Living Under Ice

Living Under Ice 2

The Galley was very small and the computer terminal could hardly be called much of a terminal. It had a small holographic screen and tiny speakers. It was mostly designed to order things from ship stores or to have things printed in the three D food printer. The secondary A.I. called himself Samurai. He was mostly on the passenger side this trip. Actually, he was an Artificial Intelligence program in training and (as he had told every passenger at least ten times each so far on this trip) he was almost finished with his training. After this trip, he would become a fully registered ship's A.I. His hope was to be moved onto a large intra-galactic passenger vessel. That was why he was on the passenger side this trip. He was supposed to be working on his relationship skills with the passengers. Jake and kyle had crowded into the area to speak with Samurai.

"O.K., Samurai." Jake said in a low voice. Tell us what you know."

"It isn't good. There was an explosion in the forward section of the ship. As you know, this ship has four sections. The first is the control and communication module where the crew mostly lives and works. We are in the second section which is the passenger section. Behind us is the mail section holding all the packages we are supposed to deliver. Behind that is the quantum drive section. I have just had confirmation that one crew member is there and is still alive. He is our mechanical engineer.

"What about the captain and the rest of the crew?" Kyle asked.

"There is little chance that they survived. The forward section is almost completely gone. There is little left except some scrap metal. It is a good thing this ship was built in modules and they have such small connections otherwise this part would be gone too." "The main A.I. was in the forward computer banks at the time of the explosion so she didn't make it either," Samurai sighed. "And she was such a pleasure to converse with," he added sadly.

"What are our resources and what can you tell us about the area of space we have entered?" Jake asked.

"Well, first of all, we have no long range communication capability. We appear to be far off any normal shipping route. We are not anywhere close to any inhabited systems. There is a near-by star system and I am currently searching it for planets. Everyone thinks it is easy to find planets, but that is simply not true. It is like finding needles in a haystack, but I am using the few external sensors we have left to look."

"What about the quantum drive? Can we get back into hyperspace and go where we need to go?"

"I am afraid not." All the controls were in the forward compartment that is gone. The explosion caused a loss of control in the drive. Those drives are very sensitive as you may know. It can produce electrical power, but it will never take us into hyperspace with the resources we have left on this ship. We lost some critical components that cannot just be printed. They have to be produced by nano-bots under very controlled conditions. I am sorry. We can travel within this system, but we are isolated from the rest of the universe."

"What about our resources in the surviving portions of the ship?" Kyle asked. "Are we in big trouble in the short run?"

"I can give you better news there. We have no shortage of supplies. There is enough food to last about six months and we can recycle and synthesize more for at least a year after that. It might not taste too good to you humans especially towards the end, but that is just one of your frailties being organic life forms. We still have most functions on the remaining parts of the ship."

"At least that is good news for now," Jake said.

"I have more good news, or at least partially good news. I have found a planet."

"What makes it partially good?"

"Well, it is a bit far from the star. This star doesn't put out much infra-red so it doesn't give out much heat and the planet seems to have no atmosphere to even keep the little bit of heat that it does get in. We are too far for my sensors to tell, but I suspect it is a very cold place. Would you like me to direct the ship towards that planet?"

"How long will it take to reach?" Kyle asked.

Three months, I am afraid. We can't exactly travel fast with this damaged ship. The two men agreed that they should head the ship in that direction. At least the good food would hold out during the three months. Milton was the cook and he had been listening in on the conversation in his galley.

"I think we had better start getting people used to the synthesized food right away," he said. I will gradually introduce it into the food first as isolated ingredients and then increase it over time. Trust me, most people won't even know it is happening. I just wish I had more than my tiny little hydroponics station. I do grow my own salad greens and herbs, you know. It takes up most of the little personal space I have in my quarters."

"If we have to settle on this planet, that little hydroponics garden may be critical to our survival." Kyle said. I hope you have extra seeds to go with it."

"Oh, I do. I like to vary what I grow on each trip so that no one gets bored with the food. I don't have huge amounts of anything, but it is all non-hybrid and I know how to harvest seeds from all of it. Over time we can have a large garden of many good plants. I do like my vegetables."

"I don't suppose you raise any meat?"

"Now you are being funny. When the frozen stuff is gone, it is gone forever. We can eat the synthesized stuff, but I don't even have the ability to grow tissue for the real thing."

They went to tell the others the news.