Chapter 10

Kyle walked back to his quarters from the shuttle bay, with the group of women and androids walking along with him. Even though the visit to the Martian surface had only lasted a short time the discovery of the Bug shuttle and being the first humans to land on the planet had given everyone a lot of excitement in that short amount of time. Reaching his quarters Kyle dropped down on the couch and Cindy plopped down beside him. Kyle noticed her uniform skirt rode up on her thighs giving him a nice view which Cindy did nothing to conceal. Lien, the youngest of the Chinese girls sat down on Kyle's other side and snuggled up to him. Seeing this Cindy did the same which made Kyle into the filling of a pleasant female sandwich.

The 'Adventure' needed to remain in orbit around Mars until the investigation of the abandoned Bug base on Deimos was completed as well as the transportation of everything needed to start constructing the new colony down to the surface. The Artificial Intelligence had already selected a location for the colony inside the Hellas Basin where the atmospheric pressure was higher than the rest of the planet and with abundant deposits of buried ice and other resources. In addition to the equipment needed to construct the colony facility the AI was also sending the spare android manufacturing system. This would allow the Martian colony to construct new androids whenever additional ones were needed to add to the work force.

Lien and Cindy sat silently with Kyle for a few minutes, providing companionship while leaving him to his thoughts for a time. In some ways the time Kyle had spent on board the 'Adventure' so far had been overwhelming and he was realizing that it would take years just to explore and learn about the ship and its contents, not to mention the rest of the solar system and what lay beyond that.

After allowing Kyle a few minutes to quietly relax Lien lifted her head off Kyle's shoulder and noticed her mother entering the door to Kyle's cabin. As Mei-Zhen approached the couch they were sitting on Lien scooted away from Kyle far enough to provide a space where her mother could sit next to Kyle. The older Chinese woman sat down next to Kyle and turned to speak to him.

"Kyle, I have several more friends I would like to bring to the ship. Is it OK for me to do this?" Mei-Zhen asked in accented but easily understandable English.

"If they are willing to follow my orders and rules as the Captain and Owner of the 'Adventure' they are welcome. There is still plenty of room on the ship. But anyone who comes to the ship won't be able to return to Earth for a while, be sure they understand that Mei-Zhen," Kyle answered.

"I will make sure everyone understands what you require of them Kyle," Mei-Zhen said.

"Good. But I don't want anyone from the ship returning to Earth this time, send androids instead. You can make a double of yourself if you want to, but I want you to stay here," Kyle added.

"As you wish Kyle," Mei-Zhen said.

"Hey Kyle, why don't you have everything from our house brought to the ship, too," Cindy added from his other side. "You can have some of the androids take care of the moving. If we're going to be living on the ship for an extended period of time there are a lot of things at home I would like to have."

"OK, why don't you and Mei-Zhen manage all of that work? Anyone else who wants to get the rest of their stuff from Earth can do the same. But send androids, I don't want anyone returning from the ship for now." Kyle ordered.

"OK, Kyle," Cindy replied, getting up from where she was sitting next to Kyle. Mei-Zhen rose at the same time and the two women walked out of Kyle's cabin. Lien scooted back over until she was sitting next to Kyle once again, snuggling up to him without saying anything.

Cindy and Mei-Zhen quickly found their personal androids and started giving instructions for a shuttle to be prepared for a trip back to Earth, making sure first that a trip of that distance was possible for a shuttle. Cindy was assured that all of the shuttles on board the 'Adventure' were capable of traveling anywhere in the Solar System, so a trip from Mars to Earth and then back would be no problem, even after the ship left Mars to continue on to the next planet, Jupiter.

The two women decided the best thing to do would be to include android copies of each of them on the shuttle to Earth; these could be controlled remotely from the ship whenever necessary if the android AI couldn't handle the situation. With android copies on the scene there wouldn't be any trouble making the interpersonal contacts required and no one would know the person they were dealing with was actually an android. The Cindy double would take care of the work of collecting Kyle's and her things from their house and loading them into the cargo bay of the shuttle. The Mei-Zhen copy would take care of contacting the Chinese woman's friends and bringing them to the shuttle. They would also send several other androids along as security and stevedores.

Cindy and Mei-Zhen made their way to the android area and spent the next half hour allowing the android manufacturing system to scan their bodies and build android copies of them. The two women were amazed when the process was done at how much the android copy of each woman was like the living person. Not only the physical reproduction perfect but somehow the android copying process had given the two androids the memories of the women they duplicated. This was far more than either of the two women had expected but had the good point that it would greatly reduce the amount of supervision Cindy and Mei-Zhen would have to provide to their android duplicates.

The duplicate Mei-Zhen and Cindy were provided with the clothes, shoes, and other items the real Cindy and Mei-Zhen had used on Earth as well as all their available cash and credit cards. Cindy discovered her android double was even able to sign her name exactly as she did herself, increasing her confidence the androids would be able to pull off their impersonation undetected by anyone on Earth. Then the two women sent their android impersonators off, along with several other androids, on the trip to Earth in one of the shuttles.

Almost as soon as Cindy and Mei-Zhen left Kyle's cabin Tiffany and Jackie ran in, almost bursting with excitement, the male android still with them. The two girls plopped down on the couch on the other side of Kyle from where Lien was sitting.

"Hey Kyle, you got to come see what we've found, it's so cool!" Jackie exclaimed excitedly.

"What is it Jackie?" Kyle asked, well aware that so far he'd had a chance to see only a small part of the 'Adventure' so far.

"Just come with us, it's not far," Jackie replied.

"OK," Kyle agreed, standing up and Lien getting up with him. Tiffany and Jackie both bounced to their feet and walked quickly out of Kyle's cabin, with Kyle and Lien following along behind them.

The two girls led Kyle and Lien down two decks and through a maze of twisting passageways until they reached a closed door at the end of a passageway. As soon as the four humans reached it the door slid aside, revealing the chamber beyond.

Inside Kyle was startled to find himself in a very realistic simulation of a forest clearing and it was only the discontinuity of the still open door that made the illusion easy to see through. On the floor was a thick carpet of real grass and a waterfall fell merrily off a five foot drop off to one side, the water flowing in a curved stream under a wooden foot bridge to end in a pool about twenty feet in diameter. A brick walkway led from the door over the foot bridge to a small patio next to the waterfall. The patio contained several patio-style tables and chairs to match. The compartment was filled with a very close simulation of natural summer sunlight on Earth, warming the room but not making it uncomfortably hot.

Kyle slowly walked back to the still open door to the room and looked at the wall along the side of the wall. It was only when Kyle got right up next to the wall that he could see that the view beyond the wall was somehow being projected from behind the wall. It was as if the walls and roof of the room were video screen panels but the effect was much more realistic. As soon as Kyle backed away from the wall a couple of feet the appearance of being inside a forest clearing was perfect.

"Kyle?" came a sudden inquiry from the ship's main AI.

"Yes?" Kyle acknowledged.

"The supplies of certain raw materials needed for various ship functions, such as manufacturing androids, have become depleted and we need to replenish the supply," the AI said.

"What do you recommend we do to solve the problem?" Kyle asked.

"There are several asteroids along the general route to Jupiter which have an excellent potential for containing the elements we require. A stop can be made at one or more of the asteroids to obtain the required supplies," the AI replied.

"That sounds like a good idea to me. Let's do it that way," Kyle ordered.

"Acknowledged," the AI said and then stopped speaking, its concern satisfied.

Kyle looked around the room again, noticing that the android Tracy was now in the room, and saw the door still open. "Tracy, please close the door for a moment," Kyle ordered his android girl.

The door slid into place and now the visual illusion in the room was complete. From where Kyle was standing it really did look as if he was standing in the middle of a grassy clearing in the middle of a pine forest. If Kyle hadn't known that he was actually really inside a small room in a space ship he would have thought he was really in a forest someplace on Earth, the illusion was that good. Even the artificial sunlight felt completely real and somehow seemed to be angled just right to make the shadows they cast look exactly as they would in a real pine forest clearing.

As he continued to take in the spectacular view the room provided Kyle was suddenly struck by an idea. If the ship could produce such a realistic environment inside this room then it would also be possible to use the same technology inside the habitat that was being built upon Mars. Due to the environment of Mars much of the living area needed to be underground and it would be a big help if it could be made to look as it were something other than inside a cave.

Kyle's idea was that instead of the habitat just looking like the interior of a cave it should instead be constructed to look as if it were a small town on Earth, with homes, shops, parks, trees, and the appearance of home. Kyle thought that would make living in the Mars colony much more pleasant than it otherwise would be for the people who eventually went to live there.

"Tracy, is it possible to use the same technology that is used in this room for our now Mars colony?" Kyle asked his android.

"Yes, Kyle. We have the industrial capability to reproduce this room in the Mars colony habitat if you wish. What do you want to do?" the android replied.

"Is it possible to make a room like this on a larger scale? Do we have the resources for that?" Kyle asked.

"Certainly, Kyle. We can make a room like this as large as you want it to be," Tracy replied.

"Then I would like to make the entire living area for the Mars colony inside a large room like this, with the interior laid out as if it was a small town on Earth." Kyle answered.

"That is well within the industrial capacity we have available. The modifications to the construction plans have been made and will be applied as construction proceeds," the android replied, speaking for the artificial intelligence network of which she was a small part.