EPIMETHEUS SUPPLY Co-Operative CENTAUR-Class Corporate Transport - DROMEDARY
Daylight. Mesmerized could not accurately describe my fascination with the scene before me. I sat in the Dromedary’s Galley staring out through the viewing bulkheads as daylight filled the large compartment. Just beyond the bulkheads lay a black sand beach with crystal clear green waters under a sky dominated by a Blue Giant Star. Small waves lapped at the shore line while red pigmented solar feeding fauna swayed with the gentle breeze. Not far from shore, ancient style sailing craft took advantage of the moving air to glide along the shoreline.
I knew the scene was not real. It is closest as I have come to experiencing such a setting. The Galley’s ventilation mimicked the breeze and the smell of the ocean while my PHUD played back the corresponding audio feed. Though it was nothing more than a diversion from the solid shielding taking the place of clear bulkheads, the faux warmth of recorded sunlight was wonderful. The Galley was a buzz with activity as technicians practiced the ancient art of cooking over several open fire grills. My companion Captain Gital said this event was to be a ‘Pool Party Barbecue.’ The flesh of fauna from a dozen worlds turned slowly on spits as savory concoctions were slathered over their roasting remains.
The Captain had gone so far as to having a section of the Galley usually reserved for seating depressed and filled with salinated water. Passengers and off-duty crew from marine environments requested the addition of salt-water to which my companion heartily agreed. It was strange seeing so many people ‘lounging by the pool’ as they called it. Most of the humans especially the females, wore bits of cloth which barely covered portions of their bodies called ‘bathing suits’. Though my PHUD scrolled through file after file on the subject, the whole concept was lost on me.
Though I kept to myself in a small corner of sunlight, I still managed to attract attention. My ‘Fan Club’ as Captain Gital called it consisted primarily of unmated passengers and crew. There were even a few Manufactured Beings who sought my company from time to time. My primary purpose was to be the Captain’s companion, but I was told I had been adopted as the Transport’s ‘Mascot’. I was even given the unofficial DROMEDARY crew patch which had been redone to show a cartoonish representation of me wearing my blue standard body covering and plastiform boots sitting upon the back of the Dromedary Constellation. Since my unpacking I learned to wave, smile, frown or merely nod while showing a stoic expression depending on who greeted me.
I shifted position and the plastiform lounging chair adjusted to make me comfortable. Impractical as it all seemed, the extreme effort to turn the Galley into more than just a place to receive nourishment was necessary according to the Captain. Traveling the vast distances between star systems and within solar systems via Partical Wave Transmission was common place. Yet there was a considerable drawback. Once encoded and activated, a Particle Wave Generator could break the fundamental elements of mass down to particles and waves. By engaging a resonance matrix, the frequency of one point in space is matched to a corresponding point. Long as the frequencies are known, any point in space can be instantly reached. However instantaneous the transfer of matter may be, there was an insurmountable flaw involving the transmission of living beings... Time.
Time must be accounted for during PWT when living beings or complex devices are transmitted. If no practical time is allowed for reassemblage, all transmitted matter will appear at the arrival point as unbound molecular energy! The scale of such explosions from small solid objects during early testing, wiped out Jupiter-sized planetary bodies and their corresponding moons. The time needed to properly reassemble transmitted matter was exponentially congruent to the complexity of the transmitted item. Reassemblage from a raw transmission state could take decades or thousands of years depending on the item’s complexity!
The surprising workaround came from adapting a side-effect from the failed experiments with Warp Technology tens of thousands of years ago. When a Warp Field is created, the space and all mass within the ‘Warp Bubble’ is effectively compressed. Creating the warp bubble and disengaging it proved to be achievable and safe for living beings to experience. However, the energies needed to ‘fold space’ proved too impractical to achieve. All attempts utilizing Warp Technology failed because it was impossible to fold enough space to ‘move’ anything from one point in space to another. But when a warp bubble was surrounded by a Particle Wave Resonance Matrix, compressed matter could easily be carried along to and from matched frequency points. Part of the issue with time was solved since there was minimal actual mass to reassemble at the arrival point. Once the arrival point was reached, the warp bubble was disengaged and whatever had been transmitted appeared exactly as it had been sent... for the most part.
Time was still a factor due to a unique side-effect. Though space was compressed within the warp bubble, ‘Local Time’ was not. Depending on the distances, time within the bubble would last hours to years! To cut down on ‘bubble time’ Transports carrying passengers and crew had to execute, shorter jump points. For single point jumps across the galaxy or beyond the Spiral Arms into the Dark Matter Clouds, stasis fields were necessary as bubble time could last for decades, even centuries!
Bubble time from OASIS-10 to the HESTIA System was three weeks. Ten Standard Earth Days had passed since my arrival and this was the last day of the ‘Beach Motif’. It would be much more practical to have everyone travel in stasis fields and rely on the Dromedary’s AI to maintain all critical systems. Conversely, my companion’s method was much more interesting. There were benefits to having extra time so to speak. Actual transmission in real-time would be ten hours EST. Over the last ten days within bubble time, I have gotten to know my companion better and he me.
Captain Gital though energetic and fun-loving was serious minded when it came to the running of the Transport and care of those under his charge. It would have been so much easier for him to use standard Corporate Protocols and allow the AI to handle everything. He would be able to ‘rack and stack’ more passengers and cargo with little or no crew at a higher profit margin. When I asked him about it, he vehemently defended his methods.
‘What good is having extra days and months if all you do is sleep them away? Except when necessary, I keep the crew and passengers active. Many take the time to do here what they can’t where they live and work. Do you realize my actual age is not two-hundred forty-nine ESY’s? It’s more like five hundred and sixty-seven! I’ve done and learned so much by putting that extra time to good use. That’s how I got immediately bumped up to Captain instead of being automatically assigned to another Transport as XO. What would you do with an extra three hundred and eighteen years of time Pandora? Pandora? Pahndorah....’
I was pulled out of my thoughts by the Transport’s Executive Officer Techi Basi. It was similarly jarring to be pulled out of such deep thought as being roughly awakened. “Yes XO, how may I help you?” The towering woman laughed heartily making her hooked nose seem more prominent. “Nahthing in pahrticular Pahndorah. I saw you unmoving ahnd thought you where offline.” “No XO, I was simply thinking.”
Basi sat down upon the far end of the lounging chair and the plastiform material conformed to her contours. She gave me a hard quizzical look and said, “Thinking? You where thinking? How do you mean? I thought you Mahnus simply crunched dahtah?”
I did my best to control my feelings. Of all the beings aboard the Transport, only Basi managed to consistently irritate me. “Well XO, among the different types of Manufactured Beings except for standard robotic units, advanced AI Emulations are present. Clones may possess duplicate mental abilities of their DNA donor when requested. Androids unlike clones may be purely mechanical, biomechanical or like myself a fusion of all. Each type depending on their specifications may perform simple data crunching to varying levels of complex thought depending on the need. So my potential capacity for thinking should not be difficult for someone of high intelligence modification such as yourself to believe.”
Basi’s steely dark eyes bored into me for a moment and then she laughed once again. “Ha! Somewhere in your explahnahtion, I know you just insulted me.” Smiling, she gave me a sharp swat on the arm and said, “For ah Mahnu, you ahre very interehsting. Don’t forgeht, wear bahthing suit for party Pahndorah. I hahve bet with Gitahl you will stahrt fight ahmong your Fahn Club!”
As I watched Basi leave the Galley, I felt a wave of relief but it was short-lived. A group of ten passengers from my Fan-Club were making their way over all with hungry and enthusiastic looks on their faces. Thankfully, my companion Captain Gital’s viz feed popped up on my PHUD. “Pandora, you busy keeping the passengers and crew entertained?” “No! Uh, no Captain I was simply enjoying the last day of the beach emulation. Can I be of assistance?” The words came out before I could form them on my own as the ardent group drew near. “Good, come down to the main cargo bay. There’s something I’d like to show you.” “On my way Captain!” Much to my fan’s disappointment, I made apologies for having to leave but promised the group I’d be present for the party as I bolted past.
© 2012 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved.
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