Chapter 1

 

World Alone

 

          The rain peppered the window where Paul stood, watching as his wife Rayna approached on the walkway outside.  A large red umbrella in one hand, she pushed the double stroller where their two year-old twin daughters sat bright-eyed and curious about this new place.  He could see their chubby fingers pointing in one direction and then another; Jay, their six year-old son, walked beside Rayna, one of his hands resting on the stroller handle.  His face was as somber as his sisters’ were delighted.

          Rayna wore one of the treasured saris that had belonged to her late mother.  The blue and gold sari complimented her golden skin, and the sari’s scarf was wrapped around her neck and over her head, protecting her glossy black hair from the rain.

          Paul knew the message Rayna wished to send him by wearing the sari: she and the children would not be traveling with him.  That certainty had been growing in him, a stony and frigid acceptance, since Rayna’s last comm.  She had affirmed the planned visit date “before his departure” -- her words -- and that had made it clear to Paul that the visit would serve as a farewell rather than a reunion.

          Rayna had progressed far enough up the walkway to have left Paul’s line of sight.  He caught glimpses of the big red umbrella collapsing and being folded.  Now he could only wait for the lift to signal.

          The upper reception lobby was empty except for Paul.  As the day aged, more families would be gathering, nervous and excited about their upcoming flights to Moon Base III.  That excitement would be shot through with threads of stark fear and some sorrow.  The novelty of adventure and utterly new environs might bubble giddily on the surface, but the acute ache of leaving Earth and every sensory imprint of home would lurk in everyone.  Except the kids, Paul thought, the kids won’t have to endure that.

          The bell of the lift was a sharp startling sound in the solitude.  The lift doors swooshed open, and Paul’s family stepped into the room.  Paul felt a sudden thickening in his throat, an ache that tightened.  The solemnity of his son’s face made Paul realize that children might experience more of the uncertainty than he had thought.

          When Jay walked to his father, Paul knelt to embrace him; the strength of his son’s arms surprised him.

“Dad,” Jay whispered, his face pressed against Paul’s shoulder.  Paul ran his hand over Jay’s head, wanting to remember the feel of his silky brown hair.

          “Jay, you look very grown-up,” Paul’s voice struggled through the ache in his throat.

          “I am six.”

          Yes, Paul thought, you are six and if I ever see you again, you will be older than me.

          Jay finally released his father and stepped back with a relieved smile as he glanced up at his mother’s face for approval.  Rayna assured him a smile and stepped forward to kiss Paul briefly.  She drew back and bent over to remove the small knit hats and gloves that the girls wore.

          “See, I told you we would find your Papa, girls.”  The girls were named Autumn and Alexis and so alike that Paul sometimes had a difficult time telling them apart.

          At first they smiled shyly up at Paul.  Then one of them, probably Alexis, who was always bolder than Autumn, clapped her little hands and extended her arms up to Paul.

          “Papa!” she demanded.  “Hug Papa!”

          Paul pulled her up into his arms to embrace her.  Alexis flashed a triumphant grim.

          “My Papa,” she said, patting his cheek with a proprietary air.

          Rayna lifted Autumn from the stroller.  The little girl leaned towards Paul for a kiss.

          Her skin was so soft; her hazel eyes were fringed with thick black lashes, and there was the faintest hint of dimples in her cheeks.  Baby kisses, Paul thought, is there anything better in the world than the kisses of your babies?

          “My Papa too,” Autumn whispered.

          Standing before his family, Paul felt as if he had been delivered a body blow; the love he felt for these children almost choked him with its power.  He was unaware of the tear slowly rolling down his cheek, and Rayna reached up quickly to wipe it away.

          “Not in front of the children,” she whispered fiercely.  “We must keep the emotion away from the children.  This is hard enough for them to understand.”

          His eyes met Rayna’s and he tried to silently impart the depth of his emotion.  But she broke the contact after only a few seconds.

          “Where shall we sit, Paul, while we visit?”  Her voice was brisk and firm.

          Paul fought to steady his voice.

          “I reserved a family suite for us.  It’s on this floor -- 214 is the number -- there, in the south corner.”

          “Good.”  Rayna smiled.  “The children need some physical activity, and they will be hungry soon enough.”

          “I -- uh -- reserved a nanbot too -- if you wish to use it.”

          A quick look of annoyance flashed across Rayna’s face but she recovered quickly.

          “Well -- we’ll see if we need one.”

          As they walked towards the suite, Paul told Rayna that he had also ordered a noon meal and a light supper for the evening.

          “Good.”  She nodded her approval.  “The bullet train leaves at 22:30.  I imagine the children will sleep all the way back.  The air transport leaves tomorrow at 10:30.  Our luggage has already been inspected and checked in.  We should arrive in Delhi six hours later, and Sanjay will meet us.  He has chartered a small jet to take us to Bhutan.”

          Paul held his hand up against the biometric scanner, and once the hand scan was accepted, leaned forward for the retina scan.  After a series of clicks, the door slid open.  The children quickly saw the play area that was set up by the large window, toys and books scattered on the cushioned window seat, and happily made their way to it.  Rayna and Paul chose comfortable upholstered chairs about ten feet away the play area, facing the window.

          “I’m glad your brother will be with you.  That should ease your entry into Bhutan.”

          “Oh, Sanjay has already worked so very hard to make it easy for us,” Rayna said.  “The plane will have beds for everyone, and Sanjay and I can just relax and talk.  He has already filed our émigré papers and received approval for our residency.  He has said Malia is beside herself with excitement over seeing the children again.  She has been so down and lonely since -- since Malika’s death.”

          Malika was the only child of Sanjay and Malia.  She had been visiting her grandparents in Kolkata when a sudden and massive riot had decimated the city.  Malika had been murdered along with her grandparents when their chauffeured car was attacked as they tried to get home after a dinner party with friends.  No mercy had been shown to the obviously affluent elderly couple and their lovely ten year old granddaughter.  Even the driver had suffered a vicious death.  The consequences of that horror had stunned Rayna and her brother and his wife, and had also been the harbinger of waves of riots in the Indian subcontinent.  The terror cascaded daily, and the affluent class either turned their residencies into fortresses protected by cadres of soldier-bots or they fled the country entirely.

          Rayna and the children had been living in safety in the Canadian Rockies in a military dependant sanctuary that was once a luxurious resort.  So shaken was Rayna by the disintegration of society she decided that status as military dependants might mark her children as targets.  She wanted to find a home as remote as possible but still moderately comfortable.  Since Sanjay had been contracted to Bhutan as a university professor, Rayna decided to move her family to the remote peace of Bhutan.  Sanjay’s connections there were beneficial to gaining approval for entrance into the country.

          Paul remembered Rayna’s face the day that she gained admittance to her late parents’ compound; bitter anger battled her stoicism as she directed the servants to crate the valuables and heirlooms for shipment to Sanjay.

          “If they had stayed home that night, they and Malika would still be alive.  Father’s security here would have kept them safe.  But neither of them ever understood the contemporary climate.  I can see him now -- Father would smile and say ‘trouble -- oh, daughter, always there is trouble.  But our family is an ancient one in this city and we are respected here.  No one would ever harm us.’”  Though she spoke through clenched teeth to quell her emotions, tears still ran down her cheeks.  But the physical signs of sorrow only seemed to fuel her angry determination to save what she could of her legacy and her family.

          Paul also remembered that later that day when Rayna entered her mother’s bed chamber and walked directly to a beautiful enameled armoire; after opening the doors slowly, she leaned in towards the rows of deliciously colored and gilded saris.  Gathering several into her arms, she buried her face in the sumptuous silken bundle.

          “Her perfume,” she spoke in a tortured voice.  “They all smell of her perfume.”

          Turning to the servants awaiting her instructions, Rayna composed herself.

          “All this -- everything in this room should be crated and sent to me in care of Sanjay in Bhutan.  I want extreme care to be taken to pack everything properly.  You use tissue to separate the saris and do not damage them with wrinkling.  All the crates should be marked for extra security regardless of the cost.”

          Her directive to send the crates to her in Bhutan was how Paul learned of her probable decision to reject following him.  The world had gone mad and slashed at her heart, but she would not leave it.  Paul remembered how she stood wrapping her arms together to diminish the trembling.  Rayna was very skilled at concealing her emotions, and she would never betray herself in front of the servant androids.  When her father had decided to order servant-bots, his dignity and old-fashioned graciousness was offended by the thought of mechanical task-doers whirring through his home, so he had ordered top-of-the-line androids programmed for deeply devoted servitude and crafted with such human countenances and bodies that one was hard-pressed to identify them as robots at all.  Few households still enjoyed the civilized custom of a well-groomed and meticulously polite majordomo running an aristocratic home with a faithful staff, but Rayna’s father had.

          With a start, Paul realized that his memories had overtaken his attention, and Rayna was studying his face quizzically.  He smiled and shook his head.

          “Sorry, Rayna -- I was just caught up for a moment there.  The sari -- it’s beautiful.  It reminded me of --“

          “Yes,” she said softly and placed her hand on his arm. “I know.”

          “I don’t know if you ever told me what you and Sanjay decided to do about the servants…”

          Rayna’s brisk manner returned.

          “At first I thought we would just decommission them and return them to Tokyo.  But Sanjay said that since they were such a major investment and already programmed for our family, it would be a waste.  He thought perhaps that he and his colleagues could use them as help at the university.  Bhutanese are quite unfamiliar with AI and all its forms.  Sanjay thought these droids might help them along in acclimation to AI.  Easier to relate to, you know.”

          “Ah.  I’m sure Sanjay is right.  Just make sure he installs the military upgrade and update block.  That makes them impervious to outside intervention --“

          “Yes, he mentioned that to me.  Believe me, I would insist upon it.  Taking a crowd of bots with the vulnerable chip would be like nesting in a vipers’ pit.  I had Nana retrofitted last year through an independent consultant.  You cannot trust anything anymore that comes out of the Tokyo AIWA.”

          Nana was the name given to all residential childcare androids.  AIWA was the acronym for the Artificial Intelligence World Administration; located in Tokyo, the headquarters was almost entirely staffed by androids and robots.  There were now robots assembling robots, programming them and running R&D; suspicion abounded that there was a rogue element embedded in AIWA responsible for the malevolent malfunction in fifty percent of Earth’s robots that occurred two years ago, resulting in nuclear havoc in the Middle East, the collapse of the UK government and the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians.  The deterioration of Earth’s infrastructure, the wildly unpredictable weather patterns, the seething acrimony among divergent classes and religions, the massing of wealth to a mere one percent of the population, the pollution of waterways and the air were factors in creating a rogue faction of AI; it seemed that mankind was not the only greedy life form.  Power could corrupt even those who ran on batteries.

“Have you already sent Nana ahead?”

“Partially.  She is waiting at the hotel at the airport.  We will meet her there.”

Rayna lowered her eyes to study her folded hands slowly turning her wedding rings on her finger.  Paul’s eyes were drawn to her hands also. and a silence fraught with the weight of the unsaid fell like a curtain between them.  Only the muted voices of the girls playing and Jay’s occasional big-brother remarks to the twins broke the silence.

Paul closed his eyes and sketched in his mind the tableau of his family, seemingly carefree, into his memory.  My family, he thought miserably, my son, my daughters, my wife -- will they still be my family when I am hundreds or thousands of light years away?

“I shouldn’t leave,” he whispered.

Rayna looked up sharply.

“We have spoken of this before, Paul.  My sense of duty is as strong as yours.  Do not think that you are abandoning me.  You and the others are making this -- this incredible sacrifice to attempt to save our species.  When we met at the Corps Academy, we both knew the future was uncertain.  These are the choices we made, and they are not bad choices.  Your children will be with me, so there will always be part of you with me.”  Her voice was tense, her eyes unyielding.

“The children --“

“Will always know who their father is and where he is and why he is there.  You will be a hero to them.”

“I -- I would rather be a father to them.  Maybe this is all futile -- just chasing apparitions we have conjured up out of irrational hope.”

“Hope is never irrational.”

“But journeys spanning light years might be.  Years in stasis might be.”

Rayna’s lips thinned in disapproval.

“I have explained stasis to Jay.  He understands on some level why the Corps and the immigrants must spend -- maybe years in stasis.  But it is another matter altogether to put children in stasis.  That is something I cannot explain to my children.  A childhood should not be interrupted by enormous blocks of blankness.  I cannot trust my growing children, full of vitality and curiosity, to body pods.  I cannot.”  Her eyes lifted to gaze at her children.  “Nor can I visualize any kind of family life like that, Paul.  I have tried, believe me.  You know I am logical and rational -- I am a scientist.  But the prospect of leaving Earth to journey to deep space stations, possibly spending years in stasis -- I simply cannot reconcile myself to it.  I have to hope that the authorities remaining on Earth will be able to restore a semblance of order and security someday.  I cannot relinquish my children to the inconstant and rootless existence I perceive your travel to be.  If you are hurt by that, I am sorry.  I do not wish to hurt you.”

“Any pain at this point is self-inflicted.”

A signal from the door indicated a comm link was established.

“Yes?” Paul answered.

“Captain Whitlowe, we have your meal ready to deliver. Is that acceptable?”

“Of course, please enter.”

The access door slid open allowing a welcome aroma of hot food that wafted from the cart the droid pushed.  The children’s attention was instantly caught, and they ran over to the table where the service droid was arranging place settings and placing domed food containers on the table.  The children smiled shyly at the droid, and through the wonder of programming, the droid smiled kindly in return.

“Bon appétit, sir.  Simply call for cleanup when you are ready.”

Their lunch together was filled with the children talking, asking questions and telling their father about their excitement over their new home.

“It is in the Himalayas, Papa,” Jay said in wonder.

“I imagine it will be beautiful, Jay.  You must learn all you can about the country and its people.  I know you will respect their culture and beliefs.  You will be their guest.”

“Mama said that we must respect them because people who do not respect each other are causing all the problems.  Like in Kolkata -- and that’s why we had to leave the UK, because of the fighting.  Will people be fighting in Bhutan, Papa?”

“I don’t think so, Jay.  That’s why Mama chose Bhutan: because it is safe.  Uncle Sanjay will make sure you and your sisters are safe and happy.”

“And when will you come home, Papa?”

Wow, Paul thought, how do I answer that?

“I don’t know yet, Jay.  I will send laser-comms when I can.  But we really don’t know yet how long any of the missions will be.”

“That’s OK, Papa.  If you aren’t home by the time I’m grown-up, I’ll just come find you,” Jay said with confidence, turning his attention to something that looked mighty like chocolate pudding.

Rayna smiled faintly at Paul.  Paul was pleased that his son seemed to accept the arbitrary future his father was facing.  The thought of Jay finding him years from now in the vastness of space was rather comforting.

After their meal had been cleared away, the children returned to playing.  Alexis toddled over to Paul waving a book.

“Read to me, Papa!”  She started to climb onto his lap, the tip of her little pink tongue showing at the corner of her mouth with the effort.  Paul took the book.

“Great choice, Alexis �" Green Eggs and Ham -- one of our favorites -- remember, Jay, when I used to read this to you?”

Jay looked up, the recollection brightening his face.  He scrambled to his feet and held out his hand to Autumn.

“Come on, little one,” he said. “Let’s go sit with Papa while he reads the story.”

Autumn took his hand, and in just a moment, Paul was surrounded by and covered with children; it was a wonderful feeling.  He smiled at Rayna before he began to read; her eyes were glistening with perhaps unshed tears, but he could not be certain.  Rayna was stoic, and he understood her need to be so.

The story was read with much drama, and the audience was appreciative.  When Paul had finished the book, Alexis was insistent upon another go, but Rayna overrode her enthusiasm.

“I think you girls should lie down for a nap,” she suggested, much to the disgust of Alexis.

“Naps are for babies!”

“Well, your sister is yawning, Lexie, and since you are the same age, you cannot call Autumn a baby, can you?”

Alexis looked thoughtful for a second.

“If Autumn needs a nap, I’ll go with her,” she relented.  Rayna escorted them into the adjacent room where three cots were set up.  When she returned, she smiled at Jay.

“Since you are the big brother, Jay, you can go over to the window and read.”

Very glad that he was not tagged for a nap, Jay skipped to the window seat and began digging through the pile of books.  Before much time had elapsed, he had dozed off.

“Tell me about your ship, Paul.  Do you have idea who will be serving under you?”

“I do have a preliminary muster -- changes can be made at the last minute, of course.”  Paul pulled a folded sheet from his breast pocket and after unfolding the paper, gave it a quick glance.

“I see a few names you might recognize:  Glenna Wade is my Chief Engineer, Clive Mackey is my First Officer …”

Rayna chuckled.

“Do Glenna and Mackey still have that on-again off-again thing going on?”

“Think so,” Paul answered lightly.  “You can depend on Glenna and Mackey to keep it interesting.  My medical officer will be Ben -- he’s a great asset to any crew.  Ahh, and here’s Nicholas Polevitsky, the Admiral’s son himself.  Looks like he’s still on galley duty so maybe following in Daddy’s star steps isn’t in Nic’s future.  I count twenty crew here, not to mention a gaggle of maintenance bots and security androids.  My droid first officer is tagged as Weatherby.”

“Who’s your cryonics officer?”

“Hmm … let’s see -- here it is: Lieutenant Commander Christian Duchant.  I’ve never served with him.”

“It’s not a name I recognize either.  I would feel more comfortable if it was someone I know.”

“Well, he is designated as Science Officer too, so I’m sure his credentials are solid.”

“Of course, you’re right, Paul.  The Corps would never assign an unproven officer to those responsibilities.  Besides, your droid Weatherby will know everything that might slip anyone else’s mind. And since Weatherby will be maintaining the pods during your stasis, there is no cause for worry.”

Rayna and Paul continued to chat about their friends in the Corps and their possible duties. Gradually though, the conversation dwindled, and the uneasy silence was only occasionally punctuated with a smile or a sigh.

Later Paul would not be able to recall the rest of the afternoon.  Rayna had insisted on no physical intimacy between them.  She had said that her bravery had some limits and she needed to honor those limits. Paul’s dread of their departure fed the cold stony isolation he began to feel and kept feeling until he was put into his first stasis rotation.

As the hour grew closer to 21:00, Rayna became restive and began gathering their things and advising the children that they must leave soon.  Jay looked stricken, first studying his mother’s face and then his father’s.  But he remained silent and began to tidy up the play area, stacking books neatly and stowing the toys in a drawer under the window seat.  The twins protested when the hats, gloves and jackets made their appearance.

“I wanna stay here,” Alexis said.

“We cannot stay here,” Rayna answered.

“Why?”

“Because if we stay here, there will be no one to fly with Nana to Delhi, and she will be lonely.”  Rayna was adept at toddler logic.

“Oh.”  Alexis’ face brightened.  “Yes, Nana is waiting for us.”

Paul helped Rayna bundle up the twins and seat them in their stroller.  He used the suite’s comm link to call for transportation to the bullet train station.

“Yes, sir,” the motor pool voice responded to Paul.  “We’ll pick them up at the portico, Captain.  The rain has become a little icy -- best to keep them off the slick surfaces.”

“Thanks, Jackson.  They are ready to go down to the first floor now.”

Paul terminated the comm with the push of a button on the wall-mounted comm panel.  Rayna had already pushed the stroller into the lobby and pushed the call button for the lift.

“Now we must kiss Papa goodbye, girls.”

Paul knelt beside the stroller, kissing each of the girls in turn.  He wanted the moment to last forever, but of course, he knew it could not.  He rose and lifted his son into his arms.

“I love you, Jay.  I am so proud of you.  Make sure you watch out for your sisters for me. Okay?  And promise you will come find me when you grow up.”

Jay’s eyes widened.

“I will, Papa. I promise.”

Paul set Jay down and Rayna guided her son into the lift with the stroller.  The girls waved energetically as the lift doors closed.

For a moment Paul stood perfectly still.  A trace of Rayna’s perfume still hung in the air.  His mind was still full of his children’s faces and voices. He felt as cut off from them as he would have felt watching coffins descend into the ground.  Then, as his posture straightened, he turned around and headed for the hallway that led from the lobby to the skyway that would connect to the launch facilities.  Years of military life strengthened his stride, composed his face and propelled him towards the shuttle terminal where he was scheduled to leave for Moon Base that night.  Just as Rayna had said, the duty was almost holy, and everyone called to it must respond regardless to the ties one might have to Earth.

 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

Paul grunted and shrugged away the hand tapping his shoulder.  The pillow provided to him by the attendant at the start of the shuttle run was too small to be truly comfortable.  Perhaps that feeling of his comfort level being slightly off caused him to respond to the following taps on his shoulder, and he opened his eyes slowly, squinting in the brightness of the cabin lights.

“Captain Whitlowe, we are ready to go into docking maneuvers.  You’ll have to re-engage your seat restraints.”  The young attendant held out her hand for the pillow and smiled.  Surrendering the pillow, Paul straightened his body to accommodate the auto-restraints and found the button to activate the restraint again.

“Which lunar terminal?”  His voice was a little gruff, probably from the sleep.

“Terminal 25, sir.  There will be a Corps rep to greet all incoming Corps personnel and assist them if necessary to their assigned duty wait stations.”

“Well, I know the way.  This is not my first time around.”

“Oh, yes, sir, I know.” she laughed nervously and added shyly, “My brother Nic is going to be on your ship, sir.  He was really excited.”

“So you’re Nic’s sister.  It’s good to meet you.  Are you still in Academy?”

“For at least another year, sir.  I have to do these shuttle rotations for a couple of months and then I’ll return to Academy.”

“How is your father?  I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“He is out on Deep Space 20, sir.  He was back last Christmas and took Mom and my two little brothers back with him.  He said he’ll be glad when we’re all off Earth -- y’know, the riots and terrorists attacks…”

‘Yes, I can understand that.  Give him my regards the next time you speak to him.”

“I will, sir.  And good luck on your mission.”  She gave him a crisp salute.  Paul smiled with his lips but his eyes remained somber.  The attendant moved on to assist other passengers.

Paul thought the docking was a little rough, but that was to be expected since younger and less experienced pilots were being pressed into these kinds of short utility runs.  Most veterans and specialists were being assigned to the massive Corps undertaking of manning deep space exploration ships.

Hell of a long time in stasis, Paul thought sourly.  The official time line had been pushed to shorter and shorter intervals in the last six months because of the deepening crises on Earth.  Almost every political, religious or philosophic faction now had their own robotic armies and weapons.  Once developed to save human lives, robotic soldiers and unmanned drones threatened even their overlords; technology that, years ago, had made wireless devices wondrous tools had been subverted to implements of incalculable threat.  AIWA only truly controlled about seventy percent of the known artificial intelligence nodes, and no one knew how many units were being hijacked and re-programmed daily.  To a greater degree, many feared the potential harm from androids, seeming to equate their human appearance to a more sinister capacity for mayhem.

The seat restraints released when docking was completed.  During the noisy pressurization of the airlock, Paul stood and retrieved his bag from overhead storage.  The airlock door opened with its characteristic whoosh, and the passengers began to file out to walk down a short causeway to the gate’s reception area.

Paul spotted the Corps rep immediately and signaled that he needed no assistance.  He made his way to a nearby escalator carrying arrivals up to the floor containing the duty assignment waiting rooms.  The sterility of the terminal, the spotless glass, polished chrome, the shining floors began to foster a calmness in Paul, displacing his unhappy mood somewhat.  The terminal stood as a symbol of discipline and order; this was a place where people could feel safe from the blind passions and raging fatwas tearing Earth apart.  It was amazing how the popularity of the military life had increased as insanity in its myriad forms ratcheted up on Earth.

Paul spotted his assigned room and made his way towards it.  Two young men were leaning against the door jambs talking to each other.  When they spotted Paul, they immediately came to attention.

“Sir,” they greeted in unison.

“As you were, gentlemen.”  He shook each of their hands in turn.  He read their lanyards.  “So it’s good to meet you, Ensigns Detweiller and Gregorian.  If I remember correctly, you two are my linguistic techs.”

“Correct, sir,” one of the young men answered.

“Are you guys the first ones here?”

“Oh, no, sir.  Several are already in the room, sir.”

“Why don’t we join them?” Paul opened the door and stepped in.  The standard officer on deck alert got the proper response, and Paul quickly dismissed the formality with an as you were. He started around the room, shaking hands and greeting his crew members.  The room was furnished with comfortable seating and a small refreshments bar; a large window covered the wall opposite the door, affording a view of the terminal concourse below.  Glenna Wade was stretched out on the upholstered window seat holding a bottle of water.  Clive Mackey sat at the other end of the bench.

“Hey, Paul,” Glenna said, “I’ve just been telling Mackey how much I hate those maintenance bots.”

“How much do you hate them, Glenna?” Paul played along.

“Aw, she doesn’t hate ‘em, Captain,” Mackey interjected.  “These new ones are articulated as fully as a human -- and all the tools are built-in.  You can’t beat that.”

“But,” Glenna retorted, “can any bot replace good old-fashioned intuition?  When you’re out there on a tether, sweating your balls off, knowing that the whole ship is depending on you?  Knowing that this doodad has been an issue before, and you remember that certain little tweak that fixed it last time -- troubleshooting is intuitive.”

“Nah, Glenna, you know all those circuits and AI can out-intuit anybody.  These things can do almost -- not almost -- they can do anything a human can do -- and maybe even do it better,” Mackey countered.

“Well, then that explains it,” Glenna said, pointing down to a squad of brand new maintenance droids marching neatly down the concourse.

“Whaddya mean, explains what?”

“Well, Mackey, you said they can do anything a human can.  I’ve always wondered why those droids need a codpiece.  Now I know.”

Mackey grinned sheepishly as the crew members snickered at her remark.

“Glenna…”

“Put yourself in my place, Mackey: here we are engaged -- again -- and you point out to me the superior engineering of these fixit droids -- don’t need oxygen, don’t eat, probably got lots of stamina.  I’m thinking, Mackey, maybe a droid is a better prospect than you are.”

Glenna was awarded with hearty laughter from her mates.  Paul just shook his head as he laughed.  Glenna and Mackey would keep things lively.  He noticed Yeoman Polevitsky sitting across the room and went to greet him.

“Hey, Nic, I just saw your little sister on the shuttle.”

“Did you, sir?  She hates that shuttle work -- hot to get back to Academy and get her commission.”

“So the whole family is with your dad out on that deep space station?”

“Everybody but my granddad.  He refuses to leave his farm up in Nebraska.  There hasn’t been much trouble around there so he insists he’s fine.  I visited him before I reported for duty.  He’d just had his birthday -- 120 and still getting around pretty good.”

“Isn’t he in a care facility?”

“No way.  He still lives in the house he bought when he married my grandmother.  He’s got a few menial droids to keep things up -- and a care companion.  They made her look like my grandma so that makes him feel comfortable.  In fact Granddad says she’s better than Grandma ‘cause she doesn’t nag or snore or sass back at him.”

Paul smiled at that.

“Yeah, better living through robotics -- or so they say.”

Looking around, Paul did a mental head count and realized that his full crew was present.  Nic gave a shout for heads up to the captain.  Everyone gave their attention to Paul.

“Corps personnel, it is good to see you all.  I’m sure you’re all ready to get on with this.  We’ll be heading to the boarding gate shortly.  After we go through a brief decontamination, we will board the Lady L.  You’ll have time to stow your gear, then report to the Cryonics deck.  We’ll be going into stasis -- a few at a time -- after the ship leaves Moon Base.  Doctor Ben Diaz de Leon will be supervising that op assisted by Lieutenant Commander Duchand.  Along with First Officer Commander Mackey and Lieutenant Commander Ferguson, I will be last going into stasis.  Weatherby will be monitoring our status constantly and following the programmed navigation.  I anticipate a three month stasis period to start off.  Further naps in the pods will be planned according to the circumstances we encounter on our mission.  I am proud to serve with you.  Let’s do it.”

Paul strode from the room followed by his crew.  His mind was crowded again with images of his children and his wife, but now he had the mission as a palpable lodestone.  He thought, we are walking into a mystery -- let us hope it is an adventure.