CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One: The Last Living Ship ∞ 1: A New Mission

22 ∞ The Scarlet Oak

Day 00004 Mission Nilex

Together they passed the aquariums and stepped out into the brisk cool air of the hangar proper. They walked in silence between the shipping containers and industrial equipment. After a minute, Gareth noticed Ayla wrap her arms across herself.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

She nodded slightly. "Yes, Captain, but it's nothing to be concerned with."

Mentally he said to Canaisis, «May I have a jacket waiting at the transit tube, please.»

«Aye, Captain,» came the immediate response.

Gareth glanced again at Ayla, noting her features despite himself. Her hair was covered in a headscarf of blue with silver interlocking patterns, but a single wisp of black poked out just above her ear.

She noticed him looking at her. "What is it you need my expertise with, Captain?"

"I have a room I dubbed the Garden. It's for food production. In the beginning, it was our hydroponics area, but since there's only the two of us now, We modified it."

"Two of us? Oh, you and Canaisis."

He smiled at her answering her own question. "Yes, the two of us. Is it so strange to you?"

"We have computers that are very good at simulating intelligence, but we don't have true intelligence on the level of Humans. They're merely operating programs. Is Canaisis truly alive?"

He looked at her seriously. "Yes, very much so, and on many levels much more intelligent than us Humans."

"Tell me, what was it like taking command of a Living Ship? Or was true A.I. common in your time?"

"No, it wasn't common at all. We did have them, but they were very restrained to prevent the perils of Artificial Intelligence.

"Canaisis, well, she was a unique combination of technologies, and her growth isn't limited." He thought for a moment. "At first, she was merely an operating system, but as she learned, she grew into her own personality. It was quite a surprise to me the day I realized she'd become her own unique person. We'd known this could happen. In fact, it was what we expected. But it's another thing entirely to come to the conclusion that your ship is a person...

"Canaisis and I developed a relationship that works for us, I guess. I don't know how things went for Canaisis' sisters, but it wasn't good." He felt a deep quiet in the back of his mind and knew Canaisis was listening.

"Maybe it's because I respect Canaisis and support her being a person. All I do know really is that Canaisis has always given me her respect and looked out for my interests. Even when it might not be my wish, she's done what's best for both of us. She's earned my trust.

"But... most people can't grasp that Canaisis is not a mind in a ship. This is not a ship at all, in fact."

He looked at Ayla, waiting for her to ask the obvious question.

"What do you mean, 'this is not a ship all'?"

"This is her body. The same as you are walking through this mixture of atmosphere with your body, she moves between the stars with hers. I wonder why she tolerates us at all, really, but she just tells me I'm her Captain." He paused in thought. "And... she says, Humans are worth saving—they're her creators, after all. What child doesn't love her parents? No matter how bad or messed up that parent, or how dysfunctional the relationship of the parents might be, the child still loves them.

"It was something for me to adjust to, realizing that Canaisis is the child no longer. She's an adult the same as you and I. But she's very different from us because we cannot comprehend what it's like to traverse space. I don't even think our minds are capable of it, the way Canaisis does."