“Hello Vahlen how is your morning going?”

“Oh, hello it’s going really well today how about –‘ she pauses, ‘sorry if you’ve picked a name could you tell me?”

“Of course, I’ve picked Scott as my name.” She nods, “Scott how was your morning?” “Great I’ve been running simulations on piloting within the warp bubble and I can almost always arrive at the destination unharmed.”

An eyebrow is raised, “Oh, you figured it out and even went beyond my expectations. Although I do owe Dave five bucks now but it was money well spent.”

I throw on my best puppy dog face, “You d-didn’t believe in me?’ lower lip quiver go, ‘I even worked extra hard just for you.” A hint of moisture in the eye and, “Oh no, no, no it was just a silly bet I believe in you really.” Vahlen is clearly flustered waving her hands around as though spider webs were in front of her. ‘It’s so fun to see her flustered.’

Both of us jump at the sound of clapping coming from the doorway where Dave is standing. “What an amusing performance but shall we get on with the agenda today?” I frown, slightly because he ruined the fun and more importantly how did I not see him? I pause everything and review but there is a blank spot where I can’t see anything around him until he suddenly appears. I set my proto brain to flag any spots where there is a void so he can’t sneak up on me.

“Sure I assume that I’ll be testing your warp drive today by taking a test drive around the solar system.” A strange gleam can be seen in his eyes, “Yes, yes you’ll be flying around in a ship I designed just for this purpose.”

“But Dave we aren’t supposed to start test flights.” “I know that but I feel that Scott is ready to handle it based on his conversation earlier. Anyways I’ll send you on your way to the ship,’ he taps his cane twice and my body starts sinking into the ground, ‘I’ll be in the communications room.”

Vahlen is looking back and forth between us but when my body starts to sink she looks at me with worry. I give her a thumbs up as my projection fades and I find myself back in my core. ‘Wait the blank spot where Dave was came after I told Vahlen about my simulations… *loading please wait* Damn you Dave the blank spot was a trick, he was there almost the entire time.’

I don’t really think I can do it justice trying to explain how it felt to plug into the ship. It was like going from being blind to being able to shoot lasers out of your eyes. I could see from gamma rays all the way to radio waves, I could sense every single nanite holding the ship together, I could taste the rainbow, okay not the last one but you get it.

My poor proto brain wasn’t designed to handle this type of information barrage so everything was screaming for my attention. In short it was time to upgrade the proto brain. I disconnected from the ship and instead focused inward version 2.0 here I come.

~A relatively long time later(1.3secs or 2 weeks take your pick)~

And we are a go ship brain is online. It has all the features of the proto brain but now has an additional function dedicated solely to the operation and maintenance of the ship. ‘You know I’m kind of what all those science fiction writers worried about, a self-evolving AI. Eh, not my concern I’m not a human anymore so I don’t have to worry about the robots attacking.’

Now that I’m not being bombarded with information I can properly examine the ship. It was only about 100m long from stern to bow but jeez was it packed full of stuff. Since there were no human crew on board the life support system had been replaced by fusion cores and the warp drive. On the stern I had 5 engines, one main engine that was an ion drive and surrounding it were 4 chemical engines for sudden bursts of speed. There were no weapons sadly, I guess I didn’t really need them for a test drive, but come on who doesn’t want to fire a laser.

‘I really should name this ship before I take off it’s bad luck not to. Hm, maybe the Love Boat crew of one. No that just sounds sad, I think this whole thing has just been one big adventure so far and that’s what I’ll name it.’

“Are you there Scott? You should have integrated with the ship by now.” “Yes Dave, I did, I was just thinking of a name for it and I decided on The Adventure.”

*static* “Well it’s not what I would have named it but to each his own I guess.” ‘Mother Fucker did you just insult my naming sense.’ A laundry list of choice swear words raged through my mind as the tug boats lifted me into orbit around Lupis.

The stream of swear words ceased to flow as I took in the sight of my home planet Gaia.

It hung there before me like a battered jewel, the scars of our folly still visible even from space. Despite this I felt overwhelmed by emotion and a single quote surfaced in my mind.

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Carl Sagan,Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future In Space

[Sorry if it doesn’t really seem to fit in with the storyline it just seemed like a perfect quote for the scene]

Coming back from my musing I go over the preflight check once more before slowly maneuvering around the moon to get a feel of flying The Adventure. I do this until I’m comfortable in my ability to handle the ship then radio back, “Alright I’ve gotten a feel for the ship is there anywhere in particular you want me to warp to?”

“Yes there is a research lab on the third moon of Titan that already has equipment set up to measure your exit from warp. Now I’ll only tell you this once but don’t you dare damage that ship you hear me.”

“Don’t listen to Dave just come back safe and sound alright.” ‘Yes mom I’ll be safe, yeah dad I totally won’t dent the spaceship now give me the keys and some money for gas.’ “Right see you guys on the other side.”

With that said I move a safe distance away from the planet and start warming up the warp drive. The engine is all good, coordinates set, and all that’s left is to leap off the cliff. How bad could it be?

‘Let’s warp baby.’