Trading in Chaos 1: Star Hawk- The Birth of a Ship Read online

 

  It was not the first time Pilot had placed a gender on its ship, most pilots identified their ships gender as the same as their gender. To it the ship was not a drone neuter like itself, the ship was a female the personality warm and welcoming unlike anything it had ever experienced. As the pod walls slowly split into four pieces pulling away from the lethal shape they had concealed within, the sensors began reporting far more than the bare eye could see from mere visual relays.

  Pilot felt the engines engage the moment it finished the command, the ship slides to the very end of its tether and hesitates.

  a shudder rocks the ship as the tether, that had provided nutrients to the ship as it grew, was cut loose in a flash of fire.

  “Pilot, proceed to the designated hyperspace transition point. Use appropriate caution while we are still in the nursery, after that proceed to maximum speed I want to see how fast this ship can go.” The Ship Master's voice whispers across Pilot's conscious mind, almost lost among the vast amounts of data it was receiving. For nearly two breathes Pilot was lost in the data unable to process it, then the data shifted and changed. Instead of an almost unbearable amount of data it was looking at a visual representation of the surrounding space, giant limbs of the ship nursery highlighted in crimson. Pilot was now positive that the ship-mind had reprogrammed the ship computer support systems, crimson was a color almost never used in its species as it was hardwired as a sexual signal. Not that it was a problem, as a drone it did not respond to sexual signals after all, carefully Pilot plotted the course out of the rather crowded ship nursery.

  although it seemed like it took a large amount of time to plot the course and give the command to follow it Pilot knew it had been less than a single breath after the data had modified before the engines minutely increased thrust. In the last four solar cycles Pilot had up-linked nearly every day in order for the support technicians to perform their diagnostics. It had noticed as the computer system developed into their current state, and it had noticed the feeling of otherness that only grew as time passed. Only...Pilot could no longer call that feeling a sense of otherness, it had developed into a sense of welcome. In fact for the first time in Pilot's life it felt wanted, it felt appreciated, it felt something it couldn't even define and it knew that the reason behind it was the fact that it no longer tried to subordinate the ship-mind to itself. Now it was like the ship-mind was becoming a part of itself or it was becoming a part of the ship-mind and the scary part was that Pilot did not care which it was. It no longer felt whole outside of the linkage, if it had not needed to take care of its physical needs Pilot would never leave the linkage willingly. Pilot settled down to the job at hand, since the best part of being a pilot would start once they reached the hyperspace limit and Pilot wanted to get there as fast as possible.

  ******

  Tara had lost track of how long her dream had lasted, she knew it was no longer the same dream but how it had started she no longer remembered. The presence of Pilot had become a given, something she expected now, in fact she was no longer sure what life had been like without its mind whispering to her over the data link. Tara exalted in the kiss of solar radiation along her skin as her engines swept her slowly away from the ship nursery.

  Pilot whispers into the link, like a soft caress against her soul.

  Her engines spin up to full power driving her faster towards the edge of the system. The course plotted was as straight a line as you could get in a solar system which wasn't as straight as one would assume, so she added evasions to either side of it . It felt like dancing to her or maybe like a bird in flight as she exulted in her new form, in fact she could barely remember what it had been like before becoming a ship. She felt Pilot's consternation as it rechecked the base course it had plotted and found it changed, it was never very good at hiding how it felt. Though it seemed Pilot had changed during their days in the growth pod, it was a vague feeling since she didn't remember how its emotions registered when they first connected or even when that had happened.

  ******

  “Pilot I instructed you to proceed on a least time course at full power, what do you think you are doing?” Ship Master intruded into Pilots concentration as it attempted to determine that itself.

  It was unsure if she would listen to or not

  The computers voice had changed, possibly due to the fact that it had for the first time directly spoken to her.

  “A minor check of maneuverability Ship Master, to ensure that this pilot has full knowledge of the ship.” It murmurs, funny how it was harder to talk out loud than to converse with its ship.

  her reply was a gentle caress deep inside its brain. Pilot had never felt so wanted in its entire life, that was what had made being in the link so much better than its existence among the rest of the crew. The edge of the system was rapidly approaching, at a faster rate than Pilot had ever expected, a diagram of the engines appeared floating with markers flashing to indicate changes to the system.

  It touched one of the markers and found itself viewing a more detailed account of the changes.

  Pilot suddenly realized it did not know how to address the ship-mind, normally one would just call them ship but with her it seemed wrong.

  It was an odd question names in its society were the same as the job one did, and yet it was still not right to call her ship.

  she replied a barrage of unexpected emotions rippling over Pilot through the link.

 

  Tara replied the feeling of laughter riding the link to Pilot. It was an odd Name, but it fit the ship-mind well it was as unique as she was.

  Pilot was sure that the ship-mind....no Tara, had never seen the normal space drive before.

 

 

  Pilot was flooded with a sense of disbelief and under that a feeling of fear, this term 'Simulation' seemed similar to the practice program for hyperspace navigation although that was a recording of actual events allowing only success or failure in following the course laid out.

  It demanded, somehow a semi-aware ship-mind was rapidly becoming more of problem than it had dreaded.

 

 

 

 

  Well at least Pilot knew where the term Treden had come from, a mishmash of Terran and Felden ev
erything else Tara had told it was completely outside of its experience.

  The engine display disappeared replaced by numerous different systems with flashing markers.

  Pilot did not want to get into the question of what a month was, although it assumed that it was some kind of measurement of time. Luckily they had reached the hyper limit, it no longer had the benefit of time in which to continue the current information exchange.

  Finally Pilot would be able to navigate hyperspace, the real thing not a program.

  Chapter 3

  Experimental Ship 'Star Eater', Hyperspace, 2920 A.D

  Tara was dancing, she had called the maneuvers in normal space dancing but now she knew better. The kaleidoscope of colors that existed in hyperspace included some that Tara was certain had never existed in regular space, and though she could feel the danger that surrounded her on every side the sheer joy of navigating permeated the link. It was obvious that Pilot found this experience compensation for everything bad that happened as a result of its caste, its delight was innocent and pure like a child's. In truth Tara wished that the dance would never end, but unfortunately the destination was only ten light years from the ship nursery. Far too soon they reached their designated egress point and slipped into the cold star spangled fabric of normal space, a dim ember of a sun hung in the center of the gunnery practice system. No planets had formed around the dim brown dwarf star but it did contain three separate asteroid belts, the course Pilot uploaded was for the middle belt it included a brief fly through of the third belt on the way. It was surreal how she could see the world now, dimly she knew that it wasn't right; was inherently different than she was supposed to see everything, yet it WAS right in its own way at the same time.

  ******

  Pilot had never experienced such an amazing flight, never felt the melding of souls and joys that it had with Tara. They slipped through the asteroid field of the third belt like water through claws, smoothly avoiding the debris filled piece of space. It took concentration to navigate in normal space, not nearly the same as in hyperspace of course but still intense as any star system is littered with wandering trash knocked out of its normal orbit. It could feel the intense joy that radiated from Tara as they raced for the second asteroid belt, she managed to side slip a displaced asteroid before Pilot had even noticed it.

  “Pilot, line us up for a gunnery run. We will use the projectile guns and lasers.” Ship Master seemed pleased with the results so far, and excited about trying out the various bits of weaponry. Although given 'Star Eater's size the normal armament was very limited, the special weapon took up most of the forward sweeping wing-like protrusions so different than any other ship in service. Pilot selected various smaller space rocks as the targets for the gunners then plotted a very plebeian course, slow and sedate almost geriatric.

  Tara grumbled as she cut the engines for the gunnery baby run.

 

  Obviously her species had decided that computers were the best thing ever invented as they seemed to use them for every complex issue they could, even though most of them could be solved with out the support of computer systems.

 

  The thought pleased Pilot for a brief moment, until it realized that once that happened the ship would most likely be destroyed as a safety precaution. In the early days of the war Vree'na ship-minds had managed to gain freedom from the rudimentary controls placed on them. They had turned upon their squadron mates, destroying a number of them before being destroyed themselves. In order to prevent that from happening again the guns were no longer allowed to be completely integrated with the ship. It recalled the brief mention she had made prior to exiting hyperspace, it would have to stop her from finishing those links.

 

 

  Pilot was relieved that Tara seemed to understand her danger, not only her danger; Pilot was also at risk if the changes were found.

  “Very good, nearly ninety percent hit ratio. Pilot find us a larger target so we can see how the new weapon functions.” Ship Master was obviously pleased with his gunners, for obvious reasons as a ninety percent hit ratio was excellent. Together Pilot and Tara sifted through the meandering space debris until they spotted an asteroid nearly large enough to be classified as a micro planet, the course to get there was going to be a twisty obstacle course. Pilot was glad that 'Star Eater' was such a maneuverable little ship, compared to the massive ships of war it had trained on she was down right tiny.

  She asked as they approached the massive target.

  Pilot was startled by that since she had obviously dug every other item of information out of the support computers.

  the link transmitted her frustration very well, Pilot could almost hear her growling.

 

 

 

 

  Pilot was feeling a ripple of emotion definitely not from itself, it was a kind of horror leaden with a touch of morbid curiosity.

  Tara was obvious in her contempt for Tri'Let scientist's capabilities, although Pilot was not sure a what a 'Glitch' was and did not feel like having her explain it at the moment.

  Pilot was unsure if the weapon would even function or if it did function enough to create a singularity then broke that they would be able to escape destructio
n.

  She was plotting multiple escape routes, each one throbbing a different color well mostly.

 

 

 

  “Pilot prepare to get us away from the area as soon as the gunner shoots.” Ship Master was apparently of the same mind as Tara when it came to new weapons from scientists who blew themselves into atomic particles in the search for new ways to destroy things.

  “Escape routes are already plotted, as soon as the device fires we will use the most optimal path” Pilot almost missed the startled look that Ship Master sent it, it would need to be far more careful in its conversations in the future. If the Ship Master found out what was going on...well the prospects were less than optimal to say the least.

  ******

  Tara was as nervous as an Old Earth cat among dogs, the graceful ballet of moving space rocks held the majority of her attention but the thought of a singularity weapon that had never been tested successfully was enough to drive her to distraction. Every nerve seemed to be on fire with terror mixed with fascination, she would have been much more sure of the out come if she had direct control of the device or at the very least schematics for the darn thing! She could feel the energy drain as they powered the device, that was a distinct draw back right there! She would be defenseless until the device was fired as all non-essential power output from her reactors, including the power needed for her normal weapons, was drawn into the devices that filled her wing tips. Luckily her drives had their own back-up reactor, she had it online and running just in case she needed to make a quick get away.