In2Minds Series

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The sun is going to go 'Nova.' The home world will be destroyed. Another world has been found, but it must be terra-formed.

A volunteer must step forward to go on a one-way trip, a suicide mission, in order to save his people. But are they his people?

Commander Tait is the volunteer. 

His mission: Save the World 

What he discovers will shake his being to the core.

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Chapter One - Arrival
In2Minds (Book 1)

"Commander Tait it is time for you to awaken... Commander?"

I hear the voice, but at first cannot remember where I am. Years have passed while I slept. As the sleeping pod I am confined to rotates 90 degrees to bring me to an upright standing position I struggle to breathe. The technician that programmed the pod had the sense to tilt the head slightly forward so when I do finally manage to open my eyes and find the room spinning, I puke out the green slime the medics pumped into me at my feet but not on them. There is an oily taste to it that fouls my mouth. A small Bot thoughtfully provided scoots forward on its rollers from a previously concealed cupboard and starts vacuuming up my mess. I puke again, expelling the last of the glutinous gel that helped to preserve me on this long trip into deep space. It lands right atop the little mechanoid. He, for I have decided that he looks like a male somehow, continues to clean and in addition, two long squeegee appendages extend from his sides which he maneuvers over his top to wipe the excrement from his lid like a crab would its shell.

"Commander Tait, I have reviewed your vital signs and you are functioning at 90%," the computer advises me.

I feel a warm gentle mist start to flow over my body from the jets in the bed of the sleeping platform at my back. I hang there in the restraints watching the green slime being slowly washed off of me and onto the floor. By my feet the bot dutifully continues to mop up my mess. I marvel at even this tiny bit of technology. On the Home World we are not allowed to have any form of artificial intelligence, no mechanoid, no robots, no constructs. They are all forbidden. It was only when I arrived at the launching platform in space above our Home World that I discovered I would be a one man crew among a ship of AIs and lesser Bots.

The computer has removed the needles, it has also cleared away my body's waste pipes, disposing of them into orbit, something I am glad was inserted after I was asleep. The jettisoning of the tubes in a way tickles my sense of humor, which I can tell you brings a smile to my face. I can't help but imagine the first contact man makes with this new planet, his soon to be new Home World, is a tube full of excrement.

As the waters warm even further and begin to clear in the puddle at my feet I think back to the moment I entered the sleep pod and shake my head in wonder at the technologies that have kept me alive.

*****

I pressed down and twisted the restraints on my seat harness. They fell apart, freeing my body to the effects of zero gravity. I floated from the seat having pushed gently against its arms. I unintentionally turned a complete somersault in the process of reaching the first of twin hatches. Turning and then opening the hatch without gravity was an interesting experience. The lock handle is hard to turn without a point of leverage, but eventually I succeeded. The hatch opened to reveal a passageway just long enough to contain my body. Pulling forwards, I entered and the hatch closed behind me. The locking mechanism clunked into place. I had more leverage to open the second hatch because of the narrow confines of the tunnel. It opened easily revealing a small, but superbly designed room, where my expensive sleep pod awaited me.

Scooting out of the tunnel I catapulted my body forward. Moving too fast I collided with the far steel wall. Finally, I managed to grasp one of the handles thoughtfully fitted into the walls, specifically placed to aid my ability to maneuver myself around the room. 

The sleeping pod resembled a slightly crushed can, higher at one end than the other. Perspex covered the top half, which I knew would open at a touch on the green lit button. I pressed it and the top lifted clear of the base revealing white material padding, which had been pre-molded to my body shape. I stripped out of my suit and hung it in the cabinet provided at the head of the sleep pod. I caressed my name stitched on to the right breast of the suit, 'Commander Tait.' When I awake, I will be the one man on which the future of all mankind is dependent on.

Grasping the handles fitted to the now raised top, I glided my gravity free body down into the recess. My feet slipped into grooved shapes, spreading to about ten inches. My butt slotted down neatly into its molded cavity, closely followed by my back then my shoulders and finally my head. I fitted perfectly as I nestled into the molding.  

Above me the capsule lid began to slowly close, clicking into place, sealing me inside for the long trip ahead. Four locks activated, each snapping into place, then tightened, firmly closing the lid, creating a mild feeling of claustrophobia in my thoughts. I concentrated on banishing the un-helpful emotion. I lay still looking up through the clear material of the lid, successfully fitted neatly in my traveling coffin. Knowing what is going to happen next, I was not looking forward to this essential experience.  

"When the needles arrive, there will be no real pain, just a feeling of pressure against your body." So the Techs told me.

Restraining bands automatically circled my chest, arms and upper thighs. Link tubes started to press against me, adding to the oddness of my situation. Biometric sensors came on line, one at a time as connections were made. Eventually the board glowed green before me. I was secured, monitored and prepared for the next stage, which was the needle placement. The Techs lied to me. There was pain, as the twin needles slipped into my now restrained arms. Cold filled my flesh as the chemicals were pumped into my veins. Slowly the green lights blurred and slipped out of focus briefly, then they returned, only to coalesce into a single blinding light. Finally there was nothing. I was under, asleep, totally controlled by the ship's computer, a passenger entombed into infinity.

*****

The water stops its rinse and the warm air of the driers brings me back to the present. I feel the restraints on my arms release and the pod tips back to its upright position. I hit the button on the chest restraints and they release allowing me to step out of my confining chamber for the first time in years.

"Sensors show you are 95% operational, Commander," the computer informs me.

"Thank you, MAI," I respond.

She is a Model 1 Artificial Intelligence or AI, but the Techs and I all fell into calling her MAI. We got to know each other quite well while I was training and waiting for the endless prep for this mission to be complete. I check my suit over to make sure it is still in good condition after the wait it has had for me. My embroidered name still gleams from its right breast, 'Commander Tait.' I have been elevated to Commander for this mission.

"I take it we have reached our destination," I say to MAI.

Hunger is a major driving force in man normally, but in my case, this case, the driving force is seeing the planet I have been sent to Terra form for the first time.  

"I have inserted us into orbit as previously programmed, at a height of three-hundred miles from our target on the planet's surface. We have completed our fourth circumvention of the new world."

I look out of the main viewing hatch, the thin line of an atmosphere becomes visible as I round the planet on its sun-side. Sparkles of trapped dust, like me, orbit the main planetary body. Each held in place by the low gravitational force created by mass and rotation. The surface world could, according to the Techs, be transformed to an oxygen driven engine. Designed fungus will be transshipped by sled and deposited across the surface of the planet. There it will grow turning the barren hostile land green and providing a change to the trapped atmosphere turning it into breathable air, or so the theory goes.

I am one man with a ship load of equipment, dispatched on a suicide mission to save our Home World. I feel a bit like Superman and a lot like the scared little orphan boy my parents left behind.