Nellie and the Nanites - Bk2 - Ch.43

Chapter Forty-Three

Check List.

Nellie stared at the door to the control room and tried to control her temper. She was not doing well.

“Molly,” She called. “This is over.”

“Fuck off!” Molly called from inside. “As long as I control this array, you can’t do a thing!”

The thing was, she was right. With no scan data, the crazy woman was targeting randomly now that her people were dead. The beam was sweeping back and forth constantly, impossible to predict.

Nellie had managed to get into the ship, but the others were pinned, unable to move.

“It’s been a long day, Molly,” Nellie groaned. “Why not just leave the controls alone, and we will take what we want and leave? I’ll even leave you a grav sled to get away on.”

“No chance!” Molly laughed. “I’ve finally got you trapped! You can stay here till the drives run dry, you bitch.”

“Ostie, you idiot!” Nellie huffed. “Paren, how are we doing?”

“It’s there. I could only open one, but they aren’t exactly big, ya know?” Paren called back.

“Last chance, Molly,” Nellie called.

“I won’t fall for your bluffs!” Molly laughed.

“Fine,” Nellie aimed her blaster and fused the half-melted door controls. “Goodbye, Molly.” As she turned and walked away, she told Paren to let them go. She heard the scream as the crawler drones pushed down through the vent. It was all Paren had been able to open, but fortunately, it was all they needed.

The screaming started at the same time as the door buzzed, unable to open thanks to the fused controls.

“Nasty way to go,” Nellie muttered, unable to stop herself from smiling… but she did feel bad about it… a little.

“Okay, people!” She called, “Let's get that Exo-drive and get the hell off this planet before it throws anything else at us!”

Of course, nothing was ever that simple. It wasn’t just a case of trying to get a complicated system like the Exo-drive out of a massive ship; it was also about seeing how damaged it was, learning about its control systems, and so on. Not to mention trying to adjust their plans to include taking one of the generators from the ship as well. Their current power generator was not big enough, according to Lucy anyway.

Even once they got the logistics of that down, there were the creatures coming to investigate. Luckily Paren’s crawler swarms were a pretty damn effective deterrent as they ran in circles around the crater. Everything ran when they saw those damn things, Nellie included.

All of those problems were bad… but there were two worse ones.

“Lucy!” Nellie called again, “Where is Paren this time?”

“Huh?” Lucy asked, her eyes scanning the rapidly scrolling text.

“Never mind,” Nellie said with a sigh. “I’ll find her.”

Do you want to know the biggest challenge of this ship? It was keeping two tech-obsessed individuals on task while they were in the center of a bunch of military-grade tech. She remembered taking a trip to a candy store with the younger orphans just before she left for good. This was much the same thing. Take your eyes off one of them for a second, and they were drooling over something new.

She found Paren hip-deep in some complex machinery that Nellie couldn’t even guess the purpose of. Her butt was wiggling as she forced herself even further inside.

“What is it this time?” Nellie asked.

“I can’t even tell!” Paren said delightedly. “And I’ve been at this for like fifteen minutes already!”

“Yeah, I know,” Nellie groaned. “You were supposed to be getting the power couplings for the Exo Drive, remember?”

“Uh huh,” Paren said distractedly. “That’s great.”

“I’ll just get them myself, yeah?” Nellie said flatly.

“Sounds like a plan!” Paren mumbled. “Hey, did this do anything?” A small light started to blink across the room.

“A light blinked,” Nellie shrugged.

“Huh,” Paren said. “Did not expect that!”

Nellie gave up and went to fetch the couplings herself.

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

“Of course it will work,” Duke insisted. “It was built to work!”

“Well, that must have been a while ago,” The tech said, wiping his hands on a towel. “The tracks rusted solid; no chance it will move now.”

“I was promised the tracks were rust-proof,” Duke pointed out. “What am I supposed to do? Take the farm down?”

“Not my issue,” The tech shrugged. “Ask the engineer.”

Duke stared at the man and then sighed and waved him away.

“Problems?” A voice called behind him.

Duke turned to see the leader of the soldiers strolling across the floor. Something about the walk suggested to everyone around him that he only ever ran AT things, never from.

“The mechanism to open the floor between here and the surface has rusted, apparently. So much for rust-proof tracks.” Duke said with a shrug.

“You need non rusting tracks,” Brix replied. “Rust-proof tracks are just given a rust-resistant coating. The moment that is scratched, well.” He nodded to the rust shavings on the floor.

“Then why do they call it rust-proof?” Duke asked, aghast he had fallen for something like that.

“So people buy it,” Brix shrugged.

“How do you know that stuff?” Duke asked him.

“I worked on a space station,” Brix grinned. “We had lots of tracks.”

“Any idea what I do now?” Duke asked.

“The shields on the Arc are working, right?” Brix asked.

“Of course,” Duke nodded.

“Open the top level, blow the middle, and just let the shields push it aside,” Brix shrugged. “If they can’t handle a little debris, we are all better off here anyway.” The man waved and headed into the ship to chase up some of his people.

Duke shook his head and smiled.

“Just blow it up,” Duke laughed. “Well, what works, works.”

He rode the goods lift up to the surface and stepped aside as it was loaded with another set of pallets. They were taking everything they could with them. Too many colonies died because their planners assumed something could be found or made where they were going.

His colony would launch with everything they could possibly need, including working farm stacks. The arc itself was modular. With this ship and his people, there was nowhere he could fall short.

He was sure of it.

The surface level was a bustle of activity as the massive doors were cleared of the prefab buildings and built up dust and dirt. They still had a day or two, but they would be ready by the end of the day. Checking his watch again, he headed over to the comm tower to do his message check for the day. Years of struggle, years of searching for and recruiting people, and it was all going to happen. He smiled constantly, fighting the urge to dance across the floor.

Nothing could spoil his mood today!

“Boss!” Leo ran over, looking worried.

“What’s on your mind, Leo?” Duke asked. “All packed up and ready to go?”

“It’s Be- Nellie, boss,” Leo said.

“What’s wrong?” Duke asked. “Did they get attacked?”

“No, uh, some of our people were doing a security check, and they say they saw that fancy ship of hers flying toward the crash site… and then there were a lot of flashes when they came back the other way.”

Duke closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Good feelings, good feelings.

“I’m sure they are fine,” He said eventually.

“Sure, Boss.” Leo nodded.

“Keep an eye out, just in case,” Duke said as he hurried toward the comm tower.

“Will do!” Leo called after him.

“That woman is going to turn me grey,” Duke grumbled as he punched the elevator button before giving up and running up the stairs.

“Duke to Bea, Duke to Bea, please reply!” Duke called for the fifth time. He was starting to sweat slightly.

“Bea here, what’s up Duke?” Nellie’s voice came over the comm line, and he slumped.

“We got reports of fighting at the crash site. Are you okay?” He asked.

“Fine,” Nellie sounded grumpy. “How did you know we were here?”

“Who else would it be?” He laughed, relief bringing his good mood back.

“That’s fair,” He could hear her amusement now. “Anyway, all good. Just a little scavenging.”

“Any problems?” Duke asked. “Anything you need help with?”

“If you have any idea how to get tech nuts to willingly leave behind a bunch of military-grade tech, I’m all ears.” Nellie laughed.

“Clocks ticking, don’t forget that, okay?” Duke answered. “Tell them that.”

“Worth a try; thanks for checking in!” Nellie called back and cut the comm line. From there, the day started to get busy as the new plan to excavate the ship came together. He got a call later to tell him that Nellie’s ship was ferrying stuff back to her yard and just nodded to the message. Day turned to night, and he was kept busy, only managing to lay down to rest as the first shift was starting. He really hoped Nellie would be ready in time. This launch was too important to delay, even for a friend.

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

“Stand clear!” Lucy called as the ground started to cave in. The center of the yard simply dropped away, the line moving outward as a large ramp was left behind. “Alright, let’s get started!”

The lines of antigrav sleds and boxes of salvaged parts were marched down into the ground by Centrum, Brackta, or whoever else was available or nearby. A near-constant flow that culminated in the arrival of the Exo-Drive itself. Nellie walked down with it, finally getting a look at the cavern Lucy had created to hold her secret project.

“Holy hellfire,” Nellie gasped as she saw it. “That’s–” Words failed her.

The whole cavern was lit by floodlighting to aid the less nanited crew members, and her new ship gleamed with the reflected light. It was shaped as a long oval with four massive engines coming from the back. Large weapons were discarded in favor of multiple powerful laser arrays, while a single massive beam weapon dominated the design, the large opening running from the front almost all the way to the engines at the back. It was a truly awesome sight, all of it.

The name, written in bold type in an arc across the front, took her breath away.

Bly’s Revenge

Nellie teared up the moment she saw it.

“Surprise!” Lucy said brightly from behind her. “Do you like it?”

“It’s perfect, Luce,” Nellie said, sniffing slightly. “We better not lose this one.”

“Not likely,” Lucy grinned like a shark. “This one has everything and a whole bunch else besides.” She turned Nellie around to look at the ship again. “Room for a living crew of up to a hundred, fully stocked hydroponics, redundant systems for everything, fully compartmented with emergency systems to allow individual compartments to survive in an emergency. Four Insystem Drives. And now we have an Exo-System Drive from a command carrier, not to mention the generator to add to our power systems.”

“Add to it?” Nellie asked. “I thought we were replacing?”

“No,” Lucy grinned. “Unlike most ships this size, we are not taking a large crew as it is almost completely automated thanks to the nanites. That means we can use that space for extras. We have two twin generators, each capable of running the ship at reduced power. Now that we have this new cruiser class generator, we will use the others as simple backups outside of combat. In combat, we will be able to dedicate a generator to the shields, another to weapons, and use the third to run the ship systems. In short, we will be a powerhouse.”

“Ostie,” Nellie slapped a hand over her mouth as she realized what Lucy was telling her. They would be able to punch massively above their weight class.

“Any other surprises?” She laughed.

“Just one, but you have to get on board and take command to see it,” Lucy’s mouth quirked. “Let me finish her, put the new stuff in place, then you can see!”

The rest of the day was spent doing everything they could to prepare to leave. It was a weird thought, leaving. She had come to love her little yard, even while yearning to return to space. Now, the time had come, and she was surprised not to feel nostalgic about the place in the slightest.

As she looked around, it was all there. If she squinted, it was possible to see the bones of the original yard hidden under all the improvements. Still, she was a spacer at heart, it seemed. Her body longed to feel a ship around her again, to feel the strange heaviness of artificial gravity and taste the slightly metallic air of ship life.

Watching Paren ordering her creatures -and weasel, she noted- down the ramp and presumably onto the ship, she smiled. The teen was turning into something of a pet collector, it seemed. Nellie had insisted she not bring most of her swarm but had allowed her to keep six. She could mark their progress by the startled screams and Paren’s laughter. Her people had gotten used to a lot with her crew; it was pushing it for them to get used to the crawlers. Those things seemed designed to make your skin crawl. Nellie had gotten a good look at one and was disturbed to see the sharp mandibles retracted to create a wide smile when they weren’t eating. That was, she felt, just an unnecessary level of creepyness.

By the time morning came, she was doing a check around the place, ensuring nothing important had yet to be loaded onto the new Bly.

Nothing was; Salem was at her usual level of extreme efficiency.

They even took the machines from the facilities building. It seemed they were going to continue making the Centrum units.

“It’s time!” Lucy said, startling her. “Everyone is waiting for the Captain to come and take command!”

Nellie marched stiffly down the ramp, having taken a few minutes to shower and change into a fresh suit of armor, her helmet held under one arm. She was nervous. She was going to take command. Not of a tramp hauler or some salvaged and jury-rigged piece of flying debris, but a real ship.

She had crew now. Almost fifty, including the normals. And they were headed into the unknown.

“Putain de merde, what am I doing?” Nellie said under her breath.

“Being you,” Lucy whispered in her inner ear. “That is all you ever have to do.”

Nellie swallowed once and raised her head as she came into sight of the ship.

Her crew were waiting, an honor guard at the main airlock with a ramp leading up into her new ship. They didn’t salute, merely nodded to her as she walked by, praying with everything she had not to trip up.

Her boots hit the metal of the ramp, and the clank of deck plating as she stepped into the ship felt like coming home. She grinned at the familiar look. On the inside, the corridors and walkways were copies of the interior of the Bly.

Lucy escorted her to the bridge, and Nellie saw it on a slightly raised platform.

Her chair.

The Captain’s Chair.

She sat as Lucy beamed, and the moment she shifted back in her seat, a message popped up.

Welcome, Captain. Would you like to take command?

Nellie mentally accepted, and her mind expanded as her implant connected to the ship for the first time.

A screen popped up she had not seen in a long, long time.

Chanelle ‘Nellie’ Bonne-Chance.

Nanite Infused Human

Female

Class: Captain

Class: None

BODY

Health: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Energy: 100%

Nanites: 20 000 clusters

Personal Swarm: 7500 clusters

SHIP

Bly’s Revenge (Explorer Class Ship)

Hull: 100%

Armor: 200%

Shields:300%

Storage: 3000 Cubic Feet

Nanites: 150 000 clusters

Systems: Online.

Weapons (Laser Array x12, XLBeam Cannon x1), Coms(Shielded and Broadcast), Shields(2x Fore, 2x Aft, 2x Port, 2x Starboard, 2x Upper, 2x Keel), Sensors (Full suite), ISD x4, Life Support System, Holographic Array, Mark3 Generator x2, Mark7 Generator x1, Shipboard Nanite Forge, Cybernetics Manufacturing Facility.

Weapon Systems:

2x Laser array (Fore, Aft, Port, Starboard, Upper, and Keel)

1x XL Beam Cannon

Mine Layer (Aft)

6x Torpedo Launcher (Fore)

Landing Bay:

Planetary Shuttle x1

Shuttle Resurgence x1

Open Bay

Open Bay

A/I: Online

-Lucille-

Licenses (Sector Space):

Trading Licence

Scavenging Licence

Search and Rescue Licence

Pilot’s Licence

Advanced Piloting Licence

Abilities:

Replication - Available.

Navigation - Available

Conversion - Available

Enhancement - Available

Personal Status:

Nanite Fused Body - Mk2

Nanite Fused Mind - Mk1 - Command Unit

Command And Control Implant

Memory Download Module

Comm Module

Targeting Module

Exo-System Controls

Heads Up Display Module

Neural Interface Module

Data collection Module

Drone List:

Paren (Prime Drone)

Salem -Synthetic

Baz - Mk2 Synthetic

Dar - Synthetic

Vey - Synthetic

Remi - Synthetic

Banjo - Cybernetically enhanced Brackta

Centrum Units x56

Sub Drones:

Weasel

Per-Chi

Smilers x6

Tiny - Enhanced Synthetic

Secondary Class choices available for direct memory download:

Commander -

War is hell; this class set allows you to download the combined experience and reflexive skills of three commanders who excelled in the art of battle.

Explorer -

In new places, new threats lurk. Download the combined experience of three true pioneers of space exploration.

Scavenger -

Knowing the difference between rubbish and overlooked gold is the skill of the true scavenger. The class set includes basic and advanced knowledge of several crafting professions and a preloaded catalog of valuable items.

Trader -

This class set includes the combined knowledge and instincts of a true trader. Also includes advanced knowledge of body language and micro-expressions. Always come out ahead in the deal!

Hunter -

No matter the prey, no matter the defenses, you will take down your prey.

Tracking, evasion, killing techniques, and muscle memory for weapons use.

More memory modules will be available as experience and need dictates!

Please note only a single memory download is available at each stage of Nanite Fused Mind - choose carefully!

“Whoa!” Nellie gasped.

“Would you like to choose a memory module now?” Lucy asked. “Or wait until we see what is on the other side of wherever we are going?”

“I’ll wait,” Nellie said with a grin. “Does it really work like it says?”

“It does,” Lucy confirmed. “Would you like to appoint a first officer?”

“You,” Nellie said.

“Thank you, noted.” The Bly responded.

“Was that you?” Nellie whispered.

“No,” Lucy replied, “That was the ship computer. I am the ship, but the computer is capable of all functions when I am not here.”

“When you are not here?” Nellie asked.

“When you and I are off the ship and out of contact for some reason,” Lucy confirmed. “Now, we need a pilot.”

“Me?” Nellie asked hopefully.

“Of course, but we need an official one separate from the Captain.” Lucy laughed.

“Baz then,” Nellie said. He was their best pilot, after all.

“Noted,” Lucy replied in perfect time with the computer.

“Comm officer?” Nellie asked and waited for Lucy to nod. “Salem.”

“Noted.” Lucy said, “Chief of security?”

“Remi,” Nellie said, saying ‘noted’ with the rest of them, smiling at how much it seemed to irritate Lucy.

“Weapons officer?” Lucy said quickly.

“Dar or Vey?” Nellie said quickly. “I don’t want Paren to do it. She’s still just a kid.”

“I've added them both to the list,” Lucy said. “I will fill the sensor position myself.”

“So we have a bridge crew,” Nellie said. “Paren should be in charge of her own research and development thing… and Banjo can…?

“Remi wants to train him in security,” Lucy said flatly. “Despite all evidence to the contrary, they seem to get along.”

“Fine,” Nellie said. “So… what’s next?”

“We call the bridge crew and make ready to depart on your orders, Captain,” Lucy said smartly.

Nellie pressed the ship-wide call button on the arm of her chair.

“All crew, all crew, make ready to leave. Lift off in thirty minutes!”