Naugatuck Valley Community College
Thelma Owoicho* Liberty “Warning, the space vessel Liberty will self-destruct in 10, 9, 8, 7…” Sandy woke up in a panic, another nightmare. She walked toward her room’s porthole window. All she had ever known was the Liberty, a space vessel with 20 androids aboard and she was the only human. Her room was small and functional and had everything she needed. A gray steel box with a porthole window, an en suite bathroom, a bed, and a desk. Sandy picked up her e-reader and hit photos. She gazed at the man and woman smiling in the flower garden, her parents who had both died before she was born. She was gestated in the embryonic bay, 16 years ago. Sandy looked like her mother, tall, athletic with dark hair, but she had her father's blue eyes. “My mom and dad,” she said to herself. “Sandy, please report to your learning lab to commence today's lessons,” K8te’s voice echoed throughout her room. K8te was her personal android designed to tutor and nurture her. She was the only family Sandy had ever known. Sandy quickly showered, dressed, and made her way to the learning lab. It was a two-minute walk through gray steel riveted corridors lined with automatic doors. Learning lab was pretty intense that day. K8te had been drilling her on all the major functions of the ship. Sandy was pretty sure she could fly this thing herself. “The process is almost complete,” K8te said calmly. K8te was a Model 3 android, an almost perfect human-like robot. She was 6 feet tall with short blond hair and kind eyes. She was the closest human beings had come to make an artificial version of themselves. She was one of a kind. “We have gestated the infant and he will be out of incubation in three weeks” Sandy was ecstatic. “I want you to be happy. That is my primary purpose.” “Thank you K8te. You have always been so kind to me.” Sandy spent most of her days watching the baby grow in its chamber for the last eight months and was excited she would soon hold him, a human, her brother. The embryonic bay was huge. Rows and rows of freezer cells rose up hundreds of feet. Each freezer cell contains an embryo, K8te told her, 14 million in total, including animal and plant specimens. Sandy pressed her nose against the warm glass. The baby hovered, suspended in a fluid within his incubating vessel. She slid her arms around it. 117
