Research started days before we reached the system. Data from the first exploration wave was broken down and reformatted in order to start the host of simulations. I asked Prometheus if I could be of assistance in that area, only to get scoffed at. Even as a battleship, I had half as many cores, a fact he managed to mention three times in our brief exchange. I considered sending a message to the XO, but decided I should get a better understanding of the dynamic between him and the ship before I did. From what I had seen the XO ran the ship, while the captain oversaw all projects, being captain only in title. The weirdness of it all had earned Prometheus a few sympathy points. I’m not sure how I would have reacted in a similar situation.

The system we were supposed to survey had a G3-type star with five orbiting planets. Nothing remarkable by my estimates, but the scientists went crazy upon seeing the life-index values. In general, anything with an index of 0.2 or higher was a cause of celebration; three of the planets in the system had over 0.4. It was then that everyone’s attitude suddenly changed.

The moment we entered the outer planet’s orbit, Shiala and I were ordered to report to laboratory seven on the bridge deck. We were also required to leave all external electronic devices in our quarters. In my case, I received an additional consent form to have all memories of my time inside the lab locked for a period of three years. It took me a total of two seconds to give my consent. A moment later someone rang my door.

“Enter,” I said, putting my datapad in its place.

I expected it to be Liao coming to tell me to hurry up. Instead, it was Shiala.

“Did you get the mail?” he asked, walking in as if this was his room and not mine. “That consent form is crazy. Three years not talking about what we’ve seen on the ship? That’s not even legal! No way I’m agreeing to that!”

So naive. If he only knew what mine was he’d probably faint. “This is the fleet. We’re expected to agree.” When I was a ship the only things I had the right to refuse were direct memory modifications. Everything else, including my combat experience, was property of the fleet. “That or quit.”

“Some choice.” Shiala started pacing around. “Do I want to go home in shame, or do I agree to do stars know what and potentially go home in shame?”

“It’s still a choice.” I shrugged. “Just agree and forget about it.” I walked past him. “I’m going to the lab. See you there.”

I let the door close behind me and went towards the nearest lift. The corridor walls were covered in images of our mission. Most were live feeds from the orbiting probes Prometheus had launched. I paused to take a look. Even at this resolution they looked beautiful. I knew that the colors were AI generated, giving the worlds a fake, but soothing, aesthetic appearance. There was something about orange and purple landscapes that put me at ease. It reminded me of my time I spent on the roof of Sev’s house looking at the trees. Would there be plants on the planets we’d survey? I hoped so. Maybe I’d even have a chance to see them in a hundred years or so.

You’re wasting time, Prometheus said in my mind. Lab seven is waiting for you.

“On my way.” I continued down the hallway. The lift door was open when I reached it. “Thanks.” I smiled and stepped inside.

Lab seven was located close to the hangar bay, on the opposite end of the bridge. The moment I saw the decontamination chambers I knew exactly what was going on.

“Cadet Elcy?” A science ensign approached me as I went near to the lab.

“Yes, ma’am.” I straightened up. “I was told to report to lab seven.”

“Oh, no need for that.” The woman waved a hand. She seemed quite young—probably fresh out of a university program—only slightly taller than me, slightly plump, and pretty in a plain sort of way. “There’s no rank here. Well, almost no rank,” she started laughing. When I didn’t join in for several seconds, she abruptly stopped. “Anyway, I’m here to take you to lab C.”

“Lab C?” I connected to the ship’s data feed and rechecked my orders. “I was ordered to go to laboratory seven—“ I glanced over the personnel files, using a simple face recognition algorithm to find her “—Ensign Simmec. Is that no longer the case?”

“Umm, I...” she flustered, probably surprised that addressed her by name. “Just call me Ally. Everyone else does. Lab seven C is an auxiliary lab. It’s where you and I will be working on...” She paused, checking her datapad that I’d signed my consent form. “We’ll be setting you up for ground exploration.”

“Ground exploration, ma’am?” I arched a brow.

“Well...” she shifted from foot to foot. “Usually we use remote exos to explore and gather samples, but with you on board we thought it would be a huge opportunity to... well, have someone experience it firsthand, and...” Ally bit her lip. “The major will explain it better.” She looked down and rushed past me. I followed her into a small unmarked door, not too far away, and went inside.

The room was ten times larger than my sleeping quarters, filled with equipment. Most of the devices were alien to me, but I could recognize the auxiliary processing cores and remote-reality pods.

“Sit anywhere,” Ally said, plugging her datapad in one of the desks. A large virtual screen emerged on the wall in front of her. “It’s usually just me here, so you can stop with the ma’am stuff.”

“That would be weird, ma’am.” I went to the desk next to hers ant sat on it. “It’d be like you being on a first name basis with your professors.” She choked at my suggestion, making me feel slightly guilty. “What’s the procedure?” I swung my legs. “You launch me in a pod along with the rest of the equipment and I gather samples?”

“No.” She coughed a few more times. “We won’t launch anything before Major Tanner’s team has provided us with an valid landing simulation approved by the captain. Until then, we only prep you and run simulations. Same as in the academy.”

There was no point in saying that the academy focused exclusively on combat and strategy planning. Exploration and colonization wasn’t even in the syllabus.

“I see you’ve gone through your standard medical.” Ally skimmed through my file. I caught a glance of my psychological profile, it was marked as Presumed Stable.

“Yes, ma’am. Right before leaving the station and one day after I arrived on board Prometheus.”

“Great. Less work for me,” she chuckled. “I’ll have to do a new one to get a base line. Based on the gravity readings so far, you should be fine without bone enhancers, but I’ll probably pump you with some more nanites when it's time to go down.”

“All part of the job.” The thought of having so many nanites in me almost made me feel like a ship again. “Can I ask something, ma’am?”

“Only if you stop calling me ma’am.” She gave me a side glance. I remained silent. Seconds passed with me swinging my legs and her pretending she was going through my file. At the end, she capitulated. “Okay, go ahead.”

“While in the lab, can I be barefoot?” The question made her twist around and stare at my feet, then at me. “I feel more comfortable and fleet regulations don’t allow me to do it outside of personal quarters without permission.”

“Okay?” Ally said slowly. “I’m not sure how to react to that. I... you better ask the major about that.” So much for a quick solution. “Ready for some tests?”

“Sure.” I jumped off the desk. “Ready when you are, ma’am.”

The tests started in typical military fashion. Moments after I was told I’d need to ask up the chain of command whether to be barefoot, I was asked to take off my shoes, socks, and shirt, and have probe cables inserted in my neck and nerve extensions. The process was mostly painless, aimed at providing raw data directly to whatever device the ensign had me plugged into. I was asked to walk, run, keep my balance, and perform a series of basic exercises—all the time trying to not tangle myself in the clusters of hair-thick cables that came out of me. At lunchtime we stopped to have a bite: freshly synthesized gelatin packs, courtesy of the lab’s food processing unit. Unlike the academy, Prometheus had a vast range of artificial flavors making the food almost palatable. Once we were done, the tests continued.

By evening, I had gone through the same routine five times. Ally seemed rather enthusiastic by the results. Twice she called the mysterious Major Tanner to report her progress. I attempted a search to find more about him, but his personnel file was restricted.

“That should do it.” Ally reviewed the latest data summary. “Readings are good, minimal deviation. It shouldn’t take long for Prometheus to calculate your baseline.”

“Okay.” Now I finally saw the value of my gym instructor pushing me so hard on the station. While I didn’t feel tired per se, I could tell my muscles were exhausted. “Is it okay to unplug?”

“Oops. Sorry about that.” She typed in a series of commands on her datapad. I felt the probe cables release their hold. “Go ahead and pull them out.” I did. The sensation was strange, reminding me of all the times I’d been torpedoed in battle. Ironically, it felt less painful back then. “We’re making great time. Tomorrow we could start reality simulations. With a bit of luck, we’ll be good to go before the first launch.”

It felt annoying hearing her use “We” when I was the one who’d go through this. After the probe shot to the planet, Ally would be millions of miles away, sitting in the safety of her lab, while I gathered dust and minerals from the surface.

“What weapons will I have?” I pulled out the cables from my wrists.

“Weapons? This isn’t a military mission,” the ensign laughed. “Well, okay, it is military, but not military military. You’ll just be down for a few hours to gather samples.”

“I’m aware of that, ma’am, but I have no information whether this is a contested system or not.” I finished removing the rest of the cables and put them on the floor. “In the unlikely event I stumble upon a Cassandrian landing party or a local threat, I’d like to have something to protect myself with. I can’t exactly use my weapon systems.”

“You have weapon systems?” Ally’s eyes widened.

“Had,” I corrected her. “They were removed when I retired to this body.”

“Oh.” She looked away.

I already knew what she was going to say, so I asked Prometheus the same question. To my surprise he told me that the issue was already being discussed. Based on past experience, when a human said that, it usually meant no. However, when a ship did, it almost always meant yes. Personally, I strongly doubted I’d run into anything dangerous, but felt better having a solution for such an eventuality.

“If there’s nothing more, ma’am, I’d like to be dismissed.” I went to get my clothes.

“Umm, no, nothing more. You’re all good. You can go. I just need to work on your data a bit.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” I buttoned up my shirt. “I’ll be sure to be back at tomorrow at seven ship-time.”

I was certain that she would spend the entire night in the lab working, probably even sleeping on her desk. It was sad how little had changed in the last hundred years. Tools got better, systems became smarter, and yet people would spend even more hours working. Just like Sev. A year after he had married, his wife’s family had bought him an automated crop-harvester so he would have more time. He had spent the next months staying up till midnight going through the harvester’s specks and researching what crops would be most profitable to grow.

“Elcy,” Ally said all of a sudden, just as I was about to leave. “Do you want to go for a test run?”

My immediate reaction was to refuse and get out. There were better things I could be doing than playing live-beta tester. My muscles needed time to rest, plus it had been days since I’d written to Sev. But still, there was something alluring in the suggestion.

“Probe data is still being analyzed, so you’ll only experience a small spot, and there might be a few visual glitches—“

“Sure.” I might as well try it out. “Do I need to use a pod?”

“Not for low res.” Ally started typing curiously on her datapad. “You’d better sit down. I’ll link you directly, so you might lose body motor functions for a few seconds. After that it should be blue skies all the way.”

Blue skies. It had been a while since I’d heard that expression. “Where will you be sending me to?”

“Some random location on planet five.” The reply was vaguer than I would have preferred. “It’s just a test, so the data will be wiped anyway. It’s not exactly standard procedure, so I’ll be using live data.”

Are you okay with this? I tried to ask Prometheus, but the communication line was blocked. Most likely he was in one of his moods.

“Ready?” Ally asked.

I nodded. A split second later I felt a data surge in my core. The lab and all of its equipment was gone. Instead, I was sitting on a chunk of crimson rock atop a barren cliff. The reality simulation was perfect; I could feel the cold surface of the rock, the rough jagged edges, and for a moment, I even thought I sensed a slight gust of wind.

“Definitely much better than in the academy,” I said as I stood up. The world around me was still forming, growing like a bubble in a cloud of grey mist. I watched a valley appear under me, filled with purplish-grey stones half buried in a sea of black sand. Cass would have loved this place. Every time we went close to a new planet, she’d make me move closer to get some scans for her photo album.

I tried to step forward, but the simulation glitched, freezing me for a full three seconds. When my leg moved again, the scene had changed. I was in a desert of black sand. Chunks of yellow crystal—possibly quartz—spiked up from the ground all around me. One of them had a geometrically perfect symbol inside.