By David C. Daoust
After weeks in space, rather than collecting their tank, the small crew of the space-tanker, Atlas, found themselves docked on the Collecting Station Iopa-XIX. Or, more commonly known as just ‘Nineteen’, to those that lived and worked there.
Nineteen was a small, sleek station, pretty much a massive cross, floating in space, orbiting the purple orb that was the Gas Giant, Iopa. Oversized tanks were attached up and down the vertical cross section, while the horizontal cross section allowed for ships to dock. The main-station-center was a bit more than just administration organizing pickups– but not by much.
“It’s all clamped tight and green across the board, Dad… err Captain,” Danny reported after running his docking checks, “Looks like everything is powering down. I’d say we’re good to go!”
“Good work,” Pete praised, then dryly hooked a thumb at the men standing on the other side of the airlocks, “Looks like we got company waiting…” Pete grumbled a little then asked, “Rosie, you coming?”
“If I may, Captain,” Rosie requested.
“Good to go’s, good to go. Why wouldn’t you stop in?” Pete asked cryptically. Noreen often found human exchanges confusing, she found it a positive indication, however, that bots seemed to take such informal language in stride.
“Good,” Rosie’s tin voice agreed, not bothering to answer the question, “I could use a break, it gets harder and harder to keep a straight face.”
They all chuckled as the faceless device, with Rosie’s small Data-sphere embedded within, disengaged from the small navigation terminal she was loaded into.
As an Aspirant, Rosie was able to swap bodies, or bot-forms, on her own. This was not a feature most data-spheres had access to. In fact, common bots were forced to rely on others to remove them, then load them into whatever real-world body they had access to. This feature was largely a gift by those Royals that had harvested the higher caliber data-spheres from the Hub; a gift, primarily, only given to Aspirants.
The small mobile device, once disengaged with the terminal, hovered through the air and then vanished into the back storage area. The sound of the small craft loading itself within its host body could be heard, followed by shuffling, then large lumbering movements in fact, and then a distinct sound that was not normally heard in space…
“Rosie?” Pete, eye’s wide, called back, somewhat startled at what he thought he’d heard, “You did bring your old ‘human’ form, didn’t you? Please, say you did.”
Most Aspirants aspired to be human— Rosie, however, found herself interested more in the majestic, regal beast, known as a Moose!
That distinct sound, not normally heard in space, proved to be exactly what it sounded like… hooves.
“Why would I do that?” the tin voice came out of the seven-foot furry beast that stepped out of the back quarters, “I’m a Moose! Not a ‘human’.”
“Indeed,” Pete said as the massive life-like form clopped into the main compartment, father and son forced to make room, “Indeed, you are a Moose… just, I don’t know that a ‘moose in space’ is all that great of an idea.”
“I think its brilliant,” Danny threw in with a laugh.
“Moose in Spaaaace!” Rosie suddenly sang as she bumped her nose against the first airlock. With a loud gush of air, the first set of doors parted.
The moon, Umbrie, at least the region in which this crew all lived, (when they weren’t on their annual Iopa Run) was known for its large Moose population. This was one of the things that pried the Rogue Aspirant from the Arkroy Provinces. Another being Pete and his endless support of her desire to be more than what she was told to be. But that’s a whole ‘nother story to unload.
“Space Moose!” Danny tried, laughing some more as they all ‘herded’ into the small corridor that would lead into the station. It was a bit of a challenge to get her massive six-foot-wide antlers through the first set of doors… Eventually, she did manage to twist her head around, and angle it just right…
While she was a she, the Moose-form Rosie used was a buck. Thus, had a full, impressive, rack. Really, Rosie was fairly tightlipped about the change to a buck. She did, however, throw out a few colorful remarks about ‘males’ being overly aggressive. Often with a bit of a haunted look in her eye. Notably, most Bucks where only six and a half feet tall at the shoulder- compared to Rosie’s full seven, Noreen felt a correlation seemed probable.
Rosie and Danny were clearly having fun with their sing-song moose humor they kept singing back and forth to each other… While Pete seemed a bit too preoccupied with the whole ‘being turned away thing’ to join in. A thing that was forced back into the forefront, despite the surprise moose, as the second set of doors opened. Constables were there to greet them. Armed Constables. Along with an official, Noreen recognized as the administrator for Iopa-XIX.
Rosie, leading the way, announced to the captain, “I’m going to head over— see if I can plug into the Hub. I miss my own kind…”
The group of men were forced to give way to the massive beast as it plowed into the corridor.
“I am afraid that is not possible,” a constable spoke up, clearly unsure who to direct this statement to, the beast or the captain, “You must remain in your quarters… until this matter is settled.” Spoken like a man who did not expect to be addressing a moose.
“How you going to stop me?” the buck snorted, rudely, in the man’s face as she strode on by.
“You go ahead, Rosie,” Pete ordered, “Enjoy the ‘leave.” Then shrugged to the man, “How you going to stop her?”
Rosie trotted away, ignoring the grumbles, suddenly she sang out, “Moose in Spaaace!”
“Space moose!” Danny chimed in as the moose trotted on down the corridor.
The boy was laughing, though Noreen, was suddenly more concerned with the angry young pilot that came charging down the opposite end of the corridor, headed directly for Danny.
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