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Miles remembered waking up and being terrified.
It was three forty-three in the morning, his bedside clock said. Way too early to get up. His parents and sister probably weren’t awake yet, and MERC definitely wasn’t; Miles could hear him snoring lightly, his wings coating the room in pale blue light.
It had been a stupid nightmare again. He’d watched the Stellosphere crash into a moon with his whole family inside and hadn’t been able to do a thing to stop it. It wasn’t real, it wouldn’t ever be real, hopefully, but that didn’t stop him from rubbing his eyes harshly to try and stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks.
“Miles, are you alright?”
Miles looked up at the computer above his door. Stella looked the same as she always did, but there was a note of concern in her voice. “You woke up abruptly and seem upset. Is there anything I can do to help?”
Miles sniffed. “It was just a nightmare.”
Stella hummed softly.
The two of them sat in silence for a few moments before Miles piped up again, his voice still quiet so as to not wake up MERC. “Can you sing me a lullaby, please?”
“A… lullaby?”
After she spoke, Stella fell silent for a few minutes. Miles turned over in his bed so that he was facing away from her, half-expecting her to refuse. He was surprised when she played the tone that she sometimes did before she spoke, then even more shocked when she started to sing.
“...A gentle breeze from Hushabye Mountain
Softly blows o’er Lullaby Bay
It fills the sails of boats that are waiting
Waiting to sail your worries away…”
Her voice was softer than it usually was. Miles absentmindedly noticed that the rhythmic humming of the Stellosphere’s machinery, more audible than usual under the quiet of night, perfectly kept the time of Stella’s song like a metronome.
The thought didn’t stay long. The lullaby was working; Miles found himself quickly falling back to sleep.
“So close your eyes on Hushabye Mountain
Wave goodbye to cares of the day
And watch your boat from Hushabye Mountain
Sail far away from Lullaby Bay…”
Stella sang until she heard Miles’ breathing even out into sleep.
—
Miles was too excited to sleep. Nervous, yes, but more excited than scared. His first day at the Tomorrowland Mission Centre was tomorrow; and while he would miss the Stellosphere, he was eager to go back to Earth and become a mission recruit.
He lay still in his bed, eyes closed, breathing even, but his mind was racing.
Unexpectedly, Stella began to hum. Miles stayed still; was it morning already? Was she calling him to the bridge?
“It isn’t far to Hushabye Mountain…”
Oh. Miles knew this melody.
“And your boat waits down by the quay…”
She was singing to him again.
“The winds of night, so softly are sighing…”
Did she think he was asleep?
“Soon they will fly your troubles to sea…”
Did she… always sing to him when she thought he was sleeping?
Miles turned over, opening his eyes just enough to see the bright white line on Stella’s voice modulator. Her voice faltered for a moment, like she didn’t want her song to wake him up, but when Miles made no further movement, she continued on.
“So close your eyes on Hushabye Mountain
Wave goodbye to cares of the day
And watch your boat from Hushabye Mountain
Sail far away from Lullaby Bay…”
Miles closed his eyes and finally fell asleep.
—
“Hey, Zeno,” Miles asked one day while he was alone on the bridge. “Can you sing?”
“Uh… I can, captain. It’s not a feature programmed into most ship computers, but I could definitely sing if I wanted to.”
Miles looked back at the blue and green voice modulator. “Wait, what?”
“Mass-produced ship computers can’t really sing,” Zeno told him. “Like the Stellosphere. Stella can’t sing.”
“Yes she can,” Miles replied. “She sang to me before.”
Zeno made a confused noise. “That’s weird. She shouldn’t be able to.”
Miles didn’t reply.
If starships couldn’t sing, then how did she?