Chapter 17. Where are We?

Watkins’ work on integrating the hull continued. He found that as his core processing capacity expanded, he could keep track of the ship while maintaining enough focus on integration for it to continue at the same pace. He was happy to see the drone working on repairing the reprocessor had completed its efforts, and the reprocessor was showing 100% efficiency.

At a level of only zero, Watkins knew there was a long way for the device to go as far as improvements went. With only a single research module, it was going to take a while to get around to everything he needed to research. A quick check of the drone working on those repairs showed it was progressing well, but the going was slow based on the complexity of the device.

Another benefit of integrating more of his hull was the expansion of his sensor data. He was not only gaining data passively through the sensors, but he also knew he could activate them to greatly expand his range when there was a the need. Memories of his military experience on Earth reminded Watkins that going active on his sensors was a lot like a sub using its active sonar.

Banging away with its active sonar would make a sub easily detectable long before the sonar returns would reveal the target it was looking for. His sensors were infinitely more complex than a sub’s sonar, but the principle of how to employ them in a hostile situation was the same. It was odd, the system that had created him tried to integrate his military knowledge into something that meshed with how his new ship performed.

He remembered that when the system was scanning him for selection, it had stopped at many of his military memories, prioritizing them over anything else. His military history work was also kept, though the system had designated it as a lower priority than his active-duty experiences. His personal memories were the lowest on the totem pole and had mostly been taken from him and stored somewhere else.

Watkins also knew his crew was supposed to have been collected as well, but what form would he find them in? Had they been transformed into a core like he had, or had the system somehow recovered their bodies as well? LANI interrupted his introspection with some excellent news.

“Captain Watkins, the research module is ready. It’s not functioning anywhere near its intended capacity, but we’re starting with almost nothing, and even basic research is useful for our purposes,” LANI said.

“Great news, how do I get started?” Watkins asked.

“The drone should have activated the hardline connection to the module, so you can focus and interact with it directly. I currently have no permissions on the unit, so its control is totally yours. Of course, I can monitor progress and notify you when the module has reached a milestone. I can also assist it by adding some of my processing power to the task, but my help will be limited by my own degraded condition,” LANI said.

“I’ve already got a plan for our upgrades. First off, we need a way to upgrade our drones so they can perform more complex repairs,” Watkins said. He had a feeling that even after he fully integrated his hull, his processing power still wouldn’t be at 100%. He’d need the rest of the ship’s systems upgraded and repaired to unlock his full potential.

“That is good, but even with upgraded drones, their use will be limited by the level of our other subsystems. For example, even if you had level 10 drones, they wouldn’t be able to upgrade your engines if your research into that subsystem was only level 0. I agree that drones should be first, though. What will you prioritize after that?” LANI asked.

“Move, shoot, defend. We need to keep those in mind while we effect repairs and upgrades. If we can’t defend ourselves, all the upgrades in the world won’t help if another of those void things appears. To make everything happen, though, we need to have more research modules. You said that you had the schematics for them in your database?” Watkins asked.

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“I do, but I’m afraid I will need complete repairs before I can unlock that research tree. My advice would be to try and get everything you can to level 1 and see where we stand after that. Each level of research will take progressively longer than the previous one, and to add to that, you’re limited on the number of research modules you can control. Check your status, it should have unlocked information on that now,” LANI explained.

Watkins did as she asked, pulling up his complete status information.

Vessel: Pending.

Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins.

Hull Durability: Unknown.

Core Processing Power: 43%.

Core Durability: 100%.

Crew: none.

Core controlled units:

Command Limit: 16/16.

1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (13).

2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (3).

3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (0).

Resources:

1. Salvage: 287.

2. Biomass: 193.

Integrated Systems:

1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 46%

2. Level 0 universal fabricator:

3. Level 0 reprocessor:

Research Modules 1/1.

Research Progress.

1. Drone, Level 1. 1% progress.

“Research has started, and it looks like my core can only handle one research module for the time being. Maybe after we integrate the rest of the ship, we can unlock the capacity for a second one,” Watkins said.

“Excellent, we’ve done good work here, Captain, and I think the immediate threat is over. We can take some time to effect repairs and then continue our mission. Do you have any idea where our current position is? I’ll send you the system charts,” LANI said. Watkins could feel the file integrate into his database as LANI sent the information.

Pulling up the system map, it took Watkins a bit to familiarize himself with it. His naval career had given him the tools he needed to operate in a 3D environment, but an entire solar system was a huge place to get a handle on. With the system data in hand, he began to look through his sensors, recognizing the stars and their position.

He was now a ship’s core, with more processing power than every computer on Earth. Still, it took him some time to verify their position. They had drifted far from the system and were well into unknown territory. Watkins shared the information with LANI and waited for her to respond.

“So far, I knew that we’d been drifting for some time, but we’re so far from where I started. No wonder I can’t connect to any of the stations from here. Even if they survived the missile strike from the kobolds, there is no way a signal could reach this far without total degradation,” LANI said.

“I suppose our next effort will be to get the engines going. We just have two maneuver thrusters for the time being, and if we can get them operational, we can at least stop our momentum and begin to head in the right direction,” Watkins said.

“According to my calculations, with the maneuver thruster operating at maximum efficiency, it will take us 99.56 of your years to arrive at our destination,” LANI said. Watkins could feel the hopelessness in her voice. She may just be an advanced AI, but he supposed even AIs had a desire to fulfill their purpose. Having that purpose delayed nearly a hundred years was enough to depress even a computer.

“Don’t worry, we should have a total of four maneuver thrusters if the ones at the bow survived. If not, we can research replacements. Not only that, but we can also start with the main engine design. It won’t take us a fraction of the time you estimated to get where we want to be,” Watkins tried to assure his adjunct.

He reorganized the drone teams, pulling enough from salvage operations that he had two working on each maneuver thruster. There was a lot of work to do with both, as the hull structure they were mounted to was compromised and needed additional reinforcements to stand up to the forces that would be generated by even the small maneuver thrusters.

There was still one drone working on the point defense laser, and he had all the rest tasked with the salvage operations. The drones were doing good work, and had taken the time to make sure the debris was safely secured to the hull. The storage racks in the fabrication compartment were filling up as well, and as one drone stopped to drop off its latest load of salvage, he had it begin rebuilding the entire shelving unit in the room.

Half of the shelving had been salvaged earlier to fuel Watkins’ construction of MOBS and drones. Now, he needed the storage racks to be returned to their original function. At least the shelving was a simple build, and the drone would be done with its task rather quickly.

Despite not being complex, the shelving was rather well designed. Under hard maneuvers, the shelving would deploy flexible tie downs and keep everything from flying around the compartment. If the blocks of salvage weren’t secured, it would be like firing a cannon off inside the compartment under hard maneuvers.