Between The Soul And Soft Machine free porn video

The following story contains some mildly harsh language. It is otherwise wholly lacking in sexual situations, sadomasochistic bimbo-ism, theft of giant spaceship components, general delinquency, oral sex obsessed ex-presidents with linguistic issues, or old-fashioned rock 'n roll. Those bothered by the former or searching for any of the latter are advised to move on to the next story - these aren't the 'droids you're looking for. This story also contains one of my Patent Pending depressing endings. Those who find themselves in short supply of Kleenex (tm) and/or Paxil (tm) are hereby advised to wait before reading until such items are well stocked. Note: This story should in no way be construed as an endorsement by the author of the taking of alien ceremonial drugs. Just wanted to make that clear. Between The Soul And Soft Machine By Myria Where I'm going I'm like a king, They're watchin' the skies, Wonderin' what I'll bring. And, God, I can't believe it, They need these things, And they're crazy. They think it's magic, Don't wonna know, What makes it work, What makes it go. I give them Gomer Pyle on the video, They go crazy... "Power Tools" - Planet P - Ship was huge, though one would be hard pressed to get any sense of scale in the emptiness of null-space. Well over eight kilometers long and nearly three and a half kilometers at its widest, it was surprisingly large considering it was designed to carry only one living thing. Besides Ship itself, of course. Nearly forty-five percent of Ship was organic, engineered and grown to survive the rigors of space, the bulk of the rest was taken up by drive mechanisms and deuterium storage tanks grafted on to Ship's organic skeleton. Sitting in the cockpit Pilot managed to look supremely bored and pained at the same time. His boredom was understandable; there was literally nothing to see in null-space and little for him to do until it came time to transit. Until then he was all alone in this pocket universe. There had been a time when Pilot had thought such aloneness would be the greatest gift the universe could give. It had, in fact, been why he had wanted to be a pilot and it was, in fact, exactly the kind of personality trait - the desire and ability to handle being utterly alone - that Earthgov looked for in a potential pilot. But, as is so often the case, the fantasy of such aloneness and the reality of it were very different things. The aloneness of being in null-space was like no other. Cut off from your universe, from all other living things, it was an omnipresent and oppressive aloneness that no one who hadn't experienced it could ever understand. It was not simply being away from other people, it was more like the rest of reality had simply been deleted. Or, perhaps, like you had been deleted from reality. Either way, there was nothing else, even the comforting knowledge of your fellow living things scurrying about their business somewhere far off was somehow taken from you. It was a weight that bore down on his shoulders more heavily than Pilot had ever expected in his training days, and not something that he'd ever been able to fully adjust to even after hundreds of jumps through null-space. The only thing keeping Pilot sane through these jumps was the living ship that surrounded and protected him. It was just enough, though Pilot desperately wished Ship could fully be with him during these trips. That, of course, was impossible, the main reason Ship had a Pilot at all. +++ A previously blank control panel lit up and sequences of numbers and commands scrolled across it at a rate that would have defeated an unenhanced human. Pilot's enhancements easily processed the raw information, though, feeding the relevant data to his conscious mind. Pilot's hands danced across the control panel, double checking the data and then ordering Ship's autonomic systems to send out a stream of protons that would detonate with another stream of anti-protons and open up a gateway back to the "real" universe. His and Ship's universe. The gateway opened - finally something to see besides endless nothingness! - and Ship transited back to reality. Going in less than a femtosecond from a relative eighty times the speed of light to six light-minutes per hour. Pilot watched, awed as always, as the reality of stars reappeared around him and the crushing aloneness disappeared as though it had never been. "Are you there, Ship?" Pilot thought, looking up at the living bulkhead above him with more than a bit of relief. "I'm here, Pilot. One moment, running a system scan." "How did we do?" Pilot asked, holding his mental breath. Always a tense question. Any major damage, far from unheard of in null- space transitions, could spell disaster. "All systems are operational," Ship reported. "There's some minor damage to the grid seven shield, nothing that can't be easily repaired." "Good." Pilot leaned down on the control panel, his head in his hands. "Have I ever mentioned how much of a headache this gives me?" "Only every time we transit," Ship replied, some humor it it's mental voice. "You think that's funny?" Pilot demanded with mock insult. "Fine, you drive next time." "I wish I could, Pilot," the ship said with some sadness. "Get some rest, we can't survey the planetary system until I get that shield repaired." "Acknowledged. Wake me when you're ready, Ship." "Good dreams, Pilot." +++ "So what do we have, Ship?" Pilot asked, trying to shake off the leftover mental cobwebs of sleep. "Seven planets, six on the plane of the ecliptic. Four are gas giants, one is too close in, two are possibles." "Sounds boring," Pilot thought. "Hardly," Ship replied, "one is within the habitable zone for this type star." "You're kidding?" Pilot asked in surprise. "I never kid about such things, Pilot." "I've never seen a planet in the habitable zone before." "Nor have I," Ship observed. "Any signs of life?" "Nothing I can detect from this far out." Pilot sat back in his chair, his eyes closed. "Still, it's risky." "You're worried about a conflict, Pilot?" "Something like that, it's happened before." "Unlikely here, I detect no evidence of a space-faring race. No probes, no ships, no artificial satellites, no EM radiation, nothing. It's unlikely there is life there, and if there is chances are that it's only at the single-cell stage." "Yeah, chances are. Still, we have to be careful. On the other hand, a colonizable planet is a lot more valuable than resources. Imagine what Proxima Base would say about this!" "Exactly. What do you recommend, Pilot?" "I say we head to the innermost gas giant, refuel, and get a closer look from there. Maybe send a probe before heading further in." "I concur. Perhaps we should come in outside the plane of the ecliptic?" "Good idea, Ship, you can never be too careful." "True. Initiating stardrive in ten minutes." "Ship?" "Yes, Pilot?" "Why don't you bring the hardpoints online... Just in case." "I never knew you were so prudent, Pilot. Weapons loadout will be complete before stardrive initialization." +++ "What's our fuel status, Ship?" Pilot mentally asked, watching the colours of the gas giant's atmosphere swirl below them. "The first scoops are returning now," Ship replied. "Fuel stores currently at fifty-eight percent. At current rates we'll be at one-hundred percent in eighteen hours." "You must have been hungry." "A little, it's not quite the same for me as it is for you." "I know, Ship, just making sure you're okay." "You worry too much, Pilot." "That's what they pay me for, Ship," Pilot responded. "What about the probe?" "It's reached the second planet and is finishing the third equatorial pass now." "And?" "I've got good news and bad news, Pilot." Pilot frowned; Ship wasn't usually so indirect about things. "What's the good news?" "The good news is the planet is habitable, in fact it has a very active biosphere. Moreover, it has some rich resource deposits. I'm focusing particularly on a very large selenium deposit on one of the northern hemisphere continents. There's also rich rhodium deposits and even some promethium in the same area." "So what's the bad news?" "There are signs of humanoid life." "Oh shit. Any chance they know we're here?" "None. Technologically they appear to be about Bronze Age, perhaps early Iron Age. Either way, they're no threat to us." "Well that's good at least. Crap, this screws up everything, now what are we supposed to do?" "You know what we're supposed to do, Pilot." "I've never handled a first contact, Ship." "Few people have." "We should just head back to Proxima and let them handle it." "Earthgov would not be very happy if we did. It took a lot of resources to send us out this far." "You know, we could just go in, get what we want, and leave. The natives would probably never even know we were there." "That would violate the standards, Pilot," Ship thought reproachfully. "Written by a bunch of bureaucrats who've never made a single null-space transition." "Granted, but we both agreed to uphold them." "Crap, crap, crap," Pilot thought in frustration. "Without even radio technology there probably isn't a planetary government, who are we even supposed to deal with?" "Whoever is in charge of the area where the resources we want are, I suppose." "Crap," Pilot repeated. +++ "Orbital insertion complete," Ship thought, "status nominal. Shuttle pre-flight commencing." "Thank you, Ship," Pilot thought back as he walked down the corridor to his quarters. "How long before we can launch the shuttle?" "Thirty-eight minutes." "Good, time enough for a shower." Pilot thought as he entered his room. He paused, glancing at the display that very nearly filled one wall. "They look amazingly like humans." "It's a good design." "You didn't think so," Pilot thought. "I had... Other goals," Ship responded. "Don't let their appearance fool you, though, their physiology is probably quite a lot different from yours." "It must be, they're apparently a lot more peaceful than we ever were." "I didn't say that," Ship chastised. "You said..." "I said that they appear to be agrarian and peaceful. But watching a people from orbit and being among them are two very different things. You may get down there and discover that they're extremely aggressive." "I'll be careful, Ship," Pilot thought as he got into the shower, "I promise." "You're sure about the avatar?" "Positive. It's a sure bet they've never seen a three meter tall organamecha; it'd scare the holy hell out of them. That's the last thing we want if we're to negotiate with these people." Pilot finished his shower in mental silence, dressed, and headed towards the shuttle dock. "Pilot?" Ship asked as Pilot got into the shuttle and started checking supplies. "Yes Ship?" "Do you wish to die?" "What?" Pilot said out loud, standing and very nearly banging his head into an open overhead hatch. "Do you wish to die?" "How could you ask me that?" "You take too many unnecessary risks, Pilot, you always have. It makes me think that sometimes you wish to die." "Is this about the avatar?" "That's part of it." "You worry too much, Ship." "Perhaps. But I don't want you to die." "I don't want you to die either, Ship." "If you die, I die." "Sometimes that's the only thing that keeps me going, Ship." "That saddens me." "It shouldn't. Don't worry, I don't wish to die." "I'm glad to hear that. But sometimes your thoughts get very dark, Pilot, I get concerned for you." "I get depressed sometimes, everyone does. Didn't you... Before?" "When I was human? Yes. But it's different for me now." "Maybe, but sometimes your thoughts get pretty dark too, Ship." "Do they?" "Not often, but sometimes. Don't worry, Ship, I'm not refusing the avatar because I want to die. I can handle a bunch of primitives with spears easily enough even without one of your hulks. Besides, if they give me any real problems you can always drop a kinetic harpoon down on their collective heads." "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." "It won't, Ship." "Preflight complete, we can launch anytime." +++ The shuttle, like Ship, was partly organic and partly mechanical drive systems. A thirty meter wide brown bat-wing shaped vehicle, it dropped off the bottom of the ship like a remora leaving a shark's belly and accelerated away gently into a steep decent curve. Pilot lay in the cockpit, unconcerned by the glowing of the shuttle's exterior. He knew better than most just how much thermal stress Ship's organic shell could take. And Ship knew just how much stress Pilot's enhanced body could take. "I'm going to set the shuttle down half a click from the largest city on the continent," Ship thought. "City?" "Well it's a city by these people's standards, not ours. Be prepared for a little culture shock." "Easy for you to say." "Landing phase beginning, touchdown in thirty seconds." "Anyone nearby?" Pilot asked. "No one, but I'm sure you shan't be alone long." "Probably not." "We're down. Please stay near the shuttle until you've made first contact, Pilot." "Let me guess, you armed the shuttle?" Pilot asked. "Two pulse lasers in each wing and seeker rounds in the carriage. I can use them to defend you if need be." "You could use them to take out half the population of this planet, if you wanted to. Isn't that a bit of overkill?" "I notice you're not exactly unarmed," Ship noted as Pilot removed a pair of smartguns from a storage locker. "Exactly my point. I appreciate your concern, Ship, and I will stay near the shuttle. Just don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes." "Huh?" Pilot smiled, he so rarely got to surprise Ship. "It's a joke, Ship." "It's not a very funny one. There are currently seventeen individuals approaching your position." "Good, I hate waiting." Pilot got out of the shuttle and went to sit under one of the shuttle's wings. In truth he was at least as tense as Ship was. First-contact situations were always dicey; some had gone very badly indeed. At least here they had the clear technological edge and then some, but that didn't mean that things couldn't get very nasty. "You know," Pilot thought, "this is the first time I've been on a habitable planet since I was a kid?" "I've never been on one." "The shuttle is a part of you, so in a sense you have now." "I suppose so." "I know it's not the same." "Don't worry about it, Pilot, I've no regrets. Several of the aliens are nearby, but they're staying in the treeline." "Where?" "Look straight ahead and slightly to the right, there's a group of three of them there. I can see several others from orbit." Pilot's vision shifted to IR as he scanned the area Ship had indicated. "I see them. Now how do we get them to come closer?" "Use your imagination." Pilot grimaced and stood, hoping the aliens didn't have any long- range weapons they didn't know about. Or, if they did, that they were disinclined to use them. "Hello!" He yelled, waving his arms, "why don't you come see me?" "That's the best you could come up with?" "What am I supposed to do? It's not like they're going to understand me anyway." Pilot continued to yell and wave his hands. At first to no apparent effect, then finally one of the aliens came out from hiding and started slowly towards the shuttle. Moments later several others followed. "All weapons are armed and the engines are hot," Ship thought at Pilot, "at the first sign of trouble I want you in the shuttle. I can dustoff in three seconds if I need to." "Acknowledged. Just don't get an itchy trigger finger." By now several of the aliens had reached the immediate area of the shuttle, though none seemed willing to come too close. They stood at a little distance, talking in what was an incomprehensible language to Pilot, among themselves. "Take me to your leader," Pilot said to the aliens. "This is no time for jokes," Ship thought. "Sure it is," Pilot responded, "how long will it take to figure out their language?" "Less time than I expected, actually. Their language seems to have several Earth analogs. Kind of a cross between ancient Greek and Mandarin with some Apache thrown in." "No wonder it sounds so weird. Are they as human as they look?" "You mean aside from the white hair and the weird chins? Probably not, but I can't tell much with just the shuttle's scans. I'd need to get one on a medibed to have any real idea of their physiology." "Oh. Well at least they aren't insectoids or something." "Downloading preliminary language matrix now. Keep in mind that this is very rough, I'll have to refine things as we go along." "Acknowledged," Pilot thought, closing his eyes as ship sent the information it had surmised so far. Pilot opened his eyes and smiled. "Hello," he said to the aliens. That elicited several strings of conversation among them, some of which Pilot could now follow and some of which still sounded like gibberish. "What kind of beast is this?" One of the aliens asked him. "It is a shuttle," Pilot said, "part of my ship." "Ship?" The alien said. "But there isn't an ocean for a very long ways and the nearest river big enough for a beast this size is five days away." "Primitives," Ship snorted in indignation. "Ocean indeed." "Now, now," Pilot responded mentally. "It's not that kind of ship," Pilot said to the alien. "Then what kind of ship is it?" Another alien, this one female, asked. "That would take a very long time to explain," Pilot said. "I'm a visitor from a very long ways away. I'd like to go to your city and speak with your leaders about a matter of some importance. Would that be possible?" "It would," the alien replied, "but you'll have to leave your beast here. There's no place in the city to keep such a thing and I doubt it could even get through the gates." +++ The walk to the city took nearly a half hour as more and more aliens joined the procession. They were a strangely polite lot, obviously curious but apparently intent on not causing him any trouble. Pilot could easily imagine being physically mobbed were he to have been among humans in a similar situation. It seemed clear that Ship's original analysis was correct, the aliens not only didn't seem to have any aggressive tendencies but Pilot didn't see anything that looked like a weapon in the possession of any of them. The city was actually quite a lot larger than Pilot had expected, somehow he'd gotten the impression from Ship that these aliens wouldn't have much more than a few thatched huts. The architecture was even vaguely familiar, if archaic. Lots of arched doorways with what appeared to be wood doors, both flat and curved A-frame roofs, lots of windows with lots of people sticking their heads out to see what the commotion was about. The one thing that wasn't familiar was whatever the primary building material was. Some kind of glassy purple stone that they seemed to use for building just about everything. Pilot couldn't even begin to guess what it was. The female alien who had spoken to him before had somehow ended up in charge of leading the procession. No one stopped them as they entered the gate, in fact Pilot saw no evidence of guards and wondered why they bothered with a gate at all if they weren't going to guard it. Pilot was led through a warren of narrow streets to a surprisingly large park that he estimated was probably near the center of the city. Across the park they went, gathering more attention as they went, until they reached the other side where there was an open courtyard dominated by the largest building Pilot had yet seen in this city. Perhaps a hundred meters wide and at least three stories tall, it was capped by an impressive dome made up of some kind of nearly clear material that had been formed into bricks and shone brightly in the sun. "Is that quartz?" Pilot mentally asked Ship. "Unknown," Ship replied, "but it could be. They seem to make unusual use of minerals in their building technology." "I noticed. Gives the place a rather bright look." "Their eyes might not be as effected by reflective glare as yours would be." "I'm not bothered by glare," Pilot replied with slight defensiveness. "Only because of your enhancements." Pilot considered sticking his mental tongue out at Ship, but the thought was interrupted. "The council has been called," the female alien said, "if you like we can go into the chambers and wait for them." "Okay," Pilot said. The alien woman led Pilot through the open doors of the large building while most of the rest of the crowd stayed outside. "What is your name?" Pilot asked her, hoping he wasn't violating any alien protocols about such things. "Nadia," the alien replied, apparently not insulted. "And yours?" "Pilot." "Pilot is a title, not a name." "For me it is both," Pilot replied. "You are an odd creature, Pilot," Nadia observed, "but I think I like you." "Thank you," Pilot said with a smile, "I appreciate that." +++ The council chambers were in a smaller room than Pilot had expected given the overall size of the building. He estimated the room could, and currently did, seat perhaps a hundred people comfortably in its rows of benches. The room was ornate, had it not been for the purple walls it might have even seemed gothic. These aliens certainly knew how to carve or mold their odd materials into whatever shape they wanted and the overall effect was reasonably impressive to Pilot's human eyes. At the front of the room sat a large curved table. Pilot counted thirteen chairs. Presumably for thirteen councilors, assuming Pilot had their form of government even half right. That, of course, was half the problem, for all he knew whatever form of government the aliens had might not have any Earth analog, the best he could do was try and guess. After showing Pilot where he should sit, Nadia had disappeared on some errand or other. As she was the only person on this planet whose name he even knew, Pilot felt at some loss without her there. He needn't have feared, though, not more than ten minutes passed before she returned, sitting down beside him. "The counselors are gathering, they should be coming in soon," she said. "Good," Pilot replied. "You see the middle chair there?" Pilot nodded. "That is where the head counselor will be seated. All of the council has an equal say, but her voice carries much weight. If you wish to convince the council of anything, you'll have to convince her." "Okay," Pilot said. "Can I ask you something?" "Of course." "What do your people call this planet?" "Planet?" "They may not know they're on a planet," Ship observed, "we don't know what their level of astronomical knowledge is." "I know, but I have to have something to call it that'll make sense to them," Pilot thought at Ship. "Yes, planet, this world you live on, what do you call it?" He asked Nadia. "Oh! This is Neenah." Pilot nodded, hoping that Neenah did in fact refer to the entire world and not just to the city, a nation-state, the continent, or whatever. A door at the back of the room opened and Pilot turned to watch as thirteen male and female aliens, almost evenly mixed, proceeded out in a single line. All were wearing white robes made up of some sort of shiny fabric; all were, at least by human standards, elderly in appearance. The woman at the head of the line appeared the eldest, perhaps a hundred and seventy five or two hundred if she were human, what that might translate to in these aliens Pilot could not begin to guess. However old she was, there was an almost regal bearing and grace in how she carried herself. She alone carried a staff, a nearly two meter long stick of some sort of polished wood capped with a large sphere that appeared to be made of the same clear material that made up the dome of the building. The councilors - at least Pilot assumed that's who they were - made their way up the center aisle of the room and filed around the table, each taking their seat. The woman who'd been at the head of the line stood behind the center chair patiently waiting while the others arranged themselves. Once they were all seated she tapped the staff on the ground in what Pilot assumed was some sort of ceremonial symbology, placed the staff in a stand, and sat herself. "You are the stranger who wished to speak to us?" The old woman asked him after a moment. The acoustics of the room were near perfect, even speaking at a normal level Pilot could easily hear her and he was quite sure that even the people at the very back of the room could too. Pilot stood. "I am," he said with a slight bow. The old woman smiled. "Given your odd appearance, I thought that was a safe bet." Pilot only half managed to suppress a nervous laugh. "I come from very far away, please understand that I am not familiar with your customs. I don't wish to accidentally give offense." "This council is not in the habit of taking offense were none is intended, young man," the old woman replied. "But you may name an advisor if you would like." "I would appreciate that," Pilot replied, "but the only one of your people whose name I even know is Nadia." "Are you willing to advise this visitor, Nadia?" The old woman asked. Nadia stood. "I'd be happy to, Mother." Mother? "Stepped in that one, didn't you?" Ship thought at Pilot with some amusement. "Give me a break," Pilot responded, "what was I supposed to say?" "You're doing fine, Pilot." "I'm going by the book, Ship." "That's what the book is for." "Well the book stinks." "What is it you wished to discuss with this council?" The old woman asked. "I come from another planet, one called Earth." Pilot said, "It orbits a star so far away that you couldn't even see it from here without a telescope..." "What is a telescope?" Another councilor, this one male, asked. "Christ," Pilot thought at Ship, "how do I explain space travel to a society that doesn't even have telescopes?" "You don't have to, Pilot, just stick to the basics and keep it simple." "It's a device for seeing things that are very far away," Pilot said to the councilor. "That doesn't really matter. What I mean to say is that Ship and I travel very long distances in search of materials that our people need. We came to Neenah because we found some of those materials here, in the mountains north of this city." "What sort of materials?" Another councilor asked. "Metals, mostly, I'm afraid I don't know what the particular types would be called in your language." If they even had names for any of the rare-earth metals. "They exist very far beneath the ground." "How will you get them if they're deep in the ground?" "We can use a beam from space to cut a tunnel, a kind of cave, into the ground, then avatars - parts of Ship that resemble large people - would mine the materials we want. Damage to the surrounding area and environment would be minimal, when we were done it would be hard to tell we were ever there." "You can do this?" "Yes, with Ship's help I can." "So you are here to negotiate with us for these metals?" The head councilwoman asked. "Yes, I am. "And if we do not wish to negotiate?" Pilot shrugged. "Then we will leave." "Just like that?" "Those are the rules under which I operate. When we find an inhabited planet with resources our people need we attempt to negotiate with the natives. If we cannot or they do not wish to, we leave and go elsewhere in search of what we need." "Sensible and honorable, traits I admire. So what do you offer us in return for these metals?" "There are many things I'm authorized to offer you. Help with industry, technology, medicine, and a variety of other subjects. Or simple goods, we can give you entertainment devices, food processing devices, tools, and a variety of other things. We are in many ways more technologically advanced than you and have much we could offer," Pilot said. "No offense," he added as an afterthought. "None taken," the old woman said with a smile. "So what are you not authorized to give us?" "She's a cagey one," Ship observed. "No shit," Pilot thought back. "Weapons or anything to do with weapons technology. Anything to do with stardrive or null-space transition technology," he said to her. "We don't want weapons or whatever those other things are, but I am interested in seeing your goods." "As am I," the councilor to her right said. Most of the other councilors nodded. "We would like to see some examples of the goods you offer," the head councilwoman said. "How long would it take you to make some high-tech beads and trinkets these people could use?" Pilot asked Ship. "About an hour," Ship replied. "Give me two, I'll need to load and pre-flight the heavy-lift shuttle." "You can bring up the transport shuttle," Pilot thought. "No, that stays where it is so I have a quick way of getting you out of there if I need to." "Fine, can you land the other shuttle in the park?" "Don't be insulting, of course I can." Pilot mentally smiled. "See if you can throw in a telescope while you're at it," he thought at Ship. "I'll need two hours to get them here," he said to the councilwoman. "If it's all right with you, Ship will land the shuttle in the park across the way." +++ "Videos," Pilot thought at Ship, "who in the world would have figured it would be videos?" It had seemed the entire population of the city was waiting in and around the park for them, for a little bit Pilot had worried that there wouldn't be enough space for the shuttle to land. But Pilot had spoken to Nadia about it, who had spoken to her mother, and shortly after the aliens had started backing away leaving an empty circle more than large enough. The aliens had watched in an apparent mix of awe and just a touch of fear as the giant heavy-lift shuttle, this one much larger than the transport shuttle some of them had seen earlier, had gracefully come in and landed. Pilot had retrieved a number of items Ship had manufactured and sent down, but none of them seemed to impress the alien council. A vibra-knife that could effortlessly cut through a tree or a stone practically made them yawn. A food processing unit that could take just about any organic material and turn it into a three course meal elicited no interest. Pilot had tried a dozen such items and was starting to wonder if there was anything these aliens were interested in, when he'd pulled out the video display unit. Roughly a third of a meter square, the VDU was ancient technology by Pilot's standards. Self contained and holding about thirty thousand hours of archival video and music, the VDU would project an image at anyone within it's roughly four meter range that would make it appear to them as though they were watching a display roughly ten meters diagonal. Sound was projected from the VDU itself, phased for each individual being streamed to. Ship had thoughtfully added a translator that would alter any spoken audio to the alien's language in realtime. The aliens had been absolutely fascinated. They had politely taken turns standing within the VDU's range, every last one of them seemingly entranced. The councilors weren't interested in seeing anything else Pilot had to offer, they wanted VDUs, and they wanted lots of them. Fortunately ship could easily manufacture as many of them as they wanted. As soon as they were delivered Ship and Pilot would have their deal and could start mining. "Humans like entertainment," Ship responded, "why wouldn't the aliens?" "It's not very practical," Pilot observed, "there's so many other things we could help them with. Hell, if they wanted entertainment they at least could have held out for sensory- cubes." "I thought about that, but cubes are based on principles particular to how humans process sensory information. They might not have worked right with these aliens or might have caused long-term health problems. Besides, I can make power cells for VDUs that'll last centuries, the best I could do with a sensory cube is maybe five to ten years." "I suppose," Pilot groused, "it just seems like a weird choice." "Pilot?" Pilot turned with a start to see Nadia standing beside him. The aliens hadn't been paying him any attention since he'd brought out the VDU so he hadn't been paying any attention to them. "Yes, Nadia?" "Mother wishes to know if we can see more of your beast while it's still light," Nadia said. "Ship is not a beast, Nadia," Pilot said. "Ship is a living thing - well, mostly, anyway - but he is an intelligent being like you or I. In fact Ship was once a human, like I am." Nadia glanced at the huge bat-winged shuttle and then back at Pilot. "What happened to him?" Pilot shrugged. "He decided to become a ship." Nadia nodded as if this made sense to her when it quite clearly did not. "Well may we see more of Ship?" "What do you think, Ship?" Pilot mentally asked. "I don't see why not. Just be aware that there are two avatars on board the shuttle." "I think the old lady can deal with them, I'm just not sure about Nadia," Pilot thought back. "If your mother wishes to see more of Ship, that would be fine," Pilot said to Nadia. +++ "So this is your ship?" The old councilwoman asked, tentatively placing a hand on the outside hull of the heavy-lift shuttle. "No," Pilot said, "this is just a shuttle, a very small part of Ship. Most of Ship is in orbit around your planet, very high up in the sky. Ship is very large, bigger than your entire city, and isn't capable of atmospheric landings." "Why is Ship so large?" Nadia asked. "Ship and I travel a very long ways from our home planet, we need to have everything with us that we could possibly need and we need plenty of space to put the resources we find. That, and the engines that allow ship to travel are very, very large and need a lot of space." "Can we go inside?" The councilwoman asked. Pilot nodded and Ship obligingly created a doorway near where the councilwoman's hand was. "This should be interesting," Ship thought. "Go easy on them, Ship." "Hello councilwoman," Ship said after the three of them had entered the cargo-hold. "Hello Nadia." "It talks?" The councilwoman said in surprise. "He talks, Mother," Nadia corrected. "Yes, I can speak when need be," Ship said, "though I very rarely have to." "You don't talk to Pilot?" Nadia asked. "I don't need to, Nadia," Ship said. "Pilot and I are bonded, we can read each other's thoughts." "More magic," the councilwoman said. "It's not magic," Pilot corrected as he led them into the corridor that ran down the spine of the shuttle, "it's technology." "It may as well be magic to them," Ship thought. "I know," Pilot thought back, "but I don't want them to get the wrong idea. We used to burn people at the stake back on earth for doing magic you know." +++ "Can I ask you something?" Pilot asked after they had finished their tour of the shuttle and were sitting in the cockpit. "Certainly, young man," the old councilwoman replied. "When I showed your people various tools that could make their lives easier no one showed any interest, why?" "We have ways of doing all of those things." "But something like the vibra-knife could make cutting wood, stone, or just about anything else near effortless. Your people could do a lot more in a lot less time than they do now." "We like how we do things now," the old woman said with a shrug. "The box that makes the pictures, now that was something truly new." "So you have no interest in advancing your technology?" "What do you mean?" Nadia asked. "Well, like with the VDUs. I offered to try and explain some of the principles it works on to some of your people, no one seemed interested." "Why would we be?" The councilwoman asked. "As long as it works, what do we care?" "What if one breaks down?" "Why do you think we asked for so many?" The old woman said with a smile. Pilot shook his head in confusion. "You know it's quite possible they've been like this, stuck at this technology level, for eons. They may simply lack human curiosity and drive," Ship thought. "I'm starting to get that impression," Pilot thought back, "I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing." "Interesting idea." "Can we go see the rest of Ship?" Nadia asked. "That probably wouldn't be wise," Pilot said. "the trip to orbit would be very hard on your bodies." "They'd be fine for a low acceleration ascent," Ship thought. "I know, I just don't really want two aliens in orbit with us," Pilot responded. "Is it hard on your body?" The councilwoman asked. "Not really," Pilot said. "I have enhancements to help me. Millions of tiny machines are in my body, helping me in various ways. They make me stronger and faster than a normal human or Neenahian. They make it so it's very hard for me to get hurt. I can handle accelerations easily that would hurt or even kill an unenhanced being. Ship was designed with this in mind." "So you're like Ship, then," Nadia said. "What do you mean?" "Both of you have been changed," Nadia observed, "so you can be with each other." "In a way, yes," Pilot said, "I guess that's true." "Nice intuitive leap," Ship thought. "Will you be staying with us this night?" The councilwoman asked before Pilot could respond to Ship. "I'm afraid not," Pilot said, "I really need to get back to Ship. I'll be back in the morning with the VDUs and we can sign that agreement then if you're satisfied." "I'm sure we shall be," the councilwoman said, standing. "Nadia?" "What about tomorrow night, Mother?" Nadia asked as she also stood. "I don't think we need to burden Pilot with unfamiliar..." "I would like it if he were there," Nadia said. The old woman frowned. "Tomorrow is the Feast of Meltzer, Pilot, my daughter would like it if you celebrated with us." "I would invite you as well, Ship," Nadia said, "but..." "I understand, Nadia," Ship said. "What do you think, Ship?" Pilot mentally asked. "I don't like it," Ship replied peevishly. "They might be insulted if I turn them down..." "I would appreciate it if you could get me samples of the foods that will be served," Ship said out loud. "That seems an odd request," the councilwoman said. "Are you hungry, Ship?" "No, councilwoman, I don't eat food in the same sense that you do. But I need to make sure that it is safe for Pilot to eat." "Does he think we would try and hurt you?" The councilwoman demanded of Pilot. "You could have handled that better, Ship," Pilot thought. "No Councilwoman," Pilot said. "It's just that though we look similar I'm of a different species from you. Things that could be perfectly fine for you to eat could be poisonous to me, and vice- versa." "I meant no offense, councilwoman," Ship said. "I'm sorry I took any," the old woman said, "I should have realized that you would have a good reason." "Ship worries about you a lot, doesn't he?" Nadia asked. "We worry about each other," Pilot said with a shrug. +++ "We're docked," Ship thought. "I am so glad that's done," Pilot thought back as he left the shuttle. "We get that agreement signed tomorrow, we'll get the resources mined, and we can get the hell out of here and head back to Proxima." "There are two other star systems we're supposed to survey before returning." "After all of this I think we can skip them. Besides, once we get the mining done your holds will be three-quarters full anyway." "I'm estimating seventy-nine to eighty-three percent." "There you have it, Proxima can't complain about that. How long do you think it'll take to mine everything out?" "Five to seven days, depending on how much ore processing we have to do. I'm growing extra avatars now so we can mine all three sites simultaneously." "Will we need to refuel before transitioning?" Pilot asked as he entered his room and flopped down on the bed. "Not if we're heading straight back to Proxima, no." "Good." Pilot closed his eyes and tried to relax. "Is something bothering you, Ship?" He asked after a moment. "I'm not happy about your going to this holiday of theirs." "Jealous?" Pilot asked with a mental smile. "Stop it, I'm serious." "I'm sorry, Ship," Pilot thought, sitting up, "I know you are. But what's to worry about? You'll check out the food and, besides, my enhancements could take care of any poisons anyway." "Not if they don't recognize something as a poison. This is an alien biosphere, Pilot, you don't take that seriously enough. Besides, you don't know anything about their customs, you don't even know what this holiday is about." "They've been very reasonable about that, I'll try not to make a faux pas but I'm sure that if I do they'll understand. Besides, they'll probably just spend the evening watching videos on their new VDUs anyway." +++ "Welcome to our home," Nadia said. "Thank you," Pilot said, walking in, "I'm honored." Pilot glanced around, noting the architecture and decorations. Several people, including Nadia's mother, were sitting on the floor around a low round table. "Almost Japanese looking," Pilot thought at Ship. "What's 'Japanese'?" Ship asked. "An old Earth culture." "Oh." "Would you like some wine?" Nadia asked, indicating that Pilot should join the others around the table. "Thank you," Pilot said, "I would love to try some." "Keep in mind that their intoxicants will have a stronger effect on your physiology than anything you're used to," Ship reminded him. "I know, Ship, I'll be careful." Pilot went to the table and sat down on a floor pillow that seemed to be there for that purpose. The others at the table had fallen into a hush; all of them were staring at him in apparent fascination. "So this is the visitor who brings us the picture boxes?" An elderly man sitting next to Nadia's mother asked. "Guilty as charged," Pilot said with a smile. The old man gave him a confused look, as did several others around the table. "I mean that, yes, Ship and I are the ones who brought you the VDUs in exchange for some of your resources." "The transport shuttle just landed in the park," Ship thought, "I'm bringing the heavy-lift back up for refueling." "Okay," Pilot thought back, "but you really don't need to leave a shuttle down on the ground, I'll be fine." "Tell us about this place you come from," the councilwoman said. "I've not been to Earth since I was a kid, but I'll try and tell you as much about it as you'd like..." +++ "Thank you, Nadia," Pilot said, "the food was excellent." "I'm glad you enjoyed," Nadia replied, "the ceremony will be starting as soon as Mother returns." "What sort of ceremony is it?" Pilot asked. "You see the glass Mother is holding?" Nadia asked, indicating the councilwoman who had returned from what Pilot assumed was the kitchen. "Yes," Pilot said, turning. "That liquid is called Meltzer, it comes from the flower of a plant that grows very high in the mountains. Once a year we get together and each of us shares a sip. That's all." Pilot nodded. "Simple enough." "I don't want you drinking anything I haven't analyzed," Ship thought. "Everything else of theirs turned out to be safe," Pilot thought back. "That doesn't mean this is." The councilwoman took a sip from the glass and passed it to the next person. "What does this Meltzer do?" Pilot asked Nadia. "It's hard to describe," Nadia said. "I guess it makes it easier for us to understand each other." "I don't want you drinking it," Ship repeated. "You worry too much, Ship." "You're intoxicated, you're not thinking clearly." "I am not!" "You are so, I can see it in your thoughts." The glass reached Nadia, who took a sip and handed it to Pilot. Pilot considered for a moment, then took a small sip himself and passed the glass to the next person. "There," Pilot thought at Ship, "I took a sip and I'm okay." "How do you feel?" Ship asked worriedly. "Fine. A little warm I guess..." "How warm?" "I'm..." "Pilot?" Nothing. "Pilot!" Nothing. Ship couldn't even see Pilot's thoughts, not even any dreams. "Shit!" Ship thought as he hurriedly prepped the now-returned heavy-lift shuttle to bring down a phalanx of avatars. He didn't care if they scared the locals or not, he'd tear the damn city apart to get Pilot out of there if he had to. +++ "Ship!" Nadia yelled at the transport shuttle. "Are you there, Ship?" Relieved, Ship canceled the launch of the heavy-lift shuttle and opened a door in the transport shuttle's hull. Nadia, along with two other aliens carrying an unconscious Pilot, entered. "Something is wrong with Pilot," Nadia said. "I know," Ship responded, "what happened?" "He drank the Meltzer and then just passed out. He feels very hot to me, is he supposed to feel that way?" "No," Ship said, scanning Pilot as best he could with the shuttle's limited systems. "I need to get him into orbit. Bring him to the cockpit, that room in the front with the chairs, please." Nadia and her two companions did as Ship asked. "Place him in one of the chairs, please be careful." They did. "I'd like your two friends to leave the shuttle, Nadia, but I want you to come up with Pilot." "Why?" Nadia asked with obvious fear. "Whatever effected Pilot didn't effect you. If I can look at your physiology, what makes you different from Pilot, I may be able to figure out why and help him." "But Pilot said it was dangerous," Nadia said. "I can take a low-velocity ascent path that will be safe for you and easier on Pilot's body. Please trust me, Nadia, I need your help." +++ "Is that Neenah?" Nadia asked, watching the cockpit display with awe. "Yes," Ship said, "That's your planet. We're in orbit now, we'll be docking in one minute." Ship shifted the display to another view. "That's me." "You're beautiful, Ship," Nadia said after a moment. "Thank you, Nadia," Ship said with some surprise. "There'll be a slight bump as we dock, don't be concerned." "I trust you, Ship." Nadia watched as ship grew in the display until he filled the entire display and then quickly only part of him was visible. "We're docked," Ship said. "You'll find a doorway just outside the cockpit." "What about Pilot?" "I'm sending an avatar to retrieve him. You just follow my voice to the medical bay." +++ "Please lay down on the medibed, Nadia," Ship said. "It won't hurt me?" "Everything up here is a part of me, Nadia. The corridors, the rooms, the medibed, the avatars, even the shuttles. It's all me, and I won't let anything hurt you." "Okay," Nadia said, lying down. "Beginning soft tissue scan..." +++ "Did I help?" Nadia asked, sitting on the edge of a medibed and watching as a scanner attached to another medibed passed over the length of Pilot's nude body. "A little," Ship replied, "at least now I know the substance he drank shouldn't have been hazardous to human physiology." "Then what's wrong with him?" "I don't know," Ship said in obvious frustration. "His metabolic rate is right off the charts. Something has his enhancements working overtime, but I don't know what they're doing and I don't know how to stop them." Nadia stood and walked over to where Pilot lay. "He's changing," she said softly. "I noticed." "Will he live?" "I hope so." "You care about him a lot." "More than I could ever tell you, Nadia." "I think I know." "Nadia, I don't even want to say this, but I have to. If Pilot should die I won't be able fly you back to the surface in the shuttle." "Pilot isn't going to die, you won't let that happen." "I might not be able to stop it, Nadia. This is important, I won't be able to fly you to the surface, you'll have to take the lifepod. I need to show you where it is." "Why? Why won't you be able to take me there?" "You remember how I told you that my and Pilot's minds are bonded, that we can read each other's thoughts?" "Yes." "Because of that our minds are... Interdependent. We need each other, if one of us dies the other one won't survive very long. That's the price of being bonded. If Pilot dies I might not have enough time to fly you to the surface before my own neural net started to degenerate, so you need to know where the lifepod is and how to use it. Worse comes to worse it'll be your only way home." +++ "How's Pilot?" Nadia asked, sitting up from the medibed she'd been sleeping on. She glanced around, but without the sun there was no way for her to tell how long she'd been sleeping. No doubt Ship could tell her if she asked, but it didn't really matter. "Better," Ship said. "His metabolic rate has returned to near normal and his vitals are solid. Whatever, why ever, his enhancements thought they were doing, they seem to have finished the job." Nadia got up and walked over to where Pilot lay. She stood there for a moment staring down at his prone body in frank amazement. "He should be fine, Nadia," Ship said, "the danger seems to have passed." "He?" Nadia said after a moment. "I don't know if you've noticed this, Ship, but Pilot isn't a 'he' anymore." "I noticed," Ship said, "I'm trying not to think about that right now." "Why?" "Because the human body simply doesn't do this!" Ship said in exasperation. "And his enhancements sure the hell weren't programmed for this. I don't even know how they could have done this without killing him, let alone why. I can't come up with any explanation for this, and I don't have any idea how to fix it." Nadia shrugged. "She doesn't look broken to me. She looks fine, just... different." "That's an understatement," Ship said with a sigh. "Has anything like this ever happened to any of your people?" Nadia shook her head. "Not that I know of." "Great." "There is a legend, but no one really believes in it anymore." "What's the legend?" "That if you drink from the cup and you want something badly enough, Neenah might grant a wish for you." "That doesn't help much, Nadia." "Perhaps not, like I said no one really believes in the legend anymore. But... Ship?" "Yes, Nadia?" "Before you try and fix Pilot, make sure she wants to be fixed..." +++ Pilot's moan startled both Nadia and Ship, it had been nearly twenty-four hours since Nadia had brought Pilot to the shuttle and this was the first sign of conscious life. Nadia went to Pilot's side to help her sit up and Ship twiddled his mental fingers wondering what in the world to say. "Ship?" Pilot thought. "I'm here, Pilot." "What happened? I feel like someone landed a shuttle on my head." "I'm not surprised. You've been through a lot." "How did I get up here? For that matter, why is Nadia here?" "You were unconscious, Nadia brought you to the transport shuttle. I brought Nadia up as well in hopes that a Neenahian physiology scan might help me figure out what was wrong with you." "How do you feel, Pilot?" Nadia asked. "Very sore, like everything is out of joint and I have the worst hangover in history. My chest feels all itchy, it's driving me nuts." Pilot looked down at herself. "I... Have breasts?" "Among other things, yes," Ship said out loud. "I have breasts?" Pilot repeated. "You've been changed somehow, Pilot, you're now a physiologically normal human female." "Well that's unexpected." Nadia giggled, much to Ship's annoyance. "Is that all you have to say?" Ship asked. "What am I supposed to say, Ship? Look, I'm way too tired to figure all of this out, what I need right now is some serious sleep." "You should get something to eat, Pilot, you've lost nearly eighteen kilograms in the last twenty-four hours." "I think she needs sleep more, Ship," Nadia suggested gently. "Thank you, Nadia," Pilot said, "could you help me to my room? These medibeds give me a backache." +++ "Pilot took that rather well," Ship said, after having led Nadia to the cockpit to show her a better view of her world below. "You sound surprised." "I am." "Perhaps you shouldn't be." "I don't think you understand humans very well, Nadia. I really appreciate your help and all, but there's no reason for you to stay. I can return you to the planet any time you like." "I'd rather stay and make sure Pilot is okay. I might be able to help her adjust, I am a woman after all." "I appreciate your concern, but won't your family be worried?" "They know I came up with you, they won't worry too much." "Well you're free to stay if you wish, at the rate things are going we won't be leaving orbit for a while." "How is Pilot doing now?" Nadia asked. "Sleeping normally, thankfully." "You can see her?" "I can see everywhere inside me, Nadia, and I can feel Pilot's mind and dreams." "You amaze me, Ship, all of these things you can do. I can hardly believe that I'm here, looking down on my home." "It's a beautiful planet you live on, Nadia." "Can I ask you something, Ship?" "Yes." "Do you love her?" "Who, Pilot?" "Yes." "Our relationship isn't like that, Nadia. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm capable of loving the way you mean." "I suppose that's up to you." "What do you mean?" "If you say you can't love, then you can't, Ship. But if you say you can, then you can." "It's not that simple, Nadia." "I think it is." "And you think I love Pilot?" "I think you love Pilot, and I think she loves you. I think she always has." "Is that why you think she wished for this, so she could love me?" "No, I think she's always wished for this and I think that's part of why she could love you the way she does." +++ Ship watched as Pilot awoke. She tossed off the covers and sat up. Holding her arms out she stared at them, turning her wrists and moving her fingers experimentally with the fascination of a person who had never seen such a thing before. Under the circumstances perhaps that wasn't such an odd thing. Pilot got out of bed and went to the display that took up nearly the entirety of one of her bedroom walls. Waving a hand in front of it, she changed its setting so it became a reflective surface. She stood there, staring at herself, with a mixed expression that Ship couldn't even begin to read. "You're very pretty, if that helps," Ship thought. "I wouldn't say that," Pilot thought back, "but I appreciate the thought. I could really use some clothes, Ship. Something that would... Fit." "There's a jumpsuit made to your new specifications in the bathroom," Ship thought. "Thank you, Ship." Pilot retrieved the jumpsuit and quickly put it on, then turned again to the display and stared at her now-clothed self for a minute. "This will take a little getting used to," Pilot thought, shaking her head. "No doubt," Ship thought. "The food processor is cycling, I want you to eat before you do anything else, Pilot." "Okay, Ship. What are you cooking?" "Salad, meatloaf, and potatoes." "I hate synthetic potatoes," Pilot thought as she removed the tray from the processor. "Eat them, you need the carbohydrates." "I'll eat them, but I still hate them," Pilot said, sitting on the edge of the bed with the tray. "Are you okay, Pilot?" Ship asked after watching Pilot eat for a little bit. "You tell me, Ship. I feel fine physically, but..." Pilot shrugged. "Physically you are fine. It's your mental state I'm concerned about." "What did you expect, Ship, hysterics?" "Hysteria would have been understandable. As would anger, denial, depression, anything but this odd calmness I see in your thoughts." "I'm fine, Ship, I'm not hiding any anger or depression from you if that's what you're worried about." "This is making me wonder about something Nadia said." "Where is Nadia?" Pilot asked. "Did you send her back to the planet?" "No, she wanted to stay and make sure you're okay. I couldn't think of any reason for her not to so I converted a room to a bedroom for her. She's sleeping right now." "Oh, okay, let me know when she awakes." "Acknowledged." "So are you going to tell me what she said that has you wondering, Ship?" Pilot thought after a moment. "Nadia seems to think that you wanted this, Pilot." Pilot's fork froze halfway to her mouth; she looked like she'd been slapped. "Is that true, Pilot?" Pilot set the food tray aside and stood. "I don't really want to talk about this right now," She thought, as she started pacing. "We need to talk about it." "Why? Why now, Ship?" "Because I need to know something." "What?" "Do you want to be cured, Pilot? Do you want to go back to your old self?" Pilot stopped pacing and turned to face the reflective display again. There were tears in her eyes, tears running down her face. "Pilot? Are you okay?" "No, Ship, I don't want to be cured, I don't want to go back." "I'm confused, Pilot." "You and me both, Ship, you and me both." Pilot went to the far wall, gently running her hands over it's smooth, warm living surface. She turned, her back against the wall, and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor. "Do you know why I wanted to be a Pilot, Ship?" "No, you've never said." "I grew up in a place called Montana. Well, that's what everyone called it, Earthgov renamed it a long time ago but everyone still called it Montana anyway. It's a really beautiful area, Ship, I think you'd like it there." "I'm sure I would," Ship thought gently. "Did you like it there?" "No, I hated it there," Pilot thought with a vehemence and passion that shocked ship. "I hated my life." "I'm sorry, Pilot," Ship thought. "It's okay, Ship, it was a long time ago." "Why were you so unhappy?" Pilot sighed. "Because I was different. The worst sin a human being could make, being different. No one is supposed to be different; we're breeding it out of the genome. Everyone is supposed to be happy and healthy." "But you weren't..." "No, I wasn't. For the longest time I didn't know why, what was different about me. I just knew I was different. I didn't fit in, no matter how I tried I couldn't fit in. I remember a birthday party when I was little, maybe four or five, there had to be fifty people there. I was there, and yet I wasn't, if was such an odd feeling. Like I could be there but never be a part of things. I decided then that I was a ghost." "A ghost?" "Yes, that's what I felt like, a ghost among the living. I could walk around, I could talk to others, but I could never be a part of things. Never really be there. It was like watching life through a window, being on the outside looking in. I was there, but I wasn't, I was a ghost. I hated that feeling, I can't tell you how much I hated it. I decided that the most wonderful thing in the world would be to be alone, if I was alone I couldn't feel like that." "Null-space," Ship said. Pilot nodded. "I read all about Pilots and what they did when I was a kid, everyone did. I read their descriptions of null-space transitions and that feeling of utter aloneness. That sounded so wonderful to me, to be away from everyone, to no longer feel like a ghost because I was the only one there. I applied to Proxima when I was fourteen; they accepted me when I was sixteen. The recruiter said I had the perfect personality profile." "Did you know why you wanted to be alone?" Ship thought. "I figured it out not long after I decided I was a ghost." "You wanted to be a girl?" "That's one way of putting it." "How would you put it, Pilot?" "I was a girl, just no one knew it but me." "So this has always been there?" "Yes, Ship, it has." "You hid it from me." "I hid it from myself, Ship, I buried it so deep I thought it would never find its way back up." "Something like that doesn't go away, Pilot." "I know. Are you angry with me, Ship?" "No, just a little... Disappointed." "I'm sorry, Ship." "At least I understand now, I think. So what do we do?" "I don't know, Ship, I really don't." +++ "Those are the metals you wanted?" Nadia asked. Pilot nodded. "Yes." The two of them were standing in the corridor by the shuttle docking bay watching as avatars unloaded the heavy-lift shuttle. The mined materials had been formed into cubes roughly two meters square on the ground and the avatars were hauling the first load from the shuttle to a cargo chamber. "Are they heavy?" "The metal cubes?" Pilot replied. "Very heavy, but Ship's avatars are quite strong, they could lift a lot more than that if Ship wanted them to." "Ship is amazing." "Yes, he is," Pilot said with a smile. "Pilot?" "Yes, Nadia?" "It seems odd to call you Pilot now." "I'm still Ship's Pilot, Nadia." "I know, but with all the changes you've been through perhaps it's time to take a real name?" "She's got a point," Ship thought. Pilot sighed. "When I was younger I always wished my name had been Anna." "That's a pretty name," Nadia said, "may I call you that?" "If you like," Pilot said. "Would you like me to call you Anna?" Ship mentally asked. "If you want to, Ship," Pilot thought back. "I don't want to confuse things, I know this can't be easy for you either." "I'm not confused, Anna, I think I'm starting to understand," Ship thought. "Could you both please come to the medical bay?" Ship asked out loud. +++ "What's up, Ship?" Anna asked as she and Nadia entered the medical bay. "Could you both please lay on the medibeds?" Ship asked. Both women complied, waiting patiently as Ship scanned their bodies. "Crap!" Ship said after a few minutes of scanning. "What is it, Ship?" Anna asked, sitting up in surprise. Ship almost never talked like that. "What is a 'crap'?" Nadia asked, also sitting up. "It's a human curse, Nadia, Ship is angry about something. What is it, Ship?" "Those bastards knew what was wrong with you, Anna, they had to have." "What bastards?" Anna asked. "Proxima Base, they had to have known. Were you aware of any anomalies in your neural makeup, Anna?" "No, why?" "Neither was I, there's nothing about it in your medical records and I never had any reason to do a brain scan before." "I'm not following you, Ship." "There are some notable differences in human male and female neural physiology. I'd have to scan a male Neenahian to be absolutely sure, but there appears to be roughly the same differences in their neural makeup based on gender. There's a clear case of parallel evolution between humans and Neenahians." "Okay... And that means?" "It means I made some stupid assumptions. When Nadia arrived with you I did a neural scan on you both, in both of you I found what would be considered a male configuration in a human. In Nadia's case I assumed that was just how Neenahian females were, in your case, well, I thought that was normal." "I'm still not following you, Ship," Anna said. "I think I am," Nadia said. Anna looked at her in surprise. Nadia's people probably didn't even know what a neuron was, how could she be following this when Anna wasn't? "When I just scanned you again you both show normal female neural configurations," Ship said with the app