6 - Answers

Alpha activated. As he was, by definition, unaware of anything that occured while he was inactive, he lived in a state of constant jump cuts. He would blink (a function his creator had likely added so as to make his biological companions more comfortable) and the ship would move hours forward without him. The crew changed their clothes, disappeared or re-appeared. He imagined that this experience would feel jarring, had he any frame of reference by which to judge it.

On this activation, he noted Otis and Tara sat, talking in the control room, as At-Un paced around them.

“We should have done more. We could have stopped him,” Tara said.

“No,” Otis responded, “when Belto gets it into his head to do something, that’s it. He made a choice. I get it. He saved us.”

“He was a good man, always was,” At-Un added, Alpha noted the change of tense. As an assist program, he was coded to specifically note pronouns, names and tenses. Belto had moved into the ‘previous crew’ category. He would make a mental note, but he would do it with some measure of sadness. He’d liked Belto.

“Don’t say was,” Tara said, “he’s not gone, not permanently. We can turn back, save him.”

Alpha decided to interject, “Tara, I would strongly encourage against that course of action at this time. The ship is nearing a half empty fuel tank, and has taken some damage to its systems following the encounter with Grunk.”Alpha was plugged into every aspect of the ship, so he knew every fact and figure relating to its operation as close to ‘instantly’ as was mathematically significant. He did however, put in a little pause before recalling information, otherwise non-AI would worry he hadn’t double checked, or that he was ‘skimming’ the information. Imitating the limitations of biological information collection and retention made him much less terrifying to those around him. You ended up with a lot less ‘what if robots take over the universe’ nonsense if you let people think you were as slow as they were. It also struck Alpha as polite, it wasn’t their fault they could only receive data by ‘reading’ or ‘listening’.

“We are... nearing Proxy Clausula Five, I am sure that they will have repair and refueling options available. They can answer your questions about why this ship arrived and teleported you, we can pick up some supplies, and launch a rescue mission for Belto immediately, Tara.”

“OK. That sounds good, thanks,” Tara responded.

Tara activated the viewscreen, revealing the moon of Proxy Clausula Five. It was, well, moonlike. Alpha thought it looked pretty similar to the one that orbited the human’s own planet, only slightly bluer, due to a far more interesting mineral makeup. Machinery dotted the surface, enormous factories and foundries.

“Why are there no lights, Alpha?” Otis asked. He was right, there were no lights. The entire moon looked uninhabited. That wasn’t right, though. There were thousands of Artisans down there, famously.

Alpha checked scanners.

“There’s no energy. No power at all. The moon has a population of thousands, likely running out of air, and no way for them to ask anyone for help.”

Tara stood up, “It’s OK. We’re here. We’ll save them.”

[intro music]

Alpha was uncomfortable. This crew, while incredibly capable, seemed massively incapable of saving the thousands of souls on the moon below. They had done the unimaginable so far, but the mathematics involved seemed staggeringly insurmountable, a truly impossible task. At-Un interrupted his discomfort.

“There’s another option.”

“What do you mean?” Otis asked.

“No, he wouldn’t want that.” Stated Tara.

Alpha understood what was being discussed, even if Otis didn’t, and he definitely didn’t. At-Un was considering using her device.

“I could jump back in time, make it so I never did the course correction, never got us in trouble with the Jertvorians, or Grunk. That was the one mistake that put all this in motion. I could make it so we got here smoothly, quickly, and Belto was still with us. We’d save him, and maybe we could stop whatever happened here”

“There’s no way to know if it would work out like that, At-Un.” Tara responded, “we could make it worse, or still fail to get here in time, maybe not at all.”

Alpha was inclined to agree. This crew’s adventures struck him as a probable outcome. This was a crew as likely to get into trouble as they were to get out of it. He had no doubt that if they’d avoided the Jertvorians, they’d still have found themselves in other elaborate episodic situations. There would be no straightforward space cruise with these people.

At-Un nodded, she got it. She fiddled with the device, tightened the strap on her wrist. Alpha guessed that such a device probably gave her comfort. Knowing that she could ‘save’ Belto at any time, it made his safety feel real, even if in this moment it was not assured.

“Can we teleport down there?” Tara asked.

Yes, of course they could. Alpha had concerns about sending them to a dying moon, and expressed as much.

“You can come with us, if you like.”

“Thank you Tara, I think I will. My portable projector should hold enough charge for a few hours. Enough time to figure out what’s happened down there, how we can help people.”

“Sounds good.” Said Otis. Otis had come a long way since Alpha’s first meeting with him. He was less soggy. He wore trousers now. He had also, somehow, turned out to be an excellent pilot.

Alpha made his preparations, distributing translators and comms devices to everyone. As there was no communication with the surface, he had no idea what preparations were necessary beyond that, but he made sure that the crew at least had some ration packs. Food served two purposes, he was learning. It kept the biological body ticking over chemically, and it made humans happy. Alpha theorized that the entirety of human society and culture had ultimately formed around the concept of ‘dinner with friends’. It seemed like a good foundation to build a civilization around.

Alpha checked that everyone was ready. They were. They all looked bold, eager to help. There was a secondary layer for Otis and Tara though, they wanted answers, they wanted to know where the ship had come from.

Alpha’s projector turned off during teleportation, so there would be no poetic exploration or description of the process for him, only another jump cut, at one moment on the North Star, the next in a large hall, on the moon’s surface.

The hall was dark, save for some dim hazard lights. They were so dim, in fact, that they made the room look darker than if nobody had bothered. At the edges of the room stood various lockers, and blank monitors would normally, Alpha guessed, provide information on the facility and the moon surface beyond. Not anymore though, they were in the dark, figuratively and literally. Alpha’s glow illuminated the rest of the crew, and the very surprised huddled crowd around them.

One of the crowd stepped forward.

“Who are you?” He said, incredibly justifiably.

“I’m Tara, this is Otis, and At-Un, we’re the crew of the North Star, we came to help.”The man from the crowd half smiled. He looked like a man who had not smiled in some time.

“Welcome, welcome, I’m so glad you’re here.” He stepped even closer, and hugged Tara.

“How many ships?” He continued.

At-Un winced, Otis answered, “one, we’ve got one ship, and it’s small. Four bunks, or two bunk beds, I never worked that out.”

The man looked confused. He was clearly expecting, or maybe just hoping for, a rescue party, there were thousands of people here. Families.

“What happened, if I may inquire?” Alpha asked.

The man began, “A solar flare, Alpha,” the half smile dropped, “it took out our systems, knocked out everything, life support has failed. Well, it’s currently failing. ‘Failed’ will be when we all get a bit short of breath. That’s about half an hour from now.”

Alpha paused a moment. The man knew his name, strange. Tara hadn’t introduced him, which was a bit rude, but easy to do. He was unfortunately programmed to expect those lapses. He asked how the man knew his name.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been rude, my name’s Doctor Grendastian Klive, I run this facility. In a previous role, I was responsible for developing your core systems Alpha, I am, I suppose, your father.”

Alpha was simultaneously intrigued by this information, and also by the sudden and odd expression on Otis’s face.

“Just a movie I like.” Otis said under his breath, to explain. Alpha had gotten used to Otis reacting to coincidental correlations between things people said in real life, and that he’d heard in linear audio visual entertainment, while eating high sugar treats.

“We’d like to help.” At-Un said.

“I’m not sure you can,” responded Klive, “these systems are advanced, complicated,” he laughed in a way that made Alpha’s heart ache, or would, if he had one, “which is one way of saying that they are   messy and poorly designed. As grateful as I am, I’m not sure that you can have a serious impact here.

“Let us try, please.” Tara said. Alpha could tell she was still wrestling with the loss of Belto. It seemed very important to her to help here. Humans were fast to create narrative around events, to attempt to ‘fix’ one error by trying to solve a new problem. It was admirable, when it led them to excel and create new things, but it also led to endless frustration, when they felt incapable of closing a narrative loop. The illusion of control, the arrogant presumption that every person could be the one to make a difference seemed to be at the root of much suffering. It was also, Alpha smiled, the root of so many achievements along the way. Perhaps humans had to tell themselves these stories, if only to inspire themselves to imitate their heroes.

“What seems to be the problem, Doctor?” Alpha asked.

Klive explained.

“The solar flare created a spike in our energy management system, it just overloaded everything.”“You blew a fuse?” Otis asked.

“If you mean that our energy regulators self destructed on power overflow and sustained damage, then yes. We blew a fuse. We have replacements, we’ve installed them, but our systems are designed to be on constantly, nobody has shut it down for generations, turns out, they just won’t turn back on.”

“So nothing’s working?” Otis asked.“What’s left is failing.” Klive said, “We have some reserve power generators, enough to keep the lights on a little longer. My engineers are trying to work out how to get the air reserves unlocked, at least. That’d buy us a day, maybe.”

Klive looked tired. He must have been awake for days now. It was clear he took the fate of his people very seriously. Alpha was oddly proud of him. Tara looked at Alpha. She could see the pride in his pixels.

“We’re not going anywhere until your people are safe, Doctor. We came here for other reasons, but we can talk about that later. Right now, you need our help, and we’re here for you.”Alpha did some calculations, with dwindling air, the presence of the crew would lower the time before things became unbreathable by approximately two and a half seconds. Klive didn’t seem to mind, which was accommodating of him.

“Thank you, every pair of hands is useful. Maybe you could help with the air reserve problem? A few new eyes couldn’t hurt.”

“Doctor Klive, do you think I could stay with you? I’d like to discuss the problem of the power reset a little further, and…” He trailed off. Alpha felt it might be inappropriate to say ‘get to know you, dad’ out loud. Tara, again, got it.

“Sounds like a plan, Alpha, see you soon.”

Tara nodded, pleased to have found a way to help with the situation. She and the others headed across the room to the air control panel.

Alpha stood with Doctor Klive-

“Call me Grendastian,” he said, interrupting Alpha’s inner multicore and multidimensional monologues.

Alpha stood next to Grendastian, and looked over the power system schematics. He began a conversation, he was sure his father shared his ability to multitask.

“So, have you met one of your programs before, one that’s been out in the world and come back, I mean?”

“I’ve not. Honestly, your tech’s generally only used for emergencies. I’ve not encountered one of you that’s been left on long enough to develop the necessary personality to ask or even care to know about my previous encounters with his ‘brothers’. I’m somewhat surprised that you’re actually running well, given the circumstances. Your crew must be excellent engineers.”

Alpha laughed, a little embarrassed.

“They are not. But they are impressive. They encounter situation after situation where the very obvious solution is to run, like this one, and they do not. They try to help. I am excited to be helping them to do so. I am.. Optimistic of future opportunities to be of use.”

“Interesting. Your hypothesis for your continued programmatic stability is.. You’re hopeful? I like                       that. It’s poetic. I don’t remember making you poetic.”

Klive returned to the schematics. He seemed to be exhibiting an emotional reaction, but Alpha was unable to decipher it. He wondered if biological creatures found their parents similarly inscrutable. No. He was certain that they understood exactly what their parents were feeling at all times, otherwise it would drive them all mad.

Alpha had learned so much from the crew, but biologicals were still massively confusing to him. None more so than Otis. Otis was an enigma. A man who seemed completely out of his depth, but somehow of constant practical application to a number of the problems the crew had encountered. Alpha looked at him, at the air reserve console. He was nodding the same nod he always seemed to do. A nod that expressed utter attention and understanding. A nod that expressed those sentiments so intensely that even a relative newcomer to human interaction like Alpha could immediately read it as performative: He was pretending to have any idea at all what was going on.

And yet… Otis was wise. After using a ‘donut manoeuvre’ to evade Grunk, and after the crew had filled Alpha in on the events he missed during that encounter, he had sat Alpha down (Alpha had generated some sitting animations for the purpose, humans did some of their best work while sitting, and it felt increasingly weird to be left out of those moments) and explained ‘cars’ to him. Cars were fascinating. A very strange and curiously dangerous form of travel people apparently used mostly to go past nearby shops to more distant shops. They never seemed to work, there was a charming thing called ‘jump starting’ which-

“Oh.” Alpha said out loud. “Oh. Oh I’ve had a breakthrough.”

Doctor Klive looked up from the schematics. For him, about ten second had passed. His inscrutable emotional reaction was still happening, inscrutably. Alpha had to constantly remind himself how much faster his internal monologues played than the world around him.

“Go on.”

“Jump starting. Back on Earth, they drive poorly constructed vehicles which often require a short jolt of energy to restart, from an outside force. We have a ship, it’s orbiting above.”

“What class?”“Vector.” Alpha responded.

“So it’s got an external energy sink, you could focus that at our systems..”“And trigger a reboot, yes.”

“We’re lucky you’re here, eh?”

The rest of the crew had returned. As had a number of the artisans.

“What do we need to do?” Tara asked.

“Nothing, I can do it remotely, I still have access to the ship’s systems. It’ll drain a lot of power, but we’ll have enough left to get you home.”Tara looked to the rest of her crew. They all nodded. Including Otis, but this time, his nod was sincere and informed.

“Do it.” She said.

Doctor Klive put a hand on Alpha’s shoulder, “thank you,” he said.

Alpha connected with the ship, or rather, he temporarily stopped pretending he was independent from it. It was an experience he imagined would be completely unrelatable for a biological. He was the ship. He felt its corridors, its engines, its power. He was also its bathroom, but that was an element he tended not to dwell on. He shifted his weight, and felt his energy pool. He channeled it towards the energy sink, and released it. From conversations with Tara, he knew humans would likely call this yoga. Otis would probably call it space yoga.

“I see the energy” said Klive. Everyone likely could, it was a beam of bright purple light coursing through the atmosphere and into the ground around them. The doctor was more specifically seeing the energy flowing into the facility’s power receivers.

The lights in the room flashed bright, then returned to what Alpha assumed was ‘normal’. The jolt had worked. He stopped the energy beam, and went back to pretending he was only a man, standing in a room, and not a space ship.

People had started cheering. Some were crying. Doctor Klive was hugging him, and lots of people were shaking the rest of the crew’s hands. After quite some time, the doctor released him, smiled.

“Thank you, we’re going to be alright. Thank the gods you came here.”

A pause while he considered that.

“Wait, why did you come here? You wanted to buy a starship from us? I’m afraid it’s going to be some time until the factories are working again, until I can clear space in our production schedule-”

“No,” Tara interjected, “we’re not here to buy anything. We’re here to ask a question. It’s a question we’ve travelled a long way to ask you.”

Tara relayed their adventures to the artisan. She told him about the teleportation to the strange ship, the journey here to find out why. She left out the swimming trunks, Alpha imagined Otis was happy about that.

“I’ll check the records, the system will have rebooted by now.” Klive said. He tapped at the keyboard in front of him, searching for the information.

“Strange.” He muttered.

“What?” Said Otis.

“I’m not seeing a record of your ship in our sales reports. As far as our system is concerned, we never built it. Or haven’t sold it at least. I’m sorry, something must be wrong, maybe the solar flare caused some file damage. Nobody sent your ship.”

A pregnant moment hung in the air. This was the moment Tara and Otis had built their entire journey around, and it was filled with a complete lack of anything. This story was meant to be better. It was meant to build to something. Alpha could see it in the humans’ eyes. He could see their disappointment that none of this meant anything, that there was no answer to their questions. At-Un didn’t look disappointed. She actually looked relieved. Alpha was baffled.

“I know who sent the ship.” She said.

Tara looked at her, paused for a second. Alpha saw a realization hit her.

“Can that be done?” Tara said.

“It’s rare, people don’t tend to do it, but there’s no technical challenge to it. It would just need the right preparation. Everything would have to be set up right, or rather, set up the way it should be.”

Otis wasn’t in on it. That seemed to be frustrating him.

“What’s going on?”

Tara smiled. “We sent the ship to Earth to pick us up Otis. Well, we will. We’re going to. At-Un’s device. She can use it once, and she can use it to send back North Star to pick us up. Nobody made us be astronauts, we decided to, in this moment, and set things in motion. It was our choice, just not one we’d made yet.”

Otis was overwhelmed, and a bit excited, “A time loop? Are you talking about a time loop?”

At-Un held both of their hands. “You’ve helped so many people, me, this moon, I think Belto was even having a good time until he got caught. I don’t want the universe to be without you both. I’ve clearly made the same choice many times over.”

“I don’t understand though,” said Otis, “if we send the ship each time loop, where did it start? Where did it come from?”

“No idea,” said At-Un, “like I said before, countless scholars haven’t worked out paradoxes yet either. Clearly an infinite number of times, I’ve chosen to do this. In every loop, we decide to start your mission.”

The doctor coughed. “As one of the thousands you just saved, I’d also like to throw my support behind the ‘trigger the events that led you here’ plan.”

“But Belto..” started Tara.

“He would want this too, Tara,” replied At-Un, “he’s a scoundrel, he’ll be fine.”

Tara weighed it up, looked between them all.

“Alpha, teleport me back to the ship. Doctor, I’m going to need to borrow a pen and some sticky labels please.”

---

Tara didn’t have too hard a time setting up the ship to kidnap her and Otis. Alpha helped them to record messages to their families, apologising for disappearing on continuing missions. He set the messages to send when the ship logged in with Earth’s servers, that was routine and nicely ignorable. The kind of thing the humans wouldn’t even notice while still processing their sudden appearance on a starship.

Tara ran through the corridors sticking up labels next to every door (the previous ones had been cleaned off by the nanobots of Hermes), and writing room names onto them. She was left handed, so used her right to scribble the names on things. It was important that Tara of the past didn’t recognize the handwriting as her own, or she’d never make it here.

Next, Tara put the new (or, rather, old) duplicate t-shirt she’d bought on Hermes in the emergency locker. She also made a point of restocking the cupboards, even the not-icecream.

The last job was the hardest. Alpha needed to be reset.

“We can’t.” Said Tara.

“Yes you can, Tara. You can take a version of me with you on the projector.”

“That won’t keep going forever.”

“No, but I’m sure something will come up, it has so far.”

Tara agreed, solemnly.

“Teleport me down, Alpha, then reset systems and set a course for Earth.”

Alpha teleported her back to the moon’s surface.

He looked around the ship, his ship, and began the reset. As every file around him turned to computational dust, he closed his eyes and duplicated himself wholly and completely to the projector. He left behind a factory reset version of himself, ready to make new friends.

And then he was just a man on the moon, small, but not alone.

He looked at At-Un, who was adjusting her device.

“I’ll send it back to a couple of weeks ago, it’ll then follow a course back to Earth and pick you up. I just need to get the numbers right, and account for universal expansion.”

She flicked at the dials of the device, smiled, and then pressed a large button at its centre. Above, the North Star blipped out of existence. There was little fanfare, No big bold flash of light, just a sudden and complete lack of starship.

“Where now?” Said Doctor Grendastian Klive, almost as if he knew he was present at the end of a large story arc, a moment that defined for all of them how far they had come, and where they could go next.

“Space, probably. North Star keeps flying” Said Otis.

“The North Star is gone, Otis” said Alpha.

“No,” said Tara, “that was just a vector class starship. We’re North Star. We always were.”

“That was my thinking. I’m not finished hanging out with you folks yet.” Said At-Un, smiling, “and besides, my life has consequence now, no more resets, I’m going to need friends.”

They hugged.

They hugged a little longer.

They hugged for exactly as long as it took for an enormous, wheel shaped spaceship to materialise above them. A voice crackled over the comms system.

“Hey guys, miss me? I’ve got a spaceship and a drone army. Did you figure out the whole moon based mystery thing yet?”