I looked around as I entered the wreck. The walls were very similar to the walls of Hook, that similar texture with bumps denoting something underneath, but the corridors were much larger. I actually probably could have brought in the drones if I had wanted.
I maneuvered mostly by pushing off of walls, occasionally I would have to use my suits thrusters to maneuver out of the way of some of the larger bits of hull that were floating in my path.
“The halls in here are big, do you know why that is?”
“Likely for transportation of pre-fabricated materials. A lot of what Joe did was setting up semi-autonomous bases in deep space, so they would pre-fab most of the parts in his printers, then move them out to the airlocks and install them with drones.”
“Repair drones like we have?”
“Utility drones, muuuuch bigger, far more capable and multi-functional. Anything a repair drone can do a utility drone can do better, but a repair drone takes far fewer resources and time to build. Also it takes up less space.”
“Interesting. So Joe probably had a lot of bases set up all over the place?”
“Most likely.”
“Do you think any of them have a cloning and... what was it? Reinstantiation facility?”
“Also most likely. I do not know Joe as well as Captain-Hook, but he seemed a very cautious individual. He is very nearly your age and did not grow up under COG protection, so securing his own immortality was likely a very big motivation for him, as I assume it will be for you.”
I blinked.
“Securing my own immortality?”
“If you join COG you will be given access to their backup and cloning facilities, as long as you maintain good relations with them they will make sure you never truly die. And if you do both that AND set up multiple bases like Joe did the chances of you ever dying become truly infinitesimal. “
“The problem with the bases is if I start making a bunch and forget where they are I could have a bunch of clones of me appearing who all think I died” I said while 'swimming' my way around a giant jagged beam that was rammed right through the middle of the hallway.
“That was a problem in the early days, COG pilots have long since worked out various protocols that make it less likely for that to happen.”
“Less?”
“Much Less, none at all have occurred in the last ten years.”
“Okay hit me, what are the protocols.”
“Well, Prime generally will resurrect you in a few months, because it's a hub of activity and it regularly get's information faster than light. Your bases aren't bound by that, so someone came up with a fairly simple protocol. Every month you send out a non-directed burst of encrypted data, telling your bases “Hey I'm alive, don't clone me” which resets the cloning bases timer, and then you set each bases timer to about the distance in light years COG Prime is from it, assuming most of your activities are around there. So if it's 5 light years from COG prime, maybe you set the timer for five years.”
“That sounds like a lot of down time...” I said as I braced myself against a wall and began forcing a door open. Unlike before when I did this, I didn't have a thin little multi-tool, but what looked like a mini-jaws-of-life that unfolded out from the back left shoulder of my suit. “this suit has a lot of bells and whistles.”
“It is a lot of downtime.” Hook said, going back to my previous question.
“And it does, hardsuit design has gotten two hundred years to mature and they are very robust, even non-COG models.”
“Let me guess, COG models go more for utility over survivability, due to the whole immortality thing.”
“Survivability is important, but you are essentially correct. Save in the empire's case, they send their slaves out in basically what you were wearing during the attack.”
“Makes sense, same deal as with COG pilots, can just clone another.”
“Most COG pilots consider the empire's practices gruesome and amoral.”
“I'm not saying they aren't, just that it makes sense. They can do a cost-benefit analysis and see if its actually cheaper to spend money to keep the clones alive or just make new clones. I am assuming form what you just said about their suit design it sounds like the balance falls towards 'make new clones faster'.”
“That appears to be what those in the empire think. Considering the costs and downtime associated with making a new clone I do not know how that would be true, but...”
“So, what, they just like keeping their slaves vulnerable and dying fast and paying out the nose for it?”
“Apparently? It makes no logical sense, there must be some other reason.”
“No, no I get it. Corporations were like that back before I went under. There was a big ole plague and everyone had to work virtually for awhile, and productivity soared, cause, apparently, not having to drive two hours to work and two hours back every day makes for a more productive person. Well after the plague was over these companies, despite saying they would not, started trying to force people into going back to the office, despite the drop in productivity and making it a worse home life for the workers. Turns out there were a few things behind it, one was all the CEO's and investors had a lot of money tied up in commercial property, and without employees occupying those commercial properties for eight hours a day their investments were starting to go belly up.”
“Hmm.. a personal financial incentive... I don't think that applies to the imperials.”
“Probably not, the next part probably does. Control. Keeping people miserable. Some people, and by this I mean most people born to power, don't feel powerful unless the people under them are suffering. They think if the people under them are not suffering than they themselves are suffering, as they have not experienced any suffering themselves, not truly anyway. It's essentially bullying taken to a corporate level. They punch down to feel in control.”
“That DOES sound like the empire.”
I nodded to myself as I looked around.
“So I've kindof been wandering aimlessly, I'm hoping the sensors have got enough data to make a map? I am hoping to find Joe's cabin, grab any special effects he might want to preserve. Dying and coming back has to be traumatic enough without losing everything.”
“You are very empathetic Captain Cofey.”
“Mmmm, thanks. So... map?”
An alert pinged in my headware, asking to accept a data transfer.
“I have overlayed what the drones have scanned and my last known configuration to Joe's ship into a piece of mapping software. It will interact with your suit and build more of the map as you go along and clear the... 'fog of war' the software calls it.” Hook sighed.
I snickered.
“I see why you may get tired of gamers, everyone in COG space is like this aren't they.”
“Unfortunately yes. There are a few artists and serious individuals who do not engage in such frivolous activities, but most of those do not pilot starships and have simply settled into a space station somewhere.”
“That sorta suggests the kindof person needed to pilot a starship doesn't it.”
Hook was silent.
“Got you with that one didn't I.”
“I refuse to acknowledge whether you did or did not.”
I progressed through the Cup-A-Joe with the aid of the new map. It was a wreck, explosions had warped passageways and sent shrapnel throughout all of the corridors. Despite the suit I found myself wanting some kind of eye protection, partially because the visor was so clear I forgot I was wearing a suit at time, and other times...
“I think I found a partially functional utility drone.”
I flew over to a little drone that lay impaled against the bulkhead. It resembled my combat drones, in that it had nearly a dozen arms, but they were less articulated and had a much more industrial feel to them.
“Be careful, Utility drones are designed to tear apart and weld together space hulks. If it decides you need fixing there is not a lot you can do to stop it.” Hook said to me.
“Should we bring it aboard our ship?”
“I would not recommend it, not without decommissioning it entirely. To get its security protocols to mesh with ours we would have to wipe it entirely, otherwise it would just be sitting there unable to interact with the ship and perform any of it's functions.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Seems a shame just to leave it like this though.”
“Utility drones are capable of some degree of self-repair, if released it could fix itself using the components around it eventually. Maybe by the time Joe get's back he can reintegrate it into his new ship.”
I paused, thought, then went over to where the drone was struggling
I tried to open a connection “Easy there... drone. I'm gonna help you out. Don't... Don't swing any of those arms my way while I try will you?” I said. A moment later I received an acknowledgement and a request to open a data link. I did so, though I kept it restricted.
My head was flooded with danger notices, damage reports, and requests for instructions.
“Damn, looks like the ship was thrown into chaos when they were hit with no captain on board.”
“That does tend to be the case when COG ships suffer damage without a captain aboard. Our method of having everything run through the captain does protect us from being hacked, but this is the downside, nothing can really happen without a captain on board.”
I sent a though to the Drone to keep it's limbs clear and leant in against the Steel I-beam that as pinning it to the ground, I thought for a moment that the I-Beam seemed out of place in the far future, but then shook it off.
The drone judiciously moves all of it's limbs away from me. The main issue was that unlike the combat drones, it's legs only bent one way, like a spider, it could 'knuckle up' above it's body, but it obviously could not get much force, and it was currently pinned with the top of its body against what I think used to be the ceiling.
I rammed the I-beam once, twice, three times, and finally dislodged it, sending the I-beam, and me, Careening down the corridor.
I was flailing trying to get my suit to adjust when something gently took my by the leg and arrested my movement.
The utility bot was standing there, apparently no worse for wear from the giant hole in the middle of it's main body, and was gently pulling me down to the deck with it.
“Uh, thanks.”
I got a response, much like dog-drone and cat-drone outside, it was more of a feeling, though it felt a good deal more... alien? It actually gave me the creeps a little.
GRATITUDE.
“Uh... you are welcome. I am looking for Captain Joe's cabin, I am taking his stack back and I want him to have any items special to him when he wakes up.”
The Utility drone bounced, very much like a spider I now saw, and realised that was what was creeping me out. It began using it's legs to very delicately walk through the ship.
With the utility drone leading me we made it to Joe's cabin very quickly, even crossing an area open to space, or at least it was until the utility drone reached across the gab and, using it's apparently VERY strong limbs, wrenched the offending section back together.
I paused outside the door. “Um... thanks. What are you going to do now?”
REPAIR. FIX. HEAL.
I nodded.
“I'll let Joe know you are trying to get the ship ready for him out here. Hopefully he'll be back soon.”
The Utility drone bounced in place, then walked off.
I entered Joe's Cabin.
I looked over Joe's cabin. It was thankfully mostly undamaged, with several objects having drifted free. There was a framed color photo of Joe, pre-augmentation, standing next to a woman, seated, with a little girl in her lap, which I grabbed just in case. There were also several records, of all things, floating around. Many were damaged but...
“Hey, Hook, would there be any way to repair these records?”
“I am not sure if 'repair' is the correct term. We could print new records, but I feel that would go against the entire purpose of collecting them.”
I humphed to myself, and collected what I could of the records, then began looking for a record player. Iquickly found it, banged up but still looking serviceable.
“If he has kept records for this long he has to be attached to them, I'll bring them all back to him... Now, let's see if we can access Joe's logs, and maybe find out if he had any nearer bases with a clone ready for him.”
“There should be a standard port in the wall, if you connect your suit to it I should be able to feed enough power to access the data on board. I'm not sure if we'll be able to access protected data but...”
“It's too bad we can't just flash it an ID from Joe's stack, that would make things a lot easier.”
“We can, That is the only reason I think we'll be able to copy the data at all. We'll have to spend time decrypting the files however.”
I ran my hand along the wall until I found a port, then looked on the gauntlets of my suit for something with a similar head. Only my left gauntlet I found what looked like a little retractable USB cable with a male version of the wall port.
“Is this the latest version of the USB port.”
“Essentially yes, if my historical archives are indicating correctly that a USB port is a primitive I/O device for streaming both data and electricity.”
“It is.”
“Then yes, this is just a more advanced USB port.”
I plugged it in.
A ton of information flashed past my hud, but thankfully I didn't have to deal with it in full synch mode, it just seemed like a stream of unintelligible data.
“Are you getting all this Hook?”
“Confirmed. Data transfer is green. Please wait while the transfer completes.”
I just floated there awhile, minimizing the stream of data into a corner of my hud I looked around the room. I had been hoping to find more things from old earth, the records and player were an amazing find, and I am sure Joe would be happy about the photo, but.. otherwise the cabin seemed bare.
“Hook, do COG members normally have such bare rooms and cabins? Other than the records and this one photo, there is not much... personal stuff here. I would think there would be posters, art, a crude doodle on the wall after Joe got high from engine fumes once, something.”
“COG vessels are powered by nuclear fusion. Any 'fumes' would have melted Joe's face off, steel and all.”
“Okay but do you understand what I mean?”
“I believe I do. Most COG pilots view the world in a state of perpetual AR. Much like the minimal AR hud you have up, with the glowing lines leading to areas of the ship and highlighted points of interest for you, but far more extensive.”
“Howso?” I asked.
“It may be easier to show you... I will attempt to load Joe's most recent AR Overlay to your view, you may dismiss it at any time and please do if you notice any corruption or errors.”
My vision blacked out for a moment. I thought the whole thing had broken, then, I began to hear something at the edge of my awareness.
Rain.
My vision began to fade in. I was still floating above the ground, but I appeared to be in a 21st century restaurant, a little hole in the wall place it looked like, a dozen seats all facing a central 'bar' that was actually a cooking flattop, where an asian man was frozen apparently in mid-preparation of some kind of noddles and onion dish.
I turned and looked out the door, and saw a beautiful cityscape, at least, I could see the ground level of a cityscape, with rain falling, though it glitched, like it was trying to load the full animation but was failing, every few moments it would shift a frame, but the sound of rain still came through loud and clear.
“This is earth isn't it.”
“It is. Taipei City. This is one of his most used Overlays.”
“This is amazing.” I said, my voice hitching midway through.
It really was beautiful.
And it drove home the fact that I would never see something like this again, never see earth again.
Tears came to my eyes.
“Captain Cofey, are you in distress.”
“Fi... I'm fine Hook. Just give me a second. Coming to terms with the fact I'll never see something like this again.”
“Captain...” Hook began.
“I don't want to hear it Hook.”
“Captain, there are cities like this on other worlds. It may not be earth, but...”
“But it won't be HOME. Joe understood that in a way that I don't think anyone else alive in this time can... unless there are more old men like him kicking around. I feel... stretched, like a part of me is still on earth, and seeing this, it was like plucking on that string.”
We were both silent for some time.
“Hook, I think I'm going to hang out here and look through what he has stored here... can you download these to the ship, please?
“Of course, Captain Cofey.”
I sat down in the little stool seat in the little diner in taiepi city, closed my eyes, and listened to the rain.
