Morning Song: A Seeders Universe Novel by Dean Wesley Smith

he asked.
    On the other side of the blue screen, Hudson said, “The entire ship has activity.”
    Maria squeezed Roscoe’s hand and said, “Look at the screen.”
    The message on the screen was clear.
     
    Welcome Chairmen.
    The command code for Morning Song is Sunrise.
     
    “Thank you, Morning Song ,” Maria said.
    The first message faded and a second message appeared.
     
    You are welcome.
     
    Roscoe could feel himself being drawn down into understanding areas of the ship that he had no idea even existed. The ship was teaching him in a much more advanced way than language was taught to Seeders when they first came into the organization.
    He was learning and understanding and completely comprehending what he was learning.
    All in seconds.
    “Shall we get the ship stopped?” he asked.
    “What?” Fisher asked from the other side of the blue screen that he and Hudson clearly couldn’t see.
    He could sense Maria turn her attention back from learning.
    “It’s our ship now,” she said.
    He knew instantly that was true. Morning Song was their ship, jointly. “Let’s get it stopped and repaired from its long journey.”
    “Perfect,” Maria said.
    Fisher stepped toward them. “Can we ask what you two are talking about?”
    Roscoe looked through the blue screen at Fisher. “Get every member of our team here quickly. No need to leave anyone on your ship. We need them here.”
    “To do what?” Fisher asked.
    “We need to get this ship stopped,” Roscoe said.
    “Oh,” was all Fisher said.
    As Roscoe and Maria waited, together, holding hands between the chairs and in their minds, they learned about their new ship, every detail of their new ship.
    And so much more about each other.

 
     
     
     
    TWENTY-FIVE
     
     
    MARIA COULDN’T BELIEVE the freedom and the lightness she felt sitting with Roscoe in the big chairs of knowledge. Now she understood why the legends called these chairs by that name.
    Seemingly instantly, she knew Roscoe, knew his life, his dreams, his immense intelligence. And more importantly, she knew that he truly cared about people and loved being a Seeder.
    She couldn’t read his mind, but she sensed it all and knew what was right.
    And she knew how much he cared for her, far more than she could have hoped, because she cared for him in the same way.
    They were blended sitting in the big chairs.
    Still individuals, yet blended as a team, working as a team.
    It felt amazing to her. Just amazing.
    And they were quickly learning every detail of the massive ship, from how the engines worked to the shields to the labs to the hanger bays. In her mind, she could see clearly Fisher’s small ship sitting like a tiny bump in the big landing bay.
    And she could even see the problem as to why the braking program hadn’t kicked in and why the ship was still at full speed. It would be an easy fix, she knew that.
    Her and Roscoe’s eyes could see every detail, every room, every closet, of this wonderful big ship.
    Through the ship’s sensors, she could see the big Seeder fleet waiting for them at a point where the Morning Song would jump to trans-tunnel drive.
    She even understood the physics now of trans-tunnel drive. Before, that had always baffled her.
    And she knew that the intelligence that was Morning Song was very much an entity, a complete life in its own way that had kept this ship alive and moving and repaired as much as possible through a voyage in deep space of one-point-four million years.
    Now, as their teams gathered around them in the big Command Center, Roscoe took charge of assigning each a station in the big room.
    “Command code is Sunrise at each station,” he said as they quickly moved to their stations.
    “Put in the command code,” Maria said, “and then put your right hand beside the image where indicated.”
    “What will that do?” Fisher asked as he moved to a position beside Roscoe on his right.
    Callie moved to a position on the left of Maria.
    “Morning Song will