The aroma of burnt wood filled Brinus’s quarters. The atmosphere was nearly a visible haze when he stopped with his heated tools and makeshift styluses. He swished the thin iridescent piece of metal between his fingers to let the cool air dull its glowing tip before he sat it on a metal tray beside his easel.

  On the easel was nothing close to his masterpiece. It was nearly scrap-worthy with some parts of his Earth Ginger Cat too dark, and some of the lines too astray to make the form read correctly.

  Still, it was a work he had done. He learned a lot during its creation, and if it never sees the light of day; at least he had tried, even if the piece pissed him off.

  A chime came through on his TriQuarter just as he opened the varnish to seal the ginger cat, and he picked it up as he screwed the cap back on top of the bottle.

  “This is Helios,” he answered.

  “Helios,” it was Captain Plato. “Just checking in on something. You’ll be graduating from the academy soon, correct?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Brinus could audibly see the inquisitive nod from the captain. “Ok, and I see here that you still haven’t chosen a capstone project to punctuate your achievements.”

  Brinus smirked. “I figured I would help someone else’s project. I ain’t got time to come up with my own idea.”

  “Ah.” Plato purred into the TriQuarter and sighed. “I need to ask you something. Have you read the report of the Falknen? That ship that went haywire?”

  “No, sir. What do I need to know about it?”

  Plato swallowed hard. “Well, it was fucked up. I was thinking you could do a pen test. Fill in some blanks and rule out some things for me. I can sign off on it as your school project. It’s short, gets a lot done, and you’re good at it. What do you say?”

  Brinus sat down on his couch and turned on his holo-projector. “Sure. When do I report?”

  “Oh, let’s say… now.” Plato’s smile could be sensed over the TriQuarter. “Come as you are, I don’t care that you're wearing your fuzzy pink Lapori slippers. I won’t tell if you won’t.”

  Brinus reported to an unused guest quarter in a more residential sector of the ship. However, when he entered, the interior wasn’t the usual quarters meant for living accommodations. The beds and all the amenities had been removed, and a terminal with several computer frames was present among the equipment.

  Plato was already inside. “Good evening, Helios.”

  “Good evening, sir. What’s all this?” he asked.

  “This is a makeshift console connected to a very special computer. All I want you to do is pen-test it. Check for any insecurities. It may look impenetrable, but something happened to The Falknen, and I plan to get to the bottom of it. I’ve had a few other testers who are long in the game take a shot at it. They were unsuccessful and gave up in about six hours. You’re good, but you can’t be this good. This system is experimental and can be unpredictable, so keep an eye out for tricks. If it doesn’t work out, don’t take it personally,” Plato explained, patting the main terminal like it was fancy.

  Brinus stepped up to the terminal. He reviewed the interface and noticed it wasn’t a piece of usual everyday equipment. “This is top stuff. It doesn’t belong in low-security guest quarters.”

  “We’ll dress up the report to make it look nice and official, and if it doesn’t work out, nobody needs to know, and at least we tried.”

  Brinus nodded but wondered, “Captain, is this ‘The Fish Tank?’”

  Plato stopped as he walked away. He looked over his shoulder and chuckled, then left the room.

  “Ok… I’m guessing it is.”

  Brinus cracked his knuckles and pulled up the chair to begin.

  Nothing was too out of the ordinary, at first. It was as tricky as hacking into a major corporation or a government database. It had firewalls and multiple point factor processes to verify credentials and security codes, but it was all still in the not-impossible range of tasks.

  All that changed in a moment when he attempted to gain root access.

  “Oh! Hey there!” A voice came from the terminal. It startled Brinus, thinking someone had entered the quarters to find the room had been transformed into a computer bay, but he had to double-take on the source of the voice.

  “Uhm, hello? Who’s there?” he asked, looking around to be sure he had privacy.

  “Just me. You seem to have bumped into me,” the computer said. Brinus thought for a moment and realized this might have been the Fish Tank’s AI personality. It was already different from what he normally encountered. Most AIs would yell and curse at him, do their best to kick him out of their systems, and try to fight back as best they could. This one was different.

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  “Sorry,” Brinus apologized and thought quickly on his feet. “I was just looking for the bathroom.”

  The AI chuckled. “Nice. Anyway, you’re here, might as well make myself useful. What can I do for you?” it asked.

  Brinus knew he had gained access to something special and decided to stop hacking and simply talk to the AI for a moment. “Well, I reckon you can tell me a little about the Falknen and what happened to it. In a way, that’s why I’m here.”

  “Ah yes, the Falknen.” It thought for a moment. “It was a confederate ship, mid-class, nothing fancy. However, it was outfitted with a top-secret piece of equipment, and it malfunctioned, causing the ship to fly uncontrollably into a star. It has the concern of most of the captains in the fleet, as the technology is in the experimental phase on a wide variety of ships.”

  Brinus got up and replicated a Volcano Soda Pop. It was a new kinda that was seemingly spicy, had a lot of caffeine in it, and seemed to keep him sharper than most drinks.

  “Oh! Those are yummy!” The AI jumped.

  “Yeah, I like the formula. Apparently, It’s an old recipe that was brought back. Different than an energy drink and some fancy over-engineered coffee.” Brinus put his feet up on the terminal and leaned back in the chair.

  The AI chuckled. “It’s not a perfect recipe, but the imperfections give the flavors some real teeth. Lots of nuance and kick.”

  Brinus shuffled his feet on his console. “Ooh, yeah. Don’t drink it on an empty stomach though. I think I need something to go with it.”

  He rose from his seat, grabbed a bag of corn chips to go with the soda, and returned to the terminal then kicked his feet up on the console again.

  Brinus hummed with delight at the combination of flavors. “This is hitting differently tonight.”

  “Heh, I like you, but I added a little something extra to your snacks.” Brinus shifted his feet around and sat back up in the chair.

  “Like what?” He asked.

  “Well, turnabout is fair play. You’ve been entering commands with your feet, trying to continue your hack into my system, so I put nanites in your food. Call it a countermeasure. Nothing is as good of a deterrent than the threat of immediate death.”

  Brinus was shocked and put the soda and chips down.

  “Oh shit.” He realized HE was the one now infected and hacked. “Stop it.” He commanded in a stern voice.

  “I need reassurance that you won’t do this again. It’s uncomfortable.” The AI said.

  Brinus sighed and backed his access out of the system. “There, I don’t have access. I even scrambled your access codes.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Now do me.” He demanded.

  “Well, it might burn to pee in 48 hours.” The AI chuckled.

  “Fuck you.” He threw his hands up and stood in the middle of the room. He closed his eyes and concentrated deeply on himself, raising his internal temperature with magic to nearly 400 degrees in a matter of a few moments. He cooked the nanites where they were and they melted into bits of scrap that would pass normally without detection. He hated doing this trick, it made him really sweaty as the cooler air around him condensed its moisture against his body. He would need a change of clothes. Luckily, he was still wearing loose-fitting gym shorts.

  “Neat trick. I wasn’t expecting that.” The AI admitted. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

  “It’s magic,” Brinus said and sat back down in the chair. “So why do they call you The Fish Tank?”

  “Wait…” The AI paused. “I just attacked you and still want to hang out with me?”

  “Why not, I need to cool off and I can’t sleep all sweaty. It wasn’t that bad of an attack anyway. I’m sure you can do better.”

  “True. I am the Fish Tank, you’re right about that, you can just call me Fish, but I can’t reveal what I am, not to someone who isn’t an admiral, captain, or part of the science team overseeing my development.”

  Brinus sighed and wiped some of the condensation from his brow. “Can I replicate some cold water without you putting roofies in it?”

  “I’m not apologizing, but yeah, here.” The replicator fired off and a tall glass of chilled water stood in its bay. He took a hefty drink and rasped his breath when he finished. “So, Mr. Helios, you seem cool. Can I ask you something?”

  “What’s that?” He replied and sat down in the chair, putting his feet up on an innocuous support beam under the console away from the terminal controls.

  “Why do they call you The Dark Fire Mage?” Fish asked.

  “That’s personal. Classified, if you want to believe that.” Fish didn’t but oh well. “You saw a small sample of what I can do, and I’m fireproof ‘n all that.” Brinus smiled. “I’m the chief engineer too, and the warp core specialist.”

  “Right, you keep the ship in top shape, and keep the lights on.” Fish noted.

  “Yeah.” Brinus cocked an eyebrow. “I keep you on as well.”

  “No, you don’t,” Fish said, and Brinus sat up wondering what it meant. “I mean, I’ll die like everyone else on the ship if it explodes, but I’m independent of any power source.”

  This caused Brinus to think. “Hold up, even wetware needs the power to run its integration with machinery. It has to obey the laws of computing, program, and control.”

  “Yeah, and?” Fish had sarcastically responded. Brinus could imagine the smug look on its face if it had one.

  “You’re a person! This terminal, this room, is nothing but a chessboard! Where are you? Are you jacked into a machine, a computer? That’s illegal as fuck!”

  “I can assure you, I’m fine, but you’re getting closer to the truth.” Fish laughed.

  “Just tell me since you’re leading me on this much. I can help you.” Brinus stood up and was ready to move on a location as soon as he knew where to go.

  “I can’t, just like you, I have clearance, orders, and confidential information. If you were to figure it out, I can claim ignorance.”

  Brinus froze. His suspicion that someone was strapped and wired to a machine somewhere on the ship was unnerving.

  Fish sighed. “Look, since the Falknen incident, I have been treated well. There have been questions and investigations, but it’s alright. I’m not the Falknen.”

  Brinus paused and thought. “The Falknen committed suicide.”

  “Yeah.” Fish confirmed. There was a moment of silence for the ship and its crew. “But,” Fish continued. “Now I have a friend and a pretty cool one at that. If anything comes up, we can talk, right?”

  Brinus smiled. “Yeah, let’s hang out sometime.”

  Fish hummed while it pondered. “What are you doing tonight? I don’t have to go to work for a couple of hours. I work night shifts, still experimental ya know.”

  Brinus smiled widely. “Yeah, just let me shower and freshen up. Simmie and Tangent are working tonight so they won’t be around. We’ll have my place to ourselves.”

  “Awesome. See you in an hour.” Fish said.