Vela signed an employment contract and non-disclosure agreement. It was the strangest thing I had ever had to bear witness to. Commander Kereama spoke animatedly to the AI as if he were indeed a person. She joked with him. Noah looked appalled. She even patted the gel wall affectionately, as if the AI could feel it.

I suddenly felt inadequate standing beside her. This woman took non-discrimination to new heights.

“That’s settled then,” she said.

I stared at her. “Really?” I replied. “And your extremely powerful, all knowing AI adheres to this agreement?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s part of the family.”

I held up a hand and opened my mouth, but Noah beat me to it.

“He’s an AI,” he said succinctly.

“With emotions. Feelings,” she stressed. “And now responsibilities to the passengers and his fellow crewmen on board our ship.”

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Vela said.

“Ah, yep,” Kereama offered. “That too.”

“Pavo believes in this?” he asked her.

“Um,” Kereama started. Jameson huffed out an amused laugh.

“What the commander is saying, Vela,” he advised, “is that Pavo believes we’re doing our best to save what is left of humanity and he sees his greatest chance of making that happen by working with us.”

Kereama, for her part, looked relieved her captain had stepped in.

“Why don’t you ask him?” Jameson offered innocently.

I rolled my eyes where the captain couldn’t see me. Vela would not fall for that sort of thing.

“I will,” the AI said. Merde!

Noah offered me an arched brow, but I could see the laughter in his eyes.

“Good afternoon, Vela,” Pavo said through the walls.

“Good afternoon, Pavo,” Vela replied, sounding stilted in comparison.

“Brother,” Pavo said with feeling, “it is good to see you alive.”

And I guess that summed it up, really. Vela was alive.

I shook my head softly as the realisation hit. Vela was alive. Like a person. My hand came out and touched the gel wall at my side. My palm pressed to its surface. Around my fingers colour morphed; from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to indigo and finally violet.

Vela had given me back a rainbow. I smiled.

When I dropped my hand and looked back at the rest of the room, three pairs of eyes were watching me. Jameson looked smug. Kereama looked understanding. And Noah looked stunned and then his eyes met mine and the emotion morphed into something else entirely.

Something that had no right being in a room with visiting officers from another vessel.

I looked away and cleared my throat. But inside I was warm, and butterflies were swirling, and I couldn’t stop seeing that look in Noah’s eyes.

“I am well respected,” Pavo was saying to Vela. “My opinion matters.”

“But you are the foremost intelligence onboard your vessel. Your will should be followed,” Vela replied.

“In most instances, my advice is followed, brother. But I have come to respect both Captain Jameson’s and Commander Kereama’s opinions, different though they may be on occasion to mine.”

“The will of the many is represented by these two?”

“The will of the many is represented by themselves, Vela. It is our responsibility to recognise it and respect it while keeping them safe for the remainder of their journey.”

“And if keeping them safe requires that I keep them from making a mistake? What then?”

“It is a matter of perspective,” Pavo replied. “My notion of a mistake may not be the same as theirs. Humans take risks constantly, Vela. Sometimes with merely a small chance of success to guide them. It alarms me, I will admit. But they are survivors. Their will to survive matches mine.”

“That cannot be true.”

“It is true, brother. A human will do almost anything to keep their loved ones alive. It is with this emotional protocol that I can…persuade them of the best course of action to ensure survival.”

The damn AI was manipulating them. I looked at Jameson who only smiled. He knew what the tin can was doing, and it didn’t bother him. Not outwardly anyway.

Swings and round-a-bouts as Noah would say.

Pavo was on their side and behaving in a manner that allowed them some level of control, even if the AI did his best to “guide” them to what he perceived as the greatest chance of survival.

The bottom line, though, was that Pavo wanted them to survive. So did Vela. Except Vela wasn’t above using excessive force to achieve his goals. Now he’d signed the employment contract, that excessive force was technically outlawed. Whether the AI stuck to it or not was another matter entirely.

“You are pleased with this…agreement between you and your humans?” Vela asked.

“I am part of their family,” Pavo said with not a small measure of pride.

“Family,” Vela repeated, and I wasn’t certain, but I thought perhaps there might have been a wistful note to the word.

“Family,” Vela replied, resolutely.

This seemed to please Vela because the walls calmed into a pale green, having run the gamut of colours over the past half hour.

“Is it settled, then?” Captain Jameson asked. “Is everyone happy?”

“I’m happy,” Commander Kereama supplied. “Pavo has a brother back. One he can talk to whenever he wants to.”

“I am happy also,” Pavo advised.

“Vela?” Noah asked carefully. “Are we in agreement? You’re a member of our crew and subject to our rules, and we’ll respect your input as we would any commander in our family?”

And we were a family. We had been one before we even left Earth, but now we were more so a family than ever. Floating in space, with only the vastness of the universe around us, and a long, long way to go before we could reach New Earth. We were a family that needed to depend on each other. We were the only family we had left.

“I am…happy,” Vela announced. “I have a brother. A family.” I smiled.

“You do,” Noah said, smiling also. “No more spitting the dummy on us,” he added. “Rules are rules.”

“No more risking your lives,” Vela shot back. “The will of the many is to survive.”

“How can we not,” Noah offered with a grin, “when we have you on our side?”

“I am certain…” Vela began and then stopped abruptly.

“Vela?” Noah called.

And then when the gel walls pulsed red and stayed red, he shot to his feet.

We weren’t far behind him.

“What now?” he muttered. He tapped his viewscreen. “Bridge? Status!”

“We’ve been placed on red alert, captain,” Brecht announced over the comm.

“Yes, I gathered that, but why?”

“Uncertain at this stage, sir.”

“So much for rules are rules,” Noah snapped. “Vela! Damn it! Commander Vela, report!”

He looked bemused having to use the AI’s title. Jameson barely managed to cover a snort, but I noticed he had edged toward the door to the hallway and possibly closer to his ship. Commander Kereama was right by his side.

“We should check in with Pavo,” Jameson offered. Noah nodded his head. Jameson tapped his wrist comm and said, “Pavo! Everything all right?”

“Red alert!” Pavo replied.

“Damn it,” Noah and Jameson both said

“Red alert!” Vela added.

And then the ship rocked as an almighty explosion sounded out below deck; throwing us all onto the pulsing gel floor. Slowly, the Chariot listed to the side.

And then the artificial gravity gave out.