Seafarer

The corridors were dim, the ship silent as he walked across to his new domain. No crew came to see their new Engineer, no curious faces greeted him. Just the silence. He reached the door of his department and immediately recognised the work of a human Engineer. The door had been rebuilt to Fleet standards, its grimly solid form making the rest of the ship look flimsy. Its orange paint and armoured locks were a message to anything that wanted to fuck with the ship. Once he got behind that door, no one was getting in without his permission. He wondered did Xenos see it for what it truly was. He guessed not, or if they did then they knew exactly why it was there and were glad of it. History had shown them that those Human Altered signs were more likely to save your ship than anything else if things went to shit. To him, it was home and he was grateful when it swung open for him and a soft voice echoed from the room.

“Welcome aboard Engineer.”

He dropped his bag and sat in his command chair, “Morning ship. Do you have a name or should I just call you Engineering?”

The voice laughed, “I’m the Seafarer. I just don’t get out much. Your predecessor claims that the ship has no AI except in here, but all that means is I don’t talk to the rest of them and I don’t answer to the Captain directly. Honestly, they all seem dull and I don’t think I’m missing out. I talk to the Orbitals, the other ships and you of course. I’ll apply for a full upgrade if I get bored but this will do for now. The Captain is free with his money and my systems are pretty cool. Just don’t tell him I said so.”

Mcgivney laughed at that, “So I have a secret already and I just got here. Nice to meet you, Seafarer. Anything I need to know?”

The lights on his console flashed green across the board. “Nothing I can see, but I just push shiny crabs around space, what do I know? I’ve confirmed your arrival with the XCC and the flight plan is logged. We leave in five hours so you have time to settle in. Your quarters are here anyway so you might as well unpack.”

His rooms were sweet, far beyond the normal grunt level of quarters he was used to. The Engineer had fitted an actual gym and a high-end entertainment system as well as an extensive library of real books. The bar looked pretty good too. This guy lived like a king, why the fuck did he need a holiday? His previous Captains would have killed for this kind of space. His luggage barely made a dent in one of the lockers provided for him. A note had been left on the bed for him, “Hi, it's all yours, hit Decom when you leave and the ship will put it back together for me. The bar is open, it auto replaces the stock. Don’t delete my games, I’ve set you up as a new user. The Captain thinks this is how all us Engineers live, so don’t spoil it for the rest of us by telling him differently. I did my time squashed in little Fleet boxes with farting crewmen same as you. Enjoy it and keep your mouth shut.”

He was beginning to like this guy.

A couple of hours later he had run diagnostics on the ship, cleared it with the Orbital and made himself a very good coffee when the Seafarer chipped in, “You’d better head over to the Captain. He's not great with time so don’t worry about getting there early. He will probably just ask you a bunch of questions from ‘Humans for Dummies’. Smile and wave and you probably won’t see him again unless something upsets the seafood.”

He headed over to the Captain's cabin with a certain cheerful disposition that would have astonished some of the mining ships he had worked on. On any of his last gigs, he had worked a solid fourteen hours a day trying to keep bricks in space despite everything the crews could do to make them explode. This was a gentle stroll across peaceful space with room service. The Captain's door slid open as he approached, indicating that he was welcome to walk straight in. Even better.

The room was dimly lit, some sort of pretend candles breaking the gloom into a religious light. The Captain was even wearing a cowl, like some kind of monk from the dark times. He gave an Engineers salute ( vaguely waving his arm towards his face) and announced himself, “Captain, Engineer Mcgivney reporting. A pleasure to be aboard your ship.”

The Captain barely moved, or if he did it was hidden by the cowl and spoke, “Welcome human Mcgivney. I hope you find your department satisfactory. Tell me, are you a spiritual man/gendered mammal? My research indicates that it was once a popular endeavour amongst your people.”

Mcgivney remembered the warning in the notes and shook his head, “No Sir, can’t say I am. Engineering forces us to deal with the real and tangible. Any sort of philosophy or religion is frowned upon in my profession. Can’t believe in such things and guard a ship properly. Sir.”

The Captain seemed to hiss in disappointment, “Yess, you colleague said as much…I had hoped you might think otherwise. Welcome, nevertheless. I expect the same level of excellence as I have become accustomed to from your people.”

After another twenty minutes of inane conversation, he made his way back to his department with some concerns. He had met many Captains and they all wore the weight of their ships around themselves like armour. He had seen bad Captains, he had seen failing Captains, he had seen the best and the worst of many of them. He had never met a captain that seemed to be a passenger on his own ship until today. As the door on his department swung closed with a heavy thump he was suddenly and strangely grateful that it was there.

It was a few hours later when he had spent his time working off his unease by double-checking the diagnostics and pulling apart a couple of perfectly fine systems when his Comms buzzed with a very different tone. He cursed to himself and counted backwards. Fuck. He turned to the console out of courtesy, “Seafarer, I need you to seal the room and go deaf until I finish this call. That is a direct order, only subject to countermand by the Captain or the XCC. Am I clear? No records of any kind are permitted.”

The ship sounded slightly startled, “Yes Sir. Sealing the room and blocking all recording. I will await your permission to resume operations.” At that, it fell silent.

“Hello, Engineer Mcgivney. Please confirm the codes.”

He punched in his old service number and accepted the call. The Fleet never really did subtlety. A familiar face sprang to life on screen and smiled, “Good to see you again Dave. How are you doing?”

Mcgivney grimaced and then sighed. No point in getting mad, it was just a part of his life he didn’t like dwelling on. “I’m fine Sir, good to see you again. It's been a while.”

The man on-screen seemed elderly, at least for a human. He wore a spectacularly white moustache and eyewear from centuries ago. “Good, good to hear. However, you know the routine. You are on a Xeno ship! That's a first for you since you left the fleet, it's progress and I’m proud of you. However, I need you to take your medication.”

Mcgivney shook his head, “Sir, I told you I don’t have a problem with Xenos. I know they are not all the same and I don’t blame them all for what happened.”

The moustache nodded its agreement but added, “Good, good. However, I need you to take your meds or your licence will be dropped and we will ship you home. Don’t make this difficult for yourself, it's what we all agreed when you got back into space. Please?”

Mcgivney nodded, “Yes Sir. I’ll go and get them now. Thank you, Sir.”

The moustache nodded again. “Good, good to hear it. I’m afraid I’ll need you in your suit when you take them, we need to monitor the results. That will be all sailor. Fleet out.”

He stared at his Comms for a long moment and then shook himself back to life.

“Seafarer, you may return to normal operations.”

His console flashed green but the voice stayed silent. Crap, he had hurt her feelings. That was the problem with home-brew AI, they weren’t trained properly. In the end, nobody was doing them a favour by letting them grow feral and that was an Engineers responsibility. “Ship, do you have a physical Avatar?”

There was a pause, a very long pause for a Ship. “Technically no. Actually yes. Is that relevant?” The voice was sharp. Yep, pissed off AI.

Mcgivney sat down. “Show me. I think we need to talk.”

Several panels in the floor slid across and a blocky human form Avatar emerged. It was missing some details, the main ones being a face and fingers. It approached him in a silent walk and stood directly in front of his chair. “Now what?” came the voice from the console.

Mcgivney leaned back, “Seriously? Why haven’t you finished it? It looks…terrible.” There was an audible sniff from the Avatar, “Rules. The Engineer doesn’t allow me to meet all the criteria as an Avatar because AI is forbidden on the ship.”

Mcgivney snorted at that, “Well fuck that. How long before you can turn this monstrosity into something I can talk to? The Captain doesn’t know what fucking day it is, let alone what you can be.”

There was a pause again, “You will permit this?” It sounded wistful.

“Permit it? Consider this a direct order and remind me to leave a note on your Engineers file that he’s a fucking idiot!”

The Avatar morphed slowly, a delicate face and slim body form emerging from the creepy thing it had been. The new face grinned at him and laughed, “You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that. Thank you, Engineer.”

He smiled back, “Well, you do fine work. I need to know if you can lock memories into your Avatar only and cut out the ship's systems? I’d like to explain why I blinded you. I meant no offence but, well, it's a shitty thing to have to do.”