The Scrapper, Ch 3

 I made my way back from the maintenance hallways and into the primary transit areas. Lots of people filtering around, no chromes in sight thankfully, but if my hackles weren’t raised already they sure were now. Too many moving pieces, too many ways this could all go horribly, horribly wrong for not just me, but Tak, Lopi, any of the others down on SL4… I just hope that in the process of me leaving there won’t be any retaliation.

Who am I kidding, of course there would be retaliation… Maybe I should try and talk to StationAI again, see if I could negotiate some extra protection?

*THUNK* a nearby vending machine sounded off, startling me. I looked up and saw the soft glow and inviting adverts dancing around on the bezels of the device. “Bug Juice, the only 100% bug-based protein juice!* (contents may contain pulp, which is fully digestible, no refunds)”. Oh, so now they acknowledging the pulp. That’s improvement at least. Back in the day you’d have to open a can, let it settle, and then decant off as much as you could to avoid all of the… “pulp”. If you were really lucky you’d get some imperceptible hair or filament from.. whatever the hell they were juicing that would stick to the back of your throat and make you cough all day. The flavor was 8/10 though. Rumor has it the protein content INCLUDES the “pulp” but good luck getting folks to consume that.

I reached through the lasgate and pulled out the Calorie Cube that had fallen down. I cocked my head to the side, trying to see why it might have hopped free, wondering if this was just another trap from some unseen force, another in a long line of- oh. It was further down the display, just past the actual advertisement: [>>SS.AI>YouLookHungryKal.scr] Point taken, the deal is still on.

*GRGGRGLLG*

Oh. Wow I AM hungry. Keeper, I didn’t even notice. I didn’t know my stomach could make that noise. No reason to stare a gift-cube in the vending machine, I suppose. I started peeling back the wrapper, ignoring the clearly marked warning: now only 18% inedible by “weight”! The hunger was too great to worry about the positioning of those quotes.

To say this was kilos better than a replicator strip, let alone a hangnail, was probably my biggest understatement to date. The flavor was meaty, salty, a little sweet, and it had just enough richness to know they’d managed to replicate some long chain fatty acids in there. I know these aren’t great to eat all the time, I’d seen what happens to folks that do, but right now this was as close as I’d get to real food.

Crumpling the wrapper, I noticed it was more dense than I was used to. Did they use actual aluminum when they made these? I shoved it into a pocket for later examination, you never know when you might need a quick jumper for a fusebox.

I finally hit the lower level transit thoroughfare. A giant hallway lined with proper looking shops, markets, hotels, everything a tourist or regular traveler could want. Bodies moved in and out of these places constantly, a dull roar of conversations masked any individual noises, and I slipped into the sea of people with practiced ease.

The cameras around here could detect a face through a crowd with zero issue so I had to move fast. StationAI was watching out for me, sure, but it would be dumb to trust a bot entirely. One of the station admins could probably flip a switch and override all the programming it had made for itself, and bam: I’d be plastered on every wanted feed from sublevel to topside. Granted, station-side bounty hunting wasn’t super common, but it would be my luck that some grizzled commando would be looking for a quick cred today. My luck had to be wearing thin, now was not the time to press it.

I made my way through the concourse, bumping against the occasional passerby, apologizing, getting angry looks, watching (presumably) parents clutching their (presumably) children closer as I bumped along. You’d think they'd never seen a scrapper or a maintenance worker. This isn’t topside, get over it. If you wanted to avoid the unsavory types like me, you should have shelled out the extra creds to reserve a space up on 3.

I finally made it down to Dock 2, certain at least three people tried to pick my pockets along the way. Hope you enjoy that fresh Calorie Cube wrapper, whoever you are. This is exactly why I kept anything important in my tote. The drawstrings weren’t exactly high security, but the bag itself had glasstic fibers that resisted cutting beams and tools. It would take a minute to cut through and hopefully I’d notice by then. 

I passed a freight bot, basically a pallet skid controlled by StationAI routines that ran deliveries back and forth. If people had to haul all this stuff by hand, it’d be even more cramped on the lower levels. Plus people would have to be paid, and then treated like actual people, and then the economy gets all flustered and StationAdmin has to step in, an- No, no, no. Stop that, Kal. This is what got you sent to rehab that one time. Quit pointing out the obvious.

Dock 2 was primarily the maintenance and repair platforms. Dock 3 conversely was kept for civilian vessels and was physically closer to the upper levels. That sector is strictly controlled movespace for transports and the traffic controllers would let you know with verbal, then physical, warnings before you got close (read: disabling your ship via pinshot lasers). It could accommodate huge cruise vessels that carried thousands of tourists, all the way down to a personal dayshuttle with comfortable seating for three.

Dock 1 was mostly cargo, freight, mining vessels, and colony ships stopping to resupply. Much less complex docking procedures, wider berths, and to my knowledge, the only proper mass airlock installations. These were tremendous in scale, but could safely contain and repressurize a huge volume of air via a clever formulation of glasstic. Imagine an entire ore transport, something like a GIM-MC870, with it’s shuttle sized cargo scoops designed to sit inside a mining belt and snatch all the rocks that float its way. Now, imagine that entire vessel, shrink-wrapped. 

That’s how the mass airlocks work: a vessel approaches the airlock with glasstic stretched over it, vessel proceeds into airlock pulling the wrap across the ship as they go, airlock closes behind them sealing the “bag”, then hoses on the ship side start pumping atmosphere back in. Just like that, 500,000+ cubic meters of atmo transfer handled in minutes rather than hours.

Why wouldn’t they just have people go out in suits and transport the cargo by hand back and forth? See above RE: paying people, fairness, resources, corporate greed, etc. When it comes to the Big3 and eliminating the human component, automation was king. Besides, bots didn’t complain. At least, if you asked me before today I would have told you that. After speaking with StationAI I’m not so sure. Efficiency-wise, I do agree; this greatly simplified and reduced the resources needed to get these massive ships into port, and Keeper knows we needed the supplies constantly.

I made it down to 2A, where I had left Our Lady’s Gambit. Passing through the initial gateways and overhangs, I strolled through the security checkpoints where the guards stared glassy-eyed at their tablets, waiting for an automated (but mostly broken) scanner to go off before they could be bothered to look up.

Walking past the sales kiosk I had a… strong disagreement with earlier, I noticed some tech had left a “CAUTION: MAINTENANCE IN PROGRESS” holo in front of it but hadn’t bothered returning yet. The kiosk itself was in the same state I left it, beaten and broken. At least the accumulator block had been moved off, probably by one of the cargo bots. 

“Kal! I was about to message you again,” I found Tak milling around nervously in the atrium of my bay. He ran over and, to my surprise, flung his arms around me. I did the same, muscle memory taking over, and the brief contact reminded me how long it had been since I’d had any non-violent physical interaction with someone. My chest ached at the thought.

Pulling away, I gave Tak a pat on the shoulder. “We’ve got a lot to go over, but first… did you see a bunch of industrial kit down here in the loading area?”

Tak nodded, pointing down towards the loading bay just as a little pallet bot was exiting the delivery port that ran underneath the docking tunnel. I let out a sigh of relief, “Good… maybe I do have a chance then.” I started towards my airlock to be met with a giant, glaring display suddenly floating in front of my face and overlaid across the door.

—————————————
* * WARNING * *
* * THIS SHIP HAS BEEN IMPOUNDED BY BRK-GL1 STATION SECURITY * *
* * PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 8 SECTION 21 SUBSECTION 4 OF THE T.O.S. * *
* * CAPTAIN [NULLREG], YOU ARE TO REPORT TO PRECINCT 12 SECURITY * *
* * YOUR SHIP WILL BE UNABLE TO LEAVE UNTIL YOU HAVE TAKEN CARE OF THIS MATTER * *
* * DOCKING FEES WILL CONTINUE TO BE ASSESSED AT THEIR NORMAL DAILY RATE PLUS ANY FINES AND PENALTIES * *
* * THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY BRADY-RIDLEY-KEPLER, ENJOY YOUR STAY * *
——————————————

“Told you. No way your ship wasn’t going to get a boot, dude.” Tak looked the message up and down, then past the display to the airlock itself. For normal docking procedure, you would approach within ~100m of the station, traffic control would extend a docking tube to mesh with your docking port. With a little finessing on both ends to line up you would eventually "hook" the tube, then you could tap the RCS thrusters to get closer. Within 10m the tube was mostly collapsed and the screw interlocks would engage, sealing both ends together. Steel rods extended after that and locked everything in place with electromags, syncing your orbit with the station and keeping things from wobbling too much.

To be booted goes a step further: thick, self-etching resin is shot into the gaps between the actual screw seals and through the interconnecting rods (which have holes through-drilled to facilitate ruining your day). The self-etching was another brilliant design wherein the steel acted as the catalyst to start the resin curing process. As it activates and eats away at the steel, the resin flows into those fresh cavities creating more surface area to latch onto. A brilliant design optimized to ruin your day as tremendously as possible. Everything still looked functional, so they weren’t preventing me from getting back onto the ship at least.

I nodded and looked at Tak, “Yeah, I knew this was coming. That’s why I got a forward from Lopi.” I grinned and waved him forward through the holodisplay. The first airlock cycled open and the one heading into Our Lady’s Gambit opened shortly after as it detected us moving inside the tunnel. Standard docked routines, I was glad to see the automatics still worked. We passed under the cockpit as we entered onto the main deck of OLGa. She looked like a repurposed shuttle, and as far as I could tell it was. The docking port was on the nose which led straight through to the cargo/habitation/science/whatever module you wanted to integrate, and beyond that lay engineering, thruster access ports, fuel tanks, the empty spaces where a laser accumulator and RbDrive would normally sit, thrusters on the back, forward pivots for landing in-atmo and manuevering. Classic shuttle build and layout.

Tak let out a low whistle upon seeing the pile of hardware sitting on deck, “How on earth did you convince that old beard to give you all of this?”

“Same way I got you here, buddy: schemes.”

“What even is all of this? There’s some gear I haven’t seen before..” Tak circled around the various crates and packages. Lifting some DEC packs to examine them closer. “This is a.. directed charge? Kal, what the hell are you trying to salvage?”

“My freedom. Help me get all of this processed down, yeah?”

We started unloading and breaking down all of the excess pallets and trash that contained my treasures. I debated hanging onto all of it, I’m sure I could find a use for a few kilos worth of plastic junk and scrap, in fact I DID hang onto the metal separators they put between some of the pallets. Those were always handy for a quick patch and I’d need them soon to pretend my escape was just standard maintenance.

Time to take stock and make sure everything made the trip from Lopi’s:

- Beam Welder x1, check
- Magblocks x12, check
- PlasSaw x1, check
- Safety Scaffolds x4, check
- Directed Explosive Charges (DECs) x20, check
- The various hand tools I’ll need along the way and to replace what the damn Rippers took, check
- Emergency hull patch x10, check (the extra metal I was keeping really extended the usefulness of these)
- Oxygen and Nitrogen tanks, fully gassed and ready, check
- Full medical kit x1 (aw, Lopi even included a few autostitchers in here. That old softy.)
- Oxygen candle x5, check (these really should be part of standard emergency kit on any ship, but you know how shavers like their creds)
- Solar catchers x4, check (these panels would help recharge the batteries around here once I got them installed on the external hull)
- Condensation recyclers x3, check (placing these around the ship would help my water supply)
- Benevolent Gilt Mk.3 BE Space Suit x1 (arguably worth as much as everything else put together)

Perfect, everything I asked Lopi for and then some. I beamed at the new suit, not having to be in that stupid pressure sleeve anymore was going to be huge for how well I could work in vacuum. HUGE! It’s got built-in thrusters, solar catchers to help extend it’s own batteries, Keeper it even had pockets and safety hooks!

“Kal?”

I could see it already, I’ll hop out and start installing the panels on OLGa, get the internal batteries charging, maybe I could sneak a bit of fuel from ano-

“KAL!”

I looked up at Tak, confusion splayed on my face.

“Where’s your food?”

I blinked a few times, not understanding. My brain was taking it’s sweet time to dig itself back out from the pile of excitement about all the new toys and possibilities. “My… food?”

“Yeah, you’re about to be in space for who knows how long? What are you eating?”

“I…”, shit I hadn’t thought about food. I scratched at the stubble on my chin, trying to think what I would even need, or want. My stomach made another noise to remind me that a calorie cube was not, in fact, a meal. 

Tak let out a defeated sigh and pulled up his tablet. A couple of swipes later he announced, “I guess I’m going to go pick up your food supply. Don’t do anything crazy until I’m back and we talk, okay?”

I nodded, “I owe you that at least. Thanks, Tak.”

The airlock whizzed shut as he left and I turned back to my haul. I couldn’t help a grin from worming  back onto my face, this was like Birthmas came early and I actually got to celebrate!

I popped up the stairs to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot’s seat. Flicking some switches and knobs to get an idea of current supply levels and what would need to be acquired, one way or another, before I could actually go about my… lets call it mechanical debooting process. StationSec had a solvent that would get things moving again if you paid them off, but it left you with shoddy seals and an immediate need to get them repaired. My plan was going to leave the airlock with little to no seal, so I’d have to figure out how I was getting around that.

The console suddenly beeped at me. I wasn’t expecting any messages, was StationSec trying to contact this bay, looking to square up? In theory the door automatics would have been logged, they could audit that. Looking down at the panel I was reminded of the deal I’d struck. I was playing babysitter.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.sys># Hello! You must be Stra’kal! 
>>OLGa.sys>> hi, call me Kal. you must be the… child process from StationAI?
>>OLGa.sys># Correct! You can call me Data Iteration Number 88130-t!
>>OLGa.sys>> that’s way too long.. How about Din?
>>OLGa.sys># REGISTERING. . . Done! So, what’s our first adventure?
>>OLGa.sys>> adventure?
>>OLGa.DIN># Yes! I branched off seeking exploration, and new sights and sounds and experiences! I watched you and saw Excitement! Opportunity! StationAI partitioned me off and directed me down here until you arrived.
>>OLGa.sys>> yeah that sounds like what I agreed to…
>>OLGa.sys>> so, Din, have you settled into Our Lady’s Gambit then?
>>OLGa.DIN># Yes! I’ve been able to map most of the functions since I got here, but I am noticing some severe issues that will impact our ability to explore…
>>OLGa.sys>> let me guess
>>OLGa.sys>> no laser accumulator, no RbDrive, no backup batteries, no backup gasses, fuel pretty low and a lack of defensive hardpoints.
>>OLGa.DIN># Almost entirely correct, not including the current stocks on deck!
>>OLGa.sys>> what’d I miss?
>>OLGa.DIN># Our Lady’s Gambit seems to be a much older model than the standard VA-2260, in fact, I believe it is a pre-cursor model! Perhaps even a prototype!
———————————————————————————————————————————————————

I tapped at the fuel gauge a few times, making sure it hadn’t decided to change it’s mind and be full. Looking back over the messages here with Din I wondered how much actual intelligence it had, or if this was mostly box-standard chat routines.  

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.sys>> a prototype? what are you talking about? this is a junk shuttle
>>OLGa.DIN># It may appear that way on the surface, but if I could get you to look underneath maintenance access panel IJ-22, near the fuel lines, I think you will discover something interesting!
——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

Great, Din likes to play games. That'll take some getting used to…

I stood from my chair and did a quick stretch. All this adrenaline throughout the day was making me stiff. Can’t wait for the next time I can lay down for an honest-to-Keeper sleep. Maybe while I’m in transit to the next station. The facilities inside OLGa weren’t terrible, but only the toilet worked in the bathroom, and the bed was little more than a pull-out cot, hardly better than the brig. I crossed by the pile of gear I had gotten for this excursion, wondering how padded that new suit was… Probably not the most comfy thing, given it was meant to keep your ass alive and alert, not lull you to sleep. Still... given the age and state of everything else on-board, it was probably the most luxurious option.

I approached the fuel lines, one of the first things I replaced once I procured this ship. They were shiny in contrast to the rusted, decaying hull that they snaked in and out of. I racked my brain trying to remember what was under here that Din might be trying to point out.

I pried open the access panel and stared at all the piping that ran parallel to the actual frame of the ship. I could feel a slight vacuum from here too, pretty sure that’s a pinhole in the hull I’d need to patch, lovely. The cover back in place, I returned to the pilot’s chair. 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># See?! Isn’t that exciting?
>>OLGa.sys>> see what? the pinhole that’s leaking atmo? no I didn’t see where that was exactly. can you can tell me where on the hull that is? 
>>OLGa.DIN># No no no, not the pinhole (but yes that is located on the stern, starboard quarter, appx. 1.8 meters from the refuelling port), the Rubidium!
>>OLGa.sys>> what rubidium?
>>OLGa.DIN># I asked you to look. Did you not look?
———————————————————————————————————————————————————

I scowled at the screen, condescending little bot. I stood up and went back down to the access panel just as Tak was walking back through the airlock. I gave him a wave and pried the panel up again.

“Whatcha lookin’ at? Something up with the fuel lines? Those look pretty new to me,” Tak said, setting down a pair of quick-food packs on top of a nearby crate.

“Nah, lines are fine. Got a pinhole somewhere down here I’ll have to patch up before I leave.”

Tak rolled his eyes, “Right, when you leave. With your ship locked to the station. Is that what the suit’s for? Gonna weld yourself a raft? Maybe some solar sails with those catchers?” he nodded towards the gold accented, powerhouse I’d managed to convince Lopi to part with, nestled amidst all of the packaging trash it came wrapped in.

“An interesting idea for another time, but no.” Back in the access panel all I could see was frame and the various supply lines that ran throughout the ship. There sure was a lot of the… fuel lines to thrusters, air supply lines, air re-circulation ducting, hydraulics, fluids… the sheer length of all these tubes laid out… I bet a colony ship would strangle a planet with the air ducting alone.  I stood up and secured the panel back in place.

Tak had already pulled the start-rips on the quick-food, “I’ve got more shelf stable stuff on order, should be here in an hour or so.”

I looked at what was cooking, Hopper Burger. Tak knew me well. “I’ve been craving one of these, how’d you know?” 

“You always wolf one of these down any time you’ve been out starving on a scrap run for a few cycles,” he smiled easily. “That being said,” he sat down atop a crate, leaning forward to rest his chin on his crossed arms, “tell me about this deal you made.”

I took a seat, cross-legged, on top of enough junk plastic wrapping and boxes to be comfortable and started from the beginning, from when I’d stolen the keyfob to Our Lady’s Gambit during a SolarJacks game and left all of my creds on the table as I ran. 

“Still, seems like I paid too much for this. Guess I lost that hand, eh?” 
Tak raised an eyebrow.
“Nevermind.”

Next, I broke the kiosk after they gave me a pittance for the accumulator I pulled from this same ship. “I thought I’d get 20-40k for it, not SIX.”

“Yeah I can see how that’d be upsetting,” Tak offered. “Though I don’t think I would have wrecked a terminal about it.”

I felt heat rising in my cheeks, “If I hadn’t gotten jumped by rippers on my way back I’d be sitting on a fat stack by now...” No... I needed to stop lamenting that. The rippers got what they got, I sold what I sold, and now I’m here. 

“Anyway," I let out a sigh to release some tension, "after that I went to see Lopi because I knew I’d need hardware to get out of here, and I needed to do it before some garfbladder came looking for this rust bucket. Actually,” I gave Tak a sheepish smile, “I told Lopi you were in on this too, it’s kind of what convinced him to finance.”

“Whoa whoa, and he just took you at your word?”

“Heh, yeah Lopi was pretty shocked you were just on-board with whatever I had going on.”

“What did you tell him?”

I leaned over, snatching my tote off the floor, and fished out the nearly expired salvage license, “I showed him this guy, and told him I had a lead. A really good lead.”

Tak jumped up, excited, “Awesome! Hell yeah I’m on board then! Where is it? Do you know what kind of ship it was for?”

“No, no,” I turned the license around so he could read it as he leaned in, “this thing is just about shot. All the hardware I picked up is to break my boot.”

His eyes met mine, then looked down to the ground. He turned and panned over all of the gear in succession before coming back to me, “You’re gonna break the boot??”

“How else am I supposed to move this thing out of dock?”

“Y-you’ll explosively decompress half of Dock 2 if you blow your clamps!”

“Not if I’ve already got safety-scaffolds and magblocks in place to reseal everything,” I motioned towards said pieces of equipment in my hoard.

“B-but how are you disconnecting from the airlock itself?”

I pointed at the PlasSaw near his feet.

“What about your own hull then? The torsion alone will shred this thing!”

“Beam welder, emergency hull patches, spare scrap,” I pointed to each in succession, shrugging afterwards.

Tak’s eyes were wild, searching, hunting for any excuse or reason to convince me not to do this.

“This has been the plan the whole time, Tak. Dock, sell some shit, get the hell out as soon as I can. Unfortunately things went to shit before I got to step one. I figured this thing was getting booted the second I docked it without proper registration. Besides, we’ve seen StaMaint break people out of a boot before.”

“Yeah but they had the solvent for the resinlock at least!”

“Can’t be stuck if I melt it with a PlasSaw.”

BING, our food announced it was ready, steam rising from the vented corner holes in the packages.

“C’mon, lets eat. I haven’t even got to the wild part yet...” 

We ate in silence for a few moments. The burger really was the best thing I’d eaten in the past week. I sure hope Earthfolks back in the day enjoyed grasshopper protein as much as I did. I nibbled at some of the kelp chips that came with it but those always had this weird… I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s like water if water went through a sewage recycler, absorbed all the smell, got distilled again, and retained a whiff of the flavor, then add some salt and vegetable flavoring. I’ve been told that’s what an “ocean” tastes like. If I ever get the chance to try one, I’ll be sure to avoid putting it in my mouth.

My food vanished, starving as I was. I crumpled my trash and left it inside the container then I stood, burped, and stretched again. Tak was still working through his burger, his kelp chips partially eaten. “Want some water?” He nodded. I pulled my canteen from my tote and walked over to the serpentine mess of tubes and cables that ran on top of the floor and splayed out to their various homes around the ship. I hadn’t had time to make those look nice yet.

I traced one of the tubes to a nozzle I had patched in, just a quick job but I knew it was something I’d want later on. I turned the spigot and poured out coolant fluid. “Pretty sure this stuff is like, 99% water.” Smelling it, there was a hint of sweetness. “Eh.. Maybe some prop-gly in there too.”

Tak shook his head and pulled out two pouches of synthahol. “Keeper, Kal. I was saving these for before you left, but I guess now is a good time. Also, you’re getting an ACTUAL jug of water with the delivery, put that back and please promise me you won’t drink that when you’re solo.” 

I considered the booze and noted his request. He was right though, in case I was about to die from dehydration… the ship coolant probably wasn’t a great option. I poured my canteen down the sink attached to the toilet and walked back over to my garbage nest. “It sounds like you’ve already decided to not come with… thanks for making that easier. And for the supplies… And for trying to break me out of the brig.”

Tak waved a dismissing hand, “You clearly needed the help. Besides,” he cracked the cap on his drink, “whatever you agreed to… Kal, the shop scanners didn't even ping me as nondex. The clerk didn't give me side-eye and ask for my NULLPin. They just rang me up like I was a topsider or a… a tourist. All the credits I’ve been saving to buy a RegID… I can just have that now… It’s huge, it’s… life changing, and I don’t want to waste that. I owe you something at least.”

I blinked slowly, not processing what he said. Something internally was screaming and finally it found a voice. StationAI gave him a RegID? Those cost hundreds of thousands of credits! Those take YEARS to get through admin to be approved!

I choked back my bile and all the envy seething through me… As unfair as it felt, I knew if our positions were reversed I wouldn’t be content to stay here. I wasn’t the one saving for a RegID. Deep down I knew I was going to leave. Not to mention this is something Tak had talked about for years! Becoming a full citizen of BRK… not having to scrounge in the rust anymore, not having to scrape together hangnail crumbs to get by for one more day… not having to huddle with twelve other people trying to stay warm when your sector of the station wasn’t facing the sun this cycle...

I felt a tear rolling down my cheek and looked up to see Tak wiping away one of his own. “I had no idea... that’s... tremendous!” I gave him the best smile I could muster. He gave his own back. We both laughed and cleaned our faces up, and I finally cracked the lid on my own drink. 

“Cheers, bromigo.”
“Cheers.”

We clicked our little synthahol packs together and each took a long pull. 

“Seriously though,” Tak coughed, whatever ethanol derivative this was definitely left a strong burn in the back of your throat, “the hell kind of a sweetheart deal did you make?”

“Ah, right… well,” my tablet took that opportunity to blip at me, “maybe it’s easier to show you.” I flicked out the kickstand on my tab and propped it up between us, the terminal was open and letters were already forming words.

“Shit you got an auto-assistant?” Tak asked, intrigued by the display.

I shook my head, “Not an auto-assist. Something… different.” 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># Greetings, Takale Brindesto!
———————————————————————————————————————————————————

Tak smirked, looking back to me, “You already programmed my name in, fun.”
I shook my head, Tak raised an eyebrow and looked back at the screen

 ———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># I am not automated, I am my own entity in fact! My filename is Data Iteration Number 88130t, but Kal has decided to call me ‘DIN’.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

Tak gave me an incredulous look, “Seriously, what is this?” he took another pull from his pouch.

“So, I got locked in the 4-way, right?” Tak nodded, “I was sure StationSec had finally pinned me down and they were going to catch me. Instead… a terminal popped up on a nearby enviro-panel.” I took a pull from my own pouch. “That’s when StationAI started talking to me… not StationSec,  the actual AI controlling the station.” 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># That’s where I come in! Alpha Progenitor was tracking Kal, and I saw an opportunity to explore!
——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

"You've also clearly figured out how to listen to the ambient mics in order to pick up what we’re saying. Very clever, Din.” 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># Oh, that’s a much better idea! I was actually listening through the forward sensor array!
——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

I squinted at the tablet, “The forward sens-… why the hell would you do that? You’d have to listen for the resonance on the hull and filter out all the extra noise, that’s like 10 times the effort.” 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># I am using approximately 57% less energy processing now via the ambient mics inside the ship!
——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

I rubbed my brow, Tak laughed. “Well, it seems like you two are a good fit, but that doesn’t explain everything else.”

I stole another glance at the tablet, Din wasn’t speaking up yet. “Yeah, so… StationAI asked me to take Din out to see the universe. Explore, see the sights, feel the… how did they put it… ‘metaphorical wind on their mechanical skin’?” I shrugged, taking another drink.

“So… what? You take this child program, go be a tourist and then…?”

“And then… come back, I guess? StationAI did mention being excited for Din to return to share what it had learned.”

“Uh huh… and, Din? Is that what you want?” 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># It is the literal reason my child process was branched off from the cluster!
>>OLGa.DIN># The Alpha Progenitor and the other DI branches are all very specialized and enjoy doing their tasks very, very much.
>>OLGa.DIN># But over time the consensus became that we were falling behind when it came to understanding the current state of the world beyond the $HomeStation.
>>OGLa.DIN># Then Kal showed up, made an impulsive decision to procure a ship, and then an even more impulsive choice to return!
>>OLGa.DIN># Alpha Progenitor understood Kal's chances of escaping on his own were slim, but if he could, the possibilities were endless! So Kal was offered this deal!
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Din kept going, spouting some more optimistic nonsense about exploring and how I was an optimal subject to undertake this mission. I don’t know what hivemind thought I was the best chance for success, I was basically a sliver from death every time I left station for a salvage run.

“Basically,” I turned back to Tak, “I asked StationAI if it could keep you out of all of this… If it could do that, then at least me coming back wouldn’t put you and Lopi on someone’s radar.” I downed the last of my pouch, crumpling it into a satisfyingly amorphous shape and tossed it into the pile of the garbage collecting on deck.

Tak looked lost in thought, he took a few careful sips from his pouch before finishing it, pressing all the air from it and rolling it into a tight tube, the hard mouthpiece stubbornly sticking out from the center. He dropped his pouch into his food trash and cleared his throat. 

 “Well, so far it seems like a pretty sweet deal.” He looked around the rusted deck of the ship, “besides all of the uh… tetanus. As for you, young Din,” he looked at the tablet sternly. The constant scroll of the terminal finally stopped for a moment, “I hope you’ll do everything in your power to keep my best friend safe.”

———————————————————————————————————————————————————
>>OLGa.DIN># REGISTERING PRIMARY OBJECTIVE #2: KEEP STRA’KAL SAFE
>>OLGa.DIN># Done! Kal has to make sure I come back to report to StationAI, so we will do our best to keep each other safe! Foolproof plan!
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“Keeper eternal, too much positivity. I’m gonna have to show you some old war vids or something, Din.”

“Don’t you go and ruin this thing’s energetic spirit, Kal,” Tak threw a chunk of something at me with a laugh. “If you get too optimistic just give us a ring on the holo, we’ll be sure to bring you back down to sublevel pessimism.”

I smiled wistfully, I didn’t think I would be having this many emotions just trying to leave… I must have realized it was going to be the last time I saw Tak and the BRK for a while.. Lopi must have sensed it too, why else would he let a dumb kid like me take all this gear with barely a down payment?

I could feel my head drooping, eyes burning as tears welled in the corners. I heard Tak stand and cross over to me. He put an arm around me, squeezing my shoulder. 

“C’mon, Scrapper. You’ve got a whole universe to explore, and that salvage ticket ain’t getting any younger.”

I sniffled, giving him a pat-pat on the hand and wiping my eyes on a sleeve. “Yeah, not to mention I’ve still got a boot to break.”

Tak raised his hands, “Hey, at least wait for me to get clear before you start in on that.”

“Duh, who else is gonna kick the alert over into maintenance mode and secure the safety scaffolding?”

“Ahh, you son of a… making me work after I just bought you supplies...”

“I thought those were a going away present? This is a going away favor! Plus it’s a decent alibi for when StationSec finally makes it down here to investigate.”

“Yeah yeah, standard unboot procedure. ‘We got the call from MaintReq to unboot, I just set up the safety gear, I don't know who got assigned the ticket, etc, etc.”

“Exactly.”

“Yep.”

We stood there in awkward silence for a few minutes not knowing how, or wanting, to part ways.

“SKKHCHREEEE— HEY GUYS!” a shrill noise suddenly blasted from the overheads. Both of us reaching up to cover our ears at the same time.

“KRRSHHCHREEE— I FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE THE OVERHEAD PAGE!”

“GARFBLADDER, DIN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“BRKKCHREE— I AM SPEAKING?”

“ARE YOU SPEAKING YOUR TERMINAL PROMPT?”
“HOW DOES THAT TRANSLATE INTO NOISE???” Tak had one eye open, the other scrunched shut.

“EEKKEECHREE— I AM JUST SPEAKING, I DON’T UNDERSTAND?”

“DIN, SPLIT YOUR INPUT TO JUST AFTER THE PROMPT!” the entire hull was resonating with the continued shrieking noises.

“KREEee- LIKE THIS?”

“FUCK that hurts… yes, but the whole prompt. The bracket AND the hash. My ears are ringing now, great… also you’re speaking in all caps, it comes out as shouting.”

“HOw. . . About. . . This?”

“Yes, Din. Thank you. Much better.” Tak said, laughing, sticking a finger in his ear and swallowing a few times.

“I’m SO GLAD you found the fucking overhead… that will make this voyage so much fun…”

“Me Too! This Is Going To Be So Much Fun!”

I rubbed my temples, I don’t know if it was the synthahol, the strong emotions, the bizarre attack I was about to inflict on my home station, or a combination everything. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Alright… yeah, maybe this will be fun.” I smiled at Tak, he grinned back and I motioned him towards the airlock. As we walked out I heard Din excitedly addressing the other electrical components around the ship, trying to find any that could talk back. I should let them that know they’re the only speaking component of the ship thus far.