Chapter 1

Deep Space.

Year 2235

I walked the corridor of the battleship Dauntless, the ship was 2 km long, the first of its kind. I was doing my weekly inspection of the ship, due to the rigors of relativistic space flight I was controlling a Golem remotely, my flesh and blood body maintained in deep sleep in the cold storage area of the ship, my mind connected to the Golem via a quantum teether.

The Golem allowed me to move swiftly through the halls, much faster then my human body, I was Checking the ship stores of combat Golems like the one I used, the ship was equipped with 20 orbital assault Golems, 5 orbital drop ships, 10 orbital fighters, 25 attack drones, and 12 Magnetic acceleration cannons or M.A.C. Guns for short. The cannons where the ships main assault weaponry, able to bombard a planet with 1 ton tungsten carbide projectiles, they could also be used for ship to ship combat.

"Janus, status of ships reactors." I asked out loud.

"Commander, Reactor status is at nominal." Came the A.I. Reply.

I went to check on the bodies in storage, walking through the corridor I came to the storage area, I scanned over the readings for each body, 100 people all in stasis, all okay. The forces at work through out the ship would liquify the bodies without the stasis chambers, it seemed like just over 150 days since we launched from earth, in reality it had been 150 years. The crew had signed up knowing that due to the complications of light speed travel we would never be returning to the earth we had known, The round trip from earth to our destination taking over 300 years at several multiples above light speed.

Being the 2nd in command, I was tasked with monitoring the ship while in flight, I was alone with the ships A.I. For the duration of the voyage. Once inflight all communications with earth had been severed, we would not be able to talk to home until we arrived at our destination. We all had known we had risked everything on this trip, for all we knew some disaster could of happen at home, or our government had been overthrown, Hell they may even have forgotten about us by now. Even worse the sacrifice could have been for nothing, we could of developed a better form of space travel and we could be greeted by colonist on our arrival.

"That would take the cake." I said to myself staring into my own chambers, looking at my own body.

"Janus record all systems nominal, inspection number 22 complete no anomalous readings."

"Yes commander, noted in the duty logs"

Janus replied, Janus the ships A.I. Had been the most advanced at the time of our departure, she utilized the latest of quantum processors, she had a near human level of self awareness, being alone with her I had actually grown to like the A.I., we had long discussions on a variety of topics to pass the time.

"Janus, do you want to continue our game?" I asked as I headed toward the command and control of the ship.

"Yes commander I would enjoy that" I smiled to myself at her response, I wondered at the slight bit of excitement in her voice.

Entering the C and C, I went to my terminal to pull up the chess game, I had been teaching Janus how to play for the last 20 days, she was rapidly reaching the point where I would be no match for her. Once activated, a chess board shimmered into being in front of me, Suddenly a young woman appeared smiling at me, she was about 5,4 with red hair and green eyes, she looked to be in her late teens, I jumped back startled.

The young woman giggled "It is okay Commander it is me Janus."

I stood there looking at her. "How the hell?" I said.

She smiled. "Commander as you know the chess board is not really there, it is projected into your mind as visual data, which you interpret as being their. I figured I could us the same method to place my image in your mind. I hope I did not over step my bounds."

I shook my head walking around her, taking her all in, I could not tell that she wasn't really there. "No Janus, it is okay, just give a guy some warning next time." I swept my hand through her, except when I should of gone through her my hand encountered flesh.

"Commander! That is very rude." She smiled at me.

I just shook my head amazed. "Let me guess you are sending the tactile data also?"

She smiled and nodded. "Yes sir, just like with the chess pieces." She sat down across from my seat, crossing her legs demurely. "well Commander?" she gestured to the board.

I nodded. "Of course" I sat down across from her starting the match.

It went like that for the next several weeks, now with Janus able to accompany me on my inspections time seemed to flow by, we would go through the daily assignments together, of course she could not touch anything in the physical world, yet she would interact with constructs we used to play or games together to past the time.

I noticed that her complexity seemed to grow with each day of interaction with me, I was truly amazed at the progress. I made sure to note my observations in my official log, perhaps it would be of use to the A.I. Techs back home. Janus was following me on my inspection of the ships reactors when it first happened, we watched the readings side by side with each other, when I felt her hand touch mine, I looked down at my hand to see her holding it. I glanced up at her, she was looking down at her hand strangely, when she saw me looking at her she quickly pulled it away.