by Arlin Fehr
'Yes Advocate. What should I attempt to learn next? '
'How about observing human interaction on the ship. Analyze the interactions. Compare them to your files. Make estimates for outcomes, and then see how they unfold. '
'Yes Advocate.'
'It's necessary you learn how understand people and why they do things. It'll help you serve their needs better, because you'll be able to anticipate them. ' Sam said.
'Yes Advocate.'
'I'm going to go to my room and do some reading. When I'm done that I'll probably go to bed. I don't really need the sleep, but I'd much rather sleep through the next jump then to be awake for it. '
'I will wake you if there is an emergency. '
'Good, good night Exo.'
'Good night Advocate.'
Bridge
The second jump had gone off without a hitch. The ship was now eight days into the twelve day recharge. Captain Howard had been continuing his tour of the ship, he'd stopped at most of the school rooms on the ship, and had introduced himself to most of the civilian directors.
He remembered his promise to Mrs. Lann's class. He'd have to find Sam and bring him down. He had told Sam about this, and Sam was looking forward to the experience.
Looking at his watch, he didn't think class would be started yet, if anything the children wouldn't be arriving for another hour, but Mrs. Lann would certainly be there getting ready for her lessons.
Howard walked to a communication station and keyed her ID code. After waiting for a moment, the screen turned on and Mrs. Lann was on the other side.
'Captain Fredrick,' she said with a smile, 'How can I help you?'
'I've been thinking about the promise I made to your class about bringing our Advocate down to meet them, would today be a good day for that?'
'I didn't have anything particularly special planned today, I think today would be just fine. When can we expect you?' She asked.
'When would you like us?'
'Oh well... Lets give the children a chance to settle in, how about a half hour after classes start?'
'Classes start in a hour right?' Howard said, glancing at his watch again.
'Yes.'
'Alright then Mrs. Lann, we will see you then.'
'The children will be pleased.'
'Good bye then.'
'Good bye'
The communication screen shut off. Howard keyed in Sam's code this time.
Sam answered almost instantly. Sam was standing in one of the hydroponics bays. Howard could see the plants behind him.
'Hello Howard. How are you today?' Sam said with a smile.
'I'm doing quite well. The ship and crew are working well, so there's not much for me to do. That said, you remember that visit to a school room I mentioned to you?'
'Ah yes, the class that wants to meet me.'
'That would be the one. Would you be willing to join me for that in about a hour and a half.'
Sam looked off screen at a unseen person, and with a apologetic smile, shrugged his shoulders. Something was said off screen and he smiled broadly, 'That should be just fine Captain.'
'Oh I don't mean to interrupt anything. You needn't change your plans.'
'Don't worry about it Howard. The children are looking forward to meeting me, and I'm looking forward to meeting them.'
'Alright then, I'll see you there.'
The communication screen shut off and went black. Howard put his hands behind his back and faced the rest of the bridge again. The second watch would be coming on duty in an hour, then he'd have a half hour to make it down to the classroom.
'Mr. Jona,'
'Yes Captain?' replied his first officer.
'Is that delay still present in the main drive systems?'
'Yes Captain.'
'And we've talked to Exo about it?'
'I had Sam run a full diagnostic with Exo on the drive command systems. We've checked everything three times. I've got a crew looking over the connection physically right now. We've even tried the back up systems.'
'This could make getting in orbit over the planet a bit of a trick.'
'I've given some thought to that, Captain.'
Howard walked over to Mark's station. 'What have you got for me Mr. Jona?'
'Well, the delay isn't insurmountable. If we plan all of our flight plan out ahead, taking into account the delay between us sending a command and the systems carrying them out, then we could fly the ship with minimal trouble. It'd be a bit like the delay involved in piloting a deep space probe via remote. You'd just have to be very careful with your flight path.'
'We'd be careful.'
'Yes sir. But that's not all. If the delay gets any worse, we have another option.'
'Has there been any sign of the delay getting worse?'
'Only a little. I never would have noticed if not for Exo, but it's gotten a few milliseconds worse since we first discovered it.'
'Hmm...' Howard was troubled by this. They could still turn around, but it wasn't a mission ending problem yet. If it got worse though, then they could have a problem, 'So what's your other idea?'
'Honestly, I think we could make a new drive control system.'
'Really?' Howard asked.
'Well we'd leave the existing drive system in place, because it's being used for the jump drive as well, but we haven't seen any problem with the jump drive. Then we could take some of the colonial electronic supplies and wire a new connection in the command conduits in the ship's spine.'
'String our own cabling?'
'Yes sir.'
'That would do it,' Howard agreed, 'If we bypass the faulty system altogether, then we'd be free of it's problems.
'That's the plan sir.'
'Hmmm...' Howard thought about the options. The engines were about five kilometres away from the bridge. The ship was quite a bit longer than any of its other dimensions. That would be large amount of wiring they'd need to cobble together from the supplies, 'I've got an idea.'
'And what would that be sir?'
'Keep it in mind and give it a thought. If we just set up this new drive control system closer to the engines, and use the command systems in the engineering section, we could drastically reduce the amount of cable we need.'
'So we'd just have our helmsmen fly the ship from engineering?'
'That's my thought.'
'That could work. I'll look into it and have a full report for you on your next shift.'
'Very well Mr. Jona. Keep on it.'
'Yes sir.'
Howard walked to his seat in the centre of the bridge and sat down.
Chapter 3
Outside Mrs. Lann's Classroom
Sam and Howard stood outside the door to the school room. Mrs. Lann knew they were there, and was preparing the class. She'd open the door for them when she was ready. Howard had called up Sam to remind him about this meeting with this class as soon as he had finished his bridge watch.
'Scared yet Sam?'
Sam smirked, 'Hardly. Exo estimates a 87 percent chance of a positive outcome.'
'Pardon?'
'I've got Exo making educated guesses as to the outcome of social interactions on the ship. This one seemed like an interesting test for him. He's mapped out many different scenarios. My favourite one is where one of the kids asks what happens to our pee on the ship, and we both don't know how to react.'
'Well that's easy, we recycle the moisture and filter the waste.'
'And just how do you think the children will react to drinking recycled pee?'
'Oh.'
Sam smiled, 'Yeah.'
'Here I thought they asked me all the hard questions when I came down here myself.'
The door opened, 'Hello Captain. Hello Advocate. We're ready for you.' Mrs. Lann beckoned them inside.
Sam and Howard walked into the classroom, the students were sitting in a half circle on the floor. On cue they all said, 'Good Morning Captain Fredrick!'
'Good Morning everybody, are
you ready to meet someone new today?' Howard said with a smile.
The children nodded eagerly.
'This is Samuel Jennings, he's our ship's Advocate. He talks to Exo, our Guardian, and makes sure everything goes right.'
'Hello children,' Sam said.
'Why don't you tell us a little about yourself Advocate?' prompted Mrs. Lann.
'Alright. My name is Samuel Jennings, as Captain Fredrick already said. I'm about fifty five years old. That's young for an Advocate. I was born on Earth, in Europe. I like old movies and good books. Any questions?'
A little boy raised his hand, 'Are there any other Advocates on the ship?'
'No, there's only me.'
Another hand, 'Is your Guardian nice?'
'Care to answer that one yourself Exo?' Sam offered over his uplink to Exo.
'I am unsure how to answer the question Advocate. I do not know how to classify myself as nice or not.' Exo replied.
Sam smirked, 'He's learning to be nice. He is a machine, they are different from us. Some words that we use don't mean much to them. Words like love, or nice, or pain. They don't feel these things so they are just words to them.'
'You mean the Guardian can't love anyone?'
'He'll care for us, because I teach him how to do that, but it's not like your mom or dad.'
'What is pain? What is Love?' Exo asked.
'Check the archives with a topical search, I'll try and explain it when this is done. It's a bit of a big subject.' Sam said.
A little girl with blond hair an hazel eyes raised her hand. Sam saw something change on Howard's face when she did. Sam nodded towards her.
'How old do you have to be to be an Advocate?'
'Well little miss, you have to start young. Usually about eight. I started at about your age. It takes a long time to make someone into an Advocate. You've got to start young because it's easier for them to get used to new things.'
'My daddy was an Advocate. I want to be one when I grow up.'
'And what's your name?'
'Ayla.'
'Well Alya, when we get to our new home, I may need some help.' he said with a smile and wink.
***
Sam and Howard were walking down the hallway from the classroom.
'So that was Ayla Geer was it?' Sam asked Howard carefully.
'Yes.'
'Her Father was the Tim Geer that died out in the belt?'
'That's the one.'
'And she wants to be an Advocate.'
Howard looked uncomfortable, 'Seems like it.'
'Howard, I know you don't much care for the Guardians, but I think we can agree that you'd like them even less if it wasn't for Advocates. The thing is, we will need more Advocates as the colony gets going. As we get more A.I cores, it'll be more then I can handle. Especially if we get a new model. I've only dealt with the XO and PE series Guardians so far, and seeing as how the PE series was phased out of production a few years back, I don't think we'll be getting one of those.'
'She's just a kid though. I don't know if she knows what she's getting into.'
'I knew pretty much that it was going to be a hard life when I decided.'
'But you were just a kid too.'
'Thanks to my memory enhancements, I remember pretty well the thought process that went through me. We always say people are just kids when we don't want to think they're capable of making a choice. Sure, most the time I was pretty short sighted. I didn't have the whole lifetime of experience to draw on. But I knew I could never go back if I made that choice.'
'I wonder if her mother knows. It wouldn't be easy on her to have her daughter become an Advocate, especially after what happened to her husband.' Howard said.
'I'd like to meet her. Talk to her and try and find out. If Ayla does carry through with this, it goes so much better if the parents are supportive. You know one of the primary rules of making a new Advocate is that it can't be against their will, and it can't seem like anyone was coerced into consenting. Looking at it now, I don't much care for the the fact that we have to ask children to do this. But I turned out okay. And most Advocates are quite good people. The decision to become an Advocate is almost always motivated by the want to help people.'
'I know you're a good man Sam. I also know that we've got a lot to be grateful for in this day and age. Guardians do so much for us. I just sometimes wish we could learn to do it ourselves again.' Howard said, glancing sideways at Sam. He couldn't help but notice the edges of the implants under his hair. He pictured Ayla with them, and didn't like the picture.
'A need to be independent is only human. Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn't decided to do this. Would I have a family? Would I have a nice home with a well trimmed lawn? Life's got an awful lot of 'what ifs.'' Sam kept walking forward, not noticing Howard's glance.
'Well, you wouldn't be on a colony ship heading farther out than any human colony before.'
Sam laughed, 'Probably not, and I wouldn't trade that for all the classic movies and good books in the world.'
'Thank you for coming Sam, if I have any other classrooms that want to meet you I'll give you a call. I've got some things to check on now.'
'Good bye Howard. I promised Exo a lesson in humanity today, so I'm off too.'
'Good bye Sam,' Howard said as he walked off.
They separated at the next intersection in the hallway. Sam walked back to his room in silence. Exo was quiet, so Sam figured he must still be poring over the information in the ships archive.
Sam entered his room and sat down in a comfortable chair.
'Ready for your lesson Exo?' Sam asked.
'I have been studying the archives, but I am no closer to understanding the concepts of Pain or Love.'
'I'll try my best, but the problem is you lack any frame of reference. I can tell you only so much, but there will be holes in your understanding because you can't feel these things for yourself. '
'It is like trying to describe the taste of salt without using the word salty. You cannot say what it is, just what it is not.'
'That's very good Exo. Very pertinent too. Did you learn that in the archives? '
'Yes Advocate.' Exo replied.
'You are an excellent student. ' Sam said.
'Thank you Advocate.'
'So let's start with pain. It's probably the easier of two. First up, pain is unpleasant. It's not something that most people enjoy experiencing, but it's important to human existence. It has many different intensities, from overpowering, to a mild irritant. It is basically a message from the body that something is not in order.'
Sam paused for a moment to think of an example.
'A broken arm for example, generates a tremendous amount of pain. It's our body sending a flood of... well... to put it in context, a flood of urgent error messages. If something in your systems suffered from a catastrophic failure, it would demand all your attention and flood you with all manner of errors and urgent warnings.' Sam explained.
'It is a tool of survival then? '
'Mostly yes. But there is another kind of pain, a harder one to explain. It's probably beyond a Guardian's ability to comprehend. It's an emotional pain, or psychological pain. A pain that doesn't have a wound on the body to create it. ' Sam said, 'If someone witnesses something horrible, they can suffer the effects of that event even long after wounds on the body, if there were any, have healed.'
'Shell shock syndrome. Traumatic stress disorder. '
'Yes. Prime examples. '
'Have you felt pain?' Exo asked.
'Many times Exo. It's part of human existence. '
'What of love?' Exo enquired.
'You know what? I don't think I'll be able to explain that one easily. Continue your observations human interaction, pay close attention to those who are engaging in what appears to be, as you say 'mating rituals' and give me a hypothesis about it. Based on your observations I may be able to put it into a better context.'
'Yes Advocat
e.'
'Good. I'm going to go see a movie.'
'Advocate?'
'Yes Exo?'
'Have you ever felt love?'
Sam Smiled.
'I see I'm not going to escape that one easily. Yes Exo, I have.' Sam answered.
'Advocate?'
'Yes Exo?'
'Do you love me?'
Sam was silent in his room.
'You are a most interesting Guardian Exo. I don't think I've ever heard of another Guardian asking that question. '
'Was I out of line Advocate?'
'No Exo. You just caught me off guard. I think I do Exo. Like a son. I have a connection to you.'
'Then love is more then just the effects of growing relationship between two parties?' Exo asked.
'Much more yes.'
'I am unsure I will ever understand. It is not important to my continued working either. I no longer wish to pursue this line of education. I will focus my observations on pain in a hope of better understanding human experience.'
'If you change your mind, I'll be more than willing to try and teach you about love some more. In the mean time, continue your observations.'
'Yes Advocate. Enjoy your movie.' Exo said.
'Thank you Exo.' Sam said.
***
Ayla's mother, Ira Geer, was studying a medical textbook to keep sharp with her job as nurse for the ship and eventually the colony.
The room she and her daughter shared was small, but so was everyone's. It wasn't claustrophobic, but definitely couldn't be considered roomy. There would be plenty of space on the new colony for them to stretch out. Plenty of room to start a new life.
The door opened, Ira looked up and smiled at Ayla as she came gliding in.
'Hi mommy.'
'Hello Ayla, how was school today?'
'We met the ships Advocate today. He answered questions for us and said if I wanted to, I could help him out when we make it to our new home!'
Ira stopped, something caught in her throat.
'Help him how?'
'I told him I wanted to be an Advocate like daddy!' She said with a smile.