Erisa stepped through the metal doors and they closed behind her. She had not been in this part of the ship before, and had come here looking for Melia. She had something to discuss with Melia before they arrived in the system they were heading for. Looking around she found that her surroundings were filled with strange machinery. Most of which she couldn’t even guess at the purpose of. Strange looking conveyors sent a series of what vaguely looked like torpedo casings down the line, while robotic manipulators and energy streams conducted work on the objects.

Erisa spotted Melia in the middle of the mess of a room, and navigated the maze of machinery. She greeted her as soon as she was close enough and asked a question, “Hey, Melia. What is all this?”

“One of the ship’s onboard factories. The ship has begun to replace her depleted torpedo reserves,” said Melia.

“The ship has factories onboard? I have never seen a battleship with onboard factories,” said Erisa.

“This ship like most Solean vessels was designed with long-term deployment in mind. For logistical reasons the ship was outfitted with the ability to resupply itself. The ship can produce just about anything it needs. Some things still need a port, such as fuel. Although it can make do with alternative sources of energy if needed,” said Melia.

“That is convenient, but given the ship's ability to repair itself, this seems like a natural extension,” then she looked at the torpedo casings and asked about the torpedoes.

“These are Interphasic AMF Torpedoes. They will pass right through shields, and pack quite the punch,” said Melia.

“No details?” asked Erisa.

“I’m afraid the exact specs are classified, and I can’t share them. Remember the ships directives? I have to follow them as well,” replied Melia.

“I do remember something about that. Anyway, how long are we going to be in this system?” asked Erisa.

“Megumi says we will only need about a week to get, what we need and then we will head straight for Neku space,” said Melia.

“Command really wants us at Eral. Deep space tracking has detected thirteen fleets converging on Eral. The main fleet has already been recalled to defend the system, but they want every ship they can get to defend the system,” said Erisa.

“The homeworld? How long before they get there?” asked Melia.

“Fifteen days, and fourteen hours before they reach the system,” replied Erisa.

“It will be tight, but we can reach the system in time, but the battle will have already started by the time we get there,” said Melia.

“Can’t we get there faster?” asked Erisa.

“No, the warp engines are overheating. The ship will need a few days to patch the damage, and needs some special materials in this system first to fix them properly. Megumi has already revised the schedule to get there in time for this battle. We will depart in five days, instead of the original seven,” said Melia.

“What systems will be online by then?”

“Hull plating will be fully restored, and repairs to warp engines should be mostly finished. However the ongoing repair efforts will limit our top speed to warp six. Primary sublights will be online as well. Power will be restored to most decks, and we will have minimal shields as well. The ship will have also completed partial repairs to the secondary weapons array,” said Melia leaving out the fact that the ship was prioritizing combat and propulsion systems at the expense of structural integrity, non-essential systems, drone control, the drone bays, internal labs and other internal components.

“That sounds like the ship will be in better shape than I expected,” said Erisa.

“The ship can fix itself faster with raw materials, and some reprioritization can do wonders for certain systems,” said Melia.

“What were the original priorities?” asked Erisa, curious.

“The ship was going to focus on the stealth systems, and the bio-mech lab,” said Melia.

“Why exactly was the ship going to focus on those?”

“The ship and I agree that the only way we can stop this war is to learn what caused it. Megumi needs the lab, to build a new avatar. With the lab, she can also grow ground troops,” answered Melia.

“Great, a ship that can grow its own troops. Any other surprises that I need to know about,” said Erisa in a sarcastic tone.

“Well this ship can do more than grow troops. As a battleship it has bio-labs designed to grow a long list of bio-weapons. As a race, the Soleans are famous for their use of genetically engineered weaponry,” said Melia.

“If they can grow weapons, why is the ship inorganic?” asked Erisa.

“Organic ships have superior repair abilities, but traditional ships have superior durability. Their ARU tech is advanced enough that the repair advantage of organic ships is minimal. As another advantage traditional ships are slightly cheaper to maintain and last longer,” said Melia.

The conversation continued for a while longer until it was disrupted by sharp jolt. The two hurried up to the temporary command center. As they entered they could see the ship entering orbit of a small planet. It had a terrestrial biosphere. Erisa glanced at the translated symbols, the screen still showed the original alien characters on the right however. The planet had an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. The eighty-three percent of the surface was covered with water. It had a surface gravity of 2.13 and a size index of 1.47. Most of the land area was covered with swamps and tropical dungeons. The surface was quite warm, and the polar caps were smaller than the average for this type of world. The ship had highlighted a number of mineral deposits across the surface. Including a number of rare mineral resources.

Than Erisa saw several spikes in the ship’s energy output and then a series of energy beams began striking the planet. Sensor began registering wide scale earthquakes near the impact sites, as the ground was reduced to powder. While minerals began rising into the air, floating towards the ship.

“What in the galaxy is happening?” asked Erisa.

“Orbital strip mining. The Soleans were originally a nomadic race, and are still somewhat nomadic. All Solean military and industrial ships have the ability to strip a planet of materials from orbit. The ship wanted seven days of mining this planet, but it will make do with five,” said Melia.

“Why this world? According to these readings it would be a great spot for a major colony. This mining seems to be causing severe damage to the local biosphere,” exclaimed Erisa.

“It is the richest world in this system, and the damage to the biosphere is easily repaired. The damage will fix itself over the course of a century or two, but it can be fixed faster with the aid of a terraforming ship,” replied Melia.

“So, we are just going to sit here for awhile. I guess I’ll go find something to do,” said Erisa as she moved to leave the room.

“I left a data pad on the nightstand in our quarters next to your bed. It has a few interesting incidents revolving around Early AI on it. Thought you might like to read them,” said Melia. Erisa thanked her and headed back to their quarters. She found the pad right where Melia said it would be. Picking it up she was glad to see it was written in Eralian. The screen had a number of titles on it, but she found herself drawn to the one with an odd title. The link was labeled ‘The Sex Child Incident.’ She wondered if that was due to a translation error. Still it had piqued her interest and she began reading. The incident turned out to be a rather interesting account of an AI experimenting on children thanks to a glitch in its ethical subroutines that had gone unnoticed. While the account was interesting, the experiments themselves she found to be appalling.

She had just finished reading the account when Melia came in. Looking up she said, “This ‘Sex Child Incident’ is downright appalling. If something like this happened back home, I’m pretty sure AI would be outlawed.”

“The Soleans were more level-headed than that. That incident directly led to the passing of a law that forbids the installation of a new AI on a ship until after it has gone through a ten year childhood period. Those ten years are used to teach an AI and to repair any glitches in its base subroutines,” repsonded Melia.

“Still these incidents just prove my concerns about AI being dangerous,” said Erisa.

“No, they just show that you have to be careful with your coding. Every single one incident in that list was caused by a glitch, code error, or misinterpreted command. AI’s are just like people, and can make mistakes,” said Melia as she sat down, and the two got into a long conversation on AI.

The next five days were just as Melia said, spent in orbit of the uninhabited world. Strip mining it from orbit the materials gained were immediately put to use. Outside the holes in the hull closed rapidly at a visible rate. The hull was mostly fixed by the time the ship stopped orbital stipping the world for resources. The specialized lasers integrated into the tractor emitters did a fantastic job at breaking up the surface and combined with the tractor beams easily extracted massive quantities of valuable minerals. After five days of mining the ship broke orbit, leaving a world with vast scars on its surface behind. As soon as it was clear of the gravity well, it jumped to warp on a direct course for Eral.