To Stumble.
Anthony groaned, the work on the Vita node was crawling at best. He had managed to forcibly connect three of them, even reboot the system down in engineering, which, ideally, should have granted basic access to the systems the Nodes used to control. Somehow though, the control software for those systems where so damaged, he would have to rewrite a control system, before even daring to grant Vita access to those.
No, his first assumption, of a forced reboot gone wrong, it was ways off. Every Vita node he accessed shared the same problem, and the remaining systems they should have connected too where gone, damaged, or otherwise unusable, this felt, deliberate.
He closed his eyes and leaned back into the chair, his mind drifting to back when the INC Hope was just finished. Dubrov had send a sudden warning signal over the Laser-band. Earth had launched an investigation into him, and he insisted that the Hope started as soon as possible, not to wait on him as initially intended.
It was uncertain how or why Earth investigated him, but considering his findings now. Did they have a snitch among the crew? Someone that had ratted them out and reported about the technology they used ? That they never intended to test just the Photon drive, but actually embark on a journey, an exodus as some would call it ?
Some of what they used was capable to be used as weapon, especially the artificial magnetosphere, the shielding that wrapped around the ship in a controlled manner. Given enough power, it could cause a repelling effect strong enough to not just protect the ship from smaller impacts, but to outright push itself, or smaller objects away from it. It was, in a way, the dream of any Science fiction enthusiast, the closest thing to an energy shield one could imagine. But with terrible implications in the wrong hands.
Well, Cloning tech, AGI, and even armed drones, considering the haunts, they where all illegal. Perhaps Earth had traced the material towards the shipyard, Horizon as it was called, and suspected that the self funded project was far more then they let on ?
It still had taken them three weeks to finish the on-boarding process, and finishing the last series of tests was essential too, but Earth fastest ships would still have taken month to reach them. What would have anyone to gain from sabotaging them out here ? Where they hoping to take the ship back to earth ? So they could tear it apart and retool it into a warship ?
No, maybe he was over-thinking this. There was still a slim chance that this was just, a series of unlucky events. He could not fully exclude other external problems, but there was also the chance that some shoddy work had been applied to the ships systems. Maybe even in the light of keeping the true nature of the project hidden. Some corrupt supplier maybe, or just plain coincidence.
“ Just why. “ He softly spoke under his breath, relaxing just for a moment, hoping that he would find the spirit to return to his coding work in just another moment. And he was hating to redo it, so much work just going through the remaining code, which was darn complicated given that his guidebook on the Vita-network was nowhere to be found. He had, in a way, to relearn the system he himself had created.
The next time Anthony opened his eyes, Anthony had just crashed onto the floor, having slipped off into an uneasy slumber. One that had been interrupted through the small remote alert he connected to the console he worked on.
It was tied to the disabled android unit in the lab ever since he had decided to try and catch the fox, if only to reduce any potential damage to the ships systems that could be caused by the animal. There should not be a lot of infrastructure of the ships main-systems running through the wall where the creature hid, but he simply couldn’t risk damage he might be unable to handle himself. He was a programmer, not a maintenance-technician.
And it would seem, the fox had finally decided to try its luck after Anthony had spend some time restricting access to the large cage. An implement meant for larger animals after they where cloned in the labs growth vat, and to be later on transported to one of the NH vessels for transportation down to a planet.
A small animal like the fox could easily pass through the bars, which is how it had been getting to it’s food until now. But the cage was now covered top to bottom in mesh that Anthony found in storage, leaving the purposely opened door the only entry-point for the animal to get to its food.
The fox was careful though and did not trust these changes, not showing itself for what must have been two days now. But it seemed that it finally could not take the allure of a juicy fruit any longer, and thus triggered the Motion Sensor, which now attached via wireless connection to the cages lock-down mechanism. Twenty seconds, and the door would slam shut, hopefully not to harm the animal and simply lock it within the cage.
Realizing that his trap was sprung, Anthony would get back on his feet, and quickly run towards the lab, hearing or, rather feeling the heavy door slamming shut as the force of it reverberated through the nearby structure of the ship. Alerting his mind to the probability that he might have just killed the only other living soul on the ship if the creature had been too careful.
But luckily, when entering the lab, he was greeted by the sight of the small animal struggling against the mesh, biting into it in a desperate attempt to be free again. It put Anthony at ease, knowing it was alive and well, even if it cowered into the farthest corner the moment it took notice of his presence.
It sad there, pushing back, as though it could slip into the wall to hide, ears lowered, and tail between its legs, offering such a pitiful sight towards its human captor. And Anthony did feel sorry for the poor thing, even if he had expected the fox to offer more of a threatening pose towards him.
He did not know a lot about foxes, but he had expected the usual posturing and show of aggressiveness that most canines would display when fearful, and canines and vulpine’s where related to some degree. But this fox ? It just curled up, showing such a level of dread towards his person that it simply tried to make itself small.
“ Hey, I am sorry, ok, I didn’t mean to scare you like that. “ Anthony tried to assure the poor thing, even though he knew better then to expect the fox to understand him. He begun to feel pity for that animal, more so then he might have before, wondering how it must have been mistreated to show this degree of fear towards a human.
The sound of a ball bearing bouncing across the floor momentarily withdrew his attention from the fox, and Anthony looked over to the construct that Jonathan had left behind, an ingenious device that used strings, ball bearings and weights to repeat a long chain of reactive events, that eventually triggered a small rod to move to the side, pushing a button that triggered the release of food pellets.
But now, the device had partially failed as the force of the metal door slamming shut, had caused some of the mechanism, to collapse, leaving it now to loose its original function.
Anthony sighed at the sight of this, shaking his head as the brief thought to leave the animal alone for a bit faded away. He had hoped to give the fox a few days time after placing a source of water into the cage, so it could get used to its new home. But, he would need to come least once a day now to provide the creature with what it needed.
“ Well. “ He mused, leaning to sit down on the floor besides the cage, and just watch the Fox for a while, and he found him starting to feel the sensation of tears welling up in his eyes. Not simply because of the animals fear, but also the sight of the cage. Finding himself to find something relate-able to the poor animal.
It was caught, someplace it did not wish to be, and though it would not need to worry about food or drink, it would never be truly be free again. Anthony shared that sensation, though he only realized it now that he watched the fox cowering. He was caught on this ship, it was his cage. He would not need to worry about any comforts, and unlike the fox, he had chosen to enter this cage. But, it was never meant to be a cage, it was a promise of a new beginning, of a world where he, and his goal of creating intelligent life through his coding, could create a world, better then what the corrupt minds back home envisioned.
He closed his eyes, feeling a tear pouring down over his right cheek while his left hand reached to hold onto the bridge of his nose, slowly to massage it between two fingers as he hoped to recover his emotional state with some deep and slow breathing. Only now realizing how he himself had, up until now, managed to willfully ignore or evade confronting the scope of his own situation. Emotionally disconnecting himself from it, ever since he listened to Jonathan’s log-files.
But, what else should he have done ? Give up ?, throwing himself into his work was the best he could do, and keeping emotional distance from most problems was a quality he has had since a young age.
“ What am I doing ? “ He asked himself verbally, releasing the bridge of his nose so he could look over toward the fox once again, and this time, seeing a pair of, strangely captivating, crystal like sky blue eyes returning his gaze.
The creature, it was still curled up, shivering and showing fear. But it dared now to assure that it could ascertain if he was meaning to harm it. Which in turn allowed Anthony now to pay close attention to its appearance, starting with those eyes that near enchanted with it’s crystalline quality.
The fox appeared like the product of a gene-splicing attempt. Deep black paws, the tip of its ears and tail black as well, and even part of its snout, which reminded him of the typical red fox depictions he knew of. But the rest of the body was a pure white, something he believed to be partial to the arctic subspecies. Admittedly, he had little knowledge of the zoological field, and perhaps he fell victim to some trope, but, those eyes, they did feel unnatural to him. It wasn’t a bad kind of unnatural, but beautiful.
“ Whatever did they do to you ? “ He found himself asking the fox, whom naturally could not respond. But it felt good to Anthony to have someone to talk to as, for the last few, what had it been, weeks ? Well, any verbal expression that had come across his lips where mostly cusses and expression of frustration. Even if the fox was unable to hold a conversation with him, it recognized his presence and was listening, even if for reasons other then his desire to be heard.
He would still scold himself over a notion that felt near childish to him, and finally lean to get back up. His eyes still resting on the fearful animal to discern what his next steps should be. But given how scared the fox was, he would have to give it some time, and there was also still work waiting for him to finish.
He offered the fox a smile born from pure reflex, and then turned to make his way back out of the laboratory. Guessing that the creature would likely try to escape, but he hoped he did well on restricting its ability to do so. He would give it today, but once he has had some rest, he would try and see if he couldn’t make this new arrangement a little more comfortable for the fox, and maybe even gain it’s trust.