chapter 54
It took my new crew members a few days to settle in, but we did have very little room, so currently they were sitting in chairs that were against the wall. We managed to get some straps that should be able to hold them in place during hard acceleration.
They themselves wanted a table between the two chairs, and just half an hour ago, we managed to finish that installation.
I’m having a bit of a problem getting them some weapons. After they gave me the parameters, I came to the realisation that the standard of weapons, that they wanted, I couldn’t make them.
The ones that I could print out were simply too weak. Fortunately, I will be able to make them knives that were good enough, but that’s about it.
They said that they could use guns, but they weren’t really that good with them. That can be fixed with some training, as I believe they should at least have a sidearm that they can use for ranged engagements.
Lola unfortunately, informed me that, with the processing power on board, the VR that we can run wouldn't be able to handle more than one user. So I’m already designing an even bigger server cluster for the Mark II, so more than one crew member can use a VR simulation together.
Also, while we ran final diagnostics, I realised that I might be able to use the design of Sam and Dean’s personality cores to upgrade my own AI cores.
Not only would that make any new AI I make better and safer, there’s a good chance that it would allow me to compress Lola’s AI core down to a small enough size that we could make her a normal-sized body as well.
But I’m going to keep that a secret for now, as I don’t want to get her hopes up.
That would also mean that I would need another AI to take over Lola’s current duties. I think the ship’s AI will be suitable. So I think I will slowly start expanding her capabilities. That will change her from the current simple AI into a truly complex one.
There’s so much to do, but everything feels so exciting.
As I entered the first floor where the workshop is, to check up on the knives that I was printing, there was a surprise waiting for me. Sam and Dean were playing some sort of game on the table. They seemed to have made five cups, and underneath they put a small screw.
Sam moved around the cups so fast that it was hard for me to follow. It seems that I would have picked correctly, as Dean picked the same one as I would have, and underneath there was the screw.
“This is so boring. We have well moved past this entertainment exercise,” Sam commented, as he seemed to not like losing.
At this point, both of them noticed me, and they started to clear the table for some reason.
“I have playing cards. I’ll bring them to you, we can play together.” Both seemed surprised by what I said, but I was already moving up the ladder.
“Don’t—” I somewhat heard, but I was already almost to the third floor.
As I picked up the card pack, I also decided to bring along a few dice. They literally didn’t have anything else to do, so playing games could be a good way of passing the time. It was stupid of me not to think about this before.
When I got back down to the first floor, they seemed hesitant, but I brought my own chair over and started to deal the cards.
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“I’ll explain to you guys the game. It’s quite simple, and later I can teach you more games. There are so many different games that can be played using this type of card pack. I also brought dice to expand the variants of games even more.”
Before I could start explaining, Sam interrupted me. “Sorry, captain, but the cup game is the only one we are allowed to play. It’s the only compromise our creator allowed.”
What kind of nonsense was that? “That just sounds stupid. Of course, you both should be able to play any game you want to. Don’t worry about it,” I said, but my voice sounded fairly echo-like as I did so. What was that?
When I looked up, I saw Dean frozen and Sam with his right hand touching his chest. The closest he could get to his personality core. He then looked up, seemingly utterly surprised.
Dean, on the other hand, hesitantly moved his hand and picked up the cards I had been dealing. As he picked them up, his hand slightly trembled, but soon it steadied out.
“How did you do that? You just broke one of our core locks without messing up the rest of the personality core?” Sam asked in utter disbelief.
This confused me as well.
“Master, you're an idiot sometimes. You most likely just used your command skill, and because they are bonded to you, you were able to break locks that they didn’t want to be in there in the first place,” Lola said.
“Lola, don’t call me master.”
“You guys have a weird relationship,” Dean said, and a moment later continued.
“But thank you, Captain. We can now actually play more games to pass the time. The only reason we were allowed the cup game was because otherwise, without entertainment, we would have broken down quicker. Our creator compromised with just one game, one that would help us train our coordination as well.”
“That sounds awful, but I now have plenty of games for you guys to learn and see if you might like.”
The next few hours were fun as I taught them a few card games. Fortunately, they weren’t as good as Lola at playing them, so I actually won quite a few. After that, it was time to get back to work.
One thing that worried me was how I used my command skill without wanting to. Really need to start training them so something like this would not happen by accident.
POV: Dean
It had been nearly three weeks since Captain woke us up. At first, it was quite boring, but that all changed the first day we were able to play cups.
It was still weird to have one of my core locks be broken and to be able to want to and actually be capable of playing anything we wanted for entertainment.
It didn’t take us long to start winning against our captain. He was a good teacher. Yet most of the time he dedicated to work.
The knives he made us were quite serviceable, and he often talked about the limitations of 3D printing. He was really passionate about everything to do with making things.
He also made us more like him. We originally only had four fingers, but he made us five-fingered hands. His seeming ability to make stuff was something I’ve only heard other mechanics wish they could do.
Sam was also really fascinated by his affinity combinations and the skills he got, but he was always interested in stuff like that.
The table in front of us now also had a scratched-in chessboard. We used it for a few different games. One called chest that used different types of pieces was fun, and I quite liked the challenge. Sam and I seemed quite equally competent in most games, which made things quite fun.
The only problem was that we couldn't train. I really missed moving as fast as possible, and I didn’t really know what this body was capable of. Although I do know that the captain will make us better bodies later. But it just feels wrong not to know what I’m currently capable of if something goes wrong.
Currently, the captain was working on one of his guns. He called it Experiment 333. Apparently, he’ll be naming the model soon enough, but during the battle on the station, he found that there were a few things he needed to fix before he was satisfied with the design.
It was crazy to think that he came up with it basically on his own, as the gun seemed to perform really well. Another crazy thing we learned was that he built this spaceship. To this day, I can’t really believe it.
Building ships is something usually done by hundreds of workers, dozens of designers, and costs so many credits. Yet, even crazier, he wants to make an even bigger ship on his own.
Sam and I have been thinking about our spot and what we could do when we had this bigger ship. The captain seemed well-versed in making AI, and he had so many of us. Which was, once again, crazy. I’ve never met someone who could have so many of them bonded. But it meant that I could have more brothers and sisters specifically made for certain security tasks.
The Captain also wants to start clearing portals, and of course, we offered to help, but I felt like he wasn’t too keen on that, at least at the start. Sam was also worried that what happened to our old master might happen to our new Captain, but I had a feeling that the Captain was a lot more robust and wouldn't succumb to power as easily.
We were both optimistic about our futures, but we also needed to be careful. At least the Captain seemed to be sneaky as he managed to hide our existence. Otherwise, the pirates would have definitely tracked us down to capture and kill us, as we knew way too many of their secrets.
The most worrying part were the four skills that the captain consumed. While we weren’t a part of the raid that captured the skill stone shipment, our old master did bring us to get a portion that was meant to attract new recruits after we secured the station.
The skill stones were somewhat randomly distributed, but Sam did pay more attention to all of that than me. He told the captain and I that he was pretty sure those skills the captain had came from a smaller box that had at least 40 other such skills, but all of them were distributed like the ones he got.
It's still hard for me to understand how the Pirate Lord could be so stupid as to steal this skill stone shipment and not even know the value of it or the true prize inside. I would not be surprised if the Pirate Lord our old master tried to join and his entire organization got wiped out for what they stole.
Fortunately, there should be enough confusion that the captain should be safe. But I also want to get myself a better body and better weapons, so if something goes wrong, I could protect him.
If we can keep him safe long enough, I believe he would become powerful enough that it wouldn’t matter what skills he got, or from whom. That’s how much potential both of us see in him. Our old master could only wish to be as good as our captain.