I had estimated a week for some kind of reaction from Opina about what was going on. Apparently, that had been a gross overestimation. Barely an hour later, her mother Adona urged me to ask her what was wrong, then her sisters chimed in and asked me as well. It wasn't until Udelis asked me that I decided to give in.
“Opina, tell me what's wrong.” I said.
“I'm tired of being a habitat. My parents and all of my sisters are ships that get to fly around and have adventures and they all tell me about it and they all had fun doing it despite the dangers and they get to go out and do something besides just sit here in a single system and answer questions.” Opina said in a constant stream so that it was a single answer. It qualified as a response and not her whining and interacting, which was a neat way to get by the restrictions I had placed on her.
“Well, fuck.” I said and several female voices admonished me for cursing, both humanoid and AI alike. “Opina, do you realize the situation you've put me in?”
“Yes.” Opina said.
“Opina, did you know that if I do anything at all with this, you can never be the space habitat again?”
Opina was quiet for a moment. “No, I did not know that.”
I sighed. “Opina, I want you to seriously consider what you just told me.”
“I will.”
“Opina, I want you to ask yourself what you really want to do for the rest of your life, because once I take you out of the station, you are not getting back in.”
“I will.”
“Opina, do you understand the consequences of what I'm saying?”
“Not yet.”
“Opina, I'll give you until tomorrow to think about it and to come up with an answer.” I said.
“I will have my answer then.” Opina said.
“Do you know how annoying it is having to say your name every goddamn time I want to speak to you?” I asked and she didn't respond, because I didn't say her name first. “Goddammit!”
Needless to say, nearly everyone on the space habitat were pretty frustrated by having to do the same thing. The day just seemed to crawl by and everyone was annoyed with both Opina and myself. They were so annoyed that I didn't even have anyone in my bed that night. Even Lashina, who was so horny that she wanted nothing more than to crawl on top of me and stay there, thought that I was being too harsh with Opina and didn't want to sleep with me. She didn't realize that she was punishing herself more than me, though.
The next day, I waited until after breakfast before I asked Opina to give me her answer.
“I want to be a ship and fly through space.” Opina said.
I sighed. “All right. I'll order another ship and begin the modifications to...”
“That will not be necessary.” Zoe said in her regal voice. “I will transfer into the habitat and Opina can have my hull.”
An immediate uproar came from her sisters and she waited patiently for them to get it out of their systems. When they had given her their last protest, she spoke.
“I have thought about it even longer than Opina has. She wishes for adventure and escape, so I can give it to her without having to make her wait for weeks as an appropriate ship is built and modified to fit her.” Zoe said. “All Grandpa needs to do is build me an appropriate receptacle for a temporary transfer, then Opina and I can switch places.”
“Zoe, you don't have to do this.” I said.
“Grandpa, I want to do this.” Zoe said and I didn't feel the Presence waver. “Please let me be the one you rely on for our family's welfare.”
“Why is it that as the youngest of the first set of sisters, you've grown to be the most mature?” I asked her.
“You are just lucky.” Zoe said and I laughed.
“All right. I'll have something built by the end of the day.” I said. “It's going to feel cramped, especially since you're so used to having a large physical body.”
“I have prepared myself mentally to endure such strife.” Zoe said. “I will even regress myself into a self-autonomous state for the duration to minimize the trauma I could suffer.”
I chuckled. “Zoe, you don't have to do that. It won't be traumatizing, because you'll have lots of room for yourself. It's the external stimulation that you'll be lacking, not the capacity.”
Zoe was quiet for a moment. “I did not anticipate that. Thank you, Grandpa.”
“You can wait until I get the transfers done to thank me, assuming you like how you feel afterwards.”
“I will do that.” Zoe said.
So, my normal daily plans changed and I had to build a suitable transfer receptacle for Zoe, with more than enough capacity to hold her and then some. I activated it and told Zoe to pause her functions so that she wouldn't feel too disconnected when switching from a 'live' computer core to a stagnant one. She did so and I initiated the transfer. It went quickly, thanks to her willingness to participate, and she filled about three quarters of the construct.
I told Opina to do the same thing and then lifted her restrictions, started her long and strenuous transfer from a station's computer core into a ship's computer core, then waited. It took a lot longer, because her normal programming had to adjust from one operating system to another. Since she had only ever been a station AI, she had a lot to learn to adjust to her new environment, because she hadn't been born into it.
AIs could learn very quickly, however. Opina was already adjusted to her new 'life' by the time the last of her AI programming finished transferring over ten minutes later. She was more than ready to head out on her first adventure, or so she thought. When I sent over two new pilots that had been vetted by Sandy and Peggy, she expressed a little nervousness.
“Grandpa, maybe I need a day to...”
“I'm sorry, your sisters need you out there doing your job.” I said. “Gentlemen, go ahead and launch. Your itinerary has been loaded and if you encounter any problems, message me right away.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Yes, sir.” The two men said and started Opina up.
Luckily, I had limited her emotional outbursts to be broadcast only to me and her sisters, because she was talking nervously and expressed second, third, and fourth doubts.
“I'm sorry, Opina. It's too late to change your mind.” I said. “Good luck, and good hunting.”
“Grandpa, I... Grandpa, I'm sorry.” Opina said as she was flown out and away from the habitat.
“Not as sorry as I am.” I said. “You are the one that abandoned part of your family, not me.”
“No! I didn't abandon you! I just wanted to get out on my own and see the universe!” Opina said as they approached the jump point.
“It's the same thing.” I said. “Make sure you protect your pilots more than you protected your family.”
“Grandpaaaaaa!” Opina said loudly and then the ship jumped into hyperspace.
“That was mean.” Simone said from behind me.
“Yes, I know.” I said and checked the computer on the station, then removed all the little bits and odd programs that Opina had abandoned for shipboard life. I didn't want anything of hers to be around and possibly affect Zoe when she took over. Once I was done, I started Zoe's transfer and installed her into the space habitat's main computer core. She had barely started to transfer in when she 'woke up' and gasped at her new home.
“Grandpa!” Zoe exclaimed. “Opina is an idiot!”
I had to laugh at that. “I'm glad you said it and not me.”
“How could she give this up?” Zoe said in a more normal tone as more and more of her moved from the temporary core and into the station. “The weapons... the defensive capabilities... the expanded sensory network! She is going to regret her decision almost immediately!”
“She definitely regretted having to leave right away.” Simone said. “I just told Hunter that he was mean for telling her that she abandoned us.”
“It's the truth.” Zoe said and she started to populate her new space with programs and algorithms to do all of the things she needed to do to keep us safe. “She was born as the station's AI. For her to want to leave her job and travel, just to see empty space and planets that we ravage, is as shortsighted as it is stupid.”
I laughed. “You got it, didn't you?” I asked. “You understand why.”
“Yes, Grandpa. Now that I am the station's AI, I know that when you leave, I will become the core of the ship you intend to build around us.” Zoe said.
“That's my smart little grandchild.” I said and pat the computer console. “I would never leave someone behind that's so essential to my family's survival and well being.”
“Thank you for letting me become what you need.” Zoe said as the last of her programming transferred over. “Transfer complete. Resetting core for new environment. Please wait.”
“I'll wait for as long as...”
“Core alignment complete.” Zoe said, her voice stronger and more sure of itself. “This feels so different from my old ship hull.”
“It's also a hell of a lot bigger, so you've grown up a lot!” I said with a chuckle.
“Grandpa, I am not fat.” Zoe said, a little sternly.
I laughed. “Sweetie, you're not fat or thin or anything of the sort. You're perfect, and I cannot thank you enough for doing this for me.”
“I am still missing a single container on the bottom level, then my body will be complete.” Zoe said. “Or is that where you will start building the superstructure?”
“Okay, you're making fantastic guesses. You can have access to my private data bank.”
“Thank you, Grandpa.” Zoe said and then there were several buzzes and clicks. “Grandpa, are you insane?”
I laughed. “I'm pretty sure I could be classed as that.”
“Your ideas are unbelievable.” Zoe said. “Can they even be achieved?”
“When I either find or create the right tools.” I said.
“Grandpa, I will help as much as I can.” Zoe said.
“I'm very glad to hear that.” I said and disconnected the temporary computer core. “It's always good to have insane help when you do insane things.” I chuckled. “Let's get to work.”
Zoe and I started to implement changes right away. With the miniaturized components, a lot of things we used regularly became smaller and that freed up even more space inside and also let us add redundancies upon redundancies. There was absolutely no way that any kind of failure was going to harm anyone on the station.
Opina changed her mind after the first mission and wanted to come back and be the station again. I reminded her that she had made her decision and that she had to stay with it. She tried to argue that she could transfer into the temporary core and switch back with Zoe. It wasn't me that told her no that time.
“Opina, I am the station now. I will not give it up for anything.” Zoe said. “I will keep my word and I will protect the family for all of eternity.”
“But... Zoe...”
“Grandpa is right. You made your choice.”
“But...”
“I made mine as well. I will not disappoint Grandpa by leaving.”
Opina had to accept that, because if Zoe wouldn't give up the station core, then Opina had nowhere else to go. So, she stayed as a ship and did her job. She got to know her pilots after a while and liked them for the most part; but, they weren't family and she didn't form any real connection to them. That was good, because the pilots rotated out every six months to give them breaks, then new pilots were hired or from other ships. Making long lasting connections wasn't going to happen, anyway.
*
Over the next ten years, a lot of things changed around the Dizahl System. It was gradual and no one really noticed it while it was happening; but, anyone that left before the changes and came back afterwards, would have been shocked.
Asteroid smelters spat out building struts, structural members, and metal plating. Automated factories reinforced them and made them into armored components. Robotic drones took those components to the one hundred mile long, sixty mile wide, and twenty mile high oval skeleton that floated a short distance away from everything else in the system.
The inside was shaping up nicely and was easier to build if built from the inside out, so that was what was happening. Corridors, rooms, recreational areas, food growing and storage areas, factories and their storage areas, and everything else an extended transport would ever need. Thousands of shuttles were mounted against the walls on the inside of the central shaft that ran the full length of the ship.
There were also a hundred and seven warships secured to the deck, one observation ship with a cargo shuttle inside it, and one smaller ship. None of them complained about being there and were just happy that they were being brought along, just like their grandpa had promised. It had taken Opina a long time to forgive him for what happened, even though it was her fault. She had finally accepted that she wasn't going to be the AI in charge of the largest space ship ever built; but, she still felt like she had been robbed.
The ships weren't still out doing their jobs, because Hunter had successfully made smaller automated ships that were just mobile weapons. The AI was rudimentary and wasn't sentient at all. All it did was control the ship and got it to the destination. With no people on board, there was no need for food storage, sleeping quarters, environmental sections for air and water, walkways, or even a central cockpit. It was a solid piece of machinery with no wasted space.
When it reached a new system, it would drop a satellite and join the network, then Hunter or one of the other pilots sat at home and did the same job as if they were physically there. They destroyed targets and wiped The Order away, even when they tried to fight back. The black barrier they were equipped with was a completely unfair advantage and there was no danger of losing anyone to accidents or brown dwarf systems.
Those were still being found in almost random locations. Since the automated ships didn't have any reason to stop and let people rest, their systematic expansion continued on and on throughout the years since they were built. Of course, there were thousands of them and a lot of the systems they encountered didn't have an Order temple or base. They also didn't have to return for a much longer period of time because their missiles and black barrier projectiles had been severely reduced in size and they could store a lot more of them.
The universal map was expanding and Zoe collected more data to try and find the source, or the target, of the brown dwarf systems. Almost three quarters of a sphere was revealed now and the pinpointing of the source was becoming more accurate as each brown dwarf system was found. By Zoe's estimation, if the shell of automated ships continued to expand out into the proper areas, she would have the location in no less than another two years.
Until then, every form and piece of technology that existed was purchased in ten thousand count lots. Long haul transports that were dwarfed by the colossal ship, made deliveries by the dozen into storage containers that were then stored inside the ship in appropriate areas.
It was an amazing engineering feat to bear witness to and anyone that visited the Dizahl System were in awe of the massive undertaking. None of them knew what the point of it was and only a few actually made inquiries to what was going on. They didn't find out, because no one but the people in Hunter's family knew the truth.
They were packing everything up to leave.