spaced out

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. If so why could he hear so many scary noises in the air around him. The ship was empty bar him, modern technology had made humans almost obsolete . The human was just there in case the computer had a malfunction. Completely opposite from the first space cruiser.

The first ships needed the humans to tell them what to do, where to fly and how fast to go. Nowadays its more the case of the pilot told the cruiser what to do and then that was it. If the computer or flight system detected a problem it sounded a polite alarm. A screen told the pilot what to do to fix the fault or to discuss a solution.

Otherwise the pilot sat there for a snooze, or read a book or literally stared into space. It was the noises that had got the pilots attention, he first thought it was a cat screaming. The fact that he was a few million miles from the nearest cat helped scupper that idea. He thought some more and tried a more logical approach. Something mechanical had to be the answer, thought he couldn't think what parts were anywhere near him. The freighter he was on had the most high tech ion engines in production, none of which were near him.

Also he couldn't think of any noises that an ion engine would make that sounded like a cat or a y other animal. He used the cameras mounted outside to scan the craft, used the computer to scan the craft and even thought about having a go himself. The craft being 3 miles long and a mile deep made this a long task if he undertook it. Obviously a well trained group of subordinates would be useful at this point, even a well trained subordinate robot would help.

The design team seemed to have decided one human, one very clever computer and nothing else would be enough to complete any missions. The very clever computer was obviously deaf as it hadn't reported or questioned any new noises. In fact since the sounds began it hadn't reported anything at all. So if the problem was both new and mechanical it meant there wasn't a fault.

So if the noise wasn't machinery or angry space cat then what else was left. There was little in the way of high tech shields surrounding the craft, this was very old school science fiction. There was a decent radar system looking out for planets and other items that could cause damage. The idea being that instead of using a super expensive shield the air craft simply drove round any obstacles.

There weren't any laser cannons, no guided bombs or any other star trek type weapons. There were only humans from earth in this galaxy, the remains of earth one and earth two had a handful left while the rest were populating and finishing the building of earth three. Unfortunately earth two had been ruined far quicker then the original and the replacement was behind schedule.

Most of the super structure was in place, accommodation was pretty much ready as well. freighters from earth two were bringing out more pieces to complete the new oxygen supplies and water purifiers. The freighters took a few days to make the trips and carried a lot in one trip. The pilot brought the paperwork, was driven to his or her freighter and that was most of their job done.

Training hadn't taken too long as there wasn't too much to do. The pilots had asked what they were supposed to do if there was a total computer failure and they had to fly the craft. This was a concept the designers couldn't help with, manly because they didn't have the concept of computers failing totally.

In fact it took some persuasion to include a chair and a bed for the pilot, they were an after thought. There was in fact an idea originally to have a robot waiting for the computer to flag up a problem. So if one computerised brain found a fault it was going to ask another computerised brain what to do.

Eventually this was realised to be a very bad plan. The pilots were found, their seats were welded in place and the training was done. The only thing missing from the training ,apart from the flying bit , was dealing with sounds like a screaming cat.