said with a laugh.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I meant fairly sexy,” Darwin jokingly shot back. “Oh wait. That one wasn’t good enough either, right?”
“I need you to come up with some new adverbs, Sir.”
“Well I asked you to use that big brain of yours to give me some alternatives but you completely ignored that.”
“You’re right. I did,” Tira jokingly admitted. “I suppose I can give you a pass for now.”
Darwin smiled and looked at his empty coffee cup. He stared into it for a good ten seconds. He seemed tense, and Tira expected he would soon get up and leave under the pretense that he needed a refill. But she didn't want him to go. She didn't think he wanted her to let him go, either. Perhaps he wasn't brave enough to stay, but Tira didn’t mind being brave in that moment. Not when there was still a small chance that they would all be dead soon.
"You know," she said, scooting toward him a bit on her wheeled chair. "We might die in the next couple of hours."
"That is the word on the proverbial streets," Darwin smirked.
“There’s that word again,” Tira chuckled. “Do you have any plans for the next two hours? You know, before the shit hits the proverbial fan?” Tira continued.
“Not really. You?”
“Why don’t you get up and lock that door and then you and I can figure something out,” Tira suggested.
Darwin tried to mask his excitement as he stood and moved over to press the little button that would keep any unwanted visitors out. Tira smiled as she watched him move about her room, pretending to not be just as excited as she was.
"Maestro," Dr. DuVernay, "turn off the lights and the cameras, please. This session with crewmember Bradger is going to be off-the-record."
“I thought you said this wasn’t a session,” Darwin mocked as he pulled his shirt over his head just as the lights went dark.
“Get over here,” Dr. DuVernay said impatiently, half-jokingly and half seriously.
“Sure thing, Scorpion,” Darwin remarked.
“What?” Tira’s confused voice called out in the darkness.
Darwin burst into laughter somewhere in the darkness of the room, hysterically tickled by Tira’s reaction to his purposely bad joke.
“It’s a joke,” Darwin said. “An inside joke I guess.”
“But what does it mean?”
“I’ll tell you afterward. Deal?”
“Deal.”
CHAPTER 16
◆◆◆
Commander Asher finished checking in with his crewmembers for the eighteenth time since they had taken their shot at the Phantom. Just like the seventeen times before, the ship seemed to be doing just fine. All systems nominal, no abnormal issues whatsoever. Even so, he couldn't bring himself to relax.
For one thing, they were moving faster than Asher had ever moved before, and still accelerating gradually. On top of all the normal functions, it was all the Axis could do to keep that acceleration up, as well as the dampeners that kept its human crew from feeling anyway.
Second, firing the rail gun had put a huge strain on the ship's structure. The energy transfer was much higher than anything the Axis was designed to take. Asher knew that the hard point was meant to mitigate a great deal of that transfer. He also knew that the Phantom was floundering, that in all likelihood a huge part of its crew were dead. It didn't stop him from feeling terrified, from expecting to see the arrival of the huge, dark corvette every time he looked out the window.
Any second now, the voice of Lobo or Mishra or Burden would call out in alarm that the chase was back on. So far it hadn't happened, but there was always the next second. And the one after that. Getting through those seconds was like slogging through waist deep snow.
Asher stood around for a moment, trying to figure out if there was anything else he could do. Any extra steps he could take, any important things he had forgotten to do. Nothing came to mind. And he had only just got done checking in with his crew.
Sighing, Asher moved to the coffee pot on the back wall of the small command deck. The pot was empty, streaking with black stains from old batches. A lot of coffee had moved through it today, with no time to clean it in between, but for now it had run dry. Probably for the best. Asher had had enough coffee these past few hours to kill an elephant or give a five-year-old the ability to fly. It was time to lay off, unless he wanted to drink himself into an anxiety episode.
Anyway, what he really wanted right now was a shot of whiskey. Better yet, an ice-cold beer. Would they have beer on the moon? Probably. The military guys would demand it. Nothing like a cold beer at the end of a hard day.
Asher licked his lips. He had something to look forward to now.
It was this waiting that was doing him in. Not the coffee, or the fear of the Phantom’s Paradise. It was the damn waiting. It was a killer. And no matter how much of it he did, it always seemed like there was plenty more ahead.
Pulling a mineral water out of the fridge, Asher moved back to his terminal and checked their course. They would reach the moon in just over an hour. In sixty-four minutes, give or take, the nightmare would be over. So far, it seemed like Maestro's plan was working.
"Burden," Asher called.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Tell me. Has this ever happened before? An AI working with a human crew so closely like this?"
"A few times, maybe," Burden replied. "But not quite like this. Not in a life-and-death situation."
Asher nodded. "We're making history, then. If we survive, maybe humanity will give Maestro a second look. Maybe broaden their minds a bit. But if we fail..."
"They'll vili
fy her," Burden said.
"Yup. They'll blame it all on the AI. They won't understand at all. Some odds are just insurmountable. Sometimes, you can try your best, do everything right, and still end up dead. That's the chaos of the universe at work. But they won't understand that. They'll just say Maestro made a mistake. Or maybe that she got us killed on purpose."
"Sounds like the Commander’s getting a soft spot for the robot," Lobo called from her station.
"She’s not a robot, Lobo. And I’m just thinking out loud. She really did get us out of one hell of a jam though. Even you have to admit that.”
“I’d like to think my shooting had a little something to do with it too,” Lobo started. “But I will admit that she deserves some credit for coming up with the plan. I guess AIs aren’t completely useless.”
“I just wish her plan didn’t involve so much travel time,” Burden offered. “This waiting is killing me.”
No one said anything. But Burden knew what they were all thinking. Because it was likely the same thing he was thinking. It was stupid, but a part of him wished the Phantom would hurry up and show up already. At least that would give them something to do.
CHAPTER 17
◆◆◆
The floor of the doctor's office was a surprisingly comfortable place to cuddle, especially with she and Darwin’s clothes wadded up into makeshift pillows under their heads. So, they ended up staying there a lot longer than they intended. At first, Tira kept worrying that someone would knock at the door, and she'd have to dress in a hurry; like a teenager all over again. No one came, and she slowly relaxed into the warm, hairy, petroleum-scented body at her side.
They talked. They kissed. They dozed for a bit. Finally, just when it seemed they might be just about ready to get up and start being productive, Darwin pulled her over on top of him and they went into a hard, sweaty, impromptu second round.
At the end, as she lay forward with her face in the hollow of his neck, she sighed and said, "We should go."
"Go where?" Darwin asked. "There haven't been any alarms. I think the ship is holding up pretty well.”
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