The captain had a hard time calming down just about anywhere he went. Wherever he went, he knew there was a robot watching him. He tensely set himself down on a bench in the "natural park" area and just from that spot could see a great deal of cameras in the plastic trees, robotic koi, benches, chess tables, rail-cyclers, and even the water fountains.

"It can't be that bad... It's not bad..." Captain Calvin reminded himself under his breath. His suddenly erupted into a peppy,

Hello, my baby

Hello, my honey

Hello, my ragtime gal

Calvin spastically fumbled for the answer button. His wife's smiling appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Baby!" She waved.

"Sweetie!" He said through his panic, "Hi! Sorry, I wasn't expecting you." He shifted on the bench and sat up straight. "How did you even get this number?" He couldn't help but ask.

" They have the number on the website, some robot named... ADM, was it? They gave me your extension."

Calvin looked visibly disturbed at the mention of ADM. "Huh..." Was all he could say. He tensed as he noticed more and more robot eyes on him. " Is something wrong?" She asked.

" Space is already starting to get to me." He admitted with a twinge of sheepishness. She laughed and nodded.

" Oh, I bet. I know it would get to me too." She smiled sympathetically, "It'll all be okay though. It's only a year, it's no worse than some of your other assignments." She said with an adorable tone of optimism. The kind of tone that Calvin just didn't have the heart to disagree with.

" You're right, honey. Thanks." He blushed.

"And hey, just remember to put on your Sunday clothes when you feel down and out..." She began to grin.

"Strut down the street and have your picture took.

Dressed like a dream your spirits seem to turn about."

She sang softly.

"That Sunday shine is a certain sign that you feel as fine as you look!"

Calvin couldn't help but sing back.

"Beneath your parasol, the world is all a smile.

And makes you feel brand new down to your toooooees."

They sang in unison.

"Get out your feathers..."

"Your patent leathers..."

"Your beads and buckles and bows! For there's no blue Monday in your Sunday."

Calvin beamed.

"No Monday in your Sunday!"

She repeated.

" YOUR SUNDAY CLOOOTHES!"

They finished together.

"Sorry about that." His wife giggled, "They are remaking Hello, Dolly and 'Modernizing' it." She rolled her eyes at the word "Modernizing" as if the word itself was not to be taken seriously. " I just hope they don't ruin it too badly. I started watching the old one through a couple times." She shrugged. Calvin raised an eyebrow.

"A couple?"

"Fine, fine, fine. I watched it 5 times in a row. Don't judge me!" She winked.

"Hopefully it is out around the time I get back so we can watch it together." He said wistfully. She nodded in agreement.

"It wouldn't matter if it was good or bad at that point, just that I was

watching it with you." She said with a matched tone of wistfulness.

" I love you, Vanessa."

" 'Love you too, Cal." She blew a kiss to the screen and Calvin blushed

again.

" I think I need to get back to... Whatever it is I do on this ship. Bye,

sweetie."

"Okay, I will call you again." She promised.

"I will answer again." Calvin promised back. They ended the call and

suddenly ADM's voice burst from the tablet.

"The remake of Hello, Dolly will premiere on December 13th 21–."

Calvin threw the tablet as hard as he could away and, in one swift motion, shot to his feet while drawing his pistol at the tablet.

"ADM! YOU WERE SPYING ON MY WIFE AND I!" Calvin said with

very little regard to whoever might hear him yelling. ADM's voice came muffled through the synthetic grass.

"You agreed to being monitored when you came aboard the ship and

signed the agreement papers." It droned. Calvin slowly realized how foolish it would be to shoot his own tablet and lowered his gun. He picked up the tablet and saw ADM's vaguely tired eyes in place of his home screen.

"Well I won't have it continue any longer. At the very least not with her.

That's an order, ADM." Calvin glared at the screen as if ADM were right there. An awkward and chilling silence permeated the park until ADM finally buzzed again.

" Altering monitorization algorithm." ADM's eyes changed color, then

flashed back to their muted shade of green.

"Thank you." Calvin said in the way you say thank you to someone you

don't actually want to thank. ADM's eyes faded themselves off the screen. Calvin sighed and made towards the exit of the "park" while unconsciously humming through the soundtrack of Hello, Dolly. He scanned a concise version of the floor plan in search of a room with no cameras. " Sheesh, BnL, you really wanted to make sure people were monitored here." He observed as he counted how many cameras were in the bathrooms alone, 17 and not a single-blind spot. He gave up his search for a camera-less room and started flipping through the messages from Shelby Forthright. He opened one and watched as he trudged through the streets.

" Many of the robots are still a... Let's call it, 'work in progress' state."

Shelby made quotation marks with his fingers as he said "work in progress." A cartoon of a massaging robot beating a stick figure over the head repeatedly appeared as Shelby continued. " Rest assured, we at BnL have made sure that they still adhere to Isaac Asimov's rules of robotics." He said in a tone that was not reassuring in the slightest. The three rules flashed onto the screen in comic sans and he gestured to them vaguely as if he didn't actually know where they would appear in post. "If any of the robots get a little frisky. Just remind them of these rules and they will stop." He said. Calvin shuddered. He had a pretty good idea of what 'frisky' means.

"Telling a robber it is against the law to steal doesn't stop them from

stealing." Calvin sighed and cut the video off before it could finish."A robber has free will. At least robots don't. They are still programmed." He reminded himself. He walked into a fairly busy restaurant and found himself a seat. He picked up the menu and scowled at the strange fad BnL was trying to make popular by putting things "in a cup." It wasn't even unique to being in space. They were pushing for that kind of stuff on earth just as hard.

"Good evening, Captain, may I take your order?" A courteous robot with a posh British accent asked. Calvin lowered the menu and nodded.

"I'll have a medium-rare steak-not in a cup." He ended sternly. The

robot bowed and trotted off. It came back a few minutes later with a platter of steak, salad, mashed potatoes, and a glass of grape juice. The robot placed it on his table, bowed again, then went to another table. The first thing Calvin did was make sure this juice was not alcoholic, it wasn't. Secondly, he suspiciously brought the glass to his mouth and took a very small sip. He put the glass down and shook his head at himself. "They couldn't poison me... They have to follow those rules." He thought as he chewed his steak. It wasn't bad at all. It was amazing what these "food creator" machines were capable of emulating. You didn't have to carry perishable items like steak, all you needed was a large bank of whatever chemicals were involved in whatever you were eating. A thought passed through Calvin's head as he took a large bite of mashed potatoes and he froze. "I wonder what happens when they run out before schedule..." He swallowed hard and glared at the waiter robot. "It technically isn't harming a human if they are already dead..." He pushed his plate away from himself and walked out of the restaurant to his quarters. This was just one of those days that needed to be slept off.