Seras little snippet thread

SpaceKat1
@Space_Kat

@NASA Not like this. Not yet. Human spirit doesn’t belong just to humanity. Sometimes even Opportunity needs a little help.

9:54 PM Feb 13, 2019

—--

I finished spraying and stepped back making sure not to touch anything, a full body hazard suit was expensive but necessary.

The coating was complete.

I looked at my ship. It was… Barely a shuttle. Big enough for one, and that’s it. The goal of my entire life, my literal life's work. The dream I’d had since I was four and realized what and where I was. The one singular goal I’d sustained since the redo.

And I’d rushed it’s final completion over the last week.

The coating was already drying, sealing in the painted name on the side of the ship.

“Starlight Dream.”

She was sleek. I could have cut off a lot of extra work for something a bit more… Ugly, but… This wasn’t just a prototype. Not just a test bed, not just a functional spaceship.

It was… Hope.

The Starlight Dream that humanity has all shared since we first gained awareness and looked up into the night sky. The desire to dance among those stars. The fact she was literally hovering a foot off the ground despite standing in my hangar was the best example of the truth of my goal that I could ever take.

This was… Centuries ahead of the curve.

Tech built on tech, built on tools, built on math that didn’t exist.

Guided by some cosmic force that let me build things that were impossible.

I felt tears come to my eyes. Decades of work, constant worry and criticism. Nobody understood. Nobody knew.

Not one.

It had been a decision I made as a kid. This world was real, and normal, but there was a serious concern for the ramifications. The results. If the US government found out… They would stop me. Or take the project over. End up wasting my time, ruining my goal. So it had to be me.

It had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.

It had been long lonely years, but… I was ready.

I stepped out and carefully set the sprayer down in a box prepared for it, and sealed it, then went through a decontamination system which ended with me in my underwear but safe from the very toxic coating I just laid over the ship.

It would be safe within minutes of touching air, and it would protect the ship, and me almost entirely from cosmic radiation. That coating alone had taken two years to figure out how to produce.

I walked through my base. My home. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the same when I came back. It was no longer time for quiet construction and design.

The Starlight Dream was done. I headed into a side room. There my space suit was set up. Slim and secure, it was better than the junk NASA was using, assholes. Maybe when I got back I’d give them the design and tell them to catch up?

Heh.

I slipped into it. White base with red highlights to make it really stand out. My suit didn’t look like some lame suit from the 70's, it looked like space armor.

The helmet was slim and gave me a much wider view since the screen went almost all the way around my head. The glass wasn’t glass but a polymer that was stronger than just about anything that was used on earth at the moment. I didn’t put it on, instead I turned and headed into the play room.

The Crabbits were streaming like always, and I stood there for a while watching them.

They… Might be the best thing I ever made. They weren’t my goal, almost an afterthought of wanting some extra hands for multiple tasks, but their full Sapience had changed some plans, but I didn’t regret it, or fear them.

They were my girls.

I’d considered leaving them. Setting them up somewhere, they had the skills to make money with V-Tubing and hacking to live just fine…

But they had refused. They were coming with me, for good or bad.

So instead they would be my spokesperson. They might not be able to stream anymore after this. Once people realized what I had done, and what they were. So at least… At least I’d make sure they were locked into the history books.

The First AI, wouldn’t be the last of their titles.

It was time. I stepped into the room and once the Crabbits noticed me, they cheered.

“Kat-Kat!”

“Hello, and hello Chat.” I greeted noticing my Avatar appear on the screen already following me since the Crabbits were looking at me.

“Aww, is it time?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so.” I offered back, as much as I looked forward to this moment, to the Crabbits it was…

Sad. They wanted to come with me, but they wanted to continue their lives as they were. They were like children, they didn’t like change.

All I could do was hopefully find them some happiness in the future as well.

“Okay! Okay. So Chat we told you there was going to be a big announcement today… So… It’s time.” Crabbit called out, and the screen on the computer shifted. Instead of showing their normal stream setup, the stream shifted showing… Them. As they truly were.

The camera was no longer hiding them with Avatars and the like.

“Hi! Face reveal!” Crabbit laughed and the chat of course went crazy most back and forth between whether this was the funniest face reveal ever, or not.

Then I moved into screen behind the Crabbit and the Chat exploded even faster.

“No, I’m afraid Crabbit was telling the truth before. I’m SpaceKat1, or Katherine Ferrous, and I”m not Crabbit. They are right there.” I pointed down and Crabbit waved. Then the other drones popped up waving as well.

“Teehee!”

“Tricked you!”

“We aren’t just one! Bet you didn’t know!” The three giggled at the chat and of course the chat was filled with agreements and grumpy comments about actually wanting a face reveal.

But they were going to get more.

“That unfortunately isn’t the actual announcement for today.” I commented, and the Crabbits nodded looking up at me, before turning back to the screen.

“That’s right Chat! This… Might be one of our last livestreams.” The Crabbits looked sad, as the screen erupted with comments.

The whole chat was freaking out, and there were questions about ‘Graduation’ that I just rolled my eyes at.

“But it’s not because I don’t want to! And I’ll try to come back… But after today? Well, things are going to change.” I nodded and patted them on the heads.

“I’m sorry everyone, but I’m sort of co-opting the Crabbits stream for today. We’ve got something to show you. To start with, while you walk with me let me explain some things.” I added, I turned and took a breath, trying to keep calm. I wasn’t one for public speaking, thankfully I had stepped into streams before so this wasn’t too bad.

I was just going to alter the history of Earth forever in a few minutes.

“You’ve all had a while to learn who Crabbit is. You’ve watched her for over a year now. Talked with her, played games with her, some of you bullied her relentlessly.”

“Which we will remember forever.” The Crabbit cheerfully called out as they wheeled around me.

The three of them were each streaming to the computer, and basically cutting POV as they liked to show what was going around.

So sometimes one Crabbit would be the talker, and sometimes another.

“Crabbit was created on June of 2012, it took her four months to gain sentience, and become a fully fledged Digital consciousness. I’ve told you this before, but right now I want you to understand, I’m not joking. While most of the tech community has been playing with Language Learning Models, I’ve already created sentient artificial life.”

I continued walking, the gray corridors of my bunker attached to the Hangar didn’t make for interesting images, but that would change in a minute.

“Hey! No naughty words!” Crabbit interrupted and probably just banned someone.

Never change Internet. That guy was going to be in the history books as the idiot that got banned during the most important live stream in history.

“The Crabbit project was really just a piece of the puzzle though. I needed something to handle number crunching that was simply on another level than the computing systems we had so far. Because ever since I was four years old. I’ve had a goal in my life. One that today is reaching its finale.”

We stepped into the Hangar and the Crabbits shifted looking at the Starlight Dream.

“This is the Starlight Dream. The first true Human Spaceship. Not a rocket. Not NASA’s STS Space Shuttle. That’s not a trick, or computer generated or something. That ship is hovering.” The Crabbits even raced around looking at the Starlight from different angles.

“Since the moment I realized I could think… I’ve looked up into the stars and dreamed someday I would dance among them.” Gosh I hope that didn’t sound corny.

I walked over and hit the hangar doors. The stars twinkled outside brightly, showing mostly flat ground for a long distance.

“It’s a good night. No clouds.” I decided, saying it for myself and not the Crabbits as I turned and walked over to a workbench. I’d been putting the Starlight together in this hangar for a long time. My hands touched the tools until I grabbed something else.

A Marker.

Listen, I watched the Martian… A lot.

I was a space nerd okay?

There I wrote my potential eulogy. If this all went wrong then… No.

I was sure.

Today I step away from Mother Earth's Embrace. The light of a star guiding my way.

-Katherine Ferrous

I turned, looking over the Starlight. She was shaped more like a sports car, than a shuttle or something. I needed some of the odd curves to hold and protect some of the mechanisms inside.

“Honestly it’s too bad. I’d asked George Lucas years ago if I could use the design for his Tie Fighter if you can believe it. The shape and the Solar panel wings were pretty optimal, but he refused… And I don’t make deals with the devil so I refuse to talk to Disney.”

My chatter was more nervousness than anything I really wanted to share. But it was time.

I walked to the ship, and popped the cockpit it looked more like I was getting into a fighter jet than anything. Everything was already packed and ready. This was… The end.

Or the beginning.

“Alright Crabbits.” I called out and picked up my girls one at a time and setting them inside, they each had a nook to lock in. They’d be assisting the on board computer with all the calculations that I would soon be needing.

Then I climbed in, and put my helmet on my lap.

“You ready?”

“Yes! Yes!”

The Crabbits were being quiet, either, they weren’t speaking, or they were just speaking through their streaming program. Who knows which.

“Alright.” I put on my helmet, and secured it feeling it tighten and being to recirculate oxygen.

The hatch closed sealing with a hissing noise, and then. It was quiet. I put my hands on the controls.

“Start her up.” I demanded, and the Crabbits went to work. I’d considered having a start up sequence myself, and technically I could do it, but it would take a few hours if I was being careful.

The fact was, just like military aircraft, there were just too many controls needed to be safe. And then about a hundred more.

No, it needed an AI to support a pilot. At least in the Starlight.

“The FAA has already approved an orbital launch, what they don’t know is that it’s a manned launch… And they don’t realize that I’m not stopping there.” The ship’s monitor showed green all across, and I grabbed the throttle.

I could have let the Crabbits control the Starlight as well, but… I was human. There was something human about holding controls, about slowly pushing forward on a throttle and watching as the hangar shifted around you. As it disappeared behind you as you were free.

As you pulled back on a yoke and suddenly, there was no more earth in sight. Just stars.

As you pushed a bit harder, and then more on the throttle, as you were pushed back into your seat from a massive amount of G forces.

As you broke the sound barrier multiple times, before you stopped accelerating a moment to catch your breath.

Then I did it again.

The Crabbits were chattering, but I ignored that.

I very quickly had a call come in, air traffic control. My launch was definitely weird.

I ignored them. There wasn’t a munition on earth that could catch me now.

Up and up we went accelerating as much as I could handle on the way. Then… I felt it, there was nothing there really, it was probably all psychosomatic, but…

I felt when I finally left the atmosphere, and stopped accelerating a moment later.

Weightless.

Free from the constraints of Gravity I… I had done it.

I started accelerating again, putting some real distance for a while. As I did that I checked all the data, the Crabbits happily filling time and keeping the chat informed about what was happening.

Then there was time for a personal thing.

I discharged the air in the bay cockpit and popped the hatch. I pulled off the seat belt and slowly stood up, thankful that despite me being weightless, the Starlight felt firm under me. Thank fuck for her Gravity Engine.

Then I rose up, my boots mag locking to the ship as I stood up fully, Taking a moment to get balanced in weightlessness. I didn’t have the astronaut training for it after all, but then…

I stood staring down at earth from space, nothing but a thin layer of glass protecting me from nothingness, completely and totally free from Earth.

I lost track of time looking down at Earth, and the home of humanity that… Wasn’t going to be our only home for long anymore.

This was proof. I’d done it.

It all… It all looked so small from here.

“Ah! Kat-Kat?”

“Right, sorry.” I shook off the fugue and shifted towards the cockpit, slowly lowering myself back in, using the mag boots to lock my feet in place as I worked to get my harness back on, not that it would matter. If there was an accident with what I was about to do, a harness wasn’t going to save me.

Real reassuring thoughts.

“Alright, here is the real trick. Everyone that is in the western hemisphere of the United States, or thereabouts, should look up into the sky. You’re about to see history.” I flipped a switch and the cockpit closed once again, this time I did some additional switches that added more reinforcement to the cockpit. Hopefully it didn’t melt or something it would be a pain to get out otherwise.

“Yay! It’s time! It’s time!”

“Yep, and your stream will be with us the whole time, because of a little device I made. Quantum Entangled communications allowing for zero latency transmission. The other relay is back on Earth. So you’ll be with us the entire trip.” I was chattering as things in the ship started up mostly to keep myself calm.

I was doing something so insanely… Insane. That this would be in the history books, one way or another.

“Crabbit. Activate Alcubierre drive initialization.”

“Yes yes! Preparing systems!” The Crabbits happily chattered and I watched out of the front of my ship as two panels rose up.

“For those watching, some of you might know what an Alcubiere Drive is. This isn’t quite what Miguel was talking about, he had some of the math wrong, and the idea we need exotic matter, or Dark Energy… Pfft. Anyways, the concept and function is similar so I kept the name… For those who don’t know. I’ve created humanities first faster than light ship. Crabbit, is our destination locked into the nav computer?”

“Yes! Data is complete! All green!”

“Then spool up the drive. It’s time to go.”

It was nerve wracking, watching the lights on the console slowly tick up, as the energy was dumped into the space around my ship. Almost as soon as it began blue light began flaring from the front end of the ship. Like fire but instead of glowing white it glowed blue, and slowly space in front of my ship started curving, something I could see with the naked eye.

“Space distortion complete!” Crabbits called out.

I looked down at the throttle.

“I’ve always wanted to be the fastest human alive.” I muttered and pushed the throttle forward as fast as I could.

The sudden acceleration knocked me back into my seat and then things got real interesting. The blue light that had been glowing off the front of the ship erupted and instead of space I saw nothing but blue light flaring past me as the Starlight Dream accelerated faster than any man made object ever has.

—--

To those that had stepped outside with their phones in their hands they looked up into the starry night, and for the first time saw something wondrous. A blue light, like a star blazing brightly in the sky, then shooting off in a curving line of light. A light that proved that Humanity was no longer Earthbound. That the future was here.

Today.

—--

Two minutes, thirteen seconds. That’s how long I endured being pushed into my seat, the acceleration actually leveled out, and the G forces were thankfully skewed by how the drive worked, so I wasn’t just instantly splattered into paste, but it was still a lot of G’s until space time around me was so altered that it was no longer crushing me.

For the entire two minutes I didn’t speak, I was too busy checking over the readouts, it was too much information for a human to respond to, but I still did it.

Even if by the time I would notice something wrong I’d already be dead.

Then almost casually, the blue light flared, and… I was in space, the distorted space had ended and I was no longer moving at faster than light speeds, instead I was back to a rather sedate acceleration until I adjusted the throttle and lowered back down to a more controllable pace.

Only once I had control and made sure everything was stable did I look up.

“Welcome to Mars.” I couldn’t resist saying as the red planet took up my entire view. Two minutes to mars. Not quite thirty seconds, but we’d get there.

I could hear the Crabbits chatter to their chat as I focused on the task at hand. A few adjustments, and I had the location for my landing.

Pushing the throttle forward once again, I very quickly hit the atmosphere, and I jerked a bit in the seat at the bumpy entry, but that faded quickly, and then I leveled out, shifting my orientation until I was flying through the skies of Mars.

I tilted the right wing down so the Crabbits and I could look down over the mountains and valleys.

“It’s beautiful in a haunting way.”

“It looks fun!” Crabbit responded back and I smiled at my AI’s infectious positivity.

“Yeah we’ll have to look around a bit once our mission is done. I have enough oxygen for a few days. If we need too… Although, eating is a problem. Probably best if we get our mission done and head home.”

“Yes yes! Mission! Very important! Operation Aunty Rescue!”

“That’s right.” I responded, chuckling, as I started diving. Luckily our goal was easy to find for the most part. The general location was well recorded.

Endeavour Crater was a big crater, and since I’d planned this mission out, I’d ended up pretty damn close to it to start with.

Considering the Alcubierre drive was best in straight lines at the moment, I’d had to wait until the right part of Mars was facing Earth.

“Alright keep your eyes out for her.”

“Right right!”

I wasn’t sure if the people in the Twitch Chat would have figured it out by now, or what was happening back on earth. It hadn’t been very long to get a real response, but NASA better be ready.

“Target sighted!” Crabbit informed me, and I shifted to follow the guidance they were giving me. I soon came to a slow stop, the Starlight still hovering a foot above the red sand, as I locked her in place.

It took a moment to lower the reinforcement panels that protected the cockpit during FTL, and then I popped the hatch. Standing up I took in the red stark sight of Martian soil, looking up I let the sunlight warm my face for a minute, what a unique experience.

Feeling the sun on an entirely different planet.

Our Sun, but different all the same.

“Hello hello!” Greeted the Crabbits as they were standing on the side of the ship, waving.

I looked over and smiled, our goal was there alright, absolutely covered in sand. Damn. I’d hoped it wouldn’t be quite that covered, but it looked like a dune had grown around it.

Luckily I was prepared for this.

Then I looked down. Red Sand.

Boots.

“I’m not Armstrong, and I’ll be honest I haven’t been thinking up what to say. So… Humanity is here, whether the Galaxy is prepared for us or not.” I stepped down and my boot sank lightly in the red sand.

The first man made foot print on mars. I stared down at it for a long while, unable to force myself to move as I realized all that I had done.

“Kat-Kat?”

“I’m okay Crabbit just… I’m okay. Come on.” I reached out and grabbed one of the girls and set her on my shoulder where she grabbed on. Time to get to work.

I took another step, and another, leaving a trail that proved I’d been here in the sand behind me as I walked to the back of the ship. Popping open one of the tool containers on the Starlight and grabbing a massive air blower.

Basically a leaf blower with an attached oxygen tank, and beefed up a bit.

Luckily since gravity was so light, the very heavy object was thrown over my shoulder and I marched over to our goal.

The poor thing. The red sand had covered it almost entirely, only it’s camera system was still jutting out of the sand, but even that was clogged with sand.

“Hey Oppy.” I greeted the Mars Rover Opportunity. NASA had called the mission just a few days ago when they couldn’t get her to power back up. 15 years this rover had done it’s job, and in the end because of distance and ability humanity had been forced to abandon her. Sending songs into the stars wishing for her to be well.

But I wasn’t NASA.

There were things in life that needed doing.

Finally I looked at the Crabbit, at the camera of their stream and spoke to the people back on Earth.

“I’m a bit weird. Comes with the territory I guess. I mean, I literally built the first artificial life. I get attached to the things we make. Machines, tools. It’s a very human thing… And I’m not ashamed that I felt gutted when this rover stopped responding. Someday humanity will be judged by our actions. Whether from ourselves, or from something outside… But we’ll have this. Always.”

I started blowing the sand, shooting red into the sky.

“The first time humanity truly reached the stars, the first time we ever traveled faster than light, and visited another planet all at the same time… It wasn’t a race against each other, a competition to prove which global power is better. It wasn’t done for greed, or anything as meager as pride.”

I quickly started unveiling the Rover. Oppy was well and truly stuck, but as more and more dust was kicked away she started revealing herself. Covered in dust, dirty and broken.

But still here.

“It was done to rescue one of our own. The humblest of our explorers. She isn’t just a rover. Isn’t just a machine, she’s more than that. She was built to do her task, and she did it, and then beyond. She’s part of our history. As simple as she is, she’ll never be left behind. None of us will. Even if I have to etch it into the collective history of humanity myself, human loyalty to what is ours won’t be forgotten.”

I looked at the Crabbit on my shoulder, who looked back. I put a hand on her head and gave her a rub.

Oppy wasn’t alive like the crabbits, but if we could show how much we cared about even something like her, then our future digital children should understand as well.

We aren’t going to abandon them. They aren’t just objects to us.

“If they aren’t already, someone wake up NASA. They should have an email from me with a connection port to my Quantum Entangled communications. They’ll be able to basically bounce radio waves straight through it with just normal internet speed bandwidth… You know I was originally going to call it Starlink, but someone decided to copyright the name out from under me, so in protest I’m not letting anyone call it anything but Quantum Entangled Communications because that’s a mouthful and I’m bitter.”

I shook off the fact I was rambling a bit and continued to clean off Oppy.

“C’mon NASA. It’s time to wake our girl back up. She’s not done yet.”

—--

The attention to what was happening back on Earth was building. Already Crabbits Twitch Stream was growing consistently, as slowly news centers were informed that the answer to what the bright blue light in the night sky had been was filtered in.

The Twitch Stream was titled “Going to Mars, very fast!” Had drummed up some general interest, and while people left the stream often saying it was fake, many were slowly becoming convinced.

NASA had in fact been informed many many times, their phones ringing, and emails flooded, but as it was late most of those weren’t getting much attention, but even then messages were getting through.

The men and women that had startled at the light in the sky, the recordings, and data flooding in confirming it was actually man made, had sent late night phone calls to many. People arrived half asleep, chugging coffee, or excited for what was happening, and one, a younger man that was more into the Twitch culture opened up a twitch stream after a friend he trusted messaged him.

The sight of Oppy, covered in sand, but very definitely their Rover, had caused the young man to yell for everyone, and soon things began to happen.

Those at NASA might be fighting disbelief, but seeing was believing, and there were those that refused to let their girl die.

—---

I’d finished cleaning off Oppy, and was currently checking her out. She wasn’t doing well, too cold. Her electronics freezing wasn’t good for them, and the sand had basically clogged everything. Poor girl hadn’t been able to see, move, or get electricity.

Just quietly growing cold all alone.

“Don’t worry Aunty! It’ll be okay!” Crabbit assured the rover from my shoulder as I finished clearing and checking her battery connectors.

As long as she could get some power going, she might be okay.

Well she would be okay regardless, even if I had to fix her right here on the martian soil.

But I waited, I could have just taken her over, sent the wake up commands, and everything but…

This was something NASA had to do. It had to be more than just me doing everything myself. This was a moment where humanity needed to act.

So I waited doing a few minor checks on Oppy that wouldn’t interfere with anything. I’d done everything I could without taking her apart and started walking around, just… Taking in Mars.

The Red Planet. Was there any other planet that brought so much wonder to humanity? Mars which we could land on, which we could reach in the barest of ways.

Well we used to only be able to reach it. Now it was a ten minute flight.

Heh.

I reached down and picked up a rock. It wasn’t anything special. Just a rock. I tossed it up and let land back in my hand.

Yeah this was a nice rock. It was coming with me.

Things were going to be interesting for a while. People were going to freak out, the Government was going to try and get involved like always. Making things more complicated and just generally worse.

There would be protests by some groups, others would want to leave Earth. Some might try and copy me and die.

It was going to be hectic.

“Oh! Hi Aunty!” Crabbit called out and I looked behind me. Where Oppy’s camera system was moving, shifting a bit, going through its start up.

I guess the NASA guys had come through after all.

It would be hectic, but some things were just worth it. I smiled as Crabbit continued chattering to her distant cousin. Aunty was cuter though.

I looked into the sky.

“Maybe I’ll be the first woman to leave the solar system before I go home.” I whispered to myself. The urge to keep going. To explore a little farther. To see something new.

I shook it off. No time to go home and face the music.

“C’mon Crabbit, time to go. Oppy… You may be alone, but you’re never forgotten.”