by R. M. Miller
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, 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.
******
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 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.
“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.
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.
she replied a barrage of unexpected emotions rippling over Pilot through the link.
erything else Tara had told it was completely outside of its experience.
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.
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.
“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.
n.
“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.