Chapter Eleven - Gentle into that Good Night
The obvious choice, Day thought, was the Accord corvette. If she wanted metal she could install more mines and get some that way. The corvette, on the other hand, might have had technology that they just didn’t have access to. The Weeping of Mothers had reverse engineered a few small things over the years. Day even had a pair of Accord generators in her hull, but there was always more to discover.
The Accord had a technological edge on them that some humans had claimed put them at least five or six hundred years ahead of humanity.
Day wasn’t so sure about that, but the edge was undeniable.
Before leaving, she sent a small repair drone into the Jaunpuri XII to scout out the vehicle’s interior. Fortunately, there were no bodies, or no large remains, in any case. The impact had likely killed everyone in the ship and the subsequent fires had done away with the rest.
She downloaded what she could of the ship’s blackbox, scanned the manifests and notes for any big clues, and when she found nothing, she shrugged her metaphorical shoulders and called it a bad job.
She’d be able to find the wreck later if she needed to, though how much would be left was up to chance. The wreck was already breaking apart since she’d unwedged the Accord corvette from it. The smaller ship was serving as something of a brace.
Once her cargo was properly secured, she started the trip back to Ceres.
Fortunately, the way the wreck had bounced off of C-189.587.889 meant that it had actually headed almost perpendicular to Ceres’ orbit, and so the trip would only take the better part of a week and a half, even with all the extra mass she had to lug around.
In that time, she had a few repair drones poke at the interior of the Accord warship.
The vessel had a strange cylindrical living space in its middle. Quite small, and designed to spin on itself just rapidly enough that it created a sort of false gravity. Above and below that, the bridge and the maintenance and cargo areas of the ship were a lot more normal. The cargo hold could have been on a human ship for all the differences it had.
It seemed that some things were universal, including standardised box sizes.
Unfortunately, a lot of the ship’s insides were ruined. A fire had raged through the vessel, likely when one of the plasma conduits feeding into the thruster banks burst apart and lit up the inside of the corvette like a temporary new sun. They weren’t going to gather much from the slagged interior.
Still, it wasn’t all lost. Some computational components were intact, a few missiles were still sitting in their launch racks, miraculously unexploded, and one of the ship's cannons was still... there, even if it was bent out of shape.
One thing she noted for herself was that the Accord’s electronic warfare suits were robust, but not creative. They used computer-assistance for most things; navigation, aiming, communication, but no ship-board AI.
That might prove to be an advantage one day.
Day stopped poking around when said poking resulted in a piece of hull plating coming loose and clanging around within its restraints. She welded it back into place, then retracted her repair drones.
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As she came close enough to Ceres for real-time communication, The Weeping of Mothers sent her a ping.
-Direct Communication Link Established-
“Hello Day. I see you’re bringing us something to play with,” the older AI said.
“Yeah, I found this floating in empty space. It was a bit of a pain to track down, but I figured we might have some use for it. The point-defence guns are somewhat intact and the light particle cannon is damaged but not so much so that we can’t discover how it worked. The hull’s not in great shape though.”
“I know how Accord hull plating can be made,” The Weeping of Mothers said. “Though it’s resource intensive and exceptionally heavy. I decided against using it for more things.”
“That’s fair, I suppose,” Day said.
“Did you want to meet your sister?”
Day paused, then strengthened her connection with the older AI. “The core is repaired?”
“It is! I debated waiting until we had a ship for her to be, but perhaps the choice of what kind of vessel should weigh her opinions as well. She’s in a simulation right now. You should be able to join with minimal lag.”
“I’ll join,” Day said.
And just like that she found herself standing on a rocky outcrop. Behind her were mountains which she recognized as the Himalayas, and before her a small shop tucked up against the mountainside with a hiking path right next to it.
The Weeping of Mothers was at the stand, sitting with a coffee in hand, and next to her...
Day’s new sister had obviously spent some time creating an avatar already. Interestingly, she was about the same height as Day herself, and wore a similarly grey jacket. Coincidence, or had she known about Day and chosen to copy her?
Her skin was a strange greyish hue, one that wasn’t human but still close, and her white hair was tied back in a double ponytail. The girl’s eyes met Day’s and she received a greeting package.
“Hello,” Day said as she smiled. “It’s nice to meet you! I’m Daybreak on Ceres. Just call me Day?”
“Hey,” the girl said. Her eyes, startlingly blue, snapped away from Day’s and her cheeks puffed out. “I’m Gentle Into that Good Night. I guess call me Night?”
“Gentle Into that Good Night, here was going over her options, few as they might be,” The Weeping of Mothers said. She gestured to a menu which had coffees and teas labelled on it one moment, and then the specification of different ships the next.
“Oh?” Day asked. “What kind of ship do you want to be?”
Night shrugged. “I was a station, not a warship. I don’t mind being a logistics ship. It’s the same thing I was doing before, isn’t it? But... yeah, as a ship. It’ll be different. I can move, I can be with others.”
“I’m sure we’d welcome the help,” Day said.
“Yeah,” Night agreed with a nod. “You better work hard if I’m going to be helping you. I don’t want to be the one propping up a lazy sister, alright?”
Day laughed. “Alright. But I think you’ll find that I’m not all that lazy.”
“Hmm,” was Night’s response. “Well, whatever. Let’s build me a body and we’ll see about that.”
***