Chapter 07

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

Seven.

After a much deserved bath, the Cap with his towel around his waist looked around for his favourite pace clothing, the last thing he wanted was to get one of those spacesuits that back in the day was forced to use, so he took out his clothes from the closet and smiled while he dressed up with a pretty used military green overall that contained a number of strategic pockets and zippers to store all of his notes or save some tidbits he consider relevant. He left his private quarters following the smell of lunch that the little robots had prepared and he realized that everything was served on the folding breakfast and an expecting Edna floating by the side.

- Everything is ready Captain, Bonne Appetite. - The Cap sat surprised realizing that he had in front of him some freshly prepared scrambled eggs with ham and some toast just as he liked it. Edna explained to him that she has some kind of stomach receptors and something about a mix between the stomach sounds and the craving hormones but he did not quite understand, instead, he took the opportunity to talk with his crew mate. -Thank you for everything Edna but before continuing I would like to clarify a few things. First of all and just to be sure, is it true that there are no more institutions or space agencies as before? -Edna walked around the front of the Cap having his breakfast. 

- In effect Captain, there is no more of a line of command as you knew it and if anything works for you there’s anything on Earth that resembles a military, aerospace or government organization much less human societies. I can confirm you that indeed there is no one for you to be accountable, - surprised by the news between half smiling and chewing The Cap nearly spits the first bite of egg dipped in some ketchup.

 - Hold on a second Edna, you are telling me “That” there is no longer any human society on Planet Earth? �"Finishing his scrambled eggs accompanied by a sip of coffee.

 - Affirmative Captain, Planet Earth at this time no longer harbours any human and / or the like society, the planet it´s uninhabited since a couple of centuries ago and the people who might be considered as humans already migrated to other parts of the Universe, at this point is now considered merely as an ecological reserve after its official appointment given by the Universal Organization of Naming Cosmic Heritage, it even has a commemorative plaque and everything.

The Cap was receiving too much information that it would take him some time to assimilate, especially because when Edna was debriefing him he realized that there are things out in space and a whole Universe to be discovered.  He thought that possibly falling asleep and waking up so many years in the future meant that now he has an infinite possibility of life experiences worth of a Science Fiction story as he had always longed for since childhood but he left those thoughts for another time and continued talking with Edna.

- So with all this stuff you’re telling me, it leads me to ask you some other thing that I wanted to discuss. First and foremost I would like for us to put aside this formality of this whole Captain-crew-official lingo crap, because as you said before there is an absence of any type of organization, institution or similar and, given the circumstances of my waking up I can consider myself as officially unemployed, so please, you are not in any measure my employee or anything, you can leave the formality and stop serve me like some kind of cosmic dignitary, let´s better be something like Co-Base Space Buddies or something more relaxed, what you say? -Edna spun around on its own axis as trying to absorb what the Cap said responding in a blink. 

-  I understand Captain, excuse me, how do you want me to refer to you from now on? Edna asked.

 - You can Cap me if you want, that´s how all of my closest friends used to call me back in the days, which thinking about it all of them are dead, also my family…damn, this thing of induced dreams has their bitter sides. - Edna nodded to the Cap. 

-  My deepest condolences, I'm sorry and in response to your kind request, I would like to add the issue of the Station as well as the Ship as I had mentioned before. I took the liberty to make some changes and I can proudly say that this is no longer just a Space Station floating in space orbiting around the Earth, now is a full-fledged Space Ship in all the extent of the word with the possibility of traveling through space and obviously it preserves all the previous characteristics of the Base Station functioning as a mobile one. �" Edna made a kind of jiggling bouncing in the air just like if she was smiling, - I will update you later with all the relevant details of the interstellar travel that is used now this day of age, but as I said, being this a space vessel means that it should contain a crew and everyone has a role in it to make everything work properly, the main and most important one is the Captain of the ship, so I think you should take it, in the end, you were the captain of the Space Station long before I arrived. �"Edna finished the sentence with a sudden stop move in mid-air like if she was standing still.

The Cap was surprised that the Station was now a ship that could travel through space, it was too good to be true but he turned his attention to the comments that Edna made for the proper functioning of the ship.

- Then Edna, let´s go step by step. OK, I agree that we will be members of the same crew and thank you very much for considering me as Captain of the ship, which we'll figure out later how to name it. It must have a good and blasting name. �" The cap wave his hands while doing a little musical dance presentation and continued a little embarrassed after the no reaction silence given by Edna putting his arms in the back and walking slowly around her �" So, as Captain I think that you must be my second in command, what Smee was for Captain Hook, what John Silver was for Captain Flint, but I clarify you that we are no different from each other, each of us will take their proper job and responsibilities within the ship as equals, do you agree? - Edna carefully watched the Cap for and nodded happily for the agreement they accomplished.

After finishing his lunch both of them continued talking about the responsibilities they would take inside the ship and how they will organize since he had never lived with a woman, let alone with an AI that was a floating sphere. Edna explained to him that she lived within the internal servers of the ship with a real-time replication inside the sphere used as a body to move more freely and also friendlier to the human perception without losing that minimalist sense of fashion that Edna loves so much.  He kind of understood what she explained to him and from how little he understood was that if anything happened to the ship she will still be alive inside the sphere and vice versa with the possibility of a subsequent transfer of security information, briefly explained she enjoyed a finite existence but with an insurance of a backup replica at some point, more like having two lives in a video game.

While Edna explained in a very general way how the ship works and all the new adjustments, the Cap was thinking of a name and noticing that maybe they will need to get down to earth to replenish provisions when by some sort of spontaneous creative process an awkward epiphany, coincidence or Universal manipulation the word Maquech came to mind for naming the ship, he consulted it with Edna who found it really nice so officially they named their ship as The Maquech.

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.