Tour

The warp had stabilized and now they were moving beyond the speed of light. But to Theo and SIzzy it was like nothing had changed. There were no windows, so they couldn't see anything. The screens didn't show anything either. After all, as they moved faster than light, light could not reach them. It was almost as though the ship wasn't moving at all.

After a while, Theo stood up, steady at his feet.

"Why did you want someone to give you a tour? Couldn't you have just downloaded the maps to your ARIMA?" Sizzy asked.

"Unfortunately, I'd have to buy more warpnet bandwidth for that. Besides, I don't like wearing that junk." Theo brought out a pair of glasses from his plasma bag and showed it to Sizzy. It was almost like a sunglass which changed color depending on the wavelength of light- allowing him to see even in the night. The main feature being, able to do almost anything; navigation, browsing the web…even making intergalactic calls, as long as it had a stable warpnet connection. A connection Theo didn't want to spend money on.

"SO, this is why your sister called you-"

"Enough of that. Let's go out. I can't wait." Theo changed the topic.

For an R.I SIzzy had quite the humor. Or maybe it was just the accumulation of advanced machine learning?

"Very well. Any more delay and you might end up turning into a predator."

'A predator? Of what exactly?' Then another thought came to his mind. Theo looked away, slightly embarrassed.

Both of them headed out for a tour of the ship which they'd be spending the next few months of their life on.

The moment they got out of the room though, they were greeted by someone. She seemed to be a R.I, waiting for Theo.

"I have been waiting for you, Theodore Black. Please follow me. We will now begin the guided tour of Ainmaster." The R.I looked like a slender young girl, about the same size as Theo. She was dressed in skin-tight silver attire and her expression was joyful, though artificial.

'How long has she been standing there?' The head R.I had mentioned something about sending someone adequate- so it wasn't that surprising- at least not to Theo. However, he did find it odd that this R.I was just standing here all this time.

Sizzy remained expressionless. But if one looked carefully enough, they'd be able to tell she was annoyed, if only a little. Perhaps another feature of this advanced R.I?

"Let's go." Theo wasn't bothered in the least though. He didn't ask any questions either.

***

"This is the medical bay. All the injured are to be admitted here." The R.I showed them around.

A rather white room with a floating bed.

"Wow. I haven't seen cryotubes in a while. Thought they went extinct!" Theo exclaimed.

"They are vital for some operations. Space has unknown contaminants."

With that said, the R.I clapped twice. The cryotubes disappeared into the walls, and only the bed remained in the room.

'Fair enough.'

They moved on.

***

"This is the quarantine area. When you first come aboard this ship, you'll have to go through here first."

"That's odd. They never asked me to come through this gate." Theo came from a different entrance. So it struck as odd to him. If it was standard procedure then why didn't he have to follow it?

"It is standard procedure only after leaving our solar system." The R.I led the way. "After all, our system is relatively safe."

"I see. Lead on." Theo wasn't particularly convinced. But this wasn't something he wanted to have a debate on.

He had better things to be excited about.

With excitement, Theo familiarized himself with the ship. The cargo hall, canteen, garden, recreation center, and even the research labs. He saw them all with the exception of the bridge and the engine rooms.

But in the end, he was a little disappointed to see no people. "Where are the people anyway?"

Theo had no reason to be in any of those places. And most of the places were just for show.

Though the cafeteria did exist, it served no purpose as no one would be cooking there, let alone dining.

"They are in their respective quarters. You shall meet them tomorrow at the bridge."

'Only 22 people huh? Doesn't that seem like a small number for a ship this large?' Theo couldn't understand why a ship of this magnitude would host this few people. But as technology progressed, ships became more and more R.I dependent. So it shouldn't have been that surprising.

But Theo didn't know that. He was too busy reading adventure novels than doing actual research on crew numbers.

"That concludes our tour. Would you like me to escort you back to your quarters?"

"We can manage," Sizzy said.

"If you say so. Safe journey." The R.I gave a brief bow and walked to a wall, disappearing within. There were small pods in the walls around the ship where the R.I could rest at any given time. The R.I were made of artificial cells and nanobots, so they required at least some maintenance every day. This is where those pods came in.

"Let's go then," Theo said, looking back at Sizzy.

"Yes. Let us be on our way."

'It's almost as if… she's jealous?' Theo stretched his chin and followed Sizzy. 'Yeah, right!' He snorted inwardly.

The very concept was idiotic.

***

Although Theo looked around a lot, he couldn't tell heads from tails of the ship. He was so excited that he forgot his way already.

'Maybe I should have bought the package?'

But then he'd have had to worry about his sister's nagging calls. Even now, he had more than enough mails.

How was he going to read through them? He had no idea.

Halfway through, he met three men dressed in casual gear just chatting away in the middle of the road. One of them was very, very familiar. Theo couldn't believe his eyes.

"John?" Theo said in disbelief. But there was a smile on his face.

"Know this pipsqueak?" One of the guys said. He looked pretty bold, and had a scar on his cheek; rugged skin. The very definition of macho.

"Yeah." John looked at Theo. "He's my friend. He's the reason I applied here."

"Really? What is he doing here? Engineering perhaps?"

"Or maybe he's a lab assistant?" The other guy wrapped his arm around John, grinning ever slightly.

This particular guy was just as big as John. He had blonde hair and a handsome face. In fact, all three were roughly equal in terms of size. But the scarred one was slightly bigger.

"Give it a rest you guys. It's only our first day. We'll know soon enough." John knew saying stuff like 'Theo is an explorer' would only evoke controversy, so he didn't push it.

"Yeah, you're right. We'll meet tomorrow anyway." The guy with the scar gave a grin and walked past Theo.

Meanwhile, the other guy pushed Theo aside and chuckled his way out. Theo bumped into the wall but it didn't hurt him, at least not enough to warrant an action.

John stared at them. No particular emotion, yet, somehow there was more there.

His stare went unnoticed.

"Sorry about that. Those guys are a little extreme." John came over and gave Theo a hand.

"I knew you had something important to do but-"

"Yeah, pretty important, right?" John made a smug face. Both of them chuckled. "I can't really talk to you now. What do you say we talk tomorrow? Get some rest. I've got things." John tried to chuckle but his mind was elsewhere.

"Yeah. Okay."

"By the way, who's the cutie?" John moved closed to Sizzy and stared, checking her out.

"A new type of R.I: my bodyguard."

"Bodyguard? Hmmm?" He kept on checking her out. "She's got nice legs for a machine." And he was tempted to poke around a little, but he didn't.

"That's sexual harassment, you know." Theo chuckled.

Sizzy just glared at John with no emotion in particular. She didn't say a word.

John laughed out loud. "Whatever you say, boss." John turned around. His voice went cold. "Bye." His eyes were as bloodshot as a hyena's.

***

John left and Theo began to go back.

"That was my friend." Theo began to explain.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't keep company like that. His friends treated you so badly."

"Don't worry about it. Those guys weren't his friends." Theo had a complicated smile on his face as he went for his room.

"Sorry, I couldn't be of much help." Sizzy apologized. It was normal for R.I to apologize but her tone was different. Almost sad. Almost like she meant it.

"Don't worry about it."

They returned to their room.