“Can you recreate the device, or retrofit it on the transport?” Jacob asked the station AI.
It had been a few days since he returned with the ship, and not much had changed.
Katty had poked her head out of her room a few times. She looked surprised when the damage was gone, but not unhappy that Franky was nowhere in sight, although that was all an assumption on Jacob’s part because the woman had barely even said a word to him.
Barry was still catatonic, or so he appeared, but Jacob noticed that the document he had placed in front of the man had been moved, and the read log showed it had been accessed a few times. He smiled slightly at that. Barry was probably still struggling with the whole being digital issue, but he was still there. That was good because Jacob’s only other options were to leave him like that or purge him from the data storage.
If Jacob couldn’t see himself doing the latter for Franky, he doubted he could bring himself to do that at all. Even thinking about erasing the man reminded him of the loneliness he experienced when Melody had gone offline. Even in his catatonic state, he could still be a companion.
With Franky in time out like a little kid, Jacob made the executive decision to move Barry into the apartment. He could have just made him appear, but he didn’t want to shock the man’s mind any more than it already was. Instead, he created a wheelchair and moved Barry into it, then wheeled him over and set him on the couch in front of the TV.
He hoped that experiencing something a bit more normal would help the man adjust faster. Having all three of them there, even if they got on his nerves, helped the apartment feel more alive.
Jacob set the TV to play a few movies he had recreated from his spotty memories. After filling in the gaps with what seemed like a plausible story, they turned out okay. He would never call himself a director, but they were watchable.
The movies did take up additional storage space, but a movie was negligible in comparison to a mind or an AI, so he had room to spare at the moment. In fact, he had lots of room now that the additional storage he had built for Melody was complete.
A bit late, but there had been some extenuating circumstances, like a complete lack of materials, and then the addition of three more minds to house, which gobbled up a lot of storage space. If the damn station AI had cooperated, he could have just moved some of Melody’s archive data onto existing storage, but that didn’t happen.
Jacob could have spent the time trying to convince the AI otherwise, but time wasn’t exactly on his side. So instead of fighting with the AI, he used some of his limited resources to produce enough storage to house Katty, Franky, and Barry before finally addressing Melody’s memory shortage. Once the data cubes were built, he built new data centers for each of them in storage rooms controlled by the Head of Station Services just to ensure he always had access to them if needed.
The additional storage space wouldn’t last forever. Hell, given how much data was being offloaded by the subroutines in his core, the space he set aside for Melody would likely be full in a week. That was fine; he was producing more data cubes each day. The extra storage had always been a temporary patch until a proper data center was constructed aboard the ship.
That would have been the first thing he focused on after arriving at the station, but the vessel was far worse off than he realized. Hard to build a data center in a room that didn’t exist as anything other than twisted beams and broken metal. Until those repairs were made, the temporary storage would have to reside on the station, which tied him to the station as well.
Jacob could still take the ship and leave at any time, but doing so would mean abandoning all of the information he had stored offsite. Thankfully, it was only information and not part of his memories.
The station AI was turning into an even bigger issue than Melody had been. Even with Melody dead, the station AI refused all attempts to allow the rogue AI’s subroutines access to the data centers aboard the station. If it weren’t so stupid, it wouldn’t be an issue, but it had allowed armed people to board the station twice already.
Jacob was working to remedy that issue, but it wasn’t a simple process. The AI was a complex piece of technology, despite its shortcomings. Understanding how the AI operated was made even more difficult by the bureaucratic swamp of rules and regulations three distinct species had shoehorned into it. And layered on top of that bullshit was the Alliance’s Sovard Accords.
That meant that there were an uncountable number of loopholes, brick walls, and gotchas that Jacob had to ferret out and try to fix. He had taken advantage of a few of those himself and likely would again, but when time permitted, he was working to plug as many as he could. He doubted he would get them all, because some were simply impossible to remove.
Having to deal with all of that was galling, but what else was new? Banging his head against the wall on something he couldn’t change was a waste of time, so anytime he hit a roadblock in his efforts, he shifted to another task. Before Melody’s death, leaving a task half finished would have driven him nuts, but something had changed that day. Now he felt the need to be moving forward at all times, even if what he was accomplishing was something minor.
Maybe it was the reminder that even as a digital existence, he wasn’t immortal? Coming to that realization had sparked something inside him that he hadn’t realized he had lost his spark for life. It wasn’t like he didn’t have goals. He wanted to break free from the AI and explore the stars. Before the eiraxins had killed Melody, it was just a goal he needed to accomplish. There was no real passion behind the task.
Now that Jacob was free from the AI’s influence, he could actually see what the universe had to offer. Maybe he could visit some alien cities, explore their culture, and meet new friends. His goals hadn’t changed, but his feelings about them made all the difference.
As much as Jacob would like to daydream about visiting distant worlds, the future would have to wait. He looked back at Barry. There weren’t enough movies to run continuously, but the rest of the time, the TV played recorded footage of what he was working on outside of the virtual space, as well as the ship repairs. Jacob considered adding the alien advertisements, but he thought that might be a bit much at this stage in the man’s recovery.
As for Franky, he had worn himself out trashing his new room and screaming profanities for hours on end. Once the man had exhausted his ire, Jacob transported the manual into the room. It fell from the ceiling, smacking the man on the head.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Jacob’s petty revenge elicited a second round of curses, but Franky quickly settled back down and went back to reading the manual. It was the one thing he actually seemed to care about, so maybe he would start acting his age.
There was a brief moment when Jacob considered using the manual as a bargaining chip to keep Franky in line, but he decided against that. The four of them would have to learn to get along, because like it or not, they were stuck with each other. He didn’t even want to keep the guy locked up in what was essentially solitary confinement, but Franky hadn’t given him much of a choice. Actions had to have consequences, or Franky would continue to push the boundaries of civility until he crossed a line he couldn’t come back from.
After Jacob got Barry situated, he looked up to see Katty leaning against the wall by the kitchen and watching him.
He nodded to her and headed into the kitchen to get himself some food.
“He doesn’t look any better,” she said quietly.
The TV would likely cover their conversation, but Jacob kept his voice low anyway. “I think he came out of it for a bit. Maybe the manual caught his attention long enough to keep his thoughts off the situation.”
Katty hmmed noncommittally and turned to face him. “I’ve finished reading through the manual, but I’m still not able to connect to the machines. Not that I had time to try. Franky destroyed all your toys when I told him that I was also working with the manual.”
“Is that what set him off?” Jacob asked.
She nodded. “Franky is a sore loser. I’ve never faced him in a tournament personally, but I know a few streamers who have, and they all shared the same opinion of the man. Now I know just how far he’ll go to be first.”
“So you instigated him,” Jacob replied flatly.
“Does it matter?” Katty asked. “I didn’t force him to throw a temper tantrum like a toddler and destroy the apartment. He did that all by himself.”
Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I get that you don’t like the man. Hell, I don’t like him much either, but we’re stuck with each other. It would be good if we could learn to get along.”
Even though Jacob had his eyes pinched shut, he could still see Katty roll her eyes thanks to his monitoring program.
“When he learns to act like an adult, I’ll treat him like one,” she said before turning and walking away. She paused before exiting the kitchen, then turned back to him. “Right, forgot that I came out here for another reason, the issue with connecting to the machines. I don’t remember being so scatterbrained before being abducted, so I assume that’s something I’ll just have to deal with now.”
“Have you done the exercises?” he asked between bites of what could generously be called eggs.
Katty huffed in annoyance. “I wouldn’t be out here asking about the issue if I hadn’t already exhausted all other avenues.”
Jacob wasn’t so sure about that. He worked as a service desk person for about a year, and the number of people who said that they did something when they hadn’t was staggering. He could call her out, but he doubted that would go over well.
Instead, a model of the maintenance drone clattered onto the kitchen table. “Show me,” he said after swallowing the last of his eggs.
She took a seat across from him and set the manual down on the surface. Jacob didn’t miss the fact that she still clung to the tome like it was a lifeline. He idly wondered what that was about before he focused on what she was doing.
Katty let out a breath, looked at the address stamped onto the virtual drone, then closed her eyes.
Jacob felt her poking around in the network, trying to connect to the drone thanks to the expanded senses he now had access to. Watching Katty look for the address was like watching a blind man poke around aimlessly. It was quite sad.
“Are you thinking of the address?” he asked in confusion.
“Shut up!” she snapped. “I’m trying.”
Jacob went quiet and watched her continue her feeble attempts to connect to the drone.
She gave up after ten minutes of trying. Her forehead was beaded in sweat, and she had a pinched look of pain. “I almost had it,” she breathed out.
Not even close.
“Headache?” he asked.
She nodded slowly as she rubbed at her temples.
“It shouldn’t be that hard,” Jacob muttered. “I did it my first time.”
“Well, aren’t you special?” Katty tried to snap, but winced instead.
Jacob didn’t think he was, but he checked the logs, and she was pinging the drone properly. It was even pinging her back, but something was preventing the handshake from completing.
He verified it wasn’t any sort of security blocking the attempt, which just left her as the source of the connection issue.
“Let me know when your headache clears. I want to try something.”
“It best not be anything weird,” she said.
Jacob chose to ignore her insinuation. “Humor me.”
It took her some time before she finally nodded at him. Jacob was pretty sure she felt better long before that, but he let her hesitation slide. Once she was ready, he simply pinged her.
She shook her head. “What the heck was that?”
“That was a connection ping. Do you recall feeling something like that with the drones?”
“No? I was concentrating on connecting to them.”
“I think I see the problem. You’re trying too hard.”
Katty crossed her arms and glared at him. “Really, that’s your expert opinion based on one test?”
Jacob shrugged. “Seems pretty clear cut to me. After sending out your connection request, try relaxing and waiting for the return ping. Once you feel it, then you should latch on.”
Katty gave him a doubtful look, but she closed her eyes and tried again. As soon as her eyes were closed, Jacob pulled up the log and let it float next to him so he could watch it in real time.
He saw the moment she connected before she even realized it.
“Hey, I did it!” she laughed.
“Now try moving the drone,” Jacob encouraged.
She opened her eyes to look at the toy drone, and that’s when things went wrong. The drone drove forward, but as it did, she seemed to swoon, then promptly fell out of the chair and onto the floor. The drone joined her a moment later, clattering onto the linoleum and breaking apart.
Jacob blinked in surprise, then leaned over the side of the table to see if she was alright. The answer to that question was a resounding no. She was completely unconscious.
He wondered why she reacted so negatively as he moved her to her bedroom and restored the drone.
Unfortunately, the knowledge left behind by Melody didn’t cover any issues with machine control, and Jacob hadn’t experienced anything like what Katty had. It was only after spending a significant amount of time connected to a drone that he had ever experienced any problem, and that eventually went away as he grew used to controlling things remotely.
“Maybe it’s like a muscle,” Jacob muttered before popping out of the apartment kitchen to go ask the station AI.
***
Soft footsteps approached the kitchen, and a man stood there, staring blankly for a moment. Barry had to get away from the obnoxious noise that had intruded on his meditation.
He hadn’t been catatonic as Jacob had assumed; he had been lost in the possibilities of his new existence.
Barry was what you would call a min-maxxer. It’s what helped him get to eighth place in Omacron Six. He never cared about his ranking, however. He only cared about finding every little loophole and advantage in a game he could.
Honestly, Omacron Six had started to fall off in his eyes because he had plumbed the depths of the game’s mechanics and found them rather flat. Most people didn’t see how hollow the game actually was because of all the flashy graphics, but it was clear as day to him.
This new reality was nothing like that cheap game, however. He didn’t have an old-school manual or online forums to reference, which, in his opinion, almost made it better. There were no idiots to argue with about how some feature worked or didn’t, or if the next meta build would be this or that. It was just unfiltered exploration, and he loved it. He almost wished Jacob hadn’t given him that damn document.
It was a nice gesture, but it slightly tainted his unfiltered approach to exploring what he could do. His vacant eyes focused, and he took in the small drone sitting on the table.
With a thought, he connected with the drone, but immediately jumped back out as his head started pounding. He repeated the process until he couldn’t take it anymore, but he did learn something valuable from the experience.
“Jacob might be right,” he whispered under his breath before heading back into the living room to meditate some more. Barry left the TV as it was, but he turned the volume down with a thought.
The fact that it worked at all brought a smile to his lips before he once again sank into his mind to explore what he was. It was all just so fascinating.