Published: 31 Jan 2019

As I came back to life in my hyper sleep chamber, I couldn’t see much of anything but blurred patches of color from the chamber’s control panel. My ears however, seemed to be working fine as they were assaulted by the bray of alarms resounding off of the ship’s tritanium bulkheads. Immediate panic flooded through me and I groggily fumbled on the controls until I got the lid open. I tried to sit up but found I could not get much response from anything but my arms. This made no sense, and the alarms, coupled with my panic, were making it even more confusing. In all the 90 years I’ve had this ship, the AI had never brought me around this fast. Even in my old ship, the Desolation, I was always fully aware and functional by the time the chamber’s canopy opened.

Something wasn’t right and I couldn’t figure out why the hibernation effects of the chamber hadn’t worn off yet. Slowing the body for hyper sleep is no more uncomfortable than just going to sleep. Speeding it back up is a whole other story. I understand from the medics that it’s kind of like recovering from what they called ‘anesthesia’ in the 20th century. Only it’s about ten to twenty times stronger and takes a lot to wake up if tried quickly in an emergency.

The only thing that would cause the AI to wake me this fast was an extreme emergency that even it couldn’t figure out. This thought panicked me to the point that my own adrenaline overrode some of the sleep effects, allowing me to wrench myself to a sitting position. There was little my AI couldn’t deal with so it must be really bad this time. Finally my brain was alert enough to register Chip’s voice over the intercom.

“Dad, wake up! I need you on the bridge!”

“What is it?! Why the sudden wake up? WHAT’S WRONG?!”

“I DON’T KNOW! That’s why I need you on the bridge!”

I yanked myself upright by sheer willpower, the sleep inducer ripping from my temple as I did. A wave of nausea washed over me and I almost dropped to the floor. Grabbing the edge of the sleep chamber, I managed to keep my feet under me. Leaning heavily against the chamber I fumbled in the bedside med tray for the ‘Wake-Up Juice’. This stuff forces the body back to a fully functional level in about five to ten seconds. I hate using it though because of its after effects. It only lasts about an hour before I crash. Then I spend several hours in a fog coming back to life naturally. I keep it around only for emergencies, and this appeared, to my muddled mind, to be a big one. Jamming the infuser against my neck, I activated it and came back to the land of the living as a rush of wonder drug pumped through my body. Damn! I know I’ll pay for this later.

“DAD. . come on! Hurry!”

“Okay Chip, calm down. I’m on my way!”

As a holographic program, Chip does just fine, most of the time. I’ve found though that he has the same problem with emotion my real son had. Chip always got flustered under pressure. Hey, don’t take me wrong. He was always a bright kid, and given enough time, I’m sure he would have worked it out. The hologram on the other hand has never quite gotten the hang of the emotion emulator package I included as part of its program. So he still gets flustered under pressure.

“Computer! Why did you wake me so quickly and what’s this emergency?”

“The hologram is responsible for the abrupt revival, and there is no true emergency.”

“WHAT?!” I screamed. “How’s that possible?!”

“The hologram overrode the controls for your hyper sleep chamber when an unidentifiable ship appeared on the long range scanners.”

I suddenly realized I was screaming over the still blaring alarms.

“Silence alarms!” I yelled, and seconds later all went silent except for the ringing in my ears. As I made my way to the bridge, I glanced out one of the view ports and saw that the ship had dropped back to normal space.

“Chip, why did we slow down and what’s this all about?” I asked as I lurched onto the bridge in my boxers and t-shirt.

“There’s something in front of us and I was afraid we would run into it, so I told the computer to slow down.”

“What do you mean ‘in front of us’? There are lots of things out there in front of us!”. . . “Wait a minute, YOU told the computer to slow down!?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Computer!” I said turning to look at the main console.

“Yes.”

“Why are you taking orders from Chip?”

“You have never told me not to.” The computer stated flatly and without emotion.

“Good God! He’s a holographic program! How can you take orders from another program! You’re the AI! YOU run this ship, not him!”

“There are no instructions in my data banks regarding interaction with the hologram known as Chip. The only information I could use was my observation of your own interaction with it. I simply acted as I believed you would do yourself.”

“Okay, Okay! How’s this? From now on you are to accept NO instruction from Chip unless I have specifically instructed you to do so! Is that clear enough?!”

“Affirmative.”

“As for you young man. . .” I started to say as I again turned to look at Chip. When I did so, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Chip was standing there red faced with tears in his eyes.

“Ah Chip. . . I didn’t mean it that way. I forget sometimes about that emotions emulator. We’ll get this sorted out later. We’ll sit down and talk about it, okay?”

“I was afraid and I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“I understand that now and I’m sorry. We’ll talk about it later, okay. Right now answer my questions and lets get this ‘thing’ in front of us sorted out.”

“Well, okay, it’s right in our path, or at least it will be by the time we get there.”

“Couldn’t you just tell the computer to go around it? Oh well, never mind that now. What is this ‘IT’ anyway? Is it an asteroid, a comet, another ship?”

“I know it’s neither of the first two. It might be a ship, at least that stupid AI claims it is. But it doesn’t match any ship on the standard galactic registry, so I don’t see how it can tell.” Chip said sarcastically, glancing towards the computer interface. “Computer, what is this ‘thing’ out there?”

“A ship.”

“What class? Give me its registry!”

“Unable to comply.”

“Explain.”

“Ship is of unknown origin.”

“How do you know it’s a ship then?”

“It falls within the evidentiary category fitting a ships specification.”

“Clarify.”

“Ship is of metallic components known on earth, has low level energy output matching earth standards, and contains life signs.”

“Why can’t you identify it then?”

“Ship matches no known registry.”

“So Chip’s right. . . you don’t really know.”

“There is a 99.73658 percent chance. . .”

“Oh never mind! I should have known better than to argue with an AI, let me take a look. Put it up on the main screen.”

“Negative. Ship is still out of visual range.”

“What ever! Give it to me on the long range scanners then!”

I walked over to read what the sensors were picking up. The fact that we were still out of visual range didn’t bother me. A ship the size of mine, out here in space doesn’t exactly stop on an atom. Once you build up to full speed, it takes quite a while to slow down again. What did bother me was that my AI couldn’t identify this ship thing out there. After a hundred years, there’s little we haven’t seen. With the galactic registry, which I just updated at our last port, tied in, there should have been virtually nothing it couldn’t identify.

“Sorry Chip, the AI’s right. The readings are clear; chemical, metallic, low level energy, size and displacement, even the life signs are there but. . . huh. . . that’s odd. . . no engines. ” I said as I studied the sensor readings.

“Yeah, okay, okay. I make out three life signs but they’re really faint. ” Chip answered.

“How faint? Like they could maybe be fake?”

“I don’t think so. They’re faint but steady. Wow, there are readings of decay and failing power all over that thing.”

“Yeah you’re right Chip, funny though; these readings seem really familiar for some reason. I wish I could actually see the thing. Computer, how much longer till we’re in visual range?”

“35.476 minutes.”

“Okay. Look, both of you keep a close watch on that thing and let me know if anything changes or you see anything odd about it. I’m going to go take a shower and put on some real clothes. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

“Affirmative.”

“Sure thing dad.”

“You be sure and let me know right away if that thing so much as twitches in our direction!”

“Got it! You want the shields up?” Chip asked as I started to leave.

“Holy gees kid! You mean they aren’t!? That’s the first thing you should have called for after shutting down the W.I.E.R.D.!”

“Yeah, I know! But that stupid computer wouldn’t let me!”

“Computer, why didn’t you put up the shields when ordered?”

“There were no weapons registering and no other ships in the area. Protocol did not dictate shields.”

“Let me get this straight. You let Chip override my hyper sleep chamber but you wouldn’t let him put the shields up. How does that make any sense?”

“As I stated, there was no protocol for interaction with the hologram, and your being awakened did not pose a risk to your health. Protocol dictated no need for shields at the time.”

I could feel the early stages of a headache coming on and things were starting to waver and shift in my vision. The walls and floor were starting to tilt and sway as well. These were clear signs that the ‘Wake-up Juice’ was wearing off. I wasn’t going to be able to continue this argument much longer.

“Computer, raise shields at max and charge up the laser turrets as well.”

“Affirmative.”

“Chip, stay out of trouble. I need some coffee and a shower. I’ll be back in a half hour.”

“Okay dad, I’ll try.”

You may think I’m crazy or maybe just paranoid with all these precautions, but I know how it is out here. After all the advances we’ve made since the seafaring days, you would think we would have outgrown our war-like traits. However, like those men of old who plied the oceans of earth in wooden ships, we still have pirates that will kill for a good cargo. And the fact that this ship out there is still unidentified has got me jumpy.

As I made my way slowly down the passages to my quarters, I kept rerunning the sensor data through my mind. Trying to filter it past the increasing fog in my muddled brain, was like trying to walk through molasses. There was something there I knew I should see, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I slugged down a cup of black coffee as I stripped and headed for the shower. Between the two I was clearer than before, but the whole time I was dressing I had the oddest feeling of déjà-vu, kind of like watching something out of a video. . . NO. . . it couldn’t be! That’s just not possible! Could it really be that simple a solution? I left my cabin at a dead run for the bridge. But in my state, I was still foggy and didn’t even see the cleaner bot. Tripping, I was sent tumbling. I felt my head hit one of the structural pylons and went out like a light.

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