August 10th, 8252

You await the morning cargo shuttle in person with a fair bit of apprehension. “Unique requirements” is never a phrase that inspires high confidence for the simple reason that you are not sure weather it means the automaton bulk of the crew and the new officer's ability to work in such a small team or that the officer is a unique case that is being dumped off on your command for some drummed up reason. You get the feeling that it's probably the later given how much of a furor you managed to kick up by setting off two (technically three) very public and very official inquiries. The fallout is still coming down all over the place from those.

Your musings are cut short by the arrival of the cargo shuttle. It's the usual trash hauler style, a large box with a stubby nose, a pair of primary thrusters in nacelles, and a hefty coating of reaction thrusters. It turns in place and thumps to the deck with its usual lack of elegance and the aft cargo hatch opens to reveal and extrude the standard cargo containers within. The overhead cargo bay crane comes to life and automatons swarm forward under the watchful sensors of their egghead supervisors to move the containers. Everything so far is normal so you watch for the boarding ramp to descend from the bridge and your new navigator to disembark.

Thirty three minutes later as the last cargo container slides free and you note an egghead standing at the very back of the cargo bay. You blink and notice that the egghead isn't simply standing at attention but leaning against the back wall, head tipped forward, 'asleep' where it stands. As the last cargo container slides free it comes awake, stretches, gathers up a kitbag. It motions a pair of crew automatons forward to carry the stray pallet full of electronics before walking forward to stand at the edge of the cargo ramp.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Chief Warrant Officer Molly Hayden Fish, Automaton, Improved mark two star, serial number zero zero zero one, reporting for duty Sir.”

The voice is mechanical and vaguely feminine in nature. You frown for a moment in consideration and then just decide to ask the question plaguing your mind.

“I wasn't aware that artificials had progressed far enough to be considered for military service.”

“Most haven't Sir. The Hayden Project is a bit of a test bed and I'm something of a unique early outcome anyways. My CV should be on your tablet and unlocking now. Apologies for the hush-hush nature of the transfer and lack of forewarning, but the call for that was made 'on high' as it were.”

“Well then I guess we're all stuck with you, so welcome aboard.”

“Thank you Sir. I'll go get settled in and set up then. I trust the chief engineer is aboard somewhere?”

“Midshipman Huckle? He's about here somewhere, probably running down the pre departure checklist and familiarizing himself with the new warp jump screen generators.”

“Midshipman? As the chief engineer of a ship this size?”

“More like the only engineer. You are the fourth crew person aboard if you don't count the regular automatons. He's kept us and this ship going through some real shit.”

“I knew we were short handed Sir, but I didn't know it was that bad.”

“Cheer up some. It means that you get a much larger cut of the survey bonuses and the whole navigation department all to yourself.”