True Blue

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Grandma Ruth stood at the far end of ship’s rec room three, her hands fluttering about her, busy at some unseen activity, when Max entered the tiny room. Perhaps she was playing a musical instrument, Max thought. Or sculpting. It was odd watching someone act out their recreational simulation without actually viewing the sim.

“Who’s there?” Grandma Ruth asked, looking blindly in Max’s direction.

Grandma was a frail, gray-haired woman, seventy-nine years old according to her medical charts; the oldest crew member on board the John Chapman, and one of the last of the Earth-borns. Max saw the wire harness trailing behind Grandma Ruth’s head, snaking down to the floor and back up to the control panel on the wall. Until he jacked into the console himself, he was not part of her simulation and invisible to her.

“It’s me. Dr. Max,” he said. Max wasn’t really a doctor, having spent his entire life shipboard, light-years from the nearest medical school. The training sims had taught him most of the technical things he needed to know, but he was still picking up the “people” skills, a proper bedside manner, and the time was coming when he would soon take over as the ship’s medical officer. Grandma Ruth was old-fashioned and preferred the title “doctor” over “medical officer.” Max didn’t argue the point.

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