“I think we do,” he said. “Paul, keep working.”
“I need to go to the server room to access IAN at the source,” Paul said, and left the room.
Hiro stood, alone in the room where many of them had died. He wanted to dive again. But he looked at the drop of blood on his sleeve and shook his head. No one had given him an order. So he followed Katrina and Wolfgang.
It hadn’t been Maria’s decision to join the starship Dormire’s crew. It certainly was a great opportunity; it was the first human generational ship to leave Earth for better skies. It wouldn’t be the last, or that’s what her parole officer had said. But she had said a lot of things.
Things like, “Help crew this ship, don’t mess anything up, and you’ll be pardoned at the end. Your entire record will be wiped.” And, “Of course your crewmates aren’t all dangerous criminals. The AI is designed to take over if someone decides to mutiny. It’s completely safe.” And, “All right, there may be some violent criminals aboard, but remember we have several safeguards in place.” And, “Hey, for a clone with three life sentences on your head, this is the best prison you’ll ever get a chance to be in. And full pardon!”
It sounded like a great deal, but she knew the timeless reason criminals crewed this ship: cheap labor. Anyone reputable would have charged a fortune to crew a starship for generations. Financiers had to cut costs where they could.
And now they were well and truly alone out here. With the first death sentence any of them had experienced.
“No one aboard will know your crimes. Think of this as your new start,” the parole officer had said. She couldn’t have known the irony of that statement, but it still burned Maria.
“Is keeping that secret a rule or guideline?” Maria had asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“It’s a rule. No one is to discuss their pasts.”
“And how will they police that?”
“The AI will be listening.”
“Lovely.”
But it still sounded better than prison.
Maria had wondered if part of her punishment was to be the lowest-ranking person on the ship. Everyone else had a good job, while hers involved general maintenance, cook duties, and common-area cleaning. A janitor/cook/handywoman. Although admittedly she didn’t have experience at any high-level military ranks, or driving a spaceship. Taking care of the incidentals was something she could do.
And there were a lot of incidentals.
The Dormire consisted largely of engines, a mile-square solar sail, water and air scrubbers, server farms, recyclers, bio spaces, and millions of gallons of a synthetic, protein-rich material called Formula CL-20465-F. Trademark Lyfe.
The creation of Lyfe had done much to help with starvation problems on Earth, because if a town could afford the specific printer and a supply of Lyfe, which was very cheap to make, it could print almost any food. The printer was a highly sophisticated machine that could break down food, study it on the molecular level, and re-create it almost exactly, provided it had the right protein and vitamin strands. The up-front cost was huge, but long-term cost was minimal.
Religious arguments against cloning started early when scientists used Lyfe—previously considered to be just a food source—to create the first clones in actual adult human bodies that waited for mindmaps to wake them. The clones, however, were grateful to avoid childhood and the pain of puberty multiple times.
Considering the trip to their new home was going to take several lifetimes, the clones needed enough Lyfe to cover all their organic needs on the ship as well as for any new bodies they would grow to continue their lives. When they arrived at their new planet, the crew’s mission changed to start the massive job of printing bodies for all the new clones and waking up the sleeping humans. Then they would be free citizens.
The Dormire was a cylindrical ship that created gravity by spinning. The crew lived on an inner ring that had a gravity slightly above Luna’s, and below Earth’s. This was primarily for the Luna-born Wolfgang who would be in constant discomfort if they resided on the outer rings, which rotated between one and two g’s, depending on the floor. As the size of each subsequent concentric floor grew, so did the speed it traveled around the hub, and so did the gravity. While the innermost floors were comfortable, the middle floors that held the massive computer banks and the air and water scrubbers were closer to Earth’s gravity; the outermost ring held more cargo needed at the other end of the voyage.
In Maria’s opinion, the most important cargo they carried was the biomass Lyfe from which all the newly cloned bodies came.
Of course, Lyfe was next to useless if they didn’t fix the cloning bay. Her stomach growled and she realized it still had one very good use. She headed for the kitchen.
If she couldn’t help, at least she could cook.
Failures
Neither of them sat. They sized each other up, backs tense, as if waiting for the other to strike first.
Hiro had followed at a distance. The captain and her first mate had spoken with such gravity that he couldn’t resist. He stood just outside the door and listened.
The captain spoke first. “I am very close to placing you under arrest. Tell me why I shouldn’t.”
“Really,” Wolfgang said.
“You are the only confirmed murderer on board. Don’t try to be surprised that I recognized you. It’s funny you don’t try to hide yourself. You don’t really blend in,” she said. “I know who you are and what you did. The murder of five people, and then—the really telling point—the sabotage of our cloning tech points entirely to you.”
Hiro took a step back from the door. The captain knew Wolfgang and his crimes. Why was she keeping it a secret? He’d also been right to be afraid of the intense security chief. Hiro tried to think of a famous clone who was Luna-born tall with white hair. That was the problem with being alive for generations: You see a lot of people.
Wolfgang sounded tense but not worried. “Funny that you point the finger at me. I’m not the one wanted in seventeen countries.”
The captain laughed. “As I remember, a few of those countries would like a word with you too. And I can’t think of why I would sabotage cloning tech. I like clones.”
“Is that so? How many clones did you kill?” Wolfgang asked. “I only heard your reputation, not a number.”
“I was a soldier, Wolfgang. What’s your excuse?”
“I meant your number after you left the army.”
“Again,” she said with an edge to her voice. “Regardless of who I killed, I didn’t have a grudge against all of clonekind driving me.”
“You had your reasons. I had mine. What we both did was still murder. But that was a long time ago. And I accepted the gift of this journey: a clean slate. You’re not even supposed to bring past crimes up.”