Anji sat in the dark in her hard bunk. The only light source coming from the screen in front of her, as she scanned the meager library database of the ship. It is all relative of course since that "meager" database had more information than the library of congress.

She tried to find out more about her destination and this "Mother" the ship keep talking about.

Her destination, the Eden system had a security block of 4 while the subject of "Mother" had a security level of 9, but the system easily lets her access the information after confirming that she is Command Alpha.

Eden is a 9-planet solar system with at least 5 of this planet considered M-class, meaning that they are similar to earth and abundant in oxygen and nitrogen combination that is essential for human life. plus, they also have a huge body of water around them that make them blue planets as well. The biggest planet, and apparently her destination, is called Gaia.

Unbelievably, the planet is twice the size of Jupiter. To put it in perspective, the surface area of Gaia is at least 250X the surface area of the earth, but its entire mass is so much bigger. You can put 3,000 planet earth's inside to fill up the volume of Gaia. Its diameter alone is so big that you can put 23.5 earth's side by side to match it.

But the planet Gaia is not even the biggest planet in the solar system. That honor goes to the planet Zeus, A gas giant 112X bigger than the planet Gaia. compared to earth it is-

Anji rubbed the base of her nose as the start of a headache creep in. She just read a whole wall of data and she is surprised that her head didn't explode yet. Suffice to say that the Eden system have 5 Earth-like planets, 2 Gas giants, an ice planet w/c is the farthest from the Blue sun, and a metal planet wherein 80% of its natural surface is made of the Orichalcum Metal, Which is also considered to be the hardest and also the rarest form of elements in the known galaxy.

She was far from an expert of the solar system and of the galaxy in general, but even she figured out easily enough that the Eden system is a one of a kind system and is considered to be prime real estate.

The one the ship called "Mother" turned out to be an Advance Supercomputer that the departing humans created originally as a system-wide caretaker/manager. They kept her online originally so she can dismantle the man-made infrastructure the humans left behind, while preserving the natural beauty of the planets. After she had done her task in barely a hundred years, she took command of the remaining brykar unit and consolidated the small part of space the human originally claim for themselves. Like an old loyal guard dog that passionately guards an empty house, not knowing that its master had moved on forever and is never returning back.

Anji sighed. Is this "Mother" ordering me back to Eden so I can explain the actions of my fellow humans who abandoned them? "I hope not," Anji whispered to herself. "Because I don't have any answers to give them."

Maybe because her body is getting used to living in a spaceship or maybe because of the enhancement given to her by the nanites, or both, but Anji felt the ship begun to deviate from the original straight line it was moving on for more than 3 days now. Anji stood up and queried the ship. "Aah, Command 1? Why are we turning?" She asked.

Several blips answered her as the computer analyze the questions and struggled to form a coherent answer. Well, at least that is what Anji thought is happening. Strange... her stray thought told herself. Usually, the ship didn't take this long to answer. Either the situation outside is too complex for words or... the little weasel doesn't want me to know.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I asked you a question Command 1," Anji said in her best authoritative cop voice she can master. "What the hell is going on?"

She could almost hear the sighed in the computer's voice. "Please meet me in the bridge, Command Alpha."

Anji left her designated room and run toward the now familiar bridge. once there, she immediately set herself in the customized pilot chair that was created for her by nanites metal and strap herself in. "So what do you got?"

"Command 1 detected an anomaly in sector space 132389-4307, vector 004."

Anji adjusted her seat and looked at the oversimplified map next to her arm panel. it shows the location the ship mentioned, relative to the current location of command 1, which is about 65.2 trillion KM away. Roughly speaking, it is about 1.5X the distance between the nearest two solar system. Or a two hours voyage for the command one.

Her console gave her direct access to outside monitors so that in her point of view, she is floating in the middle of the galaxy. Screens pop up every now and then to give her more data the ship constantly gathered using the unbelievable scanners in and around the vessel. A single blip formed slightly to her left and she focus on it.

The universe around her moved as it gave her the maximum scope the scanner can give her at that time. Her hands rose up and virtual blue keyboard appeared in thin air. Her fingers dance over the controls as she requested more and more specific data. Unsatisfied, she raised her other hand and another more complex input and control device appeared next to it. New customized data scrolled down the tiny screen in a monitor to her left and her hands blurred into the console as he analyzed and resort the massive incoming data.

It will be days, long after the situation ended, did Anji recall and then realized the unbelievable set of new skills she displayed in running the ship and using the void computers within the system attached to the AI. Unknown to her, the nanites within her bloodstream is now also in her brain as it attempts to rewire her and regenerate new synapses in order to be able to and accommodate basic knowledge in void analysis and in quantum 3-dimensional computation.

She gasped. "The anomaly you are talking about is a ship sending distress signal!" Anji shouted.

"Confirmed." said the computer.

Anji's eyes narrowed. "And you are turning the ship in a different direction. Not only that, you are doing so in a very slow manner..." The implication finally hit her. "You don't want me to know about this. That's why you are sneaking out."

There was a delay before the voice answered again, but when it did, there was no hesitation, no contriteness. "Affirmative. Objective is clear: bring Command Alpha to Eden System. This anomaly is an unnecessary delay to the schedule."

Anji continued checking the ship registry. It is a 2 million ton Bowwow class cargo freighter belonging to the K28 Empire. It's considered to be a small cargo carrier by Brykar standard. The last known owner is a hurrsh family and the crew is made up of that same family: Six adults of which two are males and four females... plus 12 children ranging from 4 years old to 2 months.

Anji's face turned to granite. "Command One?"

"Yes, Command Alpha?"

"Turn the fucking ship around!"

"..."

"Well?"

"Be advice that pirates active in the area have used the same ruse to trapped or destroy Brykar units for the last 217 years. The probability that this is a trap is about 68 percent."

Anji actually thought about that, then shook her head. "Noted, Now bring me to that distress signal. We are not going there blind and we will be careful, but we will still look for survivor and offer our help."

"There is also a 92.728 percent probability that all listed crew in that freighter are now dead. The distress signal is at least 7 Brykar months old already."

"Noted," Anji said gritting her teeth. "Now will you move your ass?"

"Understood, Command One is changing vector for an intercept course to detected Anomaly 098. Estimated time of arrival: Two hours and twelve minutes."