Читать книгу Star Map - Fabienne Gschwind - Страница 7

Time-consuming hobbies were probably the most important thing aboard a mapping ship.

Even when the crew was on board, they didn't have to do much, and their only job was to monitor Kiki.

A day passed like this:

At six in the morning, the crew met. That might seem early, but after 400 years of genetic manipulation, the average human's sleep time had been reduced to three to four hours. Most of them went to bed at one in the morning and by six o’clock. They were fully awake.

Now Jay took the helm. As the ship's manager, he was responsible for keeping all crew members healthy and fit. Although the Abhysal had artificial gravity, the gravity plates left much to be desired, and without exercise, the astronauts would quickly lose muscle and bone mass. A minimum of two hours a day was mandatory. But Jay's obsession with sports and fitness meant that the average was more like four hours a day. Jay had built a gigantic fitness track in the Abhysal and kept coming up with the latest ideas to get everyone moving. So, the day started for example with a five-kilometer run through Abhysal's storage rooms, followed by a climb up the shaft of the freight elevator. To be very mean, Jay also liked to increase gravity or make it reverse. So, everyone had to try hard not to fall off the climbing wall. When Jay didn't put climbing on the program, there were obstacle courses, because he had built a real ninja warrior parkour where everyone practiced coordination and dexterity. There was also a well-equipped fitness center in the lounge, so all the usual equipment like weight training, spinning, or rowing machines could be used. Fun exercises like jumping rope, trampolining, and gymnastics were on the schedule as well as athletics, dance or ballroom sports, or military drill. Jay himself was still an avid martial artist, and so there were regular boxing or Kung Fu classes. Nicolai and Joe had also discovered their passion for martial arts and trained regularly with Jay. Lex trained with them when asked, but she didn't like it. She only liked archery at Jay's range.

Milo performed his sports exercises as he was instructed, but felt sports were just a boring waste of time.

After the sport, they had breakfast. The storage rooms of the Abhysal were filled with stasis containers of food. And if food ran out in 30 years, the hydroponic garden could be expanded to grow all the food they needed. The garden currently provides only vegetables, protein cucumbers, meat eggplants, and noodle tubers. Thus, the crew could also benefit from fresh food.

After breakfast, everyone turned to their work:

Joe and Nemo mostly worked together. But before starting their work, both engineers squeezed into their high-tech technician outfits as usual. In addition to all kinds of technician bells and whistles, it also offered radiation protection, cooling and heating systems, as well as a light muscle booster. In one of his previous missions, this suit had saved Nemo's life when a leak occurred. That's why he had insisted that they always wear it on routine missions. Joe was officially responsible for everything around subspace technology and Nemo for the fission reactor and life support systems. But after so many years in starships, both were experts in both areas and did the work together.

They had to perform daily inspections of the various parts of the ship. Today they inspected the outer casing of the subspace diving generator and evaluated the X-ray image of the maintenance robot. There were no faults to be found (which was logical, because otherwise, Kiki would have informed them immediately). Then they checked the filters of the water treatment plant. Here, too, everything was in order. Conscientiously, they filled out the maintenance forms and got ready to enjoy their free time.

Jay himself sat down in his office. There he filled out the fitness forms and noted the team's progress, then Kiki gave him his agenda. From time to time, he had to do medical exams and check up on the other crew members. Or he would go through the stock lists and check to make sure everything was in order. He also looked at what everyone in the crew was doing and if they were doing their jobs on time. At least this way he could feel a little like a captain.

But his favorite thing to do was test the latest subspace maps that Kiki had created overnight. He used a simulator and flew through the newly mapped area. If there were any ambiguities, he reported them to Kiki, who then recalculated the maps, which happened once every two years. The subspace maps traveled with all the other documents in the "carrier pigeons" small autonomous spaceships that flew back in the opposite direction and delivered the data to StarMap.

Afterward, he did stretching exercises for an hour to work on his mobility. Occasionally, he would sneak into the simulation box. This was Jay's favorite retreat. Virtual reality was set up in the box, and thanks to a full-body suit and an exoskeleton, movements, and touch could be simulated almost lifelike. Brain stimulation helped make it seem even more real. Jay practiced everything from complicated surgeries to spacewalks in the simulation box. But when he could, he played war games. First-person shooters as well as strategy games or replicas of famous battles. Sometimes he needed the box six to eight hours a day, but no one would deny it. Lex got seasick in it, Milo didn't care, and Joe and Nemo only used it a little.

Milo disappeared into the astrolab immediately after breakfast and would not come out again until the evening. Most of the time, his nursing robot escorted him to the dining table so he could eat properly.

Milo used his time both to create the new navigation plans with Kiki and to track down and explore unknown subspace phenomena. He wrote new publications and once a week he was allowed to present his latest results to the crew. Not that anyone understood much about his theories, but everyone made the effort to listen to him carefully. After all, it was important that Milo felt comfortable and had fun. The benefit was that with time most of the crewmembers were now also experts in subspace physics too.

Lex went to the computer room, which was connected to the Astrolab, where she logged in with Kiki. Through her data interface, she reviewed a small portion of the AI programming each day. The common hypothesis was that some subspace radiation was causing errors in the computer code, which was the reason robot ships crashed so often. But neither Lex nor other programmers had ever encountered induced errors. Lex loved spending time with Kiki. To her, Kiki was almost human, even her best friend. She enjoyed spending time in the logically clear world of program code. Here and there she made changes and improvements. Apart from that, Lex liked to work on her "baby", programming her own AI according to her needs.

It was almost one o'clock and Lex had to stop her work. Even the best AI programmers could not spend more than three hours at a time in an AI environment. After that, the risk became too great that she would get distracted and some faulty code would creep in.

Lex crossed the short corridor to the lounge. Here were the kitchen and dining room, as well as the gym and a cozy sofa area with multimedia screens and library.

At the same time, Nemo and Joe arrived, as well as Jay, who mostly crawled out of the simulation box exhausted and retired to his quarters to change.

At noon they had a light meal with soup and bread.

Every day there was an emergency drill in the early afternoon, this could be just a simple briefing where Jay went over the instructions again or a full simulation. Today there was only a short drill, and everyone had to get into the emergency space suit as quickly as possible. After all, people were on the ship to intervene in an emergency. So, it was logical that all possible scenarios had to be practiced. Shortly after, people went either to their quarters or to their workplace and performed their psycho-hypnosis program. Many techniques taught them to focus, or to remain calm in life-threatening situations. In the meantime, the crew had reached mastery in this, and they enjoyed also practicing all together as a group. Three times in the last few years they had barely escaped catastrophes and that was only thanks to the fact that everyone in the crew had quickly mastered the situations calmly and thoughtfully. When such situations occurred, it was as if a switch was flipped, everyone was immediately in the flow and acted as one.

Afterward, they had coffee and cake.

After fourteen years of being together day and night, everyone knew each other as well as they could.

They chatted a bit about the morning routine, talked about fitness training, and everyone explained what they would be doing in the remaining afternoon, and most importantly, they planned the evening activities together. Twice a week they all played theater together, once they played music together, and the remaining two evenings were movie or game nights.

Anything that could be done in the confined space of the Abhysal was considered to be an ideal hobby. Logically, everyone loved subspace, and job-related courses or distance learning were highly valued as pastimes. Everyone had been on mapping ships for at least 25 years, and the list of degrees was correspondingly long. Joe now has a degree in chemistry and even an honorary doctorate in sensor technology. Nemo was a nuclear physicist and a graduate gravitational engineer. In any case, all but Jay were world-renowned experts in the field of subspace technologies. Joe, Lex, and Nemo worked together to develop improved gravitational plates or other new gear and engines, and they had a superbly equipped high-tech workshop and an even better equipped general research laboratory. Sponsored by Nemo's vast fortune.

In addition to these scientific activities, Nemo was a gifted tailor and Joe was no less talented. One of the empty quarters had therefore been converted into a sewing studio. Nemo and Joe had a lot of fun sewing military uniforms from all eras for Jay. Jay mostly wore typical soldier clothes and loved everything that had a military design. They had also designed ship uniforms for the whole crew and occasionally the whole crew would dress up and Jay loved it.

Lex painted, carved, and made pottery. Another empty quarter was therefore the creative studio. Jay partially tore his hair out when he discovered bales of fabric and other crafting equipment hidden in Abhysal's huge cargo: "If we ever crash-land on a planet, we'll have enough materials to open a municipal opera house, including a playhouse, a ballet, and a supermarket for handcraft supplies!”

Of course, musical instruments were not to be missed, and by now everyone had reached a good level. Nemo played the accordion, liked to wear a sailor costume with it, and sang shanty. Lex played church organ and could play Bach cantatas for hours. Milo played violin and Joe played cello and piano. Jay had long resisted taking up an instrument, but then he discovered the bagpipes. Unfortunately, it was relegated to the far corner behind the reserve fusion reactor.

Lex also studied religious studies and art history. Milo didn't need another hobby—subspace exploration took up all his time. The only time he met with the crew was to do theater.

Acting was a required subject in school, just like singing, so everyone had acting experience.

The crew had rehearsed over 100 plays in the last few years. Their repertoire ranged from Greek tragedies, classical plays by Goethe, Shakespeare or Molière to all kinds of plays from the last centuries, such as Gottfried Xianghu M'Munga, famous poet of the 23rd century. Sometimes they reenacted iconic movie scenes and occasionally an act or two from an opera.

The evenings together ended in great laughter. All in all, it can be said that the crew managed their lives very well and, apart from their seclusion, led happy lives.

The most common question asked by the crew was about their sex life. Everyone had agreed on one simple rule. No sex with the others. Lex had taken a vow of devotion of her own, but she claimed to be asexual and not interested in the others. Nemo had been taking pills that dampened his lust since he was a teenager because the fear that he would turn into a psychopathic monster and rape someone was deeply embedded in his subconscious. Milo had very different things on his mind. Jay and Joe used the simulation box, which was also an excellent tool for this purpose.

Thus, the essentials were settled.