Since she was in cargo bay 2 the crew compartment was only a few steps away. Without power to the elevator lift Ellie had to climb up the steep and narrow staircase form deck 3 to deck 2. Turning on the landing on deck 2, Ellie took another staircase to deck 1.
Coming out into a hallway the almost the width of the ship Ellie saw double doors in front of her, form the ship schematics Ellie had found in her commpad, she knew this opened into the crew lounge and kitchen.
Ellie thanked her foresight in copying a wide verity of ship designs to her pad. Turning starboard she walked a few feet then came to the starboard hallway. Ellie paused as she heard a scraping sound and turned around to see Andy had followed her up. With the deck height only six feet the large bot had scraped its head against the ceiling before hunching down.
Both deck 1 and deck 2 had a six foot ceilings, they also had a subfloor a foot deep to allow for power cables, data cables, water lines, sewerage lines, and the air recyclers, Ellie nodded to the bot then continued on.
She soon passed the executive officer cabin door, then ten feet further Ellie passed two doors. Form the ship plans the door on the left portside bulkhead lead into the ship's bridge and the door on the right starboard side lead into the captain's office.
Next to the captain's office door separated by just a few feet was another door that was the entrance to the captain's private cabin. Ellie had Andy open the captain's cabin. Walking in she saw a cabin with a few pieces of furniture scattered around, measuring fourteen feet from the door to the opposite bulkhead and ten feet from the aft bulkhead to the forward bulkhead. It was a little larger then her room at the orphanage.
There were two doors at the end of the room located on opposite bulkheads. The door on the right aft bulkhead, Ellie knew; lead back into the captain's office, and the door on the forward left bulkhead lead into the captain's bedroom.
Ellie again let Andy open the bedroom door, too tired to work the lever.
Form the entrance way there was a door immediately right of her that lead into the bathroom. Ellie knew form the ship schematics that the bathroom almost split the compartment. With the same fourteen feet wide by ten feet long total area of the living room the bathroom took up a six foot wide by ten foot long section. That left the actual bedroom just eight feet wide and ten feet in length. The rest of the room space was taken up by a large square bed.
Jetting out form the portside bulkhead it took up seven of the remaining eight feet width and seven of the remaining ten feet of length. Ellie paused to staring in astonished at ridiculously large bed. What would anyone need with such a large bed? She shuttered at a few uses for such a large bed. Cringing, and wishing she had not had the thought, she had Andy first strip the bed then turn it over. Under bed compartments pulled out and Ellie found some new clean sheets.
Ellie had Andy make up the bed in his clumsy, lumbering fashion, causing Ellie to smile in fondness. Then after a whole day wearing it, took off her powered armor. Ellie almost felt naked without it; even though it was the first time she had used the suit. The suit had saved her life several times that day Ellie conceded.
Shaking her head to clear it Ellie touched the Instameal heating tab and waited for it to cook the meal in the light provided by her helmet. Comforted by Andy's presence, but finding the silence deafening, Ellie selected a music file on her commpad. Smiling Ellie started to eat her meal of nanite made steak.
Ellie sat up quickly, she needed the lavatory! Ellie looked at the bathroom door and shook her head, without power the ships environmental plant was offline. Sighing in resignation, Ellie got up and put on her powered armor, then used the suits built in environmental recycler. It would filter the waste and provide clean pure water for Ellie to drink.
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That taken care of Ellie wanted to flop back into bed but her suit needed a good cleaning form yesterday’s events and she had work to do.
Sighing again she looked at Andy, she had wanted someone close to her to watch over her when she went to sleep. Ellie missed Rosa's constant presence, always knowing someone was there to keep her safe. Shaking her head she tried to cheer up, she was rested, the pain was gone, and she felt a new rush to be about it.
“Hey Andy! How are you doing?” She asked the silent bot.
“Andy batteries are low and needs recharging.”
Smiling she nodded to the bot. “Let's get you some power big guy.”
With that Ellie started off towards the shuttle bay. Down two flights of stairs and a few steps further and she entered the starboard cargo bay. After plugging in the bot Ellie picked chicken with green beans to start her day.
Ellie linked her commpad with the server cluster and started to review the data she had managed to extract form the wiped units. Eating with one hand, Ellie focused on scrolling through the military files. Some of them were routine personnel files, movement orders, operations logs; other files included intelligence reports, battle reports against pirates, and a few battle reports against corporations on Hemwell.
While that was interesting, more intriguing to Ellie were the schematics for new powered armor suits, cyber implants, and other bits of military hardware, all useless at the moment without a nanite replicator. She found an interesting named file 'X001S77” and clicked it. The commpad flashed for a few seconds and Ellie worried she had activated a virus, when it flashed again, and a man with military bearing and formal military dress came on.
Ellie sucked in a breath, dreading the coming confrontation with UEN military. ‘Nova!’ Ellie thought fiercely.
“Admiral Eleven! Ma'am! What are your orders?” The man stood straighter and gave a crisped salute.
Ellie's mouth dropped open, the bite of food still hanging in the air form the fork in her right hand, Ellie blinked, at a loss.
“Um report?” She trailed off weakly.
“Ma'am! This sentient AI Xander, serial number X001S77, has lost contact with the rest of the UEN military forces and I find myself confined to a small server cluster without outside data net connection. Please Admiral, could you clarify the present situation?”
Ellie still was at a loss. What to say. What to say.
The United Earth Nations had long viewed sentient AIs with suspicion stemming from almost two hundred years ago when a so called 'pacification' effort by the UEN lead to an enraged AI suicidal attack on Earth that wiped out a city and killed almost fifty million people.
Ellie actually had some sympathy for the AI, watching your people get massacred for political and monetary reasons would drive anyone to despair and rage.
Afterwards the sentient AIs were viewed with extreme suspicion and fear. The common AI was shackled and sentient AIs were given menial duties, like Rosa. A ping of sadness hit Ellie at the thought. The few AIs in the military were programmed to follow orders above all else, on pain of complete erasement.
If Xander found the situation questionable it, literally, could not act on it. This last thought gave Ellie an idea. Sitting straighter and putting her forgotten fork down, she tried to emulate the AIs military bearing.
“The situation is as follows, I am on detached duty behind enemy lines looking for stolen military hardware.” What the Nova! Ellie could not believe she was saying something so absurd or anyone would not burst out laughing. She pressed on. “There is evidence someone high up in the UEN is helping the opposition. I order you to purge all other personal identification and military codes, allow no one but me, or someone I authorize to give commands to you, and contact no one in the UEN.” Ellie held her breath. This wasn't going to work!
“Orders understood Admiral.”
Ellie's mouth dropped open again. It worked! The AI gave her a small secret smile and a nod, Ellie instantly know that she had been played. Why that sneaky, noving, military piece of code! Ellie thought in admiration.
“I witnessed General Coleman taking bribes from corporations for military support contracts. He could be helping the other side Admiral.” Xander confirmed her suspicions, Ellie nodded in understanding.
Through the AI could not report the general's crimes, a higher ranked officer, say an admiral, could demand the AI logs of the incident. That made Xander an inconvenience, an inconvenience easier to get rid of then anyone else.
Ellie's inadvertent salvage, data recovery, and promoting herself to Admiral had stopped General Coleman's plans and saved Xander's life and her order to delete everyone else's codes stopped anyone lower than an actual full admiral form giving Xander orders. Smiling widely now that they understood each other Ellie relaxed.
“Please call me Ellie.” Ellie smiled at the AI.
Xander returned her smile. “As you command Ellie.”