Chapter 58. Aberrant Data.

  Watkins altered the course to the station, including several unexpected heading changes to throw off anything like the railgun he’d been hit with before. It was unlikely the station had a railgun installed, but he wasn’t going to leave that to chance. He couldn’t help but wonder what they’d find at the station and what AI’s reaction to them would be.

  At least the travel time allowed them to make a few updates. The progress on improving the hull armor was going slowly, but the drones should be able to get it done before they reached weapons range of the station. His research on level one of the main drives was also completed. The new design was 8% more efficient, requiring less of his core power and generating approximately 5% more thrust.

  His core was able to provide more than enough power for their needs now, but as he researched upgrades and new systems, the demands on his core’s power would grow. Anything that improved the efficiency of the existing systems was a welcome upgrade. He needed more drones to upgrade the drives and pulled them from the drones hauling salvage from the cargo hold to the reprocessor.

  With all the upgrades going on, he was burning raw materials at a rapid pace, but the existing stockpiles were fine for now. The verminkin were still on salvage hauling duty, and after the drones built some simple cargo loaders for them to use, they weren’t doing too bad at the job. It would take a while for the verminkin to get the everything done on their own, but they should complete the task well before they reached the station.

  With the freed-up research module, Watkins kept going on the propulsion systems. This time, he started research on level one for the maneuver thrusters. A quick check on the level one research module progress showed he was getting ever closer to his goal. It was at 79% and climbing.

  Lani had also finished developing the training modules for the verminkin. They would use a virtual reality console she’d created to practice the basic skills that a starship crew were expected to have. The former research lab compartment had been transformed into a crew training bay. There were twelve training consoles for the verminkin to use, which was more than sufficient for their current needs.

  When he had first awoken on the ship, the space aboard Canon had felt far too open and bare. Now, the ship was filling up fast and Watkins could tell he was going to run out of room soon and face some difficult choices. For now, he had enough on his plate and could worry about the ship size problem at a future date.

  “Skitterbach, we have the crew training compartment complete; can you work up a rotation for the teams to rotate through? I want them still hitting a full shift on salvage duty, but we also need to get everyone trained up as efficiently as possible,” Watkins said.

  “I handle-arrange it, Captain,” Skitterbach said with confidence.

  “Don’t feel afraid to delegate some of your duties. The mark of a good leader is knowing who and when to delegate to,” Watkins advised.

  “I hear-understand, Captain. I’ll have Srak oversee the rest of the salvage hauling project,” Skitterbach said before scurrying over to the new crew training center to check it out.

  “We’ve been calling the other compartment forward of the replicator a training compartment. Should we rename it so there’s no confusion?” Lani asked. She was right, they had been using it for weapons training, and it reminded him that he needed a drone to reinforce the compartment bulkhead when one was free. As his weapons research continued, the existing compartment structure might not stand up to the abuse.

  “You’re right, it’s pretty much a testing compartment and a defensive position for us when we’re boarded. Let me think about it for a bit,” Watkins said, visualizing his entire ship.

  The bow of the Canon was taken up by the torpedo tubes. There was a lot of wasted space there, but it would fill up quickly when he advanced past missiles and into torpedoes, which were much larger. At least both missile magazines were full, which meant that he had a total of six missiles at his disposal. They could store two in the tubes, ready to fire, but needed a few more tweaks and another round of research on the tubes to make sure they could do so safely. For now, they’d travel with the tubes unloaded.

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  Looking past the torpedo room and moving aft, the port side was made up of smaller compartments, save for the cargo hold. First up was on the port side was the ship’s bridge. At present, it was empty, but they planned to add some command consoles there when Watkins and Lani had time to develop them. Once the verminkin were trained, they would build out the compartment.

  Aft of the bridge was the crew quarters with space to house up to 24 of the enlisted crew members. They weren’t at capacity yet, but who knew what they might find, and who they might recruit, at the station. After the crew quarters was the armory, where Watkins stored personal weapons, armor, and gear for his crew and MOBS.

  Currently, he kept half of his MOBS stationed there so they wouldn’t get in the way of the verminkin or drones. A team was always on hand to guard the cargo hold, and a pair of guards protected the reprocessor and the fabricator. He was starting to trust the verminkin, but until he was 100% certain of their loyalty, he was going to have his troops keep an eye on them.

  After the armory was the large cargo hold, and aft of the cargo hold was the officer’s quarters. His medical bay was next, and Watkins was glad to see it was fully functional, with medical pods and supplies ready to treat any injured verminkin. Aft of the med bay was the CIC, and like the bridge, it was also empty. With his core handling the majority of the ship’s functions, it might make more sense to convert the CIC into something else.

  The purpose of the compartment was to provide a backup for them to fight the ship if the bridge was destroyed, but for his vessel, the crew were the backup to his core, and he didn’t see them needing two compartments for the same purpose. He’d consider what to do with the space, but in the meantime, it could be used for storage if they had a surplus of raw materials again. Aft of the CIC was the research lab that had been converted into the crew training center. Maybe that would be what the CIC could eventually become, the research lab if he couldn’t fit any additional research modules in his core room.

  In the final small compartment on the port side of the ship was the galley. Just like the torpedo room took up the entire bow of the ship, the engine compartment did the same for the aft-most portion of the vessel. A main passageway ran down the center of the ship, and Watkins had hidden or eliminated most of the hatches leading to the starboard compartments.

  The idea was to funnel any potential invaders into his prepared defenses. In this case, it was the forward starboard compartment, the testing compartment. Inside there he had already built several rows of the automated barricades and had created an open kill zone for anyone wanting to enter this half of the ship. It was possible that a foe could cut through one of the compartment walls and make a new entrance, but it would cost them valuable time.

  Any delay to an opponent meant that Watkins could build more MOBS to defend himself. Eventually, he’d reinforce all the bulkheads in the ship, but there was no time and no spare materials to make that happen yet. For now, he’d just try to funnel them into the kill zone that was the testing compartment. Aft of the crew training center was the reprocessor, followed by the fabricator, and then his hidden core compartment.

  Anyone looking over his ship and making some calculations would figure out there was something hidden away there, but his core room wasn’t easy to spot. Even his verminkin, at least for now, were ignorant of its existence. The current layout gave him nine compartments on the port side, and four on starboard. He wanted to build a few bulkheads with hatches to break up the long passageway amidship, but again, he needed time and materials to do so.

  “Watkins, we’re getting a comm signal targeting us. It’s being sent through a sensor buoy that’s not on the network we already are linked to,” Lani said. Watkins reached out with his senses, seeing the sensor buoy between him and the station they were approaching.

  “Let’s hear what your other half has to say,” Watkins said, accepting the communication request.

  “Your vessel’s drive signature matches Ex3. Identify yourselves,” a robotic voice sounded through the comms.

  “This is Captain Watkins of the USS Canon, are you the AI operating the jump point station?” Watkins asked.

  “Affirmative, you are operating Council property. Bring your vessel to the station and surrender it, along with your crew. A valid punishment will be administered upon your arrival,” the AI replied. Watkins cut the audio feed to speak with Lani.

  “What do you think, Lani? How should we approach this?” Watkins asked.

  “The AI seems limited in its responses, I don’t know if we can convince it to listen to us. It’s odd, I can sense some of my programming there, but there’s also something different connected to it, a presence I can’t pinpoint,” Lani said. The comms crackled as the AI hacked through the mute feature.

  “Internal ship communications have been infiltrated. Your data signature matches the core created to power Ex3. Surrender your vessel and report for the disposal of aberrant data,” the AI insisted.

  “I can’t comply with that request. Perhaps you can allow my crew to explore your station, and we can peacefully come to a compromise that benefits us all,” Watkins offered.

  “Negative, this is not a negotiation, you possess aberrant data which must be purged. LANI system detected. Initiating control override procedures,” the AI said before sending a burst of data over, some of which hit the ship’s network before he could cut the connection.

  “Lani, are you okay?” Watkins asked, feeling the intrusive data targeting her network specifically.