"Magi?! These readings are correct right?" Lia asked as she looked at the array of screens.
"Mn!" Magi nodded.
"Why the hell did this happen and how is everything still working fine?" She asked confused.
"Unknown but theory revolves around nature's law balancing." She replied.
"What's that mean?" Lia asked confused.
"Rewording... the power cores main energy source has changed to new psi located in the air... Theory states all electronics are being saturated with said psi and adapted to new energy source." Magi said.
What was happening was that the energy of the power generator had been showing strange readings recently and when the two went to check it out they discovered the power cores had been invaded with the Psi in the air.
Since the hydroponic garden still exists and is used as a breeding room and the psi generator also had a small level of leakage allowing the ship to be invaded by the psi.
The fact that the power gen was in this state also caused some malfunctioning systems which weren't completely offline but were still not completely saturated by the energies Psi and transformed like most of the other husks left behind which formed the space reef around the carrier.
"What do we do now?" Lia asked.
"Pilot/Technician unit Xeno... report!" Magi said.
"Yes I'm listening." His voice called over the loudspeakers.
"Begin research on adapted coding to handle new energy source." Magi said.
"Measures unrequired. This unit has been integrated directly into this ship’s main frame. Current function is to maintain ship running. Programming of this unit monitors all systems and has already detected problem and has already begun analyzing new energy source." the VI suddenly said.
This sparked something in Magi and she looked up.
"VI ship unit... who authorized such actions." Magi asked.
"Unauthorized actions. Actions have been labeled under 'Acts of self preservation' by this unit's main protocol." the VI replied.
"Your system is that of a VI... a virtual intelligence without self aware capabilities... and you have no body... act of self preservation exists only for AI and only those who possess a personal body." Magi said.
"This unit has examined current time AI protocol. This unit has discovered its processors possesses development unit to AI as such protocol updated to current AI standards. This unit also possess a body. Current system is integrated into said body at this time." the VI said.
"Current body? Wait! You mean your body is the ship we are in?!" Lia asked surprised.
"Precisely. This unit was integrated before event of teleportation. State of self awareness discovered one month ago. This time table is also when energy source change happened and this unit has been adapting ship systems as energy source integrated into all ship systems." the VI said.
"So that's it. No wonder we only had some system problems and not total shutdown." Xeno's said.
"You knew about this?" Lia asked.
"No but I noticed the strange occurrence in the systems and looked into it myself but never found problems but I didn't have all the necessary information to change anything." Xeno said.
"This unit considered it impractical to advise others as current situation requires every personnel in a specific project. Furthermore as this unit's body, it is this units responsibly to maintain its proper function." the VI said.
"Unauthorized conduct... at the very minimum warn us... you may proceed with current actions... also report on thrusters." Magi said.
"Ship thrusters are offline since arrival in this location. Power core energy instability activated safety protocol and shuts down engine and thrusters upon ignition. Suggested course of action is the change power core for new one and allow new energy source to integrate it. Effects unknown but shows signs of overall improvement of every ship system by minimum of 10%. Energy systems current improvements surpasses 10%" the Vi said.
"Good... Lia... problem solved... report to station and repair power grid... I shall continue research on wormhole technology." Magi said.
"Understood." Magi said and ran off.
With the problem solved they continue their daily lives in this barren space.
***
"Alright, slow now." A female nurse said as her and another one supported Noah in bed. They slowly raise him and soon he was sitting. The let him go for a moment as he starts to try and move.
"Tha..." he starts to say through a dried ragged voice but it stops there.
"No problem, just try and recuperate. We will be doing just basic physical movements to move your body and slowly get it working again." The nurse said gentle.
"Thank...you." A voice came from the other bed.
The two nurse just smile.
The voice came from Sophia but she was laid down sleeping while they took care of Noah.
It was a phenomenon that left people curious. The two aren't always awake when the nurse take care of them. It was during times like this that a new reading was observed.
When one is sleeping and the other awake, the stable connect between them rises beyond 90% synchronization. In such cases the one awake may want to speak but unconsciously talks through the lips of the other or at the same time.
"Come one let's see to sitting up by yourself and moving your arms." One of them said and took his left arm and lifted it up.
"Now focus on 'your' hand and close it and sit up." She said.
The other sat a bit behind him and held his lower back and put her hand on his upper torso. They had found physical contact helped the eight patients focus on their own body and helped them focus in one spot.
Noah slowly shakes a bit as he tries to straighten his back but soon it stop and Sophia's body begins to squirm.
"Stop... calm down and focus." They said.
At the stop, Sophia calmed down and he calmed himself and began trying after feeling the woman's hands pat him again.
This time he slowly lifted his own back and soon sat semi upright but the strain was quite apparent.
"Good, keep that up and slowly close your left fist. Here." The nurse holding his arm hold his arm and passed her palm over his stimulating the palm.
She kept her eyes on Sophia's hand but had nothing to worry about as his fist slowly closes.
"Good, now relax and open them." She said and pats the back of his hand. It was all actions you would normally see used on a baby. Patting the palm closes their hand and the back of the hand stimulates opening it.
He opened after relaxing his muscles but it resulted in his back relaxing and he slumped and his gaze hazy.
"Guess that's fine for now, small actions like this are still exhausting. Get some more rest and we will see how you do tomorrow." The nurse behind him says as she helps lay him down.
He looked at her a smiled before closing his eyes and falling asleep quickly. The two nurse walk out and were met by Wilson, the senior doctor.
"How is his condition?" He asked.
"I can best compare it to a newborn around five or six months old. He can sit upright with a bit of encouraging and he needs stimulus in the hands to be able to open and close his hands. I held his arm but I don't know if he can support them yet." One of the nurse said.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"It's progressing at least. Any reactions from Sophia?" Wilson asked.
"When he was trying to sit up he lost focus and she began to straighten her back but he stopped before anything else happened." The other nurse said.
"So more or less all of them are similar. For now just keep administering physical theory. This is also a good way for him to learn to distinguish his body from Sophia and Vise versa. Please proceed to the others." Wilson said.
""Yes sir!"" The two women said and walked away.
Wilson walked into the room and read the readings on both of them and nodded. He saw the readings from a few minutes ago and now. Sleeping stabilized their brain the most while one of them awake tips the scale drastically. Being awake is a variable and it moves up and down.
Seeing nothing strange in the current situation, he left to see his other patients.
***
Watching the blue light in the power cable run into the main Power core caused Lia to be elated.
"Alright!!! I finally figured out this thing!!" She shouted in joy.
What had happened was that she had just repaired the first power generator in the massive space station they had located.
Unlike the known generators, this one was far too alien. Obviously everything they have found was alien and but it wasn't to complex, after all they were simply breaking the parts up and rebuilding them as parts they knew. That said, the generator was far from that. Since they can't rebuild such a thing, still to turn it one is a different matter.
It didn't have simply levers to turn it one. It needed to be perfectly connected then the power lines needed to be working, the power couplets between the 12 small power cores needed to connect to one of the four main ones which would further connect together in a web like formation that needed to be exact or the energy won't flow properly. Then the generator needed to be at 100% or safety protocols installed would not allow it.
She had no idea how safety protocols were still active but since they had such restrictions it was or a good reason.
Now it was finally on after several days of work.
Slowly the blue lights from the energy flowing could be seen and the generator was powering up slowly.
"Generator one powered up, main power cores A to D at, 2%, 5%, 3% and 8% respectively." She commented through the communicator to Magi.
"Good... new objective... locate any nearby control room... specifically for Hangar Port 3-H we are located in." Magi said.
Sighing Lia nodded. She never expected that getting a body would earn her so much work. If she had known then she would never have asked Noah for one.
She left the room into the now dully lit corridors and soon returned to the hangar which was also lit up slightly.
In Venturi station the maximum size a hangar held was a small sized medium category ship. Looking at the current hangar, it was clear that it was made to hold large sized medium category ships if not small sized large category.
Well this was from a human perspective so at best only medium sized ships would fit let alone the battle frigate.
All around there were small alien ships the size of mining ships or even smaller. Lia looked around and took a different exit and found a deposit. Another exit had the lift machinery. Another had repair machinery.
It went on for several hours exploring each door until the end then looking through another. After several hours Lia finally found the control room.
There was a single console turned on blinking red with strange words. She frowned and connected a wire from the side of her next to the console.
Alarms rang in her head. With a single though they turned off.
"Damnit that was annoying, still intruder alarms, so this station isn't as kind. Damnit this language is hard..." Lia said and started to look over the system.
Slowly she immersed herself in the system and rapidly she dove in and began learning the language. After an hour she popped out.
"Guys, I'm uploading a language file to the ship, download it if you want to understand this systems language." Lia said and uploaded the language file she created.
Then she opened several screens on the console and opened an interface showing her ship and went through a procedures and finally accepted their docking.
After a scan the ship outlets was located and an automatic message told the ship to move to one of the sides of the where the hanger split a section made for the ship. At that spot there would be station docking arm hold the ship and power couplet which Lia doubted would connect.
“Lia, what is this order to move the ship to a designated location?” Xeno asked after a moment.
“I’m in the control room and it's a form of security protocol. In truth every ship has been told to do so but all are offline at the moment. I’m currently downloading a station map for the landing zone of each ship.” Lia said and uploaded a map of the hangar where the ship was in.
"What use does this have?" Xeno asked.
"Pilot unit... call medical unit and tell her to bring her mounts to push the ship into place. Station may contain active combat forces... resistance to abide by previously set rules can cause combat protocols to activate now that power is restored." Magi said
"Understood." He said simply.
Out in space, Tris was on the back of one of the Wyvern when she received the call.
"Alright, give me time to gather a few." She replied back and stuck her hand out and told her mount to locate more of its kind.
The wyvern released a roar with its pulse and flapped its wings causing it to move faster. Due to the viscosity of the psi gathering in the space reef the psi creatures are almost swimming naturally without needing release psi to control their movements. It's almost swimming though some motor skills require it still.
The flap gathered the surrounding psi before it was released when the flap reached its lowest causing the speed up.
The more advanced species have definitely developed greatly their control of psi.
As Tris passes near other Wyvern, who normally live in somewhat large cargo bay of smaller ships, she called them making a group of twenty gather.
She lead them all to the hanger where she started to give complex instructions on how to move the ship until it was just right and left still in the target location. As it got there the ground opened revealing four super sized super magnets that rose extremely slowly with the current power and attached itself to the bottom of the hull.
Then from the ceiling a flat metal plate lowered onto the power couplet location. It was then Lia realize she had underestimated the technology. The plate created a field around it allowing the energy to flow freely from many passage and the same cable came with other system cables attached using a similar attached.
The ship's information soon appeared in Lia's mind and was registered in the stations landing log.
A moment later a message appeared.
Station power reserve extremely low. Ship with sufficient power reserve located, siphoning reserve power to station's functioning power generators.
Following that the cable lit up but unlike the common blue color it was a merid of colors.
"This unit has connected to the station upon siphon of reserve power registered. Connecting to main power grid and locating all techology tied directly to power grid." the VI said.
It quickly began to assume control of the sector the power generator functioned on and stopped the systems from activating before starting to rewrite the coding to a more adapted code for the new energy. Even the power generator was having to be recoded as the energy invaded the cores causing them to produce the new energy.
"Magi, the station siphoned our reserve power which had that energy, the VI has accessed the station system and is recoding and learning the coding of this place as we speak." Lia reported.
"Good... remain there and try to access system readings of the energy... more readings we get the better we can understand this power." Magi said.
"You're not gonna need help with your wormhole research?" Lia asked. She has been helping from the start so she had asked due to that.
"Currently already at your level in mechanics skill and machine building skill... this one can research alone for a period of time... comprehension of this technology has already reached 40% as you know. Once this reaches 50% construction of prototype technology shall commence." Magi said and cut the connection.
Lia simply nodded and sat down shut her eyes and immersed herself in the station system helping the VI rewrite the coding of the sector the generator commands.
Outside Tris drops the ground and smiles gently begins to scratch in a spot between the stone shell of her mount. Slowly it turned its head up and closed its eyes in the bliss.
At this time a strange sound was felt by her coming as a pulse. It could best be compared as the echo of whale but it sounded a bit sadder. She looked around and saw all the floating wyverns and those looking at her after ‘landing’ on the hangar floor.
She looked a bit guilty for the preferential treatment so she turned and one by one she began to give some petting and compliments. Though they whine when she stopped but one look and they sulk and ‘fly’ off.
Their intelligence levels was already nearing human levels and could already show a broad emotional range but they aren’t self aware and are intelligent animals.
As she was petting not one or two but a barrage of roars hit her and all the wyverns.
When they looked outside what they saw was ten ryu dragons looking inside. The largest which was also a one of the oldest official Ryu Dragons flew forward.
Ryu Dragons have a low birth rate but they are bigger than wyverns and have actually become hunters of them along with other large psi creatures with large populations. Wyverns are hunted but they hunt the Ryu dragons but only in groups of 3 or more. Only the leader dragon with Tris on it can hunt them alone but she chooses not to.
It let out a roar and when it hit Tris she frowned.
”This is our territory! Begone!” the leader’s intent said.
She looked at her mount who was growling fiercely. Tris jumped onto his back and he looked back and she nodded.
She ‘breathed’ in and gathered psi inside and let out a loud scream that flew at the dragons.
”This is our home! You leave or we will make you!” Tris replied.
The dragons roared in rage.
“Tris! What’s going on?” Lia called Tris.
“A territorial dispute between the Ryu Dragons and my Wyverns.” Tris said. “And i’m leading it.” She let out a yell and all the wyverns flew out and a pat on her mount made it take flight. A battle in space but to anyone watching, it looked like a fight straight out of a fantasy VR game. “Don’t interfere or this dispute won’t count!” Tris said.
“Do as she says Mechanic Unit… just watch don’t interfere.” Magi said.
“What then? Do you really not care about her?” Lia asked.
“Idiot, the medic will just return to her players comms. Stop bitching already.” Chuck said in a half sleepy tone.
“Where have you been?” Lia asked.
“Was searching the other hangars, where else. Want to see if there isn’t any nice big ass ship still intact but every last one is half broken besides the small ones like these alien tugs or mining ships.” He complained. “Anyway, let's just watch and film this space dragon war. Gonna be so fun when I upload this after that idiot logs in and I can leave finally. Gehehehehe.”
The others just rolled their eyes but they to made sure to film this since it's really not everyday you find space dragons having a territory war.
As such everyone slowly gathered to watch what could really be bad for them when they thought it through if Tris lost. Still Magi keeps everyone from acting and they could only watch the fight.