The Edge

Luca: Part Three

And that was how they found themselves in a weirdly old-fashioned looking kitchen, watching a robot make tea while a whole bunch of cats lounged around the space. It was pretty easy to tell which one was Mittens—she was extremely pregnant, ready to pop at any second level of fat. Tola was thrilled by the cats. Everyone else was still recovering from the robot reveal. And the random tremor that hit as they were all starting to sit down. "There is occasional seismic activity on this planet," Alan explained as he started filling the kettle. "Nothing I've had to worry about so far."

Luca probably should've felt better about that. After all, if anyone was going to be worried about earthquakes, it was the guy who'd have to re-shelve his book collection once it was over. Instead, he could only find a dull acceptance of the tremors as another thing to worry about. That was better than stressing about it, he supposed.

"So, were you serious about that wreckage being called the Terror?" Adoette asked.

"I know, it's a bit on the nose. That's not the ship's real name, either. That's the most common nickname for it, after the HMS Terror?" Alan turned away from his kettle. He had the excited look of someone who knew something cool and really wanted to share it. He wore it in a subdued way, but even though he was a robot, there was no missing the excited spark in his eyes. "Are you familiar with that ship?"

"...no?"

"It was part of a failed attempt to go through the Northwest Passage. The crews of two ships were lost. The ship your sister was looking for is actually called the Erebus, which is the name of the Terror's sister ship. If I had to guess, the names were transposed due to their proximity. Or perhaps thematic relevance in the retelling."

"Can you tell us anything about the Erebus?" Helen asked. She looked like she was starting to recover from her initial shock; thank God for that, because Luca definitely hadn't. "Any information you might have would be helpful."

Alan placed one more tea bag and stared off into the middle distance. His expression was a pretty normal thinking hard look, right down to the hand on his chin, but he'd gone absolutely stock still. Luca also could've sworn he saw a light blinking faster behind his clear plastic jaw, but he tried not to look at that too hard. "It was part of an exploratory mission," he said finally. "Another attempt at going deeper into the Edge. Obviously, they did not succeed. I doubt they even cleared the debris belt, and if they did, it probably wasn't by much."

"So, a bunch of dumbasses in a fancy ship thought they could do something no living human has managed to pull off," Arian said casually. Was everyone in this family going to recover quickly from the Alan's an android revelation except Luca? All signs point to "probably." So what? Why would she want to go there?"

"There are some legends surrounding the ship. The Terror is haunted, there are still crew mates left on board, it's part of a path to nirvana, it's a passage to heaven or hell..." Alan shrugged. "I don't recall anything about potential salvage or treasure on board, but again, my stored knowledge is limited. Did she have a fixation on the ship as a child? Or wreckages of any kind. Sometimes childhood interests can turn into adult obsessions."

Adoette shook her head. "Nah. She was never into deep space wreckage trivia. That's more mine and Luca's thing."

Luca grinned sheepishly. He knew it was a weird interest to have, what with his debilitating anxiety and all, but his therapist said it gave him a safe space to explore anxiety-inducing situations without real risk, so that was the explanation he ran with. He always preferred the ones with happy endings, though. Triumph of the human spirit calmed him down. "Yeah, it's, uh...usually my thing," he admitted, "but I've never heard of this one. The Edge freaks me out, to be honest."