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Barge of Bast Chapter 1: Hibernation Sickness

Gaia Caza sat in the captain's chair on the bridge of the SSS Aurora. The Solar System Authority's patrol vessel was responding to a distress signal from an interplanetary cargo vessel bringing back vital supplies from a mining station in the Kuiper Belt. Gaia stood out quite a bit from the rest of her crew. Not just for her 6'8" height, and her muscular build, or the fact that her prominent bust seemed to be constantly straining the front of her conservative captains' uniform, but most notably because she obviously wasn't human. A sleek coat of pale tan fur covered her from feline ears all the way down to broad, powerful paws. That fur was marked with the characteristic rosette spots of a jaguar, and her facial features and tail matched. Unlike her human counterparts, her head no additional hair on it, and her eyes were a bright, vivid green, with no sign of sclera. Her flit pupils were focused on the view screen before her while she waited patiently for more input from the rest of the bridge crew.

"Captain Caza, we have visual contact with the Azure Marlin. It appears that there are other vessels in the area as well. I count three of them. They aren't of a configuration I'm familiar with," the sensors officer reported.

"Onscreen," Gaia ordered. The view on the view screen changed, and Gaia could see the massive cargo vessel. It outsized her patrol boat many times over, and likewise dwarfed the objects that were around it. The three other vessels looked like large, white spheres, they circled the might cargo vessel, and even as Gaia watched, lances of plasma, like lightning, leapt from their hulls to rip at the hull of the Azure Marlin. "What in the world is going on?!"

"Data from the Marlin is coming in. Its EM drive is offline, and its power network is fried. Life support is failing," reported the comm officer.

"Two of the unknown vessels are breaking off from the Marlin. They appear to be headed this way. They're building up powerful negative charge," the sensors officer reported.

"Bring us about! Set course for Neptune Station and head out at full speed! Set our EM Field to negative four!" Gaia ordered. There was a blindingly bright flash of light on the screen.

"We've been hit! Power conduits on the starboard side are fried! Rerouting!" the systems officer reported.

"Course set! Heading for Neptune Station at full speed!" the Helmsman said. The crew braced themselves for the rapid acceleration. Gaia dug her claws into the armrests of her chair. What were those things? Was the Solar System under alien attack?!

***

"Good morning, Captain."

Gaia heard the voice through a hazy fog in her mind. Something was wrong. She wasn't in her captain's chair. She was sitting up in a bed. She opened her eyes to a modest amount of light, but her vision swam badly. She couldn't make out anything to save her life.

"Where am I? What happened to my ship?" Her voice sounded weak and cracked. Her body felt weak. What had happened? She feared the worst. Her ship had been destroyed. Maybe she was the only survivor? This was probably some hospital, maybe on Earth.

"If you're referring to the SSS Aurora, it was decommissioned ten years ago, before you accepted this assignment," the voice replied. It was a deep, but still feminine voice, and just a tad bit sultry, when it wasn't being matter of fact. Gaia could localize the source of the voice as a darkish blob in her vision.

"Ten years ago...? That's impossible... I was just on board..." Gaia protested. She tried to move her body, but it was hardly responding. What had happened to her?

"That was likely a dream, Captain. You've just woken up from a 10-year sleep in cryostasis. It is time for you to assume your shift as the captain of the TCS Shadina," the voice told her. "If you're having trouble remembering, it is just another symptom of your hibernation sickness. It will take you a few weeks of physical therapy to be back to your old self, but that's fine. It will be approximately five Terran years before we arrive at Rhea."

"TCS, what kind of designation is that?" Gaia asked incredulously.

" 'Terran Colony Ship'. You are the captain of a massive vessel transporting 10,000 colonists from the Solar System to their new home on an exoplanet we've dubbed Rhea, the in the Tau Ceti system. I'm proud to say this is the 3651 Terran day of uninterrupted space travel since leaving the Solar System. We're traveling at .99 Light speed along the Peratt Filament, and we're right on schedule." Gaia sighed in exasperation.

"None of this sounds familiar to me. What's your name? Are you my first officer, or the ship's medic?" she asked.

"Neither, and both..." the feminine voice replied enigmatically. "My name is Shadina. I'm the ship's AI. I will effectively be your only companion for the next five years. You're the only person aboard the ship not in cryostasis." Five years alone? Captaining a colony ship? She'll never see home again? This had to be the dream. This couldn't be real.

***

Gaia woke up again. days had gone by since she'd first awoken from cryostasis. She opened her eyes, but her room was mostly dark. A vast bay window covered one wall, giving her a view out into space. A vivid river of plasma licked at the lower edge of the window, providing the faint light that filled the rest of the room. She could see more clearly now. The room she was staying in was large. I would make a fine master bedroom in any nice home. Her bed was at least a King size, if not larger. She had nice nightstands, and doors the promised to lead to a closet and a washroom. It was a third door that opened, though, and the lights gently grew brighter as a figure stepped in.

Gaia's gaze grew a little wider as she beheld the AI's avatar clearly for the first time. Shadina stood just over six feet tall, and she didn't look any more human than Gaia did. Instead, the head of a leopard rested on her shoulders, but the black fur that covered her every inch would soon get her labeled as a panther. Her eyes were a vivid green, like Gaia's own, and she had a strong, curvy body which she kept covered in a sleek, tight uniform. The sight of her made parts of Gaia stir that she didn't like to talk about. Shadina grinned as she saw Gaia turn and stare.

"Ah, is your eyesight returning, Captain?" Shadina sounded inordinately delighted for an AI. Was that actual pleasure Gaia was hearing in her voice? It had to be a fluke. "How many fingers am I holding up?" Shadina raised a hand, and Gaia could make out three fingers.

"Three, and yes, I can see a lot better now," Gaia replied. Her voice had grown stronger, too. her whole body was recovering, slowly but surely. The worst part was still the shock of realizing that what Shadina had told her on that first day was true.

"Excellent. You're recovering faster than Captain Fletcher did. Very glad to see it," Shadina replied. There it was again, the pleasure in her voice, and she was grinning, and her eyes glinted, like she meant it. Gaia decided to call her bluff.

"You've been lying to me, kitty. You're no AI. You're just another member of the crew. What's your real name? What is your rank and position?" Gaia demanded. Shadina smirked.

"You don't think I'm the ship's AI?" she asked teasingly. Her uniform was replaced instantly by a sexy, leaf-green party dress that hugged the panther's bust lovingly and showed off some cleavage. Then she vanished entirely, and reappeared on the other side of the room. Then the lights dimmed and came up again. "Is that enough, or do you need to see more?" There was still a little teasing tone to her voice. Gaia frowned.

"Has AI advanced so much? How can we give an AI such complex emotions, and... why would we?" she asked. Shadina switched back to her uniform. Gaia was slightly disappointed. Shadina looked stunning in the dress. Then again, maybe Gaia shouldn't be thinking about an AI that way.

"Well, sort of..." Shadina began. "Actually, I'm not the sort of AI some nerds spent years in a cubicle writing up. When the Rhea mission was proposed, a radical idea was offered for the ship's AI. A volunteer was called for to donate their psyche to the cause. This was for a few reasons, but mostly to ensure that the captains of the ship had something like a real person to interact with. The volunteer was a wealthy businesswoman and socialite named Shadina Night." She tapped her chest. "Me." Gaia frowned thoughtfully. More of her memories had come back to her. She vaguely remembered accepting this mission after... that incident... She must have survived it, obviously. Now that she was reminded, she could remember hearing about the pseudo-celebrity among the Bestials. A flagrant show-off, attention seeker, and advocate for Bestial equality. She was now the AI for a colony ship bound for another planet? That sounded ludicrous.

"What...? I've heard of you... You were kind of a celebrity... You were rich. You had it all. Why would you do something like that?" Gaia asked. Shadina smirked again. It seemed to be a common expression.

"Well, I did get some concessions out of the Terran Colonial Authority, like getting the ship named after me, of course. As for the rest of my reasons, I guess you'll have to get to know me better. Besides, this is only a 'copy' of my psyche. The 'real' me is probably still enjoying the good life back on Earth, ten years older, but no less sexy." Gaia nodded a bit. As she thought about it more, it started to make more sense.

"So... what you're telling me is that you... or the real you... was such a narcissist that she wanted something huge and grand named after her, and a copy of her to persist for who-knows-how-long?" Gaia asked. Shadina continued to grin, apparently not insulted at all.

"There is an old expression: 'if the shoe fits, wear it'. I don't try to hide my narcissism in the least. You'll just have to put up with it." Gaia snorted.

"Wow... What in the world did I sign up for? And who is Captain Fletcher?" she asked. Shadina straightened up a bit, looking more professional. She raised a hand to her muzzle, as if clearing her throat before she started.

"Captain Valiant James Fletcher, 'Val' to his friends, is the second captain of the TCS Shadina. He is the former captain of the SSS Solar Flare, before his reassignment to the Shadina. He's a bestial of the fox persuasion, and fancies himself quite the lady's man," Shadina reported quite matter-of-factly, but thankfully not in some droning monotone.

"Second captain?" Gaia asked. "How does this work? A ship has only one captain."

"Normally, that is true," Shadina replied. "But it was decided in this case that it would be cruel to have a single captain endure a 15 year trip nearly alone. Not only would they have to occupy themselves for 15 years with little to do, but they'd have to age all that time, while everyone in cryostasis didn't really experience the passage of time. So it was decided to split the tenure into 3 shifts. The first five years were overseen by Captain Cress Rolandson. The second was by the aforementioned Val Fletcher, and now you're the third, and last. You get the honor of overseeing our arrival to Rhea." Gaia nodded. She had heard of Cress Rolandson. H was a bit of a legend among the Solar System patrol captains. He was getting on in his years, and everyone expected him to retire soon. This was his retirement?

"This is all crazy," she remarked.

"This is the greatest adventure the peoples of the Solar System have ever embarked upon, and you get to be front and center for the best part," Shadina told her.