Venonta Vivo: Season one

By Aman Nòlem

Venonta Vivo is an interactive experiment available in Catalan and English that narrates the adventures of Omni, the head of a colony ship, on his journey to a new planet. This story is updated weekly depending on the results of the previous poll (the plot is independent in each language, creating a parallel universe for each one).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781678111922

Book preview

1. Starting the Project

[1]

There was nothing outside. A thick, stalking, mind-crushing void, waiting for a false move to get in, and kill everything in seconds.

The halfway trip alarm went off. Silently. Enough to alert Omni. As if she needed one. Ceremoniously, she stood up for a moment. Checked all the systems. Routine protocol. Done.

Omni was ready to start the project. She knew how important it was. The moment she was made for had arrived. With a graceful movement, she started printing the first subject. She made sure to record the date and time in the project’s log. Maybe she should have had thought of a speech to make now, but she couldn’t think of anything.

00010001000, she said aloud and laughed, adding a note to herself to remember to give it a second thought later.

The printing, if no issues arouse, was going to finish in 3 hours 23 minutes and 6.3 seconds. She needed to give full attention to the whole process, apart from piloting the starship. And she was nervous, kind of, at least she thought so. She was indeed still new to some feelings.

3 hours 19 minutes and 6.6 seconds to go.

She was impatient to see the result.

3 hours 17 minutes and 5.4 seconds to go.

Time seemed to go slower, even if she really knew that was not possible. Not there at least, she laughed to herself.

2. A Small Cog

[2]

Omni connected to the central computer and send a precise instruction. The answer came back with a delay of 360 milliseconds. Probably, it would be nothing to worry about, but she opened a ticket to remember to check it later anyway. The computational unit was a substantial part of the starship, especially in that phase, and she didn’t want to overlook its proper functioning.

Omni took a second to think about all this, she was puzzled. The starship was built after herself, with a better self-repairing system. "Well, I don’t know if it is better, but it is indeed newer," she thought. Might the previous jumps have affected the main system? She hoped not. She was designed specifically to supervise the project and knew relatively less about the mechanical aspects of the ship. However, she had access to a huge technical database.

It was worth asking the ship directly, even if her IQ was low for an exciting conversation, she would know better if something was off.

Look at me, a G-class Omnirobot with full 360-AI 467 chipset, nervous for a mere 360 milliseconds. I can create life from dust but a slightly delayed response and I lose it, she said.

At that moment, she felt small. A tiny cog in a gigantic grandfather clock. She stopped for a moment to find that reference in her database. Sometimes she could surprise herself with some unusual metaphors. Luckily, that thought took her away from the sadness she was about to feel. She found that some feelings were difficult to process and made her run into programming issues. She tried to make a joke about this last thought, but she wasn’t able… yet, an update—that wasn’t available—was required to do this.

Omni decided to sit for a brief moment. Her body was an exact replica of an androgen standard Earth human being of about 45 universal years old. Her skin and her eyes, though, had a slightly alien look—she learnt this from her own data sheet—for the rest, she was designed to be a likeable being.

For someone who had never met Omni before, the most peculiar features were her skin, it had a purple reflection under regular light, and her lack of hair. Also,