Chapter 12. New Discoveries.

“LANI, take a look at this. Do you think that’s part of the station we used to be docked to?” Watkins asked. He felt LANI’s focus shift from her internal diagnosis to the bow of the ship where they could just catch a partial view of the wreckage impaling them.

“Interesting, I believe part of the station is the most likely explanation. We must not have been all that far from the station when the incoming missiles hit. Debris from the destruction would explain why we are so damaged, and why it took so long for you to activate after installation,” LANI surmised.

“I’m going to focus on integrating the rest of the ship. If I can get that area under our control, we can see how much damage it’s caused and start harvesting the resources needed to repair this place,” Watkins said.

“Please do, there is much for us to accomplish and the first step in doing that is regaining control over your vessel. I’ll return to my diagnostics, it seems that there are many damaged sectors, but I think that I can at least repair some of the damage that was done,” LANI said.

Watkins renewed his efforts, noting that full integration of the shorn-off bow of the ship took less time than the similarly damaged engine compartment. It wasn’t just a fluke; he was getting faster with each section of the ship that returned to his control. He was going to work his way inside out, starting with the passage that ran down the length of the ship.

The passageway was rather wide for a ship’s corridor, but Watkins knew his measurements were based on wet navy ships from Earth, not starships. For all he knew, this was a tiny space compared to other vessels of its kind. There were plenty of routes for his influence over the vessel to follow. It seemed the corridor was infused with the same tiny devices as the main compartments.

He didn’t have a full picture yet, but from what he had absorbed, many of the functions of his ship were imbedded in the vessel itself, and not some separate device like he would have expected. Things like life support, internal scanners, data transfer, power distribution, inertial dampeners, and comms were all integrated into alloys that made up his ship.

Integrating the passageway was easy to do in smaller bits as there were heavy, armored hatches that broke it up into distinct sections. All were closed as the ship had tried to keep the atmosphere from escaping when it had sustained the damage. The efforts had failed but must have held up at least long enough for the vermin aboard to acclimate as they began to live off his excess core energy.

After the first section of the passageway was under his control, Watkins started an experiment. He had a drone come in and repair a buckled piece of decking. Instead of using the existing, damage plate to repair it, he had the drone completely cut away the section and send it for reprocessing. It would craft a new section of decking from scratch.

The piece was about three or four square feet, and he watched the drone work. It was almost like a spider weaving a web as the drone pulled strands of material from the salvage block stored in its body. As the drone worked, Watkins looked closely at the growing deck plate zooming in on it at a microscopic level.

It took some time to understand what was going on. His drone was integrating the patch, and at the same time, seeding the new structure with the same tiny devices as the rest of the ship. The results of his little test were a relief for Watkins, he was worried that as his drones repaired his vessel, it would lack the intricate, original construction methods. That wasn’t going to be the case, and his drones were more than capable of rebuilding him as he was supposed to be.

With new confidence, he continued to absorb the passageway, Watkins watched the hatches leading off to the smaller compartments on the port side of the vessel. Those compartments would be his next targets after the passageway was done. One interesting thing he noted was the complete lack of visible hatches leading to his core room. There was just the hidden one that linked the core room with the fabricator compartment.

Whoever had done the initial design had intended for his core to remain hidden, which was more than fine with Watkins. With the entire passageway under his control, Watkins felt better, his mind clearer. A quick check on his status confirmed that things were improving in more ways than just gaining control over his ship.

Vessel: Pending.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins.

Hull Durability: Unknown.

Core Processing Power: 19%.

Core Durability: 100%.

Systems:

1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 43%

2. Level 0 universal fabricator: 100%.

3. Level 0 reprocessor: 81%.

Crew: none.

Core controlled units:

Command Limit: 11/12.

1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (5).

2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (5).

3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (1).

Resources:

1. Salvage: 67.

2. Biomass: 19.

His core processing power had increased to 19%, but he had a long way to go still. The increase in processing power corresponded with both the speed he could integrate the ship at, and the number of units that he could control. He was up to a maximum of twelve units now and opted for another drone to aid the rebuilding efforts.

Watkins then started to work on integrating the smaller compartments, excited to see how much his processing power would improve once the compartments were under his control. Starting at the bow, Watkins was surprised to see that the first port-side compartment looked like a ship’s bridge. There were no humans in his crew, at least not yet, but it was good to see that accommodation had been made in the ship’s design to accommodate them.

“LANI, we have the bridge integrated into the ship now. How exactly was a crew supposed to help us when I can control everything myself?” Watkins asked.

“You are currently able to manage things on your own, but once the ship is fully operational, having additional sapient beings onboard can relieve the stress on your processing power. They can take over some of the more mundane aspects of ship control during high-stress times, such as combat. During normal operations, they can be the face of our communications and not arouse suspicion as to the type of ship that you are.

“Finally, they can help with research, once we get that rolling. There should be several computation and data storage machines aboard, and , while they are connected to you, they can also be operated independently by another researcher and help to preserve more of your processing power,” LANI explained.

“So, retrieving my crew will be helpful in more ways than one,” Watkins commented.

That remained his next goal after setting his ship in order. There was a bit of fear in his mind as he worried over his crew. Were they still alive? A part of his mind wanted to forget about any emotional attachment to his crew, instead, the other part of him wanted to see them in a pure, logical light. If they survived, so be it, he would utilize them as a resource. If they were dead, he would move on with other plans.

The part of Watkins that wanted to retain his humanity railed against his cold, calculating side. Like before, the truce between his halves was held. His logical half expressed that it merely wanted Watkins to consider more than the human element of his decisions. He could live with that, but what he couldn’t live with was abandoning his crew or feeling nothing if they had truly been lost.

Turning his attention back to the task at hand, Watkins soon integrated the second compartment. This one was a barracks, or crew quarters of some sort. Bunks and footlockers were in a jumble as whatever had happened to his ship had torn them from their anchor points and tossed them around.

Without a crew, the damaged and battered bunks, footlockers, and other furniture were just salvage material waiting to be gathered. It should prove to be enough salvage to repair the damage to several smaller compartments. The next compartment was an armory.

Here in the armory, many of the weapons had been more securely attached to their racks, though some had been tossed around and damaged or destroyed. Sidearms, body armor, and odd-looking rifles were of no use now. Watkins had them reprocessed, and took the time to examine them closely as the reprocessor broke them down. His attention to detail must have worked and new knowledge flowed into his database as the system acknowledged what he had learned.

You have unlocked new schematics:

1. 1. Pulse rifle, level 0.

2. Pulse pistol, level 0.

3. Light body armor, level 0.

4. Bladed weapons, level 0.

5. Shipboard living facilities, level 0.

Watkins knew that weapons of these types didn’t exist on Earth, but he now understood their operation, at least on a basic level. The pulse weapons fired an intense beam of energy for a short duration with each press of the trigger. Power packs inserted like the magazine of a regular firearm provided the energy needed, and the pistol versions were less powerful than the rifles.

The beams should burn through almost anything with enough hits, though the body armor he now could build would mitigate the damage somewhat. In addition to protection against kinetic projectiles, such as bullets, the armor would vaporize when hit with beam weapons, creating a small puff of particles that helped to diffuse the beam.

For his bladed weapons, they were not much different than the ones he’d used all his life. These, however, were made of better alloys and could be honed to a sharpness not found on any knife or sword on Earth. As for the shipboard living facilities, it meant he could recreate the bunks, footlockers, and armory fixtures when they eventually were needed.

Watkins was more interested in the weapons and wanted a way to further research and integrate these weapons into his MOBS. That was beyond him for now, but there was a long future ahead of Watkins, if he could get his ship working properly.