RP: The Fringe [Prologue] (M)Eager Beginnings

Outside

"Aye, skipper" Oreza replied. He boarded the transport and found an out of the way spot to stow his things for the time. He would sort permanent lodging later.

All of that taken care of, Oreza went back outside and climbed up an access ladder to where Sienna was working.

"How can I help?" he asked.

As the System format and reinstall started, the spiderbot's network protected it's self with a firewall. It looked like the Meatbags were going to be fighting this to a bloody ending. They just attempted to reformat IT.

As soon as the reformatting finished IT took back over, allowing itself to be copied and installed onto the ship's main core. true it wouldn't have the sentience that the Spiderbot carried, But it would be a vessel for IT to control and use. Maybe even at some point the Spiderbot wouldn't be needed and IT could fully switch over.

It took a bit of time, IT not only had to make it look seamless but also was having to download and install drivers to allow full communication and usage of the different systems that the computer was tied into.

Finally After it's long work and grinding noises the main core BEEPED!


The background of the display was a light blue with a rotating spider icon in the upper left corner.

Slip 31 - Nine Days Later

The work had been grueling, time consuming, and costly, but the beat-up old Jinsoku that had sat neglected in the docking slip for so long was at last looking spaceworthy once again. Patches of shining new plating in some places sharply contrasted with the original, weathered old hull, making it certain that the ship would turn heads only as an amusing curiosity, but she was put back together and functional once more. Sienna sighed in satisfaction as she put her hands on her hips, smiling to herself as she admired their handiwork from astern. Walking forward, she ducked her head beneath the new engine bulkheads and exhaust ports, running her hand lovingly along the cold metal of the ship's underside as she examined every seam, every panel, and every weld that had been made. She reached above her in places here and there where slave power conduits were still attached to the ship, breaking them free and sealing the access panels.

She inspected each of the three thick landing struts, polished to a shine and freshly lubricated, peeing up into the undercarriage to assure herself that every last moving part was in its proper place. Finally she came to the bow, emerging from underneath the ship just beneath the cockpit canopy, rapping her knuckles on one of the cannons mounted beneath it. Turning around, her grin widened as the ship proudly stood before her, presenting itself for duty after a long hiatus. She already had a name in mind, and if the information she'd picked up from her time on the Amatsu-Nova station was indeed good, it wouldn't be long before she had a full crew working for her fledgling operation as well.

Her satisfied smile shifted slightly to one of resigned amusement as she considered the idea of a crew, not for the first time since she'd first bought the ship. Oreza had made several good points, and had finally convinced her that she stood to gain much, much more if she could delegate parts of her new operation out to others. She still had her doubts, of course; she was used to working alone, but that was when her only concern was staying alive, clothed, and fed. She'd never undertaken anything like this, and Oreza had experience in commanding a crew. She felt confident that as long as she kept Oreza in the palm of her hand, Oreza would do the rest.

Amelia had done wonders with the ship's computer as well, getting it back into working order, and while it still wasn't without its odd quirks, it would serve its purpose quite well from this point on, as far as she could tell. She had wiped most of the clutter from the drives, uploaded brand new and up to date star charts, and even tweaked some of the ancient hardware to make it run more efficiently. The other woman had seemed eager enough to get off of the station as well, and given her aptitude with the computer as well as her experience with interstellar navigation, it only made sense to make her a second hire. As long as she kept an eye on her, she would be quite useful to have along.

She had already taken the ship out on a shakedown run around the station. Only some minor adjustments had been necessary to the CFS, and some of the flight controls had to be zeroed and calibrated, but aside from that, everything seemed to be operating beautifully. It was a shame that the hyperfold drive was beyond repair, but scrapping it had covered most of her repair costs, putting her far ahead of where she'd expected to be financially at this point. There were bound to be a few kinks here and there that got by undetected, but as long as the critical systems were green across the board, Sienna was more than confident the ship was ready for launch.

Punching up a display on her PHC, she logged into the space station's holonet and checked the port's schedule. She noted that a service barge would be visiting her slip in three hours to bring the last shipment of food and toiletries, as well as top off the ship's water and fuel supply. Nodding to herself, she switched the display and sent a text-encoded message both to Oreza and Amelia's contact accounts. It was almost time.

Amelia slowly raised from her bed once she was awake from the beeping that came from her Datajockey. She slowly reached for the device, wondering what could while she was still disoriented from waking up. A faint smile crossing her face once she read the message that was on the screen. She had a feeling that the repairs would be done by then, but couldn't hide the anxiety -which only increased with every passing day- while she waited for it, both to get out of the station and to be working in a ship.


She quickly keyed a response on her Datajockey before tossing it on the bed and getting on with packing her things, hastly throwing the clothes that were scattered about the room in her duffel bag and any other important things on her backpack and bag. Lastly, she grabbed the neglected datajockey and made her way out.

-----Docking Bay 9, Slip 31 -----

Arriving near the ship and crossing the all-too-familiar catwalk, Amelia could finally see the ship she'd be in, which looked like a new ship altogether instead of the rusty scrap that she had first laid her eyes on. Sure, she had seen the changes every time she had come back to keep doing her work on the on-board computers, but the result still was something worth of note even after that, which only spoke wonders of the effort that it took to bring it back to being spaceworthy again. One thing she was sure about was that the captain of the ship was compromised with it, there was no other way someone would go that distance just to quit after the first thing went wrong, and by proxy, neither would Amelia.

Standing next to the loading ramp again, the raven-haired woman was slightly inclined to the side, wrestling against the weight of her duffel bag -which looked comically oversided for her- and other belongings. She set the heavy piece of luggage down and waited for Sienna to show up, no point in inviting herself in when the other woman seemed to be paranoid in always keeping an eye on her.

Oreza had already all but moved out of his apartment over the last few days. He now was entirely moved out and had handed over the key card to the landlord. Once leaving his small home Oreza had gone to buy supplies he knew the ship would need. Some food items he wanted, some spare parts and tools the engineering and damage control were missing.

Once satisfied he had all hought they needed the former naval officer returned to the ship just as Sienna was sending out her note to get to the ship.

"Already here" Oreza said as he boarded, pushing a cart full of supplies up the ramp. "Start preflighting once I have this stuff stowed away?"

Ship - Computer Room

Sienna heard boots clomping up the ramp, and looked up from the electrical panels she was inspecting. From the sound of them, she reasoned it had to be Oreza, but she cracked the knuckles on her right hand nonetheless, just in case it was an uninvited visitor. Swinging the small access panel shut and thumping it with the side of her fist to latch it, she stepped out into the forward corridor and looked towards the ramp.

The big bearded Nepleslian was cresting the ramp as she came out, and she nodded in response to his greeting. With a twist of the handle set in the circular indention in the wall behind her, the forward maintenance access hatch hissed and slid closed with a quick series of clanking sounds. "We got a few hours before the last shipment of supplies gets here," she replied as she dusted her hands off, then hung them on her hips as she took a surveying look at the bags and crates he was dragging with him. "I ordered some extra rations, plus enough fuel to get us out of the system, at least until the scoops get the chance to warm up and shake the dust off. I've already done most of the prelim inspections, but another set of eyes going over my steps might be good.

"If you didn't already, put your personal stuff in Cabin 2," she added. "Everyone's got brand new linens and the furniture's in good shape, but other than that you're on your own to provide." She stepped forward and picked up one of the medium-sized bags he had with him, slinging it over her shoulder to assist. "Once Amelia gets here, we'll talk business. Ever been to the Halna system before?"

A few minutes later...

Sienna was walking down the loading ramp once again to investigate another weird reading she got from a hull integrity test when she spotted Amelia waiting there. Curiously tilting her head, she looked around and behind the dark-haired woman, as if expecting to see someone or something there holding her back. Focusing her eyes back on the waiting woman, she raised an eyebrow and continued on her course towards the center underside of the ship. "Well?" she called to her. "You coming aboard or what?"

"Of course." Amelia replied, shrugging the strap from the duffel bag to make it more comfortable before she climbed aboard. "Cabin 3, right?" She asked Sienna, already knowing the answer, before she made her way around the circular hallway and into the crew lounge, then into cabin 2 before finally making her way into cabin 3, her cabin. She dropped the heavy bag and backpack on the floor next to the bed and sat down on it. She would have plenty of time to organize things later.

The cabin suited her perfectly, whereas whoever was in cabin 2 would have to deal with the occupant from cabin 3 having to walk through it to reach their cabin; Amelia wouldn't have to worry about that, so the extra privacy was more than welcome. She mused over a couple of other amenities and trivial things before getting off the bed and making her way back out, if the ship was about to launch there was no doubt that the navigator would be needed to plot the very first course that it would take, and the last thing that crossed her mind was to be late there to do it.

The spiderbot took to following Sienna through out the ship, staying silent and in the shadows. There were a few times the owner of the ship even had touched the bot a few times, thinking it was a piece of the ship, strut or beam. It was curious of the fleshy beings that was stealing it's home and attack it's core programing.

It's inquisitive behavior towards Sienna turned to mischievous and miss-trust towards the programmer that had tried to wipe it from the face of the circuit boards. When ever Amelia was aboard her tools would go missing to be found else where, sometimes lighter then before. It's nest had a small stack of pliers and wire caps. It was not amused, at all by her attempting to reformat it. When she would work on the computer there were always delays and minor computing "glitches." Lost "unsaved" work and shifted file names became a standard.

Past the personal interactions It started keeping an eye on the systems and helping keep the test flights and runs running smoothly. The unseen co-pilot would have smiled at it's antics if it had a face. Each flight it ran the numbers and sent commands to the engines and the flight controls, each to minimize stick flutter, or smooth a minor vibration in the thrust manifolds.