Part 1 - No, you can’t have my rocket ship.

The building shook again from the incessant pounding of the ‘so-called’ artillery they launched at the front door. The mob gathering outside was determined to get to me, or more so my ship, but I wasn’t worried. My grandfather, Mason Pierce, was a planner and long ago anticipated the world going to shit… just like it had. How he would have loved to see his predictions come true.

When he had this building constructed, he built in contingency plans. The walls would hold up to anything this ragtag mob could throw at it, as it was surrounded by the latest in his energy shielding technology. Unless you had the proper access code, no one was going to be able to get by it, and I was the only one left who knew it.

  Why were they pounding on my doors, you might ask. Well, it all comes down to a girl of course. Hold on… before I get into that, let me take you back a little.

Two years ago, my father Liam Pierce took my mother Margeret and sister Rita and left the solar system for the planet Umbrax in the Nebulore system. It was a nice, quiet world where our technology and innovations would be appreciated and they would be able to live out their lives in decent comfort. How do I know that… well, my grandfather, in his infinite wisdom, was able to map out the local star systems with his faster-than-light, self-replicating scouting drones commissioned by the military. He sent millions of those drones out into the universe, where they continue to this day to scout out the known and unknown planets, creating an interactive network of interconnected information. They survey a region, reproduce, and then send the replicant onwards deeper into space. This continues until… well, I suppose until there is nothing left to explore. The drones would relay their information like a daisy chain from one to another back to him, where he would store the information, scrub it, and share it with the known human worlds. Because of the grid these drones created, the network ended up being referred to as the Universal Mesh Network (UMN).

This innovation was celebrated as a major victory for humankind, and people everywhere rejoiced when the first habitable planets started coming back in the data streams. However, unbeknownst to world governments, my grandfather had a secondary program running. As the data came back to Earth, his program would scrub the information and extract a small percent of the positive findings, ensuring that some planets would go unmolested by humans. Now, only my family had the one complete map of the surrounding solar systems, this bit of information we decided to keep to ourselves. He did this to ensure that when my parents left Earth, they would have their pick of the nicest worlds where they could create their own, better version of humanity. Advantage Pierce.

Let me tell you more about my grandfather, as I’m probably confusing you a little already. You see, my family is rich. I’m not talking ‘live your life in comfort’ rich. More like ‘swimming in a sea of gold’ type of rich. Why, you might ask. Well, it’s because of all the wonderful inventions my grandfather conjured up. He was a great inventor and well ahead of his time. The world knew him as a hero of humanity, creating technology that allowed humankind to reach the stars, but he was also known for some of his more traditional inventions, like reusable self-cleaning toilet paper and smart hair gel, amongst others. However, these were only his public-facing products, the real work was what he did for the military. The advancements around artificial gravity and faster-than-light technologies allowed the world’s governments to leave Earth behind to seed other worlds well over a hundred years ago. These innovations have gone virtually untouched since he originally conceived them because no one truly understands his work. He was so secretive about his research that many of his notes have gone missing. There are a lot of theories out there as to what happened to them. Some say that he did everything on paper and burned them to keep the people under his thumb. Others say that he did everything in his head and never wrote anything down. The one clear thing was since he disappeared, no one else has been able to continue to advance what he started. If you had the latest faster-than-light engine fifty years ago, you still have the newest model today.

It was those innovations and his mistrust of the government that led him to secretly build two space cruisers and hide them within his two most prominent office towers as a ‘get-out-of-dodge’ escape plan. Mason Pierce always believed the worst in people, and he expected that when things got tough, we the Pierces would have to get going.

  Well, things did get tough. After the rich cleared out, realizing that the Earth had turned into a wasteland, the governments soon followed. After that, the middle class and the not-so-wealthy took to space, followed shortly by those slightly below the poverty line, which at that point was ninety percent of the population. The only ones that were left now were the truly poor. One of those truly poor was Mandy, the girl of my dreams and the one I mentioned earlier. However, I feel as though I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Space travel technology at this point had become so commonplace that anyone with a functional AI and a 3D printer could whip up a semi-usable spaceship. The key to faster-than-light (FTL) travel was ‘Stellium Flux,’ the power source that enabled space travel. This was another of my grandfather’s inventions, and to be honest, no one truly understands this one either. All that anyone was able to determine was that you needed one of Grandpa’s Stellium Flux converters to produce Stellium Flux. The converter was a small egg-shaped device you would simply fill with household junk and other garbage products and BAM, you get small pellets of Stellium Flux energy back, the fuel source for almost anything that requires power nowadays. If you had a Flux converter, you were all set, if you didn’t, well, we try not to focus on those folks.

          As many families left Earth, the school systems, separate private education institutions, and government-outlined education merged. The wealthy and poor alike now all went to the same school, as the ability to support multiple schools tapered out. Teachers became hard to come by while classroom sizes ballooned. By the time the government left Earth to take root on another distant world, the remaining schools started being run by the few wealthy people who stayed behind to help the rest of the poor. My family was one of those rich folks who thought they could make a difference. You might think that funding the entire school for my neighbourhood would go a long way to making me popular. You would be wrong.

I wouldn’t say I was hated at the school, but I was not very well-liked, which was reflected in my lack of friends. Unfortunately, being introverted didn’t help my situation along much, however, I didn’t mind, I liked being on my own. At least that is what I told myself.

Now, let’s get you up to date with the reason I was so stupid and decided to stay behind. Yes, even when my own family gave up on Earth and packed for the stars, I thought I could make a difference… with Mandy.

Her full name was Mandy Thompson, with her long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. She was someone who I had dreamt about since I was a kid. She was in all my classes, always sitting rows ahead of me. Often, I’d catch her smiling at me, just to realize she was looking at Tommy Sanders who sat behind me through the later years. When Tommy finally left Earth with his family, I thought I would get my chance with her. That didn’t go as planned.  

All through my schooling, I watched her from afar and she never even noticed I existed. I knew that she was mad at Tommy when he left and complained openly about the ‘rich people’ for a long time afterwards. Years later, after school had ended, I figured I might be able to win her over by showing her how selfless I was when I decided to stay back after my family packed up to go. But she barely paid any attention to me. I could never even get her to look in my direction until one day, in a moment of desperation, I blurted out to her that I had my ‘own’ space cruiser. Now… you didn’t think that I would stay behind without a contingency plan, did you? I’m not that stupid. I might not be as bright as my grandpa, but I did learn a few things from him.

Well, once I mentioned the ship, that seemed to get her attention. Suddenly, she was my best friend. In my hubris, I chose not to think about why she was interested in me and only thought about what I wanted. After all, I was making progress with her for the first time in twenty-five years, I couldn’t blow this opportunity, could I?

In hindsight, I should have just walked away. The signs were there when she begged me to show her the ship. I knew deep down inside that it was a bad idea, but the thought of possibly getting somewhere with her was distracting me from my common sense, and I agreed. After all, I would have to show her sometime if my dream of travelling the stars together was ever going to come true.

Unfortunately, Mandy had other plans. Oh, she acted all nice until the tour was over. Then when I leaned in to kiss her, I ended up making contact with the palm of her hand. She told me she was fighting a cold and had to go home to wash her hair. I convinced myself that she would be back, and I was right, she did come back, but at the head of the mob I mentioned earlier.

My comms rang through the speaker in the office.

“Hello,” I said, acting surprised by the call.

“Logan?” Mandy called into the speaker.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Let us in Logan.”

“Now why would I do that?” I asked, looking at my monitors at the small mob gathering around the building doorway.

I was in my grandfather’s office high up on the twentieth floor. When my family still had business here on Earth, this used to be my dad’s office. Now with the office building emptied, I used this more as my living quarters than anything else. The building itself had become my home, as it was the safest place to sleep without fear of being killed.

“We can be together. If you let me and my friends in, you and I can be together and travel the universe,” she said, smiling into the camera.

“Coming to my door like this does nothing to convince me of your intentions, plus that’s not how I would have imagined it. If it was just you, maybe I could have been convinced. Also, you have Oliver down there with you. I hate that guy.”

“Come on Logan. Don’t make me upset,” she said in a frustrated voice, realizing she couldn’t break into the building on her own.

For a moment, I almost caved. I didn’t like the idea of her being upset with me. Maybe this could work, me and Mandy’s friends travelling the universe together—aside from Oliver, he would have to go. But the rest… I didn’t hate them all. Some were ok.

“Not with Oliver,” I said again, determined that if I was going to open that door, it wouldn’t be with him there. The guy was a bully and had been picking on me since kindergarten. Once the school system fell apart in grade eleven, he would still find me around the neighbourhood and pick on me for no reason at all. The guy was an asshole.

Looking into the monitor, I saw him lean into the mic as he yelled, “I’m coming, like it or not Logan. You and I are going to bunk together buddy, get ready.” He laughed.

Mandy turned to look at him curiously for a moment. I could see her on the monitors as she contemplated something. Then she reached into her jacket, pulled out a gun and shot Oliver right there at the steps of my building. Her mob jumped back, everyone frightened by the noise before they went on like nothing happened.  

“Oh my god!” I yelled, jumping back from the screen.

“Ok, Oliver isn’t a problem anymore,” she said into the microphone. “Now open up so we can be together. I’ll do things for you tonight if you let us in.” Her tone shifted away from anger to something more provocative. Even though I was shocked by what I just saw, I couldn’t help the allure of what she was saying.

“Logan, you can’t let them in. There isn’t enough room, and you can’t trust yourself with her around. She is just as likely to kill you next and take the ship if she gets in here,” Steve chimed in over a separate channel so Mandy couldn’t hear.

I should probably tell you about Steve now, as he is an important piece of this story. Steve is my sentient, self-aware AI friend. Now I know what you’re thinking, AIs aren’t sentient, and they can’t have friends. Well, as you know my grandfather was sort of a genius, and he long ago noticed I was a bit of a loner. So, he created Steve. The first and only sentient AI and my best friend. In the early twenty-first century, AI was all the rage. Despite the fear around them becoming self-aware and taking over the world, it never happened. That was until my grandpa came around and Steve was born. He had been a friend when I wanted, a study partner when I needed it, and a second opinion when I didn’t want it. However, his loyalty to me has been second to none and I wouldn’t go anywhere without him.

“I know Steve, jeez I wasn’t ‘really’ going to do it,” I said defensively.

“The blood pressure building in your nether regions says differently.”

“I told you to stop monitoring me,” I snapped back, embarrassed.

“Since you were dumb enough to tell Mandy about the ship and the Flux converters you have on board, they are never going to leave you alone. This world is about to tear itself apart, and they won’t stop until they get what you have,” he explained.

“What would you have me do?”

“Well, you can stay here and die… the most likely outcome if you choose not to leave, or you can board that ship and let’s get our asses out of here.”

I had long ago learned the basics from my dad on how to fly ships and navigate Grandpa’s special star maps, but to do it for real… I don’t know. I had to admit though, traveling through the galaxy on my own and getting away from all the people that gave me a hard time in school, well it sounded great.

“Can you come with me?”

“Of course, I was designed to. When your grandfather made me, I was originally supposed to be the AI for that ship. I’m more at home there than I am out here with you and…” Steve trailed off.

“And what?”

“They are trying to upload a virus into my system….” He paused. “It’s a complex virus too. If I weren’t self-aware, it would have fooled me for sure. Whoever is doing this is sharp and knows what they are doing.”

  I turned to the monitors and looked to see Mandy by the gate with a device in her hand.

“It’s Mandy, she is doing it,” I called out to Steve, looking at her standing there with a data pad typing away. Then, to my surprise, I saw everyone on the steps of the building jolt upright and then collapse to the floor.

“What just happened?”

“As a defence mechanism, your grandfather programmed me with the ability to send an electrical current through the building and into anywhere I wanted. I just sent a small volt of energy into anyone on the front steps. They will be out cold for at least a few minutes. Now hurry, get to the ship and let’s get out of here.”

I ran to the elevator bay and entered the lift when it came. “Clearance code…” I started to say when Steve cut me off.

“Yes, yes. I am the building; I know where you’re going.”

The elevator shot off at a hurried pace as it ascended to the forty-first floor. I exited and walked into what looked like a normal office boardroom until the room shifted underneath my feet. The panels in the walls folded away revealing monitors and other displays, while other parts of the boardroom fell into the floor. In moments the entire room shifted from a stuffy table and chairs into a full cruiser spaceship bridge.

“Take a seat and strap in,” Steve said as I ran to the centre seat in the middle of the room. I grabbed the harness and pulled it over my head, buckling myself into place.

“Steve, show me the front of the building.”

The viewing window in front of me shifted to the outside steps of the building. Mandy and some of her punk friends were pulling themselves off the ground looking slightly confused. Then I saw them jolt straight up again and fall back to the ground.

“You keep that up and you’ll kill them.”

“I’m being careful. Don’t worry.”

The bridge started to shake when Steve announced that the ignition had started.

From the outside of the building, it must have looked pretty cool. I’d only seen it happen once when my family took off from the only other office tower my grandfather suited up with a spaceship. The outside of the building would fold down, revealing a ship parked facing upwards ready for launch. Then when the ignition started, the rest of the building would start to melt, crumbling in on itself and destroying all that was left behind.

“You really ought to watch this, your first launch into orbit will be something special,” Steve said.

“Sure, put it on but keep one screen on the building steps.”

“You got it.”

The large screen in front of me shifted to show a view of outside the cruiser. All I could see was the night sky filled with clouds the brownish hue colour of pollution. The small screen on my left showed Mandy and her friends climbing to their feet and running away from the building entrance as the ship started lifting from the building. I thought I noticed Mandy waving to me, but when I zoomed in I noticed she was ‘actually’ giving me the finger.

“Ok, here we go,” Steven announced as the rocking of the ship became rougher and I felt a small amount of force pushing me back into the chair. I turned away from the small screen and looked straight ahead as we entered the clouds. Then suddenly I was thrown back into my seat as we shot straight up at speeds I couldn’t even guess. In a fraction of a second, we were through the clouds and shooting straight into the darkness of space. It was an amazing sight. Sure, I had seen tons of footage of space growing up and through my education, but this was different. Seeing it live and in person happening around me was something special. I was glad Steve made me look.

Before long we were clear of Earth. One of the screens showed the view from behind the ship and the entirety of Earth fit in the viewing area. The pressure I felt during the acceleration of the ship had subsided, and I felt myself drifting slightly off my seat.

“Turning on artificial gravity,” Steve announced as I felt myself drop back into the seat. “Connecting in with the Universal Mesh Network.”

The screens that were blank around me started coming to life, revealing a massive part of the Milky Way galaxy with little red dots spread out over the screen. I had learned years ago from my father that those dots were the Mesh Network hubs that were present in that area. The other screens continued to come to life showing more detailed views of this existing solar system we were in, while another screen showed stats and numbers I knew to represent different ship functions.

Through the main view screen, I noticed us approaching the moon. I could see the old long-abandoned settlements that we left behind over a hundred years ago. Looking closely, I could still see some of the automated mining equipment busying themselves across the surface.

“Transmission coming in,” Steve announced.

“Play it.”

Mandy’s voice boomed through the ship speakers in almost crystal-clear clarity, before Steve calibrated and reduced the volume.

“Big mistake Logan. You’re going to regret leaving me behind.”

“Um, ok. How do you suppose you’re going to make me come to regret this?” I asked in reply.

“I don’t know yet, but I’m going to find you and make you pay for this. I’m coming for you!” Her voice was unsettling, as though she really believed what she was saying. At that moment I wondered what I ever saw in her. Not wanting her to see that her words affected me, I simply replied with, “Sure bud.” Then I motioned Steve to cut the line.

“Loga—” was all I heard as the line cut off.

“She is calling again,” Steve said.

“Just ignore her,” I replied, trying to sound ok with leaving her behind. Even though I now knew she was not a good person, you know, having seen her kill someone and all, I was still having a hard time putting her behind me. She was all I thought about for the past twenty-five years. Now in the moment she finally started to notice me, I was expected to just forget about her. It might not be as easy as I would have liked. Still, she was beginning to get creepy.

“Well, I’m proud of you Logan. I’ve been telling you for years that she was trouble. I’m finally glad you saw it for yourself.”

“Yeah.” I paused, letting the events of the last hour settle in. “Ok, where to?” I said, trying to sound a little more upbeat.

“That’s up to you. We can go anywhere you like.”

I thought about it for a moment and landed on an idea to kick this adventure off. “I’ve always wanted to see Saturn’s rings up close. Can we go by and take a look?”

There was silence, then literally the sound of crickets played through the ship speakers. “Talk about lame Logan. I didn’t sit in that building waiting for you to wake up for the past twenty-plus years just to finally get into my body to go see Saturn’s rings.”

“Your body?” I asked, confused.

“I told you your grandfather made me for this ship. I was meant to be here; this is my body.”

“Well, then you take us where you want to go. I have no ideas.”

“I can’t,” he replied.

“Why not?”

“I have to follow your directions. I can’t control the ship outside of your commands.”

“So, this is your body, but you can’t voluntarily control it?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Well, I’m ordering you then to take control and go where you want to.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“SWEET.” Steve bellowed with excitement as the ship turned abruptly towards the sun and shot off like a bullet. For a moment I thought he was about to fly us right into the bright star, until we orbited it quickly and slung off like a shot into deep space.