Chương 31: Adaptation

"I don't know if I can go through with this, Maggie."

"This whole operation was your idea."

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't."

"You told me that you, and I quote, just need some help overcoming my fear of space flight, preferably without any brain-wavy stuff."

"… Did you have to say that in my own voice?" It was easily among the top five creepy things she'd done since Joe met her, and that was a fiercely competitive list.

"My intention was to illustrate that we would not be here if not for this favor you asked of me."

"No, but see, I didn't say anything about going on an intergalactic cruise!"

"Interstellar," she corrected him.

"Not the point!" The man immediately reeled his voice back in, having unintentionally raised it in a public space. Thankfully he and Maggie hadn't stepped into one of the spaceport's countless queues just yet, otherwise his outburst would've gotten him a lot more and much meaner looks. However, he couldn't help but make a scene. The mere thought of spending three straight months floating through space without ever touching down on solid ground gave him chills.

He was certain he'd spend the whole cruise in various states of freaking out. How was that supposed to help with his astrohodophobia? If anything, it would probably make it worse. Maggie needed only see the look on his face to determine what was really bothering him about this endeavor.

"Remember three days ago, when we were discussing possible treatments for your condition?" she inquired.

"Yeah?"

"Remember which option we settled on?"

"Sure. Uh," he paused, thinking hard back to that talk, "cognitive behavioral therapy, right?" There were some other alternatives, most notably pharmaceutical ones, but Joe wanted to avoid anything that would directly mess with his brain chemistry. He wouldn't be with Maggie if not for the 'mysterious ways his mind worked,' as his mum liked to say, and he didn't like the idea of doing anything that might mess that up.

Not that he was afraid the girl would leave him, but it didn't feel right changing the parts she liked about him. It was also why he specifically requested that Maggie not simply rip his phobia out of his noggin, and the girl wanted to respect his wishes.

"Exactly," she nodded.

"This cruise is part of that."

"Oh… What part?"

"Desensitisation, otherwise known as exposure therapy. In short, you must face your fears in order to overcome them."

"Ugh…" There was more to the process than that, certain steps and escalations that had to be taken for the treatment to be effective. However, this crude and basic explanation was enough for Joe to accept it, even if it did sound painfully cliche. In retrospect, he probably should've expected that overcoming his phobia wasn't going to be easy… or pleasant.

"Alright, then," he gathered his courage.

"Let's get to it."

"Excellent," the girl smiled broadly.

"You're awfully excited about this, aren't you?" Joe sensed something else behind that grin.

"I must admit, as interesting and curious as humanity is, I have been wanting to observe some stellar sights as of late. I am therefore personally looking forward to this cruise."

"Of course, you are. Well, who knows? Maybe I'll have some fun with it, too."

"Your optimism is unnecessary, but appreciated." With the matter settled, the couple once more indulged in the ancient british tradition of queueing as they patiently waited for their turn to board a shuttle. This time around the spacecraft wasn't anywhere near as fancy as the Silver Tempest they rode on their way to the lawyers' planet. Their current ride was the flying equivalent of a pre-space-era double decker bus, and practically looked like it too. Was even painted bright red.

The interior was just as spacious as the exterior suggested, which was to say not at all. At the very least there was plenty of room for luggage in the cargo compartment. So much so, in fact, that it almost seemed like those briefcases and crates were the actual passengers while the people were the baggage. Thankfully Joe and Maggie wouldn't have to endure the cramped ride for long. Their destination wasn't some interstellar freighter that was parked halfway to the moon, but a luxury cruiser that drifted in orbit.

Slightly over fifteen minutes later, the ship in question came into view of the shuttle-bus's external cameras. Joe normally wouldn't tune into such video feeds. It wasn't so much the sight of the near-infinite void of space that bothered him, but the blaring reminder that the only thing between him and that were a few sheets of metal and plastic. The less he looked at such things, the safer he felt. However, Maggie demanded that he man up and not avert his eyes from the screen.

So, he didn't, trying his best to not let his anxiety get the better of him. He did an alright job of it, though that was mostly because the images on the display were dominated by the cruise ship the couple would be boarding any minute now. The Queen Mary was a yacht-class craft with a length of about four hundred meters, a height of one-fifty, and a width of two hundred if one were to include its horizontal wings.

A ship this size would be considered a corvette if it was a military vessel, but this was definitely a civilian cruiser. Its hull had a sleek and aesthetically pleasing shape that tapered towards the top, with a flat underside that had a massive steel fin poking out of it. The fact that it had a clearly discernible top and bottom set it aside from the more pragmatic and ambiguous designs of warships. Not to mention that it had actual windows. A fair number of them, to boot.

The side Joe was looking at had somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty of them spread out unevenly between seven or eight decks, including an observation dome at the top. The last hint that this ship was built for comfort was that its engines were situated in wings rather than built into the hull. Though less structurally sound, doing so drastically reduced the vibrations passengers experienced while the ship was in motion.

Despite all that the sight of the yacht just didn't have a lot of impact on people who, like Joe, had already seen a freighter. It looked much nicer than those flying hyper-scrapers for sure, but the smaller craft could not hope to match the sheer size and scale of the star-hopping cargo vessels. On the other hand, the interior of the yacht did not fail to impress. It was spacious, perfectly air-conditioned, well-lit, and had a level of extravagance comparable to how Maggie's apartment was when she first got it.

One would think the passengers disembarking from the shuttle-bus were entering a swanky hotel rather than a spaceship. Which was fitting, seeing as the Queen Mary was both. Its interior boasted a number of entertainment facilities including a restaurant, a casino, a swimming pool, a synthetic park, and a star-gazing lounge. As an added bonus, the ship's interior lights were programmed with a day/night cycle meant to synchronize the passengers' biological clocks.

After all, it was impossible to have a traditional English breakfast or afternoon tea-time without clearly defined mornings and evenings. Such distractions would have to wait for later when it came to Joe and Maggie. The couple barely had a chance to settle into their cabin before the girl grabbed the guy and practically dragged him to the observation deck.

The ship had been positioned in such a way that the view from the reinforced glass ceiling was a fifty-fifty split between the planet below and the cosmos beyond. It was intended to be a relaxing and romantic sight, and quite a few of the other passengers seemed to be enjoying it as such while reclining in the many loungers strewn about the deck. Joe… wasn't as easy-going as his usual self, to say the least.

It wasn't until Maggie had assured him five times over that no harm would come to him before he finally agreed to step out of the hallway and into the room. The couple occupied one of the available loungers, with the guy lying down with his head in the sitting girl's lap as per her suggestion. Like that he would be able to stare straight into the unforgiving vacuum overhead while keeping Maggie's reassuring smile in view. It was a bizarre scene from an outsider's perspective, but it seemed to be working.

After several minutes of this, Joe was able to calm down somewhat. His heart was still racing and his desire to get back on terra firma hadn't lessened in the slightest, but at least he wasn't twitching and shivering as badly as he initially did. This was more or less how the couple spent their first few weeks of the interstellar cruise. Stargazing took up most of their time, with Joe in various stages of freaking out and Maggie doing her best to soothe him.

In theory this would steadily acclimate the man until he was comfortable with space flight, but the girl wasn't certain if it would work in practice. Even though she was an expert on scrambling brains and had an entire library's worth of psychology textbooks in her head, she was no psychiatrist. Such delicate methods were far from her forte, though that only made Joe's treatment more important to the black hole of knowledge that was her mind.

Ensuring his good mental health was paramount, of course, but she wasn't going to deny that the learning experience was welcome as well. The cruise itself was rather uneventful, though that was by design. It was a slow and relaxing voyage during which The Queen Mary sailed around a solar system for four or five days before hitching a ride with some freighter or another.

At first it made a few stops to pick up or drop off passengers while swinging past a bunch of so-called curio worlds - planets that looked interesting from orbit but were quite inhospitable. It wasn't until week three that the cruise showed its passengers something to really remember. It emerged from a freighter's fittingly large docking bay to meet the combined light of two pale blue stars dancing a cosmic tango with each other, otherwise known as a binary star system.

The yacht drifted as close enough to the celestial formation as safety regulations allowed, resulting in the unfathomably immense spheres of heat and light dominating the view from its starboard side. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Incidentally, that was also the side of the ship that Joe and Maggie's cabin was on. The couple had been drinking in the sight ever since they first laid eyes on it.

The girl was naturally ecstatic about the whole thing, having never seen such a thing in person. She was a bit upset that she couldn't get an unobstructed view since the cabin's windows had darkened automatically, but she kept that complaint to herself. After all, as much as she wanted to bask in the twin neutron stars' unfiltered radiance, it wasn't exactly healthy towards creatures of flesh and blood like Joe. Or herself, for that matter.

As for the simple bloke at her side, he found himself unable to look away from the celestial formation. It was something he'd seen many-a-time before in various forms of media, but there was something magical about witnessing it with his own eyes. Oddly enough, he felt relaxed for the first time since stepping aboard The Queen Mary. His mind had been momentarily overwhelmed by how surreal his situation was.

Between the extremely rare star formation in front, the extravagant luxury around him, and the cosmic girlfriend hanging off his arm, there was no room left for anxious thoughts pertaining to the uncaring void of space. This quiet moment lasted for almost an hour before the ship spun itself around to give the other half of its passengers a good look at the cosmic phenomena. The scene beyond the couple's window was quickly yet gradually replaced by that of a gas giant that was a curious shade of bright red.

A good view to be sure, but nowhere as spectacular as the previous one. With the source of their reverie gone and the reinforced glass returning to normal levels of opacity, the couple went back to their usual selves.

"Blimey. That was something, wasn't it?" Joe remarked.

"Indeed," Maggie smiled.

"My only regret is that I am not powerful enough to take a closer look."

"Oh, well. I'm sure you'll get there someday. Class-4 and Class-5 and all that." The girl's smile momentarily wavered as Joe unintentionally reminded her that he would not be around if and when such a time comes, but Maggie leaned on her burgeoning humanity and pushed those unpleasant thoughts aside for the moment.

"This is my hope as well," was her reply.

"Say, what's a Class-5 actually like?"

"It is… a state of existence that is so beyond me it is a near-total mystery."

"Wow. So there are things you know nothing about!"

"Of course there are. I am not omniscient," she furrowed her brow.

"You might as well be from where I'm standing, though. Like, seriously, do you have any idea how reassuring it is to have someone with all the answers for a girlfriend?"

"Judging from your tone of voice and overall level of excitement, I am going to hazard a guess that the answer is 'very.'""Exactly! I never have to feel like I'm lost, or that stuff constantly goes over my head when you're around. I mean, it still happens, I just don't worry about it."

"Why is that?"

"Well, take those weird sparks that pop up now and then." Maggie's eyesight followed his finger as he pointed out the window. A few moments later, there was a tiny, barely noticeable flash of white light in the seemingly empty space just beyond it.

"Yeah, those ones."

"What about them?" the girl turned her gaze back to him.

"I haven't the foggiest what they are, but I don't let that bother me because I know you do, and you won't keep quiet about something that I need to worry about." Maggie's cheeks blushed lightly at this shameless admission of trust. She knew Joe relied on her for many things, of course, but hearing him say it out loud made her really happy. So much so that she couldn't resist wanting to show off a little.

"Would you like me to tell you what those sparks are?" she merrily asked.

"Sure, let's hear it," he humored her.

"They are a byproduct of the ship's kinetic barrier deflecting micrometeorites." That last word was a term Joe hadn't heard of before, but even he wasn't dumb enough to not notice the obvious meaning.

"You mean space rocks so tiny that I can't see them?" he inquired, just in case.

"Indeed."

"Huh. That seems like a waste of energy, doesn't it?" he scratched his head.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, why bother keeping the ship's shields up just for that? What's a bunch of space-dust going to do a ship this big? Scratch the paint a little?" he said with a bemused tone.

"Micrometeorites travel at speeds up to twenty five thousand kilometers per hour," the girl revealed.

"Oh?"

"Even their miniscule mass can easily dent and puncture hull plating at such immense velocity. Windows are especially vulnerable to such impacts."

"Oh."

"Without the kinetic barrier intercepting them, every cabin on this ship will experience explosive decompression within minutes. This, in turn, will result in all of the ship's passengers, including you and I, being pulled into the vacuum of space."

"O-oh…" Joe's expression and complexion had gotten a little worse with each spoken word. By the time Maggie finished her little lecture, he looked just as pale and panicky as he was during their first interstellar trip. It was only then that the girl realized she probably shouldn't have said all that, as it might cause the man's phobia to relapse. Thankfully, he managed to gain some measure of control over his anxiety with several long, drawn-out breaths.

He still immensely regretted asking about the micrometeorites, but was able to think it through rationally.

"Well. Good thing the, uh, barrier is up then, huh?" he mustered, voice quivering.

"… Indeed." Maggie felt an odd sense of relief that her eagerness to spew out trivia didn't have an adverse effect on Joe's therapy. She also felt emboldened since his measured reaction proved the treatment was effective.

"Can we, like, go get brunch?" he suggested.

"I think I need some tea right about now."

"Same." The rest of the day went idly by without any further incidents. Well, aside from when Maggie was denied entry into the casino. Apparently she'd been banned the day before for counting cards. The girl took a bit of offense to that. If the most optimal strategy to succeed was not allowed, then why was this fact not explicitly laid out in the rules? She calmed down once she realized it wasn't her potentially illegal techniques that were the issue.

The casino had lost so much money because of her that they literally couldn't continue to function with her around. It was a bit of a shame, but she relented at that point. As much as she liked calculating probabilities and actually winning at games, shutting the place down wouldn't be fair to the other passengers that also wanted to entertain themselves. The next morning brought a bit more excitement as The Queen Mary docked with a different freighter in preparation for another wormhole jump.

This was a bit unusual and unfortunate since the yacht had barely spent a day in the binary star system, but there was no helping it. The cruise's course and schedule had been decided months in advance, and the crew's options were limited to either a short visit or an exceptionally lengthy one. The former was the more appealing choice. Even if the passengers were disappointed they didn't get to gawk at the binary star system for long, they'd probably hate it if they were stuck here for the next thirteen weeks.

And so, The Queen Mary drifted into the freighter's super-sized docking bay and was secured in place via docking clamps. Shortly thereafter, there was a ship-wide notice that a wormhole was about to be opened and that passengers should strap themselves in for their own safety. Maggie and Joe did as instructed by taking a seat on the armchairs in their cabin.

Automated belts and cuffs then gently yet firmly secured them in their place, lest their bodies drift away when the artificial gravity was temporarily disabled. A few minutes later there was a distinctive 'shhhloooorp' sound, followed immediately by several seconds of total sensory deprivation. Joe's wits came back to him as his back slammed against his armchair's cushions when the gravity kicked back in.

Looking to his left, he saw Maggie spacing out with a blank look in her dull eyes and not a single strand of hair wriggling about. Joe waited calmly for their seats to release them, after which he went over to give the girl a big smooch on the lips. This once bizarre sequence of events had become commonplace for the couple by now, including that last part.

For whatever reason, the Class-3 entity just couldn't resist having its consciousness ejected during interstellar transit, leaving the empty vessel on what was essentially auto-pilot. She'd find her way back in about fifteen minutes or so on her own, though Joe always expedited the process with a kiss. It was unnecessary, but appreciated. However, this time around there was a bit of a divergence in the 'standard procedure' when Maggie woke up.

"Are you feeling alright? All of you made it back okay?" the man sounded concerned.

"Yes, I am fine," she responded.

"Then what's the matter?" Rather than her usual semi-smug smile, her face instead bore a profoundly uncomfortable expression.

"It would appear that we will be getting a visitor soon."

"… Okay? Who?"

"My," she paused for a moment, "sibling."

"Ah… Wait, hold on. I thought you guys didn't have families like we do." The girl had previously explained that cosmic entities like herself sprouted from the primordial goo of creation or some such, rather than being born from other such beings.

"While somewhat misleading, 'sibling' is the most accurate term to describe our relationship," she insisted.

"Oh, alright. And why is this a bad thing?"

"Because I am uncertain what the purpose of this visit is. All I know is my sibling intends to board this ship once it enters the Midcrest system in eight days."

"How can you know that, but not why they're coming?" The girl once again paused as she formulated a response that was simple enough for Joe to immediately understand, even if not entirely factually accurate.

"When I returned home just now, there was a message waiting for me. That's all it said."

"So, like, an e-mail?"

"Indeed."

"Can't you guys talk with your brains or something?"

"Communication through the veil is exceedingly difficult. Also, that is besides the point," she pouted at Joe.

"I do not wish for this meeting to happen, but I am powerless to stop it."

"Oh, come on. I'm sure it'll be fine. I mean, you're fantastic, and apples don't fall far from the… Actually no, that metaphor doesn't make sense in this case, does it?"

"It absolutely does not."

"Still, I'm not worried. I trust you'll keep things from getting out of hand."

"… Thank you," she finally smiled, even if a little.

"What's this sibling of yours called, by the way?"

"…" The girl's smile then disappeared without a trace, along with her voice.

"Maggie," Joe pressed.

"… Ugh," she groaned.

"It's Kelogh'theryl. Kelogh'theryl the Devourer."

"Ah… Okay, now I'm worried."