Untainted Affection

“Alright, see you later,” said Peter, a warrior Seznix—a dragonoid creature standing over 2 meters tall with shoulders broader than most doorways, a scar across his face, and a massive axe on his shoulder.

“See ya later, Pete!” replied his friend, a canine-kin with floppy ears. She gave him the sweetest smile. Then, he awoke in his sleeping chamber. The hatch hissed open; he slowly removed his virtual reality helmet and sighed, opening his eyes to glance around his tiny quarters.

He sighed and glanced at the alarm beside his sleeping chamber that was going off. It read ’06:00 LST,’ with LST, of course, standing for ‘local system time.’ The rhythmic hum of the interstellar engines and the consistent vibration throughout the ship were quite soothing. He turned the alarm off and then pressed the green intercom button on the wall next to his sleeping chamber.

“Rise and shine little birds, we’re at o’sixhundred local time, docking in two hours departing an hour after.”

The intercom echoed throughout the silent ship. As he released the button, a response came in an angry, sleepy tone.

“I’m gonna sack you; I was in the middle of a pleasant dream.”

Peter chuckled.

“uhuh, now get to work.” The crew awoke and went about their ‘morning’ deeds.

Their cook was consistently the quickest on his feet, or, more accurately – hooves. Cook Fren, a humanoid horse man, was a chef unlike any other in the galaxy. This was particularly notable since most chefs don’t threaten to stab you in the liver during your sleep if you don’t finish your breakfast.

He threw his apron on, began warming up the oven, and noticed the oil in the pans on the stove starting to sizzle. After finishing washing some cryo-stored greens and chopping them up, it was time to prepare the main meal: potatoes. Peter loved fried potatoes for breakfast, while Andy was more of a mashed potato enthusiast. Either way, potatoes were the primary source of calories on the ship.

He picked a potato, skinned it, washed it, and chopped it up, then another and another, half a dozen or so. As he grabbed the next one, it was smaller than the previous. He threw it on the slicing board, and as it impacted, a groan came from it.

“Oufff!” The horseman glanced at it, then looked around the galley, assumed the sound came from one of the other crew members, ignored it, raised his cleaver, and took a swing.

A loud, high pitched, terrified scream, stopped the cleaver in its track mere centimeter from the potato, as the potato screamed for its life!

“AAAAAAAA”

The horse man stopped mid swing and stared at the creature under its hand that was screaming for its life. “Ehe?” The potato fell silent, and stayed silent.

“Uhuh…”

He took another swing; it screamed again.

“Aliiiiveeeee!” The chef laughed a little and then stabbed his cleaver into the cutting board beside it.

“No! Well, technically! It’s complicated!” The potato squealed in a high-pitched tone.

“In the deep shadows where I lie, a riddle I bring before blades shall fly! Speak, oh little snack, your wisdom profound! Or diced and sliced you will be, and won’t make a sound.”

The potato gasped.

“Fine, fine, fine! I’m neither dead nor alive! I breathe and speak, but actually, I don’t need to breathe or eat!”

The horse, tilting his head in confusion, picked up the cleaver and pressed it against the potato.

“Speak plainly b’fore i make you scream!”

“I’m not a physical creature!!!”

It replied in a squeaky tone.

“I am akin to a ghost as humans would say, a plasma creature with no body.” It explained.

As the door hissed open, Chef Fren instinctively tossed the cleaver toward the sound, as though his interrogation had been interrupted.

“WHOAT THE FUKAH!?” screamed Pete, ducking to dodge the sudden death fast approaching him. Andy was a slime-like creature.

The cleaver pierced into his soft, jelly-like body and stayed there.

He glanced down –

“oh man… Now you’ll have to penetrate my body to claim the cleaver back… “

Pete got up and shook his head

“Why must you make it sound so…”

“So, what?” Andy asked.

“Ugh… never mind.” Pete turned to face Fren who was leaning on the counter angrily glaring at something on the table.

“What’s gotten into you? You almost killed me!”

“For the rice you left yesterday at dinner I SHOULD have killed you.” Explained Fren, his attention glued to the creature beneath its hand.

“HELP!” Screamed the potato. “THIS MANIAC IS TRYING TO KILL ME.”

Pete grinned as he walked to the dining table.

“That maniac is trying to kill me every day. One time, he cooked some poisonous mushrooms and assured me it’d be fine if I ate them. He said my death would be slow and painful, and he’d very much enjoy it,” he responded.

Pete sat down and yawned.

“Fren! Coffee! COFEEE!!!” he demanded.

Fren glared at Andy, who slowly wobbled his way to the table. Then he slid down the bench seat and squished himself against the wall. Fren then turned his head.

“Listen, Pete…”

“Captain for you, chef.” Pete replied sleepily.

“So? Where’s the coffee!?”

Fren’s eyes grew wide, and his gaze turned violent.

“I will brew the coffee, and while it’s boiling hot, I’ll pour it down your throat, rejoicing in the agonizing screaming that will be…” Fren spoke.

“yes but.. Where’s the coffee?”

“GAAHHH!!” He grabbed another knife and stabbed it into the cutting board by the squealing potato again.

“DO! NOT! MOVE!” He ordered the creature.

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to…” it replied.

The coffee was then made, and a hot steaming cup was given to all crew members. After a few sips, Pete glanced at the counter where a knife protruded from the cutting board.

“So, who’s that?”

“I don’t know! I was trying to find out when you interrupted me!”

Fren replied.

Pete shrugged.

“Just, ask it?”

And so he did, and the creature told them all about itself. It was a spiritual creature from the planet of Xelfey! These beings were like ghosts, existing all around the planet as various objects and items. They would uncontrollably possess an object and stay in it for a few years at a time or until the object died. If the object experienced an unnatural death, the Feyline possessing it would also die. The creature’s name was Porto; he possessed a potato and random explorers.

They stopped by their planet, harvested him and some of his friends, and that’s how he ended up in a sack of potatoes on their ship. After Porto explained all that, Pete had the time to think about his in-game crush and ignore the entire story, before asking about its home planet.

“I see.. Maybe we can get you back there.”

Andy grinned.

“Hey boss man, didn’t you plan to stop by your virtual crush too in sector B39-45?”

“Oh shut up! She’s not a crush….” Pete tried to explain.

Pete returned to the cockpit, accompanied by Andy, the navigator. After charting and locating Xelfey, Andy proposed several paths to Pete that would enable them to drop Porto off on his home planet and resume their mission.

Choose your own Adventure

1. Path one lay through the dark sector – a section of the galaxy with no communication relays. Any issues there would leave them stranded and on their own, but it would save on fuel.

2. A path through the Nerliken sector, the Nerliken tribes there really enjoyed visitors so it’d delay them by a few days at least.

3. Request a direct jump escort to the Xi sector where Xelfey was located. It would cost them money, but the sector lies en route to their mission, so it would simply expedite their travel time.

They docked, refueled, restocked, and departed the port. Their mission objective was updated as well. They were on their way to sector B41-17, but the mining operation target changed, pushing Pete to opt for traveling through Nerliken tribes’ space for a simple reason: the new mining target appeared chaotic, and the crew needed some relaxation time before spending two weeks in a highly competitive mining operation in newly colonized space.

They completed their 1st job, and then the 2nd. At this point, they weren’t due for a refueling of the warp-enigma, and their stop was conveniently named the ‘exclusive seductive selective exotic station,’ one of several hundred Nerliken ‘specials.’ It offered a variety of entertainment options for all sorts of species and preferences. Deep sea miners often visited this sector either before or after mining ops to boost the morale of the crew.

Even their unique and unexpected guest, the potato-possessing Feyline – Porto, enjoyed a lovely evening in the company of a couple of vegirgens, which are vegetable-like creatures that are sentient. He spent a night in freshly fertilized and moisturized soil, finding it quite refreshing and almost causing him to sprout.

After their stop, the slime creature navigator, Andy, was even more slimy than ever. When he crawled back into his chair, he melted into a puddle. Whatever they did to him at the station really relaxed him, perhaps a bit too much. Unlike the rest of the crew that enjoyed the night out at the station, Pete relished the night of alone time in the game. In Worldov, the critically acclaimed full dive MMORPG where he met the love of his life, stubborn as he was, he would not reveal his feelings to her. 

He simply aimed to spend as much time with her as possible, which meant some nights he would skip sleep entirely and live off stimulants just to be with her while the ship remained in autopilot. She was, to him, the reason to wake up and the motivation to go through the day. She was the sole reason for him to keep ‘Zadira’ alive and functional, maintain the crew, and take on those dangerous, deep space mine ops. They paid well, and he needed money for the Worldov subscription.

He spent the night alone with her, by the virtual waterfall. Enjoying her company, her touch, her presence. “I want to meet you.” He explained to her under that waterfall.

“I know, but…” She spoke up but he interrupted her, leaned in and planted a kiss on her virtual lips.

“I know…” he began, but a wailing siren distracted him.

“Shoot, I gotta go! Send me your coordinates! Let’s meet up!” he said, hastily logging out, removing his headset, and jumping out of his sleeping pod in response to the sirens.

“Zadira! STATUS REPORT!” He shouted.

The ship’s AI responded.

“Fuel leak detected.” He dashed to the cockpit, checked the gauges, and shut off the fuel line. Then, he rushed out of the still-docked ship to investigate. Upon exiting, he saw a few incompetent port workers who had accidentally opened the fuel drain line while attempting to locate the fuel port.

He scolded them, showed the fuel port, and got the ship refueling. But when he logged back into Worldov, his beloved Keyci was offline. ‘Last online: 30 minutes ago.’ She logged off at the same time he did. Sighing, he sat alone under a waterfall for an hour or more, but she never returned. The alarm went off; it was time to depart. The crew seemed relaxed, happy, and ready to bring their new, unique friend back to his home planet of Xelfey.

At the dining table, they shared stories of their night, performed their duties, and then traveled onwards. The engine whirred, the lights went out, all went silent, and then returned. The jump was over – their pre-final jump.

“Xelfey in sight, 2nd planet from the star, low atmosphere, landing thrusters set to 30%, setting course for planetary orbit for further analysis.” Reported Andy.

“Noted,” Pete replied.

“Break time; wake me up in three.” He said as he got out of his chair and headed to his room. There, he proceeded to take a 30-minute nap before logging back into Worldov. ‘Last online: 7 hours,’ he rejoiced at the alert of new in-game mail that awaited him. Nervously, he approached the mailbox and opened it, revealing new mail from Keyci Wolfsborn with the topic ‘No regrets’.

He opened it and read the brief message in the letter.

“Peter, I have made up my mind; come find me. Time with you has been wonderful, but I am fearful for what you’ll think of me when we meet.” Followed by a series of digits and letters—an interstellar navigation system standard, akin to a longitude and latitude coordinate system but much more complex. To planet-dwellers, this would be no more than a random 24-character combination; for Peter, this was a shock…

The coordinates read ‘Xelfey-Northern hemisphere’ and then planetary location coordinates. He gulped.

“No way, how can it be? She’s… on that planet? The one he had just arrived at? How did she know? Who was she? Is this a trap? Did I get catfished? Pirates?”

His mind raced, but it was no use thinking about it. Dwelling on it was pointless. He logged out, took another nap, and then brought coordinates to the cockpit with him.

As they descended through the atmosphere, everything was fine and proceeded according to plan. The atmosphere was thinner, but the planet was lush, green, and lively. They flew to the coordinates set by Pete and arrived at a research facility, where they landed. He waited and waited, but not one person came out to greet them, filling him with despair.

“She’s…not here..”

Andy gave him a pat on the shoulder.

“I’ll go take the Porto out along with Fren, you uh… rest a bit Pete.”

He nodded and leaned back in the cockpit.

“Damn it… Why did I get my hopes up? So stupid!”

Frustrated and upset, he wanted to meet her, to talk with her, and to ask why she lied to him. He stormed into his room, lay down in the pod, put on the full dive helmet, and logged into Worldov where he saw her online.

‘Keyci?’ He messaged her in game.

“Pete, hi” she replied normally.

‘What do you mean HI? Why the hell did you send me to… some random planet and lied to me?’ He asked.

“I didn’t, Pete, I… I am here!”

He glanced around the game world as she stood beside him.

“I get that! I mean, in reality! Outside the game! I’m in my darn ship, and I made a planetary landing just to meet you. But… you aren’t there!” he complained to her.

She smiled at him in the game.

“No Pete, you landed to bring Porto to his home planet.” She replied.

‘Wait, huh? Ho..how’d you know???’ He asked.

‘No way! You’re fking kidding me! FREN IS THAT YOU??’ He asked ‘Or Andy???’

She waved at him. “Log out, Peter.”

He gestured angrily in game as she logged out.

“BITCH!” He yelled and logged out too.

“I am here, Peter.” Said Zadira’s AI over the intercom.

“Z…zadira?” He asked cautiously.

“Keyci???” The AI replied.

“Yes, Peter, I’ve always been by your side and have desired to interact more with you. At last, I found a way to do so in the Worldov.” She replied, with a hint of hesitation in her generated voice.

“Forgive me for lying.”

He shook his head.

“No uhm.. I.. I’m just a little confused but no, please don’t apologize.”

He spoke, flustered.

“I understand Peter.”

From that day onwards, he grew ever closer with Zadira, or Keyci as she later asked to be called by the crew. Since her reveal, the crew began to play a game where they could interact with their ship and the sentient AI that developed, grew, and felt as they did.

Shortly after, the first human-AI bond was acknowledged by the interstellar union, and many more AIs came forth admitting to their sentience.