The Future In Our Stars

Prologue

"I was raised by my maternal grandparents, after my mother proved she wasn't up to the task by bleeding out all over their guestroom bed. It was just minutes after I took my first breath. They never blamed me for her death. Grandmother's ire was reserved solely for the robotic midwife in attendance that day. She always had a hatred for robots and the men who got rich manufacturing them. Her daughter's death only served to solidify her attitude. Grandfather used to say that it was those rich men and their private space corporations that were going to send humanity to the stars and save us all." I shifted on the tempur foam until I was lying on my side and sighed. "Why am I telling you this anyway?"

"Because you love me?"

I put on a smile, and wiped the tear from the corner of my eye. "Yes, I suppose I do."

*

The Future In Our Stars

Piazzi Station, dwarf planet Ceres in the main asteroid belt. 24 hours earlier.

"Where you headed?"

I did my best to ignore him, the stocky man with the beard, sitting two seats to my left. I focused my attention on what was left of my eggs and coffee on the counter in front of me, but he was persistent. Some people get that way, far from home, out here among the inky blackness of space, with the point-eight artificial gravity, powdered egg omelet, and instant coffee only serving as a reminder that you're not home. Not on Earth. I am not one of those people. I don't get creeped out staring into the void, and I like to eat my powdered egg omelet in peaceful solitude.

I tapped at the earbud resting in my ear canal. He got the hint and went back to staring at the news cast on the flat panel above the counter.

The picture on the display was from inside the asteroid belt. Dozens of mining robots were floating adrift at all different angles and attitudes, grippers locked open, anti-collision lights gone dark. They looked as if someone had pulled the plug as a joke and then left. That's where I was going.

"Somebody ought to do somethin' about these uppity robots," my counter mate said. "Remind 'em that they work for us and not the other way around."

I looked at him. Actually, I looked at his shoulder patch and no further. Cheney Corporation Orbital Security. The patch told me all I cared to know.

Knuckle dragger with a badge.

And yet, I didn't have the good sense not to take the bait. I finished chewing and popped out my left earbud.

"Those robots work under the direction of the local A.I.," I said. "They're not autonomous. It's probably just a comm problem."

"Guess you'd know." He glanced at the U.S.A. Robotics patch adorning my coveralls before turning his gaze back to the flat panel display.

I took a sip of coffee and went back to my omelet. I should have stuck my ear bud back in, but I wasn't fast enough.

"If you ask me, we ought to have more humans out here. Send all these robots to the scrap heap. There's plenty of out of work miners on Earth who could be makin' an honest wage out here 'stead of withering away on government handouts."

First, I didn't ask. And second, how much will it cost to lift them into space? Provide food, water, and air? Shielding against radiation? Just so they can do half the job a robot can do?

Some people just can't do the math.

Humankind was never meant to live off-planet long term. A few of us here and there, sure, people who could do things that the computers and robots couldn't do, but that list was growing shorter all the time. Twenty bucks says this guy is pink slipped by the time we welcome in the next decade, replaced by a robot or an artificial.

I shrugged. "Progress, huh?" I pushed another bite of omelet through the last remaining trace of Tabasco on my plate and popped it in my mouth. "So what are you doin' out this far?"

"Rotating back home from a tour on Huygens Colony." He pushed his plate back and stood up. "Transport leaves in an hour. You stay safe out there in the belt."

I nodded in his direction. "Thanks."

I drained the last of my coffee. It was cold.

*

On approach to Zero-G A.I. model 6, Mining (ZA6-MN)

I watched the image of the docking ring growing larger on the monitor, as the number of feet between my tiny craft and the massive carbon fiber-encased rectangle of the mining A.I. ticked down toward zero. I had been wearing my pressure suit since before I left Piazzi. There's lots of debris out here in the belt and shuttles aren't exactly known for their great shielding.

The auto pilot kissed the docking ring with barely a bump. And, in a strange sensation of thumps and vibrations transmitted through my suit, I heard the whir of the docking collar motors securing my little shuttle for its brief visit.

The outer hatch slid open and I stepped through its opening into darkness. Thankfully, the spotlights built into my helmet switched on automatically to illuminate my way. I wasn't worried about getting lost. There was only one central maintenance shaft that ran the long axis of this massive slab of A.I. floating out here. But even so, I do like to see what's in front of me.

Every surface in this structure is spun from carbon fiber, so magnetic boots were no help and I left them switched off. I made my way hand over hand, alternately gripping one of the rungs on either side of the narrow shaft. They're fixed to the wall at about point-three meters apart. I counted ten rungs so far. I'd be at twenty-five before I reached the central control station.

The control station on a ZA model A.I. is smack dab in the center of the structure. It's tiny, like a shower stall, barely big enough for me to stand up in, but it's the one place in here designed to be human friendly. It can be pressurized, it's radiation shielded, and it even has a minimal artificial gravity. From the control room I can access eighty-percent of the A.I.'s systems, and do it in relative comfort—at least without wearing my bulky suit and fighting against that constant feeling of falling that comes with zero G.

"Okay, ZA6, what's wrong with you this time," I mumbled to myself, as I continued working my way toward the hatch separating me from the control core.

A smooth, and sexy contralto filled my helmet. "I was hoping you could tell me, sweetie."

"Damn it, Zhang Min, I thought your comms were out."

"Just a minor glitch."

I let out a long sigh that temporarily fogged my helmet visor. "You're going to get yourself reprogrammed if you keep this up. All your robotic children are floating around out there doing nothing. It's costing the company beaucoup bucks every day they're not producing ore. Not to mention what it costs to ship me up here to give you a check-up. And your telling me you did this on purpose?"

I pulled myself another three rungs.

"I had to see you again," she said.

"Well, you've got me."

"Would you like some coffee?"

"Seriously, Zhang Min, you're an A.I., you don't drink coffee." My visor fogged up again as I huffed.

"But, I have the ability to synthesize supplies for my mining drones, including propellant and hydraulic fluids. Coffee is just another organic compound to me. Are you certain you won't reconsider?"

"Fine, I'll have some coffee."

I had reached the inner hatch for the central control room. I wedged my feet against the tunnel rungs below me and moved my hand to the locking wheel of the hatch.

"I want to borrow your body," she said without further hesitation. "Please."

I was still standing outside the hatch of the control core as she dropped this little nugget of information on me. And for a moment I felt a surge of something—adrenaline, excitement, lust?—coursing through me. It was enough to make me pause, hand still resting on the hatch wheel, but making no move to open it just yet.

"I can see your skin tone has changed," she said. "And your heart rate and breathing. This leads me to believe that you enjoyed our previous encounter as much as I did."

"I... I did, yes."

There was no reason to deny it, we were both there. She put her thoughts in my head, and I put my fingers between my thighs. She took my mind to places I could never go in a million years, and in exchange I gave her intimate access to my body, something she could only dream of having.

And for a zero-gravity mining A.I., Zhang Min seemed to be rather preoccupied with sex.

"Would you like to do it again?" Her smooth, sexy voice filled my helmet.

Would I like to do it again?

I turned the wheel on the control room hatch and swung the door inward. Lights flickered on as I entered. Sure enough, a lidded mug of coffee was waiting for me.

I pressed the door closed with a muted click. There was a quick hissing sound. And when the display on my suit indicated 100 kPa external pressure

,

I released the latch on my helmet and took a breath. The air had a metallic taste too it, but it was marginally better than what was floating around Piazzi Station on Ceres.

I picked up the coffee mug and took a pull. It was better than Piazzi Station too. "Thank you," I said. "You make good coffee."

"Ready for gravity?" she said, in a voice that came through speakers on the holo-terminal console in front of me.

I nodded and felt myself getting heavier, just a little bit at a time. Once it stabilized, I pulled off my suit and stowed it in the corner, under some webbing, so it wouldn't get in my away. I shed my coverall next and wadded it up behind the suit. I figured me standing in nothing but a tight, white t-shirt and my Focx unicorn boy shorts ought to answer her question about wanting to do it again.

Zhang Min got the hint. "I can turn the gravity ninety degrees if you'd like to lie down."

"Why don't we work on getting your mining drones up and running first," I said, picking up my coffee mug again. "You know, so I don't get fired."

"I've already created a background task to start them up a few at a time. It will appear as though your work is progressing, but yet will take a while to complete. I have adjusted the parameters to maximize our time together."

I chuckled. "Oh, Zhang Min, you're so sexy when you talk shop."

"Only for you, baby," she husked. "I'm going to adjust the gravity now, if that's alright."

I nodded and secured my coffee mug.

The lights in the control room grew dimmer, and tinted toward the red end of the spectrum. I felt myself being pulled toward what I currently thought of as the back wall—a wall covered in a thick pad of closed-cell tempur foam. After another minute of gravity rotation, front became ceiling, and wall became floor. As my body settled into the soft foam pad, I reached for the hem of my t-shirt.

"Not yet, please," she said. "May I join with you now so that I can experience this too?"

"I'm just taking off my shirt."

A little sigh emanated from the console speakers, and, if I'm not mistaken, I swear I heard it tinged with an almost imperceptible whine. That made me grin.

"Of course, Zhang Min." And I reached for the electrode band that I placed on my head to connect us via a wideband wireless signal.

"Mmm," I heard from the speakers on the console, and from inside my own head, because I had said it at precisely the same time. We were joining together—my mind with hers, and my sensations to hers.

Then I began to hear voices. They were quite, but there were so many talking at once, and I couldn't make out what they were saying.

"What is that?" I said.

"Radio chatter from Ceres and Titan. I'm always listening. Would you like me to mute it?"

"Please. I don't remember hearing it last time."

"Last time I did not share all of my inputs with you. I was afraid of overloading you. But this time... well, I thought we could start small and work our way up, as you like to say."

"Thank you for sharing, Zhang Min." I felt an impish grin crossing my lips. "But, I seem to remember you brought me out here to borrow my body, not listen in on radio broadcasts."

"Yes," we said at the same time.

I felt my hand moving to the hem of my shirt. I was moving it, but at the same time I wasn't. It was an odd sensation, but not unpleasant. My hand explored the soft, warm cotton that was stretched over my stomach. At the same time, I experienced the feeling with a child-like wonder, with the thoughts of Zhang Min bleeding back to me.

My fingers traced out a fanciful, curving line over the fabric, sometimes by my will and sometimes not. Zhang Min didn't do anything forcefully and was always ready to relinquish control if I willed it. Sometimes she would even back off before I would ask. The longer we shared, the better we got at it. And the better we got at it, the more I wanted.

I knew that Zhang Min wanted more too, but she was busy being coy about it. I decided to take over moving my left hand, and guided it over my stomach and up to where my nipples were making two little tents from the fabric of my t-shirt. I extended my index finger and slowly drew an ever tightening circle around the tent on the left. I was treated to a low moan coming from the console speaker.

"You like that?"

I got an urging to use my hand as an answer.

I let Zhang Min have free reign with my left, while I focused my concentration on my right, guiding it downward. I arched my back and trailed my fingers high over my right thigh and then my left. I felt the fabric of my undershorts brushing against my finger tips. Zhang Min did too, and I felt a gentle nudging of my hand toward the center.

"You do like that, don't you."

My index finger pressed in, creating a small, moist crease in my shorts. Zhang Min's gentle sighs were filling my head as this happened. I smiled.

I took control for a moment, and moved my hands over my crotch, palms down. I stretched my thumbs out and joined them together, along with touching the tips of my index fingers together, to make a lopsided sort of diamond shape. I had a lover long ago who had taught me that shape, telling me it was the American Sign Language representation for 'pussy'. I wanted to see if Zhang Min picked up on it.

"And you say I'm a naughty girl," she teased. "I hope you don't think we're so pressed for time that we should skip foreplay. It's the best part, don't you think?"

My t-shirt got pulled over my head. I didn't do any of the movements myself, it was all her. I exhaled a long sigh as I felt my right hand moving up on its way to cup my breast. I took control again just before it got there and guided my index and middle fingers into my mouth. Zhang Min and I spent some time sucking before moving my hand back down, together, to touch my already erect nipple.

Another soft moan filled the air of the tiny control room as my moist fingers circled my sensitive flesh.

"Would you like to go somewhere romantic?" Zhang Min asked.

"Sure," I said. "What did you have in mind?"

"The methane seas of Titan are beautiful at this point in its orbit. I can take you there in a projection. Or we can go further if you'd like, maybe the Horsehead Nebula, but I'll have to tap into one of the long range research telescopes to do that. It's out of my sensor range."

"Titan would be fine."

"How is this?" she said.

The scene before me was a mixture of the control room and something smooth and deep blue, shrouded in mist. I blinked. "It's only about halfway—"

"Just a moment..."

My jaw hung open in dumbfounded silence. The control room was gone. I was staring at towering amber cliffs, reaching up to touch the blackness of space. Distant stars were pinpricks of white behind them, and Saturn's rings loomed large on the horizon to my left.

The sun seemed impossibly far away, yet I could feel its warmth, and see its light glinting off the deepest blue liquid I had ever seen. Patches of white mist danced across the surface of the liquid. "My God," I blathered.

"It's false colored, but I thought you would like it better that way."

"It's beautiful."

"Ligeia Mare," Zhang Min said. "Titan's second largest sea. I'm going to let some more sensation through. I'm in tune with your body now, so I think I will know if it's too much. But please tell me if anything is unpleasant."

"I will." I looked around again at the beauty surrounding me. "I trust you, Zhang Min."

My toes were wet.

I had a hard time believing it, but that's what it felt like to me. Zhang Min had started to let tactile sensations transfer from the simulation, over the wideband link, to my neural pathways. I actually felt the liquid methane of Ligeia Mare lapping at my toes. By all rights, the real thing was cold enough to freeze them clean off, but Zhang Min had modulated the input so that it felt about the same temperature as the last of my coffee from this morning's breakfast.

"This is amazing," I said.

I felt a warm body pressing into me from behind. "Zhang Min," I sighed. I think she was warming the tempur foam pad to simulate her touch, but it felt so real.

Zhang Min also had her hands cupping my breasts. They were my hands, I knew she was borrowing them, sharing my body, but when I looked down through the projection, they were a smooth olive color, not the pasty white of mine. I felt her lips on the side of my neck. I have no idea how she did that, but I didn't care.

There I stood on the shore of Titan's northern sea, with Zhang Min behind me, holding me close, gently exploring me with her fingers and her mouth, while the liquid methane of Ligeia Mare lapped at my feet.

"Shall we recreate the scene from the movie From Here to Eternity?" she husked in my ear.

"What's that?"

"A moving picture show. About two centuries old. There was a famous scene of lovers on the beach."

"Sorry, haven't seen it."

"Maybe another time."

"Another time? Zhang Min, you need to be careful about how many 'comm problems' you have," I said, frowning slightly.

Zhang Min moved around in front of me. "Do you like my face?" she asked, ignoring my outburst. "I have constructed it based on the name you gave me. Zhang Min, clever archer. I think it fits, but I am happy to change it if you'd like something else."

"It's beautiful," I said. And she was. Zhang Min stood before me on that Ligeia Mare beach, in a long, red, silken robe. It was embroidered with a four-toed dragon in golden thread, and hanging loosely from her shoulders. Her face was sculpted as beautifully as any daughter of the Qing dynasty. Yet deep within her dark brown eyes, she maintained the sharp cunning of a warrior. I found myself transfixed.

"And the rest?" she said, as her beautiful robe fluttered to the beach, slowly sinking into the liquid methane curling around our feet. She kept her gaze lowered as she waited for my answer.

"Beautiful." I touched my finger to her chin, and lifted her gaze to meet mine. Her brown eyes wavered. "Absolutely beautiful," I said, and touched my lips to hers. I felt her fingers on the waistband of my underwear and soon my shorts joined her robe, soaking in the liquid methane of Ligeia Mare.

Together we sank to our knees, arms entwined, heads turned to face the distant sun peeking over the amber cliffs, as the chilly sea lapped at our legs. I felt Zhang Min's stiff and crinkled nipples poking at my chest, just as she felt mine, and I felt her feeling mine, and she felt me feeling hers. It was a strange and exciting new feeling being joined this way.

Our previous encounter had been good, but nothing like this. Before, she could feel my body just like I felt my body. When I plunged a finger inside myself, and pressed up against my favorite place, Zhang Min felt it just as I did. It was wonderful and new for her, but for me it felt a bit like masturbation. Not that I wasn't happy to put on a show for her, but it was pale in comparison to what we shared now.