Chapter 22. Understanding.

The Proxima B had just entered a close orbit around Saturn, one that would take them under the ring system, when Charles, Dave, Beverly and Mary had arrived back at the command deck.

"What's our status?" Charles asked, his eyes searching the main screen for trouble.

"We're safe for the moment," Alice reported. "A robot vessel is just entering the Saturn system. I don't know if it's aware of us."

"Go to silent running mode," Charles ordered. "Maybe they'll miss spotting us."

Alice entered the command to shut down all systems that could advertise their presence or at least go to low energy status. Everyone on the command deck literally held their breath as they waited to see if the robot ship would spot them.

"I think it detected us," Hilary said. "It changed course and is headed this way."

"Can't we make a run out of here?" Vicky asked.

"I doubt we could outrun them even if we activated the faster than light system," Charles replied.

"Is this going to be the end of us?" Hilary asked, her mouth twisted with concern.

Charles sighed. "Maybe it's inevitable. We're not a war vessel and we can't outrun them. The only thing we could do is ram them, but it would probably blow us up with them."

"At least we would stop them from destroying other worlds," Carl said.

"They see us!" Alice cried. "They're powering up their weapons system."

"Shit!" Vicky hissed. "This isn't the way I wanted to go."

Everyone on the command deck agreed.

Suddenly, the robot vessel that was about to destroy them exploded in a brilliant flash of blinding light. The energy blast rocked the Proxima B, but it remained undamaged.

"What the hell just happened?" Carl blurted.

"There's another vessel approaching," Alice reported. "I think it's the robotic vessel that we encountered at the N2 Lupi system."

"They're pinging our communication system," Hilary reported.

"Put them on," Charles ordered.

The robot face that they had seen before appeared. "You revealed the enemy. You will be our search unit."

"What does that entail?"

"When you go to systems, we will follow."

Charles nodded, not knowing if the alien robot would understand.

The communication link ended.

"So, what does that mean?" Carl asked. "Are we going to search for enemy robot ships for them?"

"I think it's a bit more complicated than that," Charles replied. "Evidently, they believe that the enemy robots have a hard on to destroy any planet or vessel that contains living intelligent creatures. I would assume that they will tail after us when we go out to explore the universe."

"Why should we allow them to use us like that?" Vicky asked.

"I don't think we have any choice. We can't get away from them. At least we have them as a possible shield against attack.

That statement didn't go over well, but everyone realized that they would have been toast if it weren't for the intervention of their robot alien buddy.

Later when most of the crew were in bed, Charles was relaxing in his living area, Alice paid him a visit. She was surprised that he had a cat lying on his lap.

She sat down on the couch opposite his chair. He looked at her with a quizzical expression. "Can't sleep?"

"I'm not sure we actually need to sleep."

He offered a grin. "That's possible. It appears that much of what we did as real humans are no longer viable."

She slouched in the chair. "Yes, that seems to be true, although, I'm not sure why." She straightened up. "Although, we still look human and have human feelings."

He smiled. "What sort of feelings?"

She pointed at him. "You know what I'm talking about."

He sighed. "Yes, I do. However, I don't think it's necessary. We can't produce offspring, and the pleasure side of it has the danger of causing fractions."

She sighed. "Yes, you're right, but it still torments us, especially our feelings for a normal life."

"Unfortunately, we are unable to have a normal life. We are a crew that must remain dedicated to duty," He paused and then smiled. "However, you fascinate me. I lost one woman to a car accident and another to a competitor."

She turned away for a moment before looking at him. "Yes, I know."

"Well," I suppose that's a good start."

The cat meowed.

"Why'd you bring a cat up here?"

"He followed me into the elevator when I was coming up from the agricultural deck. Maybe he wants some attention."

She stood up and smiled, signaling that she realized that it had a double meaning. "I understand."

He watched her walk out of his quarters. He didn't know what she wanted from him. An affair would lead to problems. Maybe she just wanted attention. He was unsure of what to do.

Later that evening, he had a sixth sense feeling that something was happening. He decided to go to the command deck to see if he could find out what it was.

Alice was sitting in the pilot's chair but was wearing a robe.

He sat down next to her. "Are you trying out a new dress code?"

She turned to him briefly before looking back at the flight control display. "No, nothing like that. I was in bed when I got a notification that we had received a message from the robot alien. I decided not to waste time dressing."

"What did they have to say?"

She punched a button. "I recorded it."

The robotic face appeared and gave a terse command. "You must go to MT Pegasi."

"That was it?" Charles reacted. "No reason?"

"Nope. That was it. MT Pegasi is a G1 V main sequence star roughly eighty light years away. It's listed as being a young star, but that might not be the case in our universe."

Charles sighed. "I suppose we had better obey it."

"I have all of the parameters set in."

"You are the efficient one," he replied with a subtle grin.

"Well, here goes," she said before she pressed the activation button.

As before, nothing happened for several minutes before the ship began moving out of Saturn's obit and accelerated to the speed necessary to engage the faster-than-light system.

"How long?" he asked.

"About sixteen hours, give or take."

After several minutes of silence, she turned to him. "Do you find me attractive?"

He suppressed any emotional reaction. "Yes, I do."

"I suppose I shouldn't be asking you that question in my present state."

"I didn't base my question on your attire status."

She smiled. "I accept you correction for my failure to maintain proper decorum."

"In our situation, decorum is a joke."

She chuckled, but her expression changed to a more serious one. "I am truly sorry about how I've treated you."

"There is an ancient theory that we don't have free will. That we act according to outside conditions that make our choice inevitable."

"Yes, it's called determinism. If we go by that idea, we will never achieve peace and tranquility."

He stood up and gave her a smile before leaving. "Peace and tranquility are probably myths."

She watched him walk away before she sighed.

The journey to MT Pegasi went without incident. The crew remained calm and less rambunctious than normal. Even Alice behaved.

When the ship dropped out of faster than light, they were approaching a solar system that didn't look any more alien than what they were used to.

"I've located an Earth like planet orbiting the star," Hilary announced. "It has two moons, both not as large as our moon."

"This star also has two gas giants orbiting further out," Judy reported.

"I'm not detecting any alien craft in this system," Alice said. "We're not close enough to determine if the planet's habitable, but it has a blue cast, which might be evidence of that."

"Any sign of our robot buddy?" Charles asked.

"Nope," Alice replied. "Not yet."

As the ship approached the planet, the habitability factor was becoming more real.

"There's lots of plant life on the planet," Hilary reported. "I'm picking up a good chlorophyl spectrum. I'm also seeing lots of oxygen in its atmosphere."

"We'll get a better idea of how habitable it is once we can send down probes," Charles said.

"There's no signs of any spacecraft or satellites orbiting the planet." Alice said.

"So, why did the robot alien sound so anxious for us to go here?" Carl asked.

"Good question," Charles replied. "I think we're about to find out."

As the ship settled into orbit around the Earth-like planet, everyone's eyes were captured by what the main screen showed.

"Oh my God!" Beverly screeched. "It looks like Earth!"

"Interesting!" Charles said. "I guess the robot alien knew about this."

"Why'd he want us to see it?" Carl asked.

Charles rubbed his jaw. "I would bet that he thinks the society that built this looks like us."

"So, what are we supposed to do about it?" Dave asked.

"I think we should send down some stealth probes and see what they look like. We can also get readings on the atmosphere at the same time."

Alice programmed the probes and sent them on their way. After they had entered the planet's atmosphere they descended to positions where they could spy on the inhabitants and be hidden so the aliens were unable to see them.

"They certainly look like humans," Carl said. "How in the hell is that even possible?"

"They're not exactly the same as us," Charles replied. "Their eyebrows are connected, and they have rounder eyes and longer noses."

"Close enough!" Carl commented.

"Yes, I agree, but there's no way we'll know how they evolved."

"Hey!" Hilary yelled. "I have a communications link request."

"Put it on," Charles said.

The screen showed the robotic alien's face. "Are you making contact?"

"No," Charles replied. "They look like us, but they are not us."

"That is logical."

The link ended.

"So, what you told him is that we don't want to make contact with intelligent aliens," Carl said. "We just want to know if they're out here."

"Basically. The last thing we want to do is interfere with their cultures."

"There's an enemy robot vessel about ten thousand kilometers on course for this planet," Hilary told them.

"We should get out of the way," Judy said.

"I think our buddy is going to take care of them."

A powerful explosion indicated that he was correct."

"So, our buddy is having us go to where there are planets with intelligent species so they can destroy their enemies," Alice said.

"Yes. It makes sense, especially if you apply logic to the process, which is how AI works."

Charles decided to hang around the planet that had an intelligent species to determine their origin. Late one evening, Alice decided to go to his quarters to see what he was up to. She found him seated in his living area looking at data that had been captured with stealth probes.

He also had his cat lying next to him.

"Burning the midnight oil?" she asked, with a hint of a smirk.

The cat gave her the once over.

Charles turned to look at her for several moments before he replied. "I don't think this intelligent species evolved on this planet."

She looked at him with a confused expression. "Where did they come from?"

"I believe they're paleo Indians that were abducted by some alien species and brought here to this planet."

"Why would they do that?"

"I'm not sure, but the reason I think this is what happened is because their profiles match to what is known about paleo Indians that migrated to the Americas."

"So, that means we still haven't found a planet that evolved an intelligent species that look like us."

He sighed. "Yes. But if you think about it, we've only scratched the surface of possible habitable planets in our galaxy. This planet is the furthest we've come."

"So, where to next?"

"Our robotic buddy will tell us."

She sighed. "Maybe that's the best way to explore the universe."

Charles chuckled. "Exploring the universe is equivalent to a fly trying to explore the solar system."

"I realize that. What we've explored is a few systems within less than a hundred light years in a galaxy that's a hundred thousand light years in length. It's like a drop in a bucket."

"Exactly. It would take thousands of years to explore just part of our galaxy and there are trillions of galaxies in the universe."

"I can't even imagine that. It would take thousands of years just to explore a few nearby galaxies."

Charles smiled. "Well, we have plenty of time to do it."

Alice smiled. "Yes, and it will be much better with you running the show,"

Charles wasn't sure he accepted that prognosis. He was fully aware of the danger out there in space, and that there was the possibility of getting stranded or even destroyed.

Yet, he realized that it's worth it, especially since he has a cat to assuage his discontent with the dystopian situation.