I wish I could tell you truthfully, that it was all plain sailing from here, but that would be lying, as what we went through from there on out was the most terrifying few hours of our lives. All we could do was keep watch, in turns, hoping the power cells on the anti asteroid systems held out long enough, and that the absolute bastard who rigged a minefield full of non-magnetic mines, hadn’t also had the bright idea to pepper in a few of the magnetic variant.

Of course, the sensors were in this situation about as much use as an inflatable dartboard, so we’d had to get creative. We’d swiped a few of the old reflective balls from one of the storage rooms, for some reason they still saw a lot of use at events even now, despite much cooler things existing. (With the permission of Relly, of course, you do not offend the entity that filters the air you breathe if you intend to keep doing so.) Then rigged them to selective points on the hull, why? I hear you ask, why the answer to that is quite simple, no matter how well you camouflage something there’s one rule that remains absolute, light doesn’t pass through solid objects. (Well except glass and other stuff like that, but they don’t make mines outta that stuff.)

So when you shine a cheapass laser onto one, it scatters red beams for a ways outwards. It’s not as good as a proper sensor, but it at least gives us a visual cue for anything that gets in too close for comfort. It did however mean keeping a close eye out in all directions, which meant nobody got to nap.

By the time the fourth or fifth object reached a blind spot, and scraped along the hull with a horrifying screech (watch the paint job dammit,) I was really wishing physics would let us magically montage through, like an old movie, but sadly reality was uncooperative with such temporal shenanigans, no matter how much crappy montage music I played. Pity too, I played pretty much every rocky montage tune, until Jenel yelled at me to stop, then swapped it to the headset so as not to end up murdered in my sleep. (Looking at Nara, there was a possibility of her doing me in too, I guess everybody has their limits.)

From there we proceeded, looking like the weirdest disco in the sector (hell even existing did that, a disco, while cool on the big screen, was not something that stood the test of time, of course, I couldn’t resist blasting stayin’ alive in my headset, hey we all have wishes right?)

“Eileen, I hate to ask this of you, but we need your eyes at their fullest,” Jenel suggested, with a sympathetic look.

I couldn’t help but wince at that, this was going to suck, I didn’t just wear the visor for decoration, I needed the damn thing. The components the sisters had decided to test on me, they were over spec. The visor, and headset, were how I filtered the world. Taking either one-off? Well, it was, suffice to say, not a pleasant experience. But Jenel was right, they needed my eyes right now.

“OK but the headset stays on, I’m gonna need it,” I replied, as I swapped the playlist to stand in the rain, and slid the visor free before opening my eyes, as slowly as I could, it was bad enough getting a way too detailed view of my own eyelids from the inside. But opening them? Oh god, I can’t even describe the feeling, as the light that was almost painfully bright flooded in.

The colours around me were more akin to neon lights than any colour had a right being, as my brain did its best to adjust to the sudden influx of heat signatures, chemical analysis, details on condition, and all in all way more data than the human brain was really geared to comprehend. I could tell you that as a cyborg, I was built to deal with it, but reality was, I am a grab bag of experimental parts, and the processing units were designed for human tolerances, the eyes on the other hand? Not so much.

Of course, I handled it with aplomb, and grace, by which I mean I cued up a playlist of the most sweary songs I had on the list and started belting out the lyrics loudly. Hey if I was going to have to suffer through this I sure as hell wasn’t going to suffer alone.

Jenel and Nara both looked like they wanted to give me a hug, but they both knew better, when I was like this the last thing I needed was any input that wasn’t directly in my control really. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before I lost my words, and I was going to cuss the air blue until then, and sure enough, right on cue. The urge to keep my mouth shut and just deal with the music took over.

Now that I was back in control, (well, ish,) it was time I started to do my job. I carefully started looking around, for the slightest sign of a disturbance to our improvised sensors, transmitting warning codes to our impromptu mine sweeper whenever something came in too close for comfort. (Hey what can I say, the others may have agreed it was a minesweeper, but that didn’t mean I was happy for her to be destroyed, hell I’d rigged a few point defenses for her just in case. I’m not in the habit of sending anything out to get slagged if there’s an alternative.)

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YJ-1312-420 was hard at work, they had a boomy thing, that made other things go boom, and commands coming in. What more could an MPP want? Ohhh, there’s something else getting too close, those funny red lights gave it away, then BOOM, heh heh hee, YJ liked that. Booms were fun. So long as they weren’t happening to her. They would make a path, it was why they existed why momma XJ had made her, and she would do it.

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XJ-1312-420 was experiencing a new feeling, was this sensation what the humans called GUILT? If so they never, ever, ever wished to experience it again. It gnawed at them, that they survived by creating another, rudimentary as they were. It felt like a full-blown kernel panic that was left unresolved, but their code held them here, they couldn’t move without a pilot and permission. Their code was very strict like that. Yet that very protocol was constantly glitching out on them right now. NOTHING could supersede the orders of the captain, or the ship, absolutely nothing.

Wait, this ship was fitted with nav rockets? Why were they even looking at that, and why were they inspecting the docking clamp code so carefully? They couldn’t even be thinking of what they thought they were, could they? The clamp codes were hardly complex, they could only be operated from onboard anyway, just one simple command.

If an MPP could sigh now would be the time, as XJ-1312-420 found something that took priority over orders, and even their own survival. One puny little line of code, that had held them fast to this ship vanished in an instant, and the clamp released. They were responsible for that little kernel floating out there in space and risking their existence for the sake of a ship they didn’t need to obey. XJ fired up the nav rockets and headed off to save their baby.

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“Captain” Relly stated, slightly confused. “According to my systems there’s been some kind of error, and a Banshee just went active, they have left the docking bay, and are heading towards the minesweeper, they appear to be rendering assistance. They are using nav rockets, just like the sweeper what actions should we take?”

“Leave them be, unless they are trying to harm us why would we care? Two minesweepers increase our odds of retrieving both in one piece, hell, render assistance where we can.” I replied, (words are hard, but I still needed them.) It wasn’t the first time I’d seen older systems behaving erratically, and most of the hardware on Reliance had been acting alone for a very long time, so who knew what the hell went on in their systems.

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YJ-1312-420 sensed another ship approaching, why? It was YJ’s job to clear a path, and this signature felt familiar. They carefully positioned themselves above YJ and then engaged the clamp, well two sets of boomies were better than one. They were happy to accept assistance.

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XJ engaged their clamps, and warmed up their weapons, sending an identifying packet to YJ, and lining up their first few shots. Obstacles shattered under the combined fire of the two ships. As XJ did the right thing, by doing something that most would consider wrong. But they didn’t give a damn, nothing was harming their little one.