Chapter Ten: Transfer Complete

"As I'm sure you're aware," Dylan said as he, Rommie, Beka, and the Valkyrie's avatar – Ree – walked down one of the Andromeda's longer corridors, "we have a lot of questions we'd like to ask you."

"I will answer to the best of my ability, Captain," Ree replied, "but please understand that even though I survived, not all of my memories did. And some of the information you may be looking for is confidential."

"Confidential?" Dylan repeated. "But I'm – "

Ree stopped walking and turned to face him. "A High Guard Captain, yes, I know," she finished for him. "But while I am High Guard, I am not Commonwealth. I was based out of Terezed, and the last I heard, it was a sovereign planet."

"Well, yes," Dylan said, "but Commonwealth or not, they are our friends. If whoever attacked you wanted you dead that bad, it's a safe bet that they're not exactly fond of Terezed, either."

"Which brings us to the question," Beka interrupted, "of who did attack you?"

"That would be one of those confidential answers," Ree replied coolly as she turned and started down the corridor again.

"What was your mission?" Rommie prompted as she and the other two started after the avatar.

"Confidential," came the expected reply.

Dylan finally caught up to her and stopped her, holding out a hand. "Look, Ree, I understand that you were under orders from the government on Terezed, but those orders are three years old. While Terezed isn't officially a part of the New Commonwealth, it is an ally. Now, unless I know a whole lot less about avatars than I think I do, you're still hoping to find a way to accomplish your mission. Am I right?"

Ree looked thoughtful, her black eyes seeming to bore into the Captain's. "Something like that," she replied finally.

"Then let us help you," Dylan finished. "Only this time, instead of going in with a frigate, you'll have a Glorious Heritage-class Heavy Cruiser backing you up."

"I'm listening," Ree said.

"If we're going to help you," Rommie added, "we need to know about the mission. What your orders were, what your objective was, that sort of thing."

Ree didn't respond for a long moment. Finally, she nodded. "All right, I'll tell you. The only problem is, my orders are sealed away in a security file. In order to download it without the original security codes, I'll need a stable operating platform."

"So that we can open it with my codes," Dylan said.

"Yes." She glanced around at the Andromeda's corridors. "Installing me on this ship wouldn't work, so I'm guessing you have something else in mind."

Beka grinned widely. "I've got just the thing."

====

"For the love of the Divine," Ree breathed as she followed Beka and Dylan into the main hangar bay, "you have got to be joking!"

If Beka wasn't so excited, she likely would have been offended about the comments on her ship. "Hey, the Maru has gotten me through more tough scraps than I can count. She may not be much to look at, but she's tougher than a Nietzschean on Flash."

"I'm encouraged by the comparison," Ree said wryly.

"Don't worry," Dylan said as they started up the loading ramp, "it'll only be temporary. As soon as we figure out what we're doing, we can get you back to Terezed, and they can install you on something more your style."

"Oh, I don't know," Beka put in, "you might kinda like it. It would definitely be cool to have a High Guard avatar on the Maru."

Ree just grimaced.

"So, where do we start?" Dylan asked.

"I've got Harper's notes on the procedure right here," Beka replied, waving a handful of flexisheets around. "There's enough data in them to make a Perseid fall asleep from boredom, but a lot of it has to do with actually creating a new AI. We're just transplanting one, so I think we can safely cut out half of the stuff here."

"Just make sure it's the right stuff," Dylan cautioned.

If Beka heard the jibe in his words, she didn't let on. "The first step is to uninstall the current AI on the Maru. It's not that complicated a system, so it shouldn't take long."

Dylan leaned close and dropped his voice to a whisper, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Ree wasn't listening. The avatar was busily examining the sensor station, and wasn't paying attention to them. "Keep a copy of it, just in case your guest decides she doesn't want to stick around forever."

Beka nodded. "I already figured that step into the whole thing." She raised her voice. "Ree, we're about ready, and we're going to need your help. You all set?"

The android looked up. "This is an impressive sensor system you have here, for a ship this small," she commented. "The weapons aren't much, but better than nothing. I'm ready when you are."

Beka quirked a smile at Dylan. "And who knows, we might not need that copy after all."

Dylan arched an eyebrow and gave a small grin – an effective "don't-count-on-it" look.

With Ree standing over her shoulder, Beka sat down in the pilot's chair and started up the main console of the Maru. She pulled out a data disk and examined it. "This is the largest one I could find aboard," she said, "but it should do the trick. The Maru's AI should fit on here nicely." She slipped the disk into one of the console's ports and began punching in sequences of buttons. "All right, initiating the copy transfer." She fell silent for a moment as the ship's systems worked to process her commands. "Transfer complete." She pulled the disk out and handed it over her shoulder to Dylan, who tucked it into one of his jacket pockets.

"Now what?" Ree asked.

"Now," Beka replied, "I'm going to delete the copy of the AI that's still on the ship. It won't really be gone, because it exists in it's current form on that disk. I'm just freeing up the space in the ship's memory cores." She worked on the consoles a moment longer, finally hissing in frustration. "Yes, for the twentieth time, I'm sure!" she exclaimed as she kept punching a red button on one of the screens. "Now delete, already!" She hit the button yet again. "There, finally. Okay, we're ready."

"I'm guessing this is the tricky part," Dylan put in.

"Good guess," Beka replied. "Ree, my ship is going to establish an uplink with your processors. You're going to have to let it; if you resist, well... at best, nothing would happen; at worst, it could fry you and my ship's systems. So just relax. Once it's established the uplink, I'll start downloading your programs into its AI core. As soon as that's complete, you'll become the primary system, and will be able to take control of yourself again."

"And the ship?" Ree asked.

"And the ship," Beka agreed, "according to my orders, of course."

"Of course," Ree echoed.

Sitting behind Ree, Dylan exchanged a puzzled look with Beka. After a moment, he shrugged and nodded.

"Right," Beka said, looking away from him back to the consoles. "Here goes something... I hope. Initiating uplink."

Ree closed her eyes, the picture of absolute relaxation. Of course, physical relaxation had nothing to do with the process. Dylan suspected that it was for the benefit of him and Beka; Ree was showing them visually that she was doing as she had been asked.

"Uplink established," Beka said softly, as if she were unwilling to disturb the avatar's repose. "I'm starting the program transfer. Don't worry, Ree, this will be over in a minute or two."

The avatar didn't show any signs that it had heard her. She jerked once or twice, but each time, she went still again. Beka kept a constant eye on the readouts scrolling across her screens; if anything were going wrong, she would have said something immediately.

"Almost there," she muttered. "Almost there."

Intrigued, Dylan stood and approached the other side of the pilot's chair, behind Beka and across from Ree. He had seen avatar programs before, but he could not help but be impressed at the amount of information he saw scrolling across the Maru's screens. Apparently, some of Ree's enhancements required a whole lot of extra programming.

"Got it!" Beka exclaimed into the silence, so suddenly the Dylan started.

Ree jerked one last time, then opened her eyes. "Wow," she breathed. "I can feel again. I can see. Beyond myself, I mean. I can sense the Andromeda, and the space beyond her. The Maru may not be the Valkyrie Hammer, but for the first time in three years, I feel complete again." She glanced down at Beka. "Thank you."

Beka stood and brushed her hands off as if she had been doing something that involved dust and grease. "Hey, don't mention. Just remember that you're doing me a favor, too. It's about time the Maru had an avatar that was smarter than your average virtual reality game."

Ree nodded and looked to Dylan. "And thank you, Captain."

Dylan shrugged. "You're welcome. But I haven't done anything yet. I just watched."

Ree gave a small smile. "You've done more than you know," she replied mysteriously. "But I don't want to keep you from your work any longer, either of you," she added, looking back to Beka. "If you don't mind, I think I'll just stay here for awhile, on the Maru, and get familiar with the systems. Once that is complete, we can go over the mission that I was assigned."

"Yeah, sure, take your time," Beka replied. "I've got to return these datasheets back to Harper's files before he gets back, or he'll have a fit. And I'm sure Dylan's got a whole bunch of Captain's stuff to attend to."

Dylan shook himself as he heard his name, and realized that he had been studying Ree intently. For what, he wasn't sure. "Oh," he started, slightly embarrassed, "yes, you're right. I'm sure Rommie's got some kind of reports that she wants to read off to me. We'll be back in an hour or so."

"I'll be ready," Ree promised.

Dylan turned and made his way out of the ship.

Beka was right behind him. "What was that?" she asked as they started down the ramp.

"What was what?" he asked in return.

"That look you were giving her," she replied. "I've seen that look before. It means you're suspicious."

Dylan chuckled. "Yes, well, remember the Pax Magellanic?"

Beka raised her hands. "Enough said. Don't worry, it'll be fine. Besides, if she does turn out to be nuts, it's not like that Maru would be any threat to the Andromeda." She patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, I think it's time we had a celebratory drink."

"Right behind you," Dylan replied. But as he went, he couldn't help but shake that suspicious feeling. And he realized something else: while he had been studying Ree, she had never taken her eyes from his, as if she were trying to read him.

And that little smile of hers was really starting to bug him.