Chapter 11: Moon Fly-by

Mira is able to take a look at the earth as they fly by the moon. Mira also gets closer to Kate.

I’m not sure what it means to be a girl exactly, but I do know what it feels like to be a warrior and feeling feminine at the same time seems to complete me somehow.  I am glad that I got to spend time with Mira and get to know her a bit better.  I feel like I can teach her more about being a warrior and she can teach me more about being a human…and a girl.  In my down time, Taran would sometimes work on me and I was appreciative of it.  He did a lot of work on my ability to speak and move but still, my processor was slower than the others despite my data storage abilities.  He continues to work on my liquid metal exoskeleton and my cutting blade.  I am quick with it already, but as he works on me, it seems to get better and even more useful.  He’s quite the engineer and an artist to boot.  I feel better with each adjustment.  Taran has taken it upon himself to move around to each of us in our off-line time, to make sure we are all in tip top condition.

 

……The music started softly and started to play louder.  Imagine Dragons, ‘Radioactive’…as requested.  Mira’s head started to sway, eyes slowly opening as a slight smile swept across her lips.  She glanced around the command module, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes again.  The song played through to the end. 

 

Suddenly, a loud booming announcer’s voice came on….sounded like that old Top 40 guy, Casey Kasem.  “Good morning to the crew of the Mayflower!  It’s a balmy minus 455 degrees outside, skies are clear!  Today’s high, minus 455 degrees, today’s low, minus 455 degrees.  Big story of the day today is the moon flyby at 11:55 MST, that’s Mira’s Standard Time.  No traffic delays, no crimes to report…looks like a good day for smooth sailing!  Next up, Foster the People with, Helena Beat!”  Brando took the actual voice of Casey Kasem and programmed it to play as the voice of the DJ…nice touch I thought, for an annoying robot. 

 

The music cranked back up again….”Sometimes life it takes you by the hand …..”  The music echoed through the ship, perfect surround sound…extra reverb just like she liked it.  Mira smiled and got up…ok guys, let’s start the day!

 

“Good morning Mira!” Justin said.  “Good morning!  For a while I thought speaking to you was just a dream…if it is, glad it’s lasted through the night…I’ve been doing some thinking…”  “Sorry to cut you off Mira, but we have to talk over a few things.” “Good, because I wanted to set some ground rules too.”  “Ground rules?”  “Yeah…so, you told me this story about how you guys climb all over people’s bodies and into their heads and connect to their brains…see through their eyes, see their dreams…well, I’m not comfortable with that.”  “You’re not?”  “No.”  “I know you all feel like you are individuals with rights right?”  “Yes.”  “Well, so am I…and I want to maintain a sense of personal space and privacy…so can we set up a rule that no one enters my body without permission?”  Justin looked at me….kind of shrugged…”Sure, Mira, I’ll tell everyone but let’s set up some caveats to that ok.”  “OK…”  “Yeah, so if you are having a medical problem and you are incapacitated, can we help you?”  “I think that would be ok.”  “….hmmm…and I can’t think of much else at the moment, but if there is some kind of real emergency and we didn’t have time to communicate, would that be ok?”  “I suppose, but how about this, if you guys ever enter my body for an emergency type situation, then you have to inform me at the first opportunity ok?”  “OK.” 

 

Mira then darted across the command module:  she actually is very graceful in zero gravity…probably because of the amount of time she has spent in water.  Mira looked out the window,  “Thanks for the music, it has been very comforting…I don’t feel nearly as alone now.”  I could tell Justin was happy to hear that.  “Brando wants me to tell you, you are welcome…and also, he says he has set up a volume control…the cameras are always watching you, so if you make a motion upward with your right smallest pinky finger, volume goes up…and if you point the pinky down, volume goes down.  If you want a specific song, just ask.”  “Always watching?  Weren’t we just talking about privacy?  And how long have you been watching me?  You haven’t been watching my dreams have you?”  “We’ve been watching you…as I said, we still are not sure exactly what we’ll be doing next but it took time to figure out what to do with you.  We have not entered your body so we have not seen your dreams.”  “Whew…ok, that’s good.”  “But everything else…we have seen.”  “Uggh…I’m embarrassed…”  “We’re all family, kind of…”  “Yes…and no….so, I admit, I don’t know how to use the bathroom properly…I think I have identified it, but not sure how to properly use it.”  “Yeah…we noticed….so, first things first; we thought some basic hygiene training was in order.” 

 

“OK…but is Kate there still?”  “Yep, she’s right here…”  “OK, can we set this up so Kate and I can have a private conversation?”  “Sure…I guess”  Justin replied, looking a little perplexed,  “standby”.  I told Justin, “girl stuff, you wouldn’t understand.”  Justin shrugged, and turned to Octo,    “Octo, can we set something like that up?  A one to one transmission from Kate to Mira?”  “Sure…for now, I’ll just take everyone off the net until Kate gives me the signal…but I’ll come up with a design for Tata to build so that Mira can just tap it and call individuals…voice activated.”  Mira chimed in, “wow…you guys are awesome, just like Star Trek!  I just wish our sizes were more similar.”  “Me too,” Justin said, “ok Mira, it’s just you and Kate now, talk to you in a while.”  “OK Justin, thank you for understanding.” 

 

“Kate!”  She said, “I’m lost here…I don’t know how to use any of the toilet equipment, wash myself…I smell really bad, I want to wash my clothes, brush my teeth, don’t have a hair brush…and also, as comfortable as my yoga pants are for working out, I would like something a little looser and more functional like a flight suit…and since you say you are a girl and seem to understand the need to look good to feel good and all that, I just want to talk about this stuff with you privately ok.”  She made me smile, I like her…”No worries Mira, I’ll help you out with all this stuff, I’ll call Tata over too to help out, but first, let me show you something…look down the main passage way aft on the ship….ok, now look to the left and open that hatch.”  “I got it…”  “That’s your bedroom….you have a lot of choices since the planned crew never arrived.  You can go for a hammock type set up or a tethered sleeping bag…and over time, let me know if you were too warm or too hot and we’ll adjust it and get it right for you.”  I then showed Mira all she needed to know about staying clean and sanitary, from taking sponge baths to brushing teeth and hair, etc.  It was not hard to download the applicable data for all that.  Mira’s quarters were quite spacious so she could comfortably spend time there and it also had a window which she was immediately drawn to…as she was floating around she asked, “Kate?  Can we make my quarters an area where only aural communications are used?”  “Sure, Mira…we want you to feel at home and I get the need for privacy, but is it ok for me to come in and check on you?” 

 

“Yeah, that’s ok, thanks Kate.  I’m a little confused at how there are boy and girl robots…but if they are boys, I’d prefer to maintain some privacy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the boys, but it’s a different kind of relationship.  Is it possible that we could be roommates Kate?”  “I’ll have to think about that…I do kind of sleep when I’m processing and doing my data back ups.  I’ll tell you what, I’ll time that so we sleep together and I’ll make sure to be in the quarters with you.”  “Thanks, it makes me feel less alone…so, it is not just ‘Mira’s quarters, it’s ‘Mira and Kate’s’ quarters ok?   And when we are in here together, like this, can we automatically be in private communication?”  “Sure, I’m sure Octo can do that.  I’m not entirely sure of what makes us either boys or girls either, or what, exactly makes us think we are alive…but that’s a discussion for another day.” 

 

“OK Mira, Tata is here and she’s going to make you some custom flight suits and footwear but she needs to scan you…”  Mira looked up, “that’s cool, what do I need to do?”  “OK, we have a laser scanner set up….you can leave your yoga pants and bra on, but take the t-shirt off.  OK, now position yourself in the center of your room….ok, now spin yourself slowly with your arms at your sides and legs strait.”  “OK”  “Got it…ok, now, same thing but with your arms outstretched….ok, now bend your legs up toward your chest,”  Mira complied.  “Perfect. Now hold your feet up to the center of the room and rotate…good.” 

 

“Tata has a question for you Mira, what colors do you like, looks like we have an assortment…olive green, bright blue, black and international orange….”  Mira smiled…”you guys are the best…ummm, can I have a few sets?”  “As many as you like.”  “OK, I really like the black…and the green…you can keep the blue and orange ones for someone else…   Thanks Tata!”  “Yes!” Tata replied.  “Oh, and can you make them a little more form fitting?  I know they are supposed to be extra baggy for fire safety, but let’s face it, if there is a fire big enough where it matters…well, I won’t be fighting it.”  “Yes!”  Tata said again.  “That’s about all she says Mira…and she’s really happy to help you.”  “That’s so cool…if she doesn’t know it, please make sure she knows I appreciate it…actually, all you guys.”

 

So…we took some time to learn about all the life and hygiene support and other equipment again and review until she got it.  Humans need to have things repeated and they need to actually touch and do things to learn, so it took a little while before she was comfortable.  None of the equipment, including the toilet was hard to use, once you understood how it was supposed to work.  Meanwhile, Justin focused on all the possible options and spent some time with Taran.  Mira was all set up, and excited about the prospect of a comfortable sleep tonight too.  So…now we can focus on the mission. 

 

“Kate?” Mira called out, “thank you for not killing me.”  “You are welcome…” She made me smile again… “just don’t make me regret my decision.”  “Mira smiled”…it’s the same type of humor she had grown up with…dry with a touch of sarcasm.  “OK Mira, I think we’ll be passing the moon soon, so we’ll want to be up in the command module to see that.”  “Sure thing”…as she put her shirt back on and bounced around the cabin area on her way out the hatch.  I’ve never had a friend before. 

 

“We’re back”, I told Octo….and he connected us back to everyone.  “What’s up everyone?” said Mira.  “Hi Mira, you all set up now?”  “Yep, all set.”  “Good,” Justin said,  “Well, we are just about to pass the moon here right on trajectory and the gravity of the moon will adjust our trajectory to put us on our final course towards Mars.”  “Is that where we are headed?”  “Well, that’s something we need to talk about as a group but, for now, yes.”  Justin turned to me, “so, who is the pet again?”  I think he was a little jealous…  “She’s not a pet…ok, you were right…she’s my friend now.”  “See!” he said, “you really need to think about your default to killing things out of a sense of compassion.”  I just looked at him coldly…I understood what he was saying, but still, even now, what is her future?  And is it up to me to be the judge of that?  I will think about it more…

 

“Tata is in the cargo bay working on some clothes for Mira” I told Justin. “OK, Tata, can you hear me?”  “Yes!” she replied.  “OK then, we have a lot to talk about…” Mira cut him off, “so, what is going on with the Earth?  What do we know?”  Everyone went silent….and Justin looked at me, not sure what to say.  “Listen!” Mira said, “If I am going to be a part of this team, I want to know…I want to see what happened.”  “She’s right,”  I said, “she needs to see it and deal with it before we can move on as a team.”  “See what?” 

 

“Octo, can you bring up the video feed of the impact please and show Mira?”  “Sure.”  Mira looked at the large display screen.  Justin began narrating, “this was taken as we departed Earth.  That object coming into the screen from the left is what the humans called a meteorite...which is far larger than that, actually, before impact, it did appear to be larger than the moon.  Not that there are not large meteors out there floating around, but this is a particularly large one, and it came from a quadrant that no one on Earth was looking…and then to make matters worse, it did a very close pass of Jupiter and then passed behind the Sun on the way in which made it all very unpredictable.  At first, they thought it would completely miss the Earth, then they thought it would slow to the point that it would just plunge into the Sun..which, if it didn’t hit the Earth, it probably would have.  So, it was very fast at first, and then by the time of impact, was relatively slow.”  Justin used the presentation tools to point and circle the items he was talking about.  “So, we’ll run the tape forward now, and you can see it approach the Earth…and the Earth is rotating of course…and you’ll see it impact Northern Europe and scrape northward.  We noticed that the Earth’s crust was basically scraped off in that area and you can see the glow of the molten upper mantle which is exposed.” 

 

Mira’s eyes opened wide, and she pushed her hair back out of the way to see better…  “Oh no……  This is far worse than I thought it would be.” Tears came to her eyes.  Justin continued on, “Mira, are you sure you want to see all of this?” “I need to.” “OK……So, and now we are not exactly sure what the end result will be…but then after the impact, a major portion of the meteor disappeared out of our view and lots of small pieces have scattered, some even into orbit which we think is why all the communication and navigation satellites are no longer providing data…but that’s just speculation.  We detected no radio communications of any type and in the unlit hemisphere, it’s normal to see human made lights in the darkness…now, nothing, at least from our vantage point.  Anyhow, notice what happens next.  The crust of the earth experienced huge waves, we think these waves have an amplitude of up to 100 miles but it’s hard to tell…and the waves seem to radiate all the way around the planet…hours later, we zoomed in on North America….it’s not looking good from what we can see because the whole shape of the continent has changed and somehow twisted….but the good news is, it’s not a bright red smudge of exposed mantle like Northern Europe.” 

 

Tears now streaming down her face, Mira, turned away….”do you think anyone survived?”  “Anything is possible but…our estimate is that human survival is unlikely, certain species, the survivors…cockroaches, sharks, bacteria, etc, perhaps.”  “Can we go back?  Will the planet die?”  “Not sure what you mean but, the Earth is situated in an extremely stabilizing set of circumstances.  From the position of the solar system in its galaxy, its orbit and position in relation to the sun, protection from a lot of space debris, with planets like Jupiter and Saturn…and even the moon acting as meteor sponges…the Earth is well protected.”  “Not well enough….” Mira wiped the tears off her face. 

 

“No…but what I’m saying is, it’s still a very stable planet, it will come back.  The atmosphere, the oceans, the land…it’s all pretty much still there.”

 

“I thought a few degrees of temperature change would destroy the planet…that’s what I thought.” 

 

“A few degrees of temperature change, if you look at the data over time, is normal but over the long haul, the planet is extremely stable and it should eventually return to stability and back to normal fluctuations.  Can the current inhabitants survive right now?”

 

“For most, especially the humans, probably not…and it probably won’t be habitable within a hundred years.”

 

“Stable?” Mira questioned.  “Yeah…think of it like this:  Imagine trying to balance a ball on the back of an upside-down bowl…you have to work at keeping the ball from rolling off right?  It’s an unstable situation…the Earth does not appear to be like that to us, which is different from what the humans seemed to think.”

 

“Instead, we think it’s like carrying a ball in a bowl, right side up.  The ball may move but, it always wants to return to the center…it’s stable…and that’s the Earth.  It may look ugly now, but it will right itself.  In this case, using the stability metaphor, we think it was really tipped but the ball didn’t fall out.”

 

Octo spoke up, “Guys…the moon is close.” 

 

“Yep, 15 minutes now.   Mira, would you like to use the thrusters to spin us around as we pass and we can get a nice look at the moon and Earth together.”  Mira darted over to the flight deck station and strapped into the pilot seat. 

 

“These are the thruster controls right?”  “Yes, and there is a checklist right there you can go through.  Don’t worry though, we can take remote control if necessary, just thought you might like the chance to fly the ship a little.”  “Yeah…I would like that.” 

 

“So, you said you flew the T-38?”  Justin asked.  “Yes, it was a fun aircraft to fly…but tricky too, the approach and stall speed are really fast with those stubby little wings….180 Knots on final is a little fast they say…but aside from a few rides in other aircraft, it’s the only thing I know.  And you said you flew the F-18E?  That must have been fun, that’s top of the line….a superhornet.” 

 

“Yeah,” Justin replied, “I only flew for a little while but it was fun, the flyby of the stadium rocked though…I had fun.  You know what I really wanted to fly?  The dragonfly…now that would have been cool.”  “Yeah, fly a dragonfly…I can only dream about that, my dad always wanted to try out the F-18E/F. When he was in the Navy, he was an F-18 C/D guy.  We heard that the E/F was a nice step up…OK, I’ve got the thrusters online…I think.” 

 

“Looks good to us,” Justin replied.

Our ship was programmed to get outside the gravitational pull of the moon, and then automatically use the thrusters to make a final course adjustment and then fire the main engines again to get us going for the trip to Mars.  In the future, there was talk of building a base on the moon as a jumping off point to Mars and other places but, that never really got off the ground.  Too bad, I thought, it would have come in handy...

 

Instead, we just decided to disable the main engine burn until we decided what we would be doing.  “OK, I’ve got it here…”  Mira was indeed smooth with the control inputs and as we passed the moon, she swung us around for a perfect view of the surface of the moon, and then back at the Earth. 

 

Even after a couple of days…the earth still looked like a mess, waves in the crust still reverberating around….an orange glow, debris scattered everywhere…but at the same time, there was a beauty to it all too.  Before this, I thought of the Earth as a solid rock, but now, looking at it, it is more like a drop of liquid, floating in space, with a very thin crust which literally, just floats on the surface.  The impact of the meteor really put that on full display.  I wondered what happened to the rest of the meteor...was it absorbed?  ...or did it bounce off after making that ugly scrape across the European continent.

 

Brando, as usual, picked out a song…I think now he was starting to monitor Mira’s reaction to different types of music and was making a great effort at helping her cope…in the same way he helps Liz. 

 

As a view of the Earth swung into the front windows, Brando played ‘See you again’ by Carrie Underwood.   Mira stabilized us nicely….took her hands off the controls.  She leaned back in the chair, stared out the window and cried.  We all just stood there helpless, listening to the music and watching the Earth…on fire.  We passed the moon quickly and it was a strange feeling as we watching it getting smaller and smaller in the distance… 

 

 

“OK, I think we need to take a lunch break for Mira and then start talking about what is next.” 

 

“Mira, before you eat, I have something that might cheer you up a little.”  

“Yeah, what’s that Kate?  I don’t really feel like eating right now anyway.”  “Tata reports that she is complete with your new clothes…how about a shopping trip?  I know, it’s not really shopping…but kind of like that.  If you like, I’ll come along.”  “Sure…I’m up for that.  How will you come with me?”  “Put your arm down on the center console….” Mira leaned forward in her chair and put her hand on the flat surface.  “OK, let’s go.” I said.  “I can’t even see you!  Where are you…I’m headed up and onto your tshirt shoulder… I still have good communications but can’t see very well.”  

“Do you know how to tap into my visual data feed?”  “I have not done it myself before, but yeah, I’ve seen how Octo does it.”  

“Well, I give you permission to do that if you like ok.”  “OK, on it.”

“You all set?” Mira asked….”This is crazy, I never even felt you at all.”  

“I’m all hooked in…I can see what you see.”  “OK, so we head aft to the cargo bay?  I haven’t been there yet.”  

“Yes, Tata says to come to pallet 286 and open compartment D.”  “OK…well, here we go.”  Mira quickly worked her way down the passage way and opened the cargo bay door and looked inside.  “This place is crazy…as big as a school gym…and all kinds of stuff.  Huge tanks of water, off road vehicles…an airplane?  Weapons…aquaponics?  Seeds….looks like we are ready to build a city.” 

 

Mira took time to float around the space and take it all in…she was very curious about everything.  And finally, we found the right pallet and opened the compartment.  “This is pretty cool Tata!” “Yes!” her voice rang out.  Mira found one of the black flight suits…”it’s still in the package?  How did you do that?”  She then opened the package and pulled out the flight suit, and a bunch of extra material scraps came out with it.  “Extra”  Tata said.  “So…you worked on this while it was folded up in the package?”  “That’s crazy amazing, I can’t wait to try it on.”  Mira then took her t-shirt 

off, put the flight suit over her shoulder and slipped between the pallets for some privacy and took off the yoga pants and slipped the flight suit on quickly.  “Perfect fit Tata!”  Mira zipped it up and spun around, looking down trying to see the length.  “It feels good…thanks so much Tata!” 

 

“Keep looking in the pallet, Tata is indicating there is more.”  Mira looked…and she pulled out everything she would need as far as wardrobe went, including little sock booties…and a couple more pairs of yoga pants…  “Tata says you look comfortable in them and they might be good to use to sleep in or to work out.”  “Work out?”  “Oh yeah, you will need to stay in shape if you are going to be of any use when we get to wherever we are going.”  

“Looks like I could swim in my own pool…check out those tanks!” 

 

“Tata…thank you so much, I’m going to bundle all this new stuff and take it back to our quarters.  You want to ride along?”  “Yes!”  “OK…just put your hand on the top of the box you just opened.  She’s good to go.”  Mira looked at her hand…”nothing.  You guys could really mess with me if you wanted…” 

 

Mira collected all her things, except for the green flight suits, everything else was black…which Mira seemed to like.  Even a few sports bras and underwear…everything looked really cool, and perfectly fit.  We then made our way back to the quarters to put it all away…taking the long way through the cargo bay…looking at all the equipment.  

“Even a newer version of the moon rover…it’s like we are set to go camping for a long time.”  

“I have the whole inventory if you want the down load…”  “I would, can you put the list on the console next to the pilot chair?”  

“Sure, I’ll look at that later.”

 

“Here’s something you might like Mira; this is a huge acrylic dome…made of a synthetic fiber that is as strong as spider webbing, tough as steel, but you can see through it.  What it does is once you deploy it, it expands out to cover an area with a diameter of about 500 yards…like a big bubble or dome, which you can then fill with breathable air…so, we could immediately start building a small city.”  Mira then pointed to the seven special pallets…  “what are those?” 

 

“Those…are 490 human embryos…and they are frozen right now, but once we get to where we are going, we can start over again, building the human race basically from scratch…”  “wow!  I can’t believe my dad never told me about this…” 

 

“I don’t think he knew this aspect of the mission…and I don’t think the intention was to allow these embryos to raise themselves either…somewhere a mistake was made…So, that’s part of what we have to discuss as a team soon.  What is the right thing to do…what can we do?....but Justin will figure out something…or get us to figure it out together.” 

 

“You have a lot of faith in him don’t you,”  Mira quipped.  “I do…I have to.  Without him, we would be lost...so that’s why I stay close.  That and he’s a good friend and brother too.”  “Brother?...how?”  

“Basically, it has to do with our manufacturing process and quantum entanglement…we can talk about that later ok.” 

 

“OK…you guys are almost human aren’t you?” 

 

“Well, aside from not being in human bodies…I think we pretty much are.  We are self-aware and seem to have a sense of right and wrong....well, I suppose that is debatable.  We know we exist, we want a lot of the same things as humans, including company…what makes a human different than animals?”  “Souls?”  “Well, something…maybe we somehow received souls?  I don’t know.” 

 

Mira moved closer to the pallets full of humans….”490 of you guys…am I a…mother?  That’s a huge responsibility.”  “It is…very important, Justin thinks that preservation of life is very important but not only that, life forms that can communicate and feel emotion in a human way seem even more valuable.  I can see the value in efficiency with having servants but on a deeper level, human beings have the ability to go beyond basic animal instinct and are willing to make sacrifices for themselves in order to help others.  I immediately see value in that as a warrior, but also, potentially in many fields of endeavor from the arts to furthering science...human beings are worth the effort to save.  At least I hope so." 

 

Mira stopped to listen to the music echoing through the passage from the command module….smiled and raised the volume.  “I don’t think I know this one…I like it.”  Brando was playing some Camera Obscura, ‘Lloyd, I’m ready to be heartbroken’.

 

Mira then moved to one of the huge water tanks and tapped it with her fingers.  “This is a lot of water…I really do wish I could swim…” she trailed off. 

 

“Mira, we should make our way back to the quarters and then join up with the others…we have some very important things to discuss.” 

 

“OK…I’ll grab a bag of the space food of the day, beef and broccoli?…yum…and of course, some dehydrated ice cream..”