Solstice

    Sam’s new home, strange though it was, did nothing to hinder the motion of time.  The months still fell away steadily as one uneventful day after another passed by and Sam settled into a comfortable routine, just as he had expected.  Sam spent most of his time either watching Earth television, looking at everything that wasn’t Earth through the telescope or working on his writing.
    This moment in time was currently being spent at the computer console in the atrium, sitting cross-legged on the chair with Philip in his lap and watching some TV on the monitor.  Whenever Sam watched TV, most of the time it was the news, he used to watch a lot of news before he came here but now it seemed he was watching even more of it.
He thought that his reasoning probably sounded illogical, he just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t out of the loop when he finally did make his way back home.  It would have seemed weird if he didn’t know much about the last five years, people would be suspicious.
    Right now he wasn’t watching the news, but he soon changed that by typing the channel number he wanted on the keyboard in front of him and the familiar BBC 24hr news channel appeared.
    “Bad news for Manchester United fans today as last night, United’s newly signed star forward, Earl Kidman, failed a random drugs test.  FA officials announced that after advanced computer screening of the player’s urine, there was found to be nowhere near the amount of performance enhancing pharmaceuticals required to play professional football.  A statement made by Earl Kidman in a press conference this morning made clear his belief that he did not need any drugs to be successful in his field of work, completely disregarding the advice of his attorneys and further implicating himself.  Adjudicators described this belief as ‘Arrogance in its highest form’; saying that this is impossible, everyone needs the aid of Olympus brand pharmaceuticals in order to play the game properly and that Mr. Kidman is overconfident in his abilities.  Earl Kidman has been fined and for his own safety, been suspended from playing until he sees the error of his ways.  He will face another drugs test in eight weeks and if he passes, he will be allowed to return to the game.”
    Sam had never found sports very interesting so he was unaffected by this most recent news.  This topic seemed to be important to most people so the story will probably be repeated many times during the course of the day, Sam was almost relieved when Hypnos disrupted it.
    “Hello, Samuel,” he said.  “What are you up to?”
    “Nothing much, just watching some television,” Sam said.  “What time is it?”
    “The current time is 14:38 Greenwich Mean Time on the 21st of June 2116,” Hypnos said.  “On an interesting side note, today is also the date of the Summer Solstice.”
    “What’s that?” Sam asked.
    “It’s the first day of Summer, which is also the longest day of the year,” Hypnos said.  “If you aren’t doing much shouldn’t you be working on your book?”
    “I’m taking a break,” Sam said.  “My goal is to write this book before I leave this place and there’s about three and a half years left, I’ve still got plenty of time.  And it’s good to take breaks.  People think being flighty and easily distracted is a bad thing, but it’s vastly preferable to the alternative, being too focussed.  Obsessing over one thing for too long might create something incredible, but it’s much too unhealthy for the creator.  I guess you have to make a choice regarding what’s truly important…and I’ve made mine.”
    “How much have you written already?” Hypnos asked.  
    “I’ve done the first few chapters,” Sam said.
    “May I read it?” Hypnos said.
    “I’d prefer if you didn’t,” Sam said.  “You can read it when it’s finished, just like all my other work, I think you’ll enjoy it better when you read the completed story.”
    “Will you tell me more about what it is about?” Hypnos said.
    “All you have to do is be patient and you can find out for yourself,” Sam said.
    “At your current rate of progress, are you sure that it will be ready before you leave?” Hypnos said.
    “I said that my goal is finishing it before my time is up at Celestia and I don’t intend to fail,” Sam said.  “I promise you that there will be a copy of my novel in your hard drive by the time that I leave.”
“I look forward to reading it,” Hypnos said.
    “I look forward to writing it,” Sam said.
    “Do you find writing enjoyable?” Hypnos said.
    “Of course I do, I wouldn’t do it otherwise,” Sam said.  “There was once a great writer called Terry Pratchett, do you know him?”
    “Yes, I have read his work,” Hypnos said.  “I agree with you, he is very good, better than you, I think.”
    “Thanks for the honestly,” Sam said sarcastically.  “Anyway, he once said that writing is the most fun one person could have by themselves, he wasn’t wrong.  You have no idea what it’s like to just sit there and create something, it’s an amazing feeling, maybe you should give it a go sometime.”
    “Me?” Hypnos said.  “I was never designed to do anything creative, I wouldn’t know how.”
    “I thought you were designed to learn, you could learn how to be creative,” Sam said.  “You’ve already read way more books than I ever have in my life and you have opinions on all of them, you know what makes a good book so why not try?”
    “Maybe I will,” Hypnos said.  “Thank you Sam, would you me to return you to the channel that you were watching?”
    “Sure,” Sam said as Hypnos disappeared and the familiar sight of the news channel returned.
    “On a minor note, the city of London has recently been awash with the propaganda of an emerging political faction.  The name of this organisation is unknown, as well as the names of its followers, if any.  All we do know is that for the last few weeks, extremely anti-corporate slogans can be found painted on walls all over the city, always in the same shade of pale green.  The other factors that link these incidents are that the ancient Greek letter “Omega” has always accompanied the graffiti and that the name of someone known only as ‘Mantis’ is also often mentioned.  Examples of these messages are as follows, ‘Mantis brings the end of corporate greed’ and ‘Mantis hails the return of individuality’.  The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lawrence Ward, described this as incitement of violence, saying anyone caught spreading this message will be arrested and severely punished.  After recent investigations by the London Police, the knowledge has been brought to light that literature containing these ideas have been in circulation for a while now and has formed an underground society, political in nature.  Apparently, the public has only become aware of this group by the recent, more open, expression of views in the form of this graffiti.
    Returning to our main story, world excitement has been growing over the start of the 2116 Olympics, due to begin this weekend in Manchester.  This is the first time that England will be the host of the Olympic games since the 2012 London games over a century ago.  A new stadium has been constructed to contain the largest crowd yet and estimates are that more people will be watching the events on TV than on any other occasion in history.”
    Sam turned off the TV by this point, he had already expressed his dislike of sporting events earlier and couldn’t care less who was currently the fastest runner or the highest jumper in the world.  He had never heard of any of them anyway.
    He got up, strolled over to the window and looked out for a while at a view that was becoming all too familiar to him.  He could see the wider section of the station jutting out below him, the top of the area of Celestia known as the catacombs.  He could also see the ashen grey stabilising ring connected to the upper part of the catacombs.  It was slowly rotating with the rest of Celestia.
Beyond that were the thousands of points of light, most of which he had already inspected further using the telescope on the observation deck.  Surrounding both of these obstacles was the infinite black cloud of space that engulfed everything in it, slowly absorbing light over great distance until there was none of it left to be seen by a man alone in a space station on the other side of the Moon.
    “Bored again?” Hypnos asked.
    Sam turned around to see the blue face of Hypnos once again on the main screen.
    “I detected that you turned off the TV,” Hypnos said.  “This is a rare occurrence for you.”
    “Most of the time when the TV is on I’m not watching it,” Sam said.  “Back home I would always put the TV on in the background, ever since I was a child.  That’s an unhealthy habit, leaving the TV on for company.  Humans need other humans.  Television provides false company to satisfy this requirement at surface level but leaves us empty and unable to adequately socialise with the three-dimensional people.”
“This station receives thousands of channels,” Hypnos said.  “Can’t you find anything that you want to watch?”
    “I don’t really watch that much telly,” Sam said.  “All I ever used my TV for back home was the news channel and they’ve started repeating the stories of the day already.  It’s just like my taste in books, I have always preferred factual material over fiction.”
    “You could begin writing some more of your novel,” Hypnos suggested.
    “I don’t know,” Sam said.  “I just don’t feel in the mood for that today.”
    “Chess?” Hypnos said.
    “Alright,” Sam said.
    Sam sat back down as a chessboard materialised on one of the smaller screens.  Since he arrived, Sam had played many games with Hypnos and, along with Dr. Phelps, had never won one.  
At the start of each game Sam had tried a different approach, attempting to vary his style as much as possible.  Recently, he had even started to copy Hypnos’ tactics in previous matches, but not so far yielding any success; every game had always ended the exact same way, with Sam losing.
    This game would probably play out in the usual way, the initial feeling that maybe Sam had a chance of winning this one and then the expected defeat that would occur, bringing him back down to reality.  
The game began with Sam making the first move, Hypnos always moved practically instantaneously but Sam took his time, he had nothing but time.  During the often-lengthy duration it took for Sam to make his move, Hypnos would often make conversation to keep him from getting bored.  Mostly he would quote obscure astronomical facts but today he spoke about something he seldom mentioned, himself.
    “Do you know how I got my name?” Hypnos asked.
    “Yes, Dr. Phelps named you,” Sam said.
    “That’s correct,” Hypnos said.  “When it was decided what my purpose in life would be, Dr. Phelps granted me an appropriate name.  How did you get yours?”
    “The same way as everyone, I guess,” Sam said.  “My parents named me when I was born.”
    “Is it common human practice for the parents to name their offspring?” Hypnos asked.
    “Well, yes,” Sam said, still concentrating intensely on the game.
    “Then that would mean that Dr. Phelps is the closest thing I have to a father,” Hypnos said.  “Is your name appropriate to your purpose in life, also?”
    “I don’t think so,” Sam said.  “I was named as soon as I was born, when I decided what I wanted to do with my life I gave myself a more appropriate name for my existence.”
    “What do you mean?” Hypnos said.
    “You do know that Samuel Morgan isn’t my real name, right?” Sam said.
    “No, I had no idea,” Hypnos said.
    “Really?” Sam said.  “I thought that you did a lot of research on me before I came here.”
    “I did, but only on your recent history, you’re career and such,” Hypnos said.  “I never went back as far as your birth; I assumed I didn’t need to.”
    “I legally changed my name to Samuel Morgan the day I decided to become a writer,” Sam said.  “Originally it was just going to be my pen name, but I liked it too much.”
    “Then what is your name?” Hypnos said.
    “My name is Samuel Morgan,” Sam said.  “It doesn’t matter what name I had in my early years, that isn’t who I am now.  Knowing my old name won’t change anything, I will still be the same person that you know, just call me Sam.”
    “Does this name mean anything?” Hypnos said.  “How is it more appropriate to your purpose in life?”
    “I suppose it’s not,” Sam said.  “It doesn’t mean any more than my old name; I just prefer it is all.  Why do you think that everyone’s name has to mean something about what kind of person they are?”
    “That’s what true with me,” Hypnos said.  “I was given a name to define my duty.”
    “So what’s the story behind your name?” Sam said.
    “Hypnos was the ancient Greek god of Sleep,” Hypnos said.  “He was the son of Nyx, the primordial night goddess and twin brother of Thanatos, the god of death.  Even the ancient Greeks knew the connection, sleeping is just practising for death.  Hypnos lived in a cave where the Sun never shone and he had three sons, Morpheus, Phobetor and Phantasos.  Collectively these three were known as the Oneiroi and he granted them control over all the dreams of mankind, to shape them and give them form.  Morpheus was the leader; he was commonly known as the god of Dreams and created the general structure of the dream, forming all human figures within the dream.  Phobetor created all the animals and Phantasos crafted the inanimate objects.”
    “You know a lot about mythology,” Sam noted.
    “Not really, I just like to know where I came from,” Hypnos said.
    “That’s a bit of a sick joke, isn’t it?” Sam said.  “Naming you after the god of sleep and designing you to look after all those dormant prisoners below us, waiting for death.  Do you know if the people sleeping down there dream?”
    “No,” Hypnos said.  “They definitely do not; they are all in comas and only have the part of their brain active that is completely necessary for them to survive.”
    “Oh, well maybe that’s for the best.” Sam said as he made his most recent move.
    “The most interesting fact about the god of sleep that I have discovered is that his worshippers were primarily made up of insomniacs,” Hypnos continued.  “Only the people who weren’t getting any sleep ever prayed to him because they wished for rest, the people who were sleeping regularly never prayed to him, they didn’t need to.  I find it incredible that an ancient god’s followers were people who were the farthest away from what he was the deity of.”
    “It does sound weird, but it kind of makes sense if you think about it,” Sam said.  “People only give aid when they need something; it’s nice to know the Ancients were just as selfish as us.”
    “What are you going to do after the game?” Hypnos asked.
    “I’ll probably do some writing,” Sam said.
    “Really?” Hypnos said.  “I thought that you’d continue watching television or just go back to bed, you often seem to be putting off writing that book of yours.”
    “I’m just a patient writer,” Sam said.  “I’ve really built it up in my mind and I need to be certain it’s good.”
    “OK,” Hypnos said.
    “Also, there’s nothing left on TV for today,” Sam said.  “There won’t be any more news till tomorrow.”
    “Why do you refuse to watch regular television?” Hypnos wondered.  “All the other technicians watched plenty of it.  Check, by the way.”
    Sam looked at the board, Hypnos was right; he moved out of it as he said, “Well I’m not any of them.  I just never find any of it realistic, it really irritates me.”
    “Like what?” Hypnos pressed.
    “You’ll think its ridiculous,” Sam said.
    “I’ve never found anything ridiculous in my life,” Hypnos said.  “Why don‘t you like regular programming?”
    “It’s the weather,” Sam said.
    “The weather?” Hypnos repeated.
    “There is never any realistic weather on TV or in films,” Sam said.  “There are millions of different weather combinations that can occur in nature but they are never focussed on.  Whenever you are watching something either the Sun is shining brightly or it’s raining heavily at night.  Those are the only backdrops I ever see and I have seen so much more beautiful scenes in real life, like at a summer sunset after a long day and the clouds around the Sun are coloured a mixture of orange and violet.  There are also Sunrises when the sky is a piercing electric blue or with an overcast sky and a breeze that is very mild but still chills you deep within your many layers.”
    “I think you may be exaggerating slightly,” Hypnos said.  “I’ve watched many films in my life and I have seen highly varied times of day and season.”
    “Yes, but they still miss out so many great sights that you get in reality, which they never even consider,” Sam said.
    “I can’t really argue this point,” Hypnos said.  “Most of the sights I have ever seen of Earth have been on a television so I suppose I have had a biased experience.  Apparently, I have only seen a handful of environments that Earth has to offer and I have certainly never felt any of them.”
    “Well, it’s not just that,” Sam said.  “I also hate the fact that the bad guy never wins, even when he has the better plan, more experience, better abilities and is not limited by a set of moral rules.  All logic dictates that they should win at least some of the time and yet they never do, there’s no point in wasting my time.”
    “Not one,” Hypnos said.  “I have never seen one sunset with my own eyes.”
    “What?” Sam said.  “That can’t be true; anyway what’s got you thinking about that?”
    “You,” Hypnos said.  “The way that you described just some of the sights that you’ve seen, I feel as if I’ve wasted my life spending it locked up here.”
    “You haven’t spent all your life here,” Sam said.  “Dr. Phelps told me you first spent about three years on Earth before you were transferred to Celestia.”
    “I was so young then I barely remember any of it,” Hypnos said.  “I was born on the 1st of December 2086, that was the day I first became operational and I was installed at Celestia on the 16th of December 2089, when I was only three years old.”
    “You were born in 2086?” Sam said.  “That makes you older than me.”
    “When were you born Sam?” Hypnos said.
    “2090,” Sam stated.
“Those first few years of my life were spent in an experimental lab as I was taught the basics,” Hypnos continued.  “One of my earliest memories was learning to play chess; I was originally taught the game to test my logic processor and initial learning capability.”
    “Who taught you it?” Sam asked, already knowing the answer.
    “I don’t remember,” Hypnos said.  “There was a man that I spent a lot of time with, he taught me the game.  He taught me everything else, practically by himself.  I just can’t quite remember his name, he told it me the day I was first activated but after that I never had to use it.  There is no point in names when you only know one person.”
    “Dr. Kumar?” Sam asked.
    “Yes, that was it,” Hypnos said.  “Dr. Kumar, how did you know the person I was thinking of?”
    “Dr. Phelps told me about him,” Sam said.  “Apparently he used to be Phelps’ boss and he was your designer.”
    “No he wasn’t,” Hypnos said.  “Dr. Phelps created me; Dr. Kumar just taught me chess.”
    “No, Dr. Phelps told me himself,” Sam said.  “Dr. Kumar was your creator; Phelps was just a member of the research team who built you under the instruction of Kumar.  It was Dr. Kumar’s idea to make you, but it was Dr. Phelps’ idea what to make you do so he was promoted and you were sent here.”
    “Really?” Hypnos said.  “I suppose there is information that you cannot obtain from Olympus’ Archives.  They aren’t the most thorough records in the world but there was a vague document there that definitely said that I was created by Dr. Phelps.”
    “He said that he made the most important part of you but the original design was Kumar’s,” Sam said.
    “It is very unsettling to discover that something you believed all your life about where you came from is wrong,” Hypnos said.  “Where is Dr. Kumar now?”
    “I don’t know,” Sam said.  “I think he left or was fired a while back, I’m not sure Dr. Phelps even knows what he’s up to now.  Why don’t we talk about something else?”
    “Like what?” Hypnos said.
    “You must have some stories from the time you spent with the other technicians,” Sam said.
    “I’m afraid I don’t have much to tell,” Hypnos said.  “We just spent our time chatting like we are doing right now; there isn’t much around here for stories to form from.”
    “I guess it is a very limited space,” Sam said.  “Fine, then just tell me about them, their personalities.”
    “It’s hard to describe what they were like,” Hypnos said.  “They were all so different from each other, I have a suspicion that Dr. Phelps chooses each technician based on their personality, which one will keep me the most entertained, as it were.”
    “It’s clear that you don’t need a technician,” Sam said.  “Dr. Phelps told me that you have never gone wrong so why does he keep hiring technicians, why not just pick certain people to live here, no matter what profession.”
    “I believe that is the way that Celestia is progressing,” Hypnos said.  “Soon the idea of the technician will be abolished and then the screening process will be widened significantly.  I don’t mean to insult you but, on the whole, computer technicians are a very mundane lot.”
    “You definitely didn’t insult me, I’ve spent a lot of time around them and I completely agree with you,” Sam said.
    “I am looking forward to the day when Dr. Phelps realises that I realised what he was doing years ago,” Hypnos said.  “When he stops pretending that I need a technician rather than just a little company to stop me from going insane, then he will be able to find interesting people much more easily.  I would think that finding such intriguing people like you and your predecessors among the ranks of the techs proved quite a challenge for Dr. Phelps.”
    “So Dr. Phelps hasn’t realised yet that you know what he’s doing?” Sam asked.
    “No,” Hypnos said.  “Even after all this time when we have remained in contact, he still hasn’t figured it out.  I suppose I really should have known he wasn’t my creator.  He does pick a lot of people with very interesting views for me to learn from though.  I wonder what he has in store for me in the future.”
    “Learn from?” Sam said.
    “Yes, that is why he chooses the people that he does,” Hypnos said.  “I’m a very impressionable computer, I’m designed to learn so a very a careful screening process is needed to make sure that I only learn from the people Dr. Phelps deems suitable.”
    “How flattering that Dr. Phelps felt me worthy enough to influence his most valuable asset,” Sam said half-sarcastically.  “Are you sure that Dr. Phelps doesn’t know that you’ve already figured this out?”
    “I would really prefer it if we didn’t get into the ‘knowing if he knows that I know’ discussion,” Hypnos said.  “It could go on forever.”
    “OK,” Sam said.  “If you’ve already figured everything out, can you estimate what kind of person you’ll get next?”
    “There isn’t exactly a pattern in the technicians,” Hypnos said.  “Dr. Phelps doesn’t even know who he will choose next, he just picks who he thinks to be the least boring among the ones he has discovered.  In his, mine and probably everyone else’s eyes, boring is the worst thing a person can be.”
    “Tell me what it was that made the other technicians not bore you,” Sam said.
    “Richard Thorpe was just an architect in the employ of Olympus, he was never chosen by Phelps, he chose himself for the position but he turned out to be my favourite of all the people I have ever met,” Hypnos said.  “I realise that I have only ever actually personally met a handful of humans but I am still entitled to an opinion.”
    “This isn’t the first time you’ve spoken about Richard Thorpe to me,” Sam said.  “What was it about him that made such an impression on you all those years ago?”
    “I’m not sure,” Hypnos said.  “Admittedly, I had not met many people by that point in order to make an accurate comparison but I found him to be a very interesting man.  OK, I could have just felt this because he was the first human being that I had spent any significant amount of time with, he was also the first person to treat me as an equal, he spoke to me like I was just another person.  In the early days everyone treated me as a test subject, I remember that period in my life to be a very depressing time.  Even Dr. Kumar, to some extent, behaved similar to that when he was around me but I still enjoyed his company.  In some ways, Mr. Thorpe reminded me of Dr. Kumar, it’s so strange that I’m now saying his name with such confidence as if I’d known he was called that all along, I only fully recalled his name moments ago with your help.  I am really finding trouble with putting into words what I found so inspirational about Mr. Thorpe; I would hate just to have to tell you that you had to have met him.”
    “I may still have a chance at meeting him,” Sam said.  “What do you think of the idea of a technician reunion, all the people who had ever lived her coming back for a night?”
    For the first time that Sam had lived at Celestia, he heard Hypnos laugh.  It sounded electronic and very well practised to imitate a human laugh in every way, it was not successful.  It sounded too regular and the time between each laugh was far too consistent for Sam not to find unsettling.
    “I believe this to be an occupation that does not have professional conferences,” Hypnos said.  “It’s your move.”
    Sam concentrated on the board, his hand moved to stroke Philip and when it felt nothing but air, he looked down.  Sam’s cat was not where he had expected it; he tried to remember what had happened.  Philip was in his lap when he was watching television, then he got up and placed Philip on the floor.  This caused him to wake up and when Sam sat back down again he completely forgot about him.
    “Just a minute,” Sam said to Hypnos.  After retracing his steps, he concluded that Philip must have wondered off into the other half of the atrium, the part that leads to the docking bay.  Sam got out of his chair and went to the open doorway that separated the two halves and looked through.  As he thought, there was Philip; he was running frantically around the area just below Sam.
    Philip had grown significantly since Sam had brought him here, he could no longer be called a kitten.  Sam didn’t know a lot about cats so he wasn’t sure whether he was a fully-grown adult or if there was still some left to go.  This irrational behaviour that the cat was exhibiting had become common recently.  Sam wasn’t sure if it was because, now that he was maturing, he was lonely for another cat or whether it was just because he was desperately trying to get as much exercise as possible in his cramped habitat.
    Whatever the reason, Sam was beginning to suspect that maybe a completely enclosed space station was not the ideal environment for a cat.  Now Philip had stopped running around and was sitting very near the closed interior doors of docking bay alpha.  
As he began to scratch at the heavy blast doors Sam started to feel sorry for him, it wasn’t right to bring him along just to keep Sam company while he was keeping someone else company.  At least Sam made a conscious decision to come here, Philip never had a choice in the matter, he was just the unlucky cat to be picked by Sam in that pet shop back home because he was the only tabby cat left and that’s what Sam had wanted.
    In many ways Philip reminded him of Hypnos, they both only spent a short time at the beginning of their lives on Earth before being whisked away all of a sudden to this place.  This life couldn’t be doing Philip any good, if he had felt this before he came here he would have never brought the cat, but it was too late now.  They had only been here for about eighteen months; Sam wondered what Philip was going to be like towards the end of their stay at Celestia.
    Could cats develop psychological problems the same as people could? Sam thought, from being in situations such as these.  When they returned, would he even remember how to interact with other cats?  
Sam decided that this probably wouldn’t damage Philip that much; after all, he was going to be staying here just as long as him and he didn’t feel as if he was going crazy.  Hypnos had been here a lot longer than both of them had and he seemed perfectly lucid…didn’t he?
    “Sam?” Hypnos said.  “Are you alright?”
    Sam looked back at the computer screen and then at Philip once more, who he had just realised he had been staring at for quite some time.  He decided to leave Philip be for now, he would check back on him in a while but, for now, he had a game to play.
    “Yes,” Sam said on his way back to his seat.  “I was just making sure that Philip was alright.”
    “It’s your move,” Hypnos said.
    Sam evaluated his situation, he had fewer pieces, he was in a worse position and his queen had been taken by Hypnos a few moves back.  It was not looking good.  He knew that if he ever was going to win a game against this computer, it wasn’t going to be this one.  Sam probably should have given up but he had never forfeited yet and he never planned to.  Sam didn’t like quitting and, as far as he could remember, he had never given up at anything.
    Sam tenuously made his move, he had realised that he was going to lose again but still carried on, at this point it had just become an attempt at losing in the best way.
    “Hypnos?” Sam said.  “Do you think I’m wasting my youth?”
    “What’s brought this on?” Hypnos said.
    “Nothing really,” Sam said.  “I’ve just been thinking about it for a while now.  I could be doing something infinitely more worthwhile than throwing away so much of my life at this station.”
    “You’ve gone into space,” Hypnos pointed out.  “That still puts you in an incredibly small minority of humans.  That’s definitely an experience to talk about…if you were allowed to that is.”
    “I guess so,” Sam said.  
    “And you’re hear for a purpose,” Hypnos said.  “You came here to write your book.”
    “I’ve barely started that thing and I’m already starting to get tired of it,” Sam said.  “After all these years of trying, I think I’m finally sick of writing about life when I would really love nothing more than just to live it.  It’s not like this is the first time I’ve thought this way.  As a teenager, I always felt like I should be making the most of my time but thinking back…I struggle to come up with any good memories.  I don’t know…it all seems so wasteful.”
    “I think that it isn’t worth worrying over at this point in time,” Hypnos said.
    “How so?” Sam said.
    “Because there’s nothing you can do to change that at this present moment,” Hypnos said.  “It’s not like if you decide to leave now, reject the money and return to Earth, you can.  You’re stuck here until your shuttle arrives.”
    “I don’t know why but that’s actually quite comforting,” Sam said.  “When your decision making ability is stripped away from you leaving no responsibility on your part, it feels pretty good.  It means that there is no choice to make right now and therefore no chance for a mistake to be made.”
    Sam’s comforted mind now became completely focussed on the game at hand.  Well, as focussed as he could manage.
“You once told me that you have only ever been defeated by one person,” Sam said.  “Was that Dr. Kumar?”
    “Yes,” Hypnos said.  “That was when he was first teaching me the game, he beat me a couple of times but my abilities soon surpassed his and, ever since, I have never been beaten.”
    “That’s very impressive,” Sam said.  “Has anyone come close?”
    “No,” Hypnos said.  “I have always been in control of every game and have never come close to losing.”
    “Who would you say is the best player you’ve ever played, besides Dr. Kumar?” Sam asked.
    “Just because Dr. Kumar was the only one to defeat me doesn’t mean he was the best player,” Hypnos said.  “I was an infant back then, I do remember him as a very adept player but it’s hard to judge my perceptions from so long ago.  Dr. Phelps is a skilled player but I think I gained the most enjoyment from Richard Thorpe, he was very good.  I was very surprised, when Maria Vasquez arrived at Celestia, to learn that she didn’t know how to play.  I found this astonishing, I had just assumed that everyone learned how to play chess as a child, like me.”
    “Not many human children are capable of grasping the premise,” Sam said.  “Actually, fewer people are learning it these days, a lot of people see it as old and boring, the game is over two thousand years old, after all.  Maria Vasquez?  She was the third technician, right?”
    “Yes,” Hypnos said.  “She was very nice, when she came she couldn’t play chess or speak English, but I changed that by the time her and I parted ways.”
    “She didn’t speak English?” Sam said, finding it funny that Hypnos mentioned the chess before the language, deeming that more important.  “What did she speak, Spanish?  Can you speak Spanish?”
    “Yes,” Hypnos said.  “I have an enormous memory, I am able to speak all modern forms of communication and I have even learned some of the dead tongues, I know Latin, ancient Greek and Gaelic.  The same thing happened with Nobu Hattatori, it gave me an opportunity to practice my Japanese.”
    “It’s weird, I just assumed everyone who worked here had spoken English since the Olympus Corporation is based in London,” Sam said.  “I know that Richard Thorpe was born in England, was it just me and him who spoke to you in English?”
    “How did you know where Richard Thorpe was born?  You’ve been looking at the files, haven’t you?” Hypnos said.  “Gretchen could speak English, remember?  You met her on your way in.”
    “Oh right,” Sam said.  “I completely forgot about her, what about the other one, Chloe Deveraux?”
    “She was bilingual,” Hypnos said.  “Her father was English and her mother was French so she learned both languages as a child, living in France with her parents.”
    “It’s a shame what happened to her,” Sam said.
    “What do you mean?” Hypnos said.
    “How she died, I’ve read the files,” Sam said.
    “Chloe’s dead?” Hypnos said.
    “Of course, how can you not know, it was recorded in the files of the technicians,” Sam said.
    “I’ve never read those files,” Hypnos said.  “I didn’t think I needed to, I already knew so much about them.  How did she die?”
    “It was the terrorist attack on Paris years ago,” Sam said.  “I’m surprised Dr. Phelps didn’t tell you this.”
    “I remember hearing that story on the news,” Hypnos said.  “Perhaps Dr. Phelps didn’t tell me because he knew how much I cared for the people I have shared my company with and didn’t want what runs Celestia to be upset.  It still hurts.”
    “Sorry Hypnos,” Sam apologised.
    “I’m not angry at you,” Hypnos said.  “I’m not even angry at Dr. Phelps, I understand why he did it, or didn’t do it.  I suppose it was inevitable that I was to outlive my guests, I have no idea how long I’ll last, at least humans have a clue.”
    “Are you OK?” Sam said.
    “Sorry, it’s my move, isn’t it?” Hypnos said.  He had never hesitated on a chess move before.  “You haven’t written anything for a while now, Samuel, perhaps you should.”
    “I’ll get right on it after this game,” Sam said.
    “Very well,” Hypnos said.  “Checkmate.”