incredible stock of building material. As for the size, the computer thought it important to meet your demands in their fullest. He considered the possibility that you would need to travel several galaxies to get home and has equipped this ship with enough fuel and supplies to get you there."
"That means I can come back whenever I want to?"
"If you want. But the fuel is special. It uses a kind of deep molecular conditioning that breaks down the components of the atomic structure to create a kind of antigravity that propels anything and everything that it comes in contact with. The only thing protecting you or me from dying or being thrown through the planets core is the shielding being kept in place around the gravity particles." Seven said.
"If I bring a small quantity of this fuel back with me in an accessible container, do you think it would be safe enough to be experimented with and replicated once we return home?"
"Maybe, but it’s dangerous in quantities existing even on an observable level."
"How did you get the molecules to fall apart to begin with?" Dale asked.
"The overseers had created conditions in which energy had been completely removed from a particle system. The resulting mass was then mixed and reenergized, creating a molecule that simply could not keep itself together. The mixed up particles tore each other apart until they created a zero attraction scenario where anything within the molecule would float without charge, and anything on the outside would be completely opposed to the levels of magnetic influence. It’s just about the same as a magnet except the thing that pushes and pulls comes from the opposite side of the dead molecule."
"What do you mean?"
"So imagine a single molecule on the left side of the dead molecule, and a single molecule on the right side of the molecule. The dead molecule acts as an invisible, attractive force that appears to repel whatever objects are on either side, where as in actuality, the molecules create an incredibly strong attraction to this dead molecule. This means that as one molecule is attracted to the dead molecule, it passes through the dead one, eliminating the attraction, but creating an increase in velocity as mass is picked up from the dead molecule. Once this molecule is through the dead molecule, it will continue its trajectory until it hits whatever gets in its path. This creates a kind of temporary increase in velocity in whatever it hits, making flight possible if enough matter is attracted into the dead molecule at a constant rate."
Dale grinned. "You’re way smart. I wish I could tell the guys back on Earth about you. They’d take you away in a heartbeat."
Seven looked distraught. "Will that mean we won’t be around each other anymore?"
"No, I’ll make sure well be able to hang out." Dale squeezed her hand. "Don’t worry. I’ll keep everything safe."
"Thanks Dale." She smiled. "I’m glad he created me for you. I don’t think I could imagine life any other way."
"Well, I’m sure you would have been born to some other family in some other time. Maybe this is just a short cut for you. Who knows?"
She wrapped her arms around Dale’s torso, resting her head against his chest, and sighed. "I’m glad I didn’t have to wait. Things will be wonderful."
"Yes, things will be wonderful."
The robot gestured to a ramp leading up into the ship. It was attached a short ways above a blue hexagonal panel that was fractured across the bottom of the ship. On closer inspection, the hexagonal panel was untouched by any other parts of the ship. The landing gear wasn’t even connected to anything below the rim of this panel making the bottom look like an egg with toothpicks coming out of the side. The upper reaches of the ship however gave an entirely different impression. Above that point, the ship was composed of many reaching spikes that were based in grooves, meshing the spikes together in a smooth surface which became the bottom of the ship. Upside down, it looked like wood fibers coming out of a broken stone.
Dale boarded the craft, noticing the ship was actually flat if observed from the side. The only transition from either face being the smoothed, rounded edge that connected the front and the back. It also bulged out near the middle in some kind of observation deck.
As the ramp slowly disappeared beneath his feet, Dale felt his center of gravity shift until he was being pulled forward. He dropped to his knees and slid until he was sitting on the wall. His mind told him he was sitting upright, but his eyes were telling him something else.
"Seven, why am I being pulled towards the wall? Does this have something to do with the dead particles you were talking about?"
Seven grabbed a metal handle that spanned the length of the hatch and let herself fall towards the wall, setting her feet in grooves alongside the floor. "The dead particles are stored throughout the center of the ship. This way, it creates a type of artificial gravity that counteracts the pull of the planet. Its two sided so if you were to descend beneath the dead particle storage, you would be reoriented to stand upside down."
"I think I’ll avoid that if I can." Dale put his arm out to her. "Let’s go explore the ship."
Seven smiled and took his hand, lifting him to stand. "I think that would be very nice." She said.
Dale smiled back, giving her a quick kiss. "Where would you like to go first?"
Seven leaned in close. "To be honest, I’d like to say goodbye to the computer before I leave. He created me and I owe him my life." She started up the inside of the ship. "I want to see the command deck."
"Sure, I think that’s very noble of you." Dale followed close behind. The lights flickered on as they entered the inner parts of the ship, climbing a ladder situated next to a door leading to other rooms on this deck, and walking on till they took a flight of stairs that led to a door.
"The command deck is just behind this door. Do you want me to call you captain?"
"Only in jest, I don’t want you thinking I’m you’re superior. I like you. I don’t want you to feel distanced."
"I wouldn’t feel distanced." She said, "But I would feel respect and I would appreciate you all the more."
"Do you want to call me captain?"
"Yes. I want you to think of me as your first mate."
"First mate, huh?" Dale laughed to himself. "You’re definitely my first mate if you want to take that literally."
Seven laughed. "First girlfriend?"
"Yeah. Pretty much."
"Well, I’m touched. That means a lot to me. Thank you."
Dale smiled, "Anyway, I think it’s time to open that door."
"I think you’re right."
She grabbed a handle sitting at the center of a groove in the door and turned it. The door slid in to the sound of pressurized gas.
"Well, I think this is where well call home for a while." Seven said.
There wasn’t much inside other than a few chairs and single throne like seat in the front where the spiked projections could be seen outside of the window. Dale looked up. He was startled when he thought the room didn’t have a ceiling, but after the initial shock of seeing the endless wasteland and the computer spire far in the distance, he noticed the slight shimmering that passed across the invisible surface.
"Hey look." Seven said, pointing to something far above. "It’s the sweeper."
Dale saw the spidery robot, slowly crawling away at the edge of the glassy dome.
"Do you think she really was hurt when the meteor shower came?" Dale asked.
"Not, her damage was repairable. There was nothing wrong. But her need to protect him was strong enough to sacrifice her purpose to keep him safe. She can do more now that the overseers will return."
"Speaking of the overseers, how come the computer didn’t know them when I first came in, but when I left they seemed to be completely oblivious of this fact."
"The computer was designed to eliminate the overseers from his memory and the memories of the robots in the event that the operations were shut down. This was to protect the whereabouts and identity of the overseers." Seven said. She walked over to one of the chairs and started t
ouching and moving her fingers around on a table surface that ran along the perimeter of the room.
Dale turned when he heard the sound of metal on metal coming from down the stairs.
"I just closed the main hatch."
"Is no one else coming with us?" Dale asked.
"No, the overseers would not like it if we took anything else. You have the memories of this planet." She said, placing a finger against her forehead. "What more could you want?"
"Do you have a permanent connection to the computer? Will he give you constant updates as long as you’re alive?"
"What do you mean as long as I’m alive? I’ll never die." She thought for a moment. "Will you die?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yes, I’m going to die someday. There’s no way to avoid it."
"No there’s not."
"What do you mean?"
"He gave me something important. He gave me the records explaining the overseers’ medical practices. I think he knew this when he put himself inside me."
"He put himself inside you?"
"No, not really. Not him. But everything he knows and everything he is. If I wanted to, I could know him from what he gave me, and I do, but he isn’t inside me. Not as if he were inside, talking to me. Do you understand?"
"I think so."
"He created me. How can he not be inside me?"
"Well, you make a good point, but I think a better question would be how can I not be inside of me? Since you were created for me."
"That’s true. So maybe I’m just really three people in one."
Dale laughed. "Well, you seem