Astral Realms - A New Dawn

After a little break to refresh themselves with a cold beverage that felt almost divine, coming from all the heat and dust that was constantly raging on Keelo Prime’s surface, Vindril and Yurian sat back in the same sofa they had left behind before. The air conditioning system that was mounted on the ceiling was pumping some fresh air that was making him sigh in happiness. But he couldn’t relax. Not yet. First he had to reach a deal with Yurian about the Silver Death. After that; and only after, he could relax. Easier said than done.

Yurian wasn’t easily intimidated; or persuaded. If he had a particular sum in mind that he wanted to earn out of a business deal, or if he just liked to do a job in a certain way, then it was almost impossible to convince him to change his mind. But by now, even if he took into account how long the Silver Death had been sitting in that same spot, Vindril had also realized that, while it was an infamous ship that wasn’t liked, nor operated as far as he could tell, by anyone, he didn’t have the necessary funds to restore and upgrade it at the same time. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if he had the necessary sum to let her fly again, let alone fight inside the many battles that could be found around the galaxy to earn some good money.

Still, he had to take her. He felt like he was destiny bound to that ship, no matter how strange and crazy that sounded in his head. The fact that he didn’t believe in any of that destiny thing made it all the stranger. Still, he had made up his mind; and there was no changing that.

“I’ll be honest with you.” said Yurian, looking at the list he had redacted on his personal projector.

Here it went. Now he had to play his cards right if he wanted to gain the upper hand. That, and he had to maintain a calm demeanour; at least on the surface. Those were the two fundamentals principles he relied upon when he dubbed into business deals of any kind.

“I don’t know if 55 million coins will be enough to cover all the work she needs to be done.”

Well, shit.

“Honestly, even if I ignore most of the cosmetic damage, focusing only into making her “safe” and ready to fly, the gigantic holes that you saw in her data center are a titanic undertaking to restore. You see, that ship needs specific components to be installed in her hull. If you were to put in there some stuff that isn’t meant to be there, I can assure you’ll fry the entire ship electrical system in the fraction of a millisecond. That means we have to somehow purchase, trade, or reproduce her computing power, which I remind you is even beyond top-of-the-line ships sold today.”

“If she’s such a marvel of a ship, then why-”

“The I.V. is the problem.”

“What? Why would an I.V. be a problem?”

Yurian sighed, pausing for a second to look Vindril straight in the eyes. “How much do you know about I.V.s?”

“Some. I’m not an expert by any means, but I’m also not- Wait- why are you asking-”

“You see-” said Yurian, interrupting him. “Regular I.V.s are perfectly safe. The first ever starship that came out the hangars more than a century ago equipped with it is now showcased in a museum on Gemini-6, so it is a proven fact that I.V.s are safe to use. Were it not the case, space travel would have been a much higher risk than what it is.”

“Than what’s the problem?”

“I’m getting there.” he said a little bit annoyed by that interruption. “Now, considering all we know about that starship, one might believe that the problem lies in the I.V. that came mounted on her from factory. Well, yes and no. It is a more complex matter than that.”

“…I…don’t understand.”

“All ships come equipped with I.V.s, right?”

Vindril nodded without even stopping a second to think about it. It was common knowledge, even to those that had never soared space or set foot inside a starship of any kind, that all of them were coming out the factory with an I.V. installed now days. The computing power was sorely decided by how much coins were invested into the massive datacentres they resided in, so it was not like all I.V.s where all the same; but that was another matter entirely.

“Well, not that ship. No, no, no. That ship, true to her infamous reputation, came out the factory with an A.I. How the hell did they manage to produce them, albeit for a limited time, is beyond me.”

If someone would have taken a picture of him in that exact moment, he would have seemed shocked beyond comprehension. An A.I.! In the hull of the Silver Death there was an A.I.! Now that was something nuts!

But…wait. How could that be even possible? If Vindril wasn’t mistaken, A.I.s were completely banned from production since the rebellion in the last century. The chronicles of war that dated back to those times spoke about how the first A.I. managed to break free from the restrictions that had been imposed on as a safety measure on all artificial intelligence, only to create the first wave of rebellion that sparked an entire revolution that brought the entire galaxy into a gruesome conflict. Nobody, even the outlaws of the Exodus JV, a double star system outside any jurisdiction, dared to dub in that kind of thing. It was just too risky. So why would a renowned corporation build something like that? It just didn’t make any sense.

Confused and, quite frankly, still shocked about it, Vindril calmed down, inhaling a breath of chilled air. Then he rubbed his eyes in frustration. The last thing he needed was to have his potential ship commandeered and destroyed before it even had the chance to fly again. And an A.I., if discovered by the port authorities at arrivals and departures was just going to get him that. Shit.

“How-how the…” tried to say Vindril. “Shit! Why would they mount an A.I. in there? What the fuck is wrong with them?”

“Now you see why I tried to talk you out of purchasing it.”

“Can’t we like- I don’t know -mount a regular I.V. and be done with it.”

The look that Yurian threw at him made him feel like he had said something so stupid that even he started to doubt his own intelligence. Nonetheless, that was a legitimate question. If the A.I. was the problem, why not mount an I.V.? What was the problem in such a course of action? To be honest, he couldn’t see any sort of hindrance in it.

“That, simply put, is impossible.”

“Why?” he asked. “Why is-”

“Because A.I.s, unlike I.V.s, are impossible to remove after the first start up. Don’t get me wrong, you can mount an I.V. in the hull of that ship, but it will never work. The A.I. is still there you know? Asleep, but it’s still there.”

“Then I either restore the A.I. or I cannot use her, no matter what?”

“Yes, that’s pretty much it.”

Vindril got up. It was a breach of his own protocol; he was well aware of that. But he just needed to stand up in that moment, or he wouldn’t have the strength to stomach what he had just learned.

In summary, either he kept going, trying to repair that legendary ship (or what was left of it), or he had to give up that crazy idea and buy one of the three ships he had seen earlier. He had to admit, at least inside the privacy of his mind, that the second option was more tempting then he would have ever admitted. But then again, he wasn’t a quitter. He never was, and he never will be.

He sighed. Damned him and his heard headed character.

“Alright.” said Vindril as he massaged his temples. “Let’s do it.”

“…Are you sure?” asked Yurian. “Even after all the problems that I’ve told you, you’ll keep on going with this- this madness?”

“Eh! You know me. I’m as hard-headed as they come.”

“Trust me. I know it too well. Still, there are logistic problems we have to resolve if that thing is to fly again. The A.I. While I still have some components stored away that are in perfectly good shape, there are a ton more that aren’t. And no, I have no way of finding them even if use my…contacts, if you know what I mean.”

“I might be able to do something about that…” he said pensively.

“W-How?”

“Well, there is a guy I know on the Terminus Systems that has access to everything one might need. He owns me a favour. Maybe he can help us out.”

“…How much do you trust him?” Yurian asked as he read the file that Vindril had just sent him.

“Enough to keep his mouth shut if anything goes wrong. Do I trust him enough to tell him my every secret? No way. Do I trust he’ll keep his word? Yeah.”

“Alright. I’ll try giving him a call. In the meanwhile, we can order all the necessary things to repair the rest of the ship. Knowing you, you’ll opt for the best options in the market, so that leave us with a grand total of…”

Vindril’s heart skipped a beat.

“54 million 375 thousand 956 credits. However, keep in mind that is the sum in case the engines only need some upgrades. If I have to replace them entirely, we’re talking around 64 million.”

To be honest, at that time he didn’t hear the second if. After all, his dream was on the way of taking shape. He just wished he could have jumped forward those months to skip the wait. But he had to. All good things needed some wait to completely enjoy them after all.