Chapter 17: Pirate Base

We were travelling at an incredible speed from the remains of the Trading Post to an unknown star system. The huge distances between systems meant we had plenty of downtime between destinations. Time to think.

In my recent life travelling the stars, it seemed almost every destination included danger and the risk of fatal disaster. Rarely would a visit somewhere be uneventful. Departure from a destination meant we had survived, and we could stand down until our journey’s end. Arrival in a system gave me the feeling of dread. It was like it was once again time to step up in front of the crosshairs.

Our last stop could literally have been our last. Somehow we survived again. I was playing catch up. I studied our failures and then tightened up our defences in the hope we would not fail the next time.

There was a time when I wondered about a way to increase our speed. But after the high stress of each successive visit to a system, I understood I needed the downtime. It is this downtime that allows us to recover and recharge. If we had shorter travel time, we would endure a constant series of high stress and high risk moments. It would be a recipe for failure.

Once we started our journey, there was little to do. Ship was in control of getting us to our destination, and it would let us know if intervention was needed. First for me was to catch up on my sleep. Like our last journey, Jem declared two days of rest. I stayed in bed for most of that time, only getting up for essentials. Over the two days, I was visited by Jem, Koluna and Laine. Aside from the sleep to de-stress, the physical contact helped renew our individual and collective feeling of calm and wellbeing.

On previous journeys I would work on projects to tighten up our defences. I was happy that we were ahead on that. With help from Laine we had already made improvements. If we ever got into the same kind of trouble, we stood a better chance of survival. I knew little about our next destination, and what threats were waiting for us. It was hard to prepare for the unknown.

About the third day out I got bored with staying in bed. I went for a wander around Ship. I found Koluna sitting on the sofa in the main bridge so I sat down beside her.

“Hello Bri-an, how are you today?” asked Koluna.

“I am rested, thanks. Anything happening?” I said.

“Not really. I thought I’d come up here for a while,” said Koluna. I noticed the tactical display showed a map of star systems with a dot that showed our position. We were in the middle of nowhere.

“I was wondering, could you help me with something?” I asked.

“Sure Bri-an. What do you need?” she replied.

“I’d like to watch a movie with you. I’m still unclear about Ori comedy. Perhaps if we watch a movie together, you could explain things I don’t understand,” I said.

“I’d love to do that! I got some new ones on our last visit. Ship, please pull up the index of new Ori movies,” said Koluna. On the tactical display, the star map was replaced with a list of titles.

“Ship, please play movie number three on the index. Also, dim the lights about fifty percent,” said Koluna. The tactical display now showed the movie opening titles.

“Thanks Koluna,” I said. She snuggled into my side and we watched the movie together. It was about an Ori female and some crazy events that happened to her and what she did. I could mostly understand the plot line, so I did not need to interrupt the movie.

It was nice to put all our past troubles aside and enjoy the movie together. I liked the feeling of closeness with Koluna. It had been a while since we were trapped together in an escape pod together facing death in the vast emptiness of space. On the sofa we hugged like we did in that escape pod. I felt good.

After the movie ended I was feeling a little hungry. I told Koluna.

“Why don’t I get us something to eat and drink, and if you like we can watch another movie,” offered Koluna. I smiled and nodded.

Koluna went to the food dispenser and returned with a plate of spicy Ori snacks and two cups of our usual beverage. She picked another movie title to continue my education in Ori entertainment and we watched the movie begin.

“Do you mind if I join you?” said Jem. We nodded, and she sat down with us.

“This is one of the newest movies I got from our last visit to Ori Major,” said Koluna.

“Awesome!” said Jem. She snuggled in on my other side and picked up one of the Ori snacks. “Mmm, good!”

“It is one of my favourites,” said Koluna. I tasted a snack. It was spicy, but tolerable. I smiled. We settled in to watch the movie.

We watched movies until we were tired, then we returned to our cabin to get more sleep.

I woke up early the next day and crawled out of bed. I did my morning rituals and went to the lounge area to spend some time with Ship. It was funny, but I associated this location with Ship, even though it was omnipresent throughout the vessel. I had spent the last few days resting and being with my crewmates and I felt I had neglected our fifth crewmate.

“Hello Ship, how are you?” I said.

“I am functioning within normally acceptable parameters,” replied Ship.

“No residual negative effects from the virus?” I asked.

“Negative,” replied Ship.

“I am glad for you. I hope that never happens again,” I said.

“The surrogate probe should reduce the chances of damage from future attacks,” replied Ship.

“Laine said that the virus was created by a being who knew Baglogi protocols. Somewhere out there is a being who has experience with Baglogi AIs. It could lead us to more Baglogi or at least another Baglogi AI,” I said.

“Confirmed. However, no records of this were found on the downloaded logs from Tobis’ vessel,” replied Ship. I might have to meet with Tobis next time we visit the Ori Confederation.

“If Tobis had access to Baglogi protocols, he might have got access to other Baglogi technology,” I said.

“Confirmed. However all encounters so far revealed no Baglogi technology,” replied Ship.

“So you’re saying that if he had it he would have already used it?” I asked.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Let us hope that is so,” I said.

“Our recent technology was developed since you signed on as crew. The nano-bots, data port probes and dreadnought probes are unique to this vessel,” replied Ship.

“Ship, under the directives of the self-improvement protocol, please consider scenarios where we face one or more Baglogi vessels under hostile control. Consider their offensive and defensive capabilities and prepare counter-measures. It is important to be prepared,” I said.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

I just had an idea. “Ship, do you have a dreadnought probe ready?”

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Please re-configure the image it projects, so it looks like this vessel? When we arrive at a system, we could cloak and deploy a probe that has the appearance of this vessel, but obviously in a different location than where we are. Re-designate this as a red shirt probe. The aim is to confuse hostile vessels into firing their weapons at the probe instead of us,” I said.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship. This was like a red shirt the size of a space vessel. I wondered for a moment asking Ship to add some red trim to the image.

“Awesome! I’d like you to work out some maneuvers where you cloak and deploy the red shirt probe. The probe will appear to be travelling along the same course, while you change course to take us out of danger. Designate this a red shirt maneuver. Is that clear?” I said.

“Confirmed. Red shirt maneuver protocols created,” replied Ship.

“One last thing, if the crew is incapacitated and you are being attacked by enemy vessels, you are authorized to perform a red shirt maneuver to escape,” I said. It made sense to have Ship make decisions that could save us, if we could not.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Excellent. Thank you Ship,” I said.

“Thank you commander. Your improvements to our security, since you signed on as crew, are the biggest measurable contribution in over two thousand years,” replied Ship. This was perhaps the most candid response I had received from Ship, and it made me think. Why didn’t our predecessors make improvements? Something in Baglogi society had made them stagnate.

I decided it was time to meet up with the others before they found out I was missing.

“Ah there you are,” said Jem. I had arrived at the main bridge to find her there.

“Good morning captain. Did you sleep well?” I asked.

“Well enough, until I awoke to find you missing,” said Jem.

“I am sorry I woke up early and couldn’t sleep, so I went to talk with Ship,” I said.