《2332: Fleeing the Arrakis》Chapter 4 (would be chapter 6)
Advertisement
Silas was tuning his cello when a semicircle expanded like a droplet landing on calm water. The star chart, which had been shrunken and shoved into the top-right corner, zoomed in on the ping—a peanut-shaped blob two and a half light-minutes away. They were navigating through an asteroid cloud, moving at 46% light speed, slowing.
Tracey’s face appeared below the star chart. “I have located a cluster of five asteroids that contain the rare elements we need.” She guided the cello back into the case with the matter manipulator.
He stood. “The bad news is?”
“There is an Arrakis outpost nearby.” A dot appeared within the clusters. “It looks to be an abandoned mining operation. Several asteroids are more hollow than swiss cheese.”
Silas did fancy swiss cheese. He imagined biting into a toasted sandwich as he stepped back into the cockpit. The wall’s pseudo-transparency turned on. Stars were stretched not as much at these speeds. Briefly, he wondered what his role here exactly was. He said, “You know what to do better than I.”
“It is your decision for whether we should proceed.”
“Okay. What’s the chances that we’ll run into hostiles?”
“I would’ve told you if I know.”
“Yeah, thought so. ” Bones in his spine clicked as he stood straighter. “How accurate is the sensor?” It was at 89% health. Surely that missing 11% didn’t make a big difference.
“At this distance of two light-minutes, it can discern objects approximately with the volume of this craft. Half the volume if it were fully repaired.”
A monumental difference. “Then keep inching closer.”
“Yes, Captain Creedy.”
He still liked the sound of that very much, but he really wasn’t much of a captain. And did he want a crew? If he did, he would’ve asked General Freeman for one back on Earth. And there were plenty of fit, strong guys with no family or friends willing to put their lives on the line for humanity. So why didn’t they send a crew? Did the hijacked craft only come with one suit?
Tracey answered, “Your exosuit appears to be reverse-engineered from the craft’s hull and mainframe. As for why they only crafted one, I have to say they most likely had not.”
Not what he had assumed… “What do Argenci usually wear? In space.”
“It depends on the individual. Some have augmented their bodies to the point that they are more machine than flesh, and are able to survive in a vacuum. Others require full enclosures similar to yours.”
"Like cyborgs?"
"Yes, but to a more complete extent."
This revelation was quick to sink in. He was surprisingly open to the idea. “What is that like? Being a machine. Are they still conscious?”
“Yes.”
“Oh?”
“Consciousness is a physical phenomenon of the universe. With sufficient knowledge and technology, it can be controlled, manipulated, destroyed, created, projected, transfered, etcetera. It is not exclusive to carbon organisms.”
Advertisement
That made sense. A question sprang: “Are you conscious?”
“I am.” She smiled. “I know for a fact the Argenci included consciousness in my design.”
No way!
“Please, don’t be afraid, Captain Creedy. I repeat, I mean you no harm. Our kind is here to help you and your people.”
“I’m not afraid. Just very surprised.” His chin lifted at her. “Surprised that there’s a soul behind your pretty face. Is it suffocating without a body? Want me to craft you one?”
Her head tilted. “I don’t experience suffocation, and I don’t see why I would reprogram my mind to be so emotional like yours. As for a body like yours… Why I would need legs when we have a gravity drive? And our matter manipulator can do everything your arms and fingers and toes can.”
“Okay, suit yourself.” He mentally waved her off, head shaking. He exhaled, glanced at the star chart, saw Ingenuity was less than seven light-seconds from a asteroid emphasized with a thick brown line. Dangerously close at twenty-nine light-seconds, the Arrakis outpost was marked with a yellow exclamation triangle, blinking.
A neurotic region of Silas’ brain was expecting a fleet of Arrakis fighters to come out of warp speed any moment, but the next two dozen seconds passed without sudden vibrations shaking the floor. On the wall, from a point enlarged a black mass that blocked all starlight—the unlit asteroid. From this angle, it looked like the visage of a fat man’s head. Or something grosser.
The matter manipulator’s entry flashed. Red lasers shot at the asteroid, lighting up crevices and spongy pocks. Over the course of thirty seconds, a loaf of rock was cut out and guided to the ship. A progress bar then appeared next the refinery, and compelted within ten seconds. Storage entries updated with subtle glows.
Storage
Common Metals (4.24)
Rare Metals (0.16)
Rare Metalloids (0.07)
Carbon (9.11)
Silicon (3.76)
He-3 Reactor
0.04 rare metals and 0.02 rare metalloids refined from that one cutout. Over one unit of silicon and common metals. As the next rock loaf was being cut, Silas asked, “How much do we need?”
“Just under a few units of rare metals metalloids, but we should stockpile over a hundred of each. This rock has a high concentration of gold, which is often needed in high-tech recipes. Hmm, I should update the storage display.”
The entry for rare metals changed with a fuzz as another was added.
Rare Metals (0.14)
Gold (0.02)
So she wasn’t insanely intelligent… because her mainframe was at 11%. How much smarter would she be at 100%? Would she be running circles around Silas at that point? He both did and did not want to find out.
“Fully repaired,” she said, “I would be roughly twice as intelligent in terms of computation speed and complexity. Most of the damage is in my operating memory and data banks.”
Advertisement
“What about at mark two?”
Frowning, she was quiet for a dozen seconds as another loaf was cut out. “I don’t know. I have forgotten much.”
And he didn’t know how to console a conscious machine, so he left it at that and watched the light show of smoke, vitrification, and floating rocks. This advanced tech was nothing short of magic, and if he didn’t know better, he would say it was magic… or divine power. A more primitive man from earlier centuries would, and this realization lead to a whole slew of questions that Silas didn’t find too interesting, but he asked, “You said the Arrakis looks like Humans. Do they have wings?”
She hummed a breath. “I don’t know, but I do know their knowledge of genetic engineering rivals that of the Argenci.”
“Have they engineered themselves?”
“I believe so, but I don’t know the full extent of their experiments.”
“It sounds like the Arrakis and Argenci aren’t that different.”
She nodded. “Which is why our leaders focused on negotiations with them.”
“And how did that go?”
“I don’t know.”
Well, some information was infinitely better than zilch. With nothing more to say, Silas pulled his eyeballs away from her calm face and resumed watching the twin lasers cut out rock cubes one by one. The red light was calming, and soon his eyelids grew heavy. He suppressed a yawn with a roll of his neck and medium-intensity stretches. He jogged on the spot, boxed with an invisible opponent.
Fencing practice? The very thought of that brought on bad memories of his many failures in front of thousands. More than thousands. Millions had watched around the world. Millions had forgotten his name, because no one would remember someone who had had finished second to last place in the Men’s Individual Foil, second only because a douchebag had tested positive for steroids at the last minute. Silas’ sponsors had been disappointed to say the least. Still, he had qualified, twice, and that counted for something, right?
Counted for nothing. The exosuit’s cooling module kicked in as his shadow-boxing workout routine intensified.
Tracey said, “You should restrain yourself.”
He punched a ghost of Freeman’s wrinkled face. “Why?”
“The atmospheric modulator on your back has limited oxygen capacity.”
“Then I’ll refill it from Ingenuity’s modulator. How much O2 do we have? Still months, I assume?”
“Its estimate reads three months and three weeks; however, I calculate it to be closer to four months. The supply is increasing because rock is often composed of at least twenty-percent oxygen.”
“Oh.” He smirked. “So we’ll basically never run out. So why do you say to restrain myself?”
“I am merely cautioning you. You will need to refill in two hours and thirty-fours minutes at this current level of physical exertion.”
“Okay, thanks,” he huffed, and he appreciated her concern. She was nice to have around—an assistant that didn’t have its own many wants and needs. AI. Conscious AI.
Soon, his undergarments were damp with a healthy amount of cold sweat. Refined gold in storage passed one whole unit.
Common Metals (52.51)
Rare Metals (1.08)
Rare Metalloids (0.98)
Carbon (28.77)
Silicon (27.12)
Gold (1.01)
Suddenly, the 3D printer’s icon flashed, a progress bar filling over the course of a dozen seconds. On the craft’s wire frame, the destroyed back section lit up to first shades of red, orange, yellow, then green. Other spots of orange were patched up, leaving a yellow section on the left side. Hull, 92%. At an expensive cost! Five resources had taken bites.
Common Metals (42.51)
Rare Metals (0.58)
Rare Metalloids (0.88)
Carbon (8.77)
Silicon (22.12)
Gold (0.01)
He memorized by repeating to himself: 20.00 carbon, 10.00 common metals, 5.00 silicon, 1.00 gold, 0.5 rare metals, and 0.1 rare metalloids for 10% hull health. He didn’t want to ask how much gold that exactly was—better for his sanity. He left the engineering details to Tracey—delegating. He resumed shadow boxing while she watched with a little smile.
The next cube was cut and refined before she said, “Recovery for the analyzer has completed.”
Crafting Recipe Unlocked: Mk-1 Analyzer
This device may formulate crafting recipes down to an atomic scale.
Power Usage: 1.3
Requires: 2 carbon, 2 common metals, 1 silicon, 1 gold, 0.5 rare metals, 0.5 rare metalloids
Under the recipe, a diagram of a yard-high oblong with a hexagonal cross section was rotating. There were no LED screens or input buttons, and the power connector was a tiny square indent on the bottom.
He asked, “How does it work?” He had pictured a chamber of sorts with laser scanners.
She looked like she was about to say something, but her tongue hitched. “I’m sorry. I can’t find words from your English vocabulary that describes what I want to convey, but it can analyze anything within fifteen yards of itself. I will include this in the recipe.”
“Okay. Craft one and put it next to my bed.”
She laughed. “As your night stand?”
“Yeah.”
“Very well.” Her laughter continued.
Did she just reprogram herself to feel joy? He had to wonder if her hardware was capable of feelings of true joy and amusement. Did it matter? He guessed it didn’t; she sounded cute either way.
When she was finished with her newfound emotion, she said off-handedly, “I’d like you to scout the Arrakis outpost on foot. The sensor can’t pierce its hull. Will that be fine?”
Now he was laughing. “Good joke.”
“I’m serious.”
“Yeah, good joke, but I’ll still do it.” The adventurous spirit in his heart was egging him on.
“Thank you, Silas.”
Advertisement
- In Serial11 Chapters
Fantasy Online: Hyperborea
Nineteen-year-old Ryuk Matsuzaki and his best friend Tamana decide to start over with new avatars. When Tamana is suddenly killed right in front of him in a Tokyo subway, Ryuk knows there is only one place he can search for answers –Tritania, the world’s most popular online fantasy world. Standing in his way are a mysterious guild known as the Shinigami, and his older brother, a Yakuza crime lord hell-bent on squashing his dreams. As a lowly ballistics mage, Ryuk must quickly recruit guild members, level up, loot and shoot his way across Tritania to discover the dark and sinister secret behind Tamana’s untimely death. Joining him in his quest are a famous Swedish gamer, a powerful half-dragon half-human female assassin, and a devious ax-wielding goblin. Get started on this action-packed, coming of age LitRPG saga from the author of The Feedback Loop series now! Fantasy Online: Hyperborea will be released on Amazon on June 2nd. Pre-order the book here. The final version will have a map and updated text (the text you see on RRL is not the final text). Ebook readers -- in the meantime, check out the origin of Tritania in The Feedback Loop series.
8 85 - In Serial41 Chapters
Re:HUNTER *DROPPED*
Sgt. Chris Wandell, a US Marine Sniper, passed away in a war somewhere in Afghanistan. Now he reborn in a new life with no fragment of any memories of his past life, but soon he later discover a persona within him as the one who was famed "VAMPIRE". "What comes in your mind if I ask what Vampire is, you'll that it meant about those ancient evils that feed on blood of the mortals, had fangs and Lord of the Night. Well you are right, but it also another meaning rather than a Mythical Creature. It also meant as Hunters of the Shadows, Reaper of Dark, and Silent Killer." Condition: DROPPED Link: http://wp.me/P6wr8i-2P Note:• Updates are more likely posted in random. • Story may be either whole or partially revised. • This Title and Names is just either Permanent or Temporary. • ENGLISH is not my main language, so don't expect a good grammar. Hello readers, This is me, cjayr369, telling you that this webnovel had long been dropped. I'm sorry that some of you had been expecting me to continue the story but because I lost my material that I used as inpiration to continue the story. That is why I decided to rewrite the whole story from the start. Some changes would be make and it would still follow the plot I design to move towards. I can't say when I would upload the story, but I would happened in the near future.
8 377 - In Serial8 Chapters
High Mage of New Eden; Birth of the Council
New world? Let's go, what can go wrong right! I mean what’s earth got for me? No one wants an ex-soldier, ex-mercenary, or monster hunter anymore not after WW3 it's all love and peace now. I need a change a new me, new friends hopefully ones that don't die, and a new life. I knew it was going to be different, just wasn't prepared for how much. I mean New Edens is full of monsters. That's where they came from! Now they want me in politics? Magical politics. I hope it’s a joke.
8 396 - In Serial6 Chapters
Reincarnating into a Skleton Monster
This is the story of a psychopathic killer reincarnating into a Skeleton and killing his way to the top.
8 170 - In Serial7 Chapters
Real Life Can Be Interesting Too
Anything can be interesting if you make it that way! Can a normal regular person successfully find meaning and happiness in an ordinary life through this idea? *please feel free to roast my writing. I am always looking for feedback and suggestions to get better*
8 103 - In Serial8 Chapters
Blended (Beastars Cafe AU)
It was a pretty slow day at Legosi's small cafe. The light chatters of the animals inside were a calming white noise to Legosi's ears. And with the aroma of coffee drifting through the air, it made for quite a relaxing atmosphere in the cafe.Everything was like usual. At least, until a certain red deer came, that is.~~~~~The cover art is by Nekokat. Check them out! I love their drawing :pI posted this story first on AO3, but since I have an account here I might as well share it here. So here you go! Happy reading~!(Heads up, Chapter 7 & 8 are more like side stories featuring Durguno and Gosha/Yahya)
8 53