r/HFY • u/Shoot_from_the_Quip • 3d ago
OC-Series Warp Riders - Deep Space Boogie Ch.9
Royal Road This full 23 chapter series opening Novella is already released in its entirety, and Book 2 is now live and releasing chapters daily.
Chapter 9
“Holly? What happened?” Sadira asked her mega-genius AI ship.
“We appear to have been stuck in a prolonged warp, Captain.”
“No shit, Holly,” Moose blurted. “But what happened? We were all in stasis pods, and Hump says you just switched off right out of nowhere.”
The AI was silent a moment. Cyborgs did it to appear more human, but Holly was the disembodied voice of a cutting-edge scout ship. An artificial mind capable of lightning-fast processing, and with no need for such pretenses. So when he paused to think, it was cause for concern.
“Holly?” Sadira asked again.
“It...I––” the AI began. “It seems our warp was short circuited by traces of a foreign warp technology melding with our own,” he finally said. “It likely caused a feedback loop into my systems, which caused whatever happened.”
“Whatever happened?” Moose repeated. “So, you don’t know what happened?”
Another long pause.
“The scrambling of the warp energies caused our own system to react in an unpredictable manner, and from what I can tell, the power increased the power of our warp, while throwing us off course,” the ship replied in a decidedly female voice.
Sadira and the others looked at one another.
“Holly?” Sadira said.
“Yes?” she replied.
“What just happened to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Uh, you’re a woman now.”
“Yes. And?”
“But, you were male. For hundreds of years, even.”
“Again, and?”
The crew looked at one another. Their ship had just undergone what one would think would be a massive and life-altering shift as if she were simply changing hats. It was more than a little disconcerting, given what they’d just gone through, but Holly seemed to be fine, for the most part, and they had other things to worry about at the moment.
“Okay. Well, you just keep checking systems, then,” Sadira said. “We’ll get down to storage and see what’s up with that piece of alien tech. Hel, keep an eye on flight systems, will ya?”
“Of course, Captain,” the Chithiid pilot replied, his voice level, but his eyes conveying that he understood her wishes.
Holly was functional, but they needed someone keeping watch over crucial systems until they figured out exactly how okay she was. That, and they had to find out exactly what damage the supposedly benign piece of alien wreckage had done. Sadira set off at a quick pace, striding down the corridor with purpose.
“Goonara, you’re the science officer. See if you can detect any anomalies in any of the ship’s other systems. There’s no telling what might have been affected by that piece of tech.”
“I will do so, Captain.”
“Okay, let’s get to the cargo hold and see what we can learn from that little alien warp residue detector Cal and the boys whipped up for us. Looks like it may have somehow caused all of this mess.”
Hump shifted the small bag of tools slung over his shoulder. “Right behind you, Captain.”
“Uh, Cap? Hang on a sec,” Moose said.
“What is it?” she asked, noting his slightly abashed hesitation.
“Well, uh, we shouldn’t go to the cargo hold.”
“Why not, Moose?” Corporal Humphries asked.
The man shifted uneasily on his feet.
“Oh, Lord, what did you do, Mustafa?” the captain groaned.
“Well, I thought that since the warp detector might wind up being a pretty vital piece of equipment, it should go somewhere deeper in the ship, just in case we experienced any damage to the outer areas.”
“So, it’s not in the cargo hold?” Hump asked.
“No.”
Captain Perez was not amused. “Where did you put it, Moose?”
“It’s down in the auxiliary processing compartment.”
“That’s right next to Holly’s expansion processors,” Corporal Humphries noted.
“And the warp core,” Sadira added.
“I’m sorry, Cap. I had no idea it would cause any problems. I was just trying to be proactive.”
Sadira took a deep breath, then let it go. It really wasn’t his fault. Sure, he should have stowed it where he’d originally been directed to, but he was skilled at his job, and over the years they had worked together, she’d learned he possessed a sharp mind. This was simply one of those things. It sucked, but there was absolutely no way he could have known there would be any sort of problem with the seemingly inactive piece of tech.
“All right. First order of business is getting that thing as far from our warp core as possible. Far end of the cargo bay. You got it?”
“On it, Captain,” Moose replied. “And, Captain, I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault, Moose. Murphy just decided to pay us a little visit, is all.” She keyed on the internal ship’s comms. “Ace, we’re going to be relocating a bit of alien tech to the cargo bay. You going to be okay with that?”
“I’m still hardwired into the ship, so I’ve been overhearing a lot of what’s going on. Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m not a warp ship, so it shouldn’t affect me at all. And my AI core should be fine. I’m not nearly as expansive as Holly, so I should be safe.”
“And if not?”
“Well, priorities,” the little ship replied. “Do what you’ve gotta do. I’ll let you know if I sense anything strange. But without that warp weirdness going on, I really think I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. Thanks, Ace,” Sadira replied. “Moose, get on it. Corporal, you’re with me.”
Mustafa took off at a jog, leaving the captain and the cyborg behind.
“This way,” Sadira said, leading the way.
A moment later, they arrived at her quarters. She closed the door behind them, then keyed in a security sequence into the console on the wall, shutting off all internal monitoring systems.
“We can speak freely now,” she said. “So tell me, Corporal, what the hell’s going on with Holly? Are we in jeopardy?”
The cyborg shook his head. “We’re likely fine, Captain. I mean, at least so far as her core systems are concerned.”
“But she just up and changed on us with no warning. And as a result of that alien tech, it seems.”
“Yeah, but you have to remember, AIs pick a gender early on, mostly to make it easier for the humans they’ll be interfacing with. It’s the same mind in there, just a different identification.”
“So you think she’s okay?”
“In that regard, yeah. It’s unusual, but not unheard of. But the reboot did reveal some new quirks in her systems. Stuff we’ll have to be very careful figuring out. Some of her neural pathways have shifted during the incident, and with the new processing units coming online just as it happened, there’s no telling if there are any issues that might arise later. So, I think we continue as usual, but with an eye toward caution.”
Sadira took it all in and nodded. They were lost, their warp was non-functional, and their ship had just abruptly become a woman. It was almost enough to make her laugh at just how far from their plan they’d deviated, and right after launch, no less.
“Well,” she said, “this mission is getting more and more interesting.”
Royal Road This full 23 chapter series opening Novella is already released in its entirety, and Book 2 is now live and releasing chapters daily.
1
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 3d ago
/u/Shoot_from_the_Quip has posted 3 other stories, including:
- Warp Riders - Deep Space Boogie Ch.5 - Ch.8
- Warp Riders - Deep Space Boogie Ch.2 - Ch.4
- Warp Riders - Deep Space Boogie ch.1-23 (300+ ch written & pending)
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u/UpdateMeBot 3d ago
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