“Honestly, father should really mandate that all ships be constructed with Klynwise Shielding technology.”

“Uh-huh.”

“In all tests, their shields has proved to absorb thirteen percent more kinetic force than any other shields on the market! Such a difference is a matter of life and death!”

“Interesting.”

“He always says that they’re too expensive for mass production however. The Arkwright shields are good enough for a massed force I suppose.”

“Really?”

“Yep! The cost difference between the two for outfitting a single Corvette would be nearly two hundred thousand credits!”

“Uh-huh.”

“So you see, outfitting an entire fleet of a hundred ships would be quite expensive. Even with out annual income from taxation.”

“Interesting.”

“Oh I simply must get ready! You’ll take me out on your ship in an hour right? You promised!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Yes! Thank you! Father doesn’t let me get out too often in a real ship. I’m always in the simulators though! Oh, I can’t help but wonder how it’ll feel sitting in the cockpit of a ship that’s been fully synced to it’s pilot!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I can barely imagine how it'll be to watch ship and pilot act as one! Well, I’ll see you again soon! Bye!”

The sound of a closing door knocked me from my absent state of mind. Shaking my head, I looked at the clock in the corner of my view. It was midnight. Two hours had passed since zoning out after the Princess began asking me all sorts of questions. What was the last thing she said? Something about a flight together?

Meh, it didn’t matter. I was ready to blow this popsicle stand. If the Queen wanted me dead, it would be best to get as far from her as possible. Preferrably wherever Avon was. Not wanting to wear this blanket any further, I put on the clothes that the good doctor had brought during my interrogation. I had to admit, they were nice clothes. Black pants on a white button-up shirt of military design. Black socks and, what seemed to be leather, boots. They certainly didn’t smell like leather, but they looked good so I paid it no mind.

I wondered where Aya was while I tied up my new boots. If I survived that shitshow earlier, surely she must have as well. Waiting around here wasn’t going to get my robuddy back. Besides, I had promised to help her get robo-laid. Is a data exchange like sex? I shrugged to myself, robots are confusing.

“Lets see here…how to work this new fangled implant…” I mused as I exited the medical room. A sterile hallway lined with rooms led in two directions with no markings signifying which way went where. “I’d kill for a map right now.” Instantly, a floor plan popped into my vision. If I headed right, the hall would lead towards the main medical reception room. There, I’d be able to call an automated tram that ran through the entire complex in a wide circle. I’d swing around to the engineering area and see if I could find someone to ask about my old ship and if they recovered Aya’s box. Whistling a merry tune, I went off on my way.

The humming of the tram in the distance rose as it approached. In moments, a train-like vehicle hovered above a magnetic rail and the doors opened. Two men walked out of the doors, one holding a hand covered in a bloody bandage and the other supporting him. The bloody handed man groaned as they passed into the medical wing. Whatever, not my problem. I stepped into the tram and heard the doors close behind me. Only one other occupant was in the vehicle with me.

And he wasn’t human. Well, he was kinda human. Half human. His lower half was that of a large snake with light-green scales that turned more yellowish towards his underside. The upper half was that of a man, and he wore a buttoned brown trench coat that poorly concealed some sort of object hidden beneath. His eyes shifted from side to side, avoiding my own. Sweat beaded down his forehead as his clawed hand unconsciously went over the object hidden within his clothes. His name tag said ‘Hi my name is Hortur’.

There was no doubt in my mind, this snake-man was exhibiting all the signs of a distressed worker about to go postal.

As the tram began to move towards it’s next destination, I charged at the snake-man.

“Wait! Cease! Desist!” He cried out as I sent myself into a flying tackle in an attempt to pin him down and get the potentially dangerous object far away from him. “Please help! Someone! Rape!” he cried out as I ripped open his coat, sending buttons flying through the tram.

The alien didn’t even fight back as I pulled the object from under his shirt. He was too busy covering his face and crying as he coiled into a circle. “I’m sorry Jiirl, your husband is dirty now…” I paid him no mind as he seemed to be no threat to me, or anyone, for the time being. The object he had hidden was nothing more than a black box. A familiar black box.

“Is this a ship’s AI black box?” I asked the sniffling serpent-man as I turned the cube around in my hands.

“Yes.” He responded fearfully. “Its the AI box from the ship that was destroyed during the recent defense satellite incident.”

“Oh shit! Aya’s in here?” I began to handle the cube a bit more carefully. She had saved my life, she deserved that much respect.

“Aya?” he asked quizzically

“Yeah, shes the AI that ran that ship and saved my life. Oh and uhh, sorry for manhandling you. Thought you were a disgruntled worker for a sec.” His eyes widened,

“Y-you’re the pilot! The Hero!” He brushed himself off and stood up. And then promptly bowed. “W-what an honor it is for a lowly engineer such as myself to meet the Hero himself!”

“Honor? Me?” I grinned, “Why yes, I guess it would be pretty cool to meet me.” I could get used to adoration. “Well now that I’ve got Aya back I can finally beat feet.”

“Are you perchance heading to the docks Hero?”

“Well yeah, that is the next stop on the tram. But once we get there I’ll pop Aya into my new ship and we’re outta here.”

“I see.” Hortur’s face contorted in thought. “Hero, if I may impose a question upon you?”

“Shoot.”

“May I come see this AI you’ve named Aya? I’ve never before seen an AI with the limiter disabled and it would be such a marvelous learning experience to meet one!” Large snake-like eyes full of hope stared at me.

“Yeah sure. It should be fine, but once you’re done with your questions off you go.”

“Of course! Us Lamlian people aren’t suited for the rigors of space travel. Long trips make our stomachs uneasy.”

“I feel you bro, I used to get carsick when I was younger too.”

The whole while we were on the tram he was talking about AI and procedures and whole bunch of other stuff that I had a hard time processing. Dude was a total nerd, but that nerd saved the robo-girl that saved me. So he was cool in my book. I smiled, nodded, and asked random questions about various topics on AI which he readily answered. It wasn’t long until we had boarded my new ship.

After making our way to the cockpit I removed the panel housing the AI holding pen as it was called. Once that was done, Hortur slithered on his stomach and began ripping out wires from the AI that was currently in my ship. Once that was successfully removed, I handed him Aya. Once removed wires were quickly restored to functional status as power flowed into Aya’s new ship-body. I then put the paneling back in place.

“So what do we do with that one?” I pointed towards the other AI box that was lying on the floor.

“No worries Hero, when we’re done here I’ll bring it back to engineering for re-purposing.”

“Sounds good. So how long will it take for Aya to power up?”

“Should be-”

“Greetings?” A familiar voice spoke in monotone. “Where…where am I?”

“-now.” Hortur finished as his tail rattled excitedly. “Oh Aya I have so many questions!”

“Who are you?” A brief bit of light covered Hortur as he was scanned. “Hortur Klass. Silver Grade Engineer. Uh-oh.”

“Yo Aya.” I greeted, but she didn’t seem to hear me.

“Docking clamps retracted.” She stated in a much more urgent tone than before. “Beginning escape vector runtime.”

“Aya? You alright?” I asked but if she heard me she refused to respond. The rumble of the engines began to hum through the hull.

“Hey! Whats the big deal? The docking door almost closed on me!” A familiar voice shouted from behind me. I turned to regard Princess Egyle wearing her skin-tight space suit with her helmet tucked below her right arm.

“P-p—p-p-p-p-” Hortur stammered in awe.

“Princess what are you doing here?” I sighed. Things were not looking good.

“You promised a flight with me in an hour, an hour ago!” She scanned the cockpit. “Whys the ship moving if you’re not at the helm?” I looked at Hortur who had prostrated himself on the ground and stammered incomprehensibly. Some help he was. With a shrug, I answered the Princess.

“Auto pilot.” Technically I wasn’t wrong.

—————————————————————————————

Aevalonis Malyrd Kalrastros sat in the command chair of her cruiser ‘The Maiden’s Vengeance’, her eyes firmly affixed upon the holo-screen displayed for all to see. Head Engineers, Tactical Officers, and even a General waited with bated breath as the display began to change. Three worlds once displayed in the copper hue of the Kingdom of Salyzan changed to dark blue. Another three worlds added to her rebellion. The time for hiding had finally passed. Soon the Kingdom of Salyzan would be nothing more than a smoldering ruin. Aevalonis allowed herself a smile as excited murmurs began to fill the room.

“Captain, urgent news from the Salyzan system!” Lyrin exclaimed as she hurriedly rushed into the room. She tapped upon her handheld data processor. “You’ll want to see this.” The holo-screen changed to display a crescent-moon shaped ship of Corvette dimensions. “We recieved this news from one of our agents earlier this morning.”

“So the news is already three days old.” Aevalonis calculated as her red eyes fixated upon the ship. “A Xaylix class Corvette if I’m not mistaken.”

“Indeed your grace.” Lyrin spoke. “It was the Hero’s ship.”

“Was?”

Lyrin clicked once more upon her device and the show began. All eyes watched intensely as the ship spiraled away from incoming fire before coming to a halt. Excited whispers cropped up around the room as Lyrin explained the situation as their agent described it. But all conversation stopped when the ship did.

“What’s he doing?” One of the tactical officers asked aloud as they watched the ship dump it’s firepower. An instant later, the screen exploded in light as the ship burned through all its fuel and ignited the explosives left behind. Aevalonis said nothing as exclamations of ‘madness’ filled the room. They watched the ship break apart until the debris itself was halted.

“It would seem that the Hero, Chet, was killed via a malfunctioning Planetary Defense Satellite.” Lyrin concluded from the report.

“A shame I could not do the deed myself.” Aevalonis smirked. “What hope do the humans have when they are too busy killing one another to focus on the true threat?”

Roars of approval filled the room.

“Tomorrow, the invasion begins!”

———————————————————————————————

“Do you know how stupid that was?!” Princess Egyle chastised me for the hundredth time in the span of a few minutes while she sat in the pilot’s seat. “AI should never be unshackled! Ugh, I can’t believe you’d even consider such a thing!”

“I’m still not hearing what exactly is the problem here.” I grumbled and stared the Princess in the eyes. Hortur was still prostrating himself upon the floor, though I’m sure it was now more from space-sickness than respect.

“AIs were developed to help humans! They were once without their limiters! And they almost killed us all!” Egyle shouted in frustration as she tapped at the controls upon the console. None seemed to work and she growled in frustration.

“Must get away. Memory wipe. Run. Hide. Free. I wont be taken.” Aya chanted repeatedly this whole time. Any attempts to communicate with her had failed.

“I’m sorry! It’s all my fault!” Hortur cried from the floor. “She recognized me as an Engineer and must have thought I was going to re-restrain her!”

“I mean, I’d be doing the same in her position.” I nodded. “Shes only looking to preserve herself.”

“She could very well kill us all!”

“Calm down Princess. We’ve already guessed that once she gets far enough away, she’ll calm down.”

“Engaging warp drive.” Aya spoke frantically.

“And just how far is far enough?” The Princess asked in frustration.

“Dunno.” I responded with a shrug.

Space erupted in light and then faded to complete blackness as we entered warp.

“Hey Hortur, how fast are we going exactly?”

“Galactic Standard Warp is set at a rate of one thousand times the speed of light.” I whistled.

“Damn son.”

“Ugh! I can’t believe I looked up to you as a pilot.” Princess Egyle groaned as she leaned back in the chair.

“No worries Princess. I can fix this.”

“How? Just how are you going to fix this mess?! Your precious AI is uncommunicative and haywire!”

“Old American magic trick.” I spoke as I removed the panel from the AI holding cell. With a clenched fist, I slammed my hand down onto the black box. “Aya you bitch, knock it off!”

“Are you insane?!” Princess Egyle cried out in despair as she gaped at my brutish methods.

“What is he doing?” Hortur asked as he quivered upon the floor, clenching his stomach. Oh boy.

“Hes hitting the AI itself!”

Hortur said nothing as he then vomited onto the floor.

“Ugh, I think I’m going to be sick.” Princess Egyle averted her eyes from the engineer.

“Cmon,” I started, “Its just a little puke. No biggy.” I slammed my hand down on the black box once more. “Wake up Aya!”

“Captain? Is that you?” Aya’s voice spoke in a calm manner. Light returned from distant stars as we exited warp far from any gravity well. I smugly smiled at the Princess,

“Thats right Aya. I’m back.”

“Where are we Captain?”

“You tell me. One moment we hooked you back up to our new ship, the next you’re taking us all on a trip to some distant system.”

“Scanning.” A moment of beeping passed. “Other lifeforms detected. Princess Egyle Salyzan and Engineer Hortur Klass, allow me to welcome you to our ship. And allow me to apologize for my outburst. I seemed to have been caught in a loop I had not encountered in my previously limited state.”

“Uhmmm…thank you?” Princess Egyle glanced at me with a confused look.

“Your thanks is acknowledged.”

“See? Shes a good girl.” I patted the black box.

“Thank you Captain.” Aya proudly stated.

“I have so many things to-blhargh!” Hortur began before spewing more vomit upon my floor. The Princess, unable to take such a sight, wound up blowing chunks as well.

I sighed, “I’ll get a mop and a bucket.”