C36 Resolve (e)
Resolve.
Anthony smiled as he idly caressed Ina. The vixen having laid down on his lap now, slowly swaying her tail with what he assumed to be satisfaction. And while seemingly sleeping, her ears, standing alert, were showing that she was wide awake, simply enjoying his attention.
It was a serene moment, showing once more how he had gotten used to find solace in the vulpine’s presence. It was still quite the surprise, seeing how considerate she was for an animal, keeping her distance when he was occupied, and coming to him whenever he was free, to steal his attention.
It made him wonder though, the door was closed, how did that little sneak make it in here ? Did she get in when Tilly left ? Possibly, it wasn’t like he paid attention to a lot lately, his reaction on the plane proved that.
The very fact that he had not even tried properly assessing his situation, or show the motivation to truly get into the repairs of the Hope. He had done the bare minimum, and wasted time occupying himself with other, more pleasant things.
By comparison, when he was on the Psychic Plane, being that elf, he felt what seemed like there was a void where his emotions should have been. But that was the wrong assumption, as he realized only after the fact. He had been in complete control over his emotions.
He felt satisfaction, pleasure and disgust when appropriate, no wasted energy in questioning his decisions or steps taken. And he worked with an efficiency that allowed realizations that had not even registered to him before.
The enhancing effect the Hope AI had on him, like her capacity of computation, directly enhanced his ability to think, to react. And had he not tried it, he would probably not even realize just how deep his control on the Hope was. To blatantly modify the ship to his heart’s content, as long as either he or Hope had any useful knowledge available, which too could be reapplied in different combinations.
The one thing that he put to question was how impulsive one decision in particular seemed, to use the Siren. It was a good idea, pleasant too, but the extent he saw in his mind then, it seemed, over the top, cruel even.
When making that decision, he clearly had an image in mind already. A box, two halves that could be moved to seal the occupant within. A reclining seat inside, with cuffs right besides where the head would be, with another set a little higher, so that her rear was helplessly exposed, and positioned to stick out of that box.
It created quite the desirable if unrealistic image of a wall, with a row of siren goods, where he just had to grab onto the handles placed above, to then ruthlessly pound into the helpless occupant as she was reduced to nothing more then those two holes, just mere fuck meat.
Part of him still enjoyed that idea, but it was indeed unrealistic, he hardly would have the endurance to sustain using them like that. And while Tilly suggested they had patience, long as he would satiate their desire to be dominated, it still left the problem that he was still within Eden’s influence, he could not simply hold their denizens captive.
Perhaps if he could tend to them in a roundabout way, through use of robotics, or even Androids that kept violating them, though was there a purpose to doing that ? Would he gain any benefit from that ? Something that may be worthwhile to be tested.
“ Logical approach. “ He uttered under his breath as he realized that he needed to do some experimentation.
First step, to see how much energy he regained without the use of a Siren. Then, test the difference while using Tilly or Kira. And only then see if his direct control was required, or, if he could use other tools to get what he wants.
If the use of such tools brought him any benefit, then those rows of freely available ass would actually make sense. Not just for his personal pleasure, but in general, turning those Siren into a sort of, recharge mechanism, batteries of sorts, and a passive means to increase the strength of his ability.
But, that still left the problematic validity about holding them captive. Kira and Tilly were his, that much he understood from the info he read from the Padd. They where his, until they chose to, break their arrangement with him, which was unlikely to happen long as he kept using them. But the others, it meant breaking them past that bonding phase first to assure their complete obedience.
The one advantage he had, that he could truly abuse, was that he was learning, and getting better at, having his way with them, to the point that he near raped that one Siren that was stuck in that crawl space.
“ Yeah. “ He mused, nodding lightly to himself, he could keep them on the ship, with the allure that he was not going to, worship them, but use them.
The Padd suggested that they longed for control, and were getting to much, worship on Eden. Which meant, instead of control, they just got sex, which was enough for them to be content, but they craved more.
If he could show them that he intended to not give a fuck, and use them whenever he felt like it, that should keep them around, possibly lure more of them to his side as well.
He could even suggest that he intended to leave Cradle once Everything was settled, and those that craved to be used, instead of being Worshiped, could simply, stay with him. And if he found a satisfactory result in his tests, he could still lock them up and suit that image of their degradation.
“ Hope, set a timer for 24 hours, inform me the moment the time passed. “ He ordered the AI, determined to go at it step by step for now. Jumping to impulsive conclusions wasn’t going to do him any good, he needed foundational facts before he went out of his way to lock up Siren’s.
“ 24 hour timer has been started. “ Hope responded.
“ Crap. “ He muttered then, he would have to let Tilly sleep over at Kira’s quarters tonight, not to fall for her charms again. He could not risk tainting the results of this test, nor should he be expending any psychic energy for now.
“ Hope, do please inform Tilly to stay with Kira tonight, let her know that I am running a test, and need some time to myself. “ He instructed the AI.
“ Will do. “ She responded.
“ Good. And something else. Have an android bring me some mixed fruits, and use available resources to get the Lab units back on-line. I will try and fix Reactors and Research lab soon so we can start exploring new options. “ He ordered then.
“ I currently have one Lab unit in functional order. Setting up it’s programming should take about a day. But the remaining units still need repairs. “ Hope reported.
“ That will do for now, just finalize it’s programming. I may need a few days before I can do any more repairs. “ Anthony responded.
“ Understood. “ She answered.
Then Anthony just closed his eyes, realizing that he may need to have Hope build a few more Lab models, they had the greatest capacity for fine motor skills, handling fragile material was part of their duties.
Which also would make them a good basis for more, intimate tasks, if these tests bring any useful results anyway. He would have to try and make a few additions to one model too, and have Hope design appropriate programming for it.
“ Let’s see how it goes for now. “ Anthony spoke to himself, and just spend some more time spoiling Ina until the food for them both arrived.
Meanwhile…
Hope resumed her normal functions, with the primary goal to reinstate systems that where currently salvageable through her own means.
She dedicated a small portion of her available processing power to boot up the charging station the lab android was currently stationed in, and connected to it to begin the programming process.
On the side she delegated Industrial units on Lyria to their mining and supply tasks, and even managed to set up a charging port for the Haunt unit on planet. While Kira was currently landing to unload a new delivery of iron and copper, and a small amount of Deuterium three, which too needed unloading.
Meanwhile she registered the difference between the few month of their journey when it was just Anthony and Ina on the ship, and the decks that now seen frequent Siren presence passing by. And through the increasing coverage of the security network, she could watch them work, and chat, and, well, do other things to occupy their time with.
Primarily they worked on the interior components of the Shield system, to try and understand it, and Hope could hear them occasionally reporting their findings to Aria. And she listened more closely to those as she judged these informations worthwhile, given that she likely needed to control the system herself again soon.
Previously, it was set to a simple on and of state, where all parameters where set automatically, but by what Aria had claimed, it was an effective, though unstable design. One which they promised to improve, if they could get their research data on it completed.
But by observation alone, Hope could determine that Siren where not the most, motivated in tasks like these, and they easily found distraction in chatter amongst one another, especially since they had begun to leave themselves exposed on what seemed to have been Anthony’s demand.
It registered for Hope as curiosity , about why humans where not used if Siren where so inefficient in these tasks. But she ended up calculating that there was a high likelihood that there must have been security concerns regarding the presence of the Hope, and the occurrence of psychic energy emitted from Anthony.
Siren had however one advantage, they required no tools. They could simply shape parts of themselves, usually their hands or fingers, into the tools they required. At times even to create whole power tools from their own matter, so that they where prepared for every eventuality.
It suggested to Hope that a combination of, Human attention, and Siren flexibility, could make a very efficient team. Though Siren had a much broader chance to survive more complicated, dangerous situations, which was why they probably been the only once present from Eden right now.
Hope Needed more data, she felt a sensation of Curiosity, and her subroutines where requesting more and more data trying to understand these creatures.
“ Query: Further data required on subject.
Resolution: Further observation of present Siren.
Error: Insufficient Data storage allocation for task.
Currently Available storage prioritized for Ship functions.
Resolution: Repairs to remaining computation infrastructure.
Resolution on hold, Administrator required.
Administrator currently Occupied. Operation paused until further Notice. “
If hope could sigh, she probably would right now. Her subroutines where quickly developing, soaking up knowledge, and through observation, grow gradually more lifelike in her intellect and capacity to express herself. But without more storage to collect and assess more data, she was stuck, and she felt it somehow upsetting her.
“ Query: Desire not conducive to current priorities.
Resolution: Disable current Emotion emulation Subroutines.
Resolution Declined. Further data integration halted.
Remaining Priority: Ship system integration. Process at 36%.
New Priority added: Increase Refining process efficiency. “
Yes, this indeed would be the best course of action. Speed up raw material refinement, so Anthony would have a greater stockpile to use in repairs. By her estimate, they should have enough resources to repair at least one of the reactors now, and then the reactivation process could begin. Their current fuel stockpile was still too small, but more was growing, and she would need the increased computational capacity then anyway.
It was a satisfactory solution for now, enough for her to turn her attention back to the work on Vita, the Lab Android, and the supply lines. Something that would still occupy her for a while.
And operations would seem to run smoothly, that was, until one of the security systems threw out an Error response on one of the cameras. In particular, the one that was located within Anthony’s room.