I blinked. I had gotten so absorbed in the PDT's engagement that I had lost sight of the drones. They had swept back, and one had been close enough to save us.

Remembering the doglike energy of the drones, I couldn't help but feel sad.

“It did it's job. We're safe.” Hook stated.

I checked my sensors.

“Yeah...” I couldn't say much more, overwhelmed by emotions, relief, a little guilt for the drone, and frustration at my self for setting everything off early.

And a pain in my chest, I cranked down the engines.

“Do you feel bad about the drone?” Hook asked

“A little yeah... it's a bit like a dog dying to protect their owner you know?” I replied

“It is exactly like that, yes.” Hook answered.

That just made me sadder.

“Captain-Bait felt the same way as you.”

“Oh?”

An image opened in my mind, of a memorial wall. On it were listed more than a hundred... designations? Under each hung a dog collar. But over each I got a brief snippet of a drone and a... feeling? Of it acknowledging me. As I watched another designation appeared, with a worn patchy spiked collar on it.

“We can restore it's memories from backup, but it won't be exactly the same. Differences in hardware, differences in experience. Death is still death.” Hook said.

“If that's the case, what about people? Will Bait not be exactly Bait?”

“She will... and she wont. Again, differences in hardware, in this case bodies, will change her somewhat. The biggest change that hits people who are re-instantiated are psychological. Knowing you aren't the original can hit hard. And going through it multiple times does not make it better.”

I looked at the drone death wall.

“Do the drones pick the collars?” I asked

“One of the first things they do when they come online now. At Captain-Bait's request.” Hook replied

“That makes it sadder.”

“Captain-Bait said so too. I do not understand why she did this.”

I paused.

“I do.”

“Should I get the drones to stop?” Hook inquired.

“No... They are dying for us. Even if it's not permanent for them, it's a loss. They should be remembered, in some small way.”

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I brought my awareness back to the ship.

“We should... we need materials right? To get our repair drones back to fully operational status, and produce more missiles... can we produce more combat drones on board?”I asked, hopefully.

“No, Hook elected for the full size missile printer, which precluded other manufacturing unless we grew the vessel significantly, which would have entailed more drives, and more point defenses, and more armament...” Bait exposited.

“I get it, growing the ship just to stick another printer in was a bit of a hassle.”

“Yes.”

“So how much wreckage can we gather?” I said, opening another line of enquiry

“Well I have located two mostly intact pirate wreckages, and there is what is left of Joe's vessel.”

“If there are any COG based components on Joe's vessel could we integrate them into ours?”

“We would have to find a way to shut down the defensive protocols. The hull and repair bots are designed to destroy all equipment if they believe someone who is not their captain is trying to steal their components.”

“So... dangerous.”

“Quite. Especially if there are still missiles on board.”

“Man, Hook talked up being able to print whatever I wanted. I thought we were in post scaricity”

“You can. You just need to build a big facility to do it, or have a vessel specialized for construction like Joe's.”

“... Do you think one of Joe's printer's may have survived?”

“It is possible. If it did would you like to integrate it into the ship?”

“I mean we already shrunk down, we should have plenty of space to add a more generalized printer to our arsenal.”

“You are correct. I will watch the scans and if I pick up any piece of wreckage of Joe's that could contain a printer I will alert you. Until then I suggest We go and scavenge the wreckage of the priates, as they are closer.”

“Yes, Lootin time!” I exclaimed.

I felt more than heard the sigh Hook made.

“You and Captain-Bait would have gotten along very well, I can tell.”

“Did she make you sigh like that as well?”

“All the time.”