Ashley couldn't help but take a good look at Alice as she walked towards her along the long padded railing guarding the edge of the top level overlooking the massive park and garden. It took only weeks for the woman looking over the Botanical Gallery to become as iconic and well known on the Triton as the Captain himself. Overhead was the holographic facade that simulated a calm evening. The false sky was starry, featuring a waning moon crossed by a few white clouds, the digital representation warned anyone inside that the massive botanical gallery would be watered soon. It would be raining in just under an hour.
Alice was in her old fashioned flight jacket, a weathered garment that looked like it was made of real leather. Her sidearm, the same heavy weapon the Captain used, was strapped to her leg, and her brown hair hung around her shoulders, stirring a little in the slight breeze. She was as mysterious as the Captain. Looking at her, listening to her getting along with the night crew on the bridge when she was around for the early portion of the evening shift demonstrated two sides of the woman that were distinct, completely separate.
On one hand she was a calculating commander, always watching the general status display. On the other she was easy going, didn't mind having a laugh with the bridge staff as long as they were still doing their jobs. The real puzzle was that she could switch between the two at a moment's notice. That was the only part of Alice's personality that convinced Ashley that she was once an artificial intelligence.
Other than that, she was a confident, intelligent, often charming woman. If Ashley could choose a big sister, or even a young mother, it would be Alice. She was noticed as she came within a few meters of her and Alice looked up from the view below and gave her a slight smile before returning her attention to the people far below.
“I tried finding you at your old spot, but they put a table there,” Ashley shrugged as she closed the distance and settled in beside the other woman, leaning on the tall railing. The top of the rail was thinly padded with transparesteel panels beneath.
“Everything all right?”
“Yup, just thought I'd say hello on my off hours. Not that I really have off hours now. I feel like I'm always attached to the bridge.”
“That happens when you're the Master of the Helm, especially on a ship this size. How are you finding it?”
“The other helmspeople always have questions. It keeps me learning about this ship. It's challenging, I like it though. How do you like being acting Captain?”
“It's different. I envied Jonas' experience on the First Light before, learned a lot from him in a short time. It's surprising how much of it just comes back to you even though it feels like that was a different life. Part of me loves being at the center of things, but sometimes I miss the Clever Dream. There was nothing like being on a fast ship bound for wherever I wanted, not that it was safe, but it felt freeing.”
“That's how I felt when Captain let me loose on the Samson. I wasn't picking what star to go to or anything, but we didn't see many places more than once. Feels like a lifetime ago.”
The pair stood in silence, looking down at the Botanical Gallery's East Park. It stretched across the center of the ship, finally grown in with banyan, peach, apple, pear and plum trees. There were so many other plants lining the paths, interrupting the dark green sections of grass, and maturing in multi-levelled hydroponic stands. The majority of the crew was at rest while the remainder were performing maintenance, training, or keeping their watches.
The garden was as much of a social place as any, especially for crewmembers who had befriended the few civilians aboard. Something Ashley had neglected to do. Crew members who had planetside clothes often wore them in the garden. The old fashioned manual instruments came out too; flutes, guitars, she'd even seen a violin. The last time she'd taken a walk there were three musicians teaching each other to play a song called freedom. One tall woman was a violinist, the instrument seemed like a part of her when they finally played the tune, the melody seemed simple to her and after the first chorus she spun, whirling her floral skirts outward, revealing that underneath she still wore her vacsuit, even though it was reshaped so her shoulders and arms were bare.
The other two were guitarists, the one teaching was one of the new starfighter pilots, a soft spoken fighter jock from the far outer fringes who had come aboard during her recruiting run. She hadn't noticed him before, when he was just a part of the crowd. He was bald then, and as she watched him quietly show the other two musicians their parts she noticed stubble on the top of his head.
He had given up the clothing he wore for one of the black vacsuits, which hadn't been marked with a full skull and letters just yet. It took time for fighter pilots to become full crew on Triton, mostly because of the mandatory qualifiers one had to complete and pass before being assigned or paid.
Ashley's mind was drawn back to the present as Alice broke the relative silence;“It's strange not having him here. We've been working closely together for almost a month now, I got used to having him in the ready quarters.”
“I miss him too, not as much as you might though.”
Alice looked at her, a little amused. “Why not? You were with him on the Samson for all that time.”
“You're right. I'm worried about him.”
“He'll be fine, it's just a pick up,” Alice reassured her.
Ashley smiled back and nodded. “I know, it's the Captain, but I always worry when someone I know goes off ship. Or at least I did on the Samson. Guess some things never change. Wish I was more like him sometimes, just setting things in motion and not worrying after.”
“He was worried about you when you took the Cold Reaver, ” Alice said quietly. “He told me you could take care of yourself more than once, even told me straight out that he was sure you'd do fine on your first recruiting run, but I could tell he was still worried.”
“Really?”
“Don't tell him I told you.”
“I'll keep that one under shirt.”
“ Under shirt, I've never heard that one.”
“Something from home, used to say it all the time in the slave quarters. Guess it's because none of us were allowed to wear hats, I dunno.”
“It must have been hard growing up there.”
“Lots of work, but I was lucky. There were laws in place protecting us from beatings and stuff. We just weren't allowed to leave the grounds without a pass. The kids on the estate were brutal though, and we couldn't do anything about it. Still, it wasn't the worst way to grow up. Stephanie had it worse on the mining colony.”
“Do you keep in touch with anyone from home?”
“Yup. While I was planetside I was able to talk to a few friends. Most of them survived the AI virus somehow. Some are missing because they were still under bond and used the opportunity to escape, but I'm pretty sure they'll pop up.”
“I guess that's a real problem for some slavers, considering a lot of security systems are run by artificial intelligences.”
A mischievous, satisfied smile crept up on Ashley's lips as she nodded; “yup. Real big problem. The escaped are probably all safe, they probably weren't standing right beside AI run systems when it all happened. A lot of the business district went up in flames though, and other automation went down, so most of the people who learned how to do things manually because it was their job are pretty valuable right about now.”
“Like the slaves.”
“Yup.”
“Funny how that works,” Alice said. “One minute they're just servants then technology goes crazy and they're the most important people on the planet. Without them everyone else would starve.”
“That's what happens. I just wish we could do a recruiting run there, I'd love to pick up some old friends.”
“Maybe sometime.”
“Aye, maybe if we're ever out there. Not much chance of it though. It's pretty far off. Sometimes I miss the slave quarters, there was always someone around, and in the household I was in it was like we were all family.”
“I couldn't imagine. For what you'd call my childhood I always had Jonas. He carried me everywhere.”
It was the first time Ashley had ever heard Alice talk about being an AI with Jonas, and it gave her the
