INC Hope.
Occupant:
Anthony Stewards.
Born:
05-26-2412.
Birth Location:
Hub 05, Mars.
Age:
32 ( ERROR ).
Current Sleep Duration:
( ERROR ).
Current Location:
INC Hope.
Role:
AI-Specialist.
Warning !
AI:
Connection Error.
VI:
Compromised.
Task:
Please proceed to the bridge at your earliest Convenience.
Words, displayed on a screen right before him, green letters without meaning for the first few moments, until his mind begun to recover and recognize the purpose these words carried.
They were a reminder, an aid to help him remember who he was, where he was, and why he was even here. And an indication why he was being awoken too. He was on-board the INC Hope, a semi-experimental Colony ship that had been build within the Oort Cloud, the outer shell of Sol that held a myriad of asteroid and similar planetesimal matter that could be mined for resources.
Using the only large scale shipyard ever build by that point, a cooperative effort between Mars and Earth. One that could have so many grand designs passed through it, if only political tension between the two planets would remain stable.
Politics were also reason for the inception of the INC Hope, the desire to leave this turmoil behind, start anew, and to build upon the dream of a better future. An effort that sadly had to, in part, employ subterfuge to even get off the ground.
Albert Dubrov, a wealthy tech magnate was the trigger for this undertaking, funding the development of the Photon drive that was to carry ships faster then ever before, a technology that worked on a similar principal then the idea of firing a laser at solar sails, just in reverse, and with no sails to speak of. A technology few believed in, but for which both Planets agreed to rent out the shipyard that had remained without a project for about two years after its construction finished.
Officially, the INC Hope was proposed as a large scale test, a massive photon drive strapped to a hull that was in essence just the housing for two large fusion reactors, the supporting tank, and enough room to provide a test-bed for future tests designed around the drive.
In truth, The INC Hope was being equipped with the first successfully tested Sleep capsules, and advanced though experimental Fusion reactors. Additionally, technologies such as a self aware AI, a gravitational shielding for the ship itself, and growing vats for the recreation of Animals from the stored DNA databank. Technologies that were considered to dangerous, unethical, or outright suicidal, and few would care that there had been some more, changes to the approach.
Such like with the Sleep Capsule, a design that was a side-product of the first attempts of a Cryo-sleep system, something that resulted in the horrible deaths of its occupants. The Sleep-Capsule was no, Cryo sleep, but the technology managed to put the metabolism of a body, including the brain activity, down so much that the bodies needs could be reduced to a minimum, and interestingly even reduced the aging effect. But, unless the occupants body was being stimulated regularly by electrical impulses, especially the brain, it would result in massive and likely irreversible tissue degeneration, or worse, brain-death.
Darn, trying to recall those events and what lead up to it, it was starting to cause him a headache. Perhaps he was moving to fast.
Anthony would nod in agreement with his assessment, reaching out to press his right hands thumb against the glass panel that sealed him in, and allow the scanner to identify him, allowing the final stages of the release cycle to start. Causing the capsule to be lifted, from its vertical position in the wall, to be carefully moved into the middle of his private chambers, until he was laying on his back.
At that point, as the suspense fluid around him was slowly being drained, Anthony started to focus on his part on the INC Hope. The AI network.
Magi, Master Artificial General Intelligence, or Maggie as everyone had come to call her. She was an advanced, and through her features, illegal AI project. Self aware, able of self learning and if need be, self replication through the robotic units deployed on the ship. She was being held in check by Vita, Virtual Intelligence Task assistance, assuring that Maggie's actions and orders were within the best interest of the crew.
Maggie would control all aspects of the ship and order the relevant Vita node with changes needed. And Vita in turn, would check the relevance, before performing the task, assuring that no harm was being done. Maggie’s primary directive however was to Scan for a habitable planet, firstly the Prospect in Proxima Centauri b, where the INC Hope was headed for first. And should the exo-planet prove to be unsuitable, Maggie would, chart the course, and even search for other prospects for planetary settlement, until a suitable candidate was found.
So far so good. The system is telling him Maggie could not be reached, and the VI nodes are compromised. To what degree, he could not tell yet, he needed his voice so he could address the Vita system directly. It was frustrating in that regard that the release cycle was working so slowly.
But finally, the hissing of the cover being released would tell Anthony that it was about time, so he closed his eyes and tried to relax, only to fall into a harsh gag reflex when the mask, to which a tube was attached that reached down into his throat, was being withdrawn.
The sensation of the tube being removed was so, vile in his mind that he could not help but to quickly lean up and vomit the remains of the nutrient solution onto the floor besides the capsule that had housed him.
“ I Hate this part. “ He groaned, coughing a few more times before he managed to deeply inhale and recover his composure.
“ Vita, Status report ! “ He called out, his voice still struggling to form the words properly, causing his left hand to reach up and massage his throat. Vita did respond however, if not with the desired report.
“ Local Vita System Compromised, AI unreachable. Emergency release Cycle in progress. Please report to the bridge for further instructions. “ Was Vita’s standardized response. And Anthony tried to rake his brains for possible causes as he tried to climb out of his capsule.
If he was lucky, it would only be a disconnect between the Local Vita node, and the rest of the network, though that should be unlikely, as there were about four connection points that would have to be severed for a full control loss. Vita was only doing its basic function now, which was the environmental control of the local ship-section, and the crew control.
“ Vita. Number of crew currently in release Cycle. “ Anthony, carefully testing how well his legs worked after the prolonged sleep, feeling a little insecure as the sensation in his legs had not fully returned, even if the growing sensation of a cramp in both of them told him that the process of recovery was well underway.
“ Currently in release Cycle, One. “ Vita responded, which caused Anthony to look towards the speaker located over the security door in his chamber.
“ Vita, Current number of local Crew released from Sleep-capsule.” Anthony demanded in his initial confusion.
“ Currently released, 49 Crew-members. “ Vita responded through the speaker, furthering Anthony's confusion. If everyone was already awake, why was he being woken only now ? Was there some other issue that was more pressing then the AI ? Well, everyone from the Ship crew anyway, there were also about 750 colonists, but they were under the care of a different VIta node.
He shook his head and tried once more to get onto his feet, carefully to move over to the lockers, where he got rid of his sleep jumper-suit, and exchange it for the black uniform after removing the rest of the suspending fluid with a towel. Much as he'd have preferred a shower right now, this issue had him rushing to find out what was happening.
He halfway expected to find a busy flow of personal in the hallway once he had opened the door. But, as he had finally managed to approach the securely sealed door and punched in his code, he had to watch it open to the red lighting of a hallway that looked nothing like he recalled it.
The Aluminum composite panels that covered the walls on each side of the primary hallway, or command hallway as some called it, were damaged. There were a few visible puncture points that he could conclude, was from one of the firearms that the crew had for self defense purposes. But that was not the whole extend of damage, under the red light, warning of some form of, incident, he could clearly see that some of the panels were warped in unusual ways. It was, as if something massive had slammed against them with so much force that even the support beams behind the panels had deformed.
“ What ?” Anthony softly spoke under his breath, and then decided to stay calm and quite. And more importantly, arm himself as he took a step back to retrieve the small firearm from his secure storage, a custom made model, like all the others on this ship, to fire ceramic bullets, so as not to risk the ships outer hull to be penetrated. Standard bullets that went outward from within the ship, would cause damage that be hard to repair and pose a major danger to the crews survival.
Once he retrieved the gun, he carefully checked the bullet count, listening to any background noises to see if he could make out anything of what was going on, any indication at all that could give him an idea.
But, even after an estimated ten minutes, Anthony could not determine the source of this damage. There was no sound to be picked up on, other then the groaning of the hull, which may or may not suggest exterior damage, and the humming of nearby electronics. There was no audible indication of ongoing conflict, and no activity of the crew being active within the nearby ship-sections either.
He contemplated his next move for a moment, and finally decided to go straight for the bridge, it was about 150 meters down the hallway if he turned right from his own cabin. It had a central system that could monitor all the systems from there, and if there was active crew, then someone should be there.
But he could not move carelessly until he knew the exact situation, so he tried to remain alert, ready to jump behind the nearest cover the moment he heard anything he could classify as suspicious to him.
Though, there was nothing, even as he reached the door to the bridge, he encountered neither a living soul, nor any other visual or audible hint of the ships situation, and it was quite vexing to him to only see more damage the further he ventured down the hallway.
“ Lets see. “ Anthony mumbled as he leaned in to unlock the security door to the bridge, and then take a step back as the hissing sound of the door opening would surely alert anyone to his presence. But still, even after a few painfully long moments, there was nothing to suggest that, aside from him, anyone was even around.
Anthony dared to lean forward and take a careful look into the bridge room, spotting no personal or, anything other out of order. Only at second glance could he see that some of the consoles had been tampered with. The Logbook console was most obvious, as a mess of extra cables attached to it’s base, connected to some makeshift frame that held an extra hard-drive and what looked like the power core of one of the heavy Android units.
This was looking ever more confusing to him. But with the bridge secure, he stepped inside and trigger the door to seal behind himself. It gave him the moment to take a deep breath, feel annoyed over the pulsing headache he still felt, and take a closer look around the bridge.
The room looked like, lived in, someone had left behind wrappings from pre-packaged meals, awful tasting nutrient paste that gave the body all the essentials, meaning at that time, the hydroponic system was not active, possibly still wasn't, and the bedroll besides the captains chair, located central within the room, denoted that someone had in fact taken refuge in here, the question was, why ?
He would have to check the security system, and soon, but first, he should check the logbook, if anything was left to explain this, then it should be found in there. If there was anything left to find given the hot-wired addition to the console.
“ Maggie, status report ! “ He called out, holding a slight hope that the AI may just have been cut off from the rest of the ship, but there was no response. He had expected as much, and while shaking his head, he activated the logbooks display, content that it responded to his touch to show what was left for him to find.
Yet his finding was not very uplifting, most of the files were damaged, perhaps even beyond repair. Though he could not tell if it was due to the tampering to the system, or if there had been another cause to this. But he could least wager a guess that it had something to do with the systems filing system, given how the system could not tell him the time of day, much less even indicate when those five files still available were being made.