Cheesman Chronicles

Read previous part here: The Pilot – Part Two

---

Aurora stared at the screen for a moment, taking in deep breaths to calm herself. There was a good chance that whoever was talking to her through this was going to kill her. If they could disable her ship then they could easily do it. So now was not the time to panic.

Be aware of the situation, yes. Panic, no.

As the worry subsided, she floated herself over to the keyboard and began to type. Each key clicked loudly as it became the only thing inside the cabin making noise. Engines, computers, even the coffee machine had all stopped.

Her mind briefly went to the thought of life support. There was an independent system in case things like this happened. Air should continue to flow for another half day or so, but that would only be a brief saving as opposed to a blessing. It was meant to be enough time for her to fix whatever broke. If something or someone was going to prevent that, it would be a challenge.

She finally finished her message and hit the enter key.

‘My name is Aurora. I am on a peaceful mission to discover what happened to this freighter. Let me go and I will do no harm.”

She breathed slowly, calming her heartbeat just that bit more so she could focus. There was a chance that whomever was on the other end was typing their reply – there was no indication on the screen if they were – or they were preparing to fire. Being as cooperative would probably help.

Probably.

Aurora drifted herself back over to the windows of the cabin to look outside. With her headlights down, there was hardly any light to fill the massive bulk she was in. Only a few flickering sparks and dull LED indicators hinted at the vast structure around her. There was no shadow that crossed the view port, no way to tell if there was something outside.

It was quiet.

Really, really quiet.

A ping went off behind her. Turning around she saw that a message had appeared once more. Floating over and reading it, she realised that nearly ten minutes had passed since she sent her reply. Staring into the void was a real sucker of time.

“Prepare for boarding. Comply and you will not be harmed.”

“That’s reassuring,” she mumbled to herself.

To her surprise, the lights in her ship came back on. The hum of the engines reappeared, systems began to start up again, and gravity pulled her to the floor. She gracefully landed, having trained in sudden gravity changes.

Her first thought was to rush to the helm and fly off. She even ran half way but stopped.

Whoever took control of her ship could do it again just as easily, she reminded herself. They had given her a chance of life back in order to prove herself. If she tried to run, they would kill her.

She waited as the rest of her vessel finished turning back on. After a brief moment, SAM’s voice appeared once more.

“Captain, systems have been compromised,” it dully reported. “Unknown ship is approaching.”

“I’m aware of that,” Aurora said. “Warning came a bit late, buddy. What happened?”

“Unknown. By the time the systems detected an intrusion, they were beginning to shut down,” it said. “Captain, recommending an update to the latest anti-virus software to prevent an incident like this from occurring again.”

“Remind me again when we get to safer space. For now, prepare for a ship to dock with us.”

“Captain, recommending against docking with unknown ship. There is an unacceptable chance of risk involved.”

“I know,” Aurora said. “But there’s something going on here that I’d like to know. And right now, these strangers are the only ones who can help answer that.”

SAM remained quiet for a moment. If she didn’t know any better, Aurora would have guessed that it couldn’t think of a reply to that. That all it could do now was wait for her to be proven wrong and it right.

Five minutes went by as she prepared herself for the boarding party. She tidied her hair, adjusted her uniform, and stood waiting by the pod doors. May as well look your best when you’re being boarded.

She also quietly put an earpiece in so as to be in constant communication with SAM. It provided her with an up to date report on all that was happening with the other ship while it came in. She in turn told it to only speak to her in an absolute emergency when the other group were on board.

She couldn’t be distracted while engaging her ‘guests’.

The hull around her hissed as the docking clamps engaged. Her ship rumbled as it was pulled in and connections between whatever they flew. SAM said it was a ship of similar size, which was a bit reassuring. But her’s could easily fit ten people. She may have been a skilled enough fighter, but even three people would have been too much for her to handle at once.

Finally, the door made a beeping sound as it requested her to give permission to open it. She clicked the button and it whirred open slowly. Behind it stood a man wearing strange and tattered outfits like they hadn’t seen a new set in years.

He quickly boarded and inspected Aurora closely. They were around the same height as her, though at least twenty years older. His grey hairs looked as washed as his clothes, and a strange smell came from them as they huddled close.

“Are you the only one on this ship?” he demanded.

“Just me and my AI,” Aurora said calmly, not wanting to betray her strange fear of the stranger. “SAM, say hi.”

“Hello,” SAM said over the intercom. “I am SAM, which stands for -”

“I get it,” the man said before reaching into his pocket. “I just want to scan your ship to confirm your claim.”

He took out a device the size of his hand and held it up. A blue light streamed out from it as it covered the walls, ceiling and floor, beeping as it travelled over the sides of metal.

“Captain,” SAM spoke into Aurora’s ears. “Detecting an unidentified object scanning the ship. However, the size of the device is inconsistent with what visual sensors would indicate.”

Aurora gave an imperceptible nod and let the man continue scanning. That last part seemed odd, but it was nothing she could worry about right now.

The he turned off the device, checked over the small screen, and nodded.

“Nothing here,” he said. “Good. Now, would you mind telling me what you’re doing here?”

“You can talk yourself,” Aurora said. “I was minding my own business in this area looking for potential scrap. Then all of a sudden my ship turns off and you demand an entrance. I don’t even know who you two are or what you want from me. And I don’t even know how you disabled my ship. I want an explanation before I say anything more.”

She crossed her arms and stared down at him. They gave an unimpressive look over her. She was certainly in no place to make demands. It was clear that he controlled the situation. Even without their technology, held a strange power dynamic over her with his age and apparent technological prowess, and there was no way to tell if there weren’t more people on board his ship.

Yet the man sighed and nodded.

“I suppose that’s fair enough,” he said. “But on one condition: once I reveal who I am, you abandon this place. If someone sent you, tell them you found nothing. We will erase all your ship records and send you back. Understood?”

Aurora nodded. The man took a deep breath and began.

“This shipment was on route to Godlon to deliver supplies to the struggling planet. I’m sure you are aware of how much desperation there is on that desolate rock?”

“Vaguely,” Aurora said casually.

“Well, that’s only what the official report of this ship says. Yes, it has plenty of supplies which could support the entire planet for about a year, and with enough resources on board to have it become self-sufficient once again. But it also had something else. Something that was crying out to be saved and that we couldn’t refuse to help.”

“What?” Aurora asked. She kept a level of scepticism to what they were saying, but listened eagerly. There was something about these two that made her trust them.

“It was an AI,” the man said. “A true AI, as well. Fully sentient and conscious, being transported to run a farming district on Godlon in service for one of the owners of that land. A way to make it cheaper, he’d say.”

Aurora scoffed. He raised an eyebrow.

“You find this funny?” he said.

“Yeah, right,” Aurora laughed. “Look don’t get me wrong, I think AI is cool and all, and it can certainly do a lot of great things. But sentience? Get out of here. It’s just tricking you. At best you’re just personifying what it’s saying.”

“Is that so?” the man said. “And how can you be sure of that?”

“Because it’s just how these things work!” she said. “My ships AI is smart, but it only knows how to do what it was programmed. Even though it was programmed for many different tasks and can even ‘improvise’ to a degree, it is just using the best program it has available. And trust me, I’ve been around enough AI’s to know when I’m talking to one.”

“Then you won’t mind if we do this, will you?”

Aurora raised an eyebrow, but quickly became wide-eyed at how the man changed in appearance. Their form became fuzzier and translucent, before finally disappearing. She took a step back into her walls for comfort as a floating ball the size of a soccer ball took their place.

“What the -”

“Hello Aurora,” the ball said. It’s voice was extremely human-like in quality, though still appeared strange coming from the rounded object in front of her. And through it, their was almost a hint of fear. “Don’t be afraid. I don’t want to scare you. But I need your help.”

“I…” Aurora stammered. “I don’t…”

“Captain,” SAM’s voice said, cutting through her dazed mind over the speaker overhead, “Multiple ships are approaching us. Appear to be pirates.”

The ball and Aurora looked at each other then out the nearest window. Far in the distance, a small set of lights began to grow in number and size. The shape of the ship became illuminated by the reflecting metal sheets around it, revealing a large and deadly looking vehicle.

“Please,” the ball pleaded, turning back to her. “You have to help me. They will destroy me. That ship I was on couldn’t last much longer but yours may. Please, Aurora.”

Aurora gawked at the ball, up to the cockpit, then back to the ball. It was an AI, then. A very good one. And even if it was simply just coding, something in her mind compelled her to take care of it.

She reached out to it, grabbed hold of it’s round shape, and ran to the cockpit.

“If you want to make me trust you, release that old ship attached to mine and give me full access back to my ship.”

There was a brief hesitation from the sphere. She heard a few beeps from inside it as it calculated whatever it was doing. Shortly after, the docking bay door closed and the other ship flew in the direction of the pirates.

“I’ve sent the ship off to distract them.” It said. “Hopefully they’ll take the bait. I’ve also released full control of your ship back to you. Do what you can to get us out of here.”

Aurora took the controls and started the ship up. The AI hung over her shoulder and watched as the engine roared to life, causing them to fly off and out through the massive ship around them.

“Whatever you are,” Aurora said glumly, “You’d better be worth it.”

---

To be continued…