“There are insufficient materials available to make repairs to your vessel, Captain.”
Jacob was struck dumb by the AI’s response. “What? This is a shipyard, isn’t it? How can you not have enough materials to fix one vessel? Was everything removed when they decommissioned this place?”
“Negative, Captain. The materials were left behind when the workers departed.”
“Then what happened to them?”
“Most of the materials were exhausted to upkeep the station.”
That explained why the station looked to be in such pristine condition despite being over eight hundred years old. Even out in the middle of interstellar space, there should be some rocks and dust floating around, impacting it. Jacob certainly hadn’t seen any evidence indicating shielding of any kind.
“Can you provide me with a list of the materials you have on hand and what they are capable of manufacturing?” This was beginning to feel a lot like when he started fixing Melody. He really hoped he was wrong.
The AI materialized a list. It was a short one, and it didn’t include any materials for producing data storage. He knew because he had checked to see what those required when stuck aboard Melody. One item on the list did catch Jacob’s attention, however.
“You can manufacture power cores?”
“Yes, Captain. This facility is fully equipped to manufacture power cores.”
That was one silver lining.
Jacob had only recovered nine of the energy storage devices during his time aboard Melody, and none of them lasted very long before having to be recharged. If all of those old units had similar runtimes, he would have assumed that was normal, but they varied wildly in how long they maintained a charge.
Each time they were recharged, that length seemed to grow shorter as well, which made him believe the power cores were close to failing.
“Can you provide me with information on the manufacturing process?”
“Yes, Captain. Would you like this in the same temporary storage?”
“Actually, hold on a moment.”
Jacob used the knowledge gained from his new title to assign himself as the Head of Security. He had to invoke emergency powers to give himself a second role on the station, but it wasn’t like anyone was around to call him out on the abuse of power. Once that was done, he assigned himself a permanent address on the station.
Since he was the only one on the large structure, he made sure to pick the nicest room, which just so happened to contain the largest private data storage vault as well.
“I’ve assigned myself a room. Please transfer all my data to that area.”
The AI complied.
Jacob perused the new information, but he didn’t understand any of the technical data involved in the process. He sighed, not sure what he had expected. He had no background in engineering, and the data Melody had given him was only a surface-level understanding, so he could repair or replace parts. Even the data on the phase coils only covered repairs and operation.
He closed the file and stopped to think about his next action. Fixing the ship was the primary concern. He didn’t want Melody to think he was shirking his duty and erasing him to go and find some other captain. He also considered transferring the AI core to the station, but that came with a host of problems.
The main issue with that was that he didn’t know if that would be possible, and he would have to trust the station AI and the drones to handle that while he was essentially unconscious. That made that option a non-starter.
Moving the core to the station wouldn’t solve his problem anyway. It just shifted it to the station. If he had to choose, he would rather be trapped aboard the ship than at the station. At least the ship could transition away.
Jacob doubted Melody would agree to that plan anyway.
A thought did occur to him, however. “AI, can you give my ship access to my storage area?”
“No, Captain. To do so would violate the Sovard Accords.”
“What about moving empty data storage to my ship?”
“There are no unassigned data centers available for such an action, Captain. The Sovard Accord upload included a data lock on all existing infrastructure. If the current data storage devices are disconnected or moved from their current locations, they will become data locked. It could also trigger a cascade alert across the entire station network, locking all available storage outside of the AI core until a representative of the Alliance arrived to remove the lock.”
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Someone had gone to great lengths to ensure that the data storage aboard the station remained intact. It was probably done to protect sensitive military information from being removed before the station was fully decommissioned, but that never happened.
That was something he would need to address sooner rather than later, so the possibility wasn’t hanging over his head forever.
Maybe there was a way to bypass that issue entirely?
Since using the existing infrastructure wasn’t an option, new data storage might be the solution. He couldn’t do that without materials, however, so the first step was to figure out how to restock the station.
“AI, do you have a way to restock the station, like mining drones or something?”
“This is not a mining station, Captain, nor is the station close to any available material deposits. All materials were delivered via transport.”
“I assume you can’t just call up a new delivery, can you?” Jacob asked.
The AI didn’t respond.
Jacob sighed. He forgot that this AI didn’t respond unless you asked it a question in a specific way. “Can you order materials for delivery?”
“I have sent multiple order requests over the last five hundred years, Captain. None of those requests has been fulfilled.”
After the AI told him about the lack of response from headquarters, he hadn’t held out much hope, but he had to ask.
“Can we pick up our own materials?”
It was another question he didn’t have much hope for, but the AI surprised him.
“Yes, Captain. There is a transport vessel in one of the hangars, which can be used to retrieve the materials we need.”
Jacob perked up at that. “Show me.”
***
Jacob stared at the dusty ship in awe. It nearly dwarfed anything humanity had ever sent into orbit. He was pretty sure the International Space Station was slightly longer, only because he had seen a picture of it next to an American football field for comparison once.
“How long is this ship?” Jacob asked the AI. He could have asked Melody, now that he was no longer in the security office, but he still wasn’t in the mood to speak to the ship AI, and Melody hadn’t bothered to reach out either.
“The transport vessel is ninety-five meters in length and forty meters wide.”
It certainly was thick. It was also one of the ugliest vessels he had ever seen. Well, maybe ugly wasn’t the right word. Utilitarian might be more appropriate, like the people who had designed it lacked any imagination whatsoever. Not necessarily a bad thing for a cargo vessel, but Jacob would have preferred something a bit more stylish. At least Melody had a few curves, even if those curves were hidden under the huge chunks of missing hull and countless impact craters from weapons.
Either way, now he had a ship that could transport parts. He just needed to know where to go to get the parts or materials he needed.
“Are you able to determine if any of the old Concord facilities are operational?” If they were, maybe he could just browse those locations like a free supermarket.
“No, Captain. Without a response from their central AI, I cannot determine if those locations are still operational.”
“What about other types of signals?” If the Concord Imperium was no longer around, there was a good chance someone was. Jacob knew he was reaching, but the station had working sensors, so it was the best chance to find out.
“I have been detecting unknown signals for the last two hundred and thirty-two years. They are coming from an area of space where one of the mining facilities is located. Would you like me to try and decipher these signals, Captain?”
He was sure the station AI was capable of doing that, but he knew Melody was far more capable, even with its diminished capacity. There was being stubborn for the sake of anger, then there was being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. He wasn’t going to waste valuable time just to prove a point.
“Can you forward that data to my ship’s AI?”
“I would need approval—”
Jacob cut the AI off. “You have my approval.”
He was not part of the conversation after that. It seemed Melody was smart enough to give him time to himself, so all conversations came through the station AI.
“Data has been deciphered, Captain. Should I play the result?”
Jacob nodded the drone’s sensor cluster, but he realized the AI wouldn’t recognize the gesture, so he said yes.
What came through was a video, translated into eiraxin. He could tell it was translated, because the individual’s lips didn’t match the words as it advertised its services.
It seemed that even in space, you couldn’t get away from ads.
The individual was not humanoid or eiraxinoid, if he used the old Concord terminology. It had six appendages, four of which it used as feet. Considering its feet were bare, Jacob could see that all six appendages were more like the feet of an orangutan, with opposable digits. Its head looked rather human, aside from the oversized eyes, slits in place of a nose, and lack of any iris that Jacob could see. The thick head of hair really threw him off.
“Um, what is that?” Jacob asked.
“That is a member of the amuni race. They were a low-order member of the Concord Imperium, mainly used in agricultural zones due to their arboreal nature.”
“Slaves?” Jacob asked.
“No, Captain.”
“What does low-order mean then?”
“Low-order members of Concord were compensated labor assets with restricted mobility privileges.”
So not slaves, but some sort of serf. That didn’t make it much better. Then again, the individual in the advertisement seemed to be doing well. Perhaps that system had been abolished after Concord was defeated. For all he knew, that was the whole reason for the war in the first place.
More advertisements followed, all with their own flavor of alien. Jacob was curious to learn more about them all, but he kept his questions to himself. He only asked the AI to notify him if one of the advertisements showed a founding member of the Concord Imperium.
The videos kept playing, but the AI never once interrupted them, confirming that none of those races were around, at least at that station. Not that Jacob minded. It made his job easier.
“What about the allied worlds that forced Concord to sign the Sovard Accords?” Jacob asked, almost forgetting about that group.
“I do not have any information on the allied worlds. The majority of the data about the war was wiped from my archives after I was sent the Sovard Accord.”
Seemed like a weird thing to do unless they were trying to hide that knowledge. Then again, maybe they were.
If the Alliance had feared retribution from Imperium elements unaccounted for, setting up the Sovard Accords and hiding who was involved in the downfall of their empire would definitely make sense. Maybe the station was left as a sort of trap?
It was a question for later.
The advertisements, while annoying, were beneficial. They showed all sorts of station resources for sale, and one even showed the station from the outside. The AI was able to use that image to confirm that it was indeed a Concord mining station that had been modified at some point. Jacob really didn’t care what had changed, so long as it could provide him with what he needed, and it looked like it could.
Now that Jacob had a destination, he needed to figure out if he could get there.