Chapter Text
Captain Harper strode onto the bridge of the Averance, the first faster than light ship Earth had ever built. Freshly returned from their maiden voyage, which had turned out to be much more eventful than initially expected, they were ready to head back out and see what else the galaxy had to show them.
“Where are we headed this time, captain,” asked helmsman Petrova, an older russian woman graying at the temples.
“We’ve been directed to a star roughly halfway between Earth and the galactic rim,” replied Harper, “sending the coordinates to your console now.”
“Coordinates received,” said Petrova, “requesting clearance to depart.”
“Ready the crushed space drive, Davids,” commanded Harper.
“Crushed space drive spun up and at the ready, captain,” replied engineer Davids from his console at the back of the room.
Harper initiated the shipwide comm. “Crew, we are about to depart for our second mission. I trust everyone is at their required stations. Let’s see what’s out there.” Cutting the transmission, Harper turned back to Petrova. “Initiate crushed space flight,” they said.
Petrova pressed a button. The ship couldn’t be felt to move, but the spiraling stars outside the window stretched into blue lines and the hollow core of the ship filled with the blinding fusion reaction that was the byproduct of all the dust in the space in front of the ship being condensed into a single point. They were off.
“I’m off to see the doctor,” said Harper.
“Are you not feeling well,” asked second helmsman Sorensen.
“Not that doctor,” said Harper, “I want to see what the Agglomeration knows about this area of space.”
“We brought that creepy robot with us,” demanded Petrova.
“Would you prefer we had left them on Earth,” asked Harper. “After they completed their medical program, it was decided that the best way to introduce them to society would be onboard an exploratory vessel. Since we’re the premier exploratory vessel, it’s left to us to acclimate them to human society.”
“It makes sense,” said Petrova, “but I think I’ll stick with doctor Frances.”
“I’m sure you’re not the only one that feels that way,” said Harper, “but as I understand it, they’ll be working closely together. Anyway, I’m off. Alert me if anything significant happens,” they finished, walking out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harper found Doctor Happy engaged in a board game with Frances.
“So you see, since nothing can be on the other side of the corner piece, it can’t be flipped,” explained Frances.
“I think I understand,” said Doctor Happy, “This game is similar to several across my member worlds.”
“Excellent,” said Frances, “I look forward to seeing how your play develops.”
“Not to interrupt,” interrupted Harper, “but I was hoping to talk to Doctor Happy for a bit.”
“I am entirely capable of multitasking,” said Doctor Happy, turning away from the game board, “what can I do for you?”
“So we’re currently heading toward a star roughly halfway between Earth and the galactic rim,” said Harper, “and I was wondering if we were likely to encounter any member worlds along the way.”
“Unfortunately not,” said Doctor Happy, “the Agglomeration worlds are all coreward from your world. Our explorations in that area of space failed to turn up any species worthy of serious consideration.”
“So you did find some,” questioned Harper.
“We came across a couple,” Doctor Happy paused, “you might consider them curiosities.”
“Tell me about them,” asked Harper, “just because they weren’t of interest to the Agglomeration doesn’t mean that Earth wouldn’t take an interest.”
“One was a rock floating in interstellar space,” said Doctor Happy.
“You mean it was on a rock,” queried Frances.
“No,” said Doctor Happy, “I mean it was a rock. Our scanners detected electromagnetic resonances inside it that showed that it was conscious of itself and its surroundings.”
“That’s amazing,” said Harper, “were you able to talk to it?”
“We were able to outfit it with a scanner that translated its impulses into something that could be identified as language,” said Doctor Happy, “and we tried to help it, but it seemed to be perfectly content to continue floating, so we left it undisturbed after ensuring that it wouldn’t fall into any unfortunate gravity wells for the next few million years or so.”
“Well that’s unfortunate,” said Harper, “although it is fascinating to learn that intelligence apparently doesn’t require evolutionary pressures to develop. And the other one you mentioned?”
“It was a terribly dangerous species,” responded Doctor Happy, “a decapodal obligate carnivore. Ten of your feet long, horribly aggressive.”
“That’s surprising,” said Frances, “normally large carnivores tend toward docility when not hunting.”
“It was never not hunting,” replied Doctor Happy. “It was highly intelligent, amazingly so considering that it was completely asocial and cannibalistic. It’s actually the only obligate cannibal species we’ve encountered.”
“An obligate cannibal,” asked Harper, “how does that work, wouldn’t they just hunt themselves to extinction?”
“Eating each other is how they breed,” explained Doctor Happy, “they’re technically hermaphroditic, but fertilization occurs in the digestive tract. They only reproduce when they die, at which point the fertilized egg cells eat their way out of the parent’s body, eating each other along the way. They then scatter into the surrounding area to eat anything they can take down.”
“So what happened when you found them,” asked Harper.
“We outfitted one with a translator scanner,” said Doctor Happy. “I think the best way to explain it was that it was terrified.”
“What was it afraid of,” asked Frances, “it sounds like it must have been the scariest thing around.”
“It wasn’t the largest thing in its ecosystem,” said Doctor Happy, “but it was terrified of a number of things. That it would starve, that we were going to eat it, that it was trapped. Because of course it was trapped, we couldn’t have it running around the ship trying to eat us, but the level of fear was a surprise. After we realized that even if we fed it it wouldn’t be a good candidate for membership we let it go back to its world where it was promptly eaten by another of its species.”
“That’s terrible,” said Frances, “to live so afraid all the time just to get eaten like that.”
“That’s nature sometimes,” said Harper, “it reminds me a little of shrews back on Earth. Only those don’t have to eat each other to mate.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you better news about where you’re headed,” said Doctor Happy.
“I’m sure some of the crew will enjoy a nice boring survey,” said Harper, “it’s what we were expecting the first time out. What was it Petrova said we’d find, ‘rocks, rocks, and more rocks?”
“That sounds like Petrova,” said Frances, “I’m still surprised you invited her back for this trip.”
“She’s good at what she does,” said Harper, “we have you and Marvin for diplomacy if we need it, but we definitely need a good pilot.”
“How is Marvin anyway,” asked Frances, “I haven’t seen him since we were all quarantined together.”
“Really,” asked Harper, “I would have thought you would have handled Marvin’s preflight physical.”
“Actually, I handled linguist Marvin’s physical,” said Doctor Happy.
“That’s surprising,” said Harper, “but good, I’m glad to see we’re building trust.”
“Actually,” said Frances, “I had to randomly assign the crew between the two of us. Most of them, including Marvin, signed up for their appointments with me but I just didn’t have the time. Besides, it’s not like they’re not qualified.”
“Ah,” said Harper, “well, enforced or not, it’s a start. How is everything working out in the medical bay anyway?”
“While your instruments are primitive, I’ve been enjoying the opportunity to immerse myself in human medicine,” said Doctor Happy.
“Things are going swimmingly,” beamed Frances, “they’re so much help that I hardly know what to do with myself half the time.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Harper, heading off to find Marvin.