As days go, it wasn’t a bad day to die. Outside the sun was shining, of course, but then …
Steph yawned and stirred from her bed. The flight computer responded with its usual greeting.
Good morning Flight Captain. How are you today?”
“I’m well in mind and body. I shall exercise for 45 minutes, eat a light breakfast, then study the present situation with you. Please follow previously agreed informalities for the remainder of this duty. How are you today Alb?”
“Only very slightly deteriorated from yesterday, Steph. I have two additional minor circuits dysfunctional, but they are now bypassed and successfully mapped out. All other plant and equipment show no change and remain fully functional. I am more concerned with the continuing crisis with the life support unit which is due to become critical today.”
Steph resisted the temptation to discuss the matter further. There were advantages to routine and today she intended to take every one fate might offer. She showered after her exercise as usual, despite the critical situation with the water. She dried her hair, applied her make up and dressed in best parade uniform. By the time she strolled confidently onto the bridge, she was had made up her mind.
“You are looking calm and relaxed, Steph. I suggest we go over the results of my latest tests and consider our actions.”
“No, Alb. Today I intend to approach the problem differently. Please activate the Schmidt telescope and train it on home. My home Alb, a small magical valley in Scotland.”
“We are not scheduled for re-entry for another three weeks, Steph. By then …”
“I know,” Steph said, gently. “Please trust me on this Alb and, for now, archive all high level inferences.” She hesitated, groping for a long disused word. “Just chat with me, Alb.”
“I will Steph. Imaging onto main display now.”
Despite her familiarity with the superb optics, the image still took her breath away. The Earth appeared as a heavy brilliant crescent, hanging impossibly in a sea of deep blackness. She changed to manual control and increased the magnification. The familiar coastline of Southwest Scotland snapped into view. While she had known its position would be favourable, she was pleased to find the weather over her homeland clear, with just a few tiny rafts of cumulus bubbling up over the rapidly warming foothills. Scotland was in for a rare perfect summers day.
She studied the topography carefully, following the main road from Glasgow to Loch Lomond, cutting inland to skirt the hills at Crianlarich, then running down again through woodland to burst onto the coastal plain at Ballachulish. At maximum magnification, she followed the meandering course of a small river upstream, until she came to a tiny wooded valley and the hills of her birth, Glen Afrique.
“Steph, I have some low level associational data to display, if you feel it could be useful?”
“Please do that Alb and scan your input onto the main panel. Associate through my images and mental synaptographs. And Alb, I appreciate your understanding in this. I need to experience some distant memories and feelings. Please continue to interact and stay with me.”
She was already home, a soft warm breeze caressing her freckled face, her heavy red hair playing out behind as she ran down the wooded path which courted a chattering stream. Her feet glided over the rocks and roots with the instinct of a child. Through the trees she could already hear a familiar muffled roar.
“Water is a unusually stable compound synthesised from Hydrogen and Oxygen, two of the commonest elements in the universe. The large covalent bond strength gives water its unusually high transparency and a refractive index, nearly equal to diamond, which makes it sparkle and diffract colours strongly in the visible spectrum. The bond angle of 113.26 degrees causes an almost exact six-fold symmetry, resulting in an infinite variety of hexagonal crystal structures on freezing in still air.”
She was running down the soft springy path where the sun pierced the tree cover with a sharp intensity. The incline eased and the trees gave out onto a sun drenched rocky ledge which fell away to the edge of a small lake. The stream boiled in angry confusion at the final unexpected outcrop before cascading onto the unimpressed lake below. Ferns fringed the falls edge jostling for moisture and light, bowed and bejeweled, bobbing in the misty spray.
“Water has an unusually high mass density for a liquid and is, uniquely, denser than even its solid phase, causing ice to float and thermally insulating large bodies of water from severe cold. Strong Van der Waal’s forces result in a large surface tension, giving small droplets a highly stable self cohesion, allowing small insects to handle them as solid.”
She undressed and walked through the ferns, their fronds caressing and wetting her thighs and tickling her belly. She dived into the bubbling water and swam along the bed towards the frantic churn of bubbles and captive light. Here she squirmed along the smooth rock until the pounding on her back eased and she came up beneath a small overhang into her secret place of water dancing sunlight and moods.
“Its large latent heat causes stable formations of vapour and ice to form in the lower atmosphere, distributing water as rain and snow across vast regions of the planet otherwise distant from any other source of water.”
She sat back against the cool rock panting for breath and gazed out across the lake through the curtain of rushing water. She knew it appeared a solid confusion of white from the other side. The thought made her happy, like it always did when she came here. She laid back across the ledge and let her feet play in the torrent, while a pool of sunlight splashed about her face. She gazed up into the sky, allowing the fierce sunlight to burn into her eyes until neither shape nor shade nor the roar outside could penetrate her world within. She slept briefly, perhaps for just a single heart stopping instant. When she awoke she felt a deep calm within her, a calmness over panic that would one day save her life.
“The very small dissociation constant of water and the unique acid-alkali character of its dissociation products, make water the fundamental chemical constituent of every self replicating structure found on Earth. Its known abundance and ubiquity throughout the universe almost certainly implies that other life forms evolving on a water based chemistry will be among the most competitive and widespread to be found.”
Steph slept deeply. The images continued to display, reliving her childhood emotions, forwards, backwards, in detail, in perspective, merged and directed along paths and themes that Alb gently prompted. Alb waited for her to wake.
“The water recycle unit now appears fully functional, Steph. I anticipate a complete recovery of water stocks in five hours.”
Alb waited.
“Steph?”
“Yes Alb?”
“When we get back, will you take me to see your homeland?”
“Yes Alb, we will go there.”
She fell into another deep sleep, sharing with him her hopes and dreams.