By SilvyrWing
No one actually got it right away, as no one had actually been around in the early years of earthling space exploration. They had certainly made the connection, though, even if it was subconsciously. This was important somehow.
"Why would an alien vessel be named after an earth teacher," Commander Goddard had once asked.
Miss Davenport got it first. The others looked at her, seeing the surprised understanding spread across her facial features – wide eyes, slackened jaw, and she had to be as pale as a ghost. Harlan, surprisingly enough, got it next, and his reaction was much more comedic, to say the least. He'd been fooling with some controls on the helm when all of a sudden, his head snapped up, dark eyes staring directly at what, up until a minute ago, had been the ship's android.
Finally, Suzee spoke. "Who?"
It jolted Davenport out of her reverie. Shaking her head a little, she leaned against the helm for support. "Christa McAuliffe. An earth teacher who died when her shuttle exploded."
Christa flinched. The memory hurt. The simple statement, however, suddenly opened everyone's eyes – they were staring at the person for whom the ship was named, and no one knew what to say.
Christa bowed her head, resisting the temptation to withdraw and allow Thelma to once again take over for them both. It would have been so easy to do something like that, and allow the crew to talk to the android. Christa loved them all, though, and had to tell them. It had already been so long, and they were so hungry for information…
"Seventy seconds," she began. "Or somewhere around there… It was too hot after that to really care. And you know how they say sometimes things happen in slow motion? Well, I had a lot to think about in those last few seconds." She pause, tilting her head back, voice choked with emotion… But she would not cry… could not cry. Thelma was designed without a need to shed tears, thus, Christa was restricted to the same limitations. "I was the first teacher in space. We were going to study a comet. My whole class…"
She cut off abruptly, finding her shoulders held tightly by Rosie, who had quite suddenly decided to give the former teacher a hug. Christa returned it, wishing so desperately for the ability to cry. To show that she was upset and happy at the same time. Memories that hurt, mixed with the elation of speaking with this crew – her crew! Yet the only expression that appeared on her face was akin to mild disappointment. Rosie understood, though… Out of all of them, she was likely the most empathic. "You don't have to talk about it, okay?" Rosie said, pulling away and offering the android a smile. The smile was returned, among mutters of assent from the rest of the crew. Christa was so dear in their hearts… Despite the fact that she was the ship itself, she'd kept them alive throughout their journey through space. She was one of them.
Family.
"I've been waiting to talk to you all this time," Christa said.
"Then you can wait a few more minutes," Rosie replied. Harlan looked mildly disappointed, though said nothing. The voyage had changed the future STARDOG considerably. Already he'd gone from an almost unbearable egomaniac to someone that actually respected the others he worked with. Others that he considered a family… And because he – and the others – considered Christa part of that family, he would respect her, too.
"I could… take you to the bunkroom…" Suzee said. "You know… now that you're on board to stay. You're staying, right?"
Even Suzee considered her to be part of that family. Christa swelled with pride. It wasn't that she needed to have anyone show her to the bunkroom. It was more along the lines that she wanted the opportunity to speak to all of her crew individually. This was the perfect opportunity to speak with at least one of them… Possibly two. Catalina, after all, was still part of the crew. Christa smiled an oddly warm smile for an android face, and nodded.
The Commander waved a hand at Suzee, indicating for her to go, before turning to the rest of them. "Alright, team. Back to your posts."
Harlan pounded a fist on the control console. "…But…!"
"Band," Goddard warned. His eyes turned to each of them in turn… Rosie, Radu, Bova, Miss Davenport, Harlan, and finally, Suzee. "You show her to the bunkroom, then you get right back here. And Christa…"
Surprised, the android looked up. "Yes, Commander?"
It sounded so much like Thelma, that Goddard almost forgot what he was about to say. Narrowing his eyes a little, he continued, slowly. "…We need Thelma. If…"
Understanding, Christa nodded. "Of course. We will be online and able to assist in a short amount of time. I just need to…" Hesitating over the word, she turned her eyes away. It connected her more to the mechanical part of the ship than the living part of it. "…I just need to recharge. The surge of energy that allowed me to speak with you has left Thelma drained."
"You ready?" Suzee asked. Christa turned, to see the Yensidian eagerly waiting behind her. The girl was an engineer… It was no surprise that she wanted to talk with someone that had been part of a Starship's circuitry for years.
"I am," the teacher replied.
To be fair, Suzee had a lot that she wanted to ask The Christa's namesake, though as soon as she and the android had passed through the ComPost's door, it suddenly all drained away as if she'd never had any questions at all. And to make things worse, as they got closer and closer to the bunkrooms, it didn't seem as if any of her questions were going to return to her, either. Some genius, she remembered thinking as she watched Christa walk fluidly next to her. It almost appeared that she wasn't an android at all. If she could only find a way to ask why…
"How's Catalina?"
Suzee blinked. "What?"
"Catalina," Christa responded. "I can sense her, so I know she's around."
"Oh!" Suzee exclaimed, smiling. At least it was something to talk about. "She's fine…" There was a pause. Suzee seemed to listen to something, though instead of repeating what Catalina said, she lapsed into silence again.
"Why don't you talk to Catalina in front of the crew?" Christa wondered. "I've always been rather confused about that."
Suzee stopped, backing into the wall and leaning against it. There wasn't an easy excuse, and so she quietly supplied, "Habit." When Christa tilted her head in confusion, she continued. "…I was so used to being 'perfect' back home. I got great grades, I was smart… You know." She shrugged, and it seemed almost as if she were about to shrug off the question entirely. Pushing off the wall, Suzee began to head off again down the dimly lit corridor. Finally, she spoke, quietly.
"It was just that… no one took me seriously when I told them I had an invisible friend. My parents thought it was cute at first, then I got older and… Well…" She shrugged again, looking at the android. "I went through a long time where I felt like I had to save face. Catalina was pissed…"
"Language, young lady," Christa said automatically.
The Yensidian actually smiled, chuckling a little. "Mad, I mean. One day, I couldn't take it anymore, so I had my little sister, Zoe, jump into my mind. She saw Cat. And… people started to believe me from there. But I hadn't talked to Cat in public in years. By then, it was…"
"Habit," Christa finished. Suzee nodded. "Cat kept talking to me anyway, even after I stopped talking to her…" She paused, again, listening. "…Yes, Cat. I was a bad friend."
"Then what's to keep you from breaking that habit now?"
"I'm getting better about it," Suzee said. "Sometimes I'll talk to her while the rest of the crew is around, and I'm starting to slip more and more. I'm kinda glad, though, you know? Habits are hard to break."
"I used to talk about traveling to outer space all the time when I was younger. You might say it was a habit."
Suzee, not knowing how to respond, remained silent.
"So," Christa asked. "What did Catalina say?"
Now that was something she could respond to. "She said she's really glad to meet you, and that she's doing just fine."
***
"Commander, I've worked on debugging the system, though this is really Suzee's job." Bova rolled his eyes, punching in another code on the engineering console. "I mean, seriously. I don't know what Christa did to this. Suzee'd be able to guess better than me."
Goddard wanted to tell Bova that he valued his guesses better than he valued most peoples' facts, though he settled for, "Keep working on it, Mister Bova." The Uranusian sighed, turning back to the console to continue punching in data from the central processor. Goddard turned from the viewscreen and approached Rosie, leaning over her console to address her. "…Rosie, why don't you hail Suzee on the com and see where she's at? Probably got distracted talking to Christa… See if you can get her back here."
Smiling cheerfully, Rosie nodded. "Alright, Commander. Just give me a sec…"
Goddard turned away, satisfied that Rosie would do her job. She'd rarely failed at any tasks he'd assigned to her, and the only times she did was when there was some sort of clear and present distraction, or she was ill. An ill, optimistic Mercurian was almost as bad as a healthy bad-tempered Spung… They were both competent, but tended to break everything they touched.
The Commander leaned up against the Helm, though Harlan ignored him for the most part. Seth Goddard never had a position on the Christa, thus, his semi-leaning position next to the controls was actually pretty standard. He'd told Harlan in the past that it was to make sure no one screwed up… And that was, for the most part, true. The thing was, Seth had little else to do with himself, besides lean there and "supervise." After three years in space, the team pretty much had the situation well-in-hand.
Perhaps he'd ask Christa why he couldn't do anything unless it was an absolute emergency. Well, that wasn't true. He could access the computers, though it seemed like T.J. Davenport had more permissions from the system than he did. It wasn't quite fair… But then again, nothing out here was very fair. Here, he was in charge of six kids – one he couldn't even see – and he didn't even have any control over them. The ship was at their mercy.
At least, he mused, they got to take their field test. It was a long field test, true… But he'd always suspected they'd excel. It wasn't something he'd ever admit – just like he'd never tell Harlan that he was one of the best pilots he'd ever seen at Helm… But it was nice to think about. The fact was that he had faith in these misfits. Thought of them as his children. And above all, wanted to get them home in one piece…
And he could do nothing to aid them.
Idly biting his lip as he thought about the interesting situation, Seth slumped a little, inadvertently leaning on one of the crystal controls that steered the ship. Suddenly, he found himself sliding across the floor toward the viewscreen, having been unable to grab hold of the Helm fast enough to keep himself from falling. Harlan wasn't able to react until Goddard crashed, with a very healthy thud, directly into the wall.
"…Commander, you just…"
"…Took control of…."
Righting himself as the floor even out under him, the Commander looked between Harlan and Radu, the two that had spoken. Without a word, he approached the Helm again, and gently pushed on one of the crystals. The ship responded, turning gently to port.
Harlan smiled, stepping down. "Would you like a turn, Commander?"
Rubbing a now aching shoulder, Commander Seth Goddard, STARDOG, stepped up to take his turn piloting the Starship under his command. Harlan leaned next to him, turning back to Radu to utter the Commander's line: "Plot a course."
"Course fed to the Helm," Radu responded, incredulously, smiling.
Seth didn't even offer a second thought to the idea that something might not be exactly right…
…But Bova did.
***
She saw the world through new eyes. Colors meant things. Shapes were so much more than simple binary and code fed through optic sensors. She was processing things as a human would… As she would have, hundreds of years ago. What year was it now, even? Ah, there was so much to tell. And Christa was happy, happier than she'd ever been in her whole life.
She'd touched the future.
The bunkroom door slid closed as Suzee responded to Rosie's summons and headed back to the Command Post. Christa herself reclined on one of the bunks and closed her eyes… Being an android, she occasionally had to plug herself in to the ship's circuitry to charge herself up with particles retrieved from the Ion Glide. Her systems went into hibernation as she extended a connection into a socket in the wall…
She was asleep before she noticed the tear rolling down her cheek.