Klimma hauls herself back into her seat via the restraint straps and fastens them. "Everyone strap in for a quick landing!" she yells unnecessarily.
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Oops, Klimma thinks, and immediately ceases trying to communicate telepathically.
Klimma performs the standard SYN/ACK protocol to sync her comm unit with Kip's. "Sheep, is there any engineering or science console on board, or just the two helm seats?" she asks over common channels before switching to Kip's private frequency. Kip's radio:
"I'm sure everything is fine, Pilot Keep. This AI seems capable, but she is not designed for combat. You can aid her greatly." Kip's mind:
This is Kleema. You are right to be suspicious. This AI may have gone rogue. How it got control of a commercial shuttle is beyond me. I will try to analyze it. In the meantime, try to gain control of the sheep, and keep the AI talking. I will answer Bertrude as best I can without making the AI suspicious. I am sorry for speaking directly to your mind without leave, but fear the AI may be able to listen in to even our private comm channels." On public comm channels: "Bertrude, AI are not just computers! They are sophisticated personalities of their own. Like people, they have strengths and challenges. In this case, our AI has not been combat-trained, so Keep can help." Klimma smiles reassuringly at Bertrude and Fiona. "I will help our defensive or maneuvering capabilities if I can." Bertrude's mind:
This is Kleema. You are right to be concerned. This AI may be rogue. I will try to analyze it. In the meantime, try to keep the AI talking and friendly. I will only say out loud things that won't make the AI suspicious. I am sorry for speaking directly to your mind without permission, but fear the AI may be able to listen in to even our private comm channels." Fiona's mind:
Greetings, my sister. I am sorry for speaking directly to your mind without leave, but fear the AI may be able to listen in to even our private comm channels. I do not trust it, and have asked Keep and Bertrude to be friendly and distracting to it while I research rogue AI. Anything you can do to help is welcome. We two, at least, can converse freely." Klimma pulls her personal computer from her bag and tries to access a local info net for data about AI's.
"I agree with Keep. Unless this AI is specifically designed and tested for combat, I feel better with a human or android at the helm. Of course, the best case would be to have one of us pilot and allow the AI to copilot, if it is agreeable." Having finished handing Kip's gear to him, she waits for him to finish sealing his suit. "Pilot Keep, I have no skill as a flyer, but I am a decent engineer and hacker. I will help with the computer or mechanical issues if I can. And IF this sheep is designed for humanoids to pilot."
"Ship, are you piloting as well as running the systems?" I wish her designer had just bought a bride somewhere, Klimma thinks somewhat grumpily.
Klimma unbuckles, reaches into the bag anchored at her feet (mostly under the seat in front of her,) and pulls out the helmet and gloves that accompany her second skin armor. She dons the helmet first, then the gloves, then does a quick pressurization check to be certain all the seals are tight. She activates the environmental protection, having taken the warnings very seriously. Her boots do their job and keep her feet anchored to the deck. "Boy, my father will be angry if he has to spend years paying off student loans for a daughter who was killed a week before her first real job interview. All investment, no return," she mutters as she dresses, then turns to her seatmate. "Keep, is there anything I can get for you so you don't need to unbuckle? If not, I'm strapping back een." She looks at the screen. "Sheep, do you recognize the attackers? Why are they attacking both the station and the mining facility? Have they ever been attacked before? What does the mining facility produce, anyway?" She pauses a moment, then adds as an afterthought, "And what do you find so funny about all thees?" She hangs on to her loose harness so she stays relatively upright with respect to the deck.
Klimma looks askance at the changing screens, antennae pressing flat into her tightly kinked halo of hair. "I think this sheep is eavesdropping. AI can learn many things, but it never seems to understand privacy... nor that sometimes people are better off wanting something than getting it." She smiles and nods acknowledgement of Bertrude's introductions, then laughs in response to Kip's question. "Well, according to my mother, I am just an educated fool... but I hope to be a scientist soon. If I do well on these interviews. And maybe find a real job instead of an unpaid internship." She squinches up her nose at the idea of working hard for nothing but experience. She looks curiously at the traveling pair. "Are you two related? Is your family on Reklan here, or are you just passing through?" She takes a quick glance back towards the more nervous lashunta and lowers her voice. "I hope we get down soon, before that poor girl has a breakdown. Some people never get over their fear of sheeps, no matter how much they fly."
Klimma turns from the viewport and smiles down at the ysoki. "It's a paper comparing the responses of ysoki and human stem cells -- you know, the cells that can be transformed into specialized cells, like nerves and muscles? -- to various types of stimuli: arcane magic, electricity, divine magic, biological agents. It's to learn how to best adapt bodies for limb or organ replacements and enhancements. My advisers said that comparative A&P is big right now, so I'm getting a refresher before the interviews with the big bio-engineering firms lined up on Absalom Station. My little vacation was good for the soul, but not so good for the brain." "My flights are all set," she continues, "But I have a layover here at the station for a while. What brings you here? Are you a miner?" Suddenly remembering her manners, she blurts out before Kip can answer, "Oh, I'm Klimma, by the way." With her accent, it sounds like "Kleema."
"Enjoy what? This music or the layover? I didn't really want either one," a soft voice with a gentle Castrovelian accent replies to the announcement (rather pointlessly). A dark-skinned lashunta had looked up from her reading and listened attentively when the announcement came on. Now she stretches slightly in place, tugging on her rather plain but well-made forest green tunic where it has become bunched under the safety harness. "When I think about the hours of life wasted on layovers, direct starship flights seem almost worth those ridiculous prices. Or they would be if I could afford them." She smiles at the occupant of the seat beside her, then wriggles restlessly to sit up a little more and peer out the tiny viewport with a disappointed sigh. "We are turned the wrong way to see anything interesting." Her personal tablet rests idle on her lap, the screen displaying an article titled "Mechanotransduction and mesenchymal stem cell functional differences between ysoki and humans."
I am heading for Absalom Station to interview for research internships with the corporation offices there. There's just a small jump from Castrovel to Absalom station, but, if we're not on either of those two places, I could be coming off a gap year in which I traveled around a bit to see the system/galaxy. Now I'm getting down to business and heading to the Station for interviews, returning from wherever. For connections, I'd have heard of Fiona after the weird dust-up with the tax collectors. If anyone else traveled, we could have run into each other while I was on gap year travels.
Klimma is ready. I will PM the sekrits. Did anyone happen to go to a university on Castrovel? |