Chapter 13. New Compartments.

“Watkins, I’ve done all I can for my systems., and my processing power is now at 49%, but to go further, I will need your assistance,” LANI said, distracting Watkins right before he began integrating the next compartment.

“What can I do to help?” Watkins asked. If he could help repair LANI back to full efficiency, she might be able to assist him further.

“Nothing at this time, but as your processing power improves, we can see about creating research modules. Your drones will be able to do more for us both if we can upgrade them past level zero,” LANI said.

“What are these levels, and how far do they go?” Watkins asked.

“The levels are just our system’s way of quantifying how effective something is. It encompasses many aspects of something like a repair drone, but a drone that is level one or two would be capable of autonomously making more intricate repairs, as well as likely strengthening itself against damage,” LANI said.

“Good to know, and from what you said before, you have a schematic for one of these research modules?” Watkins tried to confirm.

“Yes, though you’ll have to grow in power before you’re able to construct one. You’re making good progress, so continue what you’re doing. While I’ll refrain from overexerting myself, I can focus some of my processing power to assist you in assimilating the rest of our ship,” LANI advised.

“Thank you, I’ll take all the help I can get,” Watkins said as they started on the next compartment. He could feel LANI help, nudging him in the right direction and smoothing the path as he integrated the compartment back into his ship. Like with the fore and aft compartments, this one was heavily damaged, and the entire port side of the compartment was exposed to vacuum.

When his control snapped into place, Watkins got a look at his next find. The debris that had impaled the ship entered through the hull here, and into the next compartment aft. Most of the loose debris in the compartment had long ago drifted off into space, but shoved up against the bulkhead was the aft part of a smaller vessel.

“I believe that was our ship’s boat, and this was our main airlock hatch and hangar. Try to save as much as you can as we clear away the damage. Other than the docking hatch on the bow of the ship, this was the only way to move personnel and supplies onto the ship. Looking around, Watkins could see that the hatchway leading from this compartment was much larger than the others, which made sense if they were moving pallets of supplies through it.

“Any idea what it is that hit us?” Watkins asked. The hunk of debris impaling his vessel resembled a large cylinder with jagged broken bits that had stabbed through the hull.

“Give me a minute, I’m trying to match it up with anything in the database,” LANI said.

“It looks like it took out this compartment and the next one down the line. Once we integrate the next compartment, we can see about harvesting this hunk of salvage,” Watkins said.

“I think I’ve got it; it looks like a portion of the boarding arm from the research station,” LANI said.

“That would be consistent with the events that happened. That part of the station was close to where our ship docked, so it would be more likely to hit us than some random debris floating around the system. Do you think there’s anything important in there that might help us?” Watkins asked.

“No, other than salvage, I don’t believe we’ll find anything of import. It was merely a boarding ramp, and the connection portion had been torn off so we can’t even study that to improve the boarding hatch when we get around to creating one,” LANI said with some disappointment.

“Let’s get that next compartment integrated and we’ll see about harvesting the debris,” Watkins said. It was taking almost no time now between integrations as his ship rapidly incorporated each new section into his vessel.

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The next compartment was another barracks area, almost identical to the first he’d discovered. It was also torn open by the station debris impact, and he could tell the compartment behind it was also compromised. The damage was even more extensive than he had first thought.

In the next compartment he found something interesting. This one turned out to be their medical bay. Like with the hangar and barracks next door, it was torn open and wedged with part of the station debris. Some of the medical equipment survived the ordeal, and Watkins had one of his drones take it apart and carefully reprocess it so he could recreate the device.

You have unlocked new schematics:

1. Medpod, Level 0.

Every little bit helped, and with this section of his ship under control, he could start harvesting the station wreckage. Four drones were assigned the task of securing and harvesting the debris. It would require some careful planning to make sure none of it drifted off while they were working to cut it down into manageable chunks. His analysis of the drones showed that they should be up to the task, though there was a small chance of failure and the loss of both debris and some of his drones.

After the Med Bay, the next compartment as he moved aft was a Combat Information Center (CIC). Inside the relatively intact compartment were several workstations that resembled the bridge layout. Instead of controlling the ship from here, the crew could control the ship’s weapon systems.

As with the bridge, the CIC had controls for a human, or some other humanoid species, crew to operate. Watkins could override everything, of course, but it was yet another reminder that a full crew could take some of the burden in dangerous encounters. This compartment, and the original armament of the ship brought up a question that had been bugging Watkins.

“LANI, why is this essentially a warship if it was supposed to be some experimental vessel?” Watkins asked.

“While this was an experimental vessel, it was indeed intended as a testbed for weapons systems. You can control them with greater precision than a human crew, and that was one of the things we had hoped to examine. Space, both out here in the fringe systems, and in the more populated areas, is a dangerous place. Advancements in science have not mitigated the conflicts between the various species.

“For the most part, the council keeps the various member species from causing too much harm, but they are allowed to resolve most issues among themselves,” LANI explained.

“Is that why the council exists, to protect the majority of the species?” Watkins asked, beginning to think of the council as more of a galactic version of the United Nations, and from the danger and level of conflict in space, it seemed this council was about as ineffective as the actual UN in keeping the peace.

“Peacekeeping and preventing the extermination of species is not its primary purpose though. The primary purpose is to monitor, contain, and discover…” LANI paused, and Watkins could feel confusion through their connection.

“I seem to not recall our main purpose. That data is in part of the damaged section of my servers. There are also files missing that might explain why this research station was placed in an uninhabited and rarely trafficked section of space. Hopefully, we can recreate the missing data once we have access to the research station,” LANI said.

“Very well, let’s continue to integrate the rest of the ship and then try to find this research station that we’re banking so many of our hopes on,” Watkins said.

Something about the missing data in LANI’s servers seemed odd to Watkins, but he could sense no duplicitous thoughts through their connection. He genuinely believed that LANI’s data was truly lost through damage. Still, something about it unsettled him and he would make a point to keep a close eye on things when they finally did locate the station.

After the CIC, the next compartment turned out to be a jackpot. It was a research lab and though part of the outer wall had been damaged, there in the middle of the deck, was a large workstation with what looked like a miniature version of LANI’s server connected to it.

“That’s it, Watkins, you’ve found a research module! Have your drones bring it somewhere safer, maybe our compartment or near the fabricator,” LANI said excitedly.

“This is great, I’m going to have it brought to our compartment, I want to get a close-up view of how this thing works,” Watkins said. It was their only research module, and it could be the key to so many things. All he had to do now was to bring it somewhere safe, repair it, and put it to work.

“Do you think the drones can make it work?” Watkins asked. From his initial observation, it didn’t appear seriously damaged, but the housing had been battered by debris and part of it had torn away. He had to believe that something intended to work on a starship that would likely see combat was durable enough to resist some battering about.

“It should be fine, and if not, I still have the schematics in my database we can use once your processing power improves,” LANI replied. It seemed like things were looking up. He had a supply of resources to harvest, a research module, and soon, he’d have control over his entire vessel.