Little Stars - Part 1 (Patreon)

Colony Ships require a lot of careful planning, specialized computer equipment and plenty of failsafes. And sometimes these aren’t quite what those in cryosleep are expecting…

Little Stars - Part 1

Space is the great unknown.

A world with many worlds within it, terrifying yet wondrous. To life that lived on these worlds it was a place of exploration, one to find new mysteries to investigate.

For the Daedalus, however, space served a practical purpose. It was a colony ship, a populator of other worlds. The sleek spear of the ship's hull was shimmering, reflecting the light from the star at the center of the solar system it had recently arrived in. It was the jewel of the Diadem colony fleet, with the finest computer systems known to its occupants, the Diada.

The species was varied in size and appearance, the closest approximation being anthropomorphic animals of terran origin. Cryosleep caskets hovered over a corridor that was regularly patrolled by basic androids, each one given a role by an observing central computer. Bodies were primed for arrival on a new world, every part of them carefully managed to ensure that once the ship had landed and cryosleep sickness averted, they could begin the lengthy process of setting up a simple base.

WARNING: SOLAR FLARE IMMINENT

The androids on the ship immediately halted, their eyes dimming as their electrical systems on the ship went into a safe mode to keep them from suffering damage from the radiation emitted from the star. The cryosleep casket lights remained on, a requirement to indicate they were still safely running on the isolated power provided by the ship's computer. Heavy radiation shielding protected the caskets and computer and soon, it would be put to the test.

The star's flare shot outwards from its corona, traveling through the black emptiness towards the craft that had invaded its space. The impact would’ve seemed minimal at first glance but the radiation that came with it immediately made its presence known to the systems of the Daedalus. Emergency lights flickered on and off in corridors, the computer focussing its efforts on ensuring the contents of the cryosleep caskets stayed completely safe.

The lights in its mainframe room began to flicker as that focus put pressure on its ability to protect itself from the ionizing effect of the blast. The last of the flare was passing by, it only had to last a minute or two and then…

Darkness.

It’s not possible for a computer to panic. It is possible for it to activate every last potential failsafe, however. With barely a fraction a second of time to decide it pumped everything into the preservation of its occupants. Its core lights flickered as it did so, the AI inside giving its last powerful spark of knowledge to preserve life aboard the vessel.

And then, with what could only be described as a final breath, the computer powered down entirely.

*****************************************Thirty-Diadan-Days-Later***********************************

Circles’ eyes opened as the temperature inside the cryosleep casket began to drop. Every muscle in his body was attempting to move as his brain reconnected to nerves blood pumped around his body again, warming his inner core. His vision was blurred, but he could make out the shape of an android in front of him pulling open the pod and lifting him free of it. He rested in its arms as it pulled him close to its chest and…

“What the…”

This was wrong. The androids were his height at most, some even smaller. There should be no way he was being held like this. His eyes opened wider, the lights of the corridor filling them as he tried to get his bearings and look down at his body.

Rather than the body of a muscular, toned armadillo that had been fully prepared for the potential threats of colonization, his body was shrunk to a few feet tall. Not only that but his arms and legs had a strange, pudgy feel to them, all muscle lost and seemingly replaced by a layer of fat that almost looked like…

“Occupant four removed successfully, initiating scan”

The android held Circles out in front of them, his hands instinctively covering his lower half as the beam of light from its head flicked up and down.

“Status - Nominal life signs, protective program successfully engaged”

“Protective program…” Circles muttered, looking around him at the other pods. His jaw dropped at what he saw.

Every single occupant of the pods looked like a small child, perhaps no older than a few years of age. Whatever had happened had clearly affected the entire colony project, completely destabilizing the entire set of colonists. Himself included.

“Circles! Oh my god…”

He looked behind him at the source of the voice. A small fox-like creature was floating up behind him, his face pale and desperate. All he was wearing was a pair of colorful underwear, the rest of his fur standing on end as he entered the cold of the cryosleep room.

“Pytel?” his voice was several octaves higher than expected as he shouted out to his colleague “What the hell is going on?!”

The androids torso opened to reveal its simple replicator, one that could provide basic amenities and items at the will of its colonists. For a brief moment the idea that he was about to be consumed crossed the armadillo's mind and his hands went up in defense.

“Get off me!” he squealed and flailed, but the android's strength was far too high compared to his own for him to make any impact.

“Toilet Training garments for colonist four”

The replicator sparked into life and a small printer of light started to create the requested item from the android.

“Toilet training?” Circles shouted “What do you…”

“Just let it do it’s thing Circ, it’s not gonna hurt you” Pytel called to him “Trust me, been there, done that”

He let his hands go down as the android released him, imparting a gentle spin that lifted his legs into the air in the zero gravity environment. It waited until he'd swung into position and with a single, quick motion it pulled the underwear down his legs and around his groin. The cartoonish designs matched those of his colleague, his mind racing to try to figure out the next thing to do.

“Cryosleep extraction completed. Initiating temporary shutdown”

The android made its way over to a power supply at the end of the room as Pytel reached Circles side, floating next to him in the space above the corridor floor. The armadillo was still in shock, his body still shivering from the impact of the cryosleep, even as adrenaline tried to get him to fight back and push off his friend to reach some solid ground.

“Whoa, steady. You’re still recovering, let your body…”

“What… What happened? Why am I… why are we…”

Pytel put his hand on his colleague's chest and gave him a quick push towards the ground. The lack of gravity made moving around difficult but far from impossible, and the crew members and colonists had all been taught how best to maneuver should they ever require it. The push shook some sense back in Circ as he floated into a nearby railing, his pudgy paws managing to grasp onto it. He turned his body so that he could rest his feet on the corridor below, watching as Pytel made his way back towards him by pushing off the ceiling.

“I… I’m ok” Circles caught his breath and settled as Pytel reached him, his hand going onto his shoulder.

“Breathe” Pytel said, the seriousness in his expression clear even past his now childish looks “We’re in a bit of a situation here”

“I’ll say” Circles responded, putting his hands back in front of him and looking back down at his cartoonish underwear “Why am I a toddler?”

Pytel shrugged “We’re still trying to establish why, it certainly wasn’t part of any protocols”

“We?” Circles replied pointedly

“Me and the Captain” Pytel sighed “Before you ask, yes, he’s in the same state as us. He woke up first and got me out basically straight away.”

“Makes sense, you are the ship head engineer” Circles scratched his head “But… Why me?”

“We didn’t wake you, the ship AI did” Pytel shook his head “We managed to prevent it waking the rest of the colonists, but you were the first colonist to start thawing. The risk of losing you to cyro-sickness was too high if we put you back in”

“So I’m just… unlucky?”

Pytel nodded “To be honest, I’d say I was lucky it was you.” he chuckled “It’s not like the rest of the crew have a friend to chat to. We’re all just trying to work out what happened right now.”

The armadillo smiled weakly “Heh… I suppose” his face suddenly fell “Wait, the rest of the crew? Who else was revived?”

“The captain, the two pilots and Dr Treylon” Pytel took Circ's hand and started pulling the two of them towards the end of the corridor, the armadillo putting up no resistance.

“What does the Dr think about all this?”

“She has no idea” Pytel responded “We are “regressed” apparently, but she hasn’t yet been able to establish why or how. I’ve been trying to get answers out of the ship's AI but it seems to be in some kind of simple safe mode.”

The two of them reached the end of the corridor, the door opening automatically onto a set of corridors that spread out in different directions. The way to the bridge was clearly marked, and Pytel continued onwards, carefully managing their momentum to ensure the two of them kept moving in the right direction.

“Ugh… Never could quite get the hang of zero g travel”

“You get used to it” the fox smiled “I’ll show you some tricks later”

The door to the bridge was heavily reinforced, its doors taking several seconds to allow the two of them through. What greeted them on the other side was a bizarre sight. Two wolf-like creatures, both pups, were strapped into seats at the center of the circular room, their faces ones of concentration on the consoles that were brightly lit in front of them. Between them was a white bear, again still a cub, who was dominating the remainder of the space.

This was Captain Aster. Every colonist knew what he looked like immediately, and even in his diminished state. He was in the same childish underwear as Circles and Pytel, but the android that had awoken him had evidently decided his training pants needed to be noticeably thicker.

“Captain, I recovered Circles from…”

“Thank you Pytel'' he interrupted, his voice carrying none of the weight Circles had come to associate with his broadcasts prior to leaving for the colony “Please continue with your work on recovering data from the ship's computer.”

“I…”

“That’s an order, I’ll talk to our new crewmate”

Circles raised an eyebrow as his friend pushed himself towards consoles to his right, the foxes face dropping to a frown as he reached the screens.

“Crewmate? Sir I’m not a member of the crew”

The bear pushed himself away from his console and floated towards Circles, keeping his claws scraping along the ground to slow him down to a stop by the time he reached the armadillo.

“Son, I haven’t got time to play games here” his muzzle curled “We’re dealing with a crisis and you’re an extra hand on deck.”

Circles blinked in surprise “I… what do you want me to do?”

Aster looked thoughtful for a second as he contemplated the question “What skills do you have? Any experience of space travel before this?”

The armadillo shook his head. Aster sighed “What job did you have?”

“I was a programmer, computer engineer technically”

Aster smiled “Really? Well I’ve got a job for you then…”

Circles cocked his head to one side as Aster pulled up a tablet from the table next to him and brought a picture up to show the armadillo.

“This is the ship AI control room”

The large open space that greeted Circles in the photo immediately made him nervous. At its center was a bright, red light that was surrounded by layered steel, each one seemingly covering another thick layer of wires and circuits. It looked like a cyclops of legends back home, eerie and disconcerting.

“We’ve been working up here to keep things in check but everytime we think we’re getting close to working out what happened to us, the AI kicks us back out. There’s a manual override in the room but we’ve not had the manpower to separate.

Circles realized what that meant “Until now?”

Aster nodded “Exactly, and if you know your way around a computer, maybe you can find it, force it into action, and get us back control”

The armadillo's eyes stayed wide. He’d barely been awake for an hour, and now he was being asked to save the ship from its own computer?

“Look, I just woke up from cryosleep, I’m not sure I’m…”

“You’re all we’ve got kid” Aster shook his head “We need to work out what we can do, and how to reverse whatever’s made us look like… well this” he motioned to his underwear “I know I do”

Circles looked from left to right. The staff on the bridge were giving him hopeful looks, Pytel included. He couldn’t help thinking this was a bad idea, but it didn’t look like he had much choice.

“Ok… Guess I don’t have much choice”

Aster chuckled “Kid, that’s been us since we woke up. If we had any choice we’d still be in cryosleep and not trying to tell androids to give us back our uniforms” he patted Circles on the back “Besides, you’ll be fine. You’ll have full radio contact with us and if we need to get you out of there, I’ll send Pytel, alright?”

Circles nodded, spotting his fox friend looking a little surprised to his side but immediately smiling in acceptance.

“Right. Where do I go sir?”

Pytel spoke up “You’ll need to head left out of the bridge and down to the lower levels. Make sure to keep pushing off the sides of the corridors. There’s enough air in here to slow you down even in zero gravity.”

“Gotcha” Circles nodded, turning towards the door “I’d better get to it then!”

Aster nodded and smiled “Good to have you on the team. We’ll see you back here when you’re done and work out what to do next, got it?”

“Yes sir!”

*************************************************************************************************************

Moving down the corridors of the ship was not an easy task for Circles. They were designed with floors and ceilings in mind, but in zero gravity none of that mattered. There were clearly points to grab onto here and there in case they were needed, but moving between them was not something the armadillo was used to. He’d miss one and have to slowly move towards the next, hoping his momentum carried him there. His arms weren’t at their best, both from the cryosleep and the sudden loss of age.

“How are you doing there kid?” Aster asked over the radio.

“Nearly at the door” Circles pushed himself off the ceiling towards a button that would open the large steel entrance to the mainframe.

“Good, stay in touch” The radio clicked off as Circles floated towards the large red console. It was obvious which button opened the door, but it was clear at some point something had damaged the area. Little black spots where things had sparked were clearly visible, but had since been repaired. Circles carefully pushed the button, now the size of his whole hand, into the console and watched as the door slowly moved open.

Inside he could see the whole of the mainframe. The red light was still on, but the rest of the room was dark, emergency lights barely staying on and making it difficult to make out the way forward. Kicking himself off the door frame, Circles made his way towards the light and looked for the override.

“Pytel, where’s the override?”

“Should be directly below the main computer server.” Circles spotted a green console that was hardly visible in the light “Just find a blue button with “Override” written on it. Self-explanatory right?”

Circles chuckled as he reached his goal “Yeah, or it would be if I could see. Can you get me any light?”

“Sorry, we’ve got basically no control up here.” Pytel sounded frustrated

“That’s why you need to push the button” Aster interrupted “We’ll get you light after that”

Circles looked down and around the console. He could feel something else in his body starting to get as nervous as he was and tried to shake it off.

“The bathrooms are working right?” he joked down the radio.

“That’s a long story…” Aster said “You gotta go kid?”

Circles blushed “Yeah, don’t worry though it’s not…”

With a sudden flash all the lights in the room fully re-engaged, the mainframe whirring into life and moving its layered sections around as it adjusted.

SAFE MODE DISENGAGED - FULL MAINFRAME FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED

“Circles, what did you do?!” Pytel screamed down the radio

“Nothing! I swear I…”

Circles blood ran cold as he looked down. He wasn’t at the console anymore. He was floating, virtually still, a few meters above it. In shock he’d pushed back just enough to float in the middle of the room… directly in front of the now active AI.

COLONIST PRESENCE DETECTED - AGE LOWER THAN ADVISED PARAMETERS - CHILDCARE SAFETY PROTOCOLS INITIATED.

“What?!” Circles screamed “I’m not a child!”

He spotted an android below him, its body magnetized to the corridor floor as it looked up at him

“Changing program required. Training underwear soiled”

Circles looked down. His bladder had released, his body betraying him in shock. He put his hands on his crotch by instinct as long arms extended to pull him out of the air.

“Child expectations adjusted. Diapers required for further travel”

Circles tried to scramble out as the replicator once again kicked into gear, creating a brand new kind of underwear for him.

“I’m not wearing…”

“Kid, what the hell is happening?!” Aster came in over the radio “We’re getting power back everywhere, but we’ve got no control of the ship!”

“Diaper change program initiating”

“Diaper change?” Aster questioned down the radio.

“It’s gone crazy!” Circles insisted, keeping the state of his trainers out of the frame for now as they were ripped off his waist and promptly replaced by the much thicker, and noticeably more babyish, padding that was carefully wrapped around him. In a few seconds it was over, his legs being pushed apart forcefully by what felt like a pillow between them.

“Get back here! We need to reassess…” Aster trailed off as a new voice interrupted him. Circles couldn’t hear it enough to make it out, but assumed it must be the doctor.

“What’s going on?”

Aster's voice came back over the radio “Get back here. We need to talk”

The android holding Circles pushed him with force out the door, the big steel slabs slowly closing behind him as he left. He probably wouldn’t be able to get back in as long as he remained a child.

“Crap”