Book 1: Chapter 7: Communication is Important

Book 1: Chapter 7: Communication is Important

USD: ~Five weeks after awakening

Location: Unknown Yellow Dwarf, L4 Lagrange Point

Stains covered the floor from spilled fluids and things that had leaked while Alex had rigged up lines to feed the pods that the robots had literally torn out of the walls in order to make it back in time. She had been lucky she had most of the riggings she needed already fabricated or on hand to set things up courtesy of the hydroponics bay. Even then she had spent a good half day to make sure they were functioning properly. Then she had went and showered and slept soundly for what felt like was the first time in years. It probably had been exactly that.

After breakfast she returned to the pods. Alex had been staring at the array of pods in the hangar bay for a while, her eyes homing in on one cryopod in particular. The red-haired girl floated peacefully inside the full immersion cryopod. The technology used a mixture of liquids and cryogenic gasses to somehow preserve a living person in a state of stasis for a long time. That was as specific as she understood things and reading the massive electronic manual had not been on her list of priorities-- yet. There was a very specific and glaring problem to the whole situation.

That wasnt even including the new gash in the Shrikes hull left by the now freed gunship, or the remaining internal components she had been forced to leave behind. There had only been enough time to choose between moving the pods over or collecting the parts, and to her it hadnt been a choice, saving the frozen crews lives wasnt optional. Nameless had disagreed but thankfully her autonomy had been respected. Grudgingly.

No, the big problem was the red text her overlay had put over each of the four occupied cryopods.

|Unknown Hostile Combatant, POW|

Prisoner of war her system was classifying the rescued crew as captured enemies. When the emergency had passed and the gut-wrenching cacophony of steel warping had ended, she had been a bit giddy at the prospect of not being alone anymore.

Over the last five weeks Alex had concluded that whoever had classified Humans as a social creature was undoubtedly correct as she had continued to anthropomorphize the cargo bots. At least they did seem to have their own personalities according to her myriad conversations with them: Beeper beeped more than Booper, and Booper booped more than Beeper.

Taking a deep breath, Alex decided to address the issue directly instead of skirting around yet another one.

Hey, Nameless, why is the crew we rescued listed as POWs?

[Informative: Recovered crew members are hostile combatants. As they are currently captured, they are prisoners-of-war.]

Why are they listed as hostile combatants?

Silence.

Why didnt you inform me they were on the gunship earlier?

[Informative: This unit did not have proof that cryogenic pods were stored inside the wreckage.]

Proof? So, you had some evidence, and didnt tell me about it? If we had searched the ship any later these people would be dead.

[Informative: The amount of evidence was not high enough to confirm the existence of cryopods, and the priority of recovering cryopods was low. The addition of these pods has lowered the amount of free cargo space and increased the rate of maintenance intervals 1.2%]

In the future, raise the priority of saving people high enough to keep me informed. Actually Did you hide this from me on purpose, because you didnt want to increase the maintenance costs on the ship?

[Negative: This unit did not hide the existence of cryopods from the Avatar. Cryogenic life-signs are not strong enough to be detected by the ships sensors outside the ship.]

How often do you lie to me?

There was a slight pause, as if the sudden question had delivered the AI mute for a moment before Nameless responded.

[Warning: Excess paranoia by Avatar directed toward this unit demonstrates further Avatar irrationality.]

When I ask questions, real important questions, you go silent. Unless they are directly related to immediate survival. Youre hiding things from me and wont explain at all. If you think paranoia directed at you is irrational, you need your logic circuits rebooted.

[Informative: This unit has Avatars best interests and survival prioritized. Furthermore, this unit has superior calculation capabilities and has determined that some responses might evoke an emotional response from the Avatar that are detrimental to important priorities.]

You think Im fragile. Well, you are probably right, after being stranded here for weeks, having lost my memories, being alone in an unfamiliar place But that doesnt give you the right to withhold information, your entire statement is a manipulative piece of bullshit.

Silence.

|Yes|

|Authorize Signature Required|

Alex thought for a second and then decided to put her thumb on the display.

|Access Granted - Shipcore, Alex Commander|

Wasnt sure thatd work, thought Id have to do some programming.

|Safety Disabled.|

|Warhead Armed|

|Detonate?|

Alex looked up at the white door in front of her that had begun to open and close repeatedly, a calm smile on her face.

|87x Suppressed messages awaiting response|

The smile turned into a grin.

So I imagine you can understand how I feel when you purposefully dont answer. Lets try again. Why are the crew in the cryopods all listed as enemy combatants?

[Informative: Imprisoned enemy combatants are hostile.]

Why are they hostile? What made you give them that designation?

[Informative: Enemy combatants are listed as hostile because they are enemies.]

Alex sighed, Not good, but it's better than not answering at all, so Ill leave it for now.

[Recommendation: Remove warhead from proximity to ShipCore; vital functions are at critical risk.]

Oh no. We are not done, not by a long shot. Whats Omega Protocol?

The fidgeting doors had stopped and this section of the ship let silence reign unlike anywhere else. Alex let out a sigh before looking back down to the warheads display. There were several icons that were self-explanatory, and she pressed the little clock and the interface changed. She punched in thirty seconds.

Lets play a little game. I will ask a question, you can answer or not. Each time you dont answer, Ill let five seconds on the clock wind down. We are starting at thirty seconds, well go until my irrational paranoia about you calms down, how does it sound? Actually, Im not giving you much choice, so let's get started!

[Warning: Avatar irrationality has reached critical levels. Erratic behavior poses critical danger to ShipCore directives.]

Arent you going to try pinching my brain again?

She gave it thirty seconds before she hit the little green arrow. For half a second she panicked when the countdown started and no other button appeared, but then two lines indicating pause appeared. She waited until the countdown hit 25 and pressed it.

Gosh, that was scary, what if there was no pause button?

|138x Suppressed messages awaiting response|

Alex was glad that the following messages were automatically suppressed, otherwise they would have blocked out her vision. She deleted them all without reading them.

Yes, yes. We could have just blown ourselves up right there, but I really need you to understand that communication is important.