The
Intrepid
The vastness of space had slowly worked its dark magic on
Kevin’s brain, filling it with permanent shadows that the bright lights of the
spaceship could never completely dispel. It was his fifth year standing at the
helm of the Intrepid and there were as many as another eight left before he
could awaken another crew member to take over his shift. Not that he’d let
them. There was no way he’d trust his fate to a bunch of clones.
Suffice it to say the many years of solitude Kevin had
endured with only the ship’s AI for company had left him a little paranoid.
Another opinion might be that he’d been driven completely insane by the lack of
conversation with another breathing human.
Kevin took one of the lifts down to the cryo chambers. It
was a Thursday by his count and this was when he usually went down to check on
the others and read to the crew member in POD 00187. The doors opened for him
letting him into a huge room covered by clouds of cold air that tried to suck
the warmth out of his insulated uniform. He walked from pod to pod checking
their diagnostics and the status of their inhabitants.
He went through five rows of them before finally stopping by
her pod. She looked like Ophelia from the book, suspended there in the
cushioned bed of the plastic pod, her thick brown hair falling around her.
Kevin placed his hand on the transparent plastic lid that protected her and was
grateful for the black glove he’d chosen to wear. Otherwise his skin might have
gotten stuck to the cold surface.
He showed her his gift, it was Alice in Wonderland this
time, they’d read it four times but he was certain that it was a favorite of
hers. He sat in front of her pod and started reading in a loud voice. It didn’t
matter that he didn’t know her name or that she might be a clone like the rest
of them. He knew she was special and that they were meant to be so he told her all
about Alice again, Alice and the white rabbit and when he finally stood up he
was so sure that she looked happier.
Kevin finished his inspection then returned to the helm. He
had just sat down in front of the flight controls when she walked out of the
shadows.
“Kevin?” she said softly.
Kevin looked up at her and even now was astonished at how
closely he’d gotten her to resemble the woman in the pod. The android walked
further into the room, the vented air blowing through the flimsy night gown she
was wearing. The sound of her heels was loud in the silence of the pressurized
room.
“Did you go to see her?” the android asked.
“Yes,” Kevin replied turning his attention back to the navigational
charts.
She reached out and placed her arms on his shoulders. Kevin
shook her off and glared.
“That’s enough Celeste. I’m very busy right now,” he said
firmly.
“Oh but you weren’t too busy to visit her? To read to her?
Why don’t you ever read to me?” she complained.
He’d made a mistake by tampering with her neural chip;
androids weren’t meant to be so emotional. “You’re a robot Celeste; you don’t
need me to read to you.” The instrument panel in front of him began to flash
with green lights and when he hit a button an asteroid field jumped up on the screen.
“Well maybe you’ll read to me when she’s gone?” Celeste
continued.
“What are you talking about now?” he asked her, annoyed by
their whole conversation.
“I’m talking about opening the airlock in the cryo chamber
and ejecting all those clones you hate out into space, including her.”
“What?” Kevin’s head spun around. He got to his feet, “You
didn’t.”
“I did,” Celeste smirked.
“God, are you insane?” he yelled running for the lifts.
When the lift carried him to the lower decks he raced
towards the doors to the cryo chamber but it was too late. She’d left the
airlock doors open and he couldn’t get in to the now vacant chamber. He stared
with horror at the area where 83 souls had once rested.
“I told you she’s gone,” Celeste said happily.
Kevin turned to look at her and somewhere at the back of his
mind resided the hope that he could use the ship to get them all back on board
but then he remembered the asteroids and he knew he’d never make it in time.
She’d killed them or rather he’d killed them. There was no way they’d ever
convict a robot for this. It was all over.
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