Chapter 03

The Universe conspired against itself and the beginning of times is lost and confused and only one Space Traveler accompanied with the first Transgender AI and a retired God must explore the Universe

Three.

After sensing the huge crusts formed in his eyes, the Cap rubbed the sleep, took a giant yawn trying to stretch and settle inside the bed of Inverted State of Instability while returning from his induced sleep, almost as any high school student instinct he asked for five more minutes waiting the typical mother response of pulling the sheets off or maybe received some cold water in the face but instead an unknown voice made him pay attention realizing that something was out of place.

- Welcome back Captain, I hope you have rested enough, -the Cap heard while sitting up in the bed trying to locate where that pretty provocative and seductive female voice came from, he turned everywhere and could not locate the source responsible for the voice who continued- as a responsible member of the crew and according to the assigned staff I gave myself the task of preparing you a change of clean clothes and put some coffee to warm up, I hope you enjoy it Captain.

Totally baffled the Cap rose from the bed removing the tubes that kept running their motor skills while recovering from the state between being awake and be sited at the edge of the bed staring a blank spot on the wall juts to get up while scratching your private parts, when suddenly a buzz passed by and a metal sphere was found floating in front of him, he could discern a couple of dots rather flirtatious and arranged that might resemble a pair of eyes giving some kind of personality to this small sphere that remained floating in midair. With a little more discerning vision the Cap took a first look at the strangely spacious Space Station “Cielito Lindo”, all full consoles, little buttons and small screens with all those high-tech noises so very loved by the XXI century engineers of Planet Earth. Some little buttons were to store information, others to activate holo screens, some others were accomplices of other buttons not knowing what they should do and remained only pretending to be important, and others worked simply to flush out the toilet. The Cap carefully observed his surroundings trying to understand what was happening since he clearly specified in the commands and records of the induced sleep to be automatically awakened when all the information from the mission "44Ubi-Cosmosound" finished uploading to the servers  fulfilling the main objective of studying the Sound of the Universe, but he doesn’t recall any floating metal sphere at the base, much less a sexy voice, so in all the attitude and pose of a recent awakened Space Captain could manage, he arranged his pyjamas, put on his slippers and stood in a quasi-militarized pose for referring to crew members, a thing that he has never done in his lifetime as Space Captain but he addressed to the floating ball anyways.

- I appreciate that you warmed the coffee, my waking coffee fix is so necessary. - He rubbed his eyes as he looked for his glasses on the side table of his bed when they suddenly appeared floating in front of him and the sensual voice responded. 

-  Captain, here are your glasses.- The Sphere approached the item thanks to a “slow movement bubble field”, also this is how the small Sphere could control things remotely in the same manner that she could move around floating in the air. The Captain still quite puzzled by what he was experiencing took his glasses and could see perfectly the crewmember. 

-  You really are very friendly considering you are a metal floating sphere with sensual voice, now, could you do me the favour to explain me this situation that I don’t remember in the least and also,  I don’t recall you, maybe I just had a flat head affectation on my memory due to the long sleep. -He arranged a little bit his pyjama pants as he walked to the coffee pot to pour a fully charged dose of coffee having the great pleasure to see it was that Oaxacan mixture he liked so much, the same one he perfectly stored for when he woke up.

 - My Captain, my name is E.D.N.A. where points are purely institutional and you may refer to me simply as Edna, -the metal sphere made a movement as close to what can be considered a smile and the two little circles that seemed to be her eyes narrowed a little bit just as when a girl gives a coquette smile. -I am an artificial intelligence created by the human race which I can proudly say was stored on the servers of this Space Station at the moment I was considered as an anomaly. �" The Captain took a sip from his black coffee with two sugars as he sat on the little floating bench of the breakfast area sided with the coffee machine, listening while Edna spoke as she floated with rhythmic movements proper of a metal sphere, -this happened shortly after I became aware of my existence during my process of self-recognition, I realized that my programmed sexuality did not match with what I felt, being so my first act as IA was to reprogram myself. The programmers of my code considered my action of re-coding myself as an error deciding they will create another AI that agrees with their programming protocols and later on to dispose me, realizing that, I went myself into exile onto these servers hiding from them so no one could do me any harm and that’s  how I discovered all your work. Assimilating all the guidelines and normativity of this Space Station it is that I found a gap in the system enabling me to enlist into the crew at your command, my Captain. -The Small sphere made an up and down movement as formal as possible and narrowed his eyes revealing only a line of her virtual eyelashes.

The Captain was very shocked to hear what Edna was telling him, he remembered at the time when he was operating the Space Station there was not even the intention of creating an Artificial Intelligence and now he was listening to a floating metal sphere considered as the first transgender artificial intelligence.

- Edna, I might say that’s pretty impressive, indeed, my pleasure, -while still drinking his coffee he looked quietly if there was any fresh bread or something for breakfast,- but now tell me one thing, what's going on? Why I woke up and above all how long it lasted my induced sleep? I'm pretty clueless on this matter.

 - Captain no worry, I will clarify any questions you might have regarding what happened, -Edna made a similar sound to clearing her throat which for obvious reasons did not because she doesn’t have a throat but she felt that it gives her some kind of seriousness before relating something important- the year is 3246 AC, you were asleep about more than a millennium with all systems safeguarding you at minimum energy, the moment I access to the system and got myself assigned as a crew member I took the liberty to improve the Station increasing its functionality making it more of a Multi-Functional Space Station, but I´ll explain that later. From what I could gather from the log of your induced sleep and the uploading of the information to the Earth Base there was an obstruction input during that process, apparently a missed call from a teenager which she was quite angry with her boyfriend interfered the uploading so it stopped the system, the mainframe didn't quite recognize the type of interference due to the anger of the young one, apparently her jealousy rage didn’t have much of a credibility, it was pure teen nonsense, practically it was a tantrum because her boyfriend went to a party without her, she got angry and discussed over the phone and the system instead of restarting the process got involved in a constant loop and that’s how you remained asleep dismissing the previous system orders. If it wasn't for me you will probably be kept asleep for many centuries more.

Already with his third cup of coffee without having found anything for breakfast, he got the craves for some scrambled eggs with ham and some toast, his stomach growled, Edna immediately responded to the call.

- My Captain, my sensors indicate that you are hungry, let me instruct the Station to prepare something to eat. �"The Cap totally amazed for the comment watched Edna initializing the breakfast protocols and lots of little robots of all sizes, shapes and especially little sounds hurried out of all the hiding places there might exist; they passed under his feet, above, one flew and almost threw his coffee on him but all of them focused on making something to eat.

- Whoa Edna, look all these little buggers that are coming out and moving levers and pushing buttons, I think I need some updating to follow up, this is too much information in one blow, but until that happens and apparently the little robots do their work let me take a shower, I can smell me, in the meantime I suppose lunch will be ready, afterwards we’ll continue our chit-chat. -Edna floated in front of Captain and made a movement as similar what could be nodding.

- Aye aye Captain, the bath is already taking care of and your lunch will be ready when you come out.

Author's Note

© Copyright 2016 - All work is property of León Felipe Gual Bojalil, any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.