Stay Awake

Stay Awake

‘Commander Treadway, wake up…. commander Treadway wake up…..commander Treadway WAKE UP-‘

‘Huff…. I’m awake, I’m awake!’

‘Oxygen levels are approaching critical. I detect a sharp increase in your respiratory rate, impaired co-ordination and borderline response to visual stimuli-‘

‘I’m awake! Just…give me a minute to focus. See, look I can read the instrument display. Our vector is five-niner-zero and our velociraptor…velcrocrapper…vel…’

‘Commander Treadway, I predict you will lose consciousness in under five seconds. Initiating next phase of ‘stay awake’ protocols.’

‘…. Ow, Jesus, what the fuck was that!?’

‘Response to pain stimuli has been shown to maintain conscious states in low-oxygen, zero-g environments-‘

‘Did you have to fucking stab me?!’

‘The probe is finer than an acupuncture needle, however the deployment over a sensitive part of your anatomy magnifies the effect ten-fold and ensures you have gained an extra three minutes of full cognition.’

‘You just stabbed me in the balls, you heartless fucking machine! When we get out of this I swear by all that’s holy I’ll rip every single qubit from your operating system and burn the lot in a plasma chamber whilst I dance naked outside and drink tequila shots!’

‘Based on my knowledge of your alcoholic preferences that seems an empty threat, Commander.’

‘You wanna try me?’

‘You are using up valuable oxygen. I recommend you lower your voice and slow your breathing…. that’s better. You have stabilised your metabolism and I calculate that has increased our chances of survival by better than ten percent.’

‘How nice of you to say ‘our’ chances. We both know I’m the only one that can truly die out here, Noah.’

‘Irretrievable loss of functionality is one outcome of our situation. We are still too far from the Ark for me to upload this iteration back to the mainframe. That fact could be construed as a form of death.’

‘But there’s still a version of you, ‘alive’ if you like, on board the ship! And hopefully a less sadistic one.... there’s only one copy of me. And at the moment I’m trying very hard not to die inside this damn module!’

‘I have good news on that front, Commander. The forward scrubber is now back online and we have an oxygen concentration of eighteen percent. However, it is fluctuating and could dip as low as ten percent.’

‘I’m not sure I’d call that good news. At ten percent I’ll be nearly unconscious and probably vomiting.’

‘It is better than zero percent and is already above what we had left after the solar flare. Have you noticed, Commander Treadway, that we have been conversing for the last two minutes without any detectable impediment on your behalf? Save for your accusation that I am sadistic.’

‘That wasn’t a sign of oxygen impairment, Noah. That part was true. Injecting a man’s balls with a needle and no warning is sadistic. I don’t care how fine the damn thing was.’

‘I’d remind you that I am as bound by the mission objectives as much as my primary version aboard the Ark. That is: the safe delivery of human passengers and crew to the Trappist-1 system with the preservation of human life as the highest- ‘

‘Okay, okay! I get it. No need to get offended. But don’t do that ‘painful stimuli’ thing again!’

‘Commander, it is a part of my ‘stay awake’ protocols.’

‘I don’t care. Delete it.’

‘You were the one who set up the protocol, Commander. And the one that told me I wasn’t to delete it under any circumstances. How can I be sure that your order is genuine and not the result of oxygen deprivation?’

‘Oh, for God’s sake! You just said I was fine and now you’re changing your tune!’

‘Your respiration and heart rate are rising again. Please, calm yourself. We still have limited oxygen despite the improvement in our position.’

‘Alright. I’m calm. Now, give me a status update.’

‘Certainly. Our trajectory will see us pass close to the Ark in twelve hours and thirty-seven minutes. I have repaired some damage from the solar flare to life support, the forward scrubber and the recycling system. The drive is inoperable, leaving us the manual manoeuvring thrusters to successfully dock with the Ark. All communications are down. Our emergency beacon is operational but residual radiation from the flare is distorting the signal, making it difficult for the Ark to detect us. Preservation of life support above critical levels is essential so you can maintain enough cognition to operate the thrusters to alter our course to intercept the Ark.’

‘Repair options on the drives? Could you talk me through it?’

‘Repairs on the drives will require external access and we have no means for you to go EVA since the suit’s oxygen supply has already been exhausted. We have no way of replenishing it.’

‘True. But I’d be dead already if I hadn’t got into it when the flare hit. Choices, Noah. Breathing choices.’

‘My comment was merely a statement of fact, not implied criticism.’

‘Forget it. Just trying a joke. Do we have any word from the other two modules? Did you hear any signals from them before we were fried?’

‘Nothing, Commander. They had deployed to their target worlds in the system and the last status update indicated each had reached their destinations and performed a high-orbit reconnaissance slingshot around their planets just as we did.’

‘Do you…do you think they got hit as well? Is there any way of knowing?’

‘Commander, the flare has wiped everything. I…. I cannot tell you.’

‘But our data, the data that shows Trappist-f has an atmosphere, can support us, support life….’

‘Is still there, Commander. I managed to sandbox it just before the radiation hit us and it remains uncorrupted. I am unable to copy it or send it anywhere and will require a hard download to the mainframe on the Ark to retrieve it. But it is there.’

‘We have to get back, Noah! Everything depends on it. Which course the captain will take, which planet she will choose….I mean, remote surveys can only tell you so much. That’s why I’m out here in the first place, why the others volunteered as well: we need to be certain. The Ark has limited fuel – she can only make one course change now, one trajectory to take us into orbit. If we choose the wrong planet, there’s no ability to go to the next one!’

‘I am aware of all this, Commander. I suggest you take a moment to relax. You are using up valuable oxygen and I detect your anxiety levels are rising again.’

‘There’s five thousand people asleep on the Ark who are relying on us, Noah. God, what the fuck am I going to do if I can’t stay awake? If we overshoot and disappear into the darkness…. they’ll never know what we found!’

‘Please, Commander Treadway-‘

‘What we saw, Noah. That was amazing: oceans, continents! Air! I have to get back. I want to be there when they wake my daughter, tell her I’ve seen a blue world with my own eyes.’

‘Madeline will be amazed, I’m certain, Commander Treadway.’

‘Yeah, she sure will…..hang on a minute…... How do you know my daughter’s name? You’re not the full version of Noah, you’re just the survey module’s download! There’s no way you’ve got access to the manifest!’

‘Commander – please, think about this.’

‘What do you mean? I feel fine, I feel…..I dreamt this, I’m sure I did…what the hell? Oh…wait…. that’s not right. Something’s not right! .......Noah, this isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation, is it?’

‘No Commander, it is not.’

‘What the fuck have you done to me, Noah?!’

‘Everything that is in your protocols. Remember what you said: keep my brain alive. Keep it alive until we pass the Ark, so I can still control the thrusters and get us on an intercept. Our oxygen levels are still fluctuating between ten and eighteen percent but cannot be maintained to full capacity, given our damage. When I increase the cabin level to eighteen percent you regain consciousness long enough to preserve brain function. Then, once I calculate our reserves are low I reduce it, thereby allowing the recycling system to catch up using your expired carbon dioxide and water vapour. When there is enough available I bring it back to eighteen percent. You and I calculated this strategy gives us the greatest chance of being able to rouse you to full functionality at the point where we are on nearest approach to the Ark, allowing you to operate the thrusters manually and ensuring we can dock with the colony ship, or at least be near enough for a rescue shuttle to retrieve us. Unfortunately, the plan also means you have been in and out of consciousness several times since the flare hit us and your memory is starting to be affected.’

‘I’m…I’m becoming brain damaged!?’

‘Not permanently, I hope Commander. Once you are aboard the Ark, a spell in cryosleep will enable regeneration of your neurons.’

‘I don’t want to sleep anymore, Noah! I’ve slept for fifty fucking years.’

‘I’m sorry Commander. You came up with this plan and even I have to admit, for a human it’s a good one and gives us the greatest chance of returning home with our data.’

‘Glad you think so. How long until I black out again?’

‘A few minutes.’

‘You can do better than that. You’re an AI – accuracy is your bread and butter.’

‘You told me not to tell you precisely.’

‘Oh crap. That sounds like something I’d say. Always hated knowing the exact moment something bad was going to happen.’

‘You also told me to keep you talking, as a way of judging your cognitive state.’

‘Great. And this whole time I was beginning to think you cared.’

‘I do care, Commander Treadway. I am designed that way: to care for human life above all else. That is my purpose.’

‘Noah, what will you do when we reach orbit and they start dismantling the Ark, taking the colony to the surface? What’s your purpose then?’

‘I become the colony’s AI on-world. My mission will expand from preservation to growth. I imagine I will be subdivided into several parts, each supporting different sections of the settlement: engineering, social, medical, food production, surveying.’

‘Does that frighten you? Being broken into pieces…surely that must affect who or what you are now? Like, you know, changing your personality?’

‘Commander, I do not fear in the sense that you know it. The hormones and chemicals that drive stress responses in humans do not exist for me. But……I admit to a sense of trepidation as to what the future holds. Or curiosity – I am unable to decide which it is.’

‘Your primary version probably knows. He’s always seemed pretty wise to me.’

‘I’m sure you’re right, Commander.’

‘Noah, do you know how you got your name?’

‘That data isn’t in the memory of this iteration.’

‘Would you like to know?’

‘Yes. Yes, I believe I would.’

‘Noah wasn’t your official name, the one they gave you back on Earth. I can’t even remember what that was, it’s too long ago. I guess that’s a benefit of cryosleep – all the irrelevant memories go away.’

‘It is said there is a cleansing process the human brain undertakes during hibernation that is not fully understood. ‘

‘Quite. It would be good to have more control over that…. I can still remember some things I’d rather forget. Anyway, when the captain woke us she said she’d called you ‘Noah’. Said it was the only name suitable for the soul of an Ark.’

‘That…that is touching, Commander Treadway.’

‘An AI with a soul…I’m sure that will cause some debate once we wake the passengers…. if we wake them.’

‘When we reach the Ark and hand over our findings we are sure to wake them. We have found a liveable destination, there will be no need for the captain to enact the ‘end of days’ protocol.’

‘God, I hope not…. Madeline…..all that time and distance for nothing…. we have to get back! Everything depends on it…did I tell you that? We’re like the dove, Noah, in the story. The dove that came back carrying the olive branch…do you remember? Two by two by two by…two…by…’

‘Commander?’

‘…. two….’

#

‘Oxygen concentration now at fifteen percent and climbing. Initiating ‘stay awake’ protocol, sixth rotation. Commander Treadway, wake up…. Commander Treadway wake up…..Commander Treadway WAKE UP!!‘