Published: 7 Feb 2019
Flashback
“Dad…Dad…Dad! Come on, wake up! Please wake up dad!
I finally wrenched my eyes open and found Chip and a medibot looking down at me. I slowly moved my head to look around and felt a sharp pain on the side of it above and behind my ear. I could now see I was in the infirmary and couldn’t figure out how I got there.
“What happened? How did I get here? God my head hurts!”
“This will help the pain sir.” The medibot said pressing an infuser to my neck. “Now lay still and I’ll finish repairing your injury.” The pain disappeared almost at once and the medibot began applying a dermal regenerator across the side of my head.
“The cleaner drone signaled the bridge of an emergency.” Chip started. “When I got there, you were against the wall and there was blood all over the place. I got the medibot and it moved you here.”
“Thanks my little man. How long have I been out?”
“Almost 2 hours.” Chip said in a quavering voice.
“Don’t worry Chip, the medibot will fix me up just fine, right?” I said turning from Chip to look up at the medibot.
“Yes sir. You will need some rest but there is no lasting damage.” it replied.
I felt really stupid now and as I had predicted earlier, I was paying for using the ‘Wake-up Juice’. I should not have tried to push myself like that. I was not fully functional, but to trip over a stupid cleaner drone was just plain dumb and foolish. Then to crack my skull on the wall was even worse. I had to just chalk it up to karma and move on though.
“Computer, where did I put the backup drive with all the old history files on it? You know, the one I used when I wanted to put Chips program in and didn’t have enough room? The one you insisted that I make instead of just dumping the files?”
“The drive in question is located on level 17, cargo area 353, storage container 31F, on the top…”
“Okay, okay! Enough! Just send a cargo bot to get it and bring it to the bridge as quickly as possible.”
“Affirmative.”
“Chip, you go down there too and make sure it’s right.”
“Have you figured out that ship out there?” Chip asked.
“I’m not sure yet. Maybe, but it’ll beat all if I’m right. Now get going and I’ll meet you on the bridge when I’m done here, kay?”
“You got it dad.” Chip said and disappeared out the door.
As soon as the medibot was finished I made my way carefully to the bridge, looking out each viewport I passed, trying to see the other ship. I couldn’t understand why it was nowhere to be seen.
“Computer, where’s that ship? Why can’t I see it out any of the view ports?” I asked as I arrived on the bridge.
“We are just now entering visual sensor range.”
“Why the hell aren’t we there yet? I’ve been out for two hours! Added to my shower and dressing time that’s almost two and a half hours! You should’ve brought us right along side by now! What is happening on this ship?”
“My systems have been overridden and shutdown for almost that exact amount of time.”
“WHAT? HOW? WHEN? BY WHO?”
“There is a two hour and ten minute gap in my memory banks which starts shortly after you were discovered and ends just a few minutes ago. As far as my data is intact, you used your own override code to shut down my systems. No further information is available.”
I just stood there gaping at the computer console. I didn’t have a clue how my Al could be overridden with my own code and have it’s systems tampered with when I had been unconscious the entire time. I am certain I am the only one on this ship with that kind of clearance, so there had to be an intruder on board. It was the only thing that made any sense.
“Computer, run a priority one scan of this ship from end to end and top to bottom for any life signs other than my own, and I mean ANY signs including anomalies.”
“Affirmative, this will take 19.78529 minutes to complete.”
“That’s fine, just let me know as soon as it’s done. Now put that other ship on the main screen and let me take a look.”
“Ship coming onto main screen using maximum settings. The image will not be in clear focus yet.”
“Whatever, just do it. I want to see that thing, NOW!”
Looking at the fuzzy image on the main viewer I almost decided I was wrong. That thing did look a lot like a big hunk of space junk just floating around out there. As I rechecked the sensor reading, and watched the image get better little by little as we moved closer, I made up my mind that I was correct after all. The sensors were still reading no weapons, which was a good sign. I could easily make out the engines now and they read as either totally offline or dead. Power read from minimal to failing to dead, which was a bad sign, except for three spots where the now distinct life signs registered. Those signs were clear but very subdued, just like what would be expected from hyper sleep chambers. What I was seeing convinced me I was right and that this was no hunk of space junk. Space junk almost never has life signs, and even when it does they are clearly parasitic! All that was left was to confirm it from the history files when they got to the bridge.
“Chip, where are you?” I said punching the comlink.
“Just down the hall now. We’ll be there in just a minute.”
When the small cargo bot floated in with the old backup drive unit I grabbed it and shoved it into one of the universal ports.
“Computer, access history drive and tie in all sensor data from that ship out there. Search for anything matching the readings, or similar to them.”
“Affirmative.”
“Chip, you can watch the scan too. Let me know if you see anything, okay.”
“Sure thing dad.” I always try and give Chip things he can do. Even though he’s a hologram, it keeps his emotions emulator happy and makes me feel more like my son is really there with me.
“Priority one ship scan complete. The only life signs aboard other than you are in cargo bay 25Q and are contained in stasis.” The computer suddenly stated.
“Thank you, that’s all for now on that issue. Continue with history scan.” I responded, thankful to have at least that much off my mind.
“Affirmative.”
“What’s that all about dad?”
“The Al reported a blank in its memory of over two hours and tells me it’s systems were overridden with my own pass code. I thought we might have an intruder on board.”
Chip did not respond nor ask any further questions. I looked over at him and he was deliberately refusing to look at me. In fact, he wasn’t looking anywhere but down at the computer station where he stood.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you Chip?” I asked, suspicion growing in my mind. Chip turned away from me and did not answer.
“Well! How about it Chip? I want an answer and I want it now.”
Finally Chip turned around to face me, his face red with both embarrassment and anger.”Well, it’s that stupid computer’s fault! You were hurt and all it wanted to do was keep flying straight at that ship out there. What if it was dangerous? But would that stupid computer listen to me? NO! I had no other choice! I wasn’t going to let it put you in danger!”
“Okay Chip, I get that…but…HOW? You are after all just a program! How did you override the AI?”
“That’s my secret and I’m not telling you until that stupid computer stops calling me “The Hologram” and treating me like I don’t exist!”
And that was that. Nothing I said would get Chip to tell me his secret. It was either take him offline completely or live with it for now. I couldn’t bear to lose Chip again so I just moved on for the time being.
“Never mind for now Chip, we’ll talk about it later. Has the search of the history files come up with anything yet?”
“Yeah, several possibilities, but nothing definite.” he said, returning to the computer station.
“Well, let’s take a look at those possibilities then. Computer, put them up on the main screen.” The image on the main viewer immediately shrunk to half the screen and images started passing over the other half. These were really old ships, and many of the images were of poor quality and out of focus. It took almost twenty minutes but I finally saw what I wanted. “Computer stop! Back up two images.”
“Is that it dad?” Chip asked.
“Yep! That’s it! It’s got to be! It’s not exactly the same model but it’s got to be right. It can’t be anything else. Do you know what that is Chip?”
“Well, the history file calls it a ‘Sleeper Ship’ but I don’t know what that is.”
“That’s exactly right! Damn, I knew I should have restored these history files when I upgraded the memory core.”
“So what is a ‘Sleeper Ship’ anyway?” Chip asked.
“Computer, is there anything in the history files under the title ‘Sleeper Ship’?”
“Affirmative. There is a vid file on the subject.”
“Play file!” I said in excitement.
“It’s not so much a ‘What is’ really, as it is a ‘What was’ a ‘Sleeper Ship’ Chip. Watch this vid and it’ll explain.”
The main viewer went blank for a moment and then came back to life with an image of a line of people boarding an old spacecraft from a space dock.
“Here we see the sleeper ship ‘Adventurer’ being boarded by its human cargo. It is the late 22nd century, and earth’s population has reached the point of non-sustainability. This news media footage was taken at the height of the government’s space colonization campaign. The discovery of hyper sleep technology around the middle of the 22nd century allowed humans to be placed in hibernative suspension for the extended periods of time necessary to reach the new worlds they would now call home. Each ship carries all the necessary supplies and equipment the sleepers will need to begin building their new world.” Now the scene switched to an interior view as the narrator droned on.
“Here we see individuals being readied for their extended sleep. Each person is placed into a chamber and connected to the monitoring devices. This ship will spend nearly 200 years in flight before reaching its final destination. During that time..”
As the vid continued I suddenly realized that I had seen this vid just an hour or so ago while I was dreaming. I must have seen it years ago and my mind brought back the answer to all the questions I had been dealing with because of this ship out there.
“Do you understand now what we have out there Chip?” I asked as the vid ended.
“Yeah, sort of. But there were hundreds of people going onto that ship in the vid. There are only three life signs out there now. Wouldn’t it take a lot more than that to build a new world?”
“Of course it would kiddo. If I remember right, even the smallest ships carried 150 people. They would have been the advance crew, would set up shelters and gotten started building the necessary plants for heating, power, food, etc. The really big ships of 5,000 to 10,000 people, and some even bigger, would arrive later.”
“Then what happened to this one do you suppose? Chip inquired.
“Well, I’m just guessing mind you, but there’s something that vid left out. You see, once the tech for those ships got out, everybody, and their uncles too, started building them. They mostly copied the smaller ships because it was faster and less expensive. The problem was that there were a lot of dishonest people in the market for nothing more than a quick buck. They cut corners to keep their costs down but still charged huge prices for their products.
“There were a lot of ships turned out and sent into space that were nothing more than cheap junk. One of the main corners they cut was the guidance system and computers, which were also cheap crap. Some ships crashed into things while others wandered off into deep space never to be seen again. Still others arrived at worlds that were totally uninhabitable and had to turn around and go back.”
“How could something like that happen? Wouldn’t the law have stopped them? Made them fix things?” Chip asked.
“Yes and no. Sometimes they did get found out and shut down, but not often. Earth was desperate to solve its problems. People were starving to death in large numbers. There was little space to even move or breathe. Disease was rampant and couldn’t be stopped in those cramped settings. The government looked the other way a lot and figured those who were lost to space would have died on earth anyhow.”
“That’s terrible! Did anyone ever go looking for any of the lost ships? Have any others ever been found?”
They did look for a while but after a couple hundred years it got forgotten and earth moved on. In fact, this is the first one I’ve heard of being found in over 300 years. In my 138 years, I’ve never even seen one in anything but old vids. That’s what I was remembering that made me feel this ship looked familiar.”
“You mean those people over there could be a thousand years old?” Chip said in amazement.”Yep! I’d say more like 1200 to 1300 years old, but we’ll only know for sure if we can get anything out of their computer.”
“You aren’t going over there, are you?!”
“Yes, of course l am! Look at those readings. If we don’t get them out of there they will die. We can’t just leave them there. It wouldn’t be right to let them die now, not after all the years they’ve survived, would it?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. We’ve got to at least try.”
“That’s my boy. Computer, bring us alongside that ship. Match course and drift with it.”
“Affirmative.”
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