Green strode over to the kitchenette and tore open the door of the thing that looked like a refrigerator.
“Now take a look at that!” he said.
He was right. It was a fridge, and it was packed with drinks, fruit, vegetables, and more. Green took out a bottle of Neptune beer—they actually had Neptune beer!—and unscrewed the top. He looked at the bottle skeptically for a moment, then took a long swig. “Delicious!” He said. “It tastes like the real thing. I wonder where they got it?”
“Probably synthesized,” Irons said. The Major, as always, seemed unimpressed. He walked past the couch area to a door at the far end of the room. Next to the door was another dark square. Irons pressed it and the door opened. It led into another corridor.
“There you will find your sleeping quarters,” the voice of the computer said. “If you wish to communicate with me, it is only possible here in the lounge area.”
Jeff followed Irons into the corridor. The major opened one of the doors and Jeff peeked into a bedroom. There was a queen-sized bed covered with a white bedspread, and next to it a narrow, black wardrobe and a small sitting area with a chair and a table. A doorway led into a beige-tiled bathroom with a toilet, shower, and sink. The ship’s computer seemed to have thought of everything.
“Ten doors,” Irons said after he and Jeff stepped back into the corridor. “It looks like the area was created specially for us.”
Jeff shrugged. “He did say something was being prepared for us.” But how the computer had been able to recreate it so realistically was anyone’s guess.
“Well, we certainly can’t complain about a lack of hospitality,” Joanne said, peering into one of the rooms.
Irons walked past her back into the lounge. Jeff followed him. Green had already made himself comfortable on one of the two couches. He looked completely out of place in his combat suit. Owl was standing at the kitchen counter and washing his face at the small sink. Shorty and Mac had parked the equipment sled near the front door and were gawping at the luxurious room.
Irons went up to the sofa on which Green was lolling, and rested both his arms on the backrest. “Computer,” he spoke loudly.
“What can I do for you?” the emotionless voice sounded through the room.
“First of all, many thanks for these comfortable quarters. This is more than we could have hoped for.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And regarding our desired destination…”
“Just give me the coordinates and I’ll set a course.”
Irons hesitated. “Don’t you want to negotiate payment or other terms?”
“I have been traveling for millions of your years and the corresponding number of light years. A small detour makes no difference to me.”
Irons knitted his brows, as if something bothered him about the computer’s choice of words. “What do you mean by detour? Where are you even headed? Why didn’t you stay with your crew?”
“The crew had no more use for the spaceship after arriving at their target world. I was given the assignment of flying on and exploring the universe.”
“And eventually returning to your creators?”
“No. I transmit the results to the home world by point-to-point radio.”
“Where is this home world?”
“In another galaxy, over a hundred million light years from your Milky Way.”
“Could you tell us the coordinates? Someday it would be interesting to investigate what happened to your people. Provided of course we are able to develop a hyperdrive that can take us there.”
“I’m sorry, I cannot tell you the coordinates.”
“Why not?” Joanne asked.
She got no answer. “Probably for security reasons,” said Irons. “We would have reacted the same.” He addressed the computer again. “You’ve probably already told your builders the coordinates of the human galaxy.”
“Of course, that is my task.”
Irons made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “One hundred million light years. If they only find out about us in a hundred million years, then it’s no skin off our backs. In any case, they probably died out long ago.” He cleared his throat. “Computer, when was the last time you had contact with your builders?”
“Before my departure from the target world.”
Jeff was all ears.
Irons raised an eyebrow. “You’ve never heard from them since?”
“No, that was never the intention.”
“Aha. How is it that you can speak our language?”
“I have collected and analyzed your radio transmissions for many years.”
“You’re studying us?”
“In fact, I changed my course in order to fly through your area.”
“Why didn’t you make contact with us?”
“Making contact is not within my mission parameters. I have been instructed to watch, analyze, and send back the results. Then I will fly on to other destinations of interest.”
“… not within the parameters,” Irons repeated. “And yet you have taken us in.”
“This decision was made on the basis of moral directives.”
“Moral directives?” Castle grimaced. Jeff chuckled. The weapon systems officer would never have dreamed of creating a machine with moral capabilities.
“Maybe the alien equivalent to the Asimov’s laws,” Jeff pondered aloud. “If you find castaways in the interstellar void, you pick them up and take them to the nearest safe haven. Our merchant marines have similar guidelines.”
“Well, I for one am not complaining,” Irons said. “Computer. If we give you the coordinates, will you bring us to this system?”
“Yes.”
Irons looked at Joanne. She registered his glance and nodded. She took her handheld out of the front pocket of her combat suit and tapped around on the touch screen. “Computer, our target system is relatively close to X+31, Y-4 and Z+47. The unit of measurement is light years.”
“I have understood. I require a definition of your coordinate system.”
Joanne raised her eyebrows. “Oh, God,” she muttered. She swiped around on her DA and swore loudly.
“What’s the problem?” Irons asked.
“Of course—this spaceship doesn’t know our coordinate system. I need a fixed point that we can use in the coordinate transformation.”
“You gave the location of Sigma-7 relative to our current location. I don’t understand the problem,” Irons persisted.
“Yes, the origin of the coordinates is clear, but the ship doesn’t know the direction of our axes.”
Irons nodded.
“I have an idea,” Joanne said finally. “Computer. Draw a line from here to the center of the Milky Way, that’s our axis of rotation for the coordinate transformation. The rotation is then…” She read some numbers from her DA.
Several seconds passed before the computer voice spoke. “At the point you specify, my analysis system shows a binary star system with a K-star and a G-class companion.”
Joanne nodded. “Yes, that’s correct. The G-class star has nine planets, and the Sigma-7 station is circling the fourth one.”
“I have set a course. The flight time there will be 212 days according to your time. Everything you need will be provided.”
Irons nodded and smiled. “Thank you very much. I still have a couple of questions about your creators. Above all, I’d like to know—”
“I apologize for interrupting you here. I have to break off contact now.”
“Break off contact? Why?” Irons was surprised.
Jeff shook his head in confusion. The thing was a computer—and not just any old computer, an onboard computer. On their own ships and stations, they were permanently available to the crew.
“My program requires self-testing of complex onboard systems at regular intervals, which must be reset. Some of these tests require my full attention.”