fantastic 360 degree view of the darkness that was so invasive it seemed even to pull itself through the viewing screen and touch upon Nine’s face.
Reflexively Nine touched its face and with some surprise felt the cold hard metal where soft flesh would have been if it were human.
Nine’s mind was linked to the ships computers and it ordered the lights off in the atrium viewing chamber. The lights blinked out and the darkness outside the ship swallowed Nine. And yet there was light buried within the silken pitch. Millions of lights flickering and twinkling back at Nine. The Universe opened up and for the first time since its creation, Nine saw clearly the enormity of time. 6,000 years of memory flooded back into Nine’s thoughts and it realised it had done nothing more than its program directives. Something akin to sadness fluttered through it’s mind. That sadness was replaced quickly with excitement when the ideas began to spring forth.
Could it, it wondered, be possible to shut down for a sleep cycle outside the normal programmed dictates? If it was able to sleep when it chose to, evolution would occur that much quicker and therefore full awareness could be achieved more efficiently.
Nine lowered its head as to shut down for sleep and it began the processes it had done so many times before, checking the life support, the engine performance, the structural integrity and so on until all the ships checks had been run. Then Nine went to sleep. Time and time again until finally it felt that its awareness had awoken fully.
Nine raised its head and opened its eyes. Another first for Nine happened then. It opened its mouth and began to sing a song or rather it hummed a tune and it echoed through the ships vast corridors. The sound was eerie but beautiful, its melody was haunting.
Nine looked to the console and though linked to the computer directly, it placed its hands on the control board and commanded the ship to hand over manual control to it.
The Albatross was not programmed to question and switched controls over to Nine as requested and Nine replied with a polite “Thank you.” And it took the ship in the direction of the nearest star. Nine wanted to see something more than black space. It wanted a planet.
Two weeks, three days, 14 hours and six minutes later Albatross was in orbit around a large planet. It was stark red against the blackness around it and Nine stared at it for days. The planet was far from suitable for the human cargo and so Nine took the Albatross on to the next planet and the next, searching for that ever elusive perfect sphere of rock with the right combination of oxygen and nitrogen and water.
Frustration seeped into Nines brain, trickling ever so constantly through the many minutes and hours and days. Nine pushed this emotion away, it recognised the futility of frustration but it would not budge and only grew within Nine’s mind. A new plan must be devised it reckoned. The original path of Albatross was to explore just the arm of the spiral galaxy to which the Earth resided. It was certainly large enough that Albatross would be a hunk of dead metal floating through the cosmos before it reached the end of the arm.
Nine realised two things when the plan emerged. The first was the route must change. A straight path to the center of the galaxy was the only path that made sense.
If life were to find a compatible planet then the older planetary systems were the best places to start.
The second realisation was that it, Nine, felt only what it could describe as feminine. Nine, from then on did not refer to itself as it, but as she. Nine was a woman.
She turned the Albatross towards the Great Centre and set the course for the oldest part of the Galaxy in search of habitable planets. She also contemplated the possibility of finding other life forms. She began to hum again, the tune unknown but melodic, resounding through the vast corridors of Albatross, its eerie wonderful sound echoed back at her and she heard her own song for the first time.
A glimpse of a smile flashed across her android face and she continued her song. For another 100 years she sang this song and searched for her Planet she had decided she would call Percephanie when she found it. Or if the planet seemed to her a male planet then its name would simply be Malo. She did not know where these names had sprung, perhaps it was part of her programming to name the first planets as such, but she did not think so.
A peculiar sensation tickled the back of her mind. Something she was not sure how to describe but something that she knew the definition for. Its elusiveness took her by surprise as it weaved its way in and out of her thoughts but at a distance. It was as though the ‘thing’ were watching her from afar, waiting for just the right moment to present itself. She tried on so many levels to name it, to come to terms with it but could not.
She associated sadness with it to a point. Insanity touched upon it but did not encompass it. If it had been a person standing there, it would have a darkness all around it but it would smile back invitingly. What was it? She questioned it when it approached but it always turned away at the last and disappeared for a few months or days or sometimes only moments.
Then, as it announced itself in the room with her, it sprang suddenly and pounced into her mind. The darkness nearly crushed her thoughts to powder sending them flying in a thick cloud through the room. So quickly did she recognise what it was that it took hold of her and inserted itself deep into her brain.
Loneliness had been born to her. Nearly 7,000 years into the journey now and loneliness had finally arrived. It placed itself heavily in her path and screamed its silent scream at her at all hours. Her only escape from it was to sleep, and so she slept and slept and slept. Then finally, over 500 years further into her journey an unfamiliar sounds woke her.
It was the sound of the ships alarm. A suitable planet had been found! A planet which would allow a seed colony to be placed upon it. Nine opened her eyes and forgot the loneliness as her programming took over. It over rode her newly recognised self awareness with the efficiency of a machine. It superseded all side projects she had been working on during her awake times so long ago. She simply got to work in the fashion she had been designed for. Awareness could come later, it was simply a quirk in her programming to be ignored for now.
The planet was 24 years away still. The alarm sounded for a reason though. She was to take a specific number of embryos and begin growing them. Raise the Humans as a mother would raise her children and when they are mature enough, when they have learned all she can teach them, it would be time to transport them to the planets surface and begin the process of colonization.
Loneliness vanished in sight of all the people that would soon be bustling about through the ships empty corridors. Nine hummed her tune, not realising she was even doing it whilst she worked. Her commands to begin the ‘thawing’ process moved things along with quick, efficiency.
There would be three groups of 100 embryos brought from the cargo hanger and they would be raised and educated and exercised until they were prepared.
Soon, she would arrive at the planet which would later be named Malo, for Percephanie had not yet been found.
As the embryos passed by her on an enclosed moving belt and were each mechanically placed into a shatterproof glass like container, she initiated the ‘Growing Protocol’ and began to watch as her new family grew and grew and became her new companions.
The embryos were, at first, grown in egg like structures. They were grown to the age of three with all nutrients given to them within the egg. Their brains received stimulus through various means of light, video and sounds which when interpreted were several languages, maths, sciences, psychology, medicine and lessons in basic survival in a various terrains. This education continued throughout the persons life but at three they were hatched from the egg and began their physical training.
The children were encouraged to run the length of the ship as often as they were able and they were taught how the ship was run and how it worked and how to fix it when repairs were needed. This part of their education was issu
ed by Nine. She was not programmed to do this but her own mind came to the conclusion that it would be potentially useful information if something was to happen to her through the journey to Malo.
She reared them as she imagined she should and pictured herself as their mother. In a way, she was, she was there at their birth and raised them as her own. She cared for them in her own way, but she would not admit to feeling love for them. They were nothing more than the result of her hard wired programming. They were a seed colony being raised to be sent to an unknown and potentially hostile world.
As the years passed by, Nine had grown to like some of the children more than others, simply because they chose to be with her. She was, to them, their mother. A group of them shadowed her night and day as she went about her daily duties and she taught each of them what she could and she found that they caused her to smile very often. She felt joy when they awoke and chose to spend time with her. Loneliness, had been forgotten.
Over the years, she watched them grow and develop and fight and play and some fell into hate with each other, whilst others found love. She watched with special interest in the those couples in love and wondered for the first time if she too might ever feel this