The Loneliest Girl in the Universe(25)
DAYS UNTIL THE ETERNITY ARRIVES:
249
From: UPR Sent: 04/10/2065
To: The Infinity Received: 21/06/2067
Subject: For Attention of The Infinity
Attachment: Linux-Infinity-OS.zip [17 TB]
Commander Silvers,
Judging from evaluations of old NASA data of The Infinity, you must change several elements of lifestyle in order to improve energy efficiency and system lifetime extension in all cases.
Over the next twenty-seven hours following this message, we will be transmitting a large program to The Infinity. Please install the operating system on your computer. It contains multiple updates to the current Command, Data Handling and Flight Data subsystems, which are over a decade out of date. It will allow more autonomous control of the vessel’s devices, such as improvement of translational and altitude control in the X-ray telescope observatory and the thrust throttling.
This software is used on board The Eternity, but NASA felt that it was not worth the cost of transmission from Earth to update the system on The Infinity too. However, the UPR has decided it is a worthwhile expense to ensure that any errors in the system are fixed. We do not want any operational failures due to code decay.
Thank you for your cooperation.
All hail the UPR! May the King live long and vigorously!
I’ve started getting a sick feeling in my stomach every time I open a new email from the UPR. Even though I know that the changes they are suggesting make sense, I still have to fight against my better judgement to agree. My instinct tells me that this latest request is a trick, that they’re sending me some kind of virus. If I install it, they might be able to open the airlocks, shut down the life-support system and leave me to suffocate.
But what possible advantage could they get from sending me software that would damage my ship? From what they’ve said, getting The Infinity and The Eternity was a big victory for them in the Third Global War. Why would they destroy the ships now?
J is right. I can’t let my emotions get in the way of being a good commander. I’ll be hurting The Infinity if I don’t follow their guidelines to improve the ship.
I’ve been so convinced that the UPR are the bad guys, that they only want to hurt me. But I’m going to have to do what they say.
I’ll wait and see what the program looks like when it arrives. I know a little about programming. I’ll see what updates they’ve made, and if they really do what they’ve said.
It’ll take twenty-seven hours to receive, anyway. I can change my mind before it arrives.
*
It’s the two-year anniversary of The Eternity’s launch this week. I wonder if J is celebrating, or if he’s regretting ever having left Earth at all.
DAYS UNTIL THE ETERNITY ARRIVES:
247
The new operating system has finished uploading, and I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to install it. Something just doesn’t feel right. I can’t tell if my anxiety is my usual paranoia, or whether this is actually something worth worrying about.
I wish I could talk to J about this, in real time. He doesn’t seem to know that the UPR have told me to upgrade my OS to match the one he uses on The Eternity – or, at least, he didn’t mention it in his last email. There’s no reason why they would need to tell him, I suppose.
It’s not like I can ask his opinion on what to do, either – it would be two months before he even received my message. I’m going to have to make this decision on my own.
Even if the UPR are genuinely trying to help me, surely there’s a chance they’ve missed something? What if the new program has a mistake in the coding which accidentally shuts down something vital on the ship?
Decades ago, a spacecraft crash-landed on Mars because NASA messed up the units in their calculations. Half the team were using inches and the rest centimetres. The trajectory went completely off-course and the spacecraft disintegrated in the atmosphere.
What if the UPR use a different set of units to the ones NASA used? What if I install their program and The Infinity sets off to a different area of space, and I never get to Earth II? What if it alters the rotation of the ship and sends the gravity haywire, making the ship spin faster and faster until the centrifugal force pushes my brain through my spinal column like soup?
There are so many reasons to ignore their suggestion – but there are always reasons for me to hide under my duvet and do nothing instead of acting. I need to start taking more risks.
If anything goes wrong, I have to believe that I will be able to fix it. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to handle any problems that come up. And it’ll be worth it, if it makes the ship more efficient.
The UPR haven’t lied to me yet. J thinks I should listen to them, and he’s got more reason to dislike them than anyone, seeing as they took control of his country.
I’m going to do it. I’m going to install the program.
Holding my breath, I click on the file and watch the loading bar crawl across the screen. Have I just made a huge mistake, or have I added another decade to the lifetime of the ship?
I guess I’ll find out in thirty hours, when the program has finished installing.
I wake up in the middle of the night to an email telling me that the UPR have decided to end my mission. They’ve cut The Infinity’s power. There’s nothing I can do about it.