The now empty space module still hums along, ensuring it stays on course: a strict irreversible mission Mars milestone. 

At certain protocol time hacks, a mechanical voice tells Commander Matt on the Bridge his precise location and local time at Cape Canaveral. It wishes him a good day before a blinking control panel opens then closes a holographic image briefing the daily mission log including vital statistics. 

The guidance system, artificially intelligent, controls. 

AI needs no meals, no sleep, or breaks. So too, could space travel to and from the Mars colony go on forever. 

Matt, a 42- year old male Black standing at 5'9", sits in his steel climate-controlled command enclosure, suffering from loneliness. Out here, he in one with no crew members except hundreds of sleeping colonists. 

Every time he looks at his holographic status dashboard he hears the voice of AI reporting from everywhere, "What is it you wish to know, Commander Matt, all is well, systems green." 

AI knows and controls this station from stem to stern. 

There is something profoundly admirable about AI's perfection. AI is the main attraction for deep space travel, a tool that colonists could depend on to survive.

AI's mission protocol was not programmed to answer questions like where all the colonists had gone, nor did AI care.