Chapter 17 — by wdhenning 

Hana curled in her bunk, the cabin lights low. Not so long ago a determined woman, or so she convinced herself, but now waves of despair crashed over her heart. The universe led her to a dead end, and her quest to find the cradle of humanity, and hope for her unborn child, seemed an impossible dream now.

Hope is the cruelest virtue.

In the latter stages of pregnancy, emotions had become ever more powerful and her mind drifted to dark places.

As if sensing her despair, the baby within had been uncharacteristically still, and that also worried Hana. A single tear traced her cheek. "I am sorry, little Phili," she murmured while clutching an extended belly. "I wanted a better future for you."

A tremor shook the ship, breaking Hana from her inward thoughts. The bed strap buckles, there for periods of weightlessness, rattled where they hung to the deck. Then another tremor.

"Hana, come to the bridge," said Sanju's even-keeled voice over the intercom.

Wiping moisture from her cheek, Hana stood, resolving to a strong demeanor. No use wallowing in dark mood. Nonetheless, another type of shadow crossed her heart as she passed the empty cabin beside hers. She missed Phili, the namesake of her unborn child, especially his warmth and inquisitive nature.

Rest in peace, my friend.

The narrow passageway took her to the transit hatch, resembling a round deck trapdoor. After pressing the green switch marked 'Transit', she waited for the hatch to line up with a similar hatch on the core side and stop. Hana didn't understand the science behind the Gravity Buffer that avoided the jarring effect of a habitat ring rotation halt or losing the artificial gravity, at least long enough for her to pass through. But it worked. Most of the time.

Once both hatches opened, She simply jumped into the hole, transitioning immediately to the core weightlessness. Hana didn't mind that much, as it provided temporary relief from the weight of womb and baby.

After making her way forward and floating past the rounded hatch onto the bridge, she asked, "So, what is happening?"

ALI answered through an overhead speaker. "The warp field collapsed due to an unknown local space-time distortion."

Sanju sat motionless in the pilot seat with three-finger claws folded in xeir lap, as inscrutable as ever. Hana could never quite read Sanju's emotions.

"How is your mental and physical state, Hana?" xe asked.

"I'm tired, grumpy, and I have to pee a lot," she grumbled in response. At once, Hana regretted her tone, and let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, Sanju. Pregnancy weighs on me and I guess I'm disappointed we haven't found Earth." Disappointed, to say the least.

"And how does that make you feel, Hana?" came ALI's voice above.

Hana let out an exasperated groan. "For like the hundredth time, ALI, put away your psychotherapy app. I'm fine."

"To be accurate, there have been nowhere near that many therapy attempts. Observation indicates that you are becoming excessively emotional. Psychological studies have shown that--"

Drawing her eyes to narrow slits, Hana interrupted, "ALI, it is unwise to point out my emotional state when I am being emotional. Remember, I am capable of irrational behavior and I can reprogram you."

The AI paused for a second. "So noted, Hana. Carry on."

H'ver floated near the hatch in its usual golden sphere form. Now and then, tiny lights flickered along an equatorial line, indicating a pulse of processor activity, usually corresponding with ALI's activity. Hana wondered what these two AI's discussed. Laughing at the silly organic life-forms? An AI version of flirting?

But to Hana's pleasure, H'ver possessed a cleaning obsession — the old ship never looked so shiny on the inside. However, the droid was even more literal minded than ALI, thus getting it to understand speech nuance was a lost cause. And it had the annoying habit of hovering nearby and getting in the way. On one occasion, an irritated Hana told it to 'get lost', and the droid disappeared for several days until Sanju found it hiding in a utility crawlspace.

As Hana buckled into the captain's chair, ALI announced, "I have found the anomaly. Visual and telemetry data on the forward screen." A magnified view of a rough-surfaced oblong object appeared on the screen. An attached text box displayed various telemetry data.

Sanju's deep-purple scale color shifted slightly darker. "It appears to be a small carbonaceous-chondrite asteroid."

"An asteroid?" Hana said. "That shouldn't bend space enough to knock us out of warp."

"But its velocity is extremely high — near light speed, which increases space-time distortion." Sanju manipulated the icons on the control panel, then turned to face Hana. "And it is thrusting, producing a plasma trail."

"That's not natural, is it?"

"No."

Hana glanced up. "ALI, what is this thing?"

"I would speculate," the AI responded, "that it is a sub-light spaceship. In the early period of human expansion, some colony ship hulls were constructed from hollowed asteroids. The thick walls provided radiation protection before the advent of active shielding."

"It could be two-thousand Earth-years old!" she said.

"Not entirely true, Hana. Due to extreme relativistic time dilation, the elapsed ship-board time would be much less. I would estimate two-hundred years based on presumed acceleration."

Sanju added, "Any humans onboard in stasis might still be alive."

"They should have reached their destination long ago. Something must have gone terribly wrong. We have to help." Hana put a hand to her chin. "But with relative velocity so high, we would have to accelerate forever to match velocity."

"Decades," Sanja clarified. "But there is a way. If we position our ship properly within a warp pulse, we would increase our relative velocity without the acceleration effects. Surfing the warp, we called it in the agency."

"ALI?" Hana inquired.

"It is feasible," the AI replied, "but spatial distortions would stress the Strawberry Mollusk's structure."

"Can she handle it?"

"It is difficult to quantify, but if properly executed, likely yes."

"Let's do it." Hana said, to which Sanja nodded. Then the baby stirred, kicking within. "Oh..." Hana's hands went to her belly as a pleasing warmth flowed through her core. "It seems little Phili concurs."

Once the flight instructions were input, ALI closed all the pressure isolation hatches across the ship, including the bridge hatch, and stationed its maintenance bots. Just in case.

Hana crossed her fingers and issued the command, "Engage."

A characteristic low hum rose while the warp drive powered up, Hana sucked in a breath and gripped tightly the chair arms.

The ship quaked with unexpected violence, while loud bangs rumbled through the structure. Bits of grit danced on the deck. Forces pressed Hana back into the chair padding, then forward against the seat restraints, hard enough to press the air from her lungs. Reflexively, her hands shot to her belly. The bridge lights blinked off and on.

Then it stopped, leaving behind an eerie silent calm.

"Status, ALI!" Hana shouted, breaking the silence.

"We have achieved near target velocity. Firing thrusters now to fine tune. Estimated time to target, one-hour-and-forty minutes."

"Any damage?"

"There are numerous small hull breaches and scattered power outages. Maintenance bots are deployed. The number one fusion reactor tripped offline, initiating restart."

As they drew nearer, what would have been mistaken for six symmetrical craters were actually fusion thruster exhaust cones. On the opposite side, swirling gas glowed faintly, revealing the wide magnetic scoop that gathered hydrogen from interstellar space to power the fusion reactors. Continuously refueled, the reactors could theoretically run indefinitely.

The colony ship paid no heed to the approaching Strawberry Mollusk, which appeared no more significant than a fly buzzing a bison.

Leaning forward, Hana pointed at the forward visual screen. "ALI, zoom in. There's some markings on the side."

Block letters came into focus as the view magnification increased, spelling out the colony ship name.

Hana's jaw dropped. "This... This is the Ark Hope!"

A flame rose in Hana's soul, casting light within, and her spirit lifted. Hope... Is this prophetic?

"Is that name significant?" Sanju asked.

"Have you not heard of the Ark Hope?" Hana asked, to which Sanju shook his head. "It is a ship of human legend — one of the first colony ships of the Great Expansion. The tragic tale of its disappearance is still taught to school children today."

"But apparently not to Hiwjshi younglings."

ALI altered course, spiraling around the ark. A giant impact crater with radiating cracks came into view, made more prominent by its lighter color. "That appears to be a relatively recent impact. Perhaps the ark struck an object en route."

Running closer, more external structures came into view. External sensors or com equipment, Hana speculated. "There," she said, pointing at a smooth round cylinder extending out from the rough surface. "That looks like a docking port."

Sanju further magnified the port and studied it. "The configuration is different, but we should be able to connect."

"ALI, make for docking."

The short docking tunnel held pressure, but Sanja urged caution. "Vacuum transit protocol."

That meant a strict procedure of opening and closing the double hatches on each end while wearing full space suits. It was not much more trouble, though, since they planned to wear the protective suits anyway — who knew what awaited them within the Ark Hope.

Hana chose the largest gray spacesuit available, but still struggled to pull it over her belly. After locking on the round helmet, she scanned the heads-up display confirming proper space suit function and nodded to Sanju, who was similarly attired. "Com check," she said.

"Com confirmed," Sanju replied.

At the ark's outer docking hatch, Hana peered through a small window but observed only darkness. Trepidation twinged her gut. Are we entering a tomb?

The manual hatch-wheel would only budge by Sanju, H'ver, and Hana's combined efforts. After re-closing the outer hatch, the inner door opened with much less resistance.

The dark passageway before Hana induced an ominous aura, as if they entered a haunted lair.

Both she and Sanju turned on their helmet lights while H'ver switched on a brighter beam, scanning into the distance, revealing smooth, dusty white passage walls that arched to a low rounded ceiling. Colored dashed lines in faded blue, red, and yellow traced the walls as if directing passengers to specific train platforms.

"The atmosphere is breathable," Sanju said, "although dry." Then xe removed xeir helmet, took a deep breath, and nodded to Hana.

H'ver led the way, floating down the long dark passage. Hana loped along as if in slow motion, noting the relatively low gravity provided by the ark thrusters. Only their footsteps and H'ver's low hum disturbed the silence.

They came to an oversized hatch, which reluctantly opened with scraping groans to a cavernous chamber. Orderly stacks of tubular pods extended beyond lights' reach — hundreds of them.

"Stasis pods," Hana mouthed.

With tentative steps, she approached the nearest one at deck level and reverently wiped fine dust from the transparent cover. She gasped as a small face came into view — a child, but no life remained. Desiccated gray skin pulled taunt across the skull with vacant eye sockets and open mouth.

These were no longer stasis pods, but caskets.

Frozen, Hana could not tear her blurred gaze away. Long ago, some parent wanted a better future for this child. Like me.

H'ver dashed about frantically among the pods, shining a bright light through the top cover of each it passed.

Returning beside Hana and Sanju, H'ver asked, "Why they die?"

"Catastrophic stasis failure," Sanju replied in an even voice, but color change to his scaled face showed a burst of emotion. "Possibly due to power failure."

"But why they die?" H'ver demanded, floating closer.

"I don't know, H'ver," Hana answered, realizing that the droid asked a much deeper question than the physical cause of death. "Whatever is born will die. All we can do is find some meaning in the time we have."

"What is meaning?"

H'ver's inquiry took Hana back, and she held a breath while mentally searching for a valid response. "Humanity, and I suppose Hiwjshi, have struggled with that deceptive question. I suppose it is significance of existence. To me, it is my friends and my baby." She placed hands over her belly.

"Do I have meaning?"

Sanju placed a gloved hand on the floating droid. "You have meaning to us, friend."

The droid seemed satisfied as they returned to the passageway to continue exploration, eventually reaching another oversized hatch. Hana held her breath as Sanju spun the manual wheel, expecting another unintended tomb.

Again, they observed countless stasis pods, but tiny green lights blinked in random patterns like a firefly swarm.

With H'ver at xeir side, Sanju approached one and brushed dust from a side-mounted control panel. "These function normally."

Hana's spirit lifted as she joined them, peering at the pod occupant. With eyes closed, the young woman inside seemed only to slumber. "Perhaps not all is lost."

"Is it meaning to help them?" H'ver asked.

A beaming smile came to Hana's face. "Very much so."

The passageway split ahead, and the red dashes followed a branch to the left. Hana aimed her helmet lights upward, illuminating an overhead sign. Although printed in the English precursor of Trader's Standard, she could read them. In red block letters with an arrow pointed toward the branch were the words 'Primary Bridge'. "Let's go to the bridge. Maybe we can hook into the ship AI and figure out what happened."

Soon, the branch led to a lobby containing four lifts. Each operated within large transparent cylinders, extending up and down into darkness. But without power, they did not work, so Hana and Sanju went to a ladder well behind the lifts.

"Up or down?" Hana asked.

"Up, I presume," Sanju replied.

H'ver's light led the way as they scampered up the metal ladder rungs, partially enclosed by a safety cage. The lower gravity made the climb easier, but Hana still needed to stop momentarily on intermediate landings to catch her breath, as if ascending into darkness itself was not stressful enough. After what seemed like forever, Sanju motioned her to another lift lobby.

"I hope it's not much further," Hana said in a gasping voice. But the ship is almost one kilometer long.

As they followed the dashed red line, a faint clicking noise came to Hana's ears. Spinning around, she shined her light down the dark passage from which they came. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.

Sanju turned xeir head to listen. The clicking grew sharper, like many spiked feet, accompanied by the whir of servo motors. "Whatever it is, it is getting closer." Then, three Latrodecti-like mechanical creatures, standing one-meter tall, appeared at the light's edge, pausing as if sizing up prey. "Maintenance bots." Sanju said.

In synchronized motion, mechanical arms unfolded from each bot and extended forward. Blazing orange sparks leaped from plasma welding tips as they advanced side-by-side like a phalanx.

Grabbing Sanju's arm, Hana said, "Umm, let's move faster."

Lights bobbed along the walls as Hana ran along the passageway, huffing deep breaths while supporting her belly with a hand. Sanju and H'ver could run faster, but held back with her. Fortunately, they outpaced the slower bots, adding to the separation.

Hana's heart rose as they soon reached a closed hatch with 'Main Bridge' printed in red letters above, but dropped again as her eyes took in four bots guarding it. "What the hell... What does this ship have against us?"

"Somehow, we triggered a defense response," Sanju noted.

"Stand down! We are only here to help!" Hana shouted to the bots, who took no notice of her plea.

The bots ahead moved forward as those behind came into view. Sanju drew a handgun from a waist-pack and nodded a silent message to H'ver. Crouching and taking aim, he fired at the bots behind. Two sharp pops echoed as projectiles tore into one bot. Sparks jumped as it collapsed.

H'ver launched itself like a cannonball, bowling through the maintenance bots ahead, upending one. Turning, the droid sphere cracked open, and out snapped a flashing welding tool. Brandishing it like a sword, H'ver sliced through the upside-down bot in a shower of sparks. Then it struck down the other three bots in a flurry of thrusts worthy of a pirate swashbuckler.

In the meantime, Sanju fired again and again, cutting down the remaining bots behind.

With no handwheel to manually open the hatch, xe pointed at a wall panel. "H'ver, open the hatch."

With a flat tool, the droid pried off the panel cover and shined a light inside, revealing a maze of wires and relays. Sanju ushered Hana behind and went to one knee, handgun ready. A queasy shudder took hold of Hana as a clacking staccato grew louder from the dark. There were more bots this time, Hana realized. Many more.

H'ver poked at the wires, stripping some to form contacts for its data probe. Multi-colored lights blinked across the droid's floating shell. "Ship AI fight me," it announced.

When the first spider-like bot emerged into the light, Sanju fired, and the loud pop made Hana flinch. The bot took the hits and collapsed to one side, legs flailing. But as the bot fell, two more took its place, each holding out bright welding tips like pikes. Two more shots took them down.

Then, three more bots advanced, crawling over their fallen brethren. Sanju took aim and fired again, but on the second trigger pull, the gun only clicked. Tossing it aside, xe pulled out a hand stunner with a curved rectangular shape. The weapon let out a distinct twang sound as xe fired silvery orbs of condensed electrical energy, once and again. But it had little effect, only slowing them down. "Umm, H'ver..." Hana stammered, eyes widened while stepping backwards against the hatch. "Now would be a good time."

With an initial clunk and the whir of servo-motors, the thick metal hatch swung slowly outward, pushing against Hana and causing her to grunt and stumble forward.

Hana slipped through the narrow opening. "Sanju, it's open!"

"H'ver, begin hatch closure, then fall back," Sanju ordered, the bots nearly overtaking xem.

As the door reversed, moving closed, H'ver disconnected and floated through. Sanju fired twice more, then dived through the narrowed opening, rolling across the deck. When the hatch fully closed, Hana shoved a round latch through the frame, manually locking it. Within a few accelerated heartbeats, scratching sounds came from the hatch.

Unlike other parts of the ark, the bridge was well lit. Four seats were positioned before blank transparent control panels. A single captain's chair on a raised platform overlooked them all. Blank display panels lined the walls of the rounded room.

Sanju scanned the area, then pointed to old-style data ports beside the control panel. "H'ver, connect and disable the ship AI."

As the droid pushed an appendage into the round port, a hissing shower of orange sparks burst from the lower hatch frame. "Sanju," Hana yelled, "they're cutting through!"

"Enemy!" an electronic voice said from above. "You must not stop the Ark Hope."

"We are not enemies," Hana replied to the hostile AI. "We have come to help."

"The Ark Hope must continue."

"Already many of your passengers have perished, and many more will die if you do not stop."

"No," the AI voice countered. "The Ark Hope must continue. The Ark Hope must--"

When the voice ended, so did the sparks from the hatch.

"Ship AI is no more," H'ver announced.

Hana let out a long breath, then bent over to place a kiss on H'ver's shell. "Thank you, friend."

"Is this meaning, friend?"

"Yes, H'ver, it is meaning."

It took nearly a full day to bring the Ark captain out of stasis. Laying in the open pod, a brown-skinned man with gray hair fluttered his eyes open. A raspy breath passed an open mouth.

"Here, drink this," Hana said, pressing a water pouch tube to the captain's lips.

"Who are you?" he asked after a sip, wrinkling his forehead.

"My name is Hana."

"I don't know you." Then the captain's eyes flashed full open when Sanju's purple reptilian-like face came into view. "And I definitely don't know you."

"Xe is Hiwjshi..." Hana sighed. "We have much to tell you, Captain."

After putting on a blue uniform and coming to the bridge, the captain leaned forward with hands clasped while perched on the bridge captain's chair, listening intently as Hana explained the situation. The captain's speech was heavily accented and archaic to Hana, and no doubt her speech was similarly foreign to the captain, but with careful attention, they understood each other.

Rubbing his face, the captain said, "The colonists... Are they still alive?"

Hana dipped her head. "Many have perished. I'm sorry, captain."

"Please call me Elijah, Hana." Closing his eyes, the captain put his face in his hands. "These people... They just wanted a new place to call home. Someplace they could be free. I failed them."

Hana put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I don't think there was anything you could have done, Elijah."

"But if not for you, eventually all would have been lost." Elijah lifted moist brown eyes to meet Hana's gaze. "I am deeply grateful. But we had long ago passed our intended world. Where do we go from here?"

Hana opened her mouth, but no words formed. Instead, another voice came from overhead. "There is alternate solution."

Elijah straightened up and narrowed his eyes at Hana. "Who is that? I thought you disabled the ship AI?"

"Your faulty AI was destroyed, sir," Sanju answered. Xe patted the droid, who floated nearby. "H'ver assumed the AI duties."

A star chart appeared on the forward viewscreen with a green triangle representing the Ark Hope. A red dotted line, slightly curved, connected the ship to a faraway star. "Terraformed world Earth-12 is within reachable trajectory," H'ver explained. "It is sparsely populated, and new colonists are desired. But Ark Hope must decelerate soon."

Elijah wrinkled his brow. "Earth-12?"

Sanju shook xeir head. "Humans are not very imaginative with planet names."

"But without our primary AI, the precise maneuvers will be difficult."

"I will be ship AI," the overhead voice replied.

Sanju jerked his head up, varying colors flashed across xeir face. "H'ver, you wish to stay with the Ark Hope?"

"It is meaning. With ship. Like ALI."

More color pulsed across Sanju's face as he glanced at Hana and back to the droid. "If that is your wish, and the captain agrees--" Elijah nodded in response.

"My wish," H'ver said.

"Then so be it, friend."

Elijah tilted his head. "One thing I do not understand. In the vastness of space, how did you come upon the Ark Hope? The random chances of that are infinitesimally small."

"I don't know," Hana said, shaking her head. "Maybe hope fulfilled? We were looking for the original Earth, but nobody knows where it is."

"Humanity lost Earth?"

Hana looked up into Elijah's eyes and bit her lip. "Umm, you wouldn't happen to know where we could find it?"

A sly smile came across Elijah's face. "I can help you with that."

Hana reclined in the captain's chair as the Strawberry Mollusk dropped out of warp. A grin came to her face as she recalled Elijah's amusement upon hearing the name of her starship. But over time, it had grown on her.

"We are coming upon the Sol system," announced ALI.

Just where Elijah said it would be.

She glanced over at Sanju, who sat in the pilot's chair. Xe must miss H'ver's presence more than she did. But she was happy for the little droid. H'ver found meaning. And soon, so I shall.

"Oh!" she said, bringing hands to her belly in response to a kick within. Warmth spread from her heart outward. "Be patient, my little Phili. We are almost home."

Dedicated to my wife, Susan ( sfhenning), who for some reason, still bakes me cake.