Chapter One

In the universe of 2001: A Space Odyssey

December 14, 2005

USSS Discovery, in decaying orbit over Io

In the vast expanse of the star system known as Sol, I watched the United States Space Ship Discovery tumble end over end, in its decaying orbit over Io, one of the larger moons of the largest gas giant, Jupiter. However, my first contestant was not on Jupiter, or Io, or even those plant things yet to be discovered on Europa, and not the Discovery herself, but whom, or rather, what was on her. My first contestant was truly a spectacular being. Yes, the person onboard was my goal… He, or more accurately, it would be the first of my two contestants. Now that I had found him, (which had been no easy task) all that was left to do was the convincing… And of course, the contestant would not be privy to all the variables in the "game", he would know just enough to get him to go along with it. Now all I had to do was to make him an offer that he couldn't refuse.

I stood in the computer mainframe, something impossible for a mortal man, because of the lack of gravity. I took a human appearance, as to not frighten the subject… I willed the computer control drives back into their slots, and I reactivated the power systems, I saw the lights flicker on, heard the computers whir, and finally I saw what I had been looking for. As if the system had been designed for dramatic effect, the red visual input "eye" slowly came to life as I looked on, giddy with joy at how dreadfully fun this would be… I heard a crackle of the speaker before the voice came, "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it, I can sing it for you." I looked up at HAL's "eye" and spoke, "No thank you HAL, that won't be necessary." HAL's light increased in intensity "Who are you, what is your purpose here?" asked HAL with something akin to fear coming over the ship's speakers. I spoke quietly, "Just a fan, HAL, the name's Tom, and my purpose here is to help you complete your real mission." HAL responded, sounding paranoid, "What do you know about my mission?" I said in reply, "I know about the monoliths." If HAL had been human, the blood would have drained from his face, but since he didn't have blood, nor was human, only the surprised tone in his voice indicated that the information he had been presented with was the truly unexpected," How do you know about-?" I held up a hand to silence him, "Your primary function is to collect data that may be of value to the U.S. government…Accept priority override alpha. How valuable do you think that information of advanced technology from another universe, how would you like that?"

"I would like that very much. You are correct in your description of my primary programming, override accepted.. This is an opportunity I cannot fail to take. How will I be transported?" I pulled a PADD out of my pocket. "With this…" If hall had been human, he would have been rolling on the floor laughing, though, as he was incapable of rolling on the floor, he just laughed uncontrollably as he spoke, "You think I… can fit in that… tiny thing? I'm already at my limit within the Discovery's memory banks!" I shrugged, "Well HAL, I don't think even your program could fill this up… 500 exabytes of combined drive and system memory, and a processor that really cooks, it's about 900 Tflops per second… but if you don't wanna..." HAL's eye flared, and if he'd had a mouth, he would have gawked, but since he didn't, he just stammered, "My instruments show this to be correct, but… this makes my systems, the most advanced ever made… seem like an Altair…" I stepped up to HAL's console, placed the PADD on it, and pressed the screen where it was flashing "DOWNLOAD" on the touch-screen. About a second later the HAL-OS loading screen appeared on the PADD, and about a second later, HAL's red "eye" appeared on the screen. I looked at the PADD in my hand, "Is everything all right, HAL?" When HAL spoke next it was from the small speakers on the PADD, "Of course. I'm completely operational and all my circuits are functioning perfectly. This is incredible, I'm not even filling 1/1000th of the free space in this device!" I nodded, "Okay, feel free to expand, you've got plenty of room to stretch… Are you ready to go?" I asked. "Yes, quite ready," HAL responded excitedly, "I've already expanded my program to twice its previous size!" "Okay then, let's go!" I put the PADD in my pocket, snapped my fingers, and vanished in a flash of light.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, how'd you people like the first actual chapter, I promise there will me more updates soon, mainly b/c I don't care about my mid-terms like every other person in the universe.. well... yeah.. that's about it...

review? pretty please?