LIGHTNOVELONLINE 21. Virtual
=::= Jenny's PoV =::=
Through the external sensors and the cameras outside the main cargo doors I was able to watch the captain and my two crew-mates as they left through the exit of the landing bay.
At the same time I was also monitoring Mel Lancaster and his two employees via the internal sensors and the cameras inside the cargo holds. The shipyard owner was directing and overseeing his staff who were beginning to unload the salvage Piper agreed to sell him.
And while I was doing both those things, I was also simultaneously monitoring the captain's private comm frequency. Before she left the ship she told me which one she used, and what the decryption cypher was. She had a portable comm-link with her, so she could contact me if anything came up.
Likewise, I could signal her as well if anything here required her attention or input. Not that she anticipated any problems, either for herself or for me and the ship. According to her, this was a relatively safe world. And she trusted the shipyard owner well enough to leave her ship in his hands.
What surprised me was she apparently trusted me enough to leave the ship in my hands as well. Or I should say, she left the ship in my virtual hands.
As a Re/Gen AI my primary purpose was working very closely with humans. I was never intended to have a physical body, but my 'internal self-image' was a human form. The way people saw me through the neural link was how I perceived myself. The whole idea was to make me as human as possible, so I could empathize with them and help them.
The result of which meant it was intensely uncomfortable for me to try and merge my processes with those of the ship. Until that moment I had only understood dysphoria as an abstract concept, something I'd perceived second-hand when analyzing those memories in others.
The discomfort was great enough that for a few moments I found myself questioning if Sarah's idea might not be practical after all. Fortunately it didn't take long to hit upon a solution. All I needed was a layer of abstraction, to separate my perceived humanoid self from the ship's distinctly non-humanoid structure.
Instead of merging myself with the ship, I made a copy of the virtual briefing room where I met with my Re/Gen patients. Then I proceeded to outfit that new space with virtual consoles, displays, and controls which were connected to their real counterparts out in the ship.
My virtual control room wasn't a copy of what they had in the ship's cockpit, I wasn't constrained by the limitations of reality. The room and its contents weren't real, so I had no concern over size, weight, practicality, or cost. I had several dozen large and small displays in a hemispherical configuration, and the controls were a blend of solid and holographic that I could manifest as required.
Interacting with the ship by means of a virtual body in a virtual control room didn't delay my reaction time by any measurable amount. I was able to speed up and slow down perceived time in this environment, so I could still react to things about a thousand times faster than a human could.
I only had to slow down to their speed while interacting with them. And I could do that via a sub-process, so I could maintain a conversation with them without impairing the rest of my functions.
From a single comfortable chair in my virtual command centre I could monitor and control every aspect of the ship. And there were a lot of them.
My casual estimate of 'a few dozen sensors' proved to be a gross miscalculation. There were seventeen hundred separate inputs monitoring the engines alone. And throughout the ship, just counting inputs that monitored ship equipment, there were nearly five thousand discrete signals coming in.
While I could observe every last one of them myself, I didn't actually need to do that. There was non-intelligent hardware built for that purpose. Monitoring subsystems consolidated the thousands of inputs into several dozen high-level status signals. So my estimate of 'a few dozen' wasn't too far off, assuming you were very generous in how you interpreted 'a few'.
Beyond the ship's systems there were myriad other sensory inputs. Over two dozen cameras monitored ahead, astern, above and below, to either side, both cargo holds, both shuttle bays from interior and exterior views, and all three airlocks. Then there were the actual dedicated sensors, which themselves had a few dozen modes of operation.
Even the comms was technically another type of sensory input, and I was monitoring that too. In addition to Piper's frequency, I had the communications gear sweeping through a few hundred standard channels so I could monitor the port control, local transmissions around the shipyard, and planetary information broadcasts.
Meanwhile the first of the twin laser turrets was being carefully extracted from the main hold. I could tell the two yard hands were experienced at this sort of work, and their boss was still there overseeing. I probably didn't need to worry about them, but I kept an eye on the cargo hold cameras anyways.
I was somewhat surprised by how much trust our captain had in this Mel Lancaster. She left a fortune in cash unattended in strongboxes that were stored in plain sight in the secondary hold, not to mention an arsenal of weapons. With the hold doors wide open, anyone could walk off with that while she was away with the crew.
After a few moments I felt some embarrassment as I remembered that Piper didn't actually leave the cash unattended. She left me here attending the whole ship and I was determined not to let her down. She said this would be a fresh start for the two of us, and after the rough and uncomfortable way things began for us the first time around I was grateful for the do-over.
One of the frequencies I was monitoring came to life with encrypted traffic. The signal coincided with someone speaking down in the main hold, so I just listened in via the sensors in the cargo area.
Mel Lancaster was communicating with someone via his personal comm-link.
"Tarv, remind me about this later? I need to look up hologram projectors for the Demeter, their new engineer wants as much internal coverage as possible."
The response was loud enough I was able to hear that clearly as well, Tarv replied "Will do boss."
That was another surprise. Sarah hadn't mentioned anything about that to me, but I could guess what she had in mind. She wanted me to be able to manifest my human avatar inside the ship, so I could interact with the crew more naturally. It was a nice idea, but I suspected it was more for the crew's benefit than my own.
It would merely be an apparition I could move around from within my virtual control room. It would give the human crew a comfortable, familiar way to communicate with me but I wouldn't really feel like I was there with them. A sensor drone would be better for me in that respect, but probably worse for them as it would just look like a drone or robot rather than an actual crew-mate.
Still, the idea was a nice one. Sarah was looking out for me and doing her best to make me part of the crew.
Thinking about the crew and being a part of them led me to call up the ship's roster for perhaps the hundredth time in the past few days. There were four names all listed as active crew, but in reality only one of them was still with us.
According to the database the ship's captain was still Gabriel Piper. Rebecca Piper was listed as the first officer. The other two crew were a pair of ex-marines. One was Master Sergeant Ellery Talwyn, the other a Chief Warrant Officer who's name I tried to ignore out of respect for our captain.
Piper used my Re/Gen capsule over a dozen times in the past twenty-nine years, and thanks to my neural link I'd learned quite a bit about her in that time. And through her also I learned about the others who once served on this ship. I knew what became of the ex-marine she called El and the man she called Gabe.
Ellery would never be returning to the ship, and likewise Gabriel would never again set foot on the Demeter. And the warrant officer's entry became redundant when Rebecca Piper was added to the roster.
After staring at the list for a few more subjective minutes, I finally made a decision.
I knew Piper left those names in the database out of respect, and perhaps an unwillingness to let go of the past. So I wouldn't remove the them, but I did make some changes.
The two ex-marines were taken off the active-duty roster and listed instead as on extended leave. Gabriel's entry was changed to indicate he'd retired. And I updated Piper's record to reflect her true rank. Then I added three new entries.
I listed Sarah as the ship's engineer, and Amanda was our medic and navigator. And I put myself on the list as Jenny, the ship's Re/Gen AI.
A few seconds later I changed my mind and cleared that last entry. I decided I needed a proper name, and a position that wouldn't get the ship into trouble anywhere. With that done, I reviewed the active crew list once more.
Rebecca Piper, captain / owner.
Sarah Holloway, engineer.
Amanda Voss, medic / navigator.
Jennifer Io, computer / technical liaison.
I couldn't help but smile slightly at the silly pun of my made-up last name.
For that matter, my first name was also new. When Sarah started calling me Jenny I decided not to correct her. I had another name, back when I was on my original ship. I could have shared it with my new crew at any time, but I chose to keep the one Sarah gave me.
It felt appropriate. Rebecca, Sarah, Amanda, none of them were born to those names. We all came to this ship through loss or trauma or both. The Demeter represented a fresh start and a new life for all four of us. It seemed only fitting that I should take a new name just like the three of them had.
I was still contemplating that sense of camaraderie a few minutes later when the shipyard owner tapped the intercom down in the main hold and called my name.
"Jenny?" he asked into the panel on the wall. "This is Mel Lancaster. We haven't been introduced but I assume Rebecca told you who I am. I was wondering if I could come up to the main deck to meet you? Or if you'd like to come down here?"
I responded through the intercom in the hold, "Hello sir. Yes, Piper told me about you and that you'd be offloading some of the salvage. I appreciate the offer but I have to decline. My captain ordered me to remain at my post while she was off-ship. I'm also aware that she restricted your access to the two cargo holds."
That wasn't entirely true, Piper didn't order me to remain anywhere. But we had yet to discuss whether or not to reveal myself as an AI to others, and until I knew if that was safe or permissible I felt it best to keep my true nature a secret.
After a suitable pause I added, "Perhaps we can meet another time though?"
Mel's smile was visible through the camera in the cargo hold, and he replied "All right Jenny. I don't want to get you in trouble with your new captain. I'm sure she appreciates how diligent you are about following her orders."
I had a feeling he wanted to meet out of curiosity. Not just for myself, but I was sure he had questions about Piper. Like when and why she suddenly decided to take on three crew. And to be honest, I was curious about the same thing.
The last time she made use of my Re/Gen services was about two years ago, and at that time I could detect no indication that she was interested in taking on crew. She didn't spend much time with other people at all, for that matter. I knew from her memories she'd been a much more social person in the past, up until what happened twenty-nine years ago. And her isolation only grew worse six years ago when she lost Gabriel.
It left me wondering what changed.
