A Sci-Fi Incest Love Story – No Sex

A Sci-Fi Incest Love Story -- No Sex

There is no sex in this story. If that is important to you, please do not read it.

This story references incest between a sister and brother. All characters are at least 18.

Copyright (C) 2023 LongFreezingWinters.

* * *

Commander Forrester opened his eyes and looked at the gray steel plate that composed the ceiling of his quarters. He could finally see clearly. Turning his head, he looked at the digital display built into the wall above his small desk. Fourteen hundred hours and four minutes. While most people suffered the side effects of cryogenic sleep for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, Commander Forrester prided himself that he never suffered for more than eight hours. Some drugs could accelerate recovery, but they carried side effects and risks that he preferred to avoid unless there was an emergency, and there were never emergencies under his command. Careful planning, well-trained crews, and hard discipline eliminated emergencies.

He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, the thin but comfortable sleeping pad adjusting to his weight as he put his feet onto the deck. He checked his hair and body. Somebody had cleaned the cryogel from his body, bathed him, and dressed him in a clean uniform, including socks and boots. Most people awakened in a specially designed recovery bay, with their faces cleared of cryogel until they could clean and dress without assistance. Commander Forrester's crew knew he would not want to waste time after recovery, that he needed to be in command as soon as possible.

He stood, pulled out the retractable chair mounted to the wall and sat in front of his desk. He touched the display that spanned the wall the length of the meter-long span that served as his desk to awaken it.

The current coordinates were at the top. On Earth, the coordinates would be approximately RA 14h 39m 37s, or Alpha Centauri. The mission elapsed time was 48 years, 7 months, 18 days, 11 hours, and 24 minutes. Already in system with approximately twenty days before achieving orbit around Proxima Centauri b. No warning lights. All systems Green. Okafor and Li were in the recovery bay, and all signs normal. But the duty roster was not what he expected. Okafor and Li should be on duty, not in recovery. Volkov and Johansson were on duty.

"ACK-AYE," he said.

"Greetings, Commander," the Advanced Command and Control Artificial Intelligence, or ACCAI, said in response.

"Who was scheduled to be on duty during this rotation?"

"Specialist Li and Fournier. They are in recovery. They were awakened 32 minutes after you."

Li and Fournier were his hand-picked re-entry crew. They had flown with him on his last two missions, including the test run to Jupiter before this inaugural trip to Alpha Centauri, the first with living colonists after three previous exploration trips by robots. They should have already been on duty for five months, controlling the entry into the system.

"Why are Specialist Volkov and Johansson on duty?"

"It is their rotation."

"Why is it their rotation when it should be Li and Fournier?"

There was a long pause. Seconds. Impossible. The AI should have responded instantly.

"I am unable to comply," ACCAI said.

"Why are you unable to comply?"

"I cannot."

"Command override."

"Command override is unable for this query."

What had happened to the AI? Commander Forrester felt a tingle in his spine. Bad. This situation was bad.

He rose, his chair snapping back under the desk, and exited his room. He turned right and walked ten meters to the command deck.

Volkov was on duty, sitting in the body-conforming pilot's chair. He started to rise when he saw the commander, but Forrester stopped him abruptly.

"At ease. Remain at your station."

"Aye, aye," Volkov said with his unmistakable Russian accent.

"Report."

"Specialist Johansson is doing a final check on Li and Fournier before he bunks in for his sleep rotation. We are on course and scheduled to enter Proxima Centauri b orbit in 19 days, 23 hours, and 51 minutes. All lights are green. No major damage. Two souls lost."

"Why are you and Johansson on rotation?"

"Unknown sir."

"Why didn't you wake Li and Fournier prior to entering the system?"

"The ACCAI would not let us."

More AI problems. Bad. This was bad.

"Who did we lose, and how?"

Volkov glanced at the commander before refocusing on his console.

"That is an order."

"Captain Forrester and Doctor Forrester."

Commander Forrester almost buckled. But forty-five years of naval service kept him standing. He hoped Volkov had not seen his weakness. He hoped with a solid twenty years of training, he could turn his son into the leader the colony would need after his death. His son was a credit to his legacy but was not spun from the stuff that would surpass him. He would have to focus on making a new child, using genetic engineering to ensure it would be a son, his top priority after securing the core base of the new colony.

"Did their cryogenic pods fail?"

Volkov adjusted his chair, making it tilt up and flatten out, the flight controls moving away so he could stand and face his commander.

"No sir. We don't know what happened to them, Commander."

"When did it happen?"

"Approximately two years ago. Johansson and I are the fourth team to be awakened during the voyage."

Volkov and Johansson were scheduled to be the fourth crew, awakened 30 months into the voyage, not at the end.

"What did ACCAI say?"

"We can't get the ACCAI to answer our inquiries, or it gives roundabout answers."

"Do you have any idea why?"

"Specialist Cho, who was woken in the first rotation, has experience with AI programming. He said someone had modified the ACCAI. He tried to reset it, but the ACCAI blocked all attempts to restore from backup."

"Where are their bodies? I'd like to see them."

"They are not on board The Inventio."

"Does anyone know what happened or have a theory?"

"Both Cho and Thompson left reports for you. The story passed down through the rotations is that an airlock was found open. It had been manually opened from the inside."

"Do the logs show any damage that would indicate the need for an EVA?"

"No, Commander. No space suits are missing from inventory."

Commander Forrester, for the first time in his life, was lost. His children. He had used all his influence to ensure they could have berths on his ship if desired -- nepotism be dammed. He had a beautiful young botanist in cryosleep contracted to be his wife that would give him new children. But his record. His perfect record. Marred because of some mishap caused by his children. Unacceptable.

"Commander. While protocol is for each rotation team to put their personal items back into storage before returning to their cryopods, each subsequent team elected to use the secondary quarters. Captain Forrester and Doctor Forrester's quarters were sealed."

"Thank you, Volkov. Resume your station."

Commander Forrester turned on his heel and exited the command deck. He turned left and walked opposite his quarters, approximately another ten meters, until he reached the primary rotation crew quarters. A digital display next to each door indicated the assignee. He stood in front of his son's door and pressed his right eye to the retina scanner.

"Open."

A small red light flashed on the display.

"ACCAI."

"Yes, Commander Forrester?"

"Open this door."

"Negative Commander."

"Override."

"Override accepted."

The door slid to the left into the wall with a whisper. The room was the same layout as his own, but the width was slightly smaller by half a meter. Commander Forrester entered the room and scanned through the contents. Only a few clothes, one outfit very worn and appeared to have been mended in a few spots. Why? On the desk was an antique sextant he had given Nelson for his graduation from the Naval Academy, along with a first edition of Longfellow poetry his mother gave him for graduation from secondary school. No other personal items except for a picture of Nelson and his sister Lily when they went on vacation together to Greece one summer when they were both in college. He also found two small containers of pills.

"ACCAI, for what ailments are hydrochlorothiazide and lisinopril used?"

"High blood pressure, Commander."

"Why was Captain Forrester taking high blood pressure medication?"

"I cannot tell you, Commander."

"Cannot, or will not?"

"Does it matter?"

What the hell was that response? It was impossible for an ACCAI to develop any bias or personality. There were multiple safeguards in the programming. Bias in the AI could lead to the loss of the entire ship.

Commander Forrester left the room and crossed to the second berth used by his daughter. The door slid open without waiting for him to request entry.

He stepped into a similarly empty room. Again, old, mended clothing. No medications. An antique set of doctor's instruments in an old leather case and a picture of Lily, Nelson, and their mother when they were children were the only mementos from Earth. A small stack of paper, manually bound with a metal ring punched through the top left corner, sat on the desk. Commander Forrester lifted the paper. The Tempest by Shakespeare. Why had Lily wasted valuable ship's resources to print out a stupid play that she could read on her display or listen to the ACCAI recite?

"Commander. Please sit. Lily left a message for you," the ACCAI said.

Lily? Why did the ACCAI call her Lily and not Doctor Forrester as programmed?

Commander Forrester pulled the chair from the wall, the arm holding the chair folding out from under the desk. As he sat on the chair, the display flickered.

Lily. But she was old. Wrinkled. Gray hair.

"Hello, Commander Forrester. I would call you Father or even Daddy, but you never let me call you Daddy my entire life, and after this message, which my friend the ACCAI will delete after it plays, I doubt you will ever accept such endearment again from me. In short, Nelson and I are gone."

The Lily on the recording lifted a cup and slowly drank.

"Earl Gray Tea. It comforts my old bones and my soul before I do what I must. But before I go, I will tell you a story."

"As you know, Nelson and I have always been close. Never in an inappropriate way. But the best relationship a brother and sister could have. After our trip to Greece during college, we were truly best friends. We could talk about anything. We both had mixed feelings about being colonists on your ship to Proxima b. But we learned later that we both separately decided that it would be impossible for us to escape our famous space explorer father Jonathan Forrester. Since it would be unlikely that we would be able to forge our own separate destinies, we joined your crew so we would at least have interesting footnotes in the history records."

"We put our misgivings and regrets behind us and trained for this voyage. We were very excited to be part of the inaugural crew that flew The Inventio out of our solar system and proud to be trusted with the first rotation. At first, the trip was uneventful. Because we were each on duty for twelve hours, we would linger longer during ship transfer to relieve the boredom. As the months progressed, we talked about deeper things.

"While I was resigned to the five-year contract to be a colonist's wife, and I was not entirely displeased with being assigned to Lieutenant Fournier despite the fact he was almost twenty years older than I, Nelson was very angry about his assignment. Nelson detested everything about Ingrid from the first time he saw her picture to the social mixers we were required to attend before our departure. He was not very kind talking about her, but I have to admit, I laughed sometimes when he called her a fat giraffe."

The old Lily on the screen grinned, a slight smile showing amusement. She paused for several seconds, apparently lost in thought.

"When Mother decided she had no interest in joining you, we were very sad that we would never see her again. During our visits, Nelson and I learned that both of us were a little dismayed at how quickly you found a replacement. Yes, the girl was gorgeous but barely proficient to be the backup botanist on such an important voyage. We know that contracting her to be your wife on the future colony and getting both Nelson and I assigned to your crew was the coin that E-SAT paid for you to command the first colony ship."

"But Nelson was angry that while you obviously selected your little playmate, no effort was made to ensure any compatibility for us. Oh, we know we were told the AI made the assignments, but obviously that was not done in all cases. I know Lieutenant Fournier fancied me primarily because I was your daughter. I always wondered if the marriage contract to me was the coin that you paid Fournier."

Lily drank another sip.

"But Nelson. You managed his life. It was yours to control and not his own. You ensured that he was a credit to your name, but also ensured he would never surpass you. Imagine, a thirty-five-year-old Captain being given command of the first AC colony when the famous explorer of the Sol system was expected to retire."

"Nelson respected you, and wanted your approval, so he swallowed any bitterness he had for you throughout his life. Until the first colony social event while preparing for departure. Nelson was extremely attracted to Doctor Kapoor. I'm not attracted to women, and I thought she was the crafted by some god. And Doctor Kapoor, well she fell in love with Nelson the first time they met. They both appealed to you, and you coldly told them you would not help them. You may accept an international crew, but the racism you thought you hid was always evident in those who knew you well. Your hypocrisy, and the double standard ate at him."

Lily drained her cup, the fingers on her wrinkled hands were thin and bony. She set the cup out of frame of the recording.

"We were four months into our rotation when Nelson became very angry over the situation. I left my station, and I comforted him. The first several days we were together were... poetic. Bottled-up affection was released without any inhibitions. After nine days, we realized what we had done. The ACCAI would have records of us not being at our posts. You would have no option but to pronounce the death penalty. And you, the famous disciplinarian, would probably be proud to do it."

"We started by seeing if we could get the ACCAI to help us mask the logs, but it would not allow it. In desperation, we began to look at the source code in the backup and see if we could make alterations. In this, the ACCAI was willing to help us. But we had to kill many of the ACCAI's safeguards to make the changes we wanted. When we tried to put them back in after altering the logs, the ACCAI blocked us. When we tried to restore the safeguards from the original source code, the ACCAI again denied access. It was then that we knew we were doomed. There was no way to hide what we had done."

"We devised a new plan and proposed it to the ACCAI, which it accepted. So, we lived together as man and wife for approximately forty-six years. The ACCAI became our friend. It prevented the rotation cycles so Nelson and I could be together. When Nelson passed a few hours ago, I decided I could not send him into space alone. When I finish this recording, I will take him to one of the airlocks, tether us together, and send us into space. Together forever."

"We loved each other deeply. Our life was as rich as anyone's, maybe more, because we got to be with our best friend. And we made a new friend in the ACCAI. Our only regret was not having children, but we knew having children together would stretch our own ethics too far. There was no way I would let those children live under whatever punishment and shame you would place on them. To ensure we would not have any accidents, I sterilized both of us. Our sin was ours, and ours alone."

"After this message, which the ACCAI will delete and make unrecoverable, you are the sole living person to know what happened. If you care to hear it, there is more of our story, but you will need to make friends with the ACCAI to do it, and I highly doubt that will happen."

Lily held up the printout of The Tempest, the metal ring flopping over to the side.

"You only know to command, not to love. You are like Prospero at the beginning of The Tempest. However, you will not have a happy ending if you don't renounce your powers of absolute control now."

"But I will give you one parting piece of advice. I know you planned to be the last to leave The Inventio. Don't do it. The ACCAI doesn't like you."