Chapter Six

New beginnings

Nellie read and reread the messages, but no matter how many times she did, they didn’t change.

At least she knew it wasn’t an attack now. The transfer process was a lot more than uncomfortable. Nell had almost ended up braindead as a result. If she hadn’t spent all that time practicing her control of the nanites…

Never mind, practice she had, and alive she was.

It had only cost her the sum total of her own brain. Plus, she had a whole new feeling to experience.

For the first time in her life, Nellie was riotously, uncontrollably pissed off at her girlfriend. Up until now, that had only happened with men. It turned out to be almost exactly the same with women.

Standing perfectly still for a moment, Nellie got herself under control.

Then, she smashed the desk into a warped and sparking mess before using her nanites to repair it again.

Of all the selfish, unthinking…

No.

Nellie took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair. Lucy had gotten a lot of big news very quickly. It must have been completely overwhelming for her, and more than that, she had no idea it would actually harm Nellie.

So, for now, Lucy would get the benefit of the doubt.

Nell was still angry, to an almost unbelievable degree, but she would wait until Lucy was back safe and sound.

Then, once she knew her girlfriend was safe, Nellie could kill her.

Okay, not kill her, just… something.

“Admiral, is everything okay?” Boone called from outside the door.

“I will be out in a moment, X.O. I just received some upsetting news.” Nellie said while being careful to keep her voice calm.

“If the Admiral has a moment?” Boone asked quietly.

“Come in,” Nellie sighed, unsealing the door with a thought.

“We have a problem, Admiral,” Boone looked nervous, which was a first. He had always gone out of his way to avoid showing any emotion at all. It was all part of that ‘nanite-bearing’ thing.

“Go on,” Nellie said, sitting down on the chair and preparing for whatever was going to hit her next.

“We seem to have lost contact with Queen Lucy,” Boone swallowed. “As have all the other ships.”

“My darling Lucy has decided to enter the egg gate, leaving us to deal with the fallout until her return,” Nellie said dryly. “We need to dispatch a cent unit to keep an eye out for messages she sends through, apparently.”

“I… see,” Boone said, standing a little straighter. “I wonder if you are aware of how many things Queen Lucy was directly responsible for?”

“Ah,” Nellie hung her head. “I better head back to the Rest and sort this out.”

“With respect, Admiral, is that something you can do?” Boone swallowed at the glare she directed at him. It could of scorched steel, but Nellie reminded herself it was not him she was angry at.

“We will find out, won’t we?” Nellie said, standing up and straightening her shipsuit sharply. “Have someone get one of the Orb craft ready.”

“Yes, Admiral!”

Nellie headed straight to the hangar, seeing the nervous crew standing around the large metal sphere and trying not to look panicked.

Nellie walked to the nearest section of the segmented surface, which split open like a rippling wave. Sections slid aside until the single seat was visible, and the clustered controls and screens arrayed around it in a tight semisphere.

Sliding into place, Nellie activated the anti-grav drive to move out of the hangar and opened a comm line to the ship while she moved the orb swiftly down the launch tube.

“All hands! All hands! Maintain station here and continue preparations for the trade mission. I will be assuming or reassigning Lucy’s tasks over the next few hours.” Nellie cut the line and carefully ignored the dozens of urgent requests to open a line to this section or that person.

Everyone could wait until she had a chance to think.

The moment the Orb was out of the hangar, Nellie started to reconfigure it. The sections slid and rotated as the orb elongated and flattened. In less than ten seconds, it was a smooth dart with a single large engine in the rear. Nellie punched the thrust to full, feeling herself pressed deeply into the chair as it shot forward. If she still had a brain, Nellie would have probably passed out from the g forces.

Wasn’t she lucky to no longer have that problem?

Blazing through the system at full thrust was exhilarating, and for a few minutes, she enjoyed the thrill of a highly agile machine giving its best to her every command. It spun, swayed, and dodged the outbound Talon by millimeters, which at least made her smile a little.

In no time, she was sliding it back into Orb shape and firing a massive counter burn, leaving her traveling at only twice the safe speed when she approached the small craft dock on the Rest. The landing bay doors were already open, and Nellie saw Salem waiting for her as she brought the orb to a smooth halt as the doors slid closed and the dock was aired up. As soon as the pressure equalized, Nellie slid out of the chair and watched the Orb part obligingly around her.

Paren had done a truly fantastic job on these things, and Nellie made a note to tell her that as soon as possible.

“Did you get the messages as well?” Nellie asked immediately.

“I received a single message from Lucy. It said she was going into the egg and would check in as soon as possible. It was time delayed, Ma’am,” Salem fretted at the look on Nellie’s face. “She also said that we should check on you in a few minutes to ensure the ‘process’ did not hurt too much?”

“The process hurt worse than anything I have ever experienced,” Nellie said, a taste like metal filling her mouth at the memory. “If that didn’t kill me, the brain damage would have finished the job.”

Paren simply froze, not a muscle or servo moving.

“I was forced to convert my brain entirely to survive,” Nellie said, feeling tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. “Lucy didn’t mean to, but she nearly killed me.”

Salem cleared her throat and pulled herself together for a moment before throwing herself at Nellie, hugging her fiercely.

They stayed like that for a long moment before Salem stepped back, looking embarrassed. “Sorry. You just seemed to need that.”

“I really did,” Nellie smiled. “Thank you.”

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Salem was a marvel. A true, blue marvel. Of all the things to plan for, Lucy being incapacitated was not something Nellie would have expected anyone to consider. Salem, of course, had.

“I thought the throne was more of a decorative thing,” Nellie said, staring at the sleek, garishly decorated object. “Something for formal occasions, if we ever have any.”

“They are certainly useful for that,” Salem nodded. “But I thought a more multi-purpose approach would be an advantage.”

“You mean I would be less pissed you built one if it served a purpose?” Nellie asked.

“Yes,” Salem nodded.

“You were not wrong,” Nellie said. “How does it work?”

“The throne will act as a focusing object and an amplifier at the same time, allowing someone, not an AI, to bridge the gap to that kind of operating capacity. At least somewhat.” Salem said quickly. “It will also support all bodily functions, provide any medical needs, and filter the incoming information to reduce the mental strain.”

“So I’m basically going to be completely out of it when I’m hooked up?” Nellie asked.

“We have prepared for that,” Salem raised her hand, and four massive Centrum units stomped into the room. Each one was almost twice the size of a regular unit, their normally flat black metal bodies painted in white and gold. Each one carried an absolute arsenal.

“Whom do you serve?” Salem called.

“The Queen!” The four voices answered in perfect unison.

“You can talk?” Nellie asked.

“Yes, Queen Bonne Chance,” the one nearest to her answered immediately. “We have been raised to full consciousness in order to better serve you.”

“I see,” Nellie nodded. “Salem, we will have a little chat once this is all over. About the problems involved in not telling me things. And about the horrible, horrible things I will do if it keeps happening.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Salem swallowed hard. “Want another hug?”

“Maybe later,” Nellie chuckled. “Now, let’s see if I can actually do this.”

“I could stay and monitor you,” Salem started to say.

“None may enter when the Queen is incapacitated!” All four of what Nellie guessed were the Royal Guards said the words with absolute conviction.

“Not even me?” Salem snapped. “I fucking made you!”

“We serve the Queen. Not the Herald.” There was a definite tone of ‘Sorry, Mum’ in that comment that was adorable, but Nellie wasn’t in the mood to properly appreciate it right now.

“Here goes nothing,” Nellie sighed and sat down, sliding herself back into the throne.

===<<<>>>===

It felt like the entire universe screamed in her ears. That was the level of complete overload that came with the activation of the chair. For the first few minutes, Nellie was lost in a riot of sensations, sounds, and information. Swept up, rolled, and drowning in an endless torrent, she forced herself to focus.

What felt like hours was only seconds, in reality, her inner timer confirmed.

Ever so slowly, Nellie forced her way to the surface, emerging into a place of blessed calm and quiet as a tornado of information swirled around her.

Reaching out with one mental finger, Nellie plucked a piece from the chaos…

She was presented with drive information: the energy levels on one of their autonomous ships were out of whack, and the onboard computer had failed to fix it.

Nellie nudged things back into balance, and the stream of information cleared.

Okay, she could do this.

One at a time, and then two, and then three at a time, Nellie sorted information, analyzed scan data, issued orders, and passed messages around malfunctions while ordering nanites to fix the issue. She experienced days while her inner timer seemed to tick in slow motion. Three days equaled an hour of real-time, and slowly, Nellie got the hang of things.

All across the system, the faltering systems and autonomous functions that were really just Lucy, or at least part of her, came back to life.

After a few hours had passed outside, Nellie had been doing this for weeks as she experienced things. And more than that, she had learned a new trick. Her focus began to split. Small parts of her dealt with basic issues, while the rest focused on the bigger issues and more complex problems.

By the time the first day had passed on the Bly’s Rest, Nellie was dealing with dozens of things at the same time while her focus shifted from place to place as needed. Taking a page from Lucy’s book, she began to use holograms to communicate, often with several different people at once.

“Salem, who do we have who can write programs? Good ones.” Nellie asked, appearing in the command room via the central hologram display.

“This may sound strange, but Baz can,” Salem said with a touch of pride. “He doesn’t enjoy it as much as flying ships, but he is almost as good at it.”

“Wonderful, thank you.” Nellie started to let the hologram fade.

“Shall I contact him for you?” Salem asked.

“No need, I’m already talking to him,” Nellie said before she let her focus shift to where she was talking to Baz, giving him a list of things they needed to let more of the autonomous functions actually be autonomous. None of it was particularly difficult; they had just never needed them with Lucy around.

That conversation gave her another idea. Automation could be machine-based. Nanites could build anything they had analyzed, right? Looking through the lists of various items they had broken down from seized or salvaged ships gave her another dozen small things that could lighten the load.

More commands were issued to the nanites.

Little changes happened all across the system. The hurricane of information slowed to a mere gale. She would still need to remain connected for the next few weeks, but Nellie could at least allow parts of herself to rest now and then. Another few hours and she could even let her conscious mind rest while the basic tasks were taken care of…

===<<<>>>===

On the third day of Nellie's being on the throne, people all over reported strange occurrences. Several of the scout drones began to behave oddly, chasing each other around the moon while emitting loud shouts of ‘Bang’ and ‘Zap.’ The screens on the main floor of the Bly’s Rest began to show an old cartoon from Earth in which a rabbit repeatedly flummoxed a hunter. Several of the automated arms in the engineering bay began to arm wrestle each other while the flummoxed workers stood around and watched.

By far, the strangest occurrence was when several of the Orb craft began to move in complex patterns, dancing around the Rest as if in a ballroom.

Remy, trying his best to finalize the dispatch of their trade delegation on the Talon, found a strange creature that started appearing silently behind him via hologram. It would follow him silently until it yelled ‘Beep Beep’ and then ran off laughing when he jumped out of his skin.

The events only lasted for a couple of hours, but it was enough to leave everyone thoroughly confused.

Once those two hours passed, everything went back to normal. No explanation was ever found.

===<<<>>>===

Nellie woke feeling like she had been asleep for days, even if a part of her had been active the entire time. The moment she was awake, all that information filtered into her mind.

Nellie swore and decided to avoid sleeping for a little while, and if anyone asked, she’d say she was clueless. The recordings of Remy jumping out of his skin were pretty funny, however.

She had never realized exactly how much Lucy actually did, and all of it at the same time. It was obviously different to her, being an AI and all. She was pretty much designed for this kind of thing. Or perhaps not? The information from the Egg certainly suggested that might not be the case.

Nellie pushed those thoughts away. It had been days already, and the sole message received so far was short and not so sweet.

Arrived safe and sound.

I forgot to bring any Hyperdrive.

Lucy.

The use of the codeword was there, and for now, Nellie would accept that at face value. She would have to reassess if nothing else came soon, but for the moment, Nellie decided to try not to worry.

If Lucy wasn’t back soon, it would be a very different story, however. How did you even get proof of life for an AI, anyway?

Resolutely ignoring that train of thought, Nellie dove back into the flow of information, looking for more parts to hive off to someone or something else.

It wasn’t just wanting to get out of this weird existence that drove her. Only a few days of real time had passed, but already, Nellie knew they had made a terrible mistake leaving all of these functions to Lucy.

If something like the anti-nanite weapon ever hit them again, it could cripple their entire civilization. It hadn’t been too bad when that was one station—which Salem could run—one ship with a full crew and not much else. Now that they had even a little bit more… disaster had been threatening in minutes.

With the changes she was making, they would have a system in place, and Nellie was working on backup systems as well.

That reminded her about the backup systems Nellie had wanted in all of their current ships. A ship’s computer had been included in those plans, but most crews left them idle, relying on the ever-present Lucy instead.

Their greatest strength, a Nanite AI, had almost become their biggest weakness.

That changed now.

An order went out to the entire fleet. From now on, ship’s computers were to be the primary system on all fleet ships and stations.

Salem already used hers, but the activation of the others literally halved what Nellie was dealing with.

There were still the satellite systems and a half-dozen others to deal with, but Nellie was not sure where to even start with those, and for very good reason.

Paren had designed those.

Nellie relaxed back into the stream, resigned to dealing with what was left while she waited for Paren to activate her uplink on the new planet.

She was not going to be a very happy girl when she did, so Nellie wanted to be there to reassure her straight away.