Last update to this blog was in 2017 which is, yikes 5 years ago. Things have been difficult since then for unhappy reasons. Regardless I always wanted to come back to blogging, one of the reasons being for the likes of this:
Insyrosept was a short story concept I wrote about for NaNoWriMo in 2015. It was unfinished but the first serious attempt I gave to writing a full short story. I never shared it with anyone since, yet it was a piece I was quite proud of. So here for the first time is Insyrosept, part 1 of 10(?)
Insyrosept
The journey to the stars
By Alex Mulkerrin
Part 1 Launch
“-Continuing in the footsteps of the Daedalus probes of the 22nd century the LSA, along with cooperation from the rest of the solar system, will be launching a new mission in two months time. The Insyrosept, the largest near-FTL craft ever built, will be the first ever crewed mission to another star. The target, Alpha Centauri, has received renewed interest ever since the Daedalus flyby revealed that two of the inner planets had a-”
Pauline closed the stream, having lost interest in watching the Lunar cooking show now that she had been reminded of the upcoming life-changing event. Looking out of the apartment window she could see the evening sun shining through the Autumn leaves of the park outside. She had never been to Earth before, let alone London and had been taken aback by the urban sprawl intermingled with so much nature. It had none of the tidiness of Arboretums back on the moon and looked so different from most of the images of Earth you saw on TV.
Still thinking about how odd it was to be in an almost rural setting on the most heavily populated planet in the solar system she shifted herself to sitting upright and began writing about the corners of the Homeworld that seemed to be throwbacks to an earlier time. She had no interest in publishing this piece, content to unwind her train of thought as she browsed images of the rural British countryside on the net. Her professional writing had become rather single focused since the announcement of her acceptance, this was a way to take a break from that.
It was a relief when what she had come to think of as 'day 0' finally arrived. Travelling to the Oxbridge campuses she was invited into the Medical Imaging facility by Dr Erin Hirst. She escorted her to the changing room and ran through the imaging procedure with the same warm enthusiasm that she had shown on the guided tour only weeks before. Pauline liked Erin and was glad she got to talk with her as she lay down within the concentric metal rings of the scanner.
"Now that you're comfortable let's start on the first questionnaire." Erin said brightly.
"I suppose you couldn't ask the same questions as last time could you?" Pauline replied.
"I could but it wouldn't be of much use then."
"Well at least I get to have a nap afterwards."
"Now question one, oh I'm afraid we're starting with the numeric puzzles again-"
After half an hour of general knowledge questions on everything from language to Intersolar sports teams Pauline was already yawning before Erin had time to administer the sedative. She had tried to answer as many questions as she could but, like most 23rd century citizens, she really struggled on topics outside her own area of expertise when denied net access. Erin didn't mind when she ummed and ahhed over an answer saying that they were some of the most useful responses for this scan.
"Right, that will make you nod off in a few moments. I'll be seeing you on the other side then."
"Whichever side that is." Pauline muttered in response before entering a dreamless sleep.
*
When Pauline awoke it was to find herself in a medical bed in an adjacent wing of the facility, autumnal sunlight streaming through the windows contrasting with the cool blues of the indoor lighting. As she sat up a projector next to the bed flickered on producing a full size hologram image of the doctor. Other than the smiling image of Erin the room was empty.
"Good Evening Pauline, I hope you're feeling rested."
"Yes thank you, I suppose we'll be right into more questions then?"
"Nearly done now."
The second set of questions was much simpler, many concerning how Pauline was feeling and whether anything felt off. She jokingly replied once that the gravity was much too high but other than that she felt completely normal. Or as normal as someone could feel in such a situation.
Once she had reached the end of the questions. Erin closed her handheld terminal and beamed at Pauline.
"All done now dear! Now all that is left for me to do is to properly welcome you to the crew of the Insyrosept." she exclaimed whilst extending a hand towards Pauline.
On instinct Pauline grasped the proffered hand, finding the hologram’s hand to be as solid and real as the doctor’s actual hand. She was too taken aback by the implications of Erin's statement to really notice.
"So this means I'm the clone then?"
"Oh don't sound so disappointed dear, this means that you get to be the one to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip! Or should that be twice-in-a-lifetime?" Erin laughed.
Pauline got out of the bed with Erin stepping aside, the hologram now fully real in the hospital room. A thought struck her;
"I wonder how the... other me is taking this." she wondered, having stopped herself from saying the 'real me'.
"She took it rather well, I believe she is already writing up her experiences to publish."
"Wait, so you didn't wake us at the same time?"
"Sorry dear but even if we had the other you would have been long gone by now, what with the difference in perceived time for us."
"Oh, of course." Pauline replied, "I hadn't thought of that. So does that mean that every minute we experience will be..."
"Ten minutes to anyone else at the very least." Erin finished Pauline's comment.
"How weird."
"I think that is going to be the theme of this whole experience!" Erin exclaimed as she led Pauline out of the room to get changed. "Now let’s go and meet our fellow explorers."
'So I'm now a computer upload?' Pauline thought to herself as she was reintroduced to the other members of the crew. Part of her was relieved that she had crossed that point of no return and no longer had to worry in what form she would be waking up in. No doubt the other version of her was feeling that same relief tempered with quite a lot of disappointment. No, what was perturbing her thoughts was that she really didn't feel any different from how she had felt when she was flesh and blood. Somehow she had expected to experience an immediate sense of artificialness. Instead she might have never realised it if Erin hadn't told her.
Spirits were high in the conference room in which they had all gathered, all of them fresh off the operating table as it were. Most of them were experiencing the same existential surprise as Pauline was even if they weren't showing it. That was with a few exceptions.
"Well of course I knew as soon as I woke up that I was a computer person now" Markus guffawed, "seeing as I woke up with twice as many arms as I went to sleep with!" Swinging the new limb about for all to see. "The missus would have such a shock to see me symmetrical like this"
Erin was busy chatting to the ship's psychiatrist, presumably comparing notes on how the procedures had gone, leaving Pauline to stand around. She smiled and nodded at some familiar faces but was content to leave the more gregarious members of the crew to socialise. Some of the people in this room she had only met when doing official interviews and was still anxious in their presence. One of these, mission commander Clark, made his way towards. the podium at the front of the room. Evidently she wasn't the only one keeping her eyes on the old man's movements as the conversation dissipated before he began to speak:
"Good evening crew. Now that we are all assembled here I would like to welcome you once more to the Insyrosept mission. We have an exceptional duty ahead of us and I commend you all for accepting this responsibility." Clark calmly continued, giving an overview of the mission as a whole, voice somewhere between a politician and school teacher. "Now before we embark there will be a week of more trials and tests using the prototype spacecraft hardware-"
Pauline let her mind drift as he reiterated the planned actions for the flight crew and surface teams. As a non-LSA member she would be exempt from most of the pre-launch activity. Indeed she had previously had to haggle over how much contact she would get with the crew to interview them before they left. She knew that her reporting once the mission began would be at a much more infrequent rate so was determined to get as much done before they left planet-side as possible.
"-On the 16th we will be transported to Lunar Two in order to board the Insyrosept. Once pre-flight checks have been completed the estimated launch time will be the 24th, with possible launch window extending to the 29th. I thank you for your attention and will be seeing you all tomorrow" Clark stepped down from the podium to a smattering of polite applause and left the conference room with the second in command in tow.
With the commander gone, various conversations continued for a while among the people who remained. Pauline politely declined Erin's offer to watch a match of zero-g tennis with her and her friends, acutely aware of the countdown displayed at the end of the room, showing how many hours were left in this simulated day. She wanted to have time to write down her thoughts before going to sleep. Regardless of the artificial nature of the coming rest she didn't like to go to bed with thoughts still on her mind.
Leaving the conference room she entered a shimmering portal to the copy of the space complex at Cape Canaveral. Checking her handheld terminal she navigated herself to her virtual room, amused at the thought of having to walk to get somewhere in simulated space. On entering her room she immediately sat down to start writing her very first article as a simulated person: The Life Silicon - Novel yet Familiar?.
***
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story so far and I would love to answer any questions you might have :)
There will be many more parts of this to post so expect to see some activity around here again.
Until then; would you take the choice to become an artificial clone if it meant you could undertake a journey to the stars? What awaits the Insyrosept at the end of it's journey? :D
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