by Arlin Fehr
Ira turned away from Ayla. She'd never asked Ayla what she wanted to be. She thought she was too young to care. Maybe she was still too young to know what she was saying, Ira thought, Maybe it'll all just blow away if I don't draw attention to it.
She thought of her husband, dying alone at the hands of angry, violent, people. Dying in the cold lonely void of space. She thought of Ayla as an Advocate. She had to swallow her darker thoughts.
She turned to face her daughter again. With a smile on her face, though it was a brittle one.
'And he said you could help him out?'
Ayla nodded, beaming.
'That's nice Ayla. Glad to hear your day went so well.'
Ayla went over to the seat Ira was on and climbed up next to her, 'What are you reading mommy?'
'A medical textbook. It tells me how people work, and how to help them get better when they feel bad.'
'Can I go over to Susan's?' Ayla asked.
'Yes you can honey. Just be back in time for bed.'
'Thank you Mommy. I'll be back before bed.'
As the door slid closed behind her daughter, Ira's brittle smile dissolved. Advocates didn't really have dangerous jobs, but the memory of her dead husband refused to be explained away as an unfortunate happenstance.
The thought of Ayla following down the path of her father was a lot for Ira to try and come to terms with.
She picked up a photo of Tim from the end table next to her.
'Tim... I came out here to get away from all that. Why is it following us?' She said quietly.
…
Begin analysis.
Subject; Ira Geer.
Behaviour; Speaking to dead spouse as though present.
Accessing archive.
…
…
Parallels found.
Behavior; Normal.
Analysis; Grieving mechanism.
…
Subject query; 'I came out here to get away from all that. Why is it following us?'
Query; what is 'that'?
Analyzing personal file; Ira Geer.
Contextual filter; Events including Tim Geer.
…
…
Tim Geer; deceased.
Cause; Terrorist attack.
Theory; 'that' is violence.
Subject; Ira Geer
Colonial Nurse
Mother of one
Reason for joining expedition; escape violence.
Emotional context; Psychological pain. Fear.
Save analysis...
…
Solar Storage Bay
'Captain, to what do I owe the pleasure?'
'Hello James. I came down to ask you something.' Howard said.
James was in the lower most bay of the ship that contained the solar arrays. He was working on some simulations of different arrangements that he had come up with on the journey.
'And what would that be, Captain?'
'We've got a bit of a problem with our conventional drive control systems.'
'Ahh yes, I had heard about that.'
'We may have a solution, but we're going to need some cabling similar to what we're using in the other control systems.'
James sat up in his seat and pushed back from his computer, 'What kind of cable does that use?'
'CJ-645U'
'That's not a shielded kind. I would have thought something that important would have been shielded.'
'It all goes through the spine of the ship, and the spine is heavily shielded. The secondaries go through the structure on the bottom of the ship. Their conduit is also shielded. But the cables themselves aren't.'
'There's no interference from the other cabling?'
'Each main system is housed in it's own conduit.'
'Okay. So are we looking for shielded cable for this plan or unshielded?'
'We're setting up a secondary helm in engineering. We're going to be stringing it on the outside of the hull. Shielded would be best. So if we have anything other than CJ-645U, we should use that.'
James sat back and stroked his chin with his hand. After sitting in silence for a moment he sat up and looked at Howard.
'We could probably get a good deal of cabling from one of the solar arrays, but that would mean losing one of them. We'd have about a 15% drop in total power output. I could use the scrapped array to increase the output of the remaining arrays, but it wouldn't be pretty, and it wouldn't be perfect, and it's unshielded too. The casings for the solar array cable conduits are shielded, so the cables themselves aren't.'
'I'll check out other places, I'd really like to see some shielded cable, but I'd start simulating new arrangements with one less working array. These are the largest pieces of equipment we're bringing with us. I'd also look into how we can lessen the impact of having less power. We need to get this thing set up, so we may just have to make do.'
'Right away Captain. Hopefully you'll find some other way to scrape together the cabling you need, but if not, we can probably manage it this way.'
'Thank you James.'
'Anytime.'
Bridge
Howard walked out of the lift at the back of the bridge and walked to his first mate who was sitting in the captain's chair commanding the second watch.
'Mr. Jona,'
'Captain.'
'How goes the second watch?
'Uneventful sir. What can I do for you?' Mark asked.
'I've been looking for sources of cabling for our new engine control system.'
'Any luck?'
'I'm looking for other less vital sources, but if we pull apart one of the solar arrays, we'll have enough cable to put our system together from the engineering section. But that cable isn't shielded, and at least part of the cable has to go outside the hull when we wire it all up, so it's not ideal.' Howard commented.
'I'll keep my eyes out for any other sources. It would be unfortunate to lose one of the arrays,' Jona said.
'Unfortunate yes, but not impossible to work around.'
'I wouldn't like to think of the difficulty of putting it back together again. If we put it back together again that is,' Jona said.
'I'll talk to James and some of the construction specialists. We'll get a plan together. Of course it would be better if we just solved the control delay problem.'
'Our people are still looking into it. We're going to do a full analysis on the individual parts in the system. We can't really do it now because we may still need the system.'
'Is the secondary system still online?'
'Yes sir.' Mark answered.
'And they're both effected by our mystery delay... Well why don't we start that analysis on the secondary system. One part at a time though; I want to be able to bring that system back online in at least a half hour if something goes wrong. So long as the primary is still online, I don't think we'll have any problems.'
'It's against Axion's regulations to run the ship without it's secondary drive control system.'
'The secondary systems aren't supposed to suffer from the same problems as the primary system. I'll take full responsibility.' Howard said.
'I'll note it in the log and send the technicians to begin work.'
Howard nodded, and turned to leave the bridge.
…
Internal analysis.
Subject; Captain Fredrick Howard
Behaviour; Disregarding accepted regulations.
Accessing Archives seeking parallels.
…
Definition of good officer varies in archives
Analysis incomplete
…
Behaviour overlaps with subject; intuition.
Intuition; Human's ability to make snap judgement based on incomplete information.
Searching archives, subject; examples of intuition.
…
Numerous examples found.
Subject is difficult to comprehend.
Acting without information is illogical.
Potentially dangerous.
Irresponsible.
Action; discuss subject with Advocate.
End Analysis.
...
***
'That was a very different movie Sam.' Sarah said diplomatically.
'For someone who works at a movie theatre, I am consistently surprised by how few real gems you've seen. Back to the Future is a classic!'
Sarah smiled under Sam's gaze as they walked down the hallway, 'That's why I have you to show me these gems.'
'You'll have to pick the next one. I want you to pick something you really enjoy.'
'I've got a few you've probably never seen.' She said with a mischievous grin.
'I love a good hidden treasure.'
They got to the door to Sarah's room. They stopped, holding hands as he looked at her outside the door.
'So, dinner tomorrow?'
Sarah let a small smile form on her face, 'Tomorrow. I look forward to it.'
Sarah let go of his hands and went through the door.
Sam was left standing outside. The thought of a good night kiss drifted into his mind, and he smirked at his own naivety. Looking back he saw the moment had been there, and had passed.
Come on Sam, eyes open! He thought to himself.
'Advocate?'
'What can I do for you Exo?' Sam said.
'What is Intuition?'
'You always have the hardest questions. I suppose that's to be expected though. You answer all the simple ones yourself.' Sam observed.
'Your teaching has allowed me to do that.' Exo replied
'Your machine mind allows you to analyze things much faster then any human could.'
'Am I superior then?'
'In some ways yes, in others no. Like intuition for example. Machines have thus far proven incapable of making such leaps in thinking.'
'The leaps seem highly irrational. They do not follow any sense of logic. Most examples of intuition are so erratic as to be rendered meaningless. Any successful example of intuition can easily be overshadowed by all the ways in which it could have gone wrong. '
'But you will notice, if you do a statistical analysis you'll find that intuition is more successful than would be allowed by pure chance.'
'Only the living can give reports of the drastic events.'
'True enough. But we needn't rely only on the drastic events. First however, I suppose I should try and answer your original question. '
Sam thought about how to continue. Exo's questions were getting more and more difficult.
'So, what is Intuition? That's a difficult question. Kind of like your 'what is love' question. It's something that without having the context of the human experience would be difficult to explain. Even more difficult to understand.'
'I will attempt to comprehend.' Exo offered.
'I know you will. Intuition stands as a bit of counter point to reasoned thought. In the school of reasoned thought, all things, with enough information can be predicted accurately. Intuition is more of an act of making a guess without all the information. It's a gut feeling. A sudden bolt of inspiration. Everything comes together and makes sense, but there's no logical reason for it.'
'A leap of faith?'
'Yes. An apt comparison. Also a difficult one to explain.'
'The human condition is vast and complex. It is often a paradox. '
'It seems that way to us as well at times.'
'How can I understand human interaction, if you don't even follow a logical thought process yourselves?' Exo asked.
'I don't know Exo. Your desire to know so much comes as a bit of a surprise to me. You're different. I've taught other Guardians. They were content to learn their duties and enough about humanity to not be caught off guard all the time. You delve much deeper into our being then any Guardian I've ever met. I think the Axion programers will want to ask you some questions when we set up our colony.'
'Will I be deactivated?' Exo asked.
'No. I won't allow that. I don't believe they would want to do that anyway, but some people fear the unknown so much, they'd rather banish it and have it remain unknown forever, rather than face whatever change will be created by it becoming known. '
'I am... satisfied that you will not let them deactivate me. I asked because my study of human history. I discovered what you just proclaimed.'
'Oh to have our heritage laid so bare to a calculating machine. To have our flaws and triumphs reduced to equations and analysis. '
'What do you mean?' Exo asked.
'It's nothing really. I just felt a little poetic.'
'It lacks a structure or rhyme scheme. '
'Consider it free verse then. Sometimes it's not the structure of a thing, but the essence of a thing. Another one of those human thoughts I suppose.'
'I will be analyzing more archival data. I have new concepts to decipher. '
'We'll talk more later.'
Sam decided it might be a good idea to start work on his report to Axion Data Systems. Exo was Proving to be the most fascinating guardian he had ever taught.
Chapter 4
Captain's Quarters
The ship was a week further into it's journey. Howard was sitting in his quarters reading a book when his communicator chimed at him. He reached over to his table and picked it up.
'Captain here.'
'Sorry to disturb you Captain, but we've got the reports from the analysis on the secondary drive systems. We've also started installing the pilots station in engineering,' Mark said through the open communication link.
'Summary of the report?' Howard asked.
'Someone in the corporate supply chain got sloppy.'
Howard frowned a bit, 'Sloppy?'
'Each of the signal repeaters and half of the terminal junctions are substandard parts. The ship had very exacting blueprints provided by Axion Data Systems, and they were approved by the International Space Agency, but apparently the contractors at Vitality Shipyards decided to cut corners on this particular system.'
'Really?' Howard asked, incredulously, 'defective parts?
'Yes sir. Near as we can tell, because of the sheer size of our system, the performance degradation of the shoddy parts added up to cause our delay. If our ship had been smaller, or less parts had been defective, we probably wouldn't have noticed anything.'
'Someone back on earth will lose their job over this. Is this going to affect our plan?'
'No sir, because our new system we're setting up will be quite a bit smaller, even if we use the defective parts, we shouldn't see any delay. The civilian director in charge of electrical systems thinks he could even fashion us new ones without any delay if we strip a few components off of the secondary system. Since we won't be using it anymore, I don't see why not.'
'Agreed. Give him the go ahead. We'll just start from scratch. The less we utilize those defective parts, the better.'
'Aye sir.'
Bridge
A month had passed since they had discovered the cause of their command system delays. Thankfully, the plan to rig up a new pilot station in engineering had gone on without a hitch. Howard stood on the bridge with his hands clasped behind him.
'Captain, we're ready to test the new drive system.' Mark said from the lower section of the bridge. Howard glanced at the details of the test on his tablet one last time.
'Exo, have you memorized the test plan?' Howard asked, looking up at a camera node on the bridge.
'Yes Captain. So long as results are as expected, my calculations will not be thrown off. We'll remain on schedule for our jump.' Exo reported.
'Good. Mr. Jona, you may proceed.'
'Aye sir,' Mark sat down at a empty console and put on a headset, 'Bridge to pilot station 2, test is a go. Are you ready?'
'Roger that bridge, we're ready down here. Drive systems are reading fully green. Status check on command links are all green.'
The bridge crew held their breath as the helmsman down in engineering prepared to take t
he system through it's paces at his new pilots station in the engineering section.
The crew had disassembled one of the solar arrays and gotten the necessary cable from there. The other needed parts had been manufactured on the ship, by some of the talented colonial machinists and electrical engineers.
Now was the moment of truth, would it all work together? If not, they would have to give serious consideration to turning around. If it did, they could press on.
'Commencing main drive start up.'
The ship had been warned of the test. Acceleration forces had to be taken into account, especially after a month of none at all. A brief warning tone sounded throughout the ship.
Howard felt a almost imperceptible vibration in the soles of his feet. Moments later, the pilot at the helm on the bridge said, 'I've got a green light from the primary systems.'
'The engines are already started. I guess the delay goes both ways,' Mark said.
'What about the new system, any sign of the delay there?'
Mark asked the pilot on the other end, 'Is there a delay in response time?'
'Negative sir, it's handling smooth as silk.'
The mood on the bridge lightened considerably.
'Very well, carry out the rest of the test.'
'Aye bridge.'
The stars out the view port shifted slightly, as the pilot tried the directional thrusters. First one way, then another, covering the axis of movement for the great ship.
Howard mentally checked off each of the maneuverings as they were performed. After they went through all of them, the vibration in his soles stopped.
'Main drive offline, test is completed. Preliminary results are all positive.' reported Mark.
'Exo? Anything you noticed?' Howard asked the Guardian.
'No sir. The test was a success. We are exactly where we are supposed to be. I will continue calculations for the next jump. Jump drives are still recharging at the normal rate.' Exo reported dutifully.
'Good. Well everyone, looks like we don't have to go back after all. We get to keep our vacation plans,'
A few chuckles came from the bridge crew. Everyone was smiling. There was relief in the air due to the positive results from the test. They'd pour over an in-depth analysis of the results later. For now, it was all smiles.