A Discussion - Edited 11-8-2018

After returning from the Engineering Bay, I immediately sent Yama a message, asking if there would be any members of the Science Teams being ejected with us, and if not, to schedule one or two of them, if possible. I had some ideas. With that idea brewing in the back of my head, I moved on to another idea. A hand-held gauss rifle. We already had rail-guns. They were all vehicle mounted due to the power constraints. Perhaps these crystals would allow us to scale them a little. And lastly a degaussing cannon.

Our current means of EMP was a bomb. If we could create a directional degaussing field, that could do a lot of the same damage as an EMP, but without the fear of taking out our own electronics. Also, if directional, then there is a chance we could make it powerful enough to take out traditionally shielded electronics. After writing out the basics of what I was thinking I went to bed, knowing there would be limited time to work on these projects.

Being pulled out of cryo is a bizarre sensation. You would imagine that because your body is “frozen” that you would be cold. It makes a certain logical sense. What you don’t realize, or at least I didn’t realize, is that when you are that cold, your body feels like it is on fire.

My eyes snapped open, and I felt the jack in the back of my head release the pod connector. Once the door of the pod released, a few medical techs helped me onto a gurney and started running fluids through my system. Starting the fluid flush at 5C and slowly bringing my temps up to standard would take some time. For the first excruciating hour, they had been kind enough to provide me with a bit for me to bite down on. The second and third hour of defrosting were merely “uncomfortable” in comparison. After four hours I was given a mechanized wheelchair as my prosthetics had been recycled while I was under. I wasn’t supposed to be out of the game, after all.

“Hey, Rasputin?” I called out, propelling myself out of Medical.

“Yes, Miss Jax?”

“Miss? Shit, that’s right, I’ve been effectively kicked out of the service here. Damn.” It hurt being reminded of that. I didn’t particularly like the service, but I was far from hating it. It was my current home, after all. “Where are we all meeting up and when?”

“It is currently 0415 hours Zulu. The meeting shall be held in the conference hall at DOWN-8-STARBOARD. I believe that the crew started referring to it as ‘The Ice Box,’ though I am not sure why. I keep temperatures regulated through the ship, and they are precisely measured. The conference will begin at 0830 hours Zulu. The other Arks will be using the holo-projectors, and we will all link up.”

If everyone were to link up, there would be at least three hundred people, and at the least 24 Ship, Game, and Research AI would be there as well. Though the question is if they would be operating individually or as Overlord.

“Okay, so I have enough time to shower and eat. Can you highlight a route to a lift that can take me to get some chow?” The lights in the hallway started to pulse green in one direction, showing me the way.

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I was glad that I decided on food before hygiene. One of the side effects of the cocktail that they had given to us so that we could be alert for the conference caused some digestion issues. Fortunately, showering got rid of any evidence of such. With all of that, I still managed to be a little early for the conference. This was a good thing as the room wasn’t set up for someone in my physical condition.

Finding a seat at the top of the room would be easy. The problem was the stairs to the lower level. Having retrieved the crystal that caused this meeting, I was going to be required to talk about it. Parking my wheelchair out of the way, I then flagged down a Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade, and had them help me to the stairs, which I managed to hop down, then I had to threaten a Petty Officer with a one-legged ass-kicking contest so that he would give up his seat at the end of the aisle. Surprisingly, the seat next to me was taken by Wachowski.

“Come here often?” I was unable to resist.

“Ma’am? Is that you?” It was taking her some time lining up my good features in the real and comparing them with the “me” she knew in game.

“Yep. Someone decided it was a smart idea to recycle my prosthetics while I was logged in for these last few months.” I smiled at her, no actual anger in my voice, but some disappointment.

“Is this Crewman bothering you, Wachowski?” Looking up it was Lieutenant Commander Li. I guess in the game he hadn’t gathered enough EXP to buy the rest of his rank. “Weren’t you an Officer when we boarded this pleasure cruise?” He continued with a smile. I don’t think he realized how much that hurt.

“Hey, Li! I’d stand and give you a hug, but I was never fond of that one-arm half hug shit.” Sarcasm dripped from my voice. I was going to have to look into why that stung so much.

Wachowski watched the bi-play between us, wondering at our familiarity, Li laughed, I looked embarrassed by being such an ass. Li then stared down an Ensign until she got the picture and moved. Slowly, all the physical seats were filled by either locals or holographic avatars.

“Attention on Deck!” The shout from the back of the room as the avatar of Overlord entered the room. Everyone shot to their feet. I took a few moments to stand. I was just about finished as Overlord made it to the podium. There was amusement on its face as it saw me.

“As you were. Except for you, you caused this mess, and I’ll have you speak anyway, Jax. You’re already up, so let’s get it over with. Start your way up here.” Overlord was speaking clear and concise; a Euro accent prominent in his voice. “While she is making her way up here, let it be known that this is a briefing that has been set with a classified clearance. If you do not already have a ‘Classified’ clearance, you have been marked as ‘need to know,’ so don’t sweat the details. The short of it is that we have acquired our first piece of alien tech, and somehow, they are in the game instead of the real world. This crewman is responsible for recovering the item in question.” I had made my way up to the podium with the help of Li.

“This is Crewman Jax. She has the only direct experience with TWO alien species as well as TWO separate types of their technology. Schematics for both have been sent to your terminals and message queues.” A chain of beeps filled the auditorium. “Jax, please explain both technologies, how they were acquired and what was done to overcome them.” Overlord disappeared.

I went through the story about the EVA to meet up with Janssens, then being sent on a rescue mission. I discussed the ladder well, approximate distances between the rungs, and how they did not meet the physical requirements for the goliath/giant/behemoth thing, or the bugs, as I had deemed them. I mentioned the parts left behind in the compartment, how they were bound together to be easily retrieved, and then the dissection of the control panel and the crystal.

I then spent a few minutes to answer some questions and then asked that the rest of the issues be sent to me via terminal as standing was a pain in the ass. Li helped me back to my seat, and then Overlord called on Li to discuss the sample. When he was done, Overlord appeared again.

“Thanks to the scans of the crystal sample, we know that the crystals are not only a capacitor, but also a data storage device and they can be used as a data transfer device. Some of you have not been read in yet. However, the Fleet has been separated. This means that all available AI usage has been hampered. Overlord, as you are aware of me, is the hive-mind network of all the AI in the fleet. I still am. Without the additional 12 ships, we started with; my resources are under half of what they were.” He paused to ensure that we were all paying attention.

“We have had the technicians trying to create additional storage processing and memory arrays to ease the stress on us. Part of what we have done is adjusted the time dilation effect for players in the game. It is no longer a 1 hour in game is one day in the real. We are now operating at a one hour in game is now ten days in the real. We have been using the additional processing power from your Neural. This could be considered an invasion, but it is a matter of survival. You, Medical, and the Science Crew are the only ones aware of this. It will be kept that way.”

“Thanks to the scans, we know the science behind the crystals, now we need to learn how to make them, and then adapt them to our technology. What we expect is: More compute power is the primary objective. The secondary will be to see if it is possible to and potential ways to weaponize. Last, and this is for those of you who deal primarily with the Science Teams, what can we now achieve with the new tech that to this point has only been theoretical.” Overlord stepped through the podium and then was immediately back where he had been. Lag.

“We also have basic scans from an MK-I tech scanner for the drones. We need to learn and adapt their cooling systems and find a way to help our scanners detect them. Our ships need to dodge these drones and defend against them more easily.”

“The game that we are playing is not the game that was planned. It was supposed to only be a duty simulator. Now we find ourselves in a war game. There are no fewer than two factions that we are aware of. One is us; the other is in the ships classified as ‘Escorts.’ Please note, that they had been considered a neutral ship until they lured us in and sprung the trap.”

While Overlord was talking, I could feel Neural in my skull heating up. With where the Neural was implanted, there should not be any nerves to heat up. I got Li’s attention.

“Get ready to call medical and stabilize me if I have a seizure.” He must have noticed something wrong on my face as he was about to “shush” me, then stopped and nodded. Wachowski, who was sitting between us, looked at me with a bit of fear. I could feel something very wrong with me. “Wachowski get ready to plug me in.”

I missed the rest of the conference because I collapsed.

A Discussion - Original

After returning from the Engineering Bay, I immediately sent Yama a message, asking if there would be any members of the Science Teams being ejected with us, and if not, to schedule one or two of them, if possible. I had some ideas. With that idea brewing in the back of my head, I moved on to another idea. A hand-held gauss rifle. We already had rail-guns. They were all vehicle mounted due to the power constraints. Perhaps these crystals would allow us to scale them a little. And lastly a degaussing cannon.

Our current means of EMP was bomb like. If we could create a directional degaussing field, that could do a lot of the same damage as an EMP, but without the fear of taking out our own electronics. Also, if directional, then there is a chance we could make it powerful enough to take out traditionally shielded electronics. After writing out the basics of what I was thinking I went to bed, knowing there would be limited time to work on these projects.

Being pulled out of cryo is a very strange sensation. You would imagine that because your body is “frozen” that you would be cold. It makes a certain logical sense. What you don’t realize, or at least I didn’t realize, is that when you are that cold, your body feels like it is on fire.

My eyes snapped open, an I felt the jack in the back of my head release the pod connector. Once the door of the pod released, a few medical techs helped me onto a gurney, and started running fluids through my system. Starting the fluid flush at 5C and slowly bringing my temps up to normal would take some time. For the first excruciating hour, they had been nice enough to provide me with a bit for me to bite down on. The second and third hour of defrosting were merely “uncomfortable” in comparison. After four hours I was given a mechanized wheelchair as my prosthetics had been recycled while I was under. I wasn’t supposed be out of game, after all.

“Hey, Rasputin?” I called out, propelling myself out of Medical.

“Yes, Miss Jax?”

“Miss? Shit, that’s right, I’ve been effectively kicked out of the service here. Damn.” It hurt being reminded of that. I didn’t particularly like the service, but I was far from hating it. It was my current home, after all. “Where are we all meeting up and when?”

“It is currently 0415 hours Zulu. The meeting shall be held in the conference hall at DOWN-8-STARBOARD. I believe that the crew started referring to it as ‘The Ice Box’, though I am not sure why. I keep temperatures regulated through the ship and they are precisely measured. The conference will begin at 0830 hours Zulu. The other Arks will be using the holo-projectors, and we will all link up.”

If everyone was linking up there would be at least three hundred people and at the least 24 Ship, Game, and Research AI would be there as well. Though the question is if they would be operating individually or as Overlord.

“Okay, so I have enough time to shower and eat. Can you highlight a route to a lift that can take me to get some chow?” The lights in the hallway started to pulse green in one direction, showing me the way.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was glad that I decided on food before hygiene. One of the side effects from the cocktail that they had given to us so that we could be alert for the conference caused some digestion issues. Fortunately, showering got rid of any evidence of such. With all of that, I still managed to be a little early for the conference. This was a good thing as the room wasn’t set up for someone in my physical condition.

Finding a seat at the top of the room would be easy. The problem was the stairs to the lower level. Having retrieved the crystal that caused this meeting, I was going to be required to talk about it. Parking my wheelchair out of the way, I then flagged down a Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade, and had them help me to the stairs, which I managed to hop down, then I had to threaten a Petty Officer with a one-legged ass kicking contest so that he would give up his seat at the end of the aisle. Surprisingly, the seat next to me was taken by Wachowski.

“Come here often?” I was unable to resist.

“Ma’am? Is that you?” It was taking her some time lining up my good features in the real and comparing them with the me in game.

“Yep. Someone decided it was a smart idea to recycle my prosthetics while I was logged in for these last few months.” I smiled at her, no actual anger in my voice, but some disappointment.

“Is this Crewman bothering you Wachowski?” Looking up it was Lieutenant Commander Li. I guess in the game he hadn’t gathered enough EXP to buy the rest of his rank. “Weren’t you an Officer when we boarded this pleasure cruise?” He continued with a smile. I don’t think he realized how much that hurt.

“Hey, Li! I’d stand and give you a hug, but I was never fond of that one-arm half hug shit.” Sarcasm dripped from my voice. I was going to have to look into that.

Wachowski watched the bi-play between us, wondering at our familiarity, Li laughed, I looked embarrassed by being such an ass. Li then stared down an Ensign until she got the picture and moved. Slowly, all the physical seats were filled by either locals or holographic avatars.

“Attention on Deck!” The shout from the back of the room as the avatar of Overlord entered the room. Everyone shot to their feet. I took a few moments to stand. I was just about finished as Overlord made it to the podium. There was amusement on its face as it saw me.

“As you were. Except for you, you caused this mess, and I’ll have you speak anyway, Jax. You’re already up, so let’s get it over with. Start your way up here.” Overlord was speaking clear and concise; a Euro accent prominent in his voice. “While she is making her way up here, let it be known that this is a briefing that has been set with a classified clearance. Those of you that do not have a classified clearance have been marked as ‘need to know’, so don’t sweat the details. The short of it is that we have acquired our first piece of alien tech, and somehow, they are in the game instead of the real world. This crewman is responsible for recovering the item in question.” I had made my way up to the podium with the help of Li.

“This is Crewman Jax. She has the only direct experience with TWO alien species as well as TWO separate types of their technology. Schematics for both have been sent to your terminals and message queues.” A chain of beeps filled the auditorium. “Jax, please explain both technologies, how they were acquired and what was done to overcome them.” Overlord disappeared.

I went through the story about the EVA to meet up with Janssens, then being sent on a rescue mission. I discussed the ladder well, approximate distances between the rungs, and how they did not meet the physical requirements for the goliath/giant/behemoth thing, or the bugs, as I had deemed them. I mentioned the parts left behind in the compartment, how they were bound together to be easily retrieved, and then the dissection of the control panel and the crystal.

I then spent a few minutes to answer some questions, and then asked that the rest of the questions be sent to me via terminal as standing was a pain in the ass. Li helped me back to my seat and then Overlord called on Li to discuss the sample. When he was done, Overlord appeared again.

“Thanks to the scans of the crystal sample, we know that the crystals are not only a capacitor, but also a data storage device and they can be used as a data transfer device. Some of you have not been read in yet, however, the Fleet has been separated. This means that all available AI usage has been hampered. Overlord, as you are aware of me, is the hive-mind network of all the AI in the fleet. I still am. Without the additional 12 ships we started with, my resources are under half of what they were.” He paused to ensure that we were all paying attention.

“We have had the technicians trying to create additional storage processing and memory arrays to ease the stress on us. Part of what we have done, is adjusted the temporal dilation effect for players in game. It is no longer a 1 hour in game is one day in the real. We are now operating at a one hour in game is now ten days in the real. We have been using the additional processing power from your Neurals. This could be considered an invasion, but it is a matter of survival. You, Medical, and the Science Crew are the only ones aware of this. It will be kept that way.”

“Thanks to the scans, we know the science behind the crystals, now we need to learn how to make them, and then adapt them to our technology. What we expect is: More compute power is the primary objective. Secondary will be to see if it is possible to and potential ways to weaponize. Last, and this is for those of you who deal primarily with the Science Teams, what can we now achieve with the new tech that to this point has only been theoretical.” Overlord stepped through the podium and then was immediately back where he had been. Lag.

“We also have basic scans from a MK-I tech scanner for the drones. We need to learn and adapt their cooling systems and find a way to help our scanners detect them. Our ships need to dodge these drones and defend against them more easily.”

“The game that we are playing is not the game that was planned. It was supposed to only be a duty simulator. Now we find ourselves in a war game. There are no fewer than two factions that we are aware of. One is us, the other is in the ships classified as ‘Escorts’. Please note, that they had been considered a neutral ship until they lured us in and sprung the trap.”

While Overlord was talking, I could feel the neural in my skull heating up. With where the Neural was implanted, there should not be any nerves to heat up. I got Li’s attention.

“Get ready to call medical and stabilize me if I have a seizure.” He must have noticed something wrong on my face as he was about to “shush” me, then stopped and nodded. Wachowski, who was sitting between us, looked at me with a bit of fear. I could feel something very wrong with me. “Wachowski get ready to plug me in.”

I missed the rest of the conference because I collapsed.