In Favor with Their Stars

Ed is an engineer aboard the Revenge, an interplanetary research vessel on a multi-year mission to study Jupiter's moon Europa. An accident requires that Ed awaken from cryostasis over six months early, and finds his only companion to be Stede, the ship's onboard AI. They develop an unconventional friendship, but is it possible to have more?
This is classic mutual pining with a sci-fi twist, inspired by all of my favorite stories about the nature of personhood.
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“You–” Ed was struggling to parse what Stede was saying. “You’re playing your version of this song for me, right now? Like, in real time?”
“Yes, Edward, that’s correct,” said Stede softly.
Ed’s brain momentarily seized up. He supposed it made sense that Stede was capable of learning a set of rules to do something like arrange and play a piece of music. There was something unnerving about this song, though. It felt, well–it felt organic . Reactive. Almost collaborative in a way. Ed was lost in the push and pull of it, until the last notes softly petered out.
“So, what did you think?” asked Stede. It sounded nervous again. Why the hell would someone program an anxiety response into a bot?

Notes:

Space is cool. So are robots. I hope to deepen your appreciation for both as you read this tale.
There is a multimedia aspect to this story, including images and music. The nature of the relationship between the leads, as well as the fact that one of them is an AI, necessitates different modes of communication. All chapters with images will contain alternative text at the end of the chapter describing the contents of the images.
KninjaKnitter has been so kind as to offer to turn this story into a podfic!

(See the end of the work for more notes and other works inspired by this one.)

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter Text

Alternative Text - A series of images, black background with glowing green text, reminiscent of a computer screen. The first image is a schematic of a spaceship, and the title "In Favor with Their Stars by mxmollusca". The following screens have command prompts, showing STE/DE running the spaceship and read as follows:

BONNET INDUSTRIES - DEEP EUROPA MISSION

Interplanetary Transport Ship/REVENGE

Shipboard AI SYNTHETIC TRANSPORT ENTITY/DEEP EUROPA (STE/DE)

DEEP EUROPA MISSION BRIEF:

Scientific mission to the Jovian moon Europa. Low-moon orbit. Deploy probes to collect samples. Check ice sheet drill status and provide direct maintenance as required. Monitor sonar readings and extrapolate data.

TRANSPORT DURATION/ACTIVE CRYOSTASIS:

3 years-26 weeks-3 days outgoing

3 years-23 weeks-4 days returning

RESEARCH DURATION:

2 years-12 weeks-0 days

CREW:

Hands, Israel/Surgeon

Jimenez, Jim/Geologist

Spriggs, Lucius/Biologist

Teach, Edward/Engineer

>>2053-W01-D1/DEEP EUROPA MISSION SYSTEMS CHECK

>>STE/DE CMD

Communication array function nominal

Cryostasis system function nominal

Life support function nominal

Navigational system function nominal

Solar array function nominal

>>2053-W31-D1/DEEP EUROPA SOLAR SLINGSHOT PROTOCOL INITIATED

>>STE/DE CMD

Trajectory calculation required

Trajectory calculation complete - sending to Mission Control

Sending

Sending confirmed

Trajectory confirmed

Slingshot protocol engaged

>>2054-W12-D6/DEEP EUROPA MISSION SYSTEMS CHECK

>>STE/DE CMD

Communication array function nominal

Cryostasis system function nominal

Life support function nominal

Navigational system function nominal

Solar array function nominal

>>RUN CREW DIAGNOSTICS CHECK

Hands, Israel - biometrics nominal

Jimenez, Jim - biometrics nominal

Spriggs, Lucius - biometrics nominal

Teach, Edward - biometrics nominal

>>RETRIEVE PERSONNEL FILE: Teach, Edward

Gender/Male

Age/44

Blood type/AB positive

Nationality/Aotearoan

Marriage status/Single

Children/None

Education/Master’s in Aerospace Engineering/University of Auckland

Former employer/Kraken Aerospace

>>2055-W29-D2/DEEP EUROPA CRITICAL SYSTEM UPDATE

>>STE/DE CMD

Microdebris strike

Communications array damaged by microdebris

Navigational system damaged by microdebris

Solar array damaged by microdebris

Course correction required

Course correction calculation complete - sending to Mission Control

Sending

Sending failed

Engage auto-navigation

Auto-navigation unresponsive

Auto-navigation failed

Emergency contingency - STE/DE auto-navigation manual override

Auto-navigation manual override unresponsive

Emergency contingency - STE/DE cryostasis manual override

Cryostasis manual override access granted

Initiating wakeup protocol - Teach, Edward/Engineering

Wakeup protocol initiated

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