“When Mike was installed in Luna, he was pure thinkum, a flexible logic - "High-Optional, Logical, Multi-evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV, Mod. L” - a HOLMES FOUR. He computed ballistics for pilotless freighters and controlled their catapult. This kept him busy less than one percent of time and Luna Authority never believed in idle hands. They kept hooking hardware into him - decision-action boxes to let him boss other computers, bank on bank of additional memories, more banks of associational neural nets, another tubful of twelve-digit random numbers, a greatly augmented temporary memory. Human brain has around ten-to-the-tenth neurons. By third year Mike had better than one and a half times that many neuristors. And woke up.“
From The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein. Published by GP Putnam in 1966.
Artwork was created in Artbreeder & upscaled in Topaz Gigapixel Ai. 1024x1024 pix. mp4
Music by Strukturator - Silent Ride from "Beholding Spring” - long play album, which is the result of rethinking the phenomenon of emptiness as an event-forming space.
Forced to live the same day again and again, Nikolai must find a way to rid of himself of the predicament all the while trying to save their unit from the war. But the outcome of it was always the same—a death he can never seem to prevent.
Word count: 4148
Nine hundred and forty-seven.
Nikolai didn’t know why he hadn’t lost count yet. Day after day, new information was stored in his mind—the battle plan, the training and warnings, everything. But losing count never happened, and it was that many times the day of the invasion had been reset.
Nine hundred forty-seven times he woke up in that ship with his rank demoted to a Private. Nine hundred forty-seven times he saw the people he would be fighting with on the beach the next morning, but would never make it through. Nine hundred forty-seven times he died and lived the same day over and over.
And nine hundred and forty-seven times he had crossed paths with humanity’s Storm which was Zoya Nazyalensky.
☆ ko-fi request: sci-fi inspired!au intergalactic thief! johnny suh x very confused astronaut! you
when you wake up on what marks the one hundredth day you’ve spent in space mapping out the asteroids that surround the small new planet scientists sent you out to investigate
you don’t expect to hear a knock on your spaceship
for one, you don’t expect it because you are literally in space.
how can something - or someone - just knock on your spaceship
but also, you’re groggy and tired
and so somehow your better judgement goes out the window and you peek to see what is making that sound
your suspicion is some kind of space rubble
but all you see is ………… a person?!?!
you rub your eyes to make sure you aren’t dreaming
this is a solitary mission, no other space shuttles or stations are anywhere in this vicinity
at least not to you - or nasa’s knowledge
and also
this person………..isn’t wearing an astronauts suit………..they’re just……….floating
you hear the knock again and then watch as the figure floats over from the side panel of your ship to the window where you are standing and smiles
it’s definitely a man
a handsome man
but how in the world is he alive without any oxygen
he points to your side panel, then makes some kind of weird signals with his hands, and you shake your head
you touch the patch on your pajamas, the nasa patch with your name and station number and he seems to snap his fingers
from the belt around his waist he unsnaps a small foldable black device which projects a hologram up and in front of him
the blue text starts
ah you’re from earth?
my name is johnny. my ship was destroyed. i was wondering if i could get some supplies from you?
you blink and shake your head
no, if there’s one thing space school didn’t teach you but the movies did, it’s that you don’t let unidentifiable…..persons?…..on your ship when you’re alone in the middle of the galaxy
he seems to heave a sign and the text pops up again
im not interesting in any of your human research. i just need something to eat.
also, if you haven’t guess i have human features so
some oxygen would be nice too
you swallow - if what he’s projecting is true it’d be against your human ethics to not let him inside
he doesn’t look like he needs oxygen now, but maybe he’s wearing some kind of depletable device?
you sweat it out for a second, but you can’t have someones life on your hands - that would make this already lonely expression - much much worse
so you put up your hand - as if to tell him to wait
you look at your controls and open the small hatch on the side panel that can catch pieces of asteroids or other matter for you to collect and then deliver it to you without you having to actually step out of the space ship
johnny gets the idea and somehow squeezes himself in
and in a moment he’s being spit out onto the floor of your spaceship
and you are frozen in shock because, despite what he might have said about needing oxygen
you don’t see a tank or anything like that
which means he has to be
“im not an alien. well im not a full alien.”
he gets up on his feet and dusts himself off
you blink and cant help but get embarrassed, but as a scientist you have to know
“then how can you survive out there with no suit?”
johnny taps the side of his neck, you step back when you see two gill like pores open
“that’s the half alien part in me, i guess you people on earth know that some fish need oxygen right but can still swim under water? that’s what im like. except - with space.”
you blink
“can i have a sample of your dna?”
johnny puts a hand over his heat
“what a rude thing to ask! we just met!”
“i just think it’d be a fair exchange,…..i did let you on my government funded space ship.”
“government funded?”
you shake your head, and tell him it’s not important, but then you realize that on that belt of his are other thing attached
a rucksack of some kind, which looks like it’s full of something round
a pocket knife clipped to his other side and a set of dangling keys
“are those the keys to your ship, how did it get destroyed?”
he looks around and then meets your gaze again
“ah, you could say i have some enemies on saturn.”
you light up
“there is life on saturn?”
he nods, “there’s life everywhere little earthling.”
you scurry past him, digging your observation notebook from the pile of sheets
you open it and jot down his name, and then ask him - “so how are you part human, is the alien side of you from saturn?”
johnny scoffs - he plucks the notebook from your hand and shakes his head - “im not going to tell you, not at least until you at least give me a snack-”
“hey, im letting you breath my ‘earth oxygen’ so tell me again, about the creatures on saturn-”
johnny start to touch things, switches and paperwork and whatnot, you ask him not to but he just says something about that snack you promised
you get up close
half to stop him from bothering your things and half to take a look at those pores on his neck
and the rest of him too
he has a beautiful, slightly tanned complexion and his eyes are long and highlighted by dark eyelashes
he looks almost cat-like, curls at the ends of his mouth
and when your eyes travel down, just as an observation, you can see a scar that jags down his chest
“how did you get that?”
“all these rude questions! my mom never said they were this rude on earth!”
you clap your hands - “so your mother was the human?! how interesting, and how did she-”
suddenly your ship gets another knock
you narrow your eyes and look at johnny, “is that one of your friends?”
he puts a hand on the rucksack and shakes his head
“no, i don’t think those are my friends.”
“wh-”
a shadow overcasts through the front window and you turn to see the bottom of a large - rocket? no, it’s something larger - something twice the size of the ship you’re in
again, you were not aware of any other stations or scientists in this area
“ah, they always know where i am.”
“sorry - who?”
johnny shakes his head, mutters something about the INTERGALACTIC POLICE FORCE, and you have to pinch yourself
because he’s joking right
another knock hits your ship, which has been sitting idly for one hundred days, and almost knocks you off your feet
you bump into johnny
and he in turn catches you, but slips backward too
the rucksack on his belt opens and out spills glowing, purple orbs
your eyes widen
“wh-what are those?”
“they’re the jewels from a palace off mars. can you get them, if they break my ass is going to get nailed by my buy-”
“im sorry - the palace? mars? your buyer?”
he huffs, pushing his hand out to grab one of the orbs as they roll toward him
“ill explain later, by the way - can this ship fly?”
“FLY?”
johnny points to the looming shadow - “they’re going to destroy it and both of us if it doesn’t.”
you don’t know how to explain that this is a ship built to be a home, as in sit in one spot and the only flying it does is to get you back to earth
but another knock shakes you and you end up jumping against johnny’s arm
he holds you and gives you a kind of look like - seriously, im not joking.
you rack your brain, and then ask
“so are you a criminal, why are they after you?”
he sighs
“earthling, we can talk about it all later maybe even flirt a little but one more knock and this little ship is going to go-”
you put a hand up and start working the switchboard, putting in the only other coordinates you know
for earth
you tell johnny to follow you to a special section of the ship and he does so
“where are we going, uranus’s moon? the outskirts of the milkyway?”
you look at him with narrowed eyes
“we’re going to earth.”
he looks down at the orbs in his hand and then at you
“fine, ive always wanted to visit. but are you going to do weird experiments on me with your nasa frien-”
before he can finish, there’s a loud sound and johnny explains that those are the, fire blasters the intergalactic police carries
you groan
what is happening
but you hear your ship come to life, the red alarm blaring and a crackling voice asking you if you want to initiate emergency return to earth
“yes!”
you look to your side and johnny grins with a thumbs
“and i have a passenger.”
before your ship can get knocked again, it manages to dodge and the coordinates for home are set
you push johnny into a seat and take your place opposite him
“i cant believe im taking an alien home. an alien THIEF no less.”
