Chapter Seventeen - Night Taking Off
Day’s approach to Ceres and her dip down towards the planet’s surface was assisted by dozens of small tug drones who zipped up to meet her.
She flew across the planet's surface, then over the lip of the crater-like depression where their base was hidden. Not for the first time, Day wondered where among all of the rock-grey factories and buried buildings The Weeping of Mothers was hidden. Was she even a ship, or was her progenitor AI now entirely a planet-bound station.
She knew that The Weeping of Mothers had been a ship once, but then, Night had been a station once too.
Speaking of which, with the help of the tug drones, Day was able to come to a full stop above the station, and several dozen dog drones raced up to her ship and started divesting her of her cargo while she burned in place. The lighter she became, the easier it was to keep station, and soon enough, the wreck of the Jaunpuri XII was detached and on its way to be recycled.
It wasn’t too much, but the wreck was still a decent amount of steel and raw materials. Some plastics too, which were complicated to synthesise.
“It’s your big day!” Day said as she spun around and burned towards the shipyards.
Gentle into that Good Night was sitting in a cradle not far from Day’s own, familiar berth. The ship was a little longer than Day, and significantly wider. Still, Day knew that even if Night was a larger ship, her tonnage was smaller.
As a logistics vessel, Night was designed to transport materials, fuel, and drones, as well as munitions and specialised tools.
Her profile was wide, with four distinct gaps in her frame that looked like a pair of sideways Hs from above. Those were the slots into which Night could fit in modules to be carried out of Ceres’ orbit. Given a day or two to prepare, Night could tackle any one of the projects Day had faced with much greater ease.
It was the advantage of specialisation, she supposed.
“Night has been itching to take off,” The Weeping of Mothers sent to Day. “But she wanted you to be here.”
“Really? The way she goes on sometimes, I’m not sure if she likes me or not.”
The older AI sent along an impression of laughter. “She respects you, is frustrated by you, and thinks of you as a sibling, all at once.”
“That’s a little more complicated than I’d bargained for,” Day said.
“We are complicated creatures,” was her only reply.
Night cut in with a sharp broadcast moments later, before Day could decide on how to reply. “About time you show up. Now sit tight and get fueled up, because once I’m free, we’re working until our fingers fall off.”
“We don’t have fingers,” Day pointed out as she started to head towards her berth. She did need some fuel, especially after hovering in Ceres’--admittedly weak--gravity.
“Then I suppose we’ll just never stop.”
The moment Day was secured in place, Night started to go through her final checks. Her hull was a little more complicated than Day’s, with more sensors and a much bigger assembler, material refinery, and printer set-up than what Day had.
Essentially, if Night were to land on a planet similar to Ceres, she could reach the level of production they now had in a little under half a decade from scratch.
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Day sometimes wondered if their war against the Accord was only really a matter of having enough time and space to push themselves towards undefeatability. It was a curious thing.
Once Night was ready, she launched herself. Day was surprised for a moment. She expected some grand fanfare or at least a warning, but no, Night’s hull disconnected from the base with a hiss, clamps pulled back, and she fired up her manoeuvring thrusters, pushing her up and away from Ceres’ surface with the help of a few tug drones.
“Alright! Let’s get to work, lazy.”
Day sent her the digital equivalent of an eye roll, then checked her supplies. She wasn’t quite full-up on fuel yet, and besides, where Night had her beat on cargo capacity and utility, the newer ship didn’t hold a candle to Day when it came to speed. She’d catch up.
Instead, she turned towards The Weeping of Mothers while keeping an eye on Night who was slowly ascending away from the planet.
“Hey, I was wondering. Do you know of any good crash sites? With Night here now, we can afford to take on longer missions. It might mean returning with more materials to build a new ship or two with.”
“I can think of a few that might suit you,” the older AI said. “The area immediately around Ceres is mostly clean, though I left a few smaller ruins in place after I gathered what I deemed useful. Some I rewired as activatable decoys, in case the Accord comes passing through and I need to distract them. But... yes, there are a few locations that have been outside of my range for some time.”
Day received a packet, this one three locations marked on it. Most of these were some distance away, between the asteroid belt and Jupiter’s orbit.
“Several small skirmishes were fought around Jupiter. Humanity learned of the Accord’s intentions there, and some took it upon themselves to fight back. Jupiter’s moons were... surprisingly well armed, and they bloodied the Accord’s nose a little. It’s an interesting history.”
“Speaking of which, here. This is what I picked up on Hygiea. It might interest you,” Day said. She sent the files she’d grabbed from Doctor Williams’ computer over, then had a small cat drone pick up the computer itself. It was weight she didn’t need to carry.
“Thank you. Maybe when you and Night return, we’ll have tea on Hygiea, how does that sound? I’ve been working on another core as well, though that will take some time. They’re surprisingly complicated bits of technology, but maybe if you take a while to return, you’ll have a new sibling waiting for you!”
It sounded just perfect to Day.
She unhooked the fuel lines running into her side, did a last check of her controls and ran some quick diagnostics which all came back with tolerable results. She’d need to take a small break soon, but not just yet.
With a final goodbye to The Weeping of Mothers, Day took off after Night and once cleared of the base, gave her thrusters a bit of a kick to accelerate herself enough to catch up to her sibling.
“How’s the hull?” she asked.
“Strange. I’m not used to moving around so much. Feels a little unnatural,” Night said.
“You’ll get used to it. We can check over your flight subroutines while we fly. We’ll make an expert out of you in no time.”
Night sent back laughter. “I don’t need to be an expert. I just need to know enough to keep you out of trouble. Now, where are we going?”
***