Chapter 6

Jun went into the cabin that she shared with her sister Lin and Shelley, found her purse, and pulled out her cell phone. The Chinese girl was delighted to find when she turned on her phone that there was indeed cell service on the ship, just as Kyle had told her. Jun settled down on the couch in her cabin and started making some calls.

While the Chinese twins were somewhat shy they were also extremely intelligent, both were straight A students in their classes in college. Jun and Lin lived with their mother, younger sister, and grandmother, their father had been killed in a traffic accident two years before. The twins' mother was a PHD professor at the same college the two girls attended, she taught physics, mathematics, and astronomy. Coming from such a background Jun and Lin had immediately recognized the significance of the alien ship the two sisters were now aboard.

If they could get Kyle to agree the twins wanted to bring their whole family on board the 'Adventure' as well as a select few of their friends. The ship offered the potential to provide for all of her family's emotional, material, and intellectual needs and the Chinese girl was determined to make the most of it. So far Kyle had been very accepting of herself and her sister, with all of the space on the ship Jun had a feeling he would welcome her family as well.

Jun's mother was still slim and well put together for her age and she thought her mother might look cool and sexy in Kyle's new uniform. The twins' grandmother also was attractive for her age and Jun though even she might look better in the same thing the Chinese girl was now wearing. When they were home alone Jun's family was pretty casual about what they wore or didn't wear around the house and even Jun's grandmother frequently went nude around the house in the summer.

Jun spent about fifteen minutes talking to her mother who already had some real idea where the twins were and Jun was able to confirm everything was real. Jun's mother agreed to come and bring the rest of the family if the twins could arrange it and Jun agreed to try. It seemed like the time when the ship was next closest to Earth would be the best time.

Jun then spent another half an hour making several other calls to some of her closer girlfriends at school. These calls were not as easy to make and Jun had to be more careful about what she said but in the end three more of her friends had agreed to come to the ship and she was confident those three would still come once they found out where they were actually going.

Meanwhile Shelley had the same idea as Jun and she also was on the phone to several girl friends who she thought might be interested in visiting the ship. In the end Shelley was able to convince two of her girlfriends to come visit the ship, if she could convince Kyle to send a shuttle for them.

With Jun and Shelley's efforts taken together the human crew of the 'Adventure' was likely to increase substantially. Since the inhabitable areas of the ship were almost completely empty there was plenty of room for more people, and a few more would make the rest of the trip more interesting. Since the humans didn't actually have to do any work in the ship the social interaction became more important.

Jun talked with her sister Lin, and soon the twins found Shelley and Cindy to talk about how they could persuade Kyle to send a shuttle on another trip to Earth, and who would go if he agreed to it. They agreed that Cindy, Shelley, and Jun would go, while Lin would stay on board to keep Kyle company while they were away.

Cindy walked into Kyle's cabin where he was sitting on the couch talking to Lin with his android Tracy sitting on the other side. Cindy quickly motioned for the android girl to move over then she sat down next to Kyle.

"Kyle, I need to make another trip back to Earth," Cindy said to Kyle.

"OK, when do you need to go?" Kyle replied.

"As soon as I can," Cindy answered. "I need to get a few more things, Jun and Shelley want to go, too."

"OK. Tracy, is a trip back to Earth in a shuttle possible and safe from here?" Kyle asked his android, knowing she was also connected to the ship's AI as well as all of the rest of the androids.

"Yes, Kyle, making such a journey is no problem. A shuttle could make a round trip to Earth in less than 24 hours," the android girl replied.

"You want Lin to stay here?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, she can keep you company while we are gone," Cindy answered.

"Is that OK with you, Lin?" Kyle asked, turning to the Chinese girl.

"Sure, no problem," Lin replied with a smile.

"OK Cindy, go ahead. Be sure to take several of the androids with you just in case and hurry back, Love," Kyle said.

"Thanks, Kyle. We'll be back as soon as we can," Cindy replied, getting up and going over to grab the bag containing her Earth clothes. Cindy walked out of the cabin she shared with Kyle and next door to the one where the other three women kept their things, where she gave Shelley and Jun the news of Kyle's assent to their return to Earth.

The three women quickly changed clothes after summoning four of the androids who were also now dressed in ordinary clothes. Leaving everything else behind the three human women and four androids headed to the hangar bay. Thinking of the size of the group that would be returning to the ship Cindy selected the largest available shuttle and moved the car over to its cargo compartment. Then the group departed the 'Adventure' and left for Earth, leaving Kyle and Lin alone together on the ship.

Once the others had left Kyle and Lin took a leisurely walk through the ship, not taking a tour this time but instead just walking along the passageways and seeing what was inside whatever room was behind any of the doors they came to. The android girl Tracy accompanied the couple to provide extra company and a more personal interface to the ship. In the area near Kyle's cabin all of the rooms they looked into were other cabins of various sizes. All of the cabins were fitted for human occupancy and all were currently unoccupied. The androids had no need for the space within the cabins, when inactive they simply each occupied a small storage alcove.

As he was walking along Kyle got an idea for an improvement to be made to his own cabin. He quickly relayed his idea to Tracy.

"Tracy, is it possible to cut doorways in the walls of my cabin into the adjacent cabins on each side?" Kyle asked the android girl.

"Yes, that can be done easily and will not affect the structural integrity of the ship," Tracy replied.

"Good. Please have the work done while we are walking. Don't put in closable doors, just make them open walkways," Kyle ordered.

"OK, the work is being started now," the android girl replied.

Down in their storage alcoves several work robots immediately activated and started making their way toward Kyle's cabin. These were not the human-like androids but heavier work robots used for repairs on the ship and its equipment. The work robots made quick work of making the doorways that Kyle had asked for and quickly returned to their storage alcoves as soon as they were finished. When Kyle and Lin returned later the new doors would be already finished and waiting for them.

Kyle took Lin down to the holographic viewing room and allowed her to experience the view outside the ship for the first time. The Chinese girl was awestruck when suddenly it appeared as if she was floating in space with Kyle. The large sun dominated the view as the ship powered to increase the distance away from it. Venus was barely visible, almost lost in the relative glare of the star they all orbited. The computer generated view displayed the sun as bright, but not so bright that it hurt their eyes to look at it.

Kyle and Lin spent more than half an hour in the viewing room just taking in the view of the space around the ship. Weightlessness made the two a little queasy at first but after a time they got used to the constant falling sensation. The view and weightlessness made the experience almost like floating in space and it took a few minutes to get used to it, especially for Lin. But once she realized that she wasn't actually lost in space the Chinese girl found herself entranced by the beauty of space.