C46 Exploring Options
Exploring Options.
Anthony smiled as he inspected the new ship.
5%, that was all he needed for the Pride’s Fall, and the ship itself wasn’t half bad either. It was using a small fusion reactor that by size and efficiency ratio, was far better then what the New Horizon was using, if still generating less. If that could be upscaled, he could be looking at potential upgrades.
And the so called Phase drive, it was a ring of sorts that was in the back of the ship, something that seemed to be charged to a degree, and then essentially create a field around itself. How or why that would enable to travel between systems at faster then light, he had no Idea, but if he had Hope take it apart to understand, he might find out.
So that shelved the idea to equip the Hope with one, until he understood how it worked, but he had one, and that was a good start.
Everything else on the ship seemed ok, he had little understanding of the weapons efficiency yet, and what to expect in actual combat. But considering his initial plans, there was a high likely-hood that he’d find out eventually.
“ And now, for the fun part. “ He mused as he closed the view of the new ship, and enter his plane to focus on that lone Haunt unit in the distance, to take direct control.
And when feeling his senses shift over to the robotic spider, he found with relieve that he was having a wide field of view, as he dreaded the notion to use all of the four primary eyes separately.
Instead, the two upward, and the two frontal camera’s worked in unison to simply give him a decent 180 degree view were before, he had been given four separate screens, when sending the unit remotely into the ship to check on the crew.
Which was where he headed towards first now, if only to get a sense of how the unit moved, and looking through it at the broken hallway, it sure felt different.
“ Over three thousand years. “ He found himself wondering, looking at the broken system before him, the dried husks of people he once worked with, of colonists that were supposed to settle a new world with him. People that dreamed of a new world, and people he would likely have stabbed in the back, just to push through his own vision of a new paradise. It was a shame, but also a good thing that they had not to witness what he would have done, probably.
He wasn’t so sure anymore if he would create a little nightmare for humanity to grow together against, not with how he had to realize that the old world fell to ruin. And now, well, he would make his own decision about them as, even through the information delivered to him, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope for them.
“ Are you going to play god ? “ Hope chimed in, speaking in his mind. He was using her to enhance his thought processing again, but that also meant she was aware of his thoughts.
“ I would not say god. But I did intent to give them a reason to work together. Something that threatens them, but does not wipe them out. Like a trial perhaps. “ Anthony admitted, and finding in his response that his plan had been more of an idea, and not a concrete resolution yet.
“ Human’s need rules, strict guidelines, and purpose. I don’t know exactly where the perfect middle path is. But I imagine, if they had an enemy that forced unity, things might change.
You seen the info on the Seltran and Human war, they been at it for decades. The Seltran want to protect life, and mostly just keep their territory, it is just selfdefense for them. And Humans, or, Terran’s, they give into paranoia, too blinded by their own believes to see what cooperation could bring.
If there were a reason for them to bond together. Well, I bet those two might just make a nice team. “ Anthony explained.
“ So, you want to play god, but now that your enemy is much more numerous, you don’t feel like it is possible anymore ? “ Hope countered.
“ Hm, maybe. “ Anthony admitted, moving the Spider robot back to the exposed charger port, from where he took a look around, to look for a wreck of more or less equal size to the Pride’s fall.
“ I have tried making a lot of excuses for myself in the past, and I only just started to understand myself a little better. So for now, it may be a good idea to take in a new perspective and see what humanity has become. “ Anthony thought.
Then he narrowed his selection of possible ships to claim down, as there where at least three ships that seemed to suit his requirements. One of them apparently a Seltran ship, the other two of Terran design, one apparently a combat vessel, but the other looked like a sort of, drone carrier, with a few damaged drones still attached to it.
“ You are Human too. “ Hope suggested.
“ That I am, and I am flawed just the same, I am not denying that. But fact is, in adversity, humans find reason to bond together. I think I am still looking for the golden line, like a Goldilocks zone, you know. “ Anthony mused, deciding to approach the Drone vessel, lowering the spiders body so he could jump into the general direction of it.
“ It sounds like your undecided to me. “ Hope offered.
“ Maybe, or rather, your right. I guess I would be playing god, and my morality is no better then theirs. And in a way, that is why I created you. I guess I just have been looking at it the wrong way. “ Anthony wondered, adjusting the spiders flightpath a little with it’s thrusters, which turned out a bit harder then he thought. Orienting himself in three dimensional space was harder then he thought.
“ Then, what do you think the right way would be ? “ Hope asked, and Anthony found himself mulling that question over for a few times.
“ I think, your right. I think I do want to play god, I just have not decided what kind of god I want to be. I am still struggling with the realization of all the implications, especially the moral aspect of it. Going this path will make me no better then any other megalomaniac, and all things considered, I am probably no more then a fool with visions of grandeur.
I made you, thinking I could create a better world, but life is never fair. If you try to correct it, nature will just throw a bigger stone into your path. The only way to win at this game, is to play by it’s rules.
So perhaps becoming the villain isn't that bad after all. But I guess the question is, will I become drunk on power ? Or will I be satisfied just causing change.
Looking at my ability, I think power is what I want, what I always wanted, so I will go with that first, and see where it will take me. Thinking to much about it will get me nowhere. “ He explained.
“ That Is very human of you. “ Hope admitted.
“ Is indeed. “ Anthony agreed, and adjust the spider bot to slow down and engage it’s legs maglock, without which he would actually have slipped off the wreck.
“ Thank god for magnetism. “ He thought, and then focused on the wreck to try and take it over. And this time, it felt like he was loosing his breath for a moment before he could sense the ship being his.
“ Hoh ! that must have been a lot. “ He realized, and quickly checked his remaining energy, 28%, so he was looking at a cost increase of 10% per 100 light-years, give or take.
The remaining 47% could be used now, either for another wreck, or just to repair this one. But finding out this ships role would probably be better first. So, with that in mind, he swapped over to a closer view at it’s hull and layout plan.
“ Not bad. Quite convenient in fact. “ He uttered then.
The ship was, in it’s length, mostly a semi oval, with a cut off rear, and the fronts middle armor removed to leave a flightpath into a small hangar. The armor plating on the sides extended down below the holding clamps that kept a few of the remaining drones. And by the looks of it, this was some sort of, maintenance, or engineering vessel.
“ Hope, I want to test something. I am going to repair this ship and the remaining drones. There is still power in it’s capacitor, see if you can access the vessels system while I am connected to the both of you. “ He instructed, and then invested his available resources to repair the ship. For which in part, he had to take the 02 apart, so that she would loose most of it’s systems now, truly to leave her a dead husk.
“ I can reach into the system, but communication between myself and the ship is likely to take time. They are using a different programming language, and I may have to analyze or reprogram it entirely. “ Hope reported.
“ Good, I am going to retract my control from it, tell me if you can remain in contact with it.” Anthony issued.
“ No, I did loose my reach on it. “ Hope reported when he then withdrew his Psychic energy.
“ I see. “ He responded, satisfied with this test. It meant he could use Hope still to control this vessel, to some degree.
“ I am going to stay connected to you and this vessel then. The reactor has fuel for a while it seems, but if our assumption is right, there may be military forces around, so have the ship activate as little of it’s systems as possible. To much activity may be noticed by them.
Go ahead and analyze the programming language, I might take more of their wrecks, and it be faster if you can hijack their systems, rather then to rewrite it. “ Anthony instructed.
“ Understood. “ Hope responded.
Anthony checked his energy reserves then, 39% Remaining energy, he could still do a little with this, though he decided against it given that he had no resources remaining to repair another wreck. And if this was in fact a Military sector as suspected, he’d rather not make to much noise just yet.
At the very least, Hope needed time to understand their programming language. Although thinking about it now, she may probably have gained an understanding, analyzing the systems on the Pride’s fall as well. But this way he at least can experiment with his ability a little, and help Hope understand the drone system this ship uses.
And there was still one more thing bugging him, his abilities power scope. Most things he did with it required part of his Psychic energy. But there seems to be a cost reduction effect through learning to use it, as Thomas and Ludwig already had pointed out.
But there was also the question of strength, and he was guessing the best way to test that was by trying to control multiple units. The first time he came to his plane, thanks to Thomas, he was holding partial control over the Hope, and a lot of the Androids, and his problems arose with low energy then, negative even.
If he was going to steal ships from this place, then eventually he had to pull them out for them to become useful beyond the technological gain. Controlling multiple vessels at once, an upper limit to how much he could actually influence, or even claim, those were important limits he needed to feel out.
His ability could give him an indication about his Psychic energy reserves, so perhaps, it could put a numerical indication to what he could use ? It did, after all, have something of a system mechanic, like a program, and programs could be altered to some degree.
It made him wonder, prompted him to pull back towards the Plane itself, and then desired for his ability to give him a representation of his power level. But there was no reaction, no screen that popped up to show him what he wanted.
“ Yeah, would not be that easy, right ? “ He uttered, looking at the Android representations before him.
“ Representation. “ He wondered, and then tried to consider an Android, with the Value of 1, if an Android needed one point of his overall power level, then what would be the max value ?
Nothing happened, but then he reached out to one of the Androids, to control it, and determine that this action, this effect, should be valued at a power scale of one.
And that finally gave him what he wanted. A new display, showing him that the Unit cost was currently one of 326. Reaching in to personally control the android halved that value, and pulling out, just to leave his psychic energy on it, left him at 0.1, though pulling back his energy also left it there.
“ So, max value when controlled, halved cost if I take personal control, and 10% of control cost, as Idle. “ He summarized for himself, pulling away from the android to look at the Hope, where he repeated this experiment.
Exacting control of it cost him 200, so an idle cost of 20, and if he went for direct control, 100. The frigate were at 20 control, and 2 idle, and the new ship at 25 control, and 2.5 idle value.
“ I see. “ He mused, looking at an overall presentation of his values. Right now, he had a complete idle value of 45.3 of max 326. So, right now, he could easily control multiple units, but he was unable to control everything at once. And there was still the power-drain issue.
He did not notice any loss of psychic energy for now, but when he entered Cradle, he was already in the negative, probably. He was when Thomas entered his plane with him at least. So, he could only assume that his power was weaker then, and tried to influence everything at once, and crossing over his max value may cause a constant energy drain.
That, or there was an energy drain in general, perhaps, triggered once he reached out with his psychic energy ? Or, when he started to exact control ?
Remaining energy reserves were at 38% right now, so, while reaching out had minimal cost, he would have to watch the longterm effect. Well, the current situation would probably serve that best, he would have to leave it at this for a few hours, or a day, and watch if it caused a drain, or slowdown of energy gain.
“ I think this will do for now. “ He uttered, guessing that he also had to see if and how much power increase he would get from, playing with his toys.
There was also the issue of prospective cost reduction, as use of his energy gradually decreased the cost of expenditures, so perhaps, there may be a way to decrease control values and expand the scope of what and how much he could control.
“ Hope, let me know the moment you notice any movement on the side of that frigate. “ He instructed.
“ Understood. “ She responded, at which point Anthony leaned back to pull out of his Psychic plane.
And when he pulled out, he saw that Kira was already standing before him, and as she still remained naked, he would smile, recalling his need to do some, further experimentation.
“ Get down and put your ass up, doll ! “He would order her while he got up from the captains chair.
Kira’s presence was just perfect to see how much use he could get out of her, and with that blush on her face, and the simple obedience she displayed instead of her usual snappiness, well, she was looking forward to be of assistance again.