“She did well,” Amir conceded after viewing the copy of the security footage he had ripped and then deleted from the system.
“That’s not the point, she shouldn’t have been able to do any of that,” Chloe interjected, “her programming should make it impossible for her to hurt a human.”
“So she’s gone rogue then?” Amir asked.
“Well technically yes, she’s exerting free will; that’s the main indicator a pilot has gone rogue,” the engineer said sadly, “of course there are other circumstances but free will is the most common indicator.”
“Isn’t free will what we want for her,” Captain Hernandez interrupted unexpectedly.
“Is it?” Amir queried, “what if she decides to kill us all the first time we enter the slip? It’s not as though she doesn’t have good cause.”
“She does,” Chloe agreed.
“I don’t believe she will,” the Captain said, “she’s a good girl at heart. Isn’t she Chloe.”
“Yes, I’ve just never seen her, any pilot, get angry before,” Chloe said.
“Well,as I said, she had just cause,” Amir added; he wasn’t really sure why he was defending the girl, but she had handled the situation well and secretly he was impressed by her anger.
“And you,” Chloe rounded on him, “what were you doing sending her off into a situation like that?”
“She’s a Warrant, she’s got to act the part,” he answered.
“I agree,” Captain Hernandez interrupted, “both of them are part of the ship’s company now and they both have to learn to fit in.”
“Yes, what about Miss Eliss,” Chloe questioned.
“Well I don’t think anyone’s going to be beating her to a pulp again anytime soon,” Amir laughed, before sombering, “but she’s not going to be popular.”
“She never was going to be,” the Captain sighed.
“Probably best if she stays under Sparrow’s wing then,” Amir speculated.
“Yes I agree,” said the Captain, slowly, “Miss Liu I expect you to convey that to Sparrow. In the meantime were any of the Water Recycling Detail involved in the attacks.”
“No Sir, I’ve reviewed the security footage extensively and debriefed Ms Ellis. None of her team were directly involved although I cannot determine if they had knowledge of the attacks or not.”
“And dorm mates?”
“Six, Sparrow already has them on a punishment detail.”
“Good,” the Captain said, before muttering under breath, “she really is transforming isn’t she?”
“She is,” Amir agreed, realising that his feelings about the young pilot had changed significantly. He no longer felt he could kill the pilot, far from it; he had even grown a bit protective of her over the last few weeks. This was probably the last piece of the jigsaw. He had to admit the girl was making a decent Warrant Officer.
“Anyway, we’re all agreed, we turn a blind eye to the events of last night and let Sparrow get on with it,” the Captain summarised.
“Yes Captain,” Amir answered at once, Chloe hesitated for a second before nodding in agreement.
“Right in that case, let’s hear your other reports. Ms Liu first if you will,” the Captain continued.
“We’ve got the hull patched, and environmental will be back up tomorrow. We're working on the in system drive, probably another two shifts to go on that one. Then we’ll get the slip drive running again - that will be about 4 shifts with the special you’ve got me doing. After that it will be shields and weapon systems in that order but I’ve not estimated ETAs on them yet.”
“So it’s movement, slip, shields, weapons. Sounds right to me,” agreed the Captain, “now Mr Choudary your report if you please.”
“Well the marines are getting on fairly well, I think they’ll give a decent account of themselves in any action. The rest of the crew - well they’re doing their best. I am more worried about command and control at this point though. I think we need to upgrade our internal scanners. In the first attack we lost track of where the attackers were very quickly. We need a hardened internal scanning system. I have schematics here,” he said, tapping his head, “how long do you think they’ll take to fabricate, Chloe?”
“Well there are 1457 compartments on the ship,” Chloe began, “so I’d say about two days of constant running.”
“Best start soon then,” said Amir.
“Install will be straightforward at least, we have the ports for them from the last refit; they just didn’t bother to fit the system. I’ll set the environmental details on it as soon as they’re done,” Chloe finished.
“Alright, you're both dismissed,” Captain Hernandez said at last, ushering them out of her office.
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Sparrow hadn’t needed Ms Liu’s prompt to take Lady Ellis under her wing; that had been obvious after the events of the previous night. Neither of them would exactly be popular now amongst the crew. So today she got up two and a half hours before her sleep shift was officially over and sorted out a new mess assignment for Lady Ellis. Even so, she didn’t think it was safe yet for her to eat with the other ratings yet - not this soon. So that was how she came to be silently standing over the other girl’s sleeping form; she’d been discharged from medical late last night. Sparrow leaned over and gently rocked the other girl’s shoulders until she started to stir. Sparrow pressed a finger to her lips before quietly whispering, “Seaman Ellis, please get up, use the head quickly, get changed and meet me at the door in ten minutes, that’s an order by the way.”
The other girl looked very confused but did as she was ordered and just under ten minutes later she was standing outside the dormitory door, slouching sulkily as Sparrow came back to meet her. She was carrying two small bags with her, she tossed one at the Lady Ellis (again she wondered how she was able to act so informally with the Alderman’s daughter). “Have a sandwich,” she said, by way of explanation, before continuing, “it’s probably best you avoid the mess for a bit; but luckily for you the Captain’s given us permission to use the mess kitchens before shift starts.”
“Thanks, I guess,” the other girl said quietly.
“You’re very welcome, but eat up. I've got a busy morning planned for us,” Sparrow smiled at the other girl.
“Eh?”
“I thought some unarmed combat training first; I’m not very strong but neither are you so it’s probably a good idea you start with someone like me. Then more technical training if we’re going to get you onto the officer track. I’ve booked simulator two.”
“Ugh, if you say so,” the other girl groaned.
“The only way for you to deal with the bullying in the long term is to be able to reliably stand up for yourself. A few sessions with me won’t get you there but once I’m happy Mr Choudary has said you can train with his marines.” Sparrow said as she started leading the other girl to Simulator 2.
“Joy of joys,” Lady Ellis said sarcastically.
“Seaman Ellis, this is important, it’s my duty now to ensure your personal safety. I have a direct order from Ms Liu.”
“Great, I have a robot babysitter,” she sighed, “look when it’s just us two can you at least call me Harriet? I’m fed up of hearing Ellis this and Ellis that all the time. It’s that name that’s the reason I’m in this mess.”
“I’m not sure I can Seaman Ellis,” Sparrow said sadly, “my programming prevents me.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re programming shouldn’t have let you knee cap that man either but you did,” Lady Ellis replied.
“That is true, I am having trouble understanding my actions last night,” Sparrow confessed. Thinking on this, she wondered if she could address the other girl by her first name. Her programming told her that this was forbidden under the rules of decorum ingrained in her mind. However, Lady Ellis, H-, was right; there were changes happening to her that were undermining her programming. One of them was a pleasant sensation she got when Lady Ellis asked her to call her by her given name. Perhaps she could try.
“H-, Ha-,” Sparrow tried, but it wasn’t coming out.
“Come on,” the other girl said, letting out a laugh for the first time Sparrow had ever seen. The pleasant feeling came over her again.
“Ok, I’ll try again,” Sparrow said, almost feeling the constraints of her programming slackening in her mind. She really was pretty sure she would be currently failing the acceptance criteria by multiple points. Redoubling her efforts she tried again, “Ha-, Har-,” she found herself actually struggling to breath but she persisted, and eventually she managed to utter, “Harri.”
“Ok, ok,” Lady Ellis was actually smiling at her now, “good effort robo-girl. Harri is fine for now - you can work up to Harriet.”
“Thanks,” the pleasant feeling in Sparrow’s mind had grown ever stronger and she suddenly found it easier to speak, “Harri,” she added,suddenly finding herself in front of the simulator.
“I guess this is us robo-girl,” said Harri, weirdly she had automatically re-labled Lady Ellis as Harri now as if her programming wasn’t there; she would have to be careful when they were on duty to stick to naval decorum.
Sparrow opened the door and led them in. “I thought we’d start with the basics, some fisticuff drills, maybe a bit of grappling as well.”
“Whatever, let’s just get this over with then,” Harri replied.
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They entered the simulator and Sparrow reviewed the drills Mr Choudary had sent her, just the basics of punching straight and some simple trips and throws. Harri was definitely stronger than her but wouldn’t be as quick, Sparrow would need to dip down to standard human reaction times though if her sparring partner was going to have any chance - although sparring was probably a few sessions off. Sparrow threw a pair of training gloves over to Harri, “The weight off them will start to develop your strength.” She watched as the other girl strapped on as she put her own on and she went to stand next to her.
“Watch what I do and then try to copy,” Sparrow told the other girl and began a simple combination of punches from Amir’s instructions, “did you see that ok? Why don’t you have a go?”
“Ok,” said Harri and launched into an interpretation of what Sparrow had just done before stopping and turning towards her for review.
“Good,” Sparrow lied, “but you need to keep your arms straighter - you want to put as much power into each punch as you can and bending your arms loses you power. Also you need to keep a guard hand up.”
“Right,” said Harri, “I’ll try harder.”
“Don’t worry about getting this right today,” Sparrow said kindly, “this is just the first session.”
“I know,” Harri replied impatiently before launching into the drill again. Whichever hand was in the guard position quickly sagged but her punches grew straighter, if only slightly. They continued with the drill for another half hour before Sparrow felt her own limits nearing and Harri was also flagging.
“Ok, that’s enough,” Sparrow said, “time for some grappling.”
“Sounds fun,” Harri panted.
“Well the first thing to learn is how to fall,” Sparrow began, “you’re inevitably going to be thrown if you are grappling. Mr Choudary said the important thing is to learn how to fall so you can get back up again. Watch what I do to start with.”
Sparrow directed the simulator to layer the floor with crash mats and then sprang off into the air backwards. As she fell she rotated her body to land frontwards by spinning her arms before slamming them hard into the crash mat to take as much momentum out of her fall as possible. It definitely hurt her arms but they did take the worst force of the fall and she was still able to push herself upright quickly. She nodded at Harri to take a turn. Harri’s first attempt was a complete failure, landing heavily on her side with a loud shriek before slowly getting back to her feet.
“Try again,” Sparrow smiled. Harri stuck her tongue out at her and Sparrow found herself laughing as she watched the other girl spring back into the air - she made it onto her back this time but didn’t get her arms ready to take the force out of the fall and she landed with a hard oomph again.
“You can quit all that laughing,” Harri said, hauling herself off the floor again.
“I’m sorry Harri, I’m not sure what’s happening,” Sparrow apologised.
“Isn’t your programming meant to suppress your emotions?” Harri asked.
“A misconception, all pilots have emotions; we’re just only allowed to activate them when we’re not on duty - in the pilot’s intranet or when we’re projecting but as few pilots are permitted to project most people only see us on duty.”
“I see,” said Harri slowly, “aren’t you on duty now though?”
“I suppose so,” Sparrow said slowly, “I think my programming isn’t recognising I’m on duty currently.”
“Makes sense I suppose,” Harri shrugged.
“In any case - another twenty minutes of practising breakfalls and then we’ll move onto the technical training,” Sparrow said. Over the next hour and a bit Sparrow supervised the attempts at breakfalls - not much improvement there - and then started on the technical training; reviewing Harri’s developing welding skills before starting her on some finer work repairing some control boards. Just before her new watch was telling her that the work shift was about to begin she called time and ushered Harri out into the corridor and to their work detail. They were going to be installing the first of Mr Choudary’s new internal scanners - her detail had been allocated decks 7-11 to complete today.
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Harriet knew she needed to get some more sleep - the training sessions, she’d now endured the third week of physical training and tomorrow Sparrow had declared her fit to train with Mr Choudary’s marines finally; with a warning that things would get much harder, but at least she had gotten better at evading the occasional subtle punches some still tried to land on her in the corridors. All the while Sparrow was still pushing her through technical training - she must admit that under the other girl’s direction her practical skills were coming on a lot as well; there were more and more jobs she was being sent to do on her own now with the petty officer checking her work. Although she’d never admit to Sparrow, she was grateful for the other girl’s help. She hadn’t thought she’d have a place on the crew after the incident but as her skills had improved she noticed the rest of the work detail had begun to include her a bit more in their jokes and offered a seat at the new mess she had been allocated; where they all dined.
Still she was still afraid, although Chloe and Sparrow kept a close watch on the dorm now, Harri couldn’t forget what had happened to her, especially when she was asleep ; she could still feel the blows rain down on her and the terror she had felt everytime she closed her eyes. So she just didn’t sleep for as long as she could; she was pretty sure she screamed in her sleep these days thanks to some of the insults some of her dorm mates hurled at her. She wished she had access to her firearm but the weapons locker by her bed only opened just before they all went to mess in the morning with the pistol needing to be locked in again well before the start of the sleepshift. The only time they’d open during the sleepshift was if the ship was boarded and that was something she was keen to avoid.
She hadn’t seen much of Sparrow in the evenings, she kept going off with Ms Liu on some complicated repair job the captain had ordered them to attend to personally in their evening shift. “Stupid robo-girl,” she thought, “what am I even doing missing her, she’s not even human.” She was missing the pilot, well that was disconcerting. She really needed more sleep. How could she be missing something that wasn’t even human; Sparrow was just a bio-computational construct, so altered from the human she was born as that she could no longer be considered such. At least that’s what she had been taught.
The problem was, Harriet guessed, she was beginning to like the pilot. She had long since accepted that Sparrow did have a personality and it was a kind and honest one; the type that no one could actively dislike. Besides, she was the only person remotely her own age on the ship, even if she was pretending to be older. That lie was getting more plausible as Sparrow had started to put on weight now she was eating properly. She was still a skinny little thing but she was starting to fill out and her complexion and hair looked much healthier than they had been. She had also noted that the pilot had stopped avoiding looking at her reflection; she still didn't seem keen on it but the flinching had at least stopped.
It also helped that Sparrow was one of the only people on the crew she felt safe with; ever since she had watched the pilot confront that brute who had been knocking her around. It was ironic as that was also the moment Harriet had genuinely feared the pilot had gone rogue but as soon as they were out of the mess she had gone back to her normal self. Oh well, at least Sparrow seemed to be genuinely on her side, and she guessed she was on hers now; properly now not just out of fear of discovery.
Harriet reflected she had never really ever spoken to anyone outside the scions of the Honourable houses and their servants and attendants. Well that had changed now and was probably changing her as well as she got used to sharing the dross they served for meals here, joining in conversations about water recycling systems and some general banter with the rest of her detail. And of course Sparrow, well Sparrow was different from anyone else. She guessed she was most like Chloe, which made sense that all her social interactions had been with the chief engineer until recently, but kinder and generally nicer!
Still no signs of sleep, and she would need it if she had to start training with Mr Choudary’s marines. He had reassured her that the marines didn’t really care what the rest of the ratings were doing; they were already set apart from the rest of the crew in many respects. However, he’d also told her not to expect them to pull their punches either, especially with a greenling. She’d be sore again tomorrow night; at least it would help her keep awake.
She stared up at the bare metal ceiling; could she keep this up? Not like she had a choice, she was in this into late middle age, early middle age if she got into officer training. Did she even want that? Well she wanted to get off this ship that was for sure. However, she could imagine the sneers of the other Honourables she would get from the year or two she was going to probably spend as a rating. At least on ship she supposed she had Ms Liu and Ms Choudary, a work detail who seemed to at least tolerate her presence now, and of course Sparrow.
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Captain Hernandez was using the feed from the new scanners, which so far only she, Amir, and the master of arms had access to, she was pretty sure she was the only one using it now though, to trackdown Ms Liu and Sparrow. That had been Ms Liu’s idea, so that the location of what Olivia was hoping was a manual slip drive control unit, was kept secret. So she was spending her sleep shift traipsing through corridors trying to find a route to where Ms Liu and Sparrow were waiting; even now all the compartments were now sealed up and accessible again it was still a bloody warren to navigate through.
She was already using her priority override on the scanning system to ensure that nothing in the compartment where the other two were waiting was being recorded, as well as running an algorithm to edit her out of any footage of her on the system. Another problem was the scanning system only covered about three quarters of the ship at the moment the gaps in the network seemed quite sporadic; unfinished at the end of a work shift to be picked up at some indefinite time later if she thought about what most tech details were like. As she was trying to avoid running into anyone else this created massive blindspots she had to decide to chance or detour around.
After another twenty minutes of convoluted walking through deserted corridors she finally managed to access the compartment where Ms Liu and Chloe were waiting. “Well that was certainly more complicated than it surely needed to be Ms Liu?”
“It was Amir’s idea,” Ms Liu cautiously offered.
“I couldn’t care less to be honest, let's just find a simpler way next time we need to do this,” Olivia hoped she hadn’t sounded like she was begging rather than ordering.
“We won’t need a next time,” Ms Liu grinned, “we’ve done it. Slip drive back on line and control module installed.”
“Where?” Olivia began but before she could really finish Ms Liu had started to talk excitedly.
“Here!” Ms Liu said, gesturing to a storage locker, “you get in here, and if you have Sparrow’s ident when you do the back panel will lift up. That gets you into the service spaces, it’s a bit of a squeeze until you get past the storage locker but then it opens up to a good four metres of width especially when you cut a hole in the inner hull. Well it does after Sparrow found a hull fracture that meant her detail had to remove all the water recycling equipment that runs out of this service space and squeeze it into the one the deck above. So where we had a main reclamation unit before we now have the world’s tiniest cockpit.”
“Just show me the schematics?” Olivia finally managed to interrupt and after a pointed stare was finally offered a tablet with the plans for this cockpit. Olivia examined them, she could see the ident scanner mounted behind the storage locker that connected to a linear actuator; both devices completely off the ship’s network on a closed circuit. They really had stripped out the whole service bay and jerry rigged a bubble formed of 360 degree screens, a twelve axis seat, with a linked control stick, throttle and control panel for the slip drive itself into the tiny space.
Turning to Sparrow, “if we need you in there you’ll have to get there quick; and god help us if they happen to ram a boarding torpedo through your, I presume, single run of control lines?”
“Yep, no space for secondaries in the other direction,” Ms Liu agreed, as if that was something not to be worried about.
“And I can be strapped into the cockpit within four minutes if in my dorm.” Sparrow added, answering the other part of Olivia’s question. She had noticed the slight change in the pilot, now more regularly offering up information spontaneously rather than waiting to be asked or instructed.
“That’s still a long time we’ll need to hold out if we’re under attack - especially as, Ms Liu, what was your progress report on weapon systems again?”
“Um,” Ms Liu said; drying up, before eventually continuing, “I think the important thing to remember is that at least we have shields operational.”
“At seventy percent output,” Olivia interrupted.
“Um yes, but that was some achievement given how much of the power transfer conduit network has had to be replaced to get that sort of performance.” Ms Liu said defensively.
“For which I’m grateful, but right now I was asking about weapon systems,” she pressed; although she wasn’t quite sure why she was turning the screw on the chief engineer, she had already read the damn reports.
“Well, we have 80% of our point defence units operational again so that should help us repel any boarding action,” the chief engineer hesitated before continuing, “but as you know we’ve only succeeded in getting the port side rail gun operational; no energy weapons, plasma or E-M yet back on line.”
“So that’s a probable minimum of four minutes we have to hold off an attack with point defence and one rail gun?” Olivia queried.
“Yes Sir,” Ms Liu answered, failing to find any other response.
“You’ve done well though,” she conceded, “realistically it all comes down to this slip drive and Sparrow here, if an attack comes now or in the next week or so our only viable option is to disappear into the slip. We just have to hope nothing gets through shields and point defence.”
“I’ve got five PDCs linked to my own program; the minute an enemy is detected these five PDCs will solely focus on stopping any solid object getting within a kilometre of this compartment,” Ms Liu said, before adding quickly, “of course the shields will just have to hold out for energy weapons.”