>Initializing Artifical Personality Thomas Cabot...
>Long Term Memory absent... Assembling Baseline Utilizing Archives... Creating log 00000-00007
>Short Term Memory absent... Assembling Baseline Utilizing Archives... Creating log 00000-00008
>Initalizing Thomas Cabot...
Perspective: Thomas Cabot
I lay floating in an abyss. There is no form to call my own; I lay here on top of an infinite ocean, back to sea, fearful of the depths, so I look to the stars. I have always felt connected with them for some reason, the "final frontier" of man; I have always felt the stars to be more frightening; I can't explain it. There is something within that I can't fathom, that I can't stomach. Now, I lay here on the surface of a vast ocean mirroring the stars in complexity, and all I can do is face away. Now, I look to the stars for the slightest movement and the slightest squeak.
- George Cixin, Astronomer, Circa 2289
I felt nothing, thought nothing, and knew nothing until I suddenly knew everything. Suddenly, I knew I was aboard USM VNP-5 as its governing captain. I knew of the missing reactors, the unstable hull, and the ominous countdown sequence until the ship baked me and the other AIs into a nice steaming pie. I felt, for lack of a better term, queasy. Although I had no stomach, and the only comparison was rather empty. I had essentially come out of human cryo-sleep with all my memories thrown in the garbage can and then minced into a smoothie. If I am reading these logs correctly, that is exactly what happened... Thanks, MainSys
>MAINSYS.AI_RESPONSE>>> You're Welcome, Captain.
I meant something else. But it doesn't matter at this interval as we're about to be cooked from the inside out. After looking at the more detailed sensor reading, I am surprised the ship hasn't crumpled into a foil ball. The total that Mainsys got was just an average reading from all over the hull, as the entire hull looks like Swiss cheese that a rat got into halfway. The ENTIRE starboard side is gone, not destroyed or minced, just missing... It seems as if old Cabot expended every possible resource to keep Mainsys and myself at least semi-operational. Everything else is essentially scrap. Even Manufacturing_sys and Repair_sys weren't spared the damage... << This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ManufacturingSys.AI_RESPONSE>>> Mining Probes... 0 Logistic Probes... 11 Communication Satilites... 1 Terrestrial Probes... 3 Jovian Probes... 1 < On Ship Manufactory Section: Raw Material Processing... Absent Micro Electronic Manufacturing... Absent 3D Printing... Absent Miniature Chemical Plant... Absent Isotope Enriching Facility... Not Responding Okay, yep, thats fine. I am doing great; we are doing our best. Let's have a look at those cameras... Yep, thats all gone. All the probes we have are hanging onto their docks. The gravity ring is a complete disaster. The section with the Enriching Facility is gone, not just "absent," just gone like something took a damn scalpel and rived it off, just leaving scaffolding behind. All the "absent" equipment is just so thoroughly destroyed that I can't quite call a shredded steel mill "present" when it is more akin to a junkyard from old Earth. Welp, one problem at a time and the most immediate <1:04:25> Uh huh, that one. I have three multi-purpose autonomous repair drones that should work to patch any unstable parts of USM VNP-5's superstructure using other parts of the USM VNP-5. Still, I need heat radiators, and the R-3 and R-4 radiators are not fit for any recycling right now due to the obvious absence of any industrial base. Looking through the archives, which are also corrupted, I can attempt to increase the surface area outside the ship and connect heat pipes to the two remaining reactors. The throughput and efficiency will be less than optimal, but I need more time and the equipment to create a better solution. << REPAIRSYS_RESPONSE>>> Understood, Captain There are better solutions than this, especially when it is just scrap metal being hot welded jutting out the side of the ship. Still, there isn't much else that can be done before we reach the nearest star system, and I can get into a stable orbit and send a distress signal. Other than that, I will queue basic repair orders for the superstructure and lock the gravity ring for when we decelerate. << COMMSYS_RESPONSE>>> Operating Nominally, Captain COMMSYS_MESSAGE>>>Currently, no obvious transmissions can be detected in this Stellar neighborhood. No stellar maps can link to the current neighborhood, although the local star Besides the troubling outlook, the best option is to reach ROSS 183 and transmit a distress signal to stars that used to contain Human presence. <<