To date, I've snuck off on New Terra and the other floating cities enough to wake up three dozen pingers so far. And the AI of the pingers I haven't gotten to yet seem to recognize this, and rally around the ones that something inside their artificial intelligence is telling them that they want.
I had to break up a fight between two junior engineers and Eggy, one of my self-aware progeny who of course looked like an egg instead of the classic spherical shape of Glitch. That's when I saw what the argument was about, Eggy had kept undoing some programming the techs were trying to implement to streamline some self-maintenance routines.
It took me only a few seconds to see the unintended side effects such a change would make as Eggy blipped and squeed at me, explaining the buildup of ionized particles their changes would make in the secondary reaction chambers.
Sighing I told them, “He's right. Why didn't you listen to him? Look here. This would cause a meltdown of the scrubbers in months. These systems are supposed to have a thirty-year life cycle.”
One man complained, “Who knows what the crazy pinger is saying? It's just a machine.”
McGreery, who had been silent the whole time, growled out, “Well you better learn basic binary communications you crystal licker. That machine has more sense than you. Now shape up, take your cue from...”
He looked at me and I supplied, “Eggy.”
He did a doubletake, then smirked in amusement and finished as he shook his head, “From Eggy here, or you can be reassigned to sewage duty topside.”
The techs stood taller at attention. “Yes sir!” It was a herculean effort not to roll my eyes. McGreery had no authority over them, other than his pirates being virtually the only orbital protection we had until more ships from the Dark Fleet could be completed. The one military vessel we had, which was mostly operational, wouldn't be able to stop a pacification fleet if it jumped the rift into the system. I guess it was the authority in his tone that made people jump at his commands.
I gave him a look that made him even smugger. He was so bad.
When we were done, I collected Glitch, who was inspecting crystal replacements that had occurred during the week since our last visit, and I sent my report up to New Terra, we loaded up into the battle-scarred space rated tumbril that McGreery had flown to my defense once upon a time.
Moments later Glitch was squeeing in excitement as I was simply just screaming while we blasted into the sky riding a combination of plasma drives and reaction thrusters. The cocky pirate was just smirking the whole way into space.
Then before I knew it, the drives shut down into station-keeping mode, and we were met with the silent tranquility of space. With more finesse than a big man like him should have, he tapped the controls, rotating us on our axis so that we could get an awe-inspiring view of Tau Ceti Prime. By the gods, it was beautiful.
We were on orbit.
Chapter 3 – Agri-Domes
Ten minutes later, we were rendezvousing with the first orbital shipyard that was jumped in from the secret base where the Dark Fleet was being constructed. The mass and scale of the thing made me wonder how they had kept it secret for so long. The structure even dwarfed the floating cities, as did the two dreadnought class battleships, and lone tumbril carrier that was in various stages of completion in its slip bays.
Our first stop started growing in the window from a bright light into Alpha-Dome, one of the orbiting agricultural domes that supplemented the crops grown dirtside. They served as a backup emergency food supply if anything ever happened to the Agri-Grids on Tau Ceti Prime's surface.
However, all the crops and livestock aboard were lost when the domes were powered down by the rogue pacification code when the airlocks were opened to the vacuum of space. Everything froze in the unforgiving, airless environment.
They were planting the first crops with the seeds in cryogenic stasis, and transferring a third of the livestock recovered from the planet's surface that was released from the sonic pens that protected them from the planet's natural predators by the pingers and tenders affected by the code.
We lost almost fifty percent of the livestock to the native feline Cath Sabers and doglike Magna Lupus before we could herd them back to the safety of the agri-grids and put them behind the sonic fences. So for the next couple years, until breeding can bring their numbers back to a sustainable level, we were going to be growing more crops of protein plants like soybeans, peanuts, and potatoes to supplement our diets for a while, as the meats will be rationed.
It was daunting for me because I was just a pinger mechanic. All my mechanical friends planted, tended, and harvested the crops. The most work I did in the food chain was packaging up the foodstuffs in A1 and shipping them topside. But now... I was the leading expert and it scared the flanterskelling hell out of me.
We got clearance to dock and I could see the huge ring inside the belly of the dome rotating, providing gravity for the livestock and any delicate crops that required gravity to grow.
Glitchy squeed out to me, and I said, “Thank you, kind sir.” I floated over to place my feet in the straps on the tiny platform on his mobility platform and grabbed the recessed handhold on the back of the safety yellow orb of his body. He magnetized his treads, and we trundled out into the airlock as McGreery just chuckled at me and shook his head as he magnetized his boots and clomped out after us.
“They spoil you, little dirter.”
I nodded and kissed Glitch's orb. “They do, and I love them.”
Glitch made an, “Aww,” sound then lifted his ocular port high with pride as we trundled faster, causing the swashbuckling sky pirate to chortle as he followed us.
I once wondered why they didn't just project an artificial gravity well below the giant structure like the other space stations that used to orbit Prime, or the new orbiting shipyard and the four others under construction. The answer was both simple and practical. It takes a tremendous amount of power to project a gravity well, whereas it takes a tiny fraction of that to power a rotating ring.
And even if the reactors on the Agri-Domes fail, the photo-reactive paint on the mega-structures would provide more than enough energy to keep the internal environment warm and the ring rotating.
So really, they are self-sustaining stations, complete with their own life support, since the crops cleaned the CO2 as well as provided breathable oxygen. The only thing that could cause a catastrophe large enough to kill off these agri-domes is what had happened... sabotage.
By the time we made it to the hub of the rotating section and moved in, then followed one of the spiraling walkways to the outer edge, we had gravity to spare. Meeple came trundling up to us with her purple Iris painted on her yellow-painted egg-shaped orb. She was from the same, first batch of new Pingers as Eggy. And I woke her just a couple days after her brother. She was in charge up here until personnel was trained enough to assist.
She squeed out something that sounded suspiciously like, “Fixie!” I hugged her, kissing her on her optical port.
“Hey lady, how's things shaping up?” I said behind my hand even though everyone could hear. “They sent me to check instead of just reading your reports. Go figure, the bureaucratic bootwaffles.”
She bipped and booped and I snickered, then McGreery asked, wide-eyed, “Fleshies? Is that what the tin cans are calling us now?”
I would have admonished the man if he didn't have that damnable charming and entertained smile on his face. I was wise to his ways now. He inclined his head. “Miss Meeple. A pleasure as always.”
If a pinger could blush, I think she just did as she rotated her ocular port away and down.
I accused the man, “I knew it. You do understand binary. When did you learn?”
He sighed. “Knowledge is power. I learned as soon as I realized you were serious about lobbying to give them rights and a choice whether or not they wanted to do what was assigned them.”
Then he said in a false curious tone, “It's a wonder how many pingers see
m to be waking these days... now isn't it Vega?”
I grred at him and said, “For the last time, call me Fixit. Only my girl can call me Vega.”
Then the man did a complete one-eighty and pointed at the flower painted on our host. “I've been meaning to ask. When your mechanical friends become self-aware, how do they decide their gender?”
I blinked at him like he was daft. “How did you decide your gender, or when you started to self identify as it?”
The man started. “Well, I didn't I just... ahh. Gotcha.” He nodded in understanding. He was a smart and pretty nonjudgmental man, well except when it came to his ex, the leader of Prime, Lady Peregrine. And I respected a lot about the man, not everything, but I could see where my Vashon got her strength. It was quite a shock learning that the leader of the sky pirates was her father.
I'd like the man completely if Pirates hadn't killed so many of the people on the vessels they intercepted to steal their cargo. I know it was just how things were for the pirates, as it was just what they had always done with the prior leader. The original leader of the Sky Pirates who my Sky Ranger had almost died taking down with a raiding crew on one of the floating cities, was about as bad as you can get. He had wrested control from the original leader who had left the floating cities when they didn't heed his warning about the possibility of old Earth becoming a draconian and oppressive entity... which it has. That's when the sky pirates started their winner take all, deadly campaigns in the skies of Prime.
McGreery had been second in command, trying to temper the bloodthirsty culture the other man was fostering when Vashon solved the problem for him permanently. So McGreery took over and was slowly changing the way they did things. Just not fast enough for me to completely forgive him for his part in things, but I was working on it as he redeemed himself more and more each day.
I put those thoughts out of my head and shared with him, “Some identify as male, some as female, some as other, and some don't identify as any. It is just part of who they are just as it is with us... fleshies. Some people self identify as a gender other than what they were assigned at birth, so why would it be different for any other sentient being?”
Some of the human workers had seen us and made their way over to us. I waved and one woman, her hair in a blue mohawk, who walked right up to Meeple and draped herself lazily, but proprietorially on her orb, swirling a finger lazily as she grinned at me, “Fixie... what's shakin'?” Then she gave a sloppy salute to her old commander with her middle finger and they smirked at each other.
Shayla was one sky pirate I really liked. And the way Meeps rotated her orb into her slightly, made me think the two liked each other in more than a professional capacity. I tried not to smile at how cute they looked together.
The girl had been kept down in the caverns the sky pirates hid in to prevent detection from the Rangers. She never went on any missions and had never even seen the outside before all of this happened. I had wondered why McGreery seemed to shield this edgy and outgoing woman who was in a perpetual rebellious stage until I saw a holo-snap of her right next to various holo-snaps of Vashon in his quarters in the caves.
Vash had been over the moon to find she had a younger half-sister. And she went overboard doting over her. But she can't be blamed for it, not only was Shayla awesome but Vashon, because of her near-death and cybernetic replacement of over half her brain, had impulse control issues. Which I didn't mind, since because of them, Vash had kissed me within the first few minutes of our first meeting.
I told the overly emotive woman, “Just doing the proverbial rounds before Director Germaine gets her claws into me at the shipyard.”
She sighed heavily and asked, “They still trying to adapt your 'Grand Bluff' to military applications?”
My sigh eclipsed hers as I nodded kicking playfully at Meeple's treads, causing her to kick me back. “Yup. I know that Terra will be sending scouts soon, once their carrier doesn't check in after their pacification attempt, but can't there be a solution that doesn't require even more senseless death? I'm happy to help defend our home with my ideas, but I won't let them be turned into instruments of war and death.”
She nodded in serious contemplation, then her face morphed as she just beamed a smile then leaned over to kiss the tip of my nose. “And that would be why that armor-clad sister of mine loves you.”
I couldn't stop my own grin at that as I said, “We've got to collect this lady's reports.” I indicated Meeps. “They expect me to double-check everything is on schedule, which I won't since I already know it is. You two are pretty anal about it.”
She took that as a compliment as she virtually struck a pose. Then she smirked. “That and you want to go see your giiiirl.”
I blushed, confirming that I really did. Once the floating cities had their own command and control again, and they disconnected Vash from New Terra's computer core, Vashon and I had barely had any time together. As the head of the Sky Rangers, she was overseeing our defensive plans with Germaine and our Dark Fleet. So she was on orbit at the shipyard more often than down at Agri-Grid A1 with me.
I glanced over as Meeple transferred all her reports to Glitch through one of his data ports. Then she looked over to where some humans were obviously doing something wrong by a livestock feeder. She squeed and trundled off.
I cocked an eyebrow as Shayla tilted her head and smiled appreciatively as she watched her go. She looked up at me. “What?”
“You've got it bad, Shay.”
She regarded me and said, “You're the only person I know who doesn't judge. I mean look at her, she has full-time access to the new information grid, can multitask like nobody else, and look at her smooth lines and the curve of that orb.” She shuddered in delight. I thought it was cute as hell.
I shrugged. “What's to judge? I dated an entire sentient city.”
She snorted, but it was true, Vash had 'been' New Terra for longer than I had liked. Then I prompted, “Speaking of, she wants to know if you...” I looked from her to McGreery. “And you would like to have dinner tonight at the shipyard.”
Shay crouched at an open access port on Glitch's mobility platform, pulling out a multitool that was designed after mine, and started digging in his circuitry where sparks kept drizzling from as he moved. He shuddered. I swear he was two seconds from laughing. The silly boy was so ticklish. The girl said as she fused a loose contact, “Sounds like fun. I'll check with Meeps.”
She stood and clapped Glitch's grappler arm, and he nudged her back. Then she spoke behind her hand. “How does this guy keep flarking up his systems? No wonder Flower calls them boys.”
In mock affront, Glitchy squealed out at her. Somehow looking smug. She shot back with a smirk. “Watch it bub, at least us fleshies can heal. You just rattle yourself apart, Glitch-meister.”
He shoved her shoulder, she shoved back and McGreery ran a hand down his face as he said in deep resignation, “Children, please.”
She kicked Glitch's mobility platform and moved back before he could retaliate as she said, “Yeah, G-man, settle down. This is serious business here.”
He squeed and I blinked. “Quite a mouth you got on you, buddy. Where did you learn that one?” A couple squees later and both Shay and I nodded. It was true. My Vash was a bad influence.
McGreery sighed, giving up, then said, “Well if we're done here, and I'm being used as a glorified space taxi, we should get going. Germaine and my impatient ex await.”
I nodded and hugged Shay. “Well, we're off.”
She nodded and gave first Glitch, then her father, pecks on the cheek. “See you tonight then.”
I waved over at Meep, who had her back to us but her grappler raised into the air and waved back. I really needed to outfit my older pingers with the improved sensors her model has.
With that we headed back toward the ship while I rubbernecked, seeing the progress made to the Agri-Dome. What a technological masterpiece.
Chapter 4 – Shipyard
On our approach, Medusa flight control told us to hold for clearance, to make room for us in the flight patterns of its traffic envelope. McGreery... well he wasn't one for what he calls 'all that bureaucratic bullshit', and he just said, “Well you better make room now, because we're docking while you sit on your ass twiddling your thumbs. I've got Vega Hasher onboard, you bootwaffle.”
The man was sputtering, “Miss Hasher? Of course. Access granted, proceed to glide path delta green, clearing airspace now.”
He smirked at me and said, “Would you look at that little dirter? You're somebody.”
My cheeks burned as I said, “I don't feel like somebody, I'm just me.”
Glitchy just squeed something that made me blush more. I shoved his grappler, and he shoved my shoulder back. I told him, “You have to say that because you're my best friend.”
I sighed when the door opened into the bay, and Prime military personnel, not Sky Rangers, were hastily assembling in some sort of makeshift honor guard. The thought of Tau Ceti having a military was such an alien concept to me. The Galactic Federation had the only military force. Our Sky Rangers were just our system's police force.
I saw a familiar face in the row of armed men and women, a blocky man who stood at attention at their front as we disembarked. “Ray? Really? Every time?”
Colonel Ray Kvarian was the leader of Prime's dark fleet. Well, we would have a completed and growing fleet soon. I had met him for the first time when the man executed the rift jump of Medusa Station into the Tau Ceti system... on manual control.
He was a sensitive, one of the minority of the population who could feel the distortions of a rift. When someone was determined to be a sensitive, by GF law, they were shipped off to old Earth for navigation training and conscripted into the military. It was a capital offense to not report the gift. And I've learned our fleet had twelve.
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