//------------------------------//
// Chapter 39 
// Story: The Parliament of Dreams 
// by Wheller 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 39


Sparky stood at one of the control consoles in the Discovery One’s crew deck, monitoring the fuel transfer to the Leninov. Unlike the Præsidium ship on which they came, the Discovery One’s  computer functions were highly centralised, and networked between terminals. While the ship was ordinarily piloted from the bridge, the navigation controls could be transferred down here if necessary, and piloting operations could continue even if something were to happen on the bridge. Sparky had to admit, it was convenient for the task ahead.

Unlike the Discovery One, the Leninov’s computer functions were not networked, requiring Dizzy, DC Hopely, and Shortfuse to monitor the supply transfer from three separate terminals in the Leninov‘s rotating section. While on the Discovery One side, Sparky was able to do everything by herself from this terminal.

Sparky was alone down here. Grandma V, Amarilla, and Juan Carlos were in the process of taking physical supplies, foodstuffs and such, back over to the Leninov. It was a slow moving task, considering that Juan Carlos was really the only one of them who was able to do any heavy lifting. Grandma V’s telekinetic abilities had been waning with age, which left her unable to carry more than a few kilograms at a time. Of course, weight only mattered on the Discovery One’s crew deck, as every other part of the ship was in zero gravity, and by this point, Juan Carlos had already taken everything of value stored on the crew deck over to the Leninov.

Sparky might as well have been the only person aboard the Discovery One now. Last she had heard, Juan Carlos, Amarilla, and Grandma V had headed up to the ship’s auxiliary cargo hold to root for any useful extra supplies to take over to the Leninov. With the cargo hold being at the front of the ship, the trio had no need to come back to the crew deck. Sparky was all alone down here.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true, Hannibal was technically here, but the VI was also technically in every single part of the ship at the same time, and even so, he wasn’t much for conversation. Ironically enough, Hannibal had probably spoken the most out of any of them in the last three hours, and now he was practically silent. Perhaps, Sparky mused to herself, the VI had said everything that he had needed to say. Perhaps there were no more words that he could add to aid them. It would make sense if that were indeed the case. Hannibal was still not quite at the AI stage, he was showing signs of self awareness, sure, but he was not a person. Not yet anyway.

Sparky was mostly waiting for the Helium-3 in the reserve tanks to finish transferring to the Leninov, before heading back over. Everything else she was doing was mostly automatic. Unlike the Leninov, one didn’t have to keep a close eye on the controls to make sure that they didn’t spontaneously break while you weren’t paying attention. Now she was simply scrolling through the computer looking for anything of interest. There were a few things, mostly personal logs for the crew members, almost all of them boring. Though, they had all been confined to a spinning ring that was about twelve metres in diameter, what could they possibly have to do?

Sparky did, however, discover that Leonid Bykovsky had been writing a novel. Hannibal had translated it for her, and she had been skimming over it. It was about a Præsidium Red Army Officer and an Equestrian socialite, the two of whom had fallen in love while the officer was on leave in La Seine, Cheval Fifth Republic, but their relationship would tragically be cut short after the NKVD murdered the socialite and framed the officer for the crime, the officer was forced to go on the run as a ruthless Police Internationale inspector hunted him down, requiring him to stay one step ahead of him while at the same time, trying to prove his innocence. Sparky found that she was getting sucked into the novel, but frowned when she discovered that it was only half completed. Unfortunately, Leonid Bykovsky would never have the chance to finish it.

Damn FutureTec! They threw the lives of the six crew members of the Discovery One away, and for what? The arrogant belief that they could bend these tetrahedron objects to their will? Leonid Bykovsky had died for nothing. He died cold and alone, having asphyxiated as Hannibal vented all of the ship’s oxygen out into space. He had been the one to strap himself down, and the only crew member to not have their body sucked out into space. He would be the only one they could return for burial.

Well, at least that was something, right?

’Sparky? It’s Dizzy, do you read me?’

Sparky smiled. Dizzy’s voice was exactly what she needed to hear right now. ‘I read you Dizzy, how was the space walk?’ Sparky asked.

‘Oh, great, got a lot of good thinking in! That’s what I want to talk to you about, while I was outside, I could have sworn I saw something on Tartarus’ horizon, could you ask Hannibal to check his sensors for me? I’d check the Leninov’s but the sensor console is displaying a weird message. Hopely said that it says  “out of order”, Korolev is trying to fix it now... and by fix it, I mean he’s beating on it with a spanner until it starts working’. 

Sparky sighed and couldn’t help but face hoof. Must their pilots conform to EVERY Cossack stereotype? ‘Yeah, sure... uh, give me a minute, and I’ll let you know what Hannibal sees’, Sparky said.

‘Thanks Spark, it’s probably nothing... but with us so close to heading back home... the last thing we need is something to go wrong’.

‘Aw come on Dizzy! You’re my best friend, what am I going to do? Say no?’ Sparky asked with a chuckle.

‘Glad to know you care, Sparky’,  Dizzy said with a chuckle over the radio. Just... uh... you know, finish up over there soon? It feels weird not having you around.

‘I’ll be back over before you know! Sparky out’, Sparky said as she closed the communication channel. ‘Hannibal? Could you...?’

‘Already processing request, I will have preliminary data available for you in just a few moments’, Hannibal said, as his holographic avatar appeared from nowhere and began trotting towards her.

Sparky nodded, giving the VI a smile. She opened her mouth to thank him, when the quiet air was shattered by a distant ear piercing scream, the likes of which Sparky had never heard before. ‘Hannibal?’ Sparky asked. ‘What was that?’

‘No data available...’ Hannibal said. ‘Sparkplug... internal sensors have just detected a fluctuating mass in the forward hanger’.

‘Show me CCTV feed’, Sparky said.

Hannibal acknowledged the request and brought the internal feed up on the screen in front of her. Sparky jumped in fright as a grey coated pegasus mare with a forest green mane, clad in an orange space suit hovered mere centimetres from the CCTV camera in the hanger deck. The mare let out a blood curdling scream, and the screen came to static.

‘Hannibal...? Do you know who that was?’ Sparky asked nervously.

‘Affirmative’, Hannibal said. ‘That is Mission Commander Ice Wind’.

Sparky looked at the VI, her eyes widening in fear. ‘Aw shit’.

...

Kelso rolled over in bed; the clock had just ticked over to 0316, and she was struggling to get comfortable. It didn’t help that she wasn’t sleeping in her bed, and that Viola Auditore was lying in bed besides her, snoring louder than should be possible for any living being.

Kelso’s mind was racing, so much had happened today, and almost all of it revolved around Viola. Were they together now? Or was this something casual? Kelso honestly didn’t know. Viola had asked her to stay the night, and Kelso was too tired to try and head home. How ironic it was. Kelso was exhausted, but sleep would not come to her. Her mind had too many questions.

Kelso rolled over and looked to the sleeping mare beside her. She had never been very good at expressing her feelings, and everything that had happened today with Viola certainly didn’t help. Honestly, she felt a little guilty. She had treated Viola very poorly over the last few months. Hell, poorly, now that was an understatement if there ever was one. Kelso had almost murdered her that day in the hospital.

Viola started to stir, as if she was in the middle of an intense dream. ‘No... no... Kelso! Please... stop...’ she muttered quietly to herself. Kelso held her breath. Viola was dreaming about that day in the hospital. Suddenly, Viola’s eyes snapped open and she lurched up in bed. ‘Kelso! No!’ she cried out, breathing heavily as she recovered from the fright of her nightmare. Viola turned around and discovered the earth pony mare next to her, seemingly wide awake from the outburst.

‘Hey’, Viola said with a small smile. ‘I’m sorry, did I wake you?’ she asked.

‘No... no, I was already awake’, Kelso said with a frown. ‘You... were dreaming about that day in the hospital?’ Kelso asked, already knowing the answer.

Viola nodded in affirmation, and looked at Kelso sadly. ‘Not a day goes by that I don’t have that nightmare’, she said.

‘I’m so sorry...’ Kelso whispered to her.

Viola merely smiled at her as she lay back down in the bed. ‘It’s okay, I forgive you’, she said, leaning forward and planting a small kiss on Kelso’s cheek before rolling over and going back to sleep.

Kelso wasn’t sure how, but this act alone seemed to put her mind at ease. All her questions seemed to have an answer to them now. ‘Goodnight’, Kelso said as smiled at Viola warmly. Kelso knew that tomorrow was going to be a big day. She rolled over and closed her eyes, and slowly drifted off to sleep. Knowing full well she would need all her energy for when tomorrow came.

If only she could have known about how right she was.