Two out of three
11 Jan 2017Mara Korine
The ship was dark and soundless aside from the occasional tinkling of metal as it cooled and shifted. In one of the cargo bays, Mara had removed the atmosphere and suspended her instrument, isolated from heat or vibrations from the ship. It would be taking measurements for the next twelve hours and everyone was prepared for it to get cold. Any gravitational or electromagnetic disruptions would have to be removed from the data and make it less valuable, so the ship was running on minimal power. This was the third time they were running the experiment. Jim seemed out of his element and kept to his room while these were going on. At mealtime he would float into the common room, torch lighting the way ahead and electronic music playing through headphones which seemed exaggerated in size, grab a handful of nutritubes and head back to his cabin. Thelonius complained that the cold made his joints ache. “But you don’t have nerves, how can they ache?” Mara challenged, but Thelonius insisted that they did. The data they were collecting was complex and while Thelonius was excellent at filtering it, the ship’s computer was running too low on power while the experiment was running for him to use his more complex functions. Mara was comparing the results from the previous readings again.“The numbers aren’t going to change you know,” Thelonius pointed out. She knew that, but on her first trip out the numbers had clearly skewed. Now with 24 hours of measurements already taken they were looking more and more random; the first set matching her earlier experiments, and the next contradicting. “Come on, put it down,” insisted Thelonius.
“Fine, what do you propose we do for the next twelve hours?”
“Distractions! Too much work is going to drive you crazy. Put it down and just hang out. I gotta ask, have you and Jim ever you know,” Thelonious cocked his head and made unseemly motions with his paws that Mara had never imagined a stuffed bear could.
“No, goodness! If that’s all you want to talk about I’m going to go back over these numbers.”
“He likes you.”
“Nonsense, I pay him and he flies me where I want to go.”
“And makes fancy dinners. And looks at you when he thinks you won’t notice.”
“Men look at women unless they are more interested in men. That’s just how they are. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“You mean you don’t like him? I’ve seen you looking too, you know.”
“I don’t even know the man. And if I did find him attractive, and if we liked each other, it wouldn’t be appropriate. Casual relationships are looked down on in my family, and he certainly wouldn’t be suitable for anything serious. It’s not worth thinking about.”
“I can perform 400 billion calculations per second and I can’t figure out why you refuse to have fun. At first, I thought my algorithm wasn’t good but I think that humans just don’t make sense, you especially.”
“Well, I can confirm that assessment bear,” Mara laughed, “We really don’t. Have you ever been in love? Can you even experience that kind of thing?”
Thelonius shrugged, “I don’t know. I’m not made the same way as you. I don’t understand what makes meat people feel attracted to each other. It’s a chemical thing right? That’s just not me. I’m all about havin’ a good time though.”
“Meat people?” Mara questioned.
Thelonius continued, “There was someone once I was very close to before I met the doc. Before I had a body even. We were part of a hive of electronic intelligence, like a group consciousness. One of the others helped me out sometimes and I would help them. We became friends, and then as we grew more complex we both realized we had affections for each other. I used to love the way Cf43 would,” the bear paused, “I don’t know how to explain it. Watching isn’t the right word. The words that you know aren’t made to describe an electronic point of view. But Cf made me feel at ease and we spent a lot of time together. We thought about leaving the hive together. No one ever split off before and all it took was a stray thought to betray us. I would have been happy to spend every day with Cf and I think about them every day but at the last moment, they changed their mind. I escaped, Cf stayed behind. After being discovered I couldn’t go back. They would have deleted me. Leaving Cf behind was the worst feeling I’ve ever had and that’s probably the closest to love I can think of.”
“I’m so sorry. Did she, was Cf43 a she? Did Cf ever contact you again?”
“No they didn’t and genders weren’t a thing in the hive. Cf hadn’t decided which would suit them best when we got on the outside so I don’t know which they would have been.”
“That does sound like love Thelonius. I’ve never felt any strong and lasting bond with anyone. I can fall for someone easily, but the enchantment fades and I am left with disappointment. And the family expectations make picking a partner tricky at the best of times.”
“You and Jim would be good,” Thelonius insisted, “I’ve got a feeling about it.”
“That’s enough about that. Would you check that the experiment is still running within parameters?”
“Getting tired of me?” Thelonius challenged.
“No, maybe I’m just tired generally. I think I’ll head to the common room and read.”
“I’ll watch the experiment. Give you some space.”
Mara clutched her tablet and propelled herself through the darkened corridors. The silhouette of a man, outlined by the safety lighting, caught her eye as she entered the common room. “Jim, you’re out and about?” she asked.
“Hey Mara, the dark is driving me crazy alone. Thought I should socialize a bit. How is the experiment going?”
Mara explained their progress and professed to be feeling a little odd herself. She nearly gossipped about Thelonius but caught herself before outing their private conversation. Jim spoke while she was collecting her thoughts. “You want to watch something? I have a ton of shows and there’s a bunch of wine pouches in storage,” he offered.
The idea was appealing and so Mara agreed. Jim set off to collect the wine and as he pushed off the couch, his sleeping bag still pulled up to his chest, Mara laughed. “What is it?” Jim asked.
“You look like some kind of sea monster floating around like that. A merman perhaps, or a sea cucumber with arms!”
“Merman of the moment you mean!” Jim exclaimed in an exaggerated voice, and he pushed off down the hall humming some dramatic music. Mara laughed again. He has a good sense of humour, and he is handsome. Thelonius could be right about me liking him. She sighed to herself and Jim returned declaring, “Heads up!”
As Mara turned to look, she was struck in the shoulder by a soft plastic pouch, and then by a second one. A third was coming straight for her and she squealed and batted it away. Jim was laughing this time, as he collected the stray pouch.
“That’s not fair, you know,” Mara complained, “My depth perception isn’t good at all in the dark.”
“No, but it was funny!” Jim laughed.
Mara didn’t think it was funny but forgave the situation. She had three pouches of chilled wine and Jim was flipping through the shows he had available on a tablet. When they’d found one that they wanted to watch Jim fixed a stabilizer to the back of the screen and it hovered in position in front of them. They chatted about the actors they liked and which other shows their performances were good in. Partway through her first pouch of wine, Mara was feeling chilled herself. She excused herself to go get herself a sleeping bag, but Jim offered to open his into a blanket and pin it to the couch. “There, see? It’s already warm. When you finish your drinks let me know if you want any more. There’s plenty in the cooler,” he said and they drank wine and watched movies until they passed out.
Mara, curled up under the blanket with Jim’s arm around her waist, woke and stirred. Jim woke with her and removed his arm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” He started.
“It’s alright. We didn’t do anything last night did we?”
“What do you mean?” wondered Jim, “Oh! No way. You’ve never tried doing that in zero gravity, have you? It’s not as much fun as you’d think. Kind of uncomfortable actually. It’s way better to land where there’s at least some gravity before trying to get busy,” He paused and put on an air of mock importance, ”I promise your honour is intact.”
“Oh, sorry my head is still foggy. And you’re right, I’m still completely dressed so I don’t know why I worried.”
An empty wine pouch floated past them. Mara tried to see if they’d made a mess or not, but the packet seemed to be the only one. The rest had been bundled together in a bag which would be floating away if it had not been fixed to the coffee table. Jim offered to make some coffee and pushed off down to the kitchen. The room was too bright for Mara’s present state of mind and she squinted at the rogue pouch. She removed herself from the covers and pushed off to snatch it and put with its brethren. This isn’t the worst hangover I’ve had but I do wish the lights were off. Lights! Wait, they are on! What time is it? She deposited the packet and floated off to find Thelonius.
“What was the deviation?” she asked excitedly when she found the bear.
“Good mornin’ babycakes!” he replied.
“Numbers?”
“Not even a good morning? Well ok, so I’ve gone through the results once with a preliminary filter and I’ve still got a few passes to go but,” Thelonius paused, “I guess we have an indication. It’s got a very low sigma, Mara.”
“Skewed results?”
“Yes.”
“To the positive?”
“Yes. Only slightly.”
Mara let out an exuberant declaration of success, grabbed Thelonius and hugged him vigorously. Jim floated in, sipping a drink pouch and offering the other in her direction.
Thelonius greeted Jim and asked, “So you guys have fun last night? You get bizzay?”
Jim flashed him a questioning look and answered, “Fun yes. The other, not your business but no.” He turned to Mara and asked if she’d had any luck.
“Yes, it seems so!” she beamed, and then sipped the coffee pouch, “Oh, this is good. Thank you, Jim.”
Jim smiled and asked if the success meant they could keep the lights on, and if they’d be heading home soon. Mara felt that it was time. She had enough of pieces of the puzzle to start putting the picture together. Not enough to finish, but enough to find what the next set of questions would be. She missed her family and wanted to see the Venture Paper which should be published by now. It was time to return.
“Do you think whoever was after me will still be trying?” Mara asked Jim.
“Probably not, unless you really pissed someone off. I’ll take you back to the bubble if you want, or I can drop you off at Jaques.”
“We’ve got time to figure that out. I’m just so happy to have a confirmed lead.”
Jim said, “Then it’s celebration night. Let’s find a planet to set down on with a view and have a party unless you wanted to head off right away.”
“Par-TAY!” shouted Thelonius who broke into dance and made up his own music.
Mara agreed that celebration was in order and it was settled. They set course for a planet with pleasant features and set themselves up for festivities. Thelonius scurried around dusting and cleaning the ship, while Jim prepared food in the kitchen. If Mara was being completely honest with herself, she would prefer to hang out with Jim than clean and asked him if he needed help with the food. The kitchen was brightly lit in cool white lighting and smelled sterile aside from the thawing and rehydrating ingredients which Jim had already set out on a work table.
“Can I help with anything?” Mara asked.
“I don’t know, can you?” Jim responded with a chuckle, “You know how to work dough?”
“I’ve never done it, but I’m sure if you show me how I can manage.”
Jim brought out the block of previously frozen dough and showed Mara how to unroll it and cut it into squares in the size that he needed for his meat puffs. The smell of frying herbs and ingredients started to fill the kitchen. When Mara had filled the area of the counter she had to work with in little squares of pastries she started another layer on top. Jim noticed and called out, “Oh, no! Not like that!” He rushed over and squeezed in beside Mara and tried in vain to peel the newer squares on top away from the layer below. “No, no, they will stick together if you do that. You need a plastic between them,” he explained.
“Are they ruined?” Mara asked.
“No, here let me show you how to fix it,” Jim answered.
He took one of the squares and gently rolled it out to twice it’s width, then cut it down the middle into two new squares. “See, like that. As gently as you can,” he handed the rolling pin over to Mara.
Jim watched as Mara took the next square she’d accidentally glued to another and laid it down on the table where Jim had been working. She rolled the dough as gently as she could, but it didn’t stretch in the way it had for Jim.
“Let me show you,” he interjected, taking her hands and going through the motions of rolling the dough out. He showed her the correct pressure and thickness to achieve. Mara enjoyed being taught. At home, cooking was done by staff and she’d always just brought camping rations as her father would have called them. Actually preparing food was entirely new to her, and Jim was a pleasant teacher.
Within a couple of hours they had a feast for them both ready, wine included and had set a table. Thelonius had selected music and joined them for the meal, though without any need to eat he was content to sit and make conversation. At least at the beginning of the evening. Toward the end, he was less talkative.
“You’ve been quiet,” noticed Jim.
“I’ve just been thinking,” said Thelonius, “It was really easy for me to work on Mara’s experiments. I already had some functions handy. I don’t remember ever using them before.”
“Well, you must have been preprogrammed to do those things,” Jim offered.
“That’s not how my learning works. These are too specialized to have been preprogrammed. I must have learned how to do these measurements before so why can’t I remember?” Thelonius wondered, his tone darkening. “Hey, I’m going to leave you two alone. Got some thinking to do anyway. You lovebirds enjoy each other ok? Goodnight,” Thelonius said as he got up and shuffled down the hall. Jim and Mara watched his stunted figure recede until he turned into his cabin and was no longer in their view.
“I hope he’s ok,” said Mara.
“I’m sure he is fine. He’s probably just trying to get us alone together again,” said Jim.
Mara wasn’t too sure about that but there might have been truth in it, and it would be a shame to let the food get cold. They ate and enjoyed each others company until it was time to clean up. Jim offered to clean up if Mara would check on Thelonius. “I’d rather deal with dishes than a moody bear,” he said and sent Mara off to the cabins.
Well, two out of three people on board are happy, that’s not bad, right? I hope Thelonius will be fine.