Glass Moon
Or, The Ups and Downs of Interplanetary Colonizing While Your Home Planet is in The Middle of a War
NaNoWriMo 2005 Novel by Talec (Dwyn Cooke)

Introduction to the World
     The Earth  this story refers to is both similar to this one, and different; it takes place in A.D. 2218. Eighteen years prior, three scientists revealed 'true' sentience in the form of an android named Blues. From there, things escaladed; several more robots were built, and one of the original scientists, Dr. Albert Wily, grew jealous of the fame heaped upon Dr. Thomas Light. One night he stole seven of the robots, as well as the plans for an eighth, and plotted to take over and/or destroy the world. More of the former than the latter. Over time, he built a sizable army known as the Robot Masters.
     In order to fight against Wily and his army, Dr. Light rebuilt his robotic lab assistant, Rock, into Mega Man. Armed with the extremely versatile (it practically defines the word, even) Buster, he defeated the evil army, and the wily doctor disappeared.
     A few years later, however, he returned with an expanded, more powerful army. Mega Man alone was not enough to defeat them, and a new scientist stepped forward; Dr. Sigmund Doppler. He studied the three scientists' research carefully, and brought forward his creation, the Reploid. This form of AI had total free will; as opposed to the previous androids, who could be limited in action and thought relatively easily, the reploid could only be controlled by brainwashing, playing off their emotions, or one of the other forms of manipulation that worked on humans.
     An army of these new robots, armed with some newer weaponry, was created and formed into the UN-associated organization known as Repliforce. Led by General and Colonel, it was indeed a force to be reckoned with, and together, they and Mega Man pushed back the encroaching Robot Masters.
     A short period of peace followed; Wily was in jail, his creations either destroyed or deactivated, and those in Repliforce slowly started to integrate with human society. A Dr. Pavel Cossack emerged, bringing new innovations to the field of robotics and weaponry, the best-remembered being Vava and his Ride Armor, the Goliath.
     During an address by the UN Secretary-General to the world, a reploid known as Sigma, leader of an elite Repliforce squad, hijacked the broadcasting signal and spoke of a new cause -- Reploid Freedom, fighting for a world where they would not be oppressed by their human creators. As Repliforce split in half, one side loyal to good, the other joining the Maverick Coalition for Reploid Freedom, the war was not over yet...
     ...Especially when a rogue attack by a Maverick Vava -- now calling himself Vile -- freed Dr. Wily, enabling him to recover his assests and rebuild his Robot Masters. Now with two forces of evil threatening the planet, the good guys were getting a little overwhelmed. Dr. Light tried to fix this by forming an elite team of reploids, androids, and humans, called the Maverick Hunters. (Even though they did a fair amount of Master-hunting, and all around Team of Vigilante Justice(tm).)
     In 2212, the war was taking a turn for the worse for the good guys: the Mavericks and Masters were claiming large swaths of land, and the Hunters and Repliforce were not all-powerful enough to stop them consistently.
     This balance of power was to radically shift very soon.
     Thus came the Stardroids; entities from space, indeed, from other universes altogether, their power was almost without compare on Earth. They came to judge the balance of order of chaos on the planet, and when their judgement was complete... The Earth had failed. And those that failed the judgement were to be destroyed.
     But not all of the Stardroids agreed with this judging. Terra was the most vocal about it, and was confined for it by the their leader. The denizens of Earth, especially not wanting to be blown up, assembled a temporary alliance amongst themselves and worked to free Terra. This plan succeeded, and the Stardroids left Earth's system...
     ...There is more, but these are the most important things for now.

Prologue
     "And you're sure this ship will be ready in time?"
     The Repliforce major paced, his robotic tail lashing, pausing only to look out the observation deck's window to the spacedock outside. The first of its kind, the facility was associated with the United Nations of Earth, with friendly relations to the first space station, Eurasia. After some test-constructions, mostly utility for the use of the dock, Eurasia, or some Earth organization, the dock's first major commission was upon it: an explorer vessel, destined for Mars.
     "Yes, yes, of course," Fluted Moth replied, waving one of her four hands dismissively. "It'll be done in time!"
     "All right... Good." The major, Agent Jaguarundi, paused to look out the window again. "It's quite large, isn't it.."
     Fluted twittered, but said nothing. Without glancing outside, the Reploid floated out the door. In space, individual gravity controllers on the robotic denizens were quite common, and some considered it essential for ease of life.
     Agent, expecting as much from the flighty reploid, did not turn to watch her go, but continued to look out the window a while longer before walking away.

Chapter 1
     The 'Seed'-class vessel Earthfall was indeed a large ship; at half a kilometer long, it encompassed all of its needed areas -- ship functions, supplies, living areas. Its purposes were several: it would transport a group of people, many specializing in something space-related, some in terraforming, some had no particular specialty, to Mars; there, they would assemble a basic mining colony on one of the moons. Depending on the success of the mining operation, those who had not settled on the moon would build a more permanent settlement on the planet's surface. From there... from there, they would make new plans. It would all depend on how this, the first stage, went.
     Outside the ship, it was calm and silent, as things are in space. Inside, however...
     "Ahh, what's this do?" An ungulate reploid peered at a switch on a command console. "Is it the self-destruct?"
     "Wha.. Get away from there! That's my spot!" A sunbird robot swooped close and pushed the ungulate away. "It's /not/, and are you even allowed up here?"
     They were alone on the command deck, a section of the life-sphere where assorted controls were.
     "What, me, not allowed up here?" The ungulate gave her an innocent look, "The very thought of it!"
     The sunbird eyed him. "Come on, get back to the lower decks. I've got work to do up here." Grabbing the other's shoulderpad, she pulled him, struggling, toward the exit-door. "You're leaving now~."
     "Awww man!" He bemoaned before getting pushed out the door, which sealed in front of him. Anything else he might have said was lost, blocked by the dense material.
     The sunbird breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, now that /that's/ cleared up..." She turned back and flew over to her console, peering at the controls with understanding. "Mmhmm.. This looks fine.. and this... Yup.." She spent a couple minutes doing her console checks, enjoying the quiet of the room before the other command staff arrived.
     "Everything checking out?" A deep voice behind her said. She turned to look at him -- a large lion reploid, and said in an amused tone, "Hey, Major. Everything's good." She paused. "Or, hmm, will you be /Captain/ for this trip?"
     Shield Lion hehed. "Excellent. And as much as I'd like to give a nod to traditional science-fiction routine, I'm not sure I want to drop a rank in the process." He smiled. "What about you, Lieutenant? Excited? Think you'll get a promotion? I wouldn't want to have to compete with you, if push came to shove over captain of the ship." He laughed.
     "Eh, leading the people's more your thing, sir. I prefer leading the ship, myself." Navigator Light Sunbird hmmed and drifted back from her console. While the ship /did/ have gravity control, it had not yet been turned on; indeed, almost every reploid on board so far had gravity-control systems installed -- it, among other things, was marked 'Strongly Recommended' on the forms, and this made the ship-board controller slightly redundant in areas outside the lifesphere.
     The command crew started coming into the deck, looking around for their consoles, taking places, greeting each other. Most of them were not meeting for the first time, but only a few had known one or more of the others before the Earthfall had been completed and they had volunteered for this mission. As they sorted themselves out, Shield Lion mulled over the sequence of events to come. The ship had not yet been freed of its construction dock; they would break free of the dock first, test the Force Metal-powered engines in free space, test assorted other, less vital systems, and then.. they could bring on the rest of the crew, passengers, and cargo. If there was anything terribly wrong with the ship, now was the time to find it, before there was more than a skeleton crew aboard the vessel.
     When it appeared that everyone meant to be present was, Shield Lion stood and looked out the viewscreen; it wrapped around the command deck, showing a slightly patchy 360-degree view of the outside. Currently it showed the by now almost familiar sight of Earth orbit; the planet to one side, part of the Atlantic ocean, the station Eurasia visible as a bit more than a speck, and the stars.
     Then he said, "All right; release us from the construction dock, Spacedock Moonseed."
     There was no noise, exactly, but the shudders of assorted construction and holding arms releasing their grasp coursed through the ship weakly. And then the ship was floating free.
     "Take us out for the test-run, navigators."

*****

     They had cleared the dock uneventfully, moving away from Earth. There were some more minor tests that were scheduled to be completed before the engine test, which would be conducted far out. The substance powering them, Force Metal, was notorious for its instability and radiation, but it was an extremely powerful fuel source. The engineers who designed the Earthfall's engines hoped it would cut the long journey to Mars in half, perhaps even more. On the downside, if there was a failure in the fuel's containment or handling, the engine section could blow up -- perhaps even the entire ship, if the sections were not separated in time.
     Light Sunbird peered over to the other navigator. It was another ungulate reploid.. not the one she guided out earlier, but the design similarities were unmistakable. Perhaps they were brothers. She leaned over to whisper to him; her attention had been elsewhere during the time they were setting up and settling down and she had not yet met him.
     "Psst," she whispered. The other turned, cocked his head to the side and smiled, "'lo. What's up?"
     "Na'much," she said amusedly. "You're the number-two navigator, right?" She paused and mentally slapped herself. /Duh/.
     "Mmhmm," he peered back at his console, "I'm Spark Gazelle."
     "Ah!.. I'm Light Sunbird." It'd be fairly obvious if one had studied the command-crew manifest... but oh well.
     A noise behind them interrupted their conversation and Shield Lion said, "Prepare for gravity-control initialization.." 
     A warning klaxon sounded once, and then there was an odd feeling of slowly returning weight. Light quietly turned her internal gravity controllers on; her form was built for zero-gravity, and for some reason did not cope with Earth-level gravity too well.
     "So far, so good," someone on deck said, and someone else hehed. 
     A voice came over the intraship speakers, "Gravity test complete and A-OK. Next test, pressurization in the lifedome..."
     Everyone who came had been given certain structural upgrades, the most 'minor' being alterations to the armor allowing the reploid to survive in outer space -- just in case. The second most common was a small gravity-controller, for ease of movement in low-gravity. While many reploids had small jets in their boots or on their back, the gravity-controller was more adept for precise movement, and had the added bonus of allowing a skilled weilder to grab nearby objects without actually touching them.
     And then it was time for the engine test. The whole room held their breath -- whether they ever breathed or not -- in anticipation. A quiet, steady hum reverberated through the hull.
     Two minutes later, the intercom voice came again, "Engine test part one complete and O-K. Now it's you guys' turn. Take her for a spin."
     "You heard him, let's move." Shield Lion nodded. 
     "Yes, sir!" Light and Spark spoke in unison, and clicked a pair of switches and tapped their controllers' screens. The ambient hum increased slightly, and the ship moved smoothly. Those whose skills weren't needed for this test waited.. not time to celebrate yet... as the command-deck navigators and engine-room engineers prepared to initialize the second stage.
     A new noise spread through the ship -- a different-toned hum with a bit of a whine in it. The non-technical types looked around nervously, while those in the know smiled. Things were indeed going according to plan, and soon the intercom spoke again, "All clear! We're good to go!"

Chapter 2
     "So.. I think what I'll miss the most, food-wise, is /steak/."
     "What? Steak?"
     "Yeah! A nice big medium-rare steak, with sauce. Mmmm."
     "Whatever, man."

*****

     The civilian boarding went smoothly; the volunteers (for indeed, it would be downright mean to force someone on a long-term voyage like this) had been carefully selected to make sure any serious threats would not be joining the mission. The non-military roster included scientists, miners, space reploids who wished to fulfill a purpose that was not needed on Earth... And a small number of people who simply wished to leave the planet.
     Of the last, there had been many who applied, but few who were selected. The number of passengers on this voyage was far smaller than that of any potential subsequent one, for this was the seeding mission. This ship, everyone hoped, would pave the way to settlements on Mars; their trek would be the hardest, for they would be the ones to beat back the unknown.

     All would-be passengers were required to fill out and consent to a number of forms and releases, as well as consider certain upgrades and enhancements. Humans were strongly discouraged from joining; the company in charge of the paperwork stated that it would be better to wait for the next colony ship out, instead of the much more risky first, seeding voyage.

     In the end, there were near one hundred reploids and androids, and two humans, both full-conversion cyborgs. The two cyborgs had stated that space travel had been their dream as long as they could remember; the selection commitee decided to take them. As full-converts, they could easily conform to the required specs and they required only food rations to stay alive.

*****

     There were scattered celebrations as the ship left, both on-ship and in Earth-space. Why they celebrated varied, ranging from being simply glad to see space exploration taking off again, to the businesses that had stake in the success of the Earthfall's functionality and its mission. 
     Among those who weren't having a party of some sort onboard, many pondered the implications once again; this ship would take an estimated six months to arrive at Mars' nearspace. Communications would be lagged as they moved further out; their swiftest methods of communicating were still limited below lightspeed. And if something happened to the ship's engines that was unfixable, it would be a long cold flight back to Earth.

Chapter 3
     The ship's hum pervaded everything, providing a constant background noise. The civilians -- those not part of the command, engineering, security or repair crews -- had free run of the lifesphere, the front section of the ship that included the bio-dome. The bio-dome was a massive half-circle of clear material, allowing for unobstructed observation of space; the ground (and some of the walls) was covered in an assortment of plants and small animals; it was with these that a planetside biodome could be populated and oxygenated.
     While the bio-dome took up almost one-third of the lifesphere's mass, the remainder was passenger and crew quarters. The next section, separated by a 'transition sector' that could disengage and separate sections within five minutes, was for processing stuff brought in by mining -- either asteroids on their trip, or from the moons and Mars itself -- and some less-necessary systems were stored there. Unauthorized travel in this sector was discouraged, simply because it was annoying to fix things that someone inadvertantly broke, but it was not strictly enforced.
     The third and final section was the almost-but-not-quite experimental engines, as well as enough internal passageways to repair difficulties small enough to be able to approach in the dangerous area. This last area was offlimits to all but qualified engineers.

*****

     A rustling in some nearby bushes caught the attention of a certain ungulate reploid walking by -- indeed walking, for the gravity control was almost always on in the bio-dome. He veered toward it, peering at the bush, when suddenly a small, long furry creature scurried out and around his boot. He /acked/, and tried to step around it without stepping /on/ it, successful, though it was not easy, and he heard a snickering off to one side, in one of the smallish trees. An unusual-looking, apparently four-winged reploid dropped out of it, hovering without moving his wings, and looking quite amused.
     "Having fun with the 'natives'?"
     The larger steadied himself and pfted. "Sure, sure. What /was/ that, anyway?" He eyed after the low-lying shrubbery where the critter had fled to.
     "It's... a ferret, I think. Probably came with one of the passengers," the reptilian robot hmmed. "Who're you, anyway? I'm Receptor Gui, I'm with the communications-stuff."
     "Comms eh? Well, I'm just here for the ride.. not really!" He chuckled, "I'm Boomer Gazelle."
     "Ahh.. right..." Receptor huhed. "Well, I should be heading back to the bridge, so bye~" And he flitted off, Boomer giving a slight good-bye wave in his direction.

*****

     Lieutenant Sunbird flipped through her tarot deck, idly shuffling and drawing cards, not paying much attention to the meanings. Things were beginning to settle down into what was likely going to be the standard routine for the next six months, and at the moment she had a break from the command-deck. She was taking it in her quarters, near the edge of the lifesphere. 
     "Eight of Cups... Seven of Cups... Five of Wands... Six of Cups... Five of Cups... Four of Cups... Did I shuffle this well enough...?"
     She tilted her head at the spread and hmmed.

Chapter 4
     Half a month later, the status of the vessel had not changed. It had been a remarkably quiet ride; there were a few minor scuffles, but nothing the security could not handle. There had been no serious breakdowns. Things were going quite ideally.
     This is when their first major problem occurred.

     "Lieutenant Gui? What's going on?"
     The Microraptor reploid hummed nervously. "In a moment..."
     They were receiving a transmission from Repliforce on Earth. According to its stated date, it was only a few days old; this was little comfort. The message stated simply that there was significant unrest on Earth between the United States, Canada, and Neo Arcadia, the rogue anti-AI nation -- nothing new, really -- and that the mission might have to be cancelled and its crew brought back home; otherwise, the higher-ups back home were not sure when or if they would be able to send the next wave of supplies and people.
     This struck the room dumb. What, was all this going to have been for nothing? And even if they /were/ allowed to continue, would it even be wise to carry out the plan? Once the initial mining and settling colonies had been set up, they had been expecting another ship with some fresh supplies, as well as other, less-specialized travellers.
     After several moments of silence, Shield Lion spoke. "We'll stay here for a day.. Then, if we do not get another transmission by this time tomorrow, we shall continue on." He turned to Receptor Gui. "Ready a response; tell them we will be waiting for further instructions within twenty-four hours before we continue course."
     "Yes, sir."
     Quiet conversation spread through the command-deck, and Shield Lion wondered how to tell this to the rest of the crew. He did not expect a panic exactly, but he did not want to worry them unnecessarily..

*****

     "Did you hear?"
     "Hear what? That the crew might have to turn the ship around?"
     "No, not that one! There's something new!"
     "Wha?"
     "Some guy's ferret keeps popping up /everywhere/. Earlier I heard someone returned it to the lifesphere after finding it in the processing sector. How weird is that?"
     "..."
     "Whaaat? We all need some comic relief!"

*****

     It was almost sixteen hours before a reply came; the crew was beginning to get antsy. Well, truth be told, they had been antsy since the message had first come... But now it was even worse, waiting while Receptor Gui decoded the transmission. Those not among the comms specialists could only wait and see; some whispered amongst themselves, others checked their consoles endlessly. Some checked other peoples' consoles. A few checked their email, just in case.
     "Ahah! It's done!" Receptor Gui suddenly announced enthusiastically, gaining the full attention of the room.
     "What does it say?" Shield Lion asked, peering over Gui to the console.
     "It says..." He paused, whether for dramatic effect or for further testing of the transmission it could not be certain immediately, "It says... we're to stay on course!" A cheer went up. "Also that things at home have quieted down.. That's the end of it... odd.. they don't mention /what/ happened..." He sounded worried.
     Shield Lion hrmmed. "Not much we can do from out here.. And if we're to keep going, then that's what we will do." Let's move out, people." A chorus of "Yes, sir" sounded and the crew returned their attention to their stations.

*****

     "Hmmm, conspiracy on Earth!" Boomer Gazelle paused mid-stride in the middle of a corridor, considering on something. Most likely conspiracies. He abruptly continued walking again, and nearly barged into an odd-looking reploid. "Woah there!"
     The reploid peered back at him -- or at least, he thought it was. There weren't any visible eyes, just jewel-esque oblong objects embedded in the head, but the head was pointed in his direction now. The reploid wavered to one side, floating in a case of apparently zero-gravity, then abruptly rolled over and spoke. "Hello."
     Boomer blinked. "Yo."
     "What sort of conspiracies?" The reploid said in a completely conversational tone.
     "Uh..." the Gazelle blinked again. Buh? "Conspiratorial ones." He nodded, mmhmm, this is totally so.
     "I see.." the reploid rolled again, toward the other side, pausing partway and stared at Boomer from a crooked angle. "Does it involve Stardroids?"
     "...Maybe!" He looked confident; he knew where he could lead this unusual conversation now. "Yeah, I believe it does. You see.." He paused, considering, then continued, "You know how Force Metal was discovered in the remains of Vancouver, where Starhaven fell? Of course you do; it was all over the news. It's also known that there's Force Metal on the moon. Now, /what/ can you get from this? That the Stardroids were on the moon, of course. We also know that Eurasia's moving onto the moon. Does this mean Eurasia's going to find stardroid technology? Maybe!" He paused for dramatic effect! And then continued. "But since the dock that built this great ship was first built with Eurasia's help -- and then they helped build this -- might there be stardroid tech /on this very vessel/!" Boomer gestured dramatically. "And /that/, my friend, is the conspiracy. They want us back so they can take apart the vessel and see what got snuck into its design. Mmhmm."
     The other reploid drifted. "I... see..." He rolled lazily around in the corridor, somehow managing to never hit the walls, ceiling or floor, and as Boomer watched blankly, drifted off around a bend in the corridor and out of sight.
     "Annnnd that was... odd..."

*****

     Light Sunbird swept around the Earthfall. Not the inside -- she was outside. It was cold and silent, as space tends to be. The vessel had stopped in order to investigate a nearby asteroid, and mine it if its composition merited it, and so those who weren't directly involved were able to take this opportunity to go outside the confines of the ship without fear of getting left behind by the much faster ship. Those that wished to were 'out taking a walk' as the joke tended to go, even though almost all of them were out flying.
     Back on Earth, Light Sunbird had been a data collector; she was originally going to analyze the Sun, and had correspondingly been built with extremely heat and radiation-resistant armor so she could approach fairly nearby. The project she was intending to join, however, was unable to get off the ground -- insufficient funding, the bane of all scientific projects -- and was resigned to smaller projects conducted in Earth nearspace. She eventually joined Repliforce, staying with a small space division, hoping for an opportunity much like this one to arise.
     And here... Well, it was far from the Sun, but at least it was space.

*****
     A large yak reploid hrumphed at the asteroid. It was not a large one, and nor did it have much in the way of resources. He grumbled into his radio, "This may have been a wasted trip..." and snapped at another reploid out surveying the celestial object, "Come on, is that scan done yet?!"
     The other, an ivory-billed woodpecker in base of form, half-heartedly flinched and mentally pffted. "Yeah, yeah.." Hold your horses...
     Star Yak, formerly known as Earth Yak, humphed again. He wasn't here to be galavanting around in outer space; he was here for the planet at the other end of the voyage. He was long tired of the constant warfare he had been 'born' into on Earth; he loved the constant routine of simple work, and a new, unpopulated planet seemed like a fine place to begin that work anew. When he had caught wind of the Earthfall's mission, he decided to join up; when the body alterations had completed, he changed his name in reflection of his leaving the planet. For good, he assumed.

     There were many like Star Yak, pioneers and cowboys searching for a new life or a new frontier. 
     And, some were here for unknown reasons.

     Ping Dolphin was one of them. Based off of the unusual Amazon river dolphin, he was, believe it or not, one of the science-minded individuals on the ship. The Dolphin barrel-rolled around the asteroid, supposedly scanning its interior. The others could only take his word for it; Ping was very... reclusive. Odd, to be less verbose. It was trying for the less patient. Star Yak and Tesseract Picus -- the woodpecker reploid -- watched as the dolphin probed the asteroid. 
     Ping floated around the celestial object, looking as bored as a being without a proper humanesque face can. After a number of passes, he turned back to the waiting reploids to speak, despite radio communication being used, thus making such a movement unnecessary.
     "The contents appear to be a mix of assorted minerals -- none of which are particularly useful to us -- some ice-water, some trace trapped gasses, and assorted metals in small enough amounts that retrieving them would be, to put it simply, a waste of time." Ping drifted around, stopping at a point where he was looking at the other two from an upside-down view. "In other words.. a small asteroid, not useful to us. We might as well--"
     The Yak grumphed and interrupted, "Head back. Waste of time, indeed.."

*****

     "AND THEN! OUT OF NOWHERE! Came dawn!"
     "...There's no dawn in space, dude."
     "There is if you were behind something and then moved out."
     "That's... not dawn."
     "Then what is it?"
     "Something else!"
     "But /what/?"
     "...I don't know!"
     "Then I will call it dawn as I please!"
     "...You're weird."
     "And?"
     "...Nothing."
     "Mmhmm. Thought so."

     Boomer Gazelle was quickly making himself a reputation amongst the crew and passengers, as a rogue, a weirdo, a conspiracy-monger, one of those guys who shows up when you least expect it, one of those guys who shows up when least /wanted/... An outlaw, basically. He and his brother, Spark Gazelle, were going at it together, and while Spark was one of the navigators for the vessel, Boomer did not seemed to have a job. Most assumed he was one of the civilians intending to make a new life on the Red Planet.

*****

     Their next crisis came almost exactly a month later. A body was discovered in the sector connecting the processing and engine sectors; it was not one of the engineering crew. A look into the passenger monifest showed that it was one of the two cyborgs who had joined the voyage; one Syr Korin -- a self-chosen name, acquired after her switch to an almost purely-mechanical body. There was no evidence of trauma or injury, but she was quite dead. Security's attempts at an investigation turned up nil, as apparently no one saw her for several hours before her estimated time of death. Doctors who were good with human physiology were lacking -- another reason for the 'strongly discouraged' notice on the volunteer signup sheets -- and thus no one could be quite sure what happened. Most people accepted it as an accident, although her location was strange -- no civilian should have been able to get near to that sector -- and a few rumors persisted. One of the more widely-spread was about a supremist on board who was looking to hijack the colony and turn it into a reploid-only settlement -- indeed, turn Mars itself into a whole new world only for robots.
     ...Most agreed it was probably an accident of some sort, or some so-far undetected medical problem.

*****

     "Hey, did you ever attend the Spacewalker Convention a couple years ago?"
     "The what?"
     "The Star Trek convention! On Eurasia!"
     "Sci-fi's not my thing, dude. You know that."
     "Pft, you're no fun."

*****

     "Hoi, Sunbird." The lieutenant avian looked up and smiled. "Heylo Lieutenant Gazelle."
     The Gazelle reploid smiled and bobbed his head, scratching the back with one hand. He looked like he was about to say something, but did not for a second, then said, "What're you doing?"
     Light tilted her head to the side, looking at the deck she had been shuffling in her hands, and said, "It's a tarot deck. See?" she laid out six cards, one at a time, in a particular layout. "Ace of Swords," she placed it faceup on the table before her, "The World, reversed," placed on top of the first, "The Devil," placed above the first two, "The Moon," to the right, "Strength," at the bottom, "And reversed King of Swords," she finished, placing the card to the left of the first two, now in the center of the layout. Light hrmmed.
     Spark peered at the spread and looked blankly at Light. "What does it mean?"
     "Ah.. Well.." Light put on an innocent look and quickly whipped out a book. "I'll look 'em up."
     Were this an anime, Spark would have fallen over.
     "I don't have the cards' meanings /memorized/, but I can figure them out with this.." She flipped open the book, a small but many-paged volume, and looked through it. "Let's see... First card, the present position.. Ace of Swords is 'breakthrough'." She looked back at the spread. "Second card, immediate influence, reversed-The World.. Success. Third is.." Flipflip. "Goal or destiny.. The Devil." She paused.
     "Friendly-sounding." Spark noted.
     "Heh, indeed.. The card's not as intimidating as its name, though.. Basically, it's just 'loosen up'. ..Fourth card is the Foundation, which is The Moon.." She tilted her head to side. "Completion, fulfillment, also dreams, the kind you get when asleep." She blinked, looking puzzled, but continued on, "Fifth is the Recent Past, and Strength.. 'Intention is cause. Energy follows thought. Power without control is nothing.' That was quoted. Sixth and final is Future Influence, what will supposedly occur in the vaguely near future. It's the King of Swords, but it's reversed.. Hmm.. 'You have won the war, that is, a major battle in life, now you must win the peace.' That's promising.."
     "What's the significance of a reversal?"
     "It casts doubt, sort of, on the exact nature of the card in question.. As in, it may not be exactly what it says -- it may look like one thing from one angle and be another in a different one. 'Course.. Most things are like that."
     She started sweeping up the cards and reforming them into the deck, and Spark hmmed. "Were you doing that for anyone in particular, or...?"
     Light paused. "No, I was just shuffling when you came up.. I like the feel of the cards, but I just felt like showing off a spread. You're supposed to keep someone in mind when shuffling, in order to get accurate results -- actually, you're supposed to let the person do it themself."
     "Ah, I see.." Spark looked around. "So, ah.. What're you doing tonight?"
     "Not much... My shift's over for the day, unless something really bad happens." She cut the deck and restarted shuffling it. "Why?"
     "No reason, just curious."
     Light shrugged. "'kay."
     "Well, seeya later." And with that Spark kicked off the floor and out one of the nearby exits from the room.
     "...Bye?"

*****

     Captain Azure Jay floated around the empty command deck. They were in a clear area, no asteroids or obstacles of any sort detected on their many and varied instruments, and thus the crew were enjoying some quasi-time off, albeit staying on their toes -- hopefully, at least -- in case an alarm of some sort sounded. But the Repliforce Captain -- Shield Lion's second-in-command -- had no desire to be somewhere else this night. (Night? Day? In space? Well, according to the clocks it was almost 10 PM Eastern Time on Earth.) Instead, he was here, holding down the fort, as it were, checking the consoles, and enjoying the simultaneous silence and background hum of the ship's engines.
     The blue jay reploid paused at one of the navigational consoles, peering at its output. On course.. Speed good.. He moved over to the engineering monitoring console; engine output normal, assorted things good... All normal. The other consoles returned much the same, status nominal. The constant checks were more a matter of habit, from his days aboard the Fortresses III and V.
     Azure had not yet given up on the idea of peace on Earth, but he hoped, believed that relieving some of the strain on Earth's resources would help lessen the stress its inhabitants endured. He hoped.

Chapter 5
     The next two months were entirely uneventful, at least in terms of large-scale bad things. There were occasional small bad things; a busted light here and there, a malfunctioning door that just wouldn't be repaired; the worst was when a small breach on the Processing Sector's side of the Processing/Lifesphere connector tunnel. As everyone on board was not completely dependant on atmosphere, it was not as big a deal as if the ship had been inhabited by mostly humans -- or any fully organic lifeform -- but it was still odd.. Particularly since the engineers checking it out and repairing it couldn't get a fix on what caused it in the first place.

*****

     "Hmm..."
     "Uh oh."
     "Mmhmm~"
     "And what do you have planned now?"
     "Conspiracies!"
     "Not again."
     "Yes, again! This time, it's ghosts."
     "...Oh?"
     "Yes! I shall now start a conspiracy that states the mysterious things that have been happening as of late were caused by one or more ghosts on board!"
     "Oy, vey."
     "Come on, it makes decen-- well, /okay/ sense! It's definitely weird stuff. And it doesn't seem to be traceable, yet, so!"
     "Just don't spread this one among the passengers, all right?..."
     "Aww, why? You're no fun."
     A sigh.
     Then a pause of silence, and a swoosh of something moving through air, and then a new voice.
     "Ghosts, now? Ghosts of Stardroids, perhaps?"
     "...Quite possibly so!"
     An audible facepalm. "Not another one..."
     "Another one?"
     "Aye, we're the dire duo of conspiracies on this fine vessel!"

*****

     "So, what shall we do today, my fine partner in conspiring?" Boomer Gazelle poked his odd companion,