Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.18

Chapter 18

An old Friend.

“Captain?” Remy knocked politely on the outer hatch to her quarters, where Nellie was busy trying not to worry about the strange egg in the sands of the volcanic planet. Over a week and a half had passed since they disturbed it, and the thing had not moved, grown, or even twitched once since then. A ring of sensors now circled the area, and one of the screens in her quarters was always dedicated to those readings. 

Still, it worried her. Analysis of the readings from the Resurgence, as it arrived, showed the anomaly seemed to replace the sand around it while growing, which made her wonder what other technology, or worse, was hidden inside.

“Come in,” Nellie called. 

“Evening, Captain,” Remy nodded to her and smiled politely, seeming to become more formal as time passed. “Sorry to bother you, but we have readings from the embassy site on the moon that I think you should see.”

“Damn, I forgot about that place,” Nellie had simply ignored the whole thing, given that she cared very little about the land she apparently ‘claimed’ besides the concessions it got her to protect the Clutch on the moon. “What’s going on?”

“Someone is there, and they seem to be trying to draw attention.”

“Trying how?” Nellie asked, putting out a hand for the pad he was holding.

“They have scratched the word ‘Bly’ into the surface in massive letters,” Remy said with evident amusement. “And, well….” He gestured to a picture on the Pad.

“A crate of Hyperdrive?” Nellie laughed. 

“That is what it appears to be,” Remy confirmed. “Any idea what is going on?”

“Yeah,” Nellie scanned through the pictures, “I think that Crush needs a word.”

“Why not simply open a comm line from the Colony?” Remy wondered. “I think it might be a conversation worth having.”

“I agree,” Nellie nodded. “How long until the Resurgence is back from the planet?”

“About two hours,” Remy noted. “However, there is another matter to attend to.”

“Go on?” Nellie asked.

“Things have been moving faster than expected,” Remy said with a smile. “We are well ahead of schedule.” The facility on the planet had required three trips a day to manage the sheer volume of resources it was producing, and their battle shuttle had been in nearly constant use, given the loading and unloading times. Salem had even introduced the standard three-shift system to keep the station humming day and night. “As such, the Rest has requested we go dockside for a small ceremony.”

“When?” Nellie asked.

“As soon as possible, Captain,” Remy said with a twinkle in his eye. “It is why I decided to disturb you in your quarters.”

“Okay,” Nellie shrugged. “I’ll be ready in five minutes.”

True to her word, Nellie was showered, dressed in a clean flight suit, armored and walking through the shielded umbilical from the Bly to the main docks of the Rest in under five minutes. 

When the doors opened, she was stunned to see what must have been the entire crew of the Rest in the main docking bay. The biggest surprise was Salem’s irrepressible smile. 

The normally restrained and studious woman was practically glowing as she escorted Nellie over to one of the launch bays.

“Thank you for coming, Captain,” Salem said, her voice being amplified around the bay, “The crew of the Bly’s Rest is delighted to be able to present you with a surprise a little ahead of schedule.”

Several cheers sounded from the assembled workers.

“It is the result of hard work and several efficiencies in the production process,” Salem said as she positioned Nellie in front of the Launch bay and went over to the main controls. “Captain, may I formally present you with the first ship built at this station and ask that you allow us to name it on your behalf!” She punched the controls, and the bay doors folded back as the lights inside flicked on.

Just for a moment, Nellie thought it was all a trick. The silhouette inside was way too familiar for it to be…

“No fucking way?” Nellie gasped.

The lights came up, and she stared, stunned, as her mind flashed back to the last time she had seen this shape. It had been burning up in the atmosphere of the Hub world as Nellie plummeted away from it in free fall.

“The Bly?” Nellie asked, stepping forward slowly as if the ship would vanish if she dared actually approach it. 

The station was silent as she approached the shuttle. It wasn’t the Bly, she knew that, but the design basics were the same. The form was smoother, the hard edges smoothed, and the materials were a thousand times better, but there was no mistaking her shape. 

Nellie touched the exterior controls on the cargo bay and felt her eyes tear up as the bay doors opened and the ramp extended. Inside, the pristine metal and shining surfaces were certainly beyond anything the old ship had, but the bay was otherwise identical. She could have closed her eyes and walked the deck without a single misstep.

She walked through the ship, finding better quarters, an armory, and a smaller galley, but was delighted to find the main corridor and engine bay once again filled with plants before stepping onto the flight deck and laughing. Someone had been telling tales, with her initial list of priorities recreated in perfect detail, the one she had scratched into the walls.

“Do you like it?” Lucy asked, and Nellie turned to see her dressed in a near mirror of her holographic outfit.

“It’s like stepping back in time,” Nellie said, smiling through the tears. “I love it.”

“Not quite stepping back in time,” Lucy grinned. “We have made upgrades.”

“Tell me!” Nellie laughed, wiping away the tears. 

“The ship generator has been replaced with a Nanite Forge, and the shields, engines, and weapons have all been upgraded to current technology; we have also added a couple of extras, including an advanced anti-grav drive so we can mirror the flight controls of the original ship.” Lucy smiled. “Finally, we have an onboard interface and a permanent security force.” Lucy pressed a panel on the rear of the flight deck, and the wall slid back to reveal what looked like smaller centrum units. “The Mark 2 Centrum unit. Designed for shipboard operations and station work. The first four off the line were assigned to this shuttle, full time.”

“Prim, reporting for duty!” The first one stepped forward from the wall. 

“Sec, reporting for duty!” The second bowed and stepped aside.

“Tri, ready to work!” This one ran over to the pilot seat and saluted somewhat.

“Quad, ready to bust heads!” This one nodded and stood by the door.

“Each one is programmed with sections of programming copied from your synth crew,” Lucy said proudly. “They are backed up to the ship every few hours, and the backups are transferred to the Rest whenever the shuttle docks.”

Nellie needed almost a half hour aboard before she could go out and thank the crowd. It was a long time to have them wait, but it was necessary as seeing the Captain blubbering and crying like a schoolgirl would probably not inspire confidence. 

By the time she stepped off the new shuttle, Nellie was able to maintain a slightly red-eyed resolve, but her voice did crack with emotion a few times as she thanked everyone. 

“In that case,” Salem beamed, “May I formally name the new ship, Captain?”

“I take it you have one prepared?” Nellie asked. “Go ahead.” 

“Then I formally name this magnificent vessel the N.S.S. Indomitable,” Salem announced to cheers and applause.

“N.S.S.?” Nellie subvocalised. “What is that?”

“Nanite Space Service,” Lucy said with a laugh, “But the original meaning was Nellie’s Space Service.”

“I kind of like it,” Nellie said with a smile. 

“We have your approval?” Salem asked casually.

“Of course,” Nellie said, “Thank you, Salem.”

“Wonderful!” Salem clapped her hands and the words N.S.S. Indomitable appeared in white letters on the sides of the ship. “N.S.S. is formally ratified, as of this date.”

Nellie turned to say she only meant the ship's name, but it was too late. The words N.S.S. Bly’s Rest were already writing themselves across the walls of the station, and she was sure the Bly and Resurgence as well. 

Salem was just that organized.

For good or ill, they were now the Nanite Space Service.

===<<<>>>===

“Indomitable, you are cleared for launch,” Dar’s voice came over the comm line. “Exit path Alpha. Safe travels, Captain.”

“Roger that, Rest. Exit path Alpha,” Nellie called back as the Indomitable lifted off the deck and drifted out of the bay. “Clear and on path.”

“All scans clear, Cap,” Tri called from his place at one of the consoles. 

“Entry angle calculated and ready to go,” Prim added from the other.

“Want a can of Hyperdrive once we are clear?” Sec asked her.

“Sure,” Nellie grinned. “Have I mentioned that you lot are fantastic yet?”

“It can’t hurt to say it again,” Quad rumbled.

Her new crew was, well, fantastic. Again, how they were built was down to Paren. The conversation at the staff meeting had made the brilliant young engineer attack the problem from a new direction. If they couldn’t have a new crew, then they needed something else.

It was a very Paren solution. No new cores simply meant the current ones had to go further. In this case, she created a nanite clone of four cores and activated them with programming sections donated by Salem, Remy, Baz, Dar, and Vey before installing the main cores as control nodes. The cloned cores could then be installed in as many bodies as needed, with the actual cores working to organize and integrate the information on the backups. 

Lucy said it was scarily similar to how her own AI handled the information from multiple bodies and locations. 

That was proprietary tech that had taken generations to perfect, but Paren had apparently done it in less than a week.

They both had to accept that Paren might be much smarter than they had imagined. Mentally moving Paren from ‘brilliant young mind’ to ‘once in ten generations talent’ was a lot harder than Nellie expected, and she was beginning to worry that she was a lousy role model. Or, at least, not good enough for someone as special as Paren. 

The effect of a week of Paren’s work was that the new centrum models could be placed in any ship, shuttle, or part of the station, and they could make as many of them as needed. 

It was a complete game-changer. A four-man crew was ready to control anything they created, and the ones in range of the Station were effectively strange hive minds controlling many bodies at once. 

The feeling of piloting the ship was almost identical to the original as it switched from orbital flight to atmospheric, with the new Anti-Grav drive being close enough to their old gravity core that she didn’t have to adjust much for the difference.

They had dropped into the atmosphere on the opposite side of the moon from the Colony, avoiding their eyes as well as their restricted airspace. Everything about what Crush had done was telling her that this was intended to be more of a private chat than any sort of public one. 

The clearing he had chosen was in a valley, where the surrounding landscape would hide it from prying eyes, but Nellie wasn’t expecting trouble. Crush was someone she trusted, even if things were still a little strained.

The look on his face as he stared up, open-mouthed at what must have looked like the original Bly coming in to land, was a moment she would treasure, and she had her implant take several quick pictures.  

“Down and stable,” Tri said as they settled on the ground. 

“Scans show four people total, none with hot weapons, and one ground transport,” Sec called out.

“Permission to escort you, Cap?” Quad asked, already grabbing a weapon.

“Granted,” Bellie said, grabbing her backpack and rifle. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Crush; it was just something she always had with her when she was not surrounded by her people. “Prim, you too. Tri, Sec, you two keep the scans hot and the engines on, okay?”

“You got it, Cap,” Tri said as he stroked the controls. “Ready to fly this baby anytime you ask.”

“You have a bit of Baz in you, right?” Nellie laughed.

“It shows?” Tri preened. 

“Yeah, it shows,” Prim sounded like she was rolling her eyes despite having neither eyes nor vocal cords, which was quite a trick.

She found Crush sitting on the grass in front of the Indomitable with that same stunned expression. 

“See anything you like?” Nellie laughed. “Looks just like the old one, right?”

“It’s incredible,” Crush said, his voice choked with emotion. I know it sounds crazy, given everything that happened, but I missed that ship.”

“Me too,” Nellie said, “Well, you brought the HyperDrive, I brought the ship. What’s up?”

“This might be a long story,” Crush warned. “And I don’t have much time before I have to head back, so what do you know already?”

Nellie had been sent a full report on what the sensors had detected, all with Remy’s clear notes and thoughts in helpful annotations and conclusions from him and Lucy. So, she knew a bit.

After the surprise of the restricted airspace, she made sure to keep regular reports coming, although she was often guilty of not reading them. She was seriously considering asking Lucy for another upgrade to assimilate all this information for her.

“The Colonial Administration is made up of Duke, Three members that represent the major factions within it, Brix for some reason, and now Brenda,” Nellie said. “Since the Last Chances joined the colony, there have been two large movements of personnel from one area to another. A week or so ago, four life signs vanished. Two in the night and two more in the morning. There was also a large gathering of the Colonists later that day, followed by a small group leaving the Colony area, which I assume was you and your squad?”

Crush nodded.

“Other than that, we haven’t picked up very much, but we have been busy.” Nellie shrugged.

“I commend whoever is in charge of your security,” Crush smiled. “They’re good.”

“I’ll pass on your compliments,” Nellie chuckled. “Come on, Crush. What’s up?”

“Things are going bad in the Colony,” Crush said sadly. “You saw what it was like in the early days? Well, it got better for a bit. Brix and I sorted things out, and he got made Mayor.”

“Mayor Brix,” Nellie laughed. “He must hate that!”

“With every fiber of his being,” Crush grinned weakly. “But the other three members of that Council are pure snakes. I figured I could manage them, but then Last Chances came along.”

“And everything changed,” Nellie nodded and leaned back against the Indomitable. “She struck me as half pirate at best.”

“Well, she’s all pirate now,” Crush said. “And her crew are making moves to take over the whole place while she’s off grabbing another ship.”

“What are the council saying?” Nellie asked.

“I’m not allowed in the room,” Crush said with a frown.

“Get off it,” Nellie said. “I saw what you did on MOG-Fiver. I bet you had them on a feed from day one.”

“Day ten,” Crush said. “It was hard to find the parts.”

The news wasn’t good, and Nellie felt that Crush was right about the way things were headed. The only questions were what they expected her to do about it and whether she wanted to get involved at all. Crush and Brix were friends of a sort, but Nellie had no interest in running a Colony and doubted everyone else would just step aside. 

Sure, it was a mess, but it was their mess, not hers.

“So, what do you want me to do?” Nellie asked.

“We’d like you to actually build that embassy,” Crush said, “And allow us to use it if we need to hide or run.”

“Define us?” Nellie checked.

“Me, the squad, and anyone who wants to come with us,” Crush said. “I don’t have numbers or anything because I have no idea how bad it will get, at least, not yet.”

“Okay,” Nellie replied after a quick conversation with Lucy, “We can do that. How much space do we need to start with, and does it need to be defended?”

“Space, no idea,” Crush admitted. “Not much to start with, and as for defense? I think so. No telling what Brenda might do.” He looked thoughtful. “It might be a risk to leave people here, so maybe something automated?”

“We can do that,” Nellie agreed. “I will also put a signal tower in so we can communicate.”

“They might be intercepted,” Crush said. 

“Not with our encryption, buddy,” Sec said firmly. “One hundred percent Paren approved comm tech only.”

“Paren approved?” Crush asked.

“Don’t ask,” Nellie sighed. “It’s a whole thing.”

“So, what can we do in return?” Crush asked with a confused smile.

“How about you just pass on anything you learn about the Last Chances crew?” Nellie offered. “And don’t get yourselves killed.”

“Sure,” Crush nodded. “What about trying to get you details of their ship?”

“Don’t bother,” Nellie waved the offer away. “We have scans.”

“They upgraded,” Crush warned. “Shielded hull and comms, the whole deal.”

“Not shielded enough,” Sec laughed. “We cracked it in a week.”

Crush gave them an assessing look. “Not Paren-approved tech?” 

“Not even close,” Sec winked, one of the lights on his sensors winking off and on again.