Tidal Movement

"Pilot," the ship said. "Please identify."

"Whoa," I said.

"Surname or primary handle?" The ship asked.

"Um, I'm DeeDee Jackson, but call me Dee."

"Pilot Dee, what is our destination?"

"I'm," I stopped and looked at Rudy. "Stand down for now, please."

I sent the disconnect command to my suit, and exited the cockpit.

"That thing is sentient," I said, not sure if it was an accusation or an observation.

"Yes," Rudy said.

"Isn't that what you would call an 'offense to God'?"

"The Clee were God's work. So is Submind. I am privileged to be involved."

"I don't know what the Clee looked like, Rudy, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything like that."

"Clee biology included some interesting uses of silicon," Rudy said. "The neural pathways for all of our ship designs are based on something called a 'morphological meme.' Buddy learned how to trig..."

"Thanks, Rudy. I'm familiar with Submind memes."

"Really? Buddy isn't very good at sharing. How did you acquire this information?"

"I'm suspicious and I ask a lot of questions," I said. "For example: What do the Clee have to do with a scout ship thinking for itself? Are those gravity skis? And, why are the ion thrusters so small?"

Rudy blinked at me, looked at the ship like he'd never noticed it before, and then said, "It's a tidal sled--for 'riding the rings' as they say."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"The neural grid is... It's something we can do--with Submind. What's the point of growing ships without it?"

I had to give him that one, so I nodded.

"The skis are for riding tidal variations," Rudy said. "But they double as a gravity lens to provide thrust. We built it for rapid transit within Saturn System. The more traditional scouts will be ready in about a week."

"More traditional, but sentient?" I asked.

"Exactly," Rudy said, grinning.

"And you want me to test drive this one back to Fort Falling?" I asked. "Riding the rings?"

"I would consider it a personal favor," Rudy said.

"What's the bet on my return time?" I asked.

Rudy turned red. "I have two hours and 47 minutes."

I turned and looked at the tiny ship. "Less than three hours?"

Rudy nodded.

It took me two hours and 52 minutes. Four Thumbs won the pool.