Old Logs: 07 OCT 3279
16 Dec 2023Vasil Vasilescu
Sunken deep in the COVAS archives of the Always Lost, old logs from Vasil’s three decades of wandering the galaxy occasionally float to the surface. Maybe it is simply the ship re-arranging random bits of old information, or maybe the logs are the closest thing the ship has to memories.::[Log DTG: 07OCT3279 1741 Imperial Standard]
We completed the final star trials today, less than six months after the keel was laid at Radwar Enterprises Shipyard in the Carthage system. The overall System Operation Verification Test found only a few minor issues (as expected with a newly constructed vessel) but nothing that will prevent the Imperial Inspections Authority from certifying the ship as space worthy.
The tiny problems found by the SOVT –mainly, an unacceptable variation in fuel-mass calculations for jumps over 40 light years, and an unexplained comm delay between probes and the surface scanner--will be fixed within the week. I don’t really care about either. I am more thrilled to take possession of this new Asp Explorer than any other ship I’ve purchased.
My family, though, is less enthused.
Father thinks it is a waste of time and money and continually threatens to remove me from his will. Not that it matters. I am the last of six children and my sister, Octavia, will inherit most of the family wealth as well as my father’s position as a client. Anything I receive would be negligible compared to what I have already managed to amass through trading commodities and Imperial slaves. My father considers the idea of exploring deep space to be irresponsible and a waste of my trading talent, as does Octavia. I think he wants to eventually make me one of his negotiators and get me into politics alongside Octavia, but politics appeals to me less the more I think about it.
My mother... well, she thinks the ship looks atrocious and cannot understand why I did not commission something from Gutamaya. My sister Luna and brother Cesar have chided me for not getting a more combat capable craft. Stefan, my youngest brother, is too busy charming the clothes off of debutantes to be bothered with anything or anyone not directly related to fulfilling his own pleasures.
Only my sister, Elena, is genuinely happy for me. Being something of a dreamer, she has always encouraged others to follow their dreams. “Dreams not pursued are always lost,” she says, “and if you don’t follow your dreams how will you ever know where they lead? Maybe they will lead you to even better dreams.”
Of all my family, I will miss Elena the most when I leave. I promised her if I cannot come back next year when she and her fiancé, Alex, get married, that I will bring back a present from my travels into the unknown; something unique that no one has ever seen.
I think that...
::[Corruption detected. Missing data]
...in the pilot seat for the first time. “Welcome to your new ship, Commander,” said the COVAS, which then began the standard COVAS first-use speech. Of the voices available, I went with Jefferson. Maybe in the future I’ll have a custom Romanian COVAS installed so I have a reason to practice using my family’s ancestral language. I should not wait too long, though. It will be a pain to ‘retrain’ another COVAS once the current one becomes accustomed to my speech patterns and tunes its predictive algorithms to better understand what I want.
After a few minutes, Jefferson started through the ship’s final delivery sequence by authenticating the ship’s registry information. Jefferson verified ship’s ID, manufacturing shipyard, dates of commissioning and keel-laying, et cetera, but errored on the last item. “Commander, the vessel’s name is listed as tentative and cannot be verified. Please confirm ship name.”
I realized that I had never finalized the name of the ship. I’d thought of a half dozen possible names but had never chosen one throughout the entire process of building and testing. “Jefferson, what is the tentative name?”
“Vasilescu-LakAEx-143568323.4”
“That’s the build contract number,” I said, thinking aloud.
“Correct, commander.”
“That’s no name for a ship.”
“It is a name and it is currently assigned to this vessel,” Jefferson said in that annoying, non-adversarial and matter-of-fact tone common to all COVAS. “Shall I finalize the registry with the tentative name?”
“No!”
I had become so engrossed, so focused on the thought of exploration that I neglected to give the ship a meaningful name. Yes, names can be changed, but since the age of sail, thousands of years ago, a ship’s very soul is formed by its christening name. I could not name this ship on whim or as casually as one might name a pet goldfish. However, without completing the final registry the ship could not be released. The possible names I had thought of now felt bland and inadequate.
It was then that I remembered what Elena says about dreams, that if dreams are not followed they are always lost. It struck me that for a long time I had dreamed of wandering the stars and that a wanderer is never happier than when they are lost. I knew what I had to name the ship.
Having heard me say nothing, Jefferson prompted, “What shall I enter for the ship name, commander?”
Without hesitation, I replied, “Always Lost.”
The command deck lit up. The rising hum and shudder of spooling engines was like the ship taking its first, deep breath, filling itself with life and the possibilities of dreams yet to come.