CHAPTER 5 – ALTERNATE OCCUPATIONS
Senior Centurion Jehanne de Domrémy wearing a suit of medieval armor for cosplay jousting.
16:28 (Universal Time)
Saturday, August 25, 2334
Shuttle hangar complex, A.M.S. NOSTROMO
In orbit around Providence, Alpha Centauri B System
‘’GERALD IS WAITING FOR ME WITH TINA!’’ nearly shouted a joyful Janet Robeson from her seat when she saw through the video displays of her light shuttle’s cabin a group of three persons waiting in one corner of the hangar where her craft had just landed. Spirit, who was seating next to Janet, smiled at her enthusiasm while noting that her ‘daughter’ Eve was also part of the trio waiting in the hangar. While both had been able to visit the NOSTROMO quite a few times during the last two and a half years, profiting from the occasional passage of the giant cargo ship through the Alpha Centauri B System, Janet had obviously been missing a lot her husband Gerald, who was working as a head chef and culinary teacher on the ship. While their respective jobs as minister of defense of the Spacers’ League and as First Lord of the Admiralty had been vital ones and had helped greatly the Spacers’ League Navy to start recovering from its disastrous battle with a Space Predators’ fleet of asteroid warships, both were happy to be able to return to their lives on the NOSTROMO, for a number of reasons. Unbuckling their seat belts, Janet and Spirit then got up from their seats and went to the central luggage storage section of the cabin to retrieve their suitcases and bags, then walked out of the small shuttle via its rear access ramp. Gerald Holmes, Tina Forster and Eve Silisca greeted them at the foot of the ramp with warm hugs and kisses, with Janet and Gerald sharing the warmest hugs of the lot. While they technically couldn’t feel real emotions, both Spirit and Eve still hugged and kissed with genuine warmth: despite being both androids, their highly advanced artificial intelligence brains, combined with years of experience at living and socializing with Humans, had made them develop something very akin to true emotions. Eve smiled to her ‘mother’, who had designed and built her via the automated cybernetic production facilities of the NOSTROMO, after taking a step back from Spirit.
‘’So, how was your time at the Admiralty Headquarters, Mother?’’
‘’Frustrating at times but still productive, Eve.’’ replied Spirit in a sober tone of voice. ‘’Janet also had her share of frustrations as Minister of Defense. Unfortunately, Spacers’ League politics is starting to develop a streak that we didn’t like much. I will tell you more about that after we had the chance to install ourselves back.’’
As Eve nodded to that and helped Spirit by grabbing one of her suitcases, Gerald Holmes also grabbed two of his wife’s suitcases and put them in the electric cart waiting next to the light shuttle.
‘’I guess that we will have a lot to talk about together this evening, Janet. However, we will be able to do so in front of a good meal: I have a nice Beef Bourguignon for supper.’’
‘’Now you’re talking, Gerald! The food was okay in Providence but it was nothing like what you can cook up. Could we invite Tina, Spirit and Eve to have supper with us?’’
‘’Of course, Janet! While Spirit and Eve can’t truly eat food, except for show, I have a nice bottle of cognac from which they will be able to sip and appreciate the aroma and taste during supper.’’
Janet nodded her head at that, understanding what Gerald had said. While they didn’t need to eat or drink to sustain themselves, Eve and Spirit were models even more advanced than the security androids built by them and used to protect the NOSTROMO, who had only a very limited capacity to make them appear able to ingest small quantities of liquids and thus look more human-like. With their cybernetic bodies built more for human socializing than for combat, both Eve and Spirit could sip, chew and swallow food and drinks in reasonable quantity if need be, to accompany Humans during meals. A system of artificial stomach and short intestine then stored those ingested liquids and food until they could be eliminated the same way as Humans did, by relieving themselves using a toilet.
With the five of them sitting in the cart and with Tina driving, they were soon rolling out of the shuttle hangar and going towards the central spine structure of the ship, where they entered a cargo elevator cabin. As the cabin started going up towards the level of the Executive Apartments Deck, where their apartments were situated, Tina gave Janet a cautious look.
‘’So, how are things in Providence, politically-wise, Janet?’’
‘’Not very well I am afraid, Tina. With Karl Langemann retiring from politics and with Paul Stein replacing him as Chairman of the High Council, things are turning into a direction I don’t like at all. To resume things as succinctly as I can, corruption, cronyism and political influence peddling are on the rise around the government. Worse, that Paul Stein is starting to reveal his true personality and it is a quite worrying one in my opinion. Jacobus Stein must not be too pleased about what kind of man his son is turning out to be. Instead of caring first and foremost about the common good, Paul Stein is in it mostly for the money and personal power and is surrounding himself with sycophants and other power-hungry people like him. I was too happy to leave my post of Minister of Defense after Paul Stein chose one of his cronies to replace me.’’
Tina nodded once before looking at Spirit.
‘’And you, Spirit? How are things at the Admiralty?’’
‘’Better than before I took the post, I must say. Admiral Yamashiro, who was chosen by Paul Stein to replace me, is at least proving to be a competent Navy man and he fully approved and supported my fleet reconstruction plan. So, in that aspect, things are going well for the Navy. However, Yamashiro unfortunately shares one trait with Paul Stein: his dislike of our security androids, who he thinks of as mere sophisticated machines rather than as true sentient beings. He did however treat me with respect, understanding how advanced and evolved I am as an android. Yamashiro, possibly on the urging of Chairman Stein, has just cut out the Navy salaries I had negotiated for our security androids, saying that, as mere machines, they didn’t need to be paid for their service, even though our androids played a big role in the defeat of the Space Predators. The navy will thus stop using our security androids as officially part of the Spacers’ League forces. They will now be limited to be used by you, Tina, while Yamashiro has vowed in exchange to expand and better equip our Space Marines.’’
Tina frowned with frustration on hearing that.
‘’Well, this Yamashiro doesn’t know how capable a fighting force he just dismissed out of hand. On the other hand, our security androids have proved to be quite adaptable and are evolving on their own in a truly nice way, making them even more useful as part of this ship’s crew. However, there is a lot to say about that and I will wait until we can have supper as a group this evening to talk more about that.’’
‘’As you wish, Tina. On my part, I will go reconnect with my fixed alter-ego, in order to update myself on ship and android matters.’’
‘’Then,’’ cut in Gerald, ‘’you are all invited for supper at our suite, for six o’clock. Don’t hesitate to bring with you your two kids and your husband, Tina: I will have a nice cake as dessert to make Misha and little Janet happy.’’
‘’I am sure that they will honor your cake with gusto, Gerald.’’ replied a grinning Tina.
19:51 (Universal Time)
Apartment # 34, Executive Deck, Frame Level # 505
A.M.S. NOSTROMO, in orbit of Providence
‘’Come on, kids: time to return to our apartment, so that Janet can have her bath and then be tucked into bed. As for you, Misha, I believe that you still have some unfinished school homework to do.’’
‘’Yes, Dad!’’ replied in a less than enthusiastic tone the fourteen-year-old Misha, an already tall and athletic boy, before following his father and his four-year-old sister out of the Robeson’s apartment. Janet Robeson watched them leave before smiling to Tina.
‘’You have two truly splendid kids, Tina. Your Misha is certainly growing into a very handsome boy, while your Janet is as sweet as candy. Has Misha started to show interest in a specific domain or occupation? Can we hope to see him become the future captain of the NOSTROMO one day?’’
‘’I would be truly proud if he ever becomes captain of this ship, or of any ship, but I am not the type of parent who forcefully push their kids into their own line of work or force them to overachieve. I will let Misha decide his future on his own. However, I can say that Misha loves playing Space fighter pilot at the ship’s ‘Pin Ball’ video-arcade center and is demonstrating some truly outstanding eye-hand coordination abilities.’’
‘’And how are his eye-hands coordination abilities when it comes to girls?’’ asked a grinning Gerald Holmes in a sneaky tone of voice, making Tina roll her eyes.
‘’In that aspect, I would say that he has a Latino-type side to his character. The girls around certainly noticed his good looks.’’
‘’Then, he will do well in life.’’ pronounced Gerald, making his wife throw an amused look at him.
‘’That’s it? Attracting girls is the most important thing for you in life?’’
‘’It certainly doesn’t hurt: look who I caught in my net!’’
The three Humans and two androids sitting around the dining table chuckled at that before Gerald got up from his chair.
‘’How about moving to the lounge now, where I will be able to serve you some nice espresso coffee and liquors?’’
‘’A fine idea, Gerald!’’ said Janet Robeson while also getting up from her chair. ‘’Let’s move to the lounge!’’
With the lounge being an extension of the dining area, the group moved quickly to the collection of sofas there and sat in direct view of the Boreal Forest Habitat, visible through the large patio windows of the apartment, while Gerald went into the kitchen area to prepare coffee. Tina, sitting opposite Janet Robeson in an easy chair, took on a sober look before starting to speak.
‘’Janet, while both Spirit and Eve already know via our ship’s Spirit about what I am going to say, there are a few things concerning our security androids that you need to know. First, I recently decided to restart low-rate production of our security androids, using our onboard facilities and Eve’s expertise in the matter. While the production rate is quite low, the building of such androids being quite costly, our android force now counts a total of 837 members, not counting Eve or Spirit. With the Space Predator’s threat significantly diminished but still existing, I have decided to assign part of our security android force to New Haven, which presently doesn’t have any planetary defense force as such. I am thus planning to post on a rotational basis half of my security androids there, along with building a number of defensive installations, to protect the various communities on my moon. A technical team is presently on New Haven, building a central cybernetic maintenance and repair facility, along with android residential buildings. Once those facilities will be ready in about three weeks, I will then ask my androids which ones would like to go on the first rotation to New Haven, with each rotation being six-months-long.’’
Janet nodded once at that.
‘’A good idea, Tina! I am especially impressed by how you treat your security androids: no differently than Humans. Many in Providence would treat them like simple slaves, not asking their opinions while employing them without rest.’’
‘’Thank you, Janet. Talking of androids and rest, that brings me to the second thing I wanted to speak with you about: the daily occupations of our androids outside of their guard duty schedules. As you know already, our androids technically don’t need to rest or sleep, ever, while they also don’t need to eat or drink to sustain themselves. All that they require are short, periodic periods of revision, maintenance and data download in the cybernetic maintenance alcove of their apartments. However, with their daily guard shifts being twelve-hour long, that leaves them with another twelve hours per day to fill with other occupations. How they chose to fill that off-time actually came as quite a surprise to me…and to the rest of my crew.’’
‘’Oh?! Tell me about it.’’
Tina paused for a second, trying to find the best words about this.
‘’Well, I gradually realized during the last couple of years that I severely underestimated the capacity of our security androids to adapt and evolve. While they still follow the core tenets of their programming, like not hurting innocents and preventing and stopping crimes, our androids have each developed individual sets of interests and hobbies as they experience socializing with us Humans during their duty periods. Those sets of interests and hobbies are about as diverse as the physical appearance of our androids and are often related to the background personality they received during their assembly. For example, Senior Centurion Jehanne de Domrémy is now fully into medievalism and has gradually acquired a full set of Fifteenth Century knightly armor and weapons. She has also been training extensively in medieval combat techniques, sparring with other androids and with Human crewmembers also interested in ancient fighting and jousting. She even learned to ride one of the horses we have in our farms and started a medieval jousting club some six months ago, a club that is proving quite popular, both with our androids and with some of our Human crewmembers. In turn, our passengers were fascinated by watching the jousting matches of her club, which are now very popular.’’
‘’Wow! That’s truly incredible!’’ exclaimed Janet Robeson. ‘’What kind of other notable hobbies did your androids develop, Tina?’’
‘’Various arts skills, like singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, painting and sculpting. One android, Centurion Taylor Swift, even got into writing new songs and composing music for them, like her historical alter-ego did in the early 21st Century, and she is proving very good at it. She already produced six original songs of her own, which have proved popular around the ship, and also sings in a marvelous voice. A couple of her songs and musical videos are now circulating around the Spacers’ League and on Earth and are proving very popular on entertainment channels.’’
‘’Wait!’’ said Janet, stunned. ‘’Did you say ‘Taylor Swift’? I watched two of her musical videos while on Providence but I never heard any mention of her being an android. Tons of young officers and servicemen in our Navy are drooling while watching her sing and dance on the entertainment channels, thinking that she is a real woman.’’
‘’That’s because she hid her true nature from the musical executives who bought her recordings. You want to know something else funny about her?’’
‘’Uh, go ahead!’’
‘’The musical band and dance troupe accompanying her in her performances are all security androids who adopted music and dancing as personal hobbies.’’
‘’Nooo! And I was fixing on one of her accompanying dancers, an impossibly handsome and talented young man.’’
‘’You mean Patrick Swayze?’’
‘’That’s the one! He really is an android?’’
‘’Sure is! On the other hand, Taylor’s success has motivated other androids into forming musical bands or singing and dancing groups of their own. A couple of those groups now regularly give performances in our ship’s theatre and at the Aperossimo bar-lounge, performances that are quite popular with our passengers and crew. You should go watch some of those shows, Janet, particularly the ones given by a group formed of Norma Jeane Mortenson, Shakira, Rihanna and Aaliyah. That female group is pure fire on stage. Thanks to our security androids, we can now provide a full spectrum of artistic shows to our passengers and crew, something that has attracted a lot of extra customers to the NOSTROMO. There is also another domain where some of our androids have unwittingly attracted more people to take cruises on my ship: sexual tourism.’’
‘’Sexual tourism? How could that be? And who would be attracted to sex with machines?’’
‘’Mostly what are widely known as ‘cougars’: mature women who can’t attract younger men anymore but are in need of occasional but caring lovers able to satisfy them. Don’t forget that our androids have fully functional copies of sexual organs. While they can’t experience pleasure themselves, they are fully able to give plenty of pleasure to their partners. They can go at it for hours on end without tiring and they can also put their organs on vibrating mode, while they have extensive programs about the art of sex. All that makes our male androids ideal occasional sexual partners for women in need of attention. Our androids also perform from time to time at the Jupiter Sex Club, stripping and dancing for the customers there.’’
Janet hid her face with both hands while shaking her head.
‘’I will have heard everything tonight, truly!’’
‘’You can blame my perverted daughter Eve for that, Janet.’’ said Spirit, smiling. ‘’First, when designing and building each of our androids, she chose mostly historical persons with good looks as a basis for their individual aspect and identity. Then, she made sure that her creations were, well, very well equipped as either male or female androids and made them able to give sexual pleasure. So, our male androids can be said to be real ‘studs’, while our female androids often were given chests more impressive than those that their historical personas were known to possess.’’
‘’Uh, do they delve into prostitution from time to time then?’’ asked Janet, feeling some misgivings. Both Eve and Tina vigorously shook their heads at once in response, with Eve replying verbally to Janet.
‘’No! Our androids never ask for money in exchange for giving sex, nor will they accept money. I made sure that this rule is firmly written in their programming. They may be paid with a fee for a dancing or stripping performance at the Jupiter Sex Club but they will neither take money for sex nor be forced to perform sexual acts against their will. When they provide sexual pleasure to a living person, then it will be for free and purely out of their own choice. I may also add that such sexual episodes with Humans actually help significantly their social development as persons. After all, sexuality is a big part of what forms the Human ego.’’
‘’True!’’ recognized Janet. ‘’And the women who have sex with our androids truly enjoy their experience?’’
‘’Enjoy is not the correct word here, Janet.’’ answered Tina, a slight smirk on her face. ‘’One of my female crewmembers, whom I will leave unnamed, confided to me that she had a number of sexual encounters with some of our male androids and that, quote, she had her brains fucked out every time, unquote. Right now, I could bet that at least a dozen of our female passengers are traveling on my ship on what I would call a ‘sexual vacation tour’. However, please stay discreet about this whole business of sex between Humans and androids: some puritans and hypocrites could use that to make false accusations against us. You just need to review the history of the last few centuries in Humanity’s history to see how easily some people could raise some kind of false outrage about this.’’
Janet sighed heavily and nodded her head at those words.
‘’Hypocrisy and intolerance are effectively old constants in Human history.’’
22:04 (Universal Time)
Wednesday, August 29, 2334
Apartment # 554-2305, Habitat Ring of the A.M.S. NOSTROMO
Docked at the Las Americas orbital terminal
Low Earth orbit, Solar System
Intent on giving as enjoyable as possible an evening to his friend and occasional sexual partner, Paul Messer, naked and standing close to and behind Roshana Golshan in the bathtub of her apartment while she took a shower, gently and expertly massaged the small of her back, making the young and very beautiful woman moan with pleasure.
‘’Yes! That’s nice, Paul. You are a true expert when it comes to giving massages.’’
‘’Only with massages?’’ quipped the athletic and handsome-looking android while continuing to massage the muscles around her lower vertebras.
‘’With everything! I have yet to meet a man who shows as much care, expertise and regard towards his sexual partner as you do. Too many boys think mostly about their own pleasure and assume, often wrongly, that they are expert lovers.’’
‘’I believe that I heard that before a few times. It seems that men often understand poorly women and their needs, while overestimating themselves.’’
‘’But you don’t, Paul, which makes you an even nicer partner and friend. Well, time to get out of the shower and dry ourselves up: I have a big day of studies tomorrow and I should go to bed early.’’
‘’Then, let me towel you dry, Roshana.’’ said softly Paul Messer before stepping out of the bathtub and grabbing a towel, then proceeding to dry her from head to toe and concentrating a bit longer than strictly needed on her groin area, making her climax for the third time in the evening and earning a kiss from Roshana in return.
‘’You are truly fantastic, Paul. I just wish that I could give you pleasure in return.’’
‘’Pleasuring you is my pleasure, Roshana.’’ replied the android, who was still kneeling in front of her. Roshana smiled and gently caressed his short blond hair.
‘’You do have a way with words, Paul. Well, time for you to dry up and dress up: I do have to go to sleep soon, to be well rested for tomorrow.’’
‘’You are still studying applied physics, right?’’ asked Paul while starting to towel himself dry.’’
‘’Yes! I earned my diploma two months ago but decided to continue studying aboard the NOSTROMO, in order to get a master’s degree. Doctor Koomak had encouraged me to do so, saying that I held lots of promises as a physicist, and was coaching me along. God, I miss him! He was such a great mind and a great person.’’
‘’He certainly was. And what is your planned project for your master’s degree, if I may ask?’’
Roshana hesitated for a moment before replying: she had kept that subject to herself up to now, in view of its delicate and possibly controversial nature. However, if Paul promised not to repeat what he would hear, then she was confident that he would keep mum about that.
‘’You remember that we were able to capture a couple of Space Predator ships two years ago and to grab a number of pieces of Predator technology?’’
‘’Of course I do! I was part of the assault force that stormed those Predator ships.’’
‘’Then, keep this to yourself but I was helping Doctor Koomak study the Predator transporter technology. Now that Doctor Koomak is dead, I intend to continue studying that technology and possibly adapt it for our own use.’’
Messer’s expression changed at that point, turning from playful to most sober.
‘’That technology could indeed be critical for us, Roshana. With it, we could thus turn it against those monsters. May I make a suggestion about this?’’
‘’Go on!’’
‘’Contact Spirit and advise her about this. While you probably don’t want her to directly help you in your efforts, something that could nullify the legitimacy of your master’s degree project, she could open extra resources for it, like computer simulation time and the building of special hardware.’’
Roshana slowly nodded her head at his words, seeing the value of his suggestion.
‘’Your idea is most interesting, Paul. I may just contact Spirit tomorrow, when I will be in the applied physics lab of the ship’s university. Thank you for your suggestion.’’
‘’My pleasure, Roshana.’’ replied the android before going into her bedroom in order to get dressed. Four minutes and a last kiss later, he was walking out of her apartment, leaving a thoughtful Roshana alone.
12:18 (Universal Time)
Friday, August 31, 2334
Cafeteria of the NOSTROMO University
Habitat Ring, Frame Level # 576, A.M.S. NOSTROMO
Approaching the planet New Polynesia
HD40307 System, 42 light-years from Earth
Roshana was eating rather quickly her curry rice at one of the small tables of the university’s cafeteria when she saw Captain Tina Forster enter the large room. At first, she didn’t think much about it…until she saw Tina head straight for her table. With blood rushing to her head from the sudden mix of excitement and anxiety, Roshana put down her fork and hurried to wipe her mouth clean before Tina stopped next to her table and smiled down to her.
‘’Miss Roshana Golshan? May I sit down and talk with you for a moment?’’
‘’Of course, Captain! Please, sit down.’’
‘’Thank you!’’
Sitting down and facing Roshana from across the table, Tina then stared in silence at the physics student for a moment before starting to speak.
‘’First off, me coming to see you is not a sign that you may be in trouble, Miss Golshan, on the contrary. You contacted Spirit yesterday and told her that you intended to make the Space Predators’ transporter technology the subject of your masters’ thesis, to which Spirit responded favorably and encouraged you to continue with your project. In turn, Spirit informed me of this, prompting me to review your student’s file. What I saw truly impressed me, miss. First, you graduated in applied physics with A+ grades and were at the top of your class. Second, Doctor Koomak recorded a glowing review of your studies and exam results, emphasizing your ability to understand new concepts and ideas and also counseling that you be given all the opportunities possible to advance further in the field of physics. Third is the fact that the I.Q. test you passed on arrival on the NOSTROMO firmly placed you in the ‘genius’ category, with a recorded score of 164. Now, you want to study and analyze what is a most alien and potentially important technology, with the goal of adapting it for our future use. Know that I fully approve of your interest in Space Predator transporter technology and that I am ready to support your work to the utmost. On the other hand, you still have only resident student status onboard my ship and are still paying tuition fees to continue on towards your masters’ degree. I came to see you to offer you some substantive support for your studies and work.’’
‘’What kind of substantive support, Captain?’’ asked Roshana, her heart accelerating.
‘’Basically, an offer for you to become a full-time member of the scientific staff of my ship, along with a salary and the elimination for the need by you to pay tuition fees. Also, I am ready to assign to you everything you will reasonably need in order to work on your project.’’
Those words left Roshana unable to speak for seconds as blood rushed to her brain. This offer represented more than she had ever hoped for, as being a member of the NOSTROMO University’s scientific faculty was a prestigious title widely recognized as such around the Spacers’ League. To achieve such a goal at the tender age of 24 was simply overwhelming to her.
‘’I…I must say that your offer is both flattering and generous, Captain. I accept!’’
‘’Excellent! I will thus have your tuition payments stopped as of today and will have you officially join the university’s physics faculty. By the way, your new position will come with an annual salary of 90,000 credits, while your lodging and food will become free. Will those conditions satisfy you, Miss Golshan?’’
‘’Satisfy me, Captain? You just made a dream come true for me.’’
Her reply made a wide smile appear on Tina’s face.
‘’Then, report after lunch to the university’s Dean, who will make you sign a contract and will assign to you both an office and a lab.’’
‘’I…I am going to have my own lab, Captain?’’
Tina nodded her head, now looking very serious.
‘’You will need one, Miss Golshan, as everything pertaining to captured Space Predator technology is treated as highly classified matter, for obvious reasons. Spirit and her android avatar will be your direct liaison for this project and you will report directly to them. On this, I will let you finish your lunch.’’
Tina, getting up from her chair, then briefly shook hands with Roshana before walking away, leaving a stunned Roshana to watch her go.