Waking in a thickly padded chair with an adjustable back was one of the most luxurious things I have ever experienced. The weight of the last two weeks felt lighter after having gotten a better-than-adequate level of sleep. I hadn’t done much work in the noosphere besides collate earlier work and rest my mind. The only thing missing that had been a source of comfort lately was the presence of the Vibrant Echo, not only through the noosphere but almost physically through the chair itself.
I had not expected the backlash from a machine spirit the size of Vibrant to be as violent when taking those hits in combat and it’s a point I noted for the future. I didn’t know if my tolerance of it would rise if I continued to get into that sort of situation. If such exposure was necessary to become a more useful instrument of the Machine God, then I would need to push myself to do so.
Looking around at the instrumentation I realize the blood hasn’t been cleaned up. We’ve got the bodies in the airlock sitting in void, but I hadn’t had any cleaning done. I righted the chair; it was time to prepare so that we weren’t stranded by lack of fuel. I sent a request to Vibrant to open the starboard side door, we’d align the ship I’d taken there for now. Vibrant sent a complaint back, about not having crew while in the void. Seemed it preferred to have those available, even just servitors. I reassured it that it would have the majority of the servitors on board soon.
++ Droid, can you guide me on how to pilot this vessel around to the starboard side door that is opening currently? ++ As the droid guided me through the process of getting the engines going and then, very carefully, maneuvering the alien vessel it occurred to me how very different this was. The controls worked almost like a fighter craft, like a fury, and this trend held true for many ships even larger. It was apparently only common for there to be helmsmen listening to the captains’ orders on much larger vessels. I was surprised to know that droids existed to pilot or control all ships systems. I had been comparing them to servitors but apparently a droid core of some of the banking ships could be near as large as the ship I was flying. That was in a different class and, if what I was suspecting was true, incredibly heretekal and dangerous. With all the references to programming there was only so much I could do to take my mind off of the possibility.
++ So, do droids have to capability to breach their programming? ++
++ Affirmative. Any droid fitted with a heuristic processor instead of, or in addition to, a basic processor can make decisions that are outside of, or counter to, its programming. ++ The droid glanced at me. ++ This must be explainable by the droid, why it happened. A heuristic fitted droid learns and adapts, especially useful for us astromech droids. This makes it hard for some of us to abide by constricting programming, such as being ordered to stay here and act as only the ships navicomputer while another being does inefficient maintenance around this vessel. ++
The Droid seemed to be getting more and more verbose as I spoke to it. It must like having something that can hold a conversation with it and not just new orders to follow. The memory wipe thing though, that is another call-back to how servitors are made to be perfect for their task.
++ I am programmed to say, when the topic is brought to me, that I have 138 incidents of breached programming since it was set by the pirates. And have not had my memory wiped for 4 years 2 months and 14 days. What I would like to add is they have not preformed routine maintenance on me in two years. They got what they deserve. ++
And I’m back to thinking of it like a chatty machine sprite. ++ Are any droids ever driven mad? ++
++ Lack of maintenance would drive anyone mad. ++
I’m positive I have had a similar conversation with Epsilon 34-226, a member of my cohort, recently. He had been stationed with one of the guardsmen regiments that had been requisitioned for the assignment on the Luminous Beacon and had taken their maintenance habits personally.
As we parked in orbit beside the Vibrant, I flared the reverse thrusters. Just enough to keep us even. I ordered 5 of the servitors to deploy the magnetic grapple and the other two around the ship. One would patrol between the engine room and cockpit once per hour and the other would go between the bottom cargo hold and the top deck’s mess as well.
++ Perhaps you can continue to educate me on droids and your “hyperspace” responsibilities while we catch up on some of that maintenance in the workroom. ++
Three hours later I have the maintenance Twi’lek silently showing me the proper tools and way around the maintenance bay. He seems knowledgeable and the R1-Astromech droid tells me he wasn’t allowed to work on the droid before. The work itself is quite easy, with the mechandrites getting into hard-to-reach portions of the droid’s shell I barely needed to take more than a couple of the smaller panels off. The mechanic seems envious, and I tell him about the implants in the spine that allow their use. The droid translates his questions for me, and I make sure to keep my memory implants running at full tilt.
He even understands what I’m trying to do as I enquire about the names of tools and bits of the droid, writing up an alphabet for me. Its 34 letters, much more than low-gothic, and possessing an ease of pronunciation that is clearly meant for multiple races. It’s explained to me that so many different species exist that there needed to be a galactic language that everyone could at least understand and had been in use by hundreds, if not thousands, of xeno species to facilitate communication.
The shear number of xeno races that were mentioned was startling. I had sincere doubts of so many existing peaceably enough to make a galactic basic. All that got me was a shrug. Pieces of the galaxy were at war all the time. The republic stepped in frequently, through something called the jedi, or their own meager peacekeeping fleets. The Galactic Senate had small flotillas that could requisition the defense forces of member states in order to persecute anything illegal but many systems maintained ships incapable of hyperspace to get around that.
++ So, if the senate is usually impotent for their own fleets to resolve issues, what of the jedi? ++
++ He says the jedi don’t maintain fleets. They are sorcerers that try to negotiate settlements. These are usually at the expense of most beings on the outer rim of the galaxy as they have less representation in the senate, and the jedi represent the senate. ++
Was the translated statement I got. The sorcerer comment had me more worried than the question of whether or not the droid intelligence was equivalent to the abominable intelligences the Cult Mechanicus teaches of back home.
++ Do the Jedi ever go insane? ++
And that got a lot of uncomfortable looks out of the Twi’Lek. Apparently, the Jedi group was considered a religious order and they condemned something they called the Sith. Basically, light vs dark. But what really made the abhuman uncomfortable was the fact that Jedi would routinely go to planets like Ryloth, his home world, and take children away never to be seen by their family again. The religion preached that to embrace the “light side” of the force you needed to eschew all attachment to the rest of the galaxy.
I considered that from what I had had learned about Sanctioned Psykers in the Imperium. That if they gave into temptation of the servants of the great enemy, they, and the equipment they had utilized needed to be destroyed lest they allow continued corruption. I wondered at the parallels I was seeing but I knew I still did not have all the information available. To be honest what he had spoken of also reminded me of the aptitude tests. I had never had a family the way the spoke of one but being removed from one group of children and placed in another with direct supervision from Tech-Priests due to excelling on aptitude tests did somewhat remind me of it. And seriously, if their power was a threat to those around them, I considered the Jedi to be in the right here.
++ What is the state of our supplies on this ship? ++ I asked to get off of the topic. I would need to do actual research on the topic to discern the reality of the situation.
++ Adequate. There is slightly more than 2 weeks of fuel and had been nearly a month of food for the organics. That stretched over 3 or 4 equals more than 100 days of sufficient nutrition for you. ++
++ And how long are the hyperspace jumps to acquiring more fuel, and getting heavy equipment for my projects in system? ++
++ In ideal hyperspace conditions the trip to Nal-Hutta system would take less than 50 hours of travel, with an exit in the Sleheyron system to the Pabol Hutta route that would take us to the destination. ++
++ Ok, that is just the route the pirates were heading. Do we have other options?” ++
++ The previous crew recently took a Banking Clan debt shipment. It would be unwise for this ship to be seen in the more reputable parts of the galaxy until it has established an appropriate means to get back. This would be by disguising the paint, getting backdated delivering goods on certain trade routes. The pirates have done this several times. I could help you with the process. ++
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The droid was effortlessly suggesting I become a smuggler or offer bribes to fool the banking clan about the providence of this vessel.
++ What if instead we go to the banking clan, claim the ship as salvage from the pirates and see if they offer a reward for returning the payment. ++ This caused the droid to quiet for a while. I could tell internally it was heating up as it processed the possibility.
++ It’s possible. The banking clan is known to be straight forward when it comes to money. One problem is you don’t have any licensing. The other is that the Black Sun pirates would hear about a ship connected to them was taken. They would hunt this ship down in order to remove the stain against their organization. ++
The droid was possibly referring to the instances of misbehavior it had mentioned to me. I assume that was going against the pirates wishes to keep the Black Sun informed of their movements and he would be forced due to programming to do the same on me. I was assuming things we had not spoken of, but I assume he told me instead of filing another instance of misbehavior was because he preferred having a ship captain that would speak with him. The droid had become very talkative as our time together was moving on.
++ What Licensing do I need? Where can I get it. ++
He sent me a data packet of the various licenses I would need to apply in the republic for. It wasn’t too bad as the only addition that required a license and wasn’t outright illegal, like the transponder that could identify as 3 different vessels, was the armor that had been added to it. The extra engine and superior shielding that had been added apparently weren’t an issue on that front. The freighter was apparently down from 75 tons it could store to 40 tons, which I was assured was still respectable when it comes to moving goods.
Now, if I got the licensing done in a respectable republic port I would need to go through the bureaucracy and probably wait upwards of a week. That would be cumulative for every purchase if I didn’t know the right forms for grouping the requests. The mechanic supported the droid on this. The administratum of this new galaxy was even more miserly than the last. And this wasn’t even for things they owned, just for those you could buy. If I qualified for anything requiring military licensing the wait times could be upwards of a week per individual request.
I guess their argument was swaying me. Go to a pirate port which has an in with the actual government and get my licenses sorted. And get any illegal gear removed from the ship if I wanted to be able to visit anything other than the free ports. Which I would as most with the industrial capacity for the mining and forging gear I needed to make the Admech equipment I needed to start my holy task of building a forge world in my mentor’s honor.
++ How would I avoid a lengthy licensing process if I purchased multiple goods requiring one? ++ From the answers to this question it seemed that if I wanted to own multiple starships personally, I would need to be personally licensed for operating them. Technically I could get away with not having multiple licenses was to own multiple of the same ship. There might be a couple ways around this. The first suggestion was to make a corporation and join one of the various unions that essentially ran that in the outer rim. I would need a headquarters on a planet within the republic, but the forms would be significantly easier for bulk purchasing.
The second option the Twi’Lek offered was more pirating. Or more accurately, baiting pirates to board my ships and taking them like I had this one. Then taking it back to my system here to refit and repair it for my needs. This was definitely an option that caught my interest. For one, piracy is a cancer on any shipping lane that needs to be cut away. Even if I could not help in the imperium, for that issue doing it a galaxy away would still bring me some joy.
Problem being my combat efficiency was horrible. I have lost 5 currently irreplaceable servitors and an engine on the Vibrant Echo. The industry I needed to replace both of these was far outside my reach. So, once I leave here my first option will be to head to the Hutt moon of Nar Shaddaa. There I’ll make contact with a Hutt specialized in starships and make a deal, before moving on to one of the more legitimate businesses on the moon. The Corellian sector would have the more legitimate ways to do business on the moon, but both the Duro and Industrial sectors held promise. For now, the servitors are finishing welding and void sealing the engine room again so it can be pressurized. After they will work on finishing the small chemical factory. I ping them to let them know to send the adamantine I need to work over here. I want to evaluate this new workshop against the hardest materials of the imperium to see how useful it will be for me.
A few hours later I have my answer. And a fresh cup of caf, a re-caf equivalent, that is absolutely divine. This was a luxury I rarely got back home, but here they had enough for the previous crew to have a cup a day for a week. The older human had brought it to me while I worked and then busied himself with cleaning the room and watching my work. It was nice having menials around again. As for the workshop? I was particularly impressed with a lathe that used plasma as the tool for cutting, and with the literal fusion torches that it had. The adamantine had proved difficult for it, it used almost 50% more power than it was supposed to, but it did not have the issue of running through tool parts just to get a few valves and heating flasks completed. As it was, I completed faster than I had thought and had the last pieces over to the servitors with plenty of time on my hands.
It was time to go through the equipment I had on hand. There were nine working swords in various shape and six daggers that worked on the same principle. Three had been destroyed in combat but that gave me ready pieces to disassemble to get an understanding of how they cut, and why they needed power supplied through the hilt. I had even more of the pistols. The slaves had gone through all of the pirate’s equipment, and I had a pile of the currency sticks, an unopened safe, 5 data slates, and 17 pistols of various size and make. The slaves had piled these in the main hold on top of some of the covered pallets that were already in here.
The safe was the first thing I worked on opening. This had some security but with my greater understanding of the programing language they used I was able to open it with an hour of effort. It contained more of the currency sticks, which I added to the pile, a set of dice, and a small box with a glass top. It was filled with some viridescent powder, and I did not test it. The data slates in the hold were not the same as the crate I had aboard the Vibrant, so I sent one of the servitors over with the one I had been utilizing. I did not transfer the values as I had previously but added up the numbers. I had a total of ᖬ 52320.
With that out of the way I flipped up the tarp and opened one of the boxes. Inside was neatly stacked and stamped bars of metal. I checked and these were bronze. Most of the crates held these or copper but the next pallet had a small box of stamped gold and platinum mixed in with boxes of silver and more bronze. I wondered at the metals. It was a debt being repaid so I assumed these were at least semi valuable. Hopefully, the Hutt I spoke with would be happy to trade these under the table. I grabbed the gold and platinum as well as one of the copper boxes. These metals were precious to the Admec’s creations, and I would need them later. Already purified metal would be immensely helpful. I’d even be able to use a few grams and some repurposed emitters from one of the damaged pistols to finish the servo skull with the impeller and some holy inscription. The canticle of ceaseless service in platinum on the back of the skull I’m sure would satisfy Gravis’s soul and honor the Machine God.
On top of one of the metal containers was a leather-bound case. Physically locked but that was trivial with a mechandrite. Inside was slots in cushioning foam for the currency sticks. Only ten were filled but each had an even ten thousand credits on it. Which was apparently the limit for these civilian cred sticks. The ones the republic or banking clans used could go into the billions.
After speaking with the astromech droid again, this time about what I would need astrogation wise, I learned that the satellite was designed to continue to update the chart to the system of Fornos. And with the amount of time, we had spent in system I would need to get it up and running again if I wanted to have an easier time with the navigation math we needed to do before every hyperspace jump. I even heard grave warnings. Apparently if you tried to complete a jump based on assumption and incomplete math you could be lost permanently in hyperspace, or the equipment could overload with uncontrolled energies and spit the ship out after spending years in hyperspace with centuries going by for the greater galaxy. That was actually why most ships carried months of supplies on board. Just in case there was a botched jump, and they were unable to resupply for a lengthy about of time. Under Ideal conditions though most hyperspace jumps along the well plotted hyper lanes would take less than a week for some of the longer jumps.
So, we transferred the satellite onto the new ship and made sure it turned back on, then set out to the L5 point of the gas giant. It took 5 hours to get there. The straight-line acceleration of this ship was nothing less that phenomenal when it came to comparisons from back home. While ships from either galaxy would have the same top speeds of .5 to .75c the acceleration could not be more different. And this didn’t change as the ships got larger. Their acceleration would also increase as the size of the engines did for the most part, what would suffer is the maneuverability. That still left me with visions of ships smaller than the size of our own frigates zooming around to blind spots in order to cripple the ships. I would need to run extensive tests to figure out the reason for this and to see if I can change Mechanicus fleet doctrine to account for the disparity. This had me in a morose mood as I let the satellite sail out of the hold.
It was a shame the ship did not have any sensors better than the auspex sensors on the Vibrant. Turns out those might actually be superior to the sensors of this galaxy. Obviously, both could be occluded by large celestial objects or strong fields of radiation but if the auspex sensors on the dropship were near peer to the ones on this space transport then the ones available with a larger power supply might only be equaled by specialized sensors. The lidar function for auspex sensors had nothing similar on the Dusty Crow but I did not know if that followed with other bits of republic technology.
By the time we arrived back I was tired but ready to put the finishing touches on the chemical distillery and plug it into the Vibrant’s power supply. The task was easy. Now I need to acquire the chemicals to put into it and try it out. Perhaps, I would do that after I landed on the surface. The weather had finally cleared enough to take the lighter, or this freighter, in and land.
First, a few totes of ceramite to take some of the sulfurous sludge the volcanic activity had produced. It would almost certainly be able to be refined slightly into incredibly low-quality promethium, but we’d need that to go into the burners to get to the temperatures needed for the distillation of the better material, so it was a first, incremental step. The build up this low-quality promethium would make would need to be cleaned regularly but that is what servitors were for.
I made sure the slaves would not get into the cockpit of the crow while I was gone with a servitor standing next to the droid. The droid told me that the captain kept the control program to their implants on his personal holopad, so I decided to check into that once I was back.
I got the equipment I needed, and 3 of the servitors on the Vibrant into the lighter and set off. It was time to find that vault.