The planet Zaffre is known for two things: blue sand deserts and the fact it's number one in robots mechanics and AI software development. Eastyn Ptolemy, a human worker from Earth, patrols Zaffre's main loading docks during his night shifts. Ever since coming to Zaffre with his sister Genna, his life has been easier, but also far too quiet.
To break up the monotony on one of his shifts, Eastyn listens to the local radio station where DJ Milo does all-night requests. After many late nights spent with Milo on the phone, Eastyn realizes he is actually Milo Struthers, former guitarist and backing vocalist of the band Lightning Years. Only now, after a bad accident, Milo has been reduced to a sophisticated AI that runs the radio station, struggling for a proper body and autonomy.
“Are you okay, Eastyn? Do you want me to stop talking about this? I just got the new single from Tacktile and I’d love to play it for you.”
“No, no,” Eastyn said, insistent. “I’m okay. I always wanted my mom to have a better life, you know? But she never took that chance. She may have been able to if she’d gotten help, but she didn’t. That was her choice. Now that her body is being used again -- I know it’s not her, the AI is different -- but she will have a second chance. More or less.”
“Yeah,” Milo said. “I understand that completely.”
“Good.” Eastyn nodded, swallowing the lump in this throat. If there was anyone else who could understand the power of second chances, it had to be Milo. “Thank you.”
“You know you can start over again too, right?” Milo said.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Earth is behind you now, and you’re here on this planet. And maybe you’ll stay on as a security guard and be really happy doing that. But you could also go back to Earth, too. You could start again there.”
Eastyn paused. He had always figured this life -- the life on Zaffre -- was his restart. Earth was over, that was why he didn’t miss it. But if this really was like space camp, as Dom had joked that it was, then the best, but also the most heart breaking part, of space camp was that it had to end. You always went home after the summer.
“I don’t want to go,” Eastyn said. “I like it here.”
“That’s good,” Milo said. “Because I don’t think my radio station can go to Earth.”
Eastyn laughed. “No. I don’t think it can.”
A silence settled between them, and it felt good, natural. Eastyn looked at the time; there was only another two minutes before he had to go to work. “Hey, this may seem weird.”
“I like weird. You should know that by now. What’s up?”
“My sister invited me on a double-date with her and her girlfriend. Do you ... would you like to come?”
“That’s really sweet. Really. I mean it,” Milo said. Eastyn heard the hitch in his voice, and braced himself for a rejection.
“It’s okay. Never mind. I should have thought more before I spoke.”
“No, Eastyn, this isn’t me saying no,” Milo said. “This is me ... I don’t know, warning you.”
“Warning me for what?”
“I don’t have a body.”
“I know that. And you put in an app for one. And I saw your hand.”
“You don’t know for sure --”
“Either way, even if that’s not your hand,” Eastyn cut in, more firmly than before, “you still put something into the Zaffre organization. It’s only a matter of time. You’ll get a body.”
“Time’s funny on Zaffre. It could take a long, long time for my body to actually turn up. And it may be a completely weird and bendy body, a complete lemon, full of all these mechanical failures. Even if they use me as a design, it will still be me but not me. I’ll have to do physical therapy in the best case scenario --”
“I don’t care about that,” Eastyn insisted. “But how long do you think it’ll take?”
“There’s a funny expression on Zaffre between computer mechanics, I don’t know if you’ve heard it yet -- but it’s once in six moons. Basically, this is how fast paperwork or all other applications go through. Once in every six moon cycles. Meaning once every four years, basically.”
“So it’s like a leap year on Earth?”
“Yeah,” Milo said, his voice saddened. “Some people call it a Leap Cycle. Most people don’t acknowledge it outside of whispers and platitudes, you know?”
“Yeah, I get it. But ... how close are we to one?”
“Soon, I think. But I don’t know if it’s true. It may be something they say to keep people patient. Even if my body does go through, I highly doubt I’d have it in time for a double date on Saturday.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” Eastyn tapped his fingers along his table, glancing at the clock. “But what if you came the way you are now?”
“How so?”
“What if I just called you and talked to you like I am now, but I put you on speaker. That way you could talk to Debby and Genna at the same time. Make sense?”
“It does. But are you sure?”
“Yes. Yes I am.” Eastyn felt himself grow excited again. He knew he’d need to message Genna and Debby, cancel whatever scheming the two of them were doing for his date, and hope that a phone and a voice still counted.
“Then I’ll try,” Milo said. “What will we be doing?”
“Don’t get mad, but I think we’re doing karaoke.”
When all Milo did was laugh, Eastyn knew he had made the right choice.
