Steve’s shorts: Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers, Part Three…
[Note from Steve: This sci-fi story is in four parts. Enjoy.]
Dr. Carlos and the Ship of Sleepers
Copyright 2020, Steven M. Moore
Obregon discovered that the number of people in cryounits was fifteen. Together with the mummified bodies found in Hope’s C&C, that made twenty Humans who had manned shifts where they would periodically wake up and check the ship’s systems and its precious cargo. Unlike the three previous colony ships, Hope carried mostly potential Humans—thousands of frozen fetuses, ova, and sperm would provide ample genetic diversity for a new colony. Only the colonization of the planet had never occurred. And why didn’t it? What went wrong?
He left those questions for the techies. Instead, he selected the first person to wake, Captain Josh Irving. He seemed to be the logical choice.
Obregon had to perform the task manually. The ship’s clock was stuck and its primitive AI dead. While the techies tried to figure out what had happened—better still, why the five awake and on duty couldn’t fix the problem or save themselves—Obregon and his staff had work to do.
***
“I don’t understand,” Irving said.
Obregon was sitting with him in the snack galley of Brendan, having left the other medics in his staff to continue with the process of waking up the other fourteen. The man was sipping tea; Obregon was watching him carefully for side effects. Some people out of cryo could have spasms long after being revived, something doctors called “cold epilepsy”; others could have mental problems, even dementia. Most did well, though.
“Which part?”
Obregon had explained how many centuries had passed since the Tali invasion of Earth, and how Brendan had come upon Hope. He’d also provided an all too brief summary of near-Earth history since Hope had left the Sol system.
“A lot of things. How did this Swarm come into being?”
“Ah.” The first encounter with that collective intelligence had occurred after the invention of the superstring drive. “We don’t exactly know. It’s sealed itself off now, and swallowed the Shipbuilders. We’ve never found another Singer, either.” Obregon had told Irving the story of the Singer and the Swarm, the former collective intelligence serving as a psychiatrist for the latter. “Everyone believes that there are more like Singer, but maybe just not in near-Earth space. Brent Mueller witnessed Singer’s destruction and insisted that was its way of propagating the species.”
“Like dandelions spreading,” said Irving.
Obregon nodded, even though he had no idea what dandelions were. He blamed his ignorance on his laziness about querying the AI; he found it annoying at times. He’d operated and put a standard implant behind Irving’s ear that got them beyond the man’s old Standard to its new incarnation, one that had involved from the old over the centuries.
“I thought you might ask me about the superstring drive. I’m glad you didn’t because I can’t help you there.”
“I’m curious about that, but I’ll probably never understand it.”
“I’m in that fix too. All I care about is that Brendan’s engineering and nav crew understand it, and our AI, of course. The AI is an integral part of that drive technology, in fact.”
“Interesting.”
At that moment, the AI spoke.
“Dr. Obregon, the remainder of Captain Irving’s crew is now awake and asking for him.”
Obregon smiled at Irving. “Perhaps I’ll have to repeat my story. Would you and they feel better having our little meeting in your ready room aboard Hope? I’ll ask Lester to join us.”
***
Comments are always welcome.
Dr. Carlos, Starship Brendan’s Medical Officer. Want more Dr. Carlos stories? He has had many adventures cruising around different star systems in near-Earth space. I’ve collected earlier ones in this free PDF download. For the complete list of free PDFs, see the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page at this website. And please check out my other sci-fi offerings. I write them to entertain you. That’s especially important in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic when everyone is staying at home and trying to keep from getting bored.
Are you curious about those earlier colony ships and all the near-Earth history Dr. Carlos discussed with Captain Irving? There’s a simple solution: The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection is the epic history about the first colonies, the Tali invasion, Swarm and Singer, and beyond. This bargain ebook bundle is available at Amazon in .mobi (Kindle) ebook format, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
