A New Home

Posted on 21 Dec 2020 @ 5:04pm by Lieutenant Madalene Sabine & Ensign Kat Walker

1,124 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Ab Intra
Location: Primary Fighterbay

Lorelei had spent considerable time partially stripping down one of the ship's Valkyries. Removing the seats from the cockpit, removing the controls, removing life support, routing the main computer interface cables to one central location, all in preparation for the ship's new inhabitant, the Drul Anu AI called Kat Walker.

Kat and Madalene had spent an equal amount of time manufacturing a contraption, half sled, half cradle. Titanium alloy structure with carbon fiber structural supports, a power converter to convert the Valkyrie's reactor output to a form that Kat could run on, a separate cooling system - closed liquid loop, several high definition camera's to allow her full vision out the fighter's cockpit, a direct computer interface, and a vacant space where, if all went well, her AI core would sit.

But that was all for later. Right now, the three women - two biological and one artificial - stood in the fighter bay, looking at their respective handiwork. It was time to mate the sled to the modified cockpit.

"Alright," Madalene said looking at the two, err three pieces, "okay next getting the sled/cradle into place, the hover-cart well get it about half, than we'll need to the hover-pulsator for the rest of the way, ready petty officer?"

"I'm ready when you are, Lieutenant," Lorelei answered easily, inwardly pretty excited to see this come to fruition. "You ready, Ensign?"

"Impatiently so," Kat replied, "Though also a bit - hesitant. It's such a big step, such a difference in technology, with a potential of permanent harm if things go wrong."

Madalene walked over to the hover-cart, "okay, petty officer if you can just help me stay lined up with the fighter, the pulsator is already to go, once we are at that point, petty officer if you could man that that would be perfect," Madalene said with a small smile.

Lorelei nodded once. "You got it, sir," she said in her usual casual way. She moved around to where she was needed and nodded again. "Ready."

Madalene nodded, as she started to push the cart it was slow going, the hover-cart did make it float but the sled/cradle was still heavy, "alright how are we looking petty officer, am I still lined up for the pulsator?"

A quick look. A small readjustment. "We're good," Lorelei replied laconically. She didn't want to waste any time, after all.

Kat watched, carefully, as the sled like structure was slowly moved into place. First closer towards the modified fighter, with the cockpit gutted and the canopy and part of the hull paneling removed so the sled like structure would fit. Then to the hover pulsator, that lift the sled up and over the edge of the fighter's structural frame.

It was millimeter work, but the sled fit, if just barely. All the calculations had worked out. A modular system, it plugged right in as it settled down, the fighter's umbilical power feeding through into the sled structure, lighting up some status lights. Then came the slow and tedious process of bolting down the structure to the fighter's frame. A task that Kat could at least help with, now that she had the ability to manipulate physical objects. She jumped up and changed into her four-winged avian form, landing on top of the fighter and changing back to her humanoid avatar, to start screwing in the bolts, sixteen in total.

Madalene was working on her second one, "alright remember not too tight, I know there's not a lot of room, but if we need to make small adjustments I rather not need to loosen all the bolts," Madalene said, using her scanner to make sure they weren't going too tight.

"Understood, sir," Lorelei chimed in as she helped the process along. "She's fittin' in pretty good, though." Her dark eyes lifted to the human AI avatar. "How's it feel?"

Kat hesitated a fleeting moment before answering. "I won't know really until my AI core is transferred over. That's the next and final step," she offered. "Though I am quite nervous about that step. Those cores aren't designed to be taken out of one vehicle and put into another. And it's made of a crystalline structure. Any damage could lead to reduced functioning or an inability to function at all."

"...so I have an idea for that," Madalene said walking over to the terminal and tapping a few buttons, "if we use the pulsator to float your core in we'll be able to control the vibrations a little bit better," Madalene added.

"I - don't think anything you can tell me will make me feel better about shutting down and trusting you to basically pull my the equivalent of my brain out of a damaged chassis, transfer it across decks and slot it into that cradle," Kat quietly mused."It's just something that needs to be done. I trust you to be careful. Both of you. You understand the weight of the situation," she furrowed her brows, then gave a nod. "I am ready to shut down whenever so you two can start."

"Before you shutdown, can you run some math, my hope is that if we can get the pulsator to be the same frequency of the ship. that'll also help keep the core stabilized for the move," Madalene said simply, looking at Kat, knowing, well she couldn't know what she was feeling.

"Of course," Kat replied with a soft smile. She liked Madalene's thought, it could work. "Working, one moment ..." she added, seemingly listening to the ship's various resonances for a moment or two before she gestured with her hand and projected a frequency curve, indicating which resonances were dominant and which were minor, labeling the axes and highlighting the most important resonance. "If you adjust the pulsator to these resonances it should help make the transfer smoother."

Madalene walked over to the pulsator, and started calibrating it double and triple checking as she went, "alright, the pulsator is calibrated, we'll shut you down once we get down to the cargo bay," Madalene said giving Kat a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, sir," Lorelei said with a flashing smile of her own. "We'll get you all set and settled and running right quick."

"Alright," Kat replied. "So, I suppose it's time to head to the cargo bay then and begin extricating my core," She looked between Madalene and Lorelei. "I'll power down my remote emitter and meet you there, alright?"

Madalene just gave a simple nod, in hopes that it hid the gulp she took, as her nerves were finally getting to her on this project.

=/= To be continued..... =/=

Lt Madalene Sabine/COps & Ens Kat Walker/Fighter Pilot & PO3 Lorelei Romanov/Fighter Technician (NPC apb Capt Thorne)

 

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