Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Space
2422
Ed Mercer has been the captain of the mid-level exploratory ship called the Orville, of the Planetary Union of Planets, for two years now. This was an opportunity the Union officer still couldn’t believe was real, even as the tired man finished his official shift for the day.
With his work through, the spaceship captain met up with his first officer and ex-wife, Kelly Grayson, at the end of the corridor for a private unofficial meeting.
As the current coworkers met at the curved corner where two corridors connected, Ed noticed again that his former wife was still a beautiful woman. Her sandy-colored hair fell loosely down her shoulders, with just a hint of a curl at the end. God, he used to be turned on by that look she often wore. Now it was like something he used to enjoy—such as a discarded toy from childhood. He had outgrown the desire, but the sentimental memories still lingered, even after the former couple went their separate ways.
Despite their greatest efforts, the ex-lovers' history together made things complicated at times. Ed was still annoyed at his first officer, ex-wife or not, for telling the doctor he was exaggerating his suffering for painkillers. Yeah, only a woman that close to him would know such an inconvenient detail. Still, regardless of his annoyance, it was Kelly’s duty. The reveal was embarrassing and disappointing, but also true.
Yet to counter that flaw, the ex-wife would notice the slightest sickness her ex-husband had, sometimes before he knew it. When Ed’s shoulder was acting up, Kelly would know, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. Even with his best performance, the ex-wife would see through the façade. Sometimes she would reach over from her chair to his, to give her former husband a quick little rub to loosen the muscle.
Yes, there were drawbacks to the situation; Ed found this working relationship to be highly unorthodox, but better than he could have hoped. The ship’s captain appreciated a first officer who had the instincts to jump into a conversation when she was needed, or simply knew how to get him out of a bad mood, like a former wife attuned to his needs.
Quietly, the man almost six feet in height approached the woman, who matched him in his growth. Staring eye to eye, Ed, who knew this fellow officer biblically, kept a professional distance, but the casual demeanor of their relationship stood out.
Even with a very bitter divorce between the former spouses, Ed and Kelly were now good friends and had developed a healthy working relationship these past two years on the Orville. However, the attractive first officer didn’t return a smile to his, when her ex-husband approached.
The captain couldn’t blame his number one; she had the night shift and it just started. While he was through for the day. Hypothetically, as the captain, he was on call twenty-four hours a day, every moment he was on the ship.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Kelly asked as she reluctantly handed over the program to her captain and the man she shared this awkward relationship.
Not noticing the feminine concern, Ed instantly smiled as he gazed upon the disc he just accepted.
“Yeah,” he answered, nodding. “I know I do. I really want to.”
Seeing the inner child that exists in every man through Ed at that moment, Kelly was forced to sigh upon accepting his decision. She was ready to rub her head, but resisted that urge so as not to encourage rebellion. There really was no talking her ex out of this stupid idea of his.
“You should at least put the program on social mode,” the first officer professionally suggested.
“No, I’m not going to run this on a friendly filter,” Ed responded, shaking his head. “I want the real experience.”
“This is crazy!” the ex-wife declared, worried this could hurt Ed in ways he wouldn’t expect.
“Anymore crazy than catching you in bed with a blue alien.” He teased, with a bit of bitterness. Even though their marriage had been over long before the affair, that final ending really stung, even though Ed did all he could to move on.
Kelly just shook her head in response, letting her long blonde hair flow loose and free past her shoulder.
“Why?” she asked, ignoring his rude comment about their past. She wanted to understand, not as a union officer, but as his former wife. The sound had changed in her voice, and with that look she used to give him when they were a couple.
“Because this is something I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid,” the captain explained. “Kell,” he shortened her name—something he started doing when they were dating. “This is just one of those things I need to do.” The grown man’s brown eyes pleaded, almost like a lonely puppy.
With the memory of how that expression often changed her mind when they were married, the woman sighed, rolling her own eyes.
“Very well,” she relented softly. Kelly knew this man well and realized she couldn’t talk him out of this. He would have to find out that this was a bad idea on his own.
Backing off from all of her instincts, the first officer stepped to the side, removing the final barrier of the sliding doors to the Environmental Stimulator. That became the official name of the device that could replicate nearly any ecosystem, as well as animals and more advanced life forms, like humans. What Ed wanted more than to virtually visit any place he could simulate, or to meet any great person of history from hundreds of worlds, was to engage with four of his planet’s most historic musicians—the Beatles.
The captain was a fan of all kinds of music. He enjoyed listening to the wild rhythms of Zankon foot-stomping songs. It was incredible what kind of beats this one-legged race could create with just hopping in various ways. It was like Earth’s African drumming meets Riverdance. That was the best Earth comparison he could make about this alien dance/music. The Earthman was also getting into Moclan industrial chants. They were eerily reminiscent of songs sung by Earth’s ancient chain gangs.
However, despite the many different species the captain met, and the cultures he had come to embrace, he still preferred Earth’s music best of all. He was an avid listener to the new music, but with Earth’s rich history and more than five hundred years of recorded sound, there was much to love! He enjoyed Stelline, a singer from the previous century who was the first to find a way to manipulate sound to cause the listener to see colors emanating from the direction of the music.
This of course was revolutionary in the art world! However, it did introduce the first laws prohibiting certain music being played in moving vehicles in most planets’ atmospheres, unless the vehicle was self-driving—just like the laws applied to intoxicated drivers. Yeah, that was a messy lesson, but people learned fast.
Ed also loved music going further back than a mere hundred years. Why limit yourself? He always thought. His workout playlist alone consisted of artists going all the way back to the 21st and 20th-centuries, when sound recording became plentiful and preserved. He was rocking out to Taylor Swift, the Who, the Jackson Five, Coolio, Dolly Parton, Frank Sinatra, the Supremes, and even Glen Miller, as he sweated through his physical routine. Ed had an open mind when it came to art and was a huge fan of historical pieces, and now he was going to meet some of his idols.
Well, sort of…
So far there has been no means to raise the dead, though man hasn’t exactly stopped trying. But while attempting to pursue the impossible, technology has made some interesting allowances. The real individual can never be restored, but if you have enough data on that person, it isn’t difficult at all to replicate them in a three-dimensional digital format.
With personalities being determined through records and psychological analysis, a replica of that person could be formed. Yes, it’s not real—but close enough. That's what the first marketing campaign used to say to sell this product. It was said with a heavy-set guy, with a holographic image of a young Cardi B, a rapper from the 21st century, by his side in a seductive manner.
Placing the disc in the port and manually adjusting the settings—too excited to utter the command, the eager man prepared himself to meet these larger-than-life figures. Then turning around with his eyes closed, Ed took a moment to gather himself, before he restored his sight, along with a deep breath.
At long last, there before the ship’s captain was the set of Sgt. Pepper and all four of the Beatles scattered about.
The spaceship captain felt butterflies in his stomach, as he watched the realistic depiction of the rock legends from five hundred years ago. Ringo Starr was at his drum set, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette. George Harrison was letting his legs dangle from the edge of the stage, tuning his guitar. A cigarette was between the lead guitarist’s fingers and his coffee close at hand. John Lennon was flirting with a girl in a fancy dance costume at the far end of the stage, and Paul McCartney was playing the piano just left of the high-rise platform.
This was too much, and poor Ed found himself staring in awe to see these historical icons.
“Hey you,” John said sharply when seeing the man, he didn’t recognize, ogling him and his mates. Now the entire band was staring at him.
“How did you get past security?” Ringo demanded to know. This startled Ed. He was so excited about meeting the Beatles, he didn’t even dress up for the occasion. What the hell was he thinking, he didn’t even set up a backstory for himself.
“Computer freeze program,” Ed ordered, and with that the characters were frozen still in the pose they were in. Realizing he had to do better than this, the spaceship captain tried to think of a scenario in which he could get to know these historical figures best, without them feeling threatened. Then he came up with an idea. “Computer,” he called out again. “Set up a background where I’m also a musician at their level of success.”
“Do you have a song list to add to the program?” the faceless voice of the computer inquired. Having not thought this through, Ed found he couldn’t name a song that didn’t come from this band. So, he sighed.
“Just use what is on my workout playlist,” the man told the machine. Then the program played again with the men back to their original positions. Everything was like before only this time George noticed him first.
“Oh, hi Ed,” the youngest Beatle greeted from his guitar with a smile. “Fancy meeting you here,” he greeted warmly, as the lead guitarist’s arose to his feet and shook the captain’s hand. Ed was silently delighted, believing the program would run smoothly, going forward.
“So, this is Ed Mercer,” Paul McCartney said from the side as he approached the new man. “Nice to meet the singer of Poker Face,” McCartney referred to the Lady Gaga song off his playlist. It went by what each individual character’s social personality, an educated guess of what they would think of the ship’s captains taste in music.
That’s when poor Ed realized the computer was not distinguishing between male or female singers, or that it was a group or solo act. Every song on Ed’s playlist from after the year these characters were set to exist that wasn’t theirs was his as far as they knew. Yeah, Ed seriously should have put more thought into this. Instead, he just ran on impulse and desire, and this was seriously biting him in the ass.
“Thank you,” the man pretending to be a singer replied. He wasn’t exactly comfortable with it, but at least the Beatles seemed to be calmer.
“Would you meet my mother?” Ringo suddenly asked. “She loves the song ‘Get Low.”” Those notorious blue eyes stared at him as that bizarre sentence was uttered.
Okay, now this was getting awkward! Clearly there were some flaws in the program. Then John made his way through the small crowd, standing tall before the only real person.
Ed could feel his heart jumping in his throat. Real or not, the image of John Lennon took his breath away.
“MMMBop sucks!” Lennon told the supposed “musician,” about the Hanson song that was the captain’s guilty pleasure. Naturally, this was humiliating.
“Computer freeze program,” Ed ordered again.
Okay, none of this was working. So frustrated the ship’s captain stared at the images of his fellow humans of the past. He just really wanted to get to know them and have as close to a real experience with these men as possible.
Then it dawned on the spaceship captain that there was a simulation of this entire ship. He could easily take these characters on a virtual tour and let them see who he really is. Because, come to think about it, the Beatles were rock stars and that impressed him. However, Ed was a man from their future, and traveled through space.
That had to be impressive to people from the 20th-century, he thought!
“Computer, play Beatle characters with ship simulation.” Mercer told the device. Suddenly the barren settings of the environmental simulator appeared to be turned off, while the four characters remained.
The Beatles were free from their frozen status and looked about the cold cube shaped room in confusion.
“Where are we?” John asked aloud, staring at gray walls instead of the expected stage, like the rest of his group.
“You are on the USS Orville.” Captain Mercer told the four, instantly gaining their attention. “ECV-197, a mid-level exploratory vessel from the Planetary Union, which is a 25th-century interstellar alliance of Earth and many other planets.” He formally explained. “I’m Captain Ed Mercer.” Ed stood up straight and conducted himself in the same manner as he would with the diplomat of another planet.
“25th century?” Paul McCartney uttered in shock.
“How did this happen?” Ringo wanted to know.
“There was an accident involving our time traveling transporting system.” Ed uttered, making shit up off the top of his head while mixing in a little bit of the old Earth trivia he had, of the television series Star Trek, in his tale.
“What kind of accident?” George wanted to know.
“Well an ensign was fooling around with the machine while intoxicated,” The ship’s captain continued his fib. “He was trying to bring Hitler to the future and… kill him, but got the time and place wrong, and brought you four here by mistake.” Ed knew it was a crazy story but it was crazy enough to almost sound real.
“You have such incompetent people on your ship?” John wanted to know in a smug tone
“Don’t you have morons in your time?” the modern man inquired.
“Fair point,” Lennon agreed.
“So, while we wait for the repairs,” Ed began, as a virtual image of the doors opening to the rest of the ship appeared. “Would you like to see the ship?” he offered, trying not to sound excited. The Beatles stared at the strange corridor outside of the room in awe. This was too unbelievable!
“Will we see aliens?” George wanted to know.
“Of course.” Captain Mercer promised, letting a smile slip through. This had to be so exciting for these men who were alive when space travel had just begun for their species.
“Cool!” John exclaimed, definitely eager to explore, as was the rest of the band. And with that, Captain Ed Mercer led the way, with the Fab four close behind.