The Starship Aprilis: Friday

This blogpost is part of the A to Z Challenge which begins on April 1st. The goal is to post every day (except Sunday) in the month of April. Each blogpost will be associated with a letter of the alphabet. Check the A to Z Challenge page for more information.

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The Starship Aprilis was a common and unremarkable transport ship built on Earth, back when humans were still bipedal and mostly organic creatures. The ship travelled between the many human colonies that were established at the time throughout the galaxy and served as both a cargo carrier and passenger transporter.

The ship finally met its end when it was stuck in a crushing gravity field off of Taurus Baqara C, which killed all who were aboard and destroyed all the on-board data and most importantly, the ship’s log. Of the ship only a small section survived, which was discovered quite recently several million light years away, in a slow decaying orbit around a black hole.

The remains of the ship offers no clue as to what really happened to consign the ship to its fate. The only document that could be salvaged from the remains is a travelogue, believed to be written by an unknown crewmember. The travelogue offers a glimpse of what life was like for a traveller of the stars in those heady days, thousands and thousands of years ago. Most importantly, it gives us a glimpse of many different planets and what they were like during the time.

The following entries are excerpts from the travelogue. May you find amusement and enjoyment from reading them.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M

N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

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Friday

Met with Crewman Friday to play Decks* but had to cut the game short. Friday was feeling under the weather and had started sweating profusely and turning bright crimson by the third round of the game.

I told him to go see the ship’s doctor, but he said it was just a slight headache, something his nanobots would take care of quite soon. But after a while, it became quite clear that his nanobots were not functioning as they ought to and something serious was up.

I accompanied him as he staggered his way across the ship to the doctor’s clinic. Thankfully the doctor was in. I was worried he would be off duty like many of us were during this restful period. The doctor examined Friday and performed some tests before concluding that Friday did not really have the proper nanobots installed.

She told us that Friday had apparently had cheap knockoffs installed in a seedy part of New Kinta City on Andromeda and she had seen these botch jobs before. These cheap nanobots were doing more harm than repair and instead of curing his headache, the nanobots were slowly giving him testicular cancer. She performed a non-invasive surgery to remove the nanobots and Friday started feeling (and looking) better.

Or at least he felt better medically. Emotionally, he was quite upset. Because even at “cheap” prices, the nanobots cost Friday a huge chunk of his pay. The doctor said she did not have any replacement nanobots she could afford to install in him and if he wanted any, he would have to wait till the next major colony or outpost. She also warned him not to visit seedy nanobot operators in the future.

I am not entirely sure Friday has learnt his lesson though.

*EDITOR’S NOTE: Decks is the ancient precursor to the popular game, Mindwarp.