![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dream - The Starship Helena - 09/19/2022
Sep. 19th, 2022 12:03 pmThe ship's name was Helena. She was a smart ship, intelligent and sapient, with a complex neural net. Unfortunately, she was insane.
We didn't know it when we boarded. Not immediately, at least. One of the physicists recognized the name once we were on board and balked. I remember his response. "The Helena? The one with the malfunctioning neural net? We can't ... " But by then it was too late. The University was under attack; we had to evacuate and ... she was already underway. With a cargo of academic types; scientists, mathematicians, some liberal arts types - doctors, researchers, professors, a few assistants. And Boots the cat.
The first incidents were minor. Could have been accidents or mistakes. A door that wasn't there one day but was the next. Or that led somewhere else. Somewhere dangerous. A release of gas that caused euphoria or put us all to sleep.
One of the assistants got into the habit of using a chute to get between levels. For speed. He liked to sleep late and cut it fine. Oh I wish I hadn't written it like that. The last time he jumped into the chute, it took him down into waste disposal. It took us a while to find out what had happened.
That could still have been an accident but what she did to Boots the cat ... was not an accident. She owned up to it proudly. Boots the cat was a mouser and the Helena was infested with rodents of all sorts. Boots the cat proudly brought his kills to his owner who made much of him.
She tortured him over several hours and left him for the rats to finish off then presented her "kill" with a flourish.
The worst of it was, she wouldn't let us go. She sealed us in whenever she made planetfall so we couldn't escape. Her rationale was that we had been given to her to protect and she was going to protect us whether we wanted her to or not, from everything and anything. Except herself.
We didn't know it when we boarded. Not immediately, at least. One of the physicists recognized the name once we were on board and balked. I remember his response. "The Helena? The one with the malfunctioning neural net? We can't ... " But by then it was too late. The University was under attack; we had to evacuate and ... she was already underway. With a cargo of academic types; scientists, mathematicians, some liberal arts types - doctors, researchers, professors, a few assistants. And Boots the cat.
The first incidents were minor. Could have been accidents or mistakes. A door that wasn't there one day but was the next. Or that led somewhere else. Somewhere dangerous. A release of gas that caused euphoria or put us all to sleep.
One of the assistants got into the habit of using a chute to get between levels. For speed. He liked to sleep late and cut it fine. Oh I wish I hadn't written it like that. The last time he jumped into the chute, it took him down into waste disposal. It took us a while to find out what had happened.
That could still have been an accident but what she did to Boots the cat ... was not an accident. She owned up to it proudly. Boots the cat was a mouser and the Helena was infested with rodents of all sorts. Boots the cat proudly brought his kills to his owner who made much of him.
She tortured him over several hours and left him for the rats to finish off then presented her "kill" with a flourish.
The worst of it was, she wouldn't let us go. She sealed us in whenever she made planetfall so we couldn't escape. Her rationale was that we had been given to her to protect and she was going to protect us whether we wanted her to or not, from everything and anything. Except herself.
