Everything has been going well!
A bit of rations and a couple of gulps of water a day have kept me going. The potatoes will take a week or so to grow and a few months to mature. I think I can eat an immature potato. Maybe? I know they won’t taste good but I don’t have months to wait.
The only thing I have to do now is deal with the boredom. My time has been spent staring out at dark space or sleeping. Those and daydreaming.
I daydream about going down in history as one of the great asteroid racers. I guess when I get home I’ll have a story to tell about how I got lost while asteroid racing and lived to tell the tale. I aspire to be like Fellow Meadows. Fellow was a badass asteroid racer who proved everyone wrong by being the first non-man and first dual-gendered Martian to win in the Inter-planetary races.
Fellow used shir/sher pronouns always saying “I am a woman but with a bit of something too.” Many Martians preferred to be called something other than “she” or “he” or “they” like on Earth. I guess being on a different planet in a new society would generate new genders.
I prefer “she.” It connects me back to my Earthling roots. But my brother experiments with pronouns damn near every day (and yes, they still liked being called my brother).
I ask them “E, who are you today?” and Ether would reply something like, “I’m feeling like a ‘him’ but with a bit of ‘je’” and make up a whole new pronoun. A lot of dual, multi-gendered, or non-gendered folks made up their own pronouns.
My mom named me Ethereal and I went with it. But my brother Ether? They got to pick their own name. As soon as they could speak, they were experimenting with names. Soon, they settled on Ether.
My father’s name was Ferris. He was named after his grandfather who was involved in the Artificial Intelligence Civil Rights Act. A.I.C.R.A. was monumental and there’s still some controversy around it today. One of the prime issues was on the topic of A.I.-human marriage. Everyone agreed that A.I. should have the right to vote, but when it came to issues of love, everyone was up in arms. Some even compared it to bestiality. But, eventually, it passed and now humans can have artificial families with entire programs.
My mother’s name is Satin. Soft yet durable. She was hard on Ether and me growing up. She “expected nothing but excellence” from us. Dad was the fun one who let us get away with stuff that Mom would never approve of. Satin Chicago. My mother’s maiden name was Satin Chorus. My father’s bachelor name was Ferris Mulli. When they got married they chose a new last name to honor the great ancient city of Chicago!
I can only daydream and reminisce for so long until I get bored. Maybe I can play around with the Menia Craft command center. She’s a feisty little A.I. program but very helpful when she needs to be.
Let’s see if she’ll respond. She likes to talk only on her own time.
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Yep, she’s awake. And rude as ever. I mean, I’ve never heard of a program so disrespectful as Menia. The Takia Craft had a soft and sweet command center. And many racers had those motivational programs that would say things like “You can do it!” or “Beat those slow turtles!”
But Menia? She was a downer. “Should’ve tried harder,” she said to me one time when I lost a race. But she’s my girl, nonetheless.
Menia print: A story about a puppy dog.
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Once upon a time, there was a puppy dog named Barvis. Barvis was a sick dog so he died.
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See what I mean?
Menia print: My chances of getting out of here.
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You have a forty percent chance of survival.
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I refuse to accept that number. I’m going to get off this damn Craft if it kills me. Honestly, I was coming to terms with those chances possibly being lower. Forty percent. It’s only up from there, right?
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