“Bingo!” Peterson exclaims.

“Now that we all know who we are again, let’s pull ourselves together and get to work.” She exits the room.

She’s right. I must fulfill the mission. Our lives depend on it. Existence depends on it.

Asteroids are whizzing past the window. We’re cruising full speed towards what Sidd found when he came back. Sidd the obnoxious Synthetic Intelligence and Data Device. The computerized soul simulator. Regaining conscience when it wakes up. Maybe we have more things in common than I thought? Sidd has no soul. It’s just electricity running through circuits. But so are we. There’s more to us than that, but we’re both confined by our circuit’s nature. Always arguing and trying to have the last word again. That’s in my nature.

Chris is watching me with concern.

“Talking to yourself in your head again? You did it aloud while passed out. Mumbled something about drawing lines, falling while entangled, and how god’s a joke.” The concern turns into the hint of a smile. “Regretting career choices in the light of recent events?”

I’ll try to console him. “Nah. Everything’s hunky-dory.” I hope it really is this time.

“How do you feel?”

How did I feel? Good question. How? “Like someone spray-painted the walls with me and then scraped me into a bucket.” I think that describes it fairly well. Pretty accurate.

"Right. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I need to inspect your suit for damage. The mission isn’t over, and we must be ready to go out again. Why don’t you… clean up a bit and rest while I do that. Maybe also take another MRS in your pod to make sure everything’s still in place." He winked at me.

"That’s the best suggestion I heard all day."

I unbuckled, unscrewed und removed my spacesuit, handing every component to Chris. Then I hung my sweat-drenched jumpsuit over a seat and climbed into my pod to lie down in it eyes closed.

I heard Chris initiate the scan, soon followed by a squiggly line of light that illuminated my retinas through the eyelids for a short time. Then only the usual swirling phosphene patterns one sees with eyes shut. Sidd repeated his waffling diagnosis about how schizophrenic and stone cold crazy I was, but I stopped caring or paying attention while I fell asleep.

Erwin Schroedinger, get out of there NOW!

I often found it funny when Schroedi climbed into the fridge when I opened it, but now’s a bad time for cat hair in the tiramisu. My date will be here any moment and I don’t have the time to shut him in for a few seconds as I usualy do for punishment. Instead I tried to grab him, but he took cover behind the bole I had prepared the day earlier. As I tried to move it with my other hand the towel I had wrapped around my head came loose and blinded me.

Alright, have it your way!

I closed the fridge on him and shook the towel off. Enough time for a quick check in the mirror. Discrete make-up: check. Curve-revealing not too slutty silken dress… I ran my hands over it… check. Booty: check. Wild and sexy hair: check. Perfume: check. Booty: double-check.

Something smells funny. The Bruschettas are burning!

I ran to rip open the oven and was enveloped by a puff of vapor. I tried to use the towel to quickly lift the hot metal sheet laden with slightly over-cooked baguettes out, but clumsily slid the oily mix of tomato and basil onto my dress.

The doorbell rang.

The sound got louder and louder until my ears hurt. Alright, alright, I surrender!

Now I understand why they woke me up with a fairy tale instead.

I sat up the same moment Chris entered the cabin. Here comes my date.

"We found a large object that could be an alien ship or station." He took a fresh jumpsuit out of a drawer and handed it to me while speaking. "Put this on and come to the bridge." He went back out. How thoughtful.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and beheld the white crystalline gunk on my index finger. The sandman’s been really busy. Must be because I couldn’t wipe them before.

I quickly got dressed and hurried to the bridge. As I climbed up the ladder I saw the light purple glow of the main window again, the captain looking outwards, and my hand as it gripped the ladder. But things are not as clear as I remembered them. Somehow it feels like I’m experiencing things delayed in time, shortly after they happened. Or at differing speeds. Another deja-vu maybe. Or I’m just moving faster now than the time I remember.

“If not for the danger of it being mistaken for a hostile act, I’d shoot a laser at it to see if my hypothesis is correct.” While Andrea spoke to the captain I went to the window and contemplated the object outside.

It’s roughly ten time longer, eight times wider than the Trailblazer. The shape looks like an elaborate tropical flower… maybe an orchid, except that it's completely black and thick and sturdy. With what looks like semi-transparent nets between some of the “petals”.

"We may try that later. Are you still sure it’s inactive and can’t move? What about that hole you mentioned?"

"I see nothing that could serve as propulsion or weapon and no energy emissions. Although the walls seem to be completely impenetrable to anything and everything, they form a sort of cave which continues inwards here.“ She pointed at a spot on a 3D model on her screen. ”But we can’t see what’s inside because of its curvature. The cave would be wide enough for a smaller ship to enter, but it’s too narrow for the Trailblazer. Unfortunately. With impenetrable walls like that, we would surely be shielded from the radiation."

"Speaking of radiation… how do you feel, Zelman? Are you able to operate?"

“I thought since Sidd officially declared me a quack, I’d plead insanity so you can lock me up until we’re home.”

O’Hara’s expression didn’t budge and he said nothing. Nobody ever appreciates my humor.

“I feel fine.”

“Your body does show effects of the radiation but I wouldn’t put too much faith in Sidd’s psychological assessments. They’re based on the assumption that his observations of the physical world are correct. I believe you really saw what you said even if we saw something else. Your reality may have been another one than ours. This place… or this universe… is very different. We should log our subjective experiences carefully too. Our instruments don’t seem to understand this universe properly. That’s probably why we can’t get auto-mapping to work.”

“And why the power output is above 100% efficiency.”

"Alright. As soon as the complementary equipment is ready, you’ll go and have a look what’s in that cave."

"It’s ready."

O’hara looks over to me.

I’m ready. Let’s go. “Let’s go.”

"But first, I have to pee."