Something in the Bilges

Posted on Tue Apr 7th, 2020 @ 5:38am by Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani

Mission: INTERMISSION: Rebuild, Reuse, Recycle
Location: USS Elysium Miraj's quarters
Timeline: tbc
1437 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

Miraj was met at the docking ring by a crewman from the QuarterMasters team, who took her to her cabin. She followed him through the winding corridors, slightly awed by the size of it, the sheer amount of space. Walking along she could feel the resting hum of a ship asleep even through her boots. She bit her lip, trying to to grin like a loon. Even though it wasn't brand new, it had that sense to it, from fresh repairs.

He left her at her quarters with a brief announcement that the XO was expecting her in an hour, and she went inside. She was just a junior officer, so it wasn't large, but it had a proper living area, not just a bed and a desk like on her cadet cruises. She had a window too, currently showing her a nova class snuggled up at the next docking point. Her trunk was already there, beamed over from the academy, and sitting on top of it was a small but luxurious looking wooden box, with a small envelope on top of that.

That she wasn't expected. She opened the envelope at the same time as kicking off her boots. It didn't feel natural to wear things on her feet onboard a ship like this. She scrunched her toes into the carpet whilst reading.

Hey Mij. Knew you'd see this. Knew you'd want. Sorry I missed graduation. Business. Well done. Fair winds and swift sailing, Mal.

Miraj grinned. She knew what was in the box. putting the note aside, she reached for the beautifully laquerred hardwood box. The darkwood gleamed, and the brass fittings were lovingly engraved. She pushed the clasp button, and the latch sprang open.

Inside was the beautiful antique telescope she had lusted over on Spacedock. Made of brass and covered with somewhat worn brown leather it was a thing of beauty. Not quite up there with the sextant, but getting there. She shut the box. She'd have to get a proper display case for it.

Miraj put the book on a small shelf and rested her hand on the bulkhead. The resting ship was barely detectable, the barest hum, peaceful. She felt better just being on board. Space stations just weren't the same, and being on Earth had been down right horrendous.

"Hey Elysium. I'm Miraj. Pleased to meet you." She rested her forehead against the panel. She knew there was no reply. but it had never stopped her before. "We're going to have lots of fun together, especially with your new engine. I'm going to take good care of you."

She looked around the room, noting panels and joins. The outside of a bulkhead was fair enough, but it wasn't the same to get a sense of a ship than being on the inside. She looked at the small clock on the desk. She had time.

Reaching into her seachest she grabbed her multiool, and popped off one of the panels in the rear bulkhead. "Excuse me." She told the empty room. "Just trying to get to know you better." She set the panel to one side, and wriggled into the crawl space inside. "Much better. I can feel you now."

And she could, whilst there was still little activity as the ship was effectively at anchor, she could sense it more clearly than through the dulling effects of carpet and insulation. She pressed her hands and barefeet against the the plain deckplating, getting a sense for the movement of energy around the superstructure. "Like a slumbering giant." She told no-one in particular. "I can't wait for you to wake up, and take you on an adventure."

"Ensign." A voice said from behind her. There in the tube, in uniform without rank pips, sitting crossed legged was a red-haired female. "I do not appreciate being called a giant."

Miraj turned, screamed, jumped back as best she could in the confiend space, smacked her head on the bulkhead and saw stars for a moment. When the pain subsided, she blinked, not entirely sure she wasn't seeing things. "What? Who are you?"

"I am Avalon. The Elysium's physical Representation." The female replied. Her head tilted as she studied the Ensign. "Oh you didn't read up on the ship that well then."

"The AI?" Miraj sat back, "You're a mark VI synthetic sentience, tethered to the Elysium Computer Core as a proxy for your physical brain, manifesting through a shipwide holoprojection grid, enabling natural language interface to the entire ships complement if needed. They didn't put a picture in the files though. Or mentioned that there was projection emitters in the crawl ways." Miraj was looking around for it now. "I just assumed you'd be a zimmerman type. And you are a giant. You're 1.3 km from bow to stern, twice the size of a sovereign class, and at nearly 200m tall, the biggest height wise, but only by a few meters; consequently your mass is close to ten million metric tons, compared to the 4.9 of Enterprise-D. You're huge." She stopped to take a breath, still looking for the emitters. The tech must have got really small.

"In that sense. But my program is not that big." Avalon smiled faintly. "Why are you crawling around in the tubes Ensign?"

"To get to know the ship better. The feel of her, you, I mean. If you want to fly well, you have to know your ship. In your bones. you're not separate entities, but one thing. You have to let the ship tell you how it feels, what it needs, you have to hold it in your senses. No better way than getting right inside and feeling it without the muffles of insulation."

Avalon considered it. "Very well," she said. "But if people hear you talking to yourself you could end up in counseling."

"But I'm not talking to myself," Miraj pointed out. "I'm talking to you." She thought about it. "Or at least your body. IF you're not there. I'll admit, most of the ships I've flown have been barely alive. And even the whole ones didn't come with an anthropomorphic personification."

Avalon nodded. "I am not unique. All ships of this class have an AI. My... program is a lot less than those others though. Captain Lalor had a bad experience with my predecessor so my 'growth' programming has been limited."

Miraj shook her head. "All ships are unique. Even ones of the same class built at the same time." She contemplated Avalon's other statement. "Why would anyone do that. Personal growth is like, the essence of humanity?"

"Because the AI predecessor killed the former executive officer of this ship. It was an unsanctioned upgrade put in place by the Admiral, the former Commanding officer. Then Lt. Commander Lalor, who was chief of Operations, had the program, called ALICE shut down. I am the original program so she, when she was promoted to Full Commander and captain of this vessel, reactivated the base program."

Miraj's draw dropped with shock. "That's...That's...horryfying! Why would anyone do that?"

"As to that I cannot say. Captain Lalor assumes it was part of the programing for the ALICE program to be very protective of the Admirals safety."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm glad you're not that program anymore." Miraj thought about a ship that could commit murder. It was worse than the thought of a person doing it. Unnatural. Against the order of things. "I'm not sure I could be friends with a homicidal ship."

"Well the captain thought the same." Avalon looked around again. "You will need to find a better place to have these conversations Ensign. You can call me at time"

These felt like the best place to have these conversations, Miraj thought, alone and surround by the real body of the ship and not the false hollowed out bits where the people lived. "Yes, ma'am," she replied, a little crestfallen.

"Its Avalon. Not Ma'am. Ma'am is for the Captain when she is on a tear."

"I'll try and remember. Its just when you're a cadet, everyone is Ma'am or sir. Its a habit now." Miraj admitted.

"You know something Ensign? I think you will fit in well here." Avalon smiled. "Good luck!" and she vanished.

Miraj stared at the empty space, then grinned. A genuine AI that was every part as sentient as the spec said ti was, she could actually have conversations with the ship that weren't all one sided. This posting was even better than she thought.

[OFF]


Ensign Miraj Derani
Assistant Chief Flight Control Officer