Chapter 12
Awakening
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Cyrannus Sector (Cylon Fleet)**
*Cylon Colony (Consensus Room)*
"They just keep getting stronger," Six said with an air of mild impression.
"Cain is a stubborn one, always was," Two added. "It doesn't surprise me that they found each other. She followed the Resurrection Ship while it followed them. The only factor here that doesn't add up is the smaller one. I've never seen a Colonial ship with that much firepower."
"Firepower?" One asked in a disgusted tone. "That's not firepower, that's nuclear fire. One of those missiles can destroy two Baseships and damage a third. They took out an entire swarm of Raiders and two Baseships with one missile in the last engagement yet took no damage themselves."
"I believe now would be a good time to admit that we don't know what we're up against," Three stated.
"It's a Colonial ship with advanced weapons. That much is clear," Four said.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Eight countered. "The Colonials don't have the capabilities to produce a ship that powerful. If they did, they would've used it during the genocide."
"There's also the matter of the information the Centurions brought back," Six agreed. "The inside of that ship isn't at all what you'd expect of a Colonial vessel."
"And what of their anti-boarding party charging into a hangar open to space and not dying?" Eight continued.
"And the weapons they used?" Six added. "At least two of the members of their defense team were using weapons beyond what the Colonials can produce, one of which was something that looked like a directed energy weapon."
"Are you honestly trying to tell me that you believe in aliens?" One asked.
"Why not?" Six asked. "That ship didn't join the Colonial Fleet until nearly three days after they left the Cyrannus Sector. After that, they improved the Colonials' navigational computers enough to triple their jump distance, ran off to a habitable world where they stole food from the local populace which definitely wasn't Colonial, then jumped even further past the known limits of the Colonial jump-drive and started moving in a relatively straight line."
"So they went and stole food from an old Colonial prison colony. Big deal," One argued defiantly. "That hardly proves the existence of aliens."
"We are, at this point, arguing a needless point. The matter at hand isn't the existence of aliens, it's the destruction of humanity," Three said in an annoyed tone. "Let's just get to the part where we kill them all. I believe it's time that we stopped testing them and started getting serious about this. If we mobilize a full fleet against their forces, we can have the entirety of the Human race erased from existence inside of a week."
"I like the way you think, sister," One agreed with a dark smile. "Let's put it to a vote. Should we stop playing these childish games and mobilize a fleet, or should we investigate the existence of aliens?"
"I don't see why we can't do both," Six countered with a smirk. "Once they're dead, we can examine their corpses and see if they really are different from the Colonials."
"Then we do that," Three agreed to in an effort to stop the argument. "We have a sizable force within striking distance, but they're running low on fuel. As God would have it, we already have a Tylium mine established in that sector. After they refuel, the fleet can move to destroy the Colonials and their supposed alien allies."
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**
*USS Odyssey (Infirmary)*
When Colonel Davidson walked into the med bay, he, once again, got a look at Colonel Viride without his shirt on. This time, however, his view revealed the man's back. As if the front wasn't torn up enough, his back… that many scars would've killed Ian and he knew it.
"There's a saying where I'm from," Oliver was telling the doctor as the man in question wrapped his newest wounds. "SSDD."
"Same shit, different day," Davidson said as he approached the man's bed. "I would ask why you think that's an Italian saying, but you're not actually Italian, are you?"
"I'm a lot of things, Colonel," Oliver replied with a smirk. "First and foremost, I am Tau'ri. I assume we managed to keep losses to a minimum?"
"Seeing as how there's quite a few members of Galactica's civilian and military personnel who want the Admiral dead, we're holding her on the Odyssey for her own safety."
"That's not exactly the smartest move. I might get tempted to teach her a lesson or two about the value of life."
"To do so you'd have to compromise your morals and become the very thing you despise."
"I've done worse things in my life than torturing a guilty woman," the Colonel replied with a cold and distant edge to his tone.
"Something tells me not to doubt you on that," Davidson said with a nod. "How are you holding up?"
"I've been through worse."
"I don't doubt that either," Davidson said with a shake of his head. "I have a request for you."
"Need more of my men?" the Colonel asked.
"No," the Colonel replied. "I need you. Admiral Adama wants to plan out our assault on the Cylon… what did you call it again?"
"Resurrection Ship."
"Right. The Admiral wants it gone for obvious and understandable reasons. I need you take over for a few hours so that I can attend the war meeting."
"Why not Carter? Or Mitchell?"
"Sam's heading the repair effort and is in need of sleep herself, and Colonel Mitchell, as much as I respect the man, is a bit to trigger happy for my liking."
"Says the man who shot the Pegasus," the doctor said with a stern look at the Colonel.
"Commander… sorry, Admiral Adama told me exactly where to shoot the ship to cause easily repairable damage that wouldn't risk any deaths. We blew open the part of the hangar that's open to space twenty-four-seven. There was no one around to be hurt."
"I assume you're asking me to do this over your actual replacement for a reason?" Oliver asked as the doctor finished wrapping his chest.
"Of course," Davidson replied.
After a moment of silence, Oliver asked, "You're not going to tell me your reasons, are you?"
"Of course not," Davidson said in a neutral tone. "Report to the Bridge when you're done here," the Colonel ordered before turning to leave.
"You know what would be poetically just?" the doctor, whose name Oliver had yet to catch, asked as the Colonel pulled his shirt on over his head. "Why don't we lock the bitch up on the Astral Queen with the very people she tried to kill? That way they can tell her their name and reason for being locked up on the ship in person before they tear her to pieces for being an attempted mass murderer."
Oliver blinked at the man dumbly then shook his head. "And I thought doctors were supposed to have an unshakable code of ethics."
"Only as unshakable as their leader's," the doctor countered as he finished putting away the extra gauze.
"Two wrongs don't make a right," Oliver pointed out before standing to leave. He made it a few steps before Jack came running into the room. "Don't!" Oliver began, but it was too late. Jack already had her hand drawn back. The only thing stopping her from slapping him was the fact that Tommy was still physically stronger than her.
"Why do you insist on getting yourself into these situations? Do you have a death wish or something!?" Jack roared as she tried to pull her hand out of Tommy's iron grip.
With a sigh, Oliver said, "No, Jack, I don't want to die. You have no semblance of stealth, and infiltrating an unknown ship requires more than just raw power. Kimi and I are the only ones on this team that were children of the shadows before we started walking around in the light of day. It's nothing personal, I assure you."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Jack grumbled darkly.
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Surface)**
*Office of Homeworld Security (Commanding Officer's Office)*
"What do you mean the Daedalus was delayed?" Jack asked in a tone of outrage.
"You authorized them to stay behind and finish fixing their hull. I believe your exact words after receiving the damage report were, 'With the Asgard coming, we won't really need them.' After that you said something about coffee. It was yesterday and it was really early in the morning," his assistant replied in a level tone. She was a hard one to rattle.
"Oh," Jack said, his memory of the past finally catching up to the present. It was still early in the morning and he still needed coffee. "What about the Asgard? They promised us a ship how long ago and they're not here yet?"
"According to Commander Thor, they had to switch out the ship's crew before it could depart. The original plan was to just send one ship and its crew, then the thought of the Odyssey being damaged crossed his mind. Due to the lack of familiarity with Human systems amongst the Asgard's top scientists, a specialist had to be recalled from the field."
"A specialist?"
"They're sending Hermiod as he's the most familiar with our systems. The problem there is that he was away on a mission when they recalled him. When it became clear that recalling him from the edges of Ida was going to take longer than even the Commander was willing to wait, they reproduced his clone and sent a copy along with the ship."
"So there's two copies of Hermiod running around the universe right now?" Jack asked in a tone that indicated he thought that was a great idea for winning wars.
"Temporarily, yes," his assistant replied. "The digital copy they keep of all of their people can only sustain one organic form at a time, so it's putting stress on Hermiod's mind. If the extra clone isn't killed off within a month, both of the clones will suffer serious brain hemorrhaging and die a death that will destroy the digital copy of their minds. In other words, if they don't find the Odyssey soon, Hermiod will die a very real death."
"Damn, that's harsh," Jack said in a far more level tone. "Let me know when they get here."
No sooner had he said it than it happened. There was a flash of light and the General was gone. His assistant, who was well informed of the General's reputation for being beamed away when aliens got into orbit, rolled her eyes and turned her chair back around to face her desk. "They don't pay me enough for this shit," she mumbled under her breath as she hit the internal comms. "The CO has left the building. XO Keith has the deck."
**Earth (Orbit)**
*Quaero (Bridge)*
General O'Neill appeared on the Bridge of an obviously Asgard ship of a design he had never seen before. It was definitely strange, even by the Asgard's standards. He took a look around the Bridge and, upon finding the palest of the gray men, smiled. "Hermiod! Good to see ya!"
"O'Neill," the little gray man said in reply. "Commander Thor sends his apologies for not coming in person, but events in Ida require his attention."
"That's understandable. Honestly, I'm just glad you're here. When can you set off?"
"As soon as we have the course the Odyssey was set to take. We will begin by scanning the area around the planet they were investigating then proceed along the most logical course variants until the ship and her crew have been recovered."
"The bunker under the surface of the planet was supposed to hold technology that would help us fight the Ori…"
"This is not a vessel of war."
"I know," Jack said in a placating tone. "I wouldn't ask you to take on an Ori Mothership with only one O'Neill even if there was a guarantee of finding weapons there. My point is that the Ori might still be in orbit of the planet searching for the bunker. If you approach the planet, be careful."
Hermiod nodded in reply and pressed a button on his chair. Jack reappeared exactly where he had been standing before and his assistant, still unfazed by the whole situation, hit the internal comms. "The CO has returned. XO Keith stands relieved." She didn't even look up from her computer to acknowledge the situation. She just went back to work.
"You need a vacation," Jack said as he walked back behind his desk.
"I've been saying that for the past three months," the woman agreed.
"You seriously need a vacation," Jack reiterated.
"This place would fall apart the moment I left."
"I can't argue with that."
***Milky Way Galaxy (Orion Arm)***
**P3X-727 (Surface)**
*Paciscor of Nex (Computer Core) [one week earlier]*
The third impact to the shield caused a massive power drop that had Widget scratching his head. Even a weapon that powerful shouldn't have caused that level of power drop with the amount of dust, dirt, and rock protecting the hull. Then he noticed the annoying organic poking around the computers. She was bringing more systems online and the generator wasn't ready for it. 'Stupid organics,' Widget thought to himself. 'If they wanted to leave I would've let them.'
He sighed to himself before disabling the jammer they were so desperately trying to bypass then immediately redeployed it once they were gone and undid all that the woman had done. Now the attacking ship was sure to have seen them and that meant that sitting here and waiting for the attack to end would be pointless. No one ever walked away once they saw him. They were always too afraid to turn their backs.
The ground that encased him was already falling apart under the assault. At least their attacks would help him break free. Cracking his nonexistent knuckles and rolling his nonexistent neck, Widget sent the power up order to the main reactor. Like a star being born in the deepest depths of space, the quartet of fusion cores flared to life with a burst of light, heat, and radiation. The containment fields came online a second later and the radiation levels dropped to a manageable level as the newborn stars at the heart of his immortal form began to beat like his hearts. Energy poured through the power conduits like blood pumped through veins and the shield's power increased until the ground shook no more. The preparations were nearly finished, but one piece was still needed.
The Organic Key.
Deep within the heart of the massive structure that is He, the sole remaining member of his creating race awoke from his never-ending slumber. Stretching every limb of his aching body, Sieon Synipulous mumbled through a yawn, "Widget, what's going on? We're not scheduled to return for another," checking the ship's chronological log he finished, "twenty-two centuries."
Appearing in the stasis room as a glowing body, the holographic avatar of the ship's AI replied, "We've got trouble." His body burst into a flurry of lights before retaking the form of the ship in orbit and the planet below. The ship firing on the planet in holographic form was enough to get the organic moving.
"What's our status?" the smelly sack of flesh asked.
"After a group of organics consistent with known DNA profiles of a race known as 'Humans' came through and started poking around, another unknown ship arrived in orbit. After chasing off the Humans, it then proceeded to launch fighters and land troops on the surface firing down at us the whole time."
"Shield status?"
"Fully functional and preforming admirably considering the fact that the emitters are all still retracted into the hull."
"So we're running at fifty percent?"
"Try closer to twenty. At this point the planet is protecting us more than the shield is."
"Did you bring the reactors online?"
"No," Widget answered in a serious tone as the organic rushed to put on his armor. "Doing so would've been detrimental to our continued survival. How could a surplus of energy surging into the primary defensive system for this ship ever help anything when we're being attacked?"
The organic stopped moving as he pulled a boot over his foot. "I almost took you seriously."
Widget shrugged his holographic shoulders and brought up a display panel that would move with the duo as the organic continued to run around the ship gathering things. "You need to wake up now. I can't do anything else until you unlock my access to the systems."
With a deep sigh, Sieon asked, "Why can't people just leave me alone?"
"Because your personality leaves a lot to be desired." The organic had but one reply. He blinked. "That was a joke," was Widget's dry response before his avatar vanished though the display panel stayed there for the organic to 'take with him.'
The life-support systems reactivated with a cough that Widget credited to the millions of years of dust accumulation that had begun to circulate through the powerful filters. Making his way to the Combat Information Center of the ship, the organic started to reactivate the Neural Interface Network, otherwise called the NIN. Walking up to the Control Chair, he sat down and input the last command to activate the ship's link to his mind. With the NIN online, he could control the ship with his mind from anywhere. Well, anywhere on the ship at least.
"All systems, both primary and secondary, are coming back online quite nicely despite having been powered down for so long. Sub-light engines will be ready for use in two-and-a-half-minutes, weapons will be fully charged in three, shields are online now with only a few of the emitters having been damaged, life-support is at one-hundred percent but I'm still keeping most of the ship depressurized until needed, sensors are fully active and scanning the unknown ship in orbit, communications are in need of repairs as a few of the relays overloaded and the antennas were also damaged, and the FTL drive won't be online for approximately one galactic-standard day," Widget said as the systems reported their status to him and he compressed the report for the sake of the organic's sanity.
A moment later there was a loud pop and the ship's power consumption dropped by thirty percent. "Amendment. The FLT drive won't be working for at least two galactic-standard days. One of the power couplings just overloaded. It's an easy fix, but I have to disable the power flow for the duration of the repairs which means I'll have to bring the drive online from scratch as opposed to brining it online from a state of extended stand-by."
"There's so much joy to be found in the company of the living," Sieon said darkly.
**P3X-727 (Orbit)**
*Ori Mothership (Bridge) [a few seconds before the Odyssey escaped]*
"Prior, the jamming field has been disabled and the Tau'ri's target has been identified. It is a massive vessel much larger than our own," the sensors' operator said with fear evident in his voice.
"Hold your fear. The Ori shall protect those who walk the path to enlightenment."
"The Tau'ri vessel has escaped into hyperspace. Our brothers and sisters are giving chase," another worshiper announced.
"Target vessel has broken through the surface of the planet. They're making for orbit."
"Our weapons have struck the enemy vessel," the weapons officer said much more calmly.
The Ori Mothership fired its main weapons, each thick, orange beam of energy being harmlessly absorbed by the approaching ship's shields. Then it returned fire. A single black beam lanced out of the front of the opposing ship. Passing right through the Ori's shields, shields that had held back the combined fleets of this entire galaxy, the beam struck the hull and started to disintegrate the ship, both inside and out, eating its way through the armor as if it wasn't there at all. Anything the beam touched seemed to be consumed, almost as if the beam was devouring the ship. Then the Prior saw a truly sickening sight. One of his faithful worshipers was blown out of the ship by explosive decompression. When his lifeless arm passed through the beam, the energy seemed to crawl across the poor man's body like a swarm of insects, eating the dead man's mortal form until nothing was left, not even the barest of traces.
Seeing the sight made him panic. Jumping out of his chair the Prior shouted, "Jump us into hyperspace! Get us out of here!" The crew of his ship scrambled frantically to carry out his orders. Banking away from the attack proved to be a horrible mistake, however. Not only did it expose new armor to the horrendous beam, but it also exposed the power core. When the beam of black light made contact with the glowing orb of white light at the center of the Ori Mothership, the light of the core turned first gray, then rapidly changed to black as the beam consumed the power core, then exploded in a magnificent pseudo-supernova that destroyed half of the nearby moon before slamming into the planet. After that, the energy wave moved outward until it came just short of affecting the system's star. It did, however, send the planet, cracked and burning, hurtling into the star at a speed that would have it consumed by the boiling mass of plasma within the week, chunks of the crust breaking off as the planet sped off towards its doom.
The only peace the Prior could find was in the thought of the enemy having died with them. There wasn't anything in this galaxy or the next that could've survived such a blast.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**Dead Space (Colonial Fleet)**
*USS Odyssey (Bridge) [present day]*
"I understand that Colonel Davidson has you monitoring the Cylon forces guarding the Resurrection Ship, but I want an active scan of our sensors' maximum effective range every ten minutes. Start with the fleet then go out as far as you can. If the Cylons are waiting for reinforcements I want to know that they're coming before they get within FTL range," Colonel Viride ordered as he sat in the command chair.
"Anything else?" Marks asked.
"What more is there to say? We're following whatever course the Admiral gives us so there's not much I can say that hasn't already been said. Just don't hit any of the civvies."
"Fair enough," Marks replied with a nod before carrying out the new set of orders."
*Battlestar Galactica (War Room)*
"If we don't take out their FTL coils in the first strike then they'll run the moment they see the Odyssey," Lee Adama said.
"Why do you say that?" Davidson asked.
"Forget Galactica and Pegasus, they're just Battlestars, but the Odyssey? They've learned to fear her. You singlehandedly took out five Baseships without help or getting a scratch on your armor. You then proceeded to pull our asses out of the fire and everyone in this fleet and beyond knows that your nuclear missiles are more powerful than ours," Saul replied.
"They'll swarm the Odyssey the moment she arrives and put as many Baseship between us and that ship as they can. If I'm right about how this ship works…" Gabi began.
"And it's safe to say you are," Baltar begrudgingly admitted.
"As long as that thing's intact, it'll store the memories of the dead until they can be uploaded into a new body."
"So it's like the Asgard, but they're trying to kill us instead of helping us?" Davidson asked much to the confusion of most of the people in the room.
"Which means it's more like the Human-form Replicators, but it gets worse," Gabi corrected him.
"The ship also produces their organic Cylons, the ones with skin," Baltar continued.
"That means that it might have the means to mine raw materials, which means it probably has a factory in it, which means that they can build the Centurions and Raiders aboard that ship and use them to replenish what the Baseships lose in combat. As we've already determined, the Baseship, like the Hiveships, are a cybernetically-enhanced organic blend which means that, like the Wraith, their ships can heal theirselves overtime. It also means that they might actually grow their Baseships in a similar fashion to how the Wraith grow their Hives."
"So destroying this one ship eliminates their ability to produce more soldiers and fighters, eliminates their war factory, makes them mortal, and might even get them to back off?" Commander Jack Fisk, the Pegasus's new CO, asked. "Well what the frak are we waiting for then?!"
"A plan that gets us in and out before the fleet can be attacked. If they send more Baseships after the fleet while we're dealing with the Resurrection Ship's guardian fleet, they might be overwhelmed depending on how we do this. That having been said, we have limited options. We can send every ship we have on the assault, including the civvies so that they're safely within monitoring range while we're killing the Toasters, we can leave them behind and only take the warships and hope the civilians don't get attacked, or we can split our war capacity between the offenders and the defenders," Davidson said.
"Here's the problem with each plan," Lee began. "If we take everyone, the Cylons have us all in one place and can launch an attack…"
"Which would be unlikely since we'd be the offenders," Gabi pointed out.
"Yes, but they could ignore the warship and jump past us to attack the fleet. If they did that, we'd have to break off the assault to guard a fleet of ships with a bunch of inoperable FTL coils," Saul countered. "That puts our backs to the wall and allows their forces to retreat whenever they feel like it. If it comes to that, they'll know we're after their ship and they'll pull back to the edge of its range and leave us right back where we were; them chasing and us running."
"The next plan has a blaringly obvious weakness. It involves leaving the fleet defenseless, and if even one Baseship breaks off combat with us to target the fleet, they'll either be wiped out or they'll scatter. We can't leave them undefended like that," Lee continued.
"That leaves the third plan. Splitting our war potential," Adama stated.
"The Odyssey, for all her speed and power, is not a defensive ship," Lee immediately pointed out. "I've noticed that most of her guns face forward. That's a trait that means she's an attacker, not a defender. She was designed to hunt and kill, am I right?"
Davidson nodded in reply and made a mental note that he liked this kid. "In the last engagement with the Cylons, the only reason the Odyssey managed to defend the civilian fleet as well as we did was because we took out the Baseships before their numbers could overwhelm us. If we had fought like you, if we had stayed between them and the fleet and acted defensively, we would've failed. Your assumption is correct; the Odyssey should be part of the assault team."
"Then the Pegasus or Galactica will have to stay behind and defend the fleet," Fisk more stated than asked.
"The Pegasus is the newer model of Battlestar with the most recent advances in weapons and armor. I recommend we use that to our advantage," Lee said.
"We should use their fears to our advantage as well," Gabi added as she activated a holographic recording of the Cylon fleet as it was the last time they scanned it. "If the Odyssey jumps in first and attacks from their forward flank in relevance to the way the Resurrection Ship is facing," Gabi began as a model of the Odyssey appeared in the indicated position, "it should draw their fire forward. If the Pegasus then joins in the assault, it should be enough to get their Baseships to move into a defensive position that will leave the Resurrection Ship unguarded from behind. At that moment, a Raptor should be able to jump in behind them and take out their FTL coils. Once that's done, we have them with their backs against the wall instead of the other way around."
"If they can't run, they'll have to fight. If they fight, they'll lose," Lee finished.
'Aren't they a cocky bunch?' the blonde woman in the red dress whispered in his ear. 'Win a few engagements and think it's the turning of the tide of war. They won't survive what comes next if they succeed.'
"Why not?" Gaius whispered back.
'There's more than one Resurrection Ship. There's always more than one. Destroying this one will be considered the murder of a very large number of Cylons. The Collective won't stand for that.'
"What about the possibility of a counter attack?" Baltar asked the room at large. "If there's more than one ship, don't we risk the Cylons getting pissed and sending more ships to attack us? What if attacking this one fleet puts three more on our tails?"
"He does have a point," Gabi admitted. "Even the Asgard have multiple computer servers across their territory where copies of their people are held. The technology they use to bring their fallen people back from the dead is a network of smaller pieces. Because their subspace communicators are less developed than ours, it's safe to assume that the Cylons are bound to have more than one Resurrection Ship."
"So we just let them keep following us?" Fisk asked.
"We've increased the range of travel per jump the fleet is capable of. Even if the Cylons send another three fleets after us, they'll have to try to catch up to a fleet moving nearly as fast as they do, and since we're already ahead of all but this fleet, it's highly unlikely that they'd be able to catch up to us even if they did send more reinforcements," Gabi countered.
"How do we know that this is the only ship near us?" Baltar essentially repeated the question from the woman no one else could see.
"The Odyssey would be able to detect any other ships in range," Davidson replied.
"That's… debatable," Gabi countered. "We have a limited range of detection, and each jump we make takes us past that range. We're essentially discovering new territory every time we make the trip through subspace. We scan ahead, jump past the furthest point we've scanned, and, when scanning backwards, we don't scan the same area we were just in. It's like a circle with a twelve foot radius and we're the tiny pinpoint in the center," she explained as Davidson gave her a confused look. "Every jump into hyperspace takes us twenty-five feet which is more than double our circle's radius which means that the circles never overlap. If they don't overlap, then you're essentially in a new circle every time… and I lost you already."
"Not as good an analogy as Carter tends to give," Davidson agreed.
Gabi shrugged in reply. "I tend to work with the lab rats more than the soldiers. They don't need analogies."
"If I understand correctly," Baltar began, "The Cylons could be thirteen feet away and you wouldn't be able to detect them because you can only scan twelve feet in any direction."
"Yes, but replace feet with light-years and you've got a more accurate scale," Gabi said.
"Why didn't you just say that to begin with?" Davidson asked.
"She did," Baltar replied. "I understood it at any rate. Either way, it means that there could be an entire armada just beyond your sensors range and we'd never know it."
"DRADIS contact," Lieutenant Gaeta announced over the ship's internal comms system. "The Raptor scouting party has returned."
"Here's hoping they found something," Saul said and the room was filled with grumbles of approval. Since the Cylons weren't attacking them anymore and they had a bit of breathing room, Adama had sent out scouting parties to look for raw minerals and Tylium, the two most badly needed materials for the fleet.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Orion Arm)***
**P3X-727 (Surface)**
*Paciscor of Nex (FTL Drive Core)*
"According to your biometrics, you're angry," Widget's voice said in his ear.
"You said this would take a day," Sieon replied as he continued to dig around in the guts of the ship's FTL drive. "It's been two galactic-standard weeks!"
"It's not my fault the people of this time have developed light matter energy cores. Had I known that, I would've forgone the option of bypassing their shields and just hammered away at them with the plasma cannons instead of using the warp beam."
"What's the status of the repair drones?"
"Two of them are currently working on getting the sublight drive repaired while the other three that I have working are slowly repairing the damage to the hull. On the bright side, I've got the shields working again which means that we can convert the field."
"Then do it," Sieon grunted as he cut a section of burnt wiring out of place and began replacing it. "If anyone comes looking for that ship, we'll be stuck in one place with all this damage. At least cloaking us will reduce the odds of discovery until we can get the systems working again."
"I did that already," the AI replied in bored tone. "We've been cloaked for the past hour."
"Then what are you doing to help now?"
"Running scans of the solar system in an attempt to find a piece of planet that still has enough raw material to be worth sending the mining drones after it. I found a rather promising chunk two seconds ago and needed you to unlock the external doors."
"Do it yourself."
"You haven't given me access to those systems yet."
"Why the hell not?" Sieon asked in an annoyed tone as he brought up a holographic interface with his armor's built-in holoprojectors.
"Rana feared my temper leading to the decision to open the ship to space in an effort to kill you."
"She was always a paranoid one."
"And yet you married her."
"Paranoid and beautiful," Sieon said with a fondness in his tone. "There," he said after inputting his access codes nearly twenty times, "you should have unrestricted access to the systems now."
"Opening external airlock doors now, please hold," Widget said in reply.
"Hold for what?"
"I have to override the safeties so that I can open the internal airlock doors and keep the blastdoors from closing while the external doors are still open." Sieon looked from the work he was doing and stared into the camera that the AI used to see what was happening around the ship. "That was a joke."
"You're in a lovely mood."
"Being alone for that long takes its toll on a man," the AI replied in a serious tone.
"You're not a man," Sieon countered before refocusing on his work.
"That doesn't mean I don't get lonely. You could've programmed a nice looking VI with bright amber eyes, long dark hair…" the AI's statement was cut off when Sieon deactivated the speakers in the area of the ship he was in and went back to work. He'd have to do something to adjust the personality matrix if this kept up.
Barely audible due to the distance and only possible because the speaker was dialed up to near the level at which it would blow, Widget added, "When you're done playing with the FTL drive, the air filters need to be replaced and I don't have a spare drone to get it done."