Book 1: Chapter 14: Arsenal

Book 1: Chapter 14: Arsenal

USD: ~Eight weeks after awakening, two days after Carrier Drone Pod Battle Incident 2

Location: Unknown Yellow Dwarf, L4 Lagrange Point, Debris Cloud #32, nearby Federation Heavy Cruiser wreckage

Alex hummed to herself happily as she headed to the newly refurbished CIC. She had left Elis with some food and movies to watch in the Mess. Unfortunately, it was impossible to miss the installation of the new gauss turret on the ceiling corner. Alex hoped she didnt resent that too much, but she was a prisoner. At least until Alex found a way to set her free somewhere safe.

Or well she didnt like Namelesss insinuation that she had been subverting Elis, but she also wouldnt have objected to being friends or her staying on the ship for longer. As long as they worked out a few hang-ups Elis had, which was admittedly a massive order. It was hard to repair trust when your parents parent ancestors? -- might have wiped out half of someones entire species.

Another blip on her HUD flashed, and Alex pushed it away in annoyance.

Calm down, Im coming.

[Informative: Continuing drone survey of wreckage. Uploading manifest of potential intact weaponry for acquisition.]

Alexs HUD pinged again. Nameless had already sent her the list two times before, but she hadnt read it.

What was the problem with waiting until she got to a normal screen and chair? He was almost begging her to look.

|High Priority Salvage Manifest|

| 192x 1066.8mm AMCN type light missiles |

| 24x 3200.4mm AMCN heavy torpedoes |

| 8x EW Drones Unknown type, recommend study |

| 412x Chaff clusters |

| 128x Smart flares |

| 12x Single 22mm Point Defense Cannons |

| 12x Triple 12cm Point Defense Laser Turrets, Lenses require replacement |

| 8x Quad HV 204mm Rail Turrets |

| 32x AMLS 1066.8mm |

| 24x Amidship HTLS 3200.4mm |

|15x Reactor Rods, standard composition, average R:97~ |

Ok. That was a lot of firepower. How had it managed to stay intact if the ship had been turned into a derelict?

Uhh we have magazine space for twenty more of the 1066.8mm, but thats a lot more than we normally carry.

Arriving at the CIC she plugged into the captains seat. It had extra blue lights that lit up when her suits spinal connection activated. She might have added those personally. She had made sure they had different RGB colorings for the different annoying ship alarms.

Her consoles main screen flipped over to a view of the derelict. It was depowered and spinning slightly, which she had expected from an earlier report. The cruisers bow looked like it had been sliced off by a razor-sharp blade, a clean cut that had detached the entire nose section of the ship. The rear was the exact opposite, there was no sign of the ships Linear drive housing, it looked like someone had taken hold of the rear and ripped it off in anger. Jagged edges slanted toward the ships midsection, before suddenly stopping. That was what she was looking at, there were a lot of goodies in that midsection that had been miraculously spared.

It was almost pristine in how intact it was. The list of salvage had pretty much proven so. All the munitions were still stowed away neatly she noticed as she flipped to a drones camera feed that was exploring a magazine. The ship had likely never managed to return fire at whatever had killed it. She had a hard time envisioning the cataclysmic firepower that must have been brought to bear to make that possible.

That only drove home how dangerous the area was and Alex felt the desire to get very, very far away from this place as soon as she could, lest whatever had done this find her ship and smite it as well. The sound of that Gas Giant and its moons on the other side of the star was sounding better and better.

There is no way we can take all this, just loading the missiles in the cargo bay would be like putting a bomb in our own ship.

[Recommendation: Ship modification Additional weapon mounts and magazines.]

This stuff is heavy, especially the autoloader systems for the missiles. I dont even know how much these torpedo systems weigh, but if they are three times larger than a missile system All of this would be like doubling our mass. Would we even be able to move?

[Recommendation: Ship modification Cannibalize excess torpedoes and missiles for anti-matter. Enhance Bi-phase Linear drive to Tri-phase AM enhanced Linear drive.]

And what would that do for ship stability? We already have issues with that.

[Recommendation: Ship modification Internal reinforcement, additional weld mounts between inner and outer hull, schematic development possible.]

Alex rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. Yes, thats great. All of it. Except how much time are we going to need? Each one leads into the other. Where are we going to get all the material for it?

[Informative: Estimations of Heavy Cruiser hull sufficient for modifications and repair completion.]

Well, that would speed things up. Not having to send half the drones to try and find bits and pieces would double our workforce.

[Affirmative.]

Umm, how have your upgrades for the ShipCore processing compartments progressed? I know it hasnt been long, but if you can increase your nanite capacity I feel like we could accelerate things.

Flipping the console to a layout of the ship in top-down view, she could see all the separate sections and modules of the inner hull. Many were a dark green, but several remained yellow. A few new ones were still red. She assumed those were the new modifications Nameless had started.

[Informative: ShipCore processing compartments have made 5% progress. Progress delayed due to heavy tasking of nanites for other industrial fabrication.]

Well, slow and steady, we cant just stop everything else for that. Im still worried we will be attacked here. Any idea on how long it will take just to finish our current laundry list of repairs? And I mean before we start any of these recommendations.

[Calculation: Assuming no delays, one to two weeks for full repair of Shrike. Three to four weeks for current suggested modifications list.]

Thats a while. If we commit to the modifications before finishing repair, does that shave any time off?

Your loss then.

USD: ~Nine weeks after Awakening

Location: Unknown Yellow Dwarf, L4 Lagrange Point, nearby Federation Heavy Cruiser wreckage in Debris Cloud #32

Alex poked her head into Eliss new room. They had decided someone sleeping in the Medbay wasnt optimal, so Alex had emptied out the nearest bunk room to the Ship Mess and decorated it as best she could. A bed, cushions, a desk and (non-networked) personal computer. She had given Elis a pad that let her request items from Nameless as well, and it seemed she had taken advantage of the privilege to fill out the room with a few other things that made it seem more lived in.

Im done with my work for the day, are we still on for Robots are Trouble or?

Sitting at the desk, Elis had been writing something in a word processer, Yeah, give me a minute.

Ill be getting the popcorn.

Shed also granted Elis permission to stretch her legs, although if she went anywhere other than her room or mess she had to request Beeper or Booper to go with her. That was the compromise Alex had made to get Nameless to sign off on it. Alex thought that was fair since it was the AI that would be keeping an eye on her.

Alex went to start the popcorn, and just as she had all the required supplies, Elis arrived.

That was fast.

I didnt have much to finish.

Well while Im making this, would you mind talking a bit? I have a few questions I wanted to ask about the war.

Elis didnt answer immediately, but then finally, much to Alexs joy she nodded.

Sure.

Alex suppressed a victory fist pump, the questions had been eating at her for a while, and she dived right in.

What started the war?

You You really dont know anything, do you?

I already explained that.

Elis shook her head while digging in the holovid pile.

What do you know about the Federation?

Umm, they built warships that Nameless complains are inefficient. They also shoot at us. They made holovids for entertainment, and really bad military food.

Elis laughed and pointed a holovid tape at Alex, I can see where your priorities really are.

There is a severe lack of history books, it's like the crew was allergic to them.

Most things like that would have been stored on the ShipNet, and it is standard procedure to wipe those in a ship loss event.

That made sense to Alex, operational security and all, but it sure did not make her problem easy to solve.

Can you just give me an abridged version? I literally dont know anything, so it's hard to figure out the right questions.

Elis kneeled on the sofa facing backwards to watch as Alex continued with the popcorn.

Humanity made it to the stars with the Waveform drive, etc, etc. We colonized star systems for hundreds of years. One hundred years ago well likely two hundred now, scientists began to experiment with nanite technology. It was incredibly useful for industrialization and technology advancement. By my eighth ice-tour the Federation really went all in on the new technology, adding it to almost every part of life.

Alex listened raptly, momentarily forgetting her cooking as Elis continued. Nanites and humans working together, Alex didnt see what the problem was. Elis leaned forward to rest the side of her head on her arms as she continued reciting history.

In the middle of my ninth ice-tour some mad scientist created a monster. It called itself The Entity but most people called it monster or worse. It somehow took control of all the nanites in the entire Federation and set them to killing and stealing everything in their path. The population of the Federation was reduced by two-thirds in less than a year. Just about every ship that utilized the newer technology was taken over, every city was occupied, and we were forced to work for the machines or generally stay out of their way while starving to death. The entire time it claimed it was doing all of this to save and protect humanity, the irony. The only exception was a group of scientists and military personnel who continued to resist in space, which I was part of. Eventually we managed to surprise it while releasing a weapon of mass destruction that wiped out all nanites in space.

Thats terrible. There werent any good nanites?

The monster the mad scientist created suborned all of them. There might have been a few trapped ones in labs, but any that received a signal from the infected nanites would immediately switch to carrying out whatever it was directed to. It was sudden and like they had all planned it ahead of time.

Alex swallowed, I am going to admit, I find the thought more than a little scary.

[Notice: This unit has performed extensive security and protocol testing. No higher command authority could be located, other than the activated Omega Protocol. All relevant authority co-processors have been examined.]

[Approval: This unit now recognizes and understands Avatar usage of time and resources to subvert and interrogate prisoner.]

[Recommendation: Continue to acquire data.]

Alex almost burned her fingers on the skillet, the popcorn was done.

Nameless says we should be safe, hes capable of working on his own programming, and there isnt anything like that in his system.

It was the wrong thing to say, Alex realized as Eliss eyes went flat. Just mentioning the AI was a conversation killer.

I watched as the monster disintegrated here. I dont know how some of it escaped the virus to create your Nameless companion. The only good thing is at least it is trapped here and cant return to Federation space.

Alex almost mentioned her earlier thoughts to do just that and bit her tongue, deciding not to mention them. She didnt think Elis would be happy.

The holovid turned out to be just as hilarious as promised, and the two spent several hours laughing at the antics of a sarcastic robot that always ended up in trouble while continuously spending all its owners money.

Alex enjoyed it a lot, even when Nameless kept chiming in on how unlikely and contrived all the scenarios in the story were. She was just happy he had watched it with them.