The Flight II

The day of the date with Keira John started with a shower. The day - strangely as it sounds when used in space, it was the easiest way to refer to these twenty-four-hours-long cycles in which they lived on the Future.

It has been only three months of continuous flight on board, but already enough for the crew to miss sunrises and sunsets. Humans tend to appreciate such simple things only after they lose them. Obviously, it was not like they were never going to see these sights ever again, but they still needed about two years to reach the New Gaia.

Marlow took along some of his most expensive belongings, including several paper books parents left him, which were actually the only true keepsakes of them he had, and a bunch of multimedia he could play with his PEC - e-books, movies, TV series and music. All these things were supposed to help him survive the long travel in this tin can. Despite that, John could still feel the tension and stress. He also new many crewmates felt the same.

When thinking about it, major started to wonder if Keira may be treating him as a mean to escape from the daily routine, a monotonous life on the Future's board. While observing other staff members, it could be easily noticed that many started having problems due to repetitive duties.

As an officer, he regularly participated in meetings with commanders responsible for groups participating in the expedition. During these meetings, Marlow had numerous chances to talk with Manuela Gomez, a medical team's chief. From casual chats, he learned that doctors had a lot of work with keeping the crew's mood intact, and even among medics they had some bad cases. Some people had to be separated for a longer while.

John had no intention of getting any kind of depression. He preferred to keep his mind occupied by stupid thoughts, if it meant he would not get crazy. Thinking about it now, maybe it was actually better he will be having a possibility of meeting Keira regularly? To hell with concerns, regardless of future consequences, it seemed better to have social-related problems than psychological ones.

He walked out of the shower, put on his civilian uniform, and headed to canteen to grab a breakfast. Calling the outfit he was wearing an uniform was not a mistake. Although it was a set he was usually wearing when living on Earth, it has been adjusted to security requirements and remaining regulations applicable to the crew. The main details that have changed in relation to original version of his current uniform were magnetic shoes and harness mounted around the belt.

Canteen was nearly empty. Marlow felt weird coming to this place at this hour. Usually, when working, he was eating breakfast much later. This was what was meant by free time. No colleagues around, which was actually a nice change of pace. He could eat without a rush, while going through the articles he was interested in, which John saved on his implant beforehand. Before finishing his meal, he got a message from Keira stating she will be late for their date. Marlow checked the hour - it was barely 10 AM, she already knew she will not make it on time.

Honestly speaking, it did not change much for him on that day - after all, he was off work. Knewing that Keira was going to arrive late, John returned to his quarters and continued reading one of the books he took on Future's board, specifically a copy of "Electronic dreams", focusing on artificial intelligence and its impact on humanity.

As an engineer, he knew a great deal about various technologies, and artificial intelligence was one of his favorite topics he was interested in for years, therefore he literally absorbed this type of publications in massive amounts. Of course, his current position did not allow him to pursuit this area, but Marlow still hoped to return to this line of work someday.

Nowadays, with people relying to large extent on their implants, and body mods being commonly available and getting more popular each day, many theories considered science fiction in the past were now put into practical use. "Electronic dreams" was an ideal example of such a piece - current PECs were similar to one of the devices present in the story, including its pros and cons.

Despite being a passionate of technologies connected to artificial intelligence, he was not a supporter of current solutions. The main reason for this approach lied in security concerns, and many became reality, same as described in the book he was reading now.

Possibility of improving personal intelligence capabilities, heightened productivity, access to vast resources or multifunctional tools gathered in one device sounded tempting. But people got that not without the consequences, it would have been too ideal. Cases of implants hacking were growing in number each year. In general, any type of modification with usage of electronics were moving people closer to machines, and - as a result - made them easy target to be controlled.

Marlow valued amenities coming with technological advancement, however, he had concerns that people will lose control over this process at some point. Another thing was that current PECs could put a lot of strain on person's brain, especially when processing large amounts of data. Enabling an implant after a longer while, with a lot of information gathered over time, could easily cause a headache and even result in system overload.

In "Electronic dreams", John really liked how straightforward the author was, and how close their beliefs were. C.U. Eagle Eye, because that was the alias this author was using, similarly to Marlow, praised the technological improvement, but alongside the praise there were always concerns in regards to practical implementation and how it will affect humanity. When you think about it, there is rarely a thing you can be one hundred percent sure about. In the simplest devices, a person with knowledge of its structure could easily find a potentially problematic part, but it is accepted if it does not cause harm. However, in case of something you put into your body, the amount of problems to foresee was humongous.

He managed to go as far as to second volume, when delicate sound signal echoed in his head. It was a meeting notification John set beforehand. It was ten minutes until the original time they agreed on, but since Keira gave him a vague "thirty minutes or so", he had enough time to reach the main lobby, knowing that getting there from his room was usually taking about twenty minutes.

Marlow put a book back on shelf, and activated the safety in case of issues with artificial gravity. He also made sure all remaining personal items are placed on their respective spots so nothing gets damaged when he is away.

Afterwards, John left his quarters and headed towards the main lobby of the central module. From his place, taking into account the need to pass through several levels, including usage of elevator system, the total distance was about one kilometer.

On the way, there were no windows. The orientation was not overlapping with the ship's tilt due to active artificial gravity. It meant that there was no difference for those inside the ship whether it was moving in horizontal or vertical axis. To describe how this worked based on example, if Future was placed on X axis, where it's tail is zero and bow is facing positive values, for the people inside the ship the axis is swapped to Y. Generally speaking, regardless of the ship's position, with artificial gravity on, direction was always in line with Y axis inside the ship. In much easier words, what crew considered a "roof" inside, was ship's bow outside. For many people, the sole thinking of how this works could easily cause a headache, and looking through the window could cause much worse state, therefore the amount of windows was limited.

Marlow reached the spot fifteen minutes before the most recent time they agreed on. Lobby was a large room, connecting all main passages within the ship, and biggest elevator shafts. In the very centre, a large, cylinder-shaped pillar was located - a main core of the ship, an axis around which the main module was built, and the part responsible for generating artificial gravity. Shortly speaking, it was owing to this pillar they were not in continuous weightlessness.

Major was passing through this place basically everyday since it was on the main route towards the control rooms and engines. Of course, there were also emergency passages, but these were supposed to be used only in special and problematic situations. In standard moments, all movement went through the main lobby.

Despite walking through there so often, it does not mean he knew the location all that well. After all, he would usually cut through the lobby and enter an elevator. He did not even recall benches being around.

Having quite a bit of time to wait, John sat on one of the benches, big enough to fit three people. From this spot, he had an ideal view at major part of the area and on a big holographic display, on which ads were currently being shown. To be honest, Marlow wondered why were they showing ads in-between videos recorded by the various groups of Future's crew. They have already reached far away from both Earth and Mars, so it was no chance to order anything to the ship's board, while the videos created by the teams were often related to technological advancement and provided key information concerning the expedition. Just by looking at that, one could easily see how commercialized the humanity has become to make such stupid efforts for advertising on a ship going outside of the Solar System. John could not get it what kind of marketing specialists would come with such a great idea. Well, maybe one of the sponsors wanted something like this in return for financial support - after all, higher-ups do not loss money by showing the ads, and the money was one of key factors for organizing this expedition.

He stopped this internal debate on how much sense these ads make as his eyes caught a sight of familiar figure appearing in the lobby. Marlow was not the only one to notice her - in a short moment, several men turned their heads to look at her. He could not blame them as miss Evergate chose the clothing that made her shine among the crowd.

When it comes to women clothing, in current times it often showed more than covered, and Keira was really good at selecting pieces that suited her the best. Today, she was wearing a set showing a bit more than the last time they have met - she had a short dress with a lot of cuts in a number of places, including bust and buttocks, and numerous accessories improving the overall look. Even her harness was modified to match the set, but it was still nothing in comparison to the long boots reaching over her knees and gloves. The dress was red, while all the accessories had black color.

The very moment Keira noticed John, she waved to him without being discreet, bringing many looks at him. He even had a though she did that on purpose.

- Keira, how are you? - he asked a bit stiffly, kissing her on the cheek - You look great.

- I'm glad you are not disappointed - she replied - The long travel is pretty hard for me, so I wasn't too sure about my looks... Did you lose some weight?

He did not expect this kind of question.

- I didn't noticed. Do I really look like that? - he ended up adjusting his shirt and jacket - You may be right.

- I have a really good eye for that - she assured him - Maybe you are not eating well? You've mentioned you were working on the engines, so the stress may be the case too.

- It went better than I thought, so there was less stress in the end. Now that I think of it, it may be a result to all these trainings I had to participate in.

- Please, don't lose more weight. I like your figure the way it is.

Interesting thing to say, knowing the time it was.

- Do you have any preference as to where we go? - he asked her.

- You know, this metal can has not much to offer - it was hard to disagree with that - However, I heard you've got some kind of park here. I'd gladly check it out.

So park, that is. Major knew about this place, it was really popular after all. In original project, there were many such places planned, all for reducing stress during the travel, but over the course of works, these were gradually being removed, so they were left with several small parks, a pool and cincema. Among the parks, the one in central module, or module number one, was the biggest.

- Ok, let's go to the park then.

They headed to elevators. John used his PEC to select the best one to get their the fastest. When they entered the elevator, it turned out they were the only people heading in that direction. Keira put her hair behind the ears, and suddenly caught his crotch, giving him an obvious look.

- It's an elevator, there are cameras here - he said, moving her hand away.

- You have a problem with that?

This question made him speechless for a moment. From the very beginning of their first meeting, she seemed really straightforward, but in this situation she seemed like a nympho.

- Yes, I have problems with getting caught on the camera.

- So, there won't be a problem if camera doesn't catch us? - she reached behind her ear - I have something perfect for such occasion.

The lights suddenly went off, and he felt her hand again. This time he had no reason to resist. The moment elevator reached their destination, they were already done, though miss Evergate did not manage to adjust her dress, which was probably noticed by two women, who were passing by them, giggling, as they left the elevator.

- The next time, I'd rather not do that in the elevator - John stated a moment later.

- And here I thought you'd say you don't want to do it with me.

- I'd have to be homosexual to decline.

That was a fact. Aside from being slightly eccentric at times, Keira was an intelligent, funny and really beautiful woman no man could pass by with no reaction. If Marlow was to be perfectly honest, he had no idea why such interesting woman would be into him. Of course, he did not believe he was the only one for her right now, but in the end, he knew he was lucky to be with her.

- C'mon, John. We are just humans. Urges are something natural, and I have no reason to go against he nature. Besides, it's normal nowadays. Don't tell me you are an old-timer deep inside?

As usual, she went to normal chat quite easily. Miss Evergate was really good at changing the pace, and having their way.

- I get your point. Please, don't tease me - he asked her politely - It's been quite a lot of time since our last meeting. You could start with telling me what you were up to recently.

She smiled widely.

- And here I hoped I'd be first to ask. I bet you have much more interesting stories than I. Well, you were faster, so I guess I need to be the one to start.

It turned out Keira spent most time with a selected group of linguists with various specialties. Their job was to analyze, and translate pieces delivered by probes that were assumed to be samples of alien texts.

According to official information, available for the whole crew, the area probes managed to cover was quite limited, and getting close to the megacity's outer ring was a hard task, therefore it was amazing to John they have managed to secure traces of alien language.

- You are right, getting into the megacity to get data was not possible - Keira confirmed - Still, this city is not the only place on the planet with structures they have built. Apparently, there is quite a number of buildings and constructions around the surface, though many already decayed over time. However, we got these pieces from there. At least, that's what I heard. But if anyone asks, you didn't hear a word from me, okay?

What his companion said matched what Marlow learned until know, though he never heard about fragments of alien language until now.

According to miss Evergate, specific symbols had certain similarities to ancient languages known and studied on Earth. During analysis, they have found common points with Sumerian, Egyptian and Aztec languages - what was interesting, what was believed to be writing included both letters and glyphs. Despite this similarities, the road to deciphering the language was long.

- The worst thing is that there are not regularities in the way their texts are written - Keira was continuing, while having a drink bought in nearby vending machine - When working on it, sometimes I get a feeling it's written with a code. They have found these texts on metal boards, which I heard had some interesting properties, so I'm wondering if they are related to technology, and were intentionally encrypted. Ideally, it would be best if we got our hands on some source text, a less complex one, to understand the main rules of their language.

She was definitely a specialist in her field, and one could clearly feel passion in the way she spoke about her work. But something else caught John's attention.

- You say it seems encrypted - he started slowly - Why would they have a need to encrypt something they were using by themselves?

Miss Evergate shrugged.

- Don't ask me. We don't know a thing about the civilization which used to live on the New Gaia. Probes did not find any remains, and we couldn't get into the city... Honestly speaking, we had nearly nothing to work with - she put face on the palm of her neck, and sighed unexpectedly - What are they thinking, sending such a big expedition with so limited information...

Until now, Keira was completely calm, smiling all the time and talking with him as always. However, it turned out she also had concerns, and simply did not mention the fact until now. Maybe she treated meetings and sex with him as a way to let out some steam? It might have been she was doing that to take her thoughts away from everyday topics? After all, everyone has their own ways of fighting against stress.

- I can't argue with that - John said calmly - I'm of the same mind in case of data we have right now. Being locked in a limited space also doesn't help, but we need to mange somehow.

Miss Evergate used her hand to fix her hair.

- Moments like this make me want to get drunk - another unexpected remark - Can we get some alcohol around here?

This question led them to the canteen, where major met several familiar faces. His companion got their attention.

- So, that's Keira? - Martin smiled at John - Nice to meet you, I'm Martin - he introduced to miss Evergate - What kind of drink would you like?

- I wonder if we still have some whisky...

- Let's check out.

Marlow was positively surprised by the reaction of his colleagues. There were no inappropriate texts, even Marta was acting quite normal towards Keira, despite the fact she ended up having sex with John several days before and now seeing him with different woman. It seemed Marta really did not want anything else than friends with benefits kind of relation.

The "evening" passed by calmly, in a nice atmosphere. John left with Keira before others. Miss Evergate seemed to have drunk a bit too much so he planned to walk her back.

- We can always go to your room - she suggested, having trouble walking - What's the point of going such a long road.

If circumstances were different, he would likely go with this suggestion, but given the amount of alcohol she had, it did not seem like a good idea. With every minute, Keira seemed to feel worse and keep her balance, leading to John having to carry her.

- Okay, it's here - she informed him over an hour later.

He wanted to help her, but she extended her hand to stop him, and nearly fell down when doing so.

- It's unnecessary, I'll manage - she ensured him - I'd really like to invite you, but I've got quite a mess inside. I don't want you to see it.

Women and their secrets. There was no point in arguing.

- Until the next time - he heard her speaking as she went inside - Talk to you later.

There was no kissing, they both turned around and went their respective ways, but since this moment they were meeting more regularly than ever before.

Nowadays, when Earth became overpopulated, it was common for people to want to run away from the crowded places. Nevertheless, humans are social beings. Staying alone for such a long travel could make anyone go crazy. Their current relationship was beneficial for both of them.