"Koba, where is Hurley?"
Koba extracted himself from the logic bay holding a small board. "Gotcha," he said, with a smile on his face. "Don't you want to know what I'm doing?"
"Okay. What are you doing?" said Jolo.
"I'm gonna make the Jessica obey all of your commands."
"Great, so I won't have to call down and have Hurley manually engage the jump drives."
"I think Hurley is on level IV."
Jolo found Hurley working on the right thruster mounts.
"Gotta reinforce everything from the inside. It should be stronger than before, and maybe a tad heavy. Probably just outside of fed specs." He laughed.
"Hurley, back in the day, before the wars, did you see the trivold trees in Vellos"
"I been to Vellos. Ain’t much left of it now, though. Also been to New Raceli. Tho’ I ain’t never seen no tri-hole or whatever you talking about."
"You know, the strange trees with the three large leaves. Have you seen it?"
"Ahhh, yeah I seen ‘em. Why didn't you say that in the first place?"
"How about a diamond-shaped green pool somewhere in Vellos or Raceli?"
Jolo was excited because it was the first time anyone had ever confirmed a part of his dream. He looked at the old man expectantly, waiting for the final confirmation, but the old man looked off to the side and massaged his temple with the spanner he was holding and finally just shook his head. "Nope. Ain't never seen nothing like that."
Jolo was deflated. But right then a voice behind him said, "You are talking about the Emerald pool on the moon called Montag in Vellos space."
Jolo turned around. It was his father.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I've been there. For a while there was trade between the Vellos and some of the Federation core planets. Around the time I met your mother. Before we went to Pleny to try our hand at farming."
"Are you sure?"
"I've never seen anything else like it. The Vellos said the pool had healing properties, but who knows. I'm not sure the BG left anything behind. They tore apart the Vellos and their synthetic life form production plants."
"I've got to get there. I've got to leave now." The pull that drew Jolo to Jaylen was stronger than ever now. He was going to get her if it was the last thing he did.
Just then Koba called on the comm. "Captain, can you come to the bridge? I think you can give the Jessica commands now."
At that moment, Jolo really wasn't interested in testing out the computer system. But he knew he needed to have full access to the ship if he was going to get Jaylen. Up to this point, engaging the jump drives meant someone had to run down to engineering, and even raising the shields had to be done from the console on the bridge, instead of just a simple voice command.
So he and his father went to the bridge and met Koba and Katy.
"Computer, close the door to the bridge," said Jolo. The door to the bridge slid shut. Koba smiled.
"Computer pull up the star map." And the 3D star map appeared.
"Computer raise shields."
But the shields did not go up.
"Computer, this is Captain Vargas. Raise the shields."
"Captain Jolo Vargas is deceased." Came the reply from ship’s computer.
Koba scratched his head. "Well, obviously it's only accepting a subset of the total commands which require less permissions. I also gave bridge officers some authority as well. Katy you try."
"Raise the shields," Katy said. And instantly there was an electric hum and the air got tingly around them as the forward shields kicked in and the field surrounded the ship.
And then Koba said, "Lower shields." And just like that the hum was gone.
"Well, that's a pisser," said Hurley.
"It sure is strange," said Koba. "It's almost like the ship thinks you're dead."
"Brilliant deduction," said Katy.
"Let's do a test," said Koba. "Computer, how many deceased humans are aboard this ship?"
"There are no deceased humans aboard this ship."
Koba shrugged.
"How many humans are aboard this ship?" said Koba.
"Four."
"Well, there's five of us here," said Marco. But everyone was looking at Jolo. He sat in the captain’s chair not knowing quite what to make of it.
But then Koba asked the question that everyone was afraid to ask. "Computer, how many synthetic life forms are aboard the ship?"
Jolo jumped up and grabbed a fist full of Koba’s shirt and pulled him close. "If you’re still pissed ‘cause I shot you then get over it. If you’d a raised the shields we’d all be on a work planet right now. All those kids from Qualus, too." He let go and Koba stepped back, straightened his shirt out and adjusted his glasses.
And then the computer replied: "One."
Jolo dropped the gun. How could this be? He thought. Katy came and put her arm around him.
But then Jolo's father spoke up. "Jolo is no synth." And then he got on the comm. "George, are you on the ship again? I told you not to board the ship. If you are here come on up to the bridge."
A moment later a man walked in that no one had yet seen. His skin was nearly opaque and he had piercing blue eyes. His movements were graceful but when he stopped it was as if he was made of stone and then all at once movement started again. "This here’s George," said Marco. "He’s a big help around here and a true friend. And he happens to be a synthetic."
Katy stepped back suspiciously.
George stepped into the middle of the circle of people, clearly enjoying the attention.
"My name is George. I am a synthetic life form, as Mr. Marco pointed out. Though you may not have noticed. You may think I am human, but alas, I am not." And he smiled at everyone and did
