Cosmic Highway Construction Corp

Sam shook in her new body. It was the predictable convulsions that happened after every transfer. Then came the heaving, gasping cries and steady stream of tears. Alex followed. His body thrashed harder and louder, but his shaking always transformed from crying to laughing first. The two of them found each other with their hands, then eyes. They held each other, scanning faces and hair. Pulling away to inspect the rest of their own and each other's bodies. Alex wiped away Sam's tears and kissed her on the forehead.

Sam laugh-cried, “Why is it so hard? Every. Single. Fucking. Time?”

“Oh, good. It really IS you.” Alex smirked as he pulled Sam's hand toward his mouth and kissed her knuckles.

“How does that smirk of yours look the same, no matter what body you're in?” Sam's eyes were still wet.

The blue lights turned to amber, signaling it was time to leave the transfer room. Ko and Max were up next.

The eternal coupling was the program's brilliance. The first attempts at similar programs were eventually abandoned due to Spontaneous Opera Phenomenon. Romance and rejection between crewmates led to destruction - from bodies to consciousness files to entire crafts. Program developers worked for decades to find a solution to the problem.

The 100 person crew (50 couples) of the Cosmic Highway Construction Corp were selected on Earth based on their notable commitment to their other half. All of the required knowledge and skills for the actual work of the program could be uploaded to each participant, but soulmates cannot be trained or coerced. Mutual commitment surpasses all things humanly and binarily possible. To love another human to the point of complete self-sacrifice is supernatural. And for that other human to reciprocate is superduper natural, scientifically speaking.

The proposed participants' consciousnesses were uploaded to different bodies on earth seven times and placed in extreme scenarios. Developers felt this would ensure qualifiers would locate each other and perform any task, no matter it's difficulty, to help their other half succeed.

Over 1 million couples were initially tracked, 10,000 tested, and just the 50 couples passed. It was 10% of what the developers wanted, but they decided the quality of the crew was ultimately far more important than the size.

The cosmic highway was a collection of signals placed in approximately one lightyear intervals at the edge of the universe and continuing on as it expanded. The idea was to leave a trail for future travelers that bypassed hazardous areas of space. Placing these signals was the easy part of the program. Robotics assembled and launched the signals from the craft. Non-human intelligence, which humans called N.O.H.I., navigated and kept the craft from collisions, reported back to deep space stations that were manned and unmanned and performed most of the repetitive tasks aboard the craft. The crew's number one goal was to survive. This included the task of trouble shooting any event or scenario where N.O.H.I. couldn't succeed.

“Remind me why we're doing this?” Sam asked Alex as her eyes scanned the body farm.

“That's always the second question you ask after a transfer. You know that, right?” Alex laughed a little, but it was hard for him, too. Seeing those bodies without any thoughts or futures of their own. “We're representing the rest of humanity. If at some point the universe stops expanding and we break through into…” Alex searched for the end of the sentence.

“God knows what.” Sam finished, a hint of both fear and awe in her voice.

“Did you just finish my sentence?” Alex asked with a playful look. Alex took Sam's hands in his. “It's an honor, Sam. We may get to engage with whatever is on the other side of the universe.”

“I know. And I also know that there are billions of others back there that we are exploring and building for.” Tears rolled down Sam's honey brown face. “It's just so hard to only ever see all of them. She gestured with her arm from left to right like the saddest game show host in the universe.

“Our great-great grandchildren, waiting for us to become them.” Alex agreed, wrinkling his forehead. “It's not really like that though, Sam. These bodies are all a mix of our original DNA. The 100 of us. They ARE all of us. Waiting for US.”

“And not getting to be themselves.” Sam dropped her head into the crook of Alex's shoulder and neck, wrapped her arms around him, and held back a sob that exited as a whimper.

Alex pulled away enough to look Sam in the eye. “Let's take a little tour. Shall we?”

Alex slipped his right hand into Sam's left and walked her over to the tanks of almost mature human bodies. The tanks stretched out along a single wall almost 200 feet long. They both scanned the faces of the ones they could see from where they stood.

“Ah. This one, right here.” Alex stepped closer and to his left, bringing Sam with him. “Now THAT is your grandfather's nose. I'm I right?” Alex's eyebrows shot up to match his exclamated question. Sam gave him a side eye, but agreed with a single head nod.

“And those are definitely your mother's lips. I memorized them that time she annunciated every syllable, stating that you were hers, not mine.” Sam snorted. “Look at us now, Mama.”

“Careful. Careful, Tiger.” Alex played hurt, but his telltale smirk betrayed him. “And just imagine if we could see their eyes.”

“We play this game every transfer, don't we?” Sam was clearly becoming more at ease.

“Yeah, but I think we have to. These are our ancestors as well as our own future bodies. We have to remind ourselves that they want this for us.” Alex locked eyes with Sam.

Then, Alex led her to the lab where numbered petri dishes grew the genetically-varied, next batch of human bodies. N.O.H.I. was busy at work with robotic arms collecting and sorting all the materials needed to keep the body farm running.

“Look, this is one of our very own offspring, combined with… it looks like Io and Cal’s and Max and Ko's last offspring.” Alex gave a sympathetic smile to Sam.

“Maybe that'll be me in 20 years.” The right side of Sam's mouth turned up in a barely detectable smile.

“THAT’S why I'm doing this.” Alex squeezed Sam's hand and smiled broadly at her. “No matter what your face looks like, when it smiles back at me, I know there is good in the universe.”

“Same.” Sam grew her smile to match his and kissed Alex on the cheek.

“There's just one thing I'm worried about.” Alex made his face look serious. “Have you noticed how more and more of these people are looking more like Ko?”

Sam cackled a laugh neither of them had yet to hear, which made them both scrunch their faces in hard laughter. Then, Alex's laugh turned unexpectedly into a deep and breathy, “ho ho ho”.

“Did you just turn into Santa Claus?” Sam snorted and was doubled over, still cackling. Alex's eyes were watering from laughing so hard.

“I changed my mind. THIS is why I am doing this.” Alex pulled Sam against his body and their kissing muted their laughter.

Sam breathed in Alex's adoration for her and let it melt her doubts. She spoke into Alex's chest, “N.O.H.I. may be able to get us to the perpetual edge of the universe…”

“But what's the point if there's no love or laughter there?”

“Did you just finish my sentence?” Sam smiled at Alex.

“You know that's why they picked us for this weird, intergalactic project right?” Alex beamed at Sam.