Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 46: Light Speed to Europa

Aphrodite, Ava, Locke and Sylvie stood in a large patch of ground miles away from the walls of the Scrapyard City, a wide open space where these wasn't much junk in the way. It was perfect for a ship to land on, hence explaining why the Servs had set their ship there. The ship was unsurprisingly big, after all it had carried at least ten Serv soldiers in it. A long, black and angular structure, with four thick legs holding it upright. It wasn't very easy on the eyes, and didn't look like any ship they had seen before. There didn't seem to be any windows of any sort, the whole vehicle was completely smooth all over.

Aphrodite wasn't too used to seeing Serv technology and she wasn't really very impressed. It seemed crude and unsophisticated compared to the Evo tech she'd seen and studied before.

Still, this ship somehow had the ability to travel at close to the speed of light. The Evos had such technology to a degree, from her understanding the Servs only recently managed to gain the ability to create such ships themselves because of data Ava had stolen for them a few years back.

It really showed how backwards the Servs were. Not able to create anything of their own, just stealing and dissecting the technology of others.

Still, it looked like Ava and Sylvie were impressed.

"Sub-lightspeed. That's pretty cool," said Ava, his eyes wide open.

"Wouldn't that mean we'd be able to get to Europa in an instant, pretty much?" asked Sylvie,

"Yeah, pretty much straight away. Ain't that crazy to think?"

"I've already told Locke to keep an eye on the Servs here while we're away, I think the order I gave them to fix up the damage they did should keep them busy for the next few weeks. But still, we shouldn't hang around." said Aphrodite, tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. Along with her black jumpsuit, she was also wearing a heavy satchel with several weapons inside. She was ready to leave, and ready for action if anything got in her way during this mission. Of course one of the guns were for Sylvie, who had become useless ever since she lost her Serv body. She also decided to bring a big basket full of foodstuffs just in case she was away from Europa for too long. Hopefully she wouldn't be away for so long that it'd spoil. She'd heard from Lin and Rin that the ship itself had a lot of synthetic material that she could ingest, enough to last for months. But still. Better safe than sorry. Which also explained the extra gun she brought for Sylvie.

If Aphrodite had time, and lacked ethics, she'd probably be able to refit one of the bodies of the Servs that had invaded, for Sylvie. But she knew both Ava and Sylvie would be against such a thing.

"Lin and Rin said there's some sort of passcode to get in but... well." Ava winked, "It's been awhile since I've had a bit of hacking fun, right?"

He around the ship and found the main entrance, a small pillar that had extended from the bottom of the ship to the ground, with sliding doors at the bottom. There was a terminal next to the door, most likely where people were meant to enter in the passcode.

Ava looked smug. Of course he did, this is what he was good at. And it didn't take more than a few seconds of hacking for the door to swing open invitingly. Ava had hacked into the ship so quickly, that if Aphrodite didn't know he was doing so, she would've thought it was just an automatic door.

What an awesome power.

Ava, Aphrodite and Sylvie walked in, however Locke stayed on the outside.

"Sorry you can't come with us Locke," said Aphrodite, she stared at him through the opening of the door "I'll miss you."

"That's ok. We'll see each other again soon." Locke said in his typical robotic voice, "Be sure to take care of her Ava. And take care of Sylvie and yourself too while you're at it." Locke's face was completely made of metal, and it was unable to create any sort of facial expressions. But Aphrodite had known Locke long enough to know that if he were able to, he'd be saying his farewell with a warm and loving smile.

"Will do. Take care Locke." Ava replied. His friendly tone and hint of familiarity with Locke warmed Aphrodite's heart. Knowing that the two had made friends, to a degree anyway, really made her happy.

Although, as the door closed and the pillar started to rise into the ship, she couldn't help but feel a sickness in her gut. Fear of the unknown.

Leaving The Scrapyard Moon, it was a terrifying prospect. She hadn't considered it really. She'd be leaving her home, again. That painful feeling she originally had when she left the Sanctuary years ago was bad enough, she didn't really want to feel it again. And really, there was a sense of gloom overtaking her body as she started to realise she'd be away from all the people she'd become familiar with for the past few years.

***

With the pillar now inside the ship, the door led slid open once again. It revealed to the group a wide open room with chairs and panels lining the edges. A tank that was clearly intended on carrying Aphrodite. Probably just in case the ship's lightspeed drive broke down and they'd be stranded in space for longer periods of time.

"Huh? Is this it? Just one big room?" asked Sylvie,

"Well yeah, that's what most of ships this size look like Sylvie," said Ava, "only the ships that hold hundreds of Servs actually have seperate rooms."

"O-oh. Sorry. I've never been on a ship this size before."

Sylvie probably meant she didn't remember ever being on a ship this size before.

There was a huge control panel with a bunch of screens and buttons sat on the front of the ship. It was clear from the smile on Ava's face that he couldn't wait to fool around with the innards of the ship.

Seeing the colour in Ava's face from all this tech porn interested Aphrodite, it was curious, but then again, this was Ava in his natural habitat. Surrounded by technology that he was comfortable with.

He ran over the the panel.

"Alright guys, don't get too comfortable. I'll be hacking this thing and throwing us to Europa in no time!" he touched the panel with his right hand and closed his eyes, as he did, she ship began to rise. Screens dotted around the walls of the ship started to turn on, all showing jumbled messes of black and white static. The static probably meant something to Ava, he could probably read it, but it was just an eyesore for the other two.

As the ship rose higher and higher, some of the screens started to showcase the view of the moon below and space surrounding them.

Images of the destination, Europa. Images of the scratched metal marble known as the Scapyard from space. Her home was oddly beautiful. The metal plates that surrounded the Scrapyard shimmered and blinked in the darkness of space.

But that image lasted for no more than a few moments. Once the Serv ship had reached the atmosphere, it started its lightspeed engine. Sylvie and Aphrodite stood, wondering whether they should take a seat before the ship set off.

But they didn't have much time to question it any further.

One moment they were around Saturn and the Scrapyard Moon. The next, they were orbiting Jupiter, with Europa only a few minutes away....