Chapter 12: Yikes Tykes

The court allowed me to revive Yolanda, Mei, Meredith, Marshall, and Ling. None of them have any direct descendants alive today. They have already been thawed out and reanimated. I need more volunteers for my team. Marshall authorized reviving her mom Milly, half sister Karen, and sister Jeanette. Nobody is closer kin. Janet is pissed off she was overruled by Marshall.

It’s my intention to reassemble Great Gruncle Iron’s superbly coordinated management team.

Ling is Mei and Johnny’s daughter. She died in an automobile crash and was frozen while a teenager. Her body needs surgical repair, but she’s still young and her body is serviceable after she recuperates. She wasn’t part of original management, but was obviously important for Mei’s mental stability. We’ll find a slot for her. Mei and Ling are happy to be alive and reunited.

Mei consumed an overdose of sleeping pills when Ling died. Mei was only thirty three when she was frozen. She doesn’t need a cyborg body yet, not for many decades.

Meredith also committed suicide at a relatively young age, thirty nine. She was badly scarred and disfigured in a middle eastern restaurant bombing in her late twenties. Facial reconstruction, formerly called plastic surgery will be afforded to her. Her own body should serve for many decades more.

Yolanda was killed by a rival pimp when she was age fifty one. Probably her body has a couple decades use left before a cyborg body will be provided.

Marshall, Karen, Jeanette, and Milly all died in extreme old age. Cyborg bodies have been immediately constructed for them, to house their still, or once again, vibrant capable brains.

This is about the most complete crew I’m likely to get.

Maarta will cheerfully pick up after us and clean house, or ship for us. And have sex with me.

Faye will assist wherever she’s needed, odd jobs, errands, and have sex with me.

Yolanda will be our documentation expert and videographer, recording our voyage for posterity. She also revealed her long hidden private stash of films showing us how the ancestors appeared in their youth. Valuable information for molding accurate cyborg bodies. Also, she promises to entertain by dancing for us on occasion, and her mechanic skills will come in handy for household repairs.

Karen is studying to be our navigator. It’s much like aiming a rifle, she simplifies. Allowing for windage and ballistics, but for us translated into gravity wells. Difference really is minor, except we are the bullet. We intend to slingshot around everyone of the gas giants each adding to our velocity departing the solar system ending up correctly aimed. Karen is intrigued and immersing herself in the study and calculations.

Meredith perhaps lovelier now than she ever was in her previous life, is our historian and cultural curator. She will select an enormous library of books and films to take with us. Where we came from will be an important question for future generations. If you don’t study history, you are doomed to repeat it, it’s claimed. Meredith will do her utmost to help us avoid mistakes already experienced on Earth.

Mei and Jeanette will monitor our one million embryonic passengers. Eventually, once the new planet is fit for habitation, Mei and Jeanette will incubate and educate the new humans, in manageable small groups, for seeding the planet with humanity.

Ling will assist Mei until she elects for herself, a field to specialize in.

Milly will be our ecologist. Her entire previous life was involved in farming and crabbing. The land, river, marshes and wetlands, she knows well. Insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are familiar topics to her as well. She will be studying hard to fill in the gaps in her knowledge.

Marshall will be our time keeper, and astronomer. Time is confusing and complicated at near light speed. I’ve ordered a deep space telescope to be included in the Starship hull. One of the sentient AI chips will be embedded in the telescope as a permanent pilot and telescope technician. Marshall and the AI will work closely together. We need to see and document as much as we can about the two galaxies as we pass through their spiraling merging masses.

If we unfortunately discover our destination planet is unsuitable for us, we will need to seek an alternative using the space telescope.

Two of the sentient AIs will be embedded as our around the clock Starship pilots. One is a backup, or co-pilot, for redundancy and a failsafe for the Starship. The last one of the four AIs will be embedded as the permanent pilot of the space-plane once we arrive. Until then, it’s kept in reserve, a spare, in case one of our two Starship AI pilots gets the hiccups or mumps or something.

I’m not stealing the space plane. The credit card pays for the plane’s purchase when it’s realized, it’s not returned at the lease end.

What’s my job? Captain of course. What does the captain do? Figure head, always a figure head. I figure things out in my head.

You know what a figure head is, it’s historical. Don’t ask silly questions you already knew the answer to.

It’s a stand out, arrogant, imposing, inflexible, unfeeling, heroically postured, blind dummy leading the ship by it’s nose into the unknown.

It’s also without a superior an at leisure to do as it pleases or nothing at all.

I choose for myself, the function of master of ceremonies and party host. Party animal.

Even with time compression, the two century voyage will seem ten years long to us. Our intention is to spend a great deal of that time sleeping in cryo.

At the same time, we need to keep proper lookouts. Don’t trust the AIs with your ass. They may hand it to you.

Two humans will be up and about at all times. Pairings will vary. If Mei and Ling are watch partners for two days running, the next time they’re awoken for a two day lookout posting, it won’t be together. Each will have new partners. This is true for everyone. Including me, I’m in the watch rotation too.

Since there is eleven of us, including myself, we will need to dog the watch every ten days. That is, a rearranging of the watch keepers. Historically, it was a pair of two hour “Dog” watches in place of the normal four hour watch, allowed the night shift to swap work hours with the day shift, spreading the work evenly amongst the crew.

My intention is on the eleventh day, everybody gets up for an all day party, and reunion. On the twelfth day, a different pair of crew members resumes the cycle of two day, two person watches.

Thirty three parties a year over 363 days. At new years, the party lasts three days long, completing a 365 days year.