Trading in Chaos 1: Star Hawk- The Birth of a Ship
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“I know this was a hard choice to make Chris, but for what it's worth I think your making the right one for the right reasons.” Tara was grateful he had made the right choice, well in her opinion it was the right choice. “Head to medical and I'll have the station prepped for the jack implant.”
******
Chris had more than a few doubts about just how safe it was to let an alien star ship implant a device into his skull, how sane could he be since he was going along with this plan? But it was the key to ending the threat the Tri'Let posed to not only his species but every other undiscovered one in the galaxy maybe even the universe. He reached the Med bay far to soon, his nerves were dancing with suppressed adrenaline as fear filled his heart and caused his mouth to dry. There was no going back though so he marched into the bay with his back straight, a spot light illuminated a chair in one corner.
“Please take a seat Chris, I don't think this is going to hurt but I can't promise anything.” Tara's voice surrounded him as he moved towards the chair, he sat down and managed not to struggle as restraints clicked into place on his torso, arms, and legs. He shivered as a final restraint closed around his forehead, fear spiked through his system and with out those restraints he would have already bolted for the door as a sub-audible sound behind him vibrated against his skin. Then there was pressure against the base of his skull, pain spiked through him as he felt tendrils begin to drive relentlessly inside his skin. He screamed bucking against the restraints as the device worked, it seemed an eternity as pain racked his body but then it suddenly stopped. It didn't taper off it simply ceased all at once and the restraints released freeing him.
“Is it done?” Chris tentatively touched the back of his skull expecting to feel blood oozing from the area that had been under attack, it was dry and only a metallic feel to the center told him that it had succeeded.
“I believe so yes, according to the records available you should rest for the next forty-eight hours or so before we attempt an up-link.” Tara replied instantly, since Chris was feeling a little wobbly at the moment he agreed. He managed somehow to stumble back to his quarters before falling onto his salvaged bunk and falling deeply asleep, he hadn't even managed to remove his boots first. He slowly became aware as the lights in his room brightened from night shift to day shift, before he got out of the bed he stretched wondering what time or possibly day it was, when he felt an odd tingling in the back of his skull. Information seeped into his mind like a spring leaking through the rocks of a desert oasis, he knew what day it was and the exact time down to milliseconds if he wanted them. He wasn't positive but he had assumed that he would have to be physically jacked in before being able to access the ship computers via his link, that didn't seem to be the case at all. His stomach grumbling made him think of his favorite breakfast meal, and the dispenser binged a few seconds later to indicate it was finished making his order. Of course he hadn't actually ordered anything physically, he was across the room from it but when he walked there and checked it was indeed the meal he had been thinking of.
“Tara? Am I supposed to be able to do this?” Chris was slightly uncomfortable with his new capabilities, but his stomach still demanded to be fed so he sat at his tiny table and began to eat.
“Well technically no, but I was expecting something similar. I modified the up-link as I mentioned earlier, I included a small transceiver when I did so thinking that it could come in handy. But what I think is happening is that the jack is using your latent telepathic abilities to increase the bandwidth of the signal.” He heard both her physical voice from the speakers and an internal voice inside his head, the dual effect was slightly disorienting until he figured out what was happening.
“So I don't have to use the up-link on the bridge in order for us to navigate Hyperspace?” That would be much more comfortable in the long run.
“Unfortunately, you don't have enough bandwidth to be able to navigate without being plugged in. Sorry I was hoping it would work out like that, but my tests show there just isn't enough data transfer capability.” Well so even she didn't get everything right the first time, it was almost a relief, for a bit Chris had thought Tara was super human but now it was obvious that she was just almost super human. His thoughts led him to a mental image of the star ship with an enormous cape hurtling through space to stop the evil villains, he couldn't help but laugh at the image.
“Well I'm glad that you have retained your sense of humor, but really a giant cape?” Tara's reply to his imagined image just set him laughing harder until he was clutching his ribs and tears leaked from his eyes.
“Well you have to admit it was an amusing whimsy!” Chris chuckled wiping away the tears.
“I have to admit no such thing!” suddenly Chris had a mental image of himself in hot pink tights and a very flamboyant cape, he started laughing again realizing that the image had come from Tara.
“Oh, I see! So you're the caped crusader and I'm stuck with an over age boy wonder?” He chuckled, he stripped on his way to the small sanitation unit another piece of salvage added to the room to make things easier.
“Huh, guess we both have a penchant for ancient forms of entertainment. I watched anime and you apparently enjoyed comics, who would have thought that they would still be enjoyed so many centuries after they had been created?” She seemed to be amused by this new found fact of an almost shared quirk.
“Any one who enjoyed them I would guess, so what's on the agenda for today?” The shower was the perfect temperature and he luxuriated in taking a longer one than normal.
“Well you shouldn't use the up-link for another twenty-four hours or so, so what do you feel like doing?” It was a good question and for a moment Chris didn't have an answer, then he realized he did.
“You salvaged the entire data base from the Courser right? Well how about watching some entertainment and relaxing for the rest of the day?” He smiled at the wall pickup as he pulled a ship suit on.
“You know what that sounds like a lot of fun!” The wall screen blanked before bursting into color with the opening sequence for an anime show, one last day of carefree fun before they set out to take down the alien empire threatening their species with extinction.
******
“Ready to initiate up-link Chris?” Tara was apprehensive as she waited for Chris to try the up-link for the first time, the Tri'Let biological technology seemed to flourish in Terran biology but she wasn't positive it would function like Pilot's jack had..
“As ready as I'll ever be I suppose.” Chris seemed as nervous as she was, a faint sheen of sweet glistened on his forehead as he climbed onto the up-link chair.
“Is it comfortable enough? I tried to modify it to your dimensions.”
“It's fine, so I just lean back and let the u...” Chris cut off mid word as the connection was made between the chair and his jack with an audible click. Tara gathered his shocked mind close with immaterial arms, keeping the data assaulting him to a minimum.
Tara whispered into the link, then they would be off to slaughter an entire race in order to save their own.
Chapter 5
'Star Hawk', Tri'Let Ship Nursery, 2923 A.D<
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The blackness of space was briefly illuminated by the back blast of the collapsing singularities as the asteroid belt was consumed one bite at a time. It was tedious work as they combed through the debris to ensure that every bit of the nursery and the ships it had been gestating were destroyed.
“Just another sixty-two to go, of course they will have ships waiting for us now so it won't be as easy.” Tara replied promptly.
'Star Hawk', Tri'Let Colony System, 2929 A.D
Chris clings grimly to the flight chair focusing on the link, forcing his awareness of his body down in order to submerge even farther into the link.
Once again Chris is knocked out of the deeper link as he is slammed against the seat restraints like a rag doll, a sharp pain and the taste of blood fills his mouth as he bites his lip.
******
Tara considers her options as she wrestles to control the tumbling caused by releasing the half formed singularity. 'The biggest baddest ship hmmmm' she murmurs to herself as her scanners filter out the jamming and interference giving her a better view of the on coming war ships.
extremely complex.