“Damage report!” I groaned.

[You know I’m not interfaced with the ship, and you are not even looking at the scre-]

“Not on the cursed ship! On me woman! On me!” I interrupted her with a hiss.

[Ah… Ignoring your previous injuries, you lost consciousness for a few seconds several times during the acceleration, the belt caused major bruises on your chest, you have a myriad of ruptured capillaries including a hemorrhage in the left eye. Nothing dangerous or life-threatening but,] she paused for a second, [your injuries are on the extreme side of the spectrum if we consider the ship’s G-Force Reducer.]

“Ugggh,” I moaned while clutching my chest. [If I ever have another ludicrous idea like this… just shoot me.]

I unbuckled the damn belt that nearly squeezed my chest into paste. I was so occupied with my moaning and groaning that I didn't even notice that I was slowly floating away from my seat. When I opened my eyes, I was on a slow trajectory towards the ceiling in a horizontal position.

“What the...”

[You are in space now, and the ship lacks any form of artificial gravity,] Genna explained before I could freak out.

“Great, just what I needed,” I sighed while looking around confused. Flying sideways in the middle of the control room did wonders to my shock after that painful flight. After a little looking around, I overcame my vertigo and found the up and down. With great effort, I managed to paddle my way back to my seat like an oversized frog. I didn’t feel like clapping the belt on again over my chest, so I compromised with an easy knot over my lap Alan Grant style.

“I can still breathe, and I’m not getting frozen, so I guess the ship’s still in one piece,” I said and glanced up at the screen, “somewhat.”

[For now, the situation seems okay, but I urge you to check out the critical errors as soon as possible,] she said with concern.

The screen was cluttered with all kinds of warnings and error messages. Time was short, and I didn’t have to fix everything on the ship. I just had to make it to the station alive.

The first critical error was about minor hull damages. Thankfully the shield was still holding so I wasn’t in imminent danger. I just had to make sure the power system didn’t go out... The power system I barely managed to botch together and start up with a kick. The wonderful thing about scary things is that if you can manage to not think about them, they won’t bother you. Couldn’t be more simple in theory but in practice, it was nigh impossible. Still, I tried to apply this technique in my current situation, so I turned my attention to the second critical error on the screen.

The report was short and straightforward. It merely informed me that the G-Force Reducer blew the moment the ship started its acceleration.

[No wonder… This explains why the escape from the planet’s atmosphere was so rough on you. At first, I thought you were just weak but then you lost consciousness, and your circulatory system went out of control,] Genna added.

[Weak?! I nearly melted into the seat! I thought my brain was popping out of my ears!]

[I’m sorry, okay?! The equipment should have reduced the effects to a mild discomfort. I didn’t know it would malfunction right away,] she tried to explain.

[Mild discomfort? That’s why you only informed me at the last second? So that you could enjoy some petty revenge?] I asked hurtfully.

[Aium... I’m… I’m so sorry. It wasn’t my intention to harm you. I swear I had no idea that blasted equipment would go out!] she pleaded but when she mentioned the G-Force Reducer her voice got louder and scarier. She definitely had a problem with grudges.

In truth, I wasn’t blaming her too much for it, but this unfortunate situation was the ideal moment to trim back her horns. I couldn’t have an overly vengeful A.I. in my head. That would be a huge no-no. I felt awful for consciously causing her to feel guilty, but at the moment I considered it as a necessary evil.

[Forget it!] I said and looked at the next critical error report on the screen.

She didn’t say anything else, but I knew I touched one of her soft spots. I didn’t mind her being the way she was, but I couldn't let her get too cocky. It would do her good to contemplate a little. I should have concentrated on the more imminent problems too.

The next one was about the air management system. It had some pressure problems, and the computer was estimating a critical system failure in less than 31 hours. If I was lucky I would be long gone from this ship by then. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be mindful of it, so I set the report to the side of the screen where it would keep me updated on the problem.

Next! The worst report so far explained that the energy regulator had a difficult time handling the fluctuations from the energy core and it was sending bursts of power to the temperature system. To put it in layman’s terms, the heater would cook the interior of the ship due to the excess power. The scariest part of the report was the mention of energy fluctuations. In case of a blackout, I would die, so I considered my options… carefully. I couldn’t just go in and mess around with the power core again when it was running. I couldn’t risk screwing up something with it now. All I could do for now was to pray it would hold out until I reached the station. In the first place, the report only complained about the temp system not being able to handle the energy that went its way. The problem here was the energy regulator and the damn heater. I couldn’t hope to understand the energy regulator, so my best option was doing something with the temp system.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

I would come up with something, but first I should check out the other critical errors in case something even more severe needed my attention.

There was a report about the malfunction of the scanner arrays. They weren’t getting power. At first, I was confused about why this was tagged as critical, but after a little brain flexing, I realized that this was a scouting vessel so naturally one of its top priorities would be the well-being of the equipment used for scouting. In the end, this was good news since I couldn't even begin to explain how lacking in fucks I was for this matter.

The last report was about the shield. I was already sweating when I read the word ‘shield’. Thankfully, it was operating within the tolerable parameters. It wasn’t doing well, but it was still going for now. The main part of the report described the state of the shield during the escape flight. According to the report, we got out of the atmosphere by the skin of our teeth. The Shield Generator nearly had a critical failure.

[No, no, no… NO! Why?!] cried out Genna.

[What’s the matter?] I asked in a little panic.

[The report! The shield! My advice again!] she wailed.

[Is it down?! What’s the matter?] I asked while furiously looking through the status screens of the different parts of the ship searching for the problem that Genna was seeing.

[It’s me! I’m the problem!]

[What?! Why?!] I stopped and asked with a frown.

[The Shield Generator barely held out. Yes, the hull got damaged, but we are still alive. During the flight, I saw a few error messages popping up, but you weren’t looking at it directly, and I couldn’t see everything, so I told you to slow down the ship in order to protect the hull,] she explained with a pained voice. [I-I didn’t see any report about the Shield Generator… If you listened to me and slowed down the ship back then...]

[We might have blown to smithereens,] I finished it for her.

[Aium...] she sobbed.

It was the first time she was genuinely crying, and it felt weird and unusual to me. In my time the media pictured A.I.s as these cold and logical beings that most of the time wanted to end humanity. Yet, Genna felt as real as any other person. Hell… she felt more normal than most of the people on that planet. She was like a person I was conversing with on the phone. I really couldn’t differentiate her behavior from ordinary people other than her endless knowledge and general cleverness. If I didn’t know for a fact that she was an A.I. I wouldn’t even suspect her. I would think she was some kind of genius but not a computer. Her showing strong emotions like these disturbed me in a way. Was she really feeling like that? If I didn’t know that she was an A.I. would I even find it strange?

[It’s not your fault. Calm down,] I tried.

[But it would have been my fault! I nearly killed us with my incompetence!] she sobbed.

[It wasn’t your fault I’m telling you! I wasn’t looking at the screen. How could you have known then that the generator was having problems? You gave me the best advice with the information you had. Moreover, we can’t be sure the generator would have failed if I slowed down. Calm down, please. Everything turned out well in the end, right?]

[Not because of me...] she continued.

[I’m not blaming you, and you shouldn’t blame yourself either! I wouldn’t be here without you! You’re doing fine despite the fact that you are bound to a lunatic. Now be good and stop crying. It’s creepy that I have a sobbing computer in my head.]

[I’m not in your head… Ah, nevermind,] she sighed in defeat.

After a few silent moments, she continued with an entirely different subject.

[Do you think of me only as a computer?] she asked now with a calm voice.

[Well, aren’t you a computer?] I cocked an eyebrow at her question.

[Am I less of a person than you or anybody else?]

The seriousness of her sudden question had me frozen in thought for a moment. She wasn’t anything like people predicted A.I.s to be in my time. She really felt like a person. Could I say for sure that she wasn’t a person? I had no idea how far they went with their technology. My ancient expectations of future technology could very well be a child’s whimsical thoughts in this time.

I shook my head slightly. I had no time for this now.

[To me you feel like a normal person. I’m neither a philosopher nor god to decide if you’re a real person. If you think you are a person then who am I to tell you otherwise?]

I would have loved to have a lengthy conversation about this with her but not right now. I had plenty of other things to worry about.

I skimmed through the other warning messages that weren’t critical, but I didn’t find anything else that would require my attention or would be a problem on our way to the station. I wouldn’t even care if the whole ship blew up after we parted ways.

My to-do-list contained two things mainly for now. First of all, I would have to keep an eye on the system responsible for the air in the ship, and secondly, I would have to come up with something for the temp system before I get cooked in space. Ideally, the energy regulator would handle this easily, but I wouldn’t dare to mess with that lest I end up disabling the shield or something equally crucial.

In essence, the problem was relatively simple. The ship was sending too much energy to the system that handled the heating of the interior of the ship. The solution would be to lower the system’s energy input or just divert the excess energy or heat somewhere else. I did a quick check on the computer whether I can control somehow how much energy goes to specific areas of the ship but I couldn’t do that manually. It was solely the energy regulator’s job. It sent power where power was needed on the ship. It should send the right amount, but it wasn’t for some reason. After digging deeper, I found that the systems had failsafes in place for situations like these but in this case, the high amount of power that came towards it in waves flat out broke the fuses… or whatever they used as failsafes.

“What did I expect from human engineering?” I mumbled.