This mission had been different for Simone from the start.
It was rare for a Ship’s Assistant to be surrounded by waking crew for long periods. Simone had spent most of her life-cycle on ships that were unmanned or full of cryo-pod passengers. She was programmed for exactly that sort of existence, content having a ship to herself and plenty of time to spend watching movies and reading books. For this mission, however, Simone had been assigned to assist with the crew’s scientific work in addition to piloting the ship. Once the Curie set down on Earth and the crew woke, Simone was forced into prolonged interaction with human beings for the very first time.
She found them irritating.
They interfered with her duties and made unnecessary demands on her time. In some ways Dr. Lucy Zhong was t
