Chapter 2

I awoke to dim lights and an enclosed feeling, still in the pod on a runaway ship heading into the asteroid belt to have a date with a hunk of rock and ice. Stretching, I stood up and then decided to get my blood flowing and did some exercises. Hopefully, more blood to the brain would kick start some kind of idea. Ten minutes later, sweaty and thirsty I realized no ideas had magically popped into my noggin. Fuck, I should have joined a fantasy game; I could have been a mage and just portalled the hell out of the danger zone.

I sat down and examined the monitors, I could see that the ship was empty, the bodies had been stripped of valuable and then shoved into hold 1 which was then depressurized. Thank God the poor bastards had been dead, cold space is a hell of a way to die. Thinking about what I should do I decided to print out the unscrambled codes for the rooms and see if the pod’s Ai had managed to crack the door locks.

I left the security of the pod and made my way out of engineering and began to head to the bridge. I would see if I could get in and then access the ships main Ai, perhaps it would have some suggestions, the big Ai’s that ran the interplanetary ships were widely considered to be self-aware and far more intelligent than the smaller units that ran independently. Eventually, I arrived at the bridge, it was not locked as the controls had been destroyed when the pirates had broken into the bridge of the ship. I would like to know how the hell they entered the ship. The ships integrity seemed intact.

Walking into the bridge I noticed that all the bodies here had been removed and that it seemed relatively untouched. I walked over to the Captain’s chair and sat down. On the left and right side of the chair, instrument panels displayed readouts from various sections of the ship. After of moment of studying the layout I keyed the main computer screen and typed in SOS. Not original but it was all I could think of at the moment.

After several seconds the screen lit up and I read, Sian systems online, this is Ai Noa what is the condition of the crew and the ship?

I typed in, the crew is dead the ship has been preprogrammed on a track to intersect an asteroid and the controls are locked out. I suspect that we are being monitored by the pirates who did this. What can I do to avoid this? Not original, but I hoped that Noa might think of something to save the ship or at least me. Keeping people alive in space was the primary directive of all Ai units.

The reply was instant, I read, with all the crew and passengers dead I need you to assume control of the ship for both legal and insurance reasons, once that is done I can help you to survive.

That seemed pretty reasonable to me so I digitally signed the forms and within a moment Noa acknowledged that I was now the owner of the ship and would be the beneficiary of the insurance claims if I survived. Noa then directed me to a small alcove at the back of the bridge and had me put my arm in a machine. Suddenly I felt pins strike my arm and then a feeling of cold and then hot. Several minutes past and then Noa suddenly spoke in my head. “Captain Duke, you have been acclimatized towards wearing the Captain’s wristband, which is a computer that produces Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines or Nanobots as they are commonly known. Your system is receiving these robots and they have formed a mental-neural net that can interface with the wristband, that is how we can now mentally communicate.”

I was surprised but not overwhelmed by the information being that this was a space based game I knew it would be full of future tech. It was also cool as hell. “So what now?” I asked.

“Now we must reset my mainframe and hope that will free the lockout which the pirates put on the controls.”

I did have one question which I asked, “How the hell are we communication if you are stuck in lockout mode?”

“I have duplicated myself into the Captains band. This is a standard operating protocol for all ships and Captains. Now let’s head towards the Ai databank room where we can begin the reset process.”

I followed Noa’s instructions and we ended up in a small room that had several monitors and keyboards, along with several digital readouts and switches. I carefully followed her instructions and then waited, after several minutes Noa spoke, “Reset complete Captain Duke. I am back in full control of the ship and am currently running scans on all hardware and software. Having computed time to impact and current fuel for the solid fuel rockets and also the Aeon drives power to mass ratio I have some bad news. We cannot stop in time.”

I stared at the wall noting that the air duct had a small ribbon tied to it, I suppose it would let someone know that air was moving. I realized that I was avoiding what Noa was trying to tell me since hearing from Bai Ong I knew that if I died in the game I would die outside the game. I also suspected he knew that first time entry in the game locked the players into the game for three days, it was supposed to be an acclimation period. I knew I was fucked and for a moment I felt like talking a long walk out of a small airlock then something snapped within me and I straightened my thoughts out.

“Noa if we can’t halt the ship with me on it then let’s work out an exit strategy, as we approach the asteroid can I bail out and let the explosion of the ship hide the fact a lifeboat made it off the ship?”

Noa was silent for a heartbeat and then she said, “I am running scenarios with the probability of success. If we take the A lifeboat and eject from the front underside of the ship within 10 seconds of impact we will likely survive, unfortunately, the lifeboat will expend all its fuel on avoidance of other asteroids and finding a place to land. It will be a one-way trip. The pirates will home in on the emergency beacon if we activated it. This, however, is the only scenario that will keep you alive past the point of impact.”

“Let’s do it, being alive will give us more options at a later date, than dying in a few hours. What should I do to prepare the lifeboat for survival?”

The next few hours spent in a haze of action, I raided the galley for food and water transferring as much as I could to the lifeboat. Noa also directed me to engineering supplies and I gathered several boxes of equipment, oxygen generators, solar flex panels, tools and of course duct tape. Once I had it all aboard I was sent out to the weapons locker and returned with pistols, rifles and energy knives. Once it was all loaded along with the rest of my personal gear I snagged from my cabin I settled in the lifeboat and waited.

Noa began to count down starting from 5 and once we hit 1 there was a gently pop and then the lifeboats engines kicked in, I could hear them cycle up to maximum and then higher as Noa overrode the safety protocols. I could see the ship behind me as it closed with the asteroid, we had just skimmed past. Suddenly the screen went blank for a second as the blast overrode the cameras filters. Once the screen came back online I could see small pieces of rock, molten metal and ice rapidly fanning out and away from the asteroid with now was tumbling in an oscillating orbit.

Noa’s voice was soft as she spoke, “Captain Duke, your physiology is intact and your readings are all in the normal range. I have been scanning for the pirates and I believe we are in the clear. I have plotted a course to three asteroids where we can land, but once we have touched down we will not have enough fuel to leave. Once I have your decision I will send a tight beam scrambled communication laser to the receiver at Phobos letting them know where we are. With the extra supplies of food and water in the shuttle, you will be able to survive until rescue.”

I stopped for a minute and then laughed out loud and said, “Noa if you were a real woman I would kiss you. You have saved my ass.”

Noa was silent for a moment and then she spoke again, “Would you really kiss me?”

“You bet,” I said, “I would kiss you and take you out to dinner, but never mind that, what do you think would be the best asteroid to land on?”

Noa responded by flashing three pictures of the asteroids on the monitor and then said, “All three are in what used to be the Russian sector, however with the amalgamation of Russia into the EU the asteroids were abandoned in favor of the EU claiming Deimos once it was discovered it had trace amounts of Mitrad in its core. After one hundred years, the claims have gone neutral and anyone can claim the asteroid, all they have to do is establish residence for 14 solar days. After fourteen days, I will send out another communication establishing your legal claim to it if you wish?”

I nodded, why not claim it I thought, and then I said, “Take us to the largest asteroid and try to find a suitable landing patch. We began to burn out our supply of fuel as we slowed down, it took about a week and then we were ready to land. It had been a boring week to start but Noa and I began to chat and I discovered that she had a definite personality and was a unique person. I actually enjoyed chatting with her. But all good things come to an end and that end was fast approaching.

As we prepared to land and began our final approach suddenly there was a loud bang and suddenly the lifeboat began to enter into a spin which increased as we neared the surface. “What the hell is happening? Noa, speak to me, what had happened to the lifeboat?”

I glanced at the monitor, the ground was beginning to rush up at us and I suspected that this was not going to be a gentle landing. Noa suddenly spoke, “Duke, we have a major problem, one of the fuel tanks has ruptured and caused a reaction which shut down all the thrusters, at the same time pushing us towards the surface in a spinning descent, I need you to power up your E suit and strap in tightly. We are descending at over 200m/s.”

I nodded and swallowed, I had a feeling this was going to hurt, a lot. I glanced at the monitor and said, “Noa, thanks for everything I have enjoyed getting to know you these past few days. Glancing at the monitor again I noted we would impact in seconds, and then I noted the manmade structures. “What the fuck is that?” I yelled and then everything went black.

I awoke to pain, lots of it. I blinked my eyes and slowly the world or in my case, the asteroid came into focus. I could see that the lifeboat had been badly battered the rear was compressed and judging from the fact I was looking at a huge split in the side of the lifeboat it was pretty much toast. Glancing down I noted that I looked intact but it felt like I had one damaged leg several broken ribs and my spine felt funny.

Suddenly I became aware that Noa was trying to communicate with me, I could hear her calling although it felt like she was calling from a distance. “Hey Noa, I hear you, give me a status report?” My head felt incredibly full of pain and yet it all seemed distant. My E suit had doped me up, I needed emergency medical attention but this was the best I had.

I listened to Noa as she quickly listed the status reports. “Lifeboat, total loss, food and water, total loss, cabin depressurized, health critical.” Yep, I was fucked big time.

Suddenly a voice sounded in my head as well as an interface window popping open and I was informed that having survived a pirate attack, salvaged an interplanetary ship and crash landed on an asteroid I had earned enough Xp to level up, I was now level 11. Great timing. The leveling in the game was different from most, the controlling Ai would be observing and once it had determined that a player had earned enough Xp the Ai would level the player.

I glanced at the window as it took my mind off the pain for a moment and noted that my basic stats at level 11 were as listed.

Intelligence

950/1100

Willpower

1200/1200

Strength

300/750

Agility

225/800

Charm

900/1100

Mech/software knowledge

300/1100

Library

0/1000

It was not a bad list when I had set up this character I had tried to max out intelligence and willpower. Strength and agility surprisingly were still important, if you worked on a ship as a crew member you would be doing some tedious physical tasks, I know, I have done them. Charm was always important, it meant better cargo deals and just a better and faster way to gain reputation with the non-players commonly called npcs. The mech/software ability was just that an inherent ability to learn and use both machines and software. The kind of thing that humans in Space rely on. Finally, the library, basically a repository of what can be learned, but that knowledge was costly, nothing was free in the game.

Noa finally broke through the haze in my head and ordered me out of the shuttle, I tried to comply and found while I could move it was a sideways shuffle that brought with it a great deal of pain. Once out of the lifeboat I noted that we had almost plowed into the manmade structure. Noa at this point ordered me to the airlock that was visible a few meters down the wall.

Once I made it there I noted the emergency entrance button and pushed it, for a second nothing happened and then the doors cycled open and I half fell half stumbled into the airlock. Once the doors cycled shut the air began to hiss into the small room. This was extremely fortunate as my E suit shut down. I peeled off the helmet and let it hang down my back and deeply breathed in the clear cold air. That was a mistake as my broken ribs promptly let me know. The inner lock finally cycled open and the hall lit up, standing I began to walk into the hallway.

“Noa, can you access the Ai here and get directions to the sick bay? I have maybe five more minutes and then I am done.” I stood and leaned against the wall as I waited for her to reply, my vision was beginning to tunnel and I knew it was only the drugs keeping me going. Noa finally replied and we slowly made our way to the sickbay.

Along the way, Noa told me to say yes to what she was about to say and then she spouted off a few lines in Russian at me, after which I said yes. As I entered the sickbay Noa informed me that I had now legal claimed this abandoned station and I owned it lock stock and barrel.

Nodding my head, I drifted off as I saw a small med bot float over towards me and begin to scan my body. I woke up after several hours expecting to feel better and was surprised to find that not only did I feel bad I actually felt worse than I did before. Noa suddenly spoke, “Duke I am glad that you are awake I have a few things to tell you and I need you lucid to give me legal permission to proceed.”

I nodded, she had cut off the painkillers to clear my brain, so I could give her permission to do something that she could not do without my legal permission. I swallowed and said, “Noa, do whatever you have to help me, I have total trust in you and your judgment.” With that, I faded out again and when I awoke next, the world was a little different.