Progress.
Slowly, frustratingly slowly, but Anthony was getting through to the Vita system. So far, he had only managed to connect four of them, the fifth refusing any input, and the sixth still out of reach. But he reinstated full control for environmental controls and sensor suits for those four. One of which had control over the two reactor cores, whom seemed to work perfectly still. Well, there where no unexpected temperature fluctuation, which was a good sign, but concerning the reactor integrity, and the fuel status, he still had to dig himself deeper into the system.
It took him nearly a month now, and this time he could say for sure that it was a month too, given that he implemented a counter that little more then summarize the time passage in seconds, hours and days. Quite simplistic, but it was all he needed for now to regain a little structure in his life, and if only to stay sane.
The white fox was helping with that, or rather, Vixen. Anthony had made it a routine for himself to head over and join her in the Cage to enjoy his meal. Disabling the electronic lock for the cage, and instead opting to lock the door behind himself with a simple rod. So that the door would not lock him inside by accident, but allow him to keep the Vixen within the cage.
By now he had even given her a name, Ina, short for Inari, a Japanese deity of sorts that he could recall from some reading material he found within the database, one of very few materials that where currently accessible to him. The details where incomplete, but Inari was depicted as a woman escorted by two white foxes, and he found that name quite suitable for his new companion.
Ina did not show much reaction to her new name initially, but she came to understand that, when he used it, he expected her attention. And she had relaxed a little too. Still scared of his presence for a while, but the last two weeks, she did not outright cower or curl up in his presence.
It helped that he brought her a small box she could hide in, a hole cut into the side, with a blanket for her to lay on. An offering she accepted only after he had left the cage again as, during the placement, she had still been openly terrified of his presence.
Even today, as he entered the cage, she would quickly scoot into the box to hide from him, but watch him as he carefully moved to place a bowl down with a mixed assortment of vegetables and fruits that he cut into slices. She only withdraw in further as he leaned in to place her meal close to her hideout, so that he could move to the other side of the cage to take a seat on the floor, only to then take a timid step forward and watch what he did.
“ Come on now Ina, no need to be scared. “ Anthony spoke up, watching as the Vixen leaned her head lightly to the side, watching as Anthony begun to eat his share of the meal. And assured in part that he meant her no harm, she would move around the bowl until she could keep her eyes on him while sampling the food he brought her.
It was nice to see that she had loosened up, and in a way she was just like Vita, it was a slow process to gain her trust, but it felt good to have her accept his presence, even if she was still alert around him.
Looking around within the cage, he wondered if he could do something to keep her more occupied however. It was a pretty large cage, likely capable to hold an mature elephant or two, but he wasn’t so dense not to realize that an animal needed more freedom of movement, and something to occupy its mind. Something to play with, or to hone it’s instincts.
There was an enclosure available on the ship, but it was currently nothing more then a large hall with preset paths and area’s that could eventually hold greenery. Though it was inactive for the time being. Anthony wondered if he could activate it, and transfer Ina over there to give her at least more room. He may see her less then with more options to hide, but, keeping her in the cage was cruel as well, to a degree anyway.
The Hydroponic bay would be an option too, it was overgrown still, and he had not found the time to clean it up, but, he wasn’t so sure if the nutrient solution in the vat would be good for her, and he had no doubt, being an animal, she would end up trying to drink from it.
He’d have to consider it for a while, maybe have her open up just a little bit more as well. As much as he would love to reactivate the enclosure for her, it was not on his list of priorities for now. He was getting close to engage the sensor suits for the pressure control again, or, he hoped to anyway. He would have to test one of the unused bulkheads first before he could dare try the sensors on the ship-sections behind the closed bulkheads, or it may be the last thing he’d ever done.
And, if all fails, he would have to use the haunt units. Heavens, he hated those things, not that he was an arachnophobe, but the Mark one version alone gave him the shivers. Just watching a dog sized spider walking made him feel queasy.
That was the problem, it was designed after a wolf spider, and save for the hair one would expect to find, it was a one to one copy of one, with its eyes equipped with cameras that offered an uncanny surveillance area. The mark one still being humane as it was purposely set to mimic more robotic movements.
The mark two however, it moved like the real deal, with its primary role of resource acquisition from small metallic asteroids. And if the need arises, have it’s storage module within the abdomen changed out for a combat module, so it could position itself on the INC Hope to open fire on whatever was unlucky enough to be it’s target.
It’s firepower was weak compared to any real military weaponry, but when equipped with magnetic repulse device’s, it could skitter swiftly from one spot to another over the magnetic shielding of the hope, offering to be a hard target to hit.
Most of it’s parts could be changed to suit even more roles, even for planetary missions. So there where only four of these Van sized beast aboard the Hope, with part of the hangar-space they occupied used for their maintenance and quick access to change out parts as needed.
“ Great, now my appetite is ruined. “ Anthony groaned, placing his bowl on the floor to his right, and then look over to Ina who was obviously done with her share. It allured him to lean into her general direction and shove his bowls closer, just to lean back and sit there, interested to see if she would bother to get his share as well, or if she would wait for him to leave before trying to do so.
There wouldn’t be much choice for him, if the coding route failed him, he would only be left with the choice to EVA, or reactivating the Haunts. Jonathan must have been really brave using them, or darn desperate. Then again, he had the AGI on the Transport to control them for him so, yeah. Would be so lovely if he somehow could circumvent using these beasts, but he was not confident in his ability to do an EVA, probably even more scared of the idea then he was of the thought to manually get these spiders moving again.
But there was no point raking his brains over this, not right now. And with Ina actually daring a few timid steps closer, his curiosity over her action was far greater then his worries now. And, while it took nearly ten minutes of the Vixen pacing back and forth, greedy for the food, and still unsure of the humans intention for her, she eventually managed to snatch a piece of fruit from his bowl, only to jump away with it so she could devour it at a distance that felt more comfortable to her.
It made him smile, and while he probably should be getting back to work, he actually opted to stay and let her repeat that act, over and over again, until she had emptied the bowl.
“ Hmm, I guess, I am not quite so scary anymore, eh ? “ Anthony near whispered into the animals general direction, though she was returning into her little hideout, likely to wait for him to leave again before she bothered to rest or, well, pace about looking for a way out. At least she had given up trying to bite her way through the mesh.
Tomorrow he would try this again, place her food closer to himself, and see how long it took till she gave up on keeping her distance. If it reached a point where she dared not to try, he could still increase the distance again, and give her time to come to the point where she could calmly eat again before shortening the distance. But for now he should get back to work.
And work he did, throwing himself right back into his coding endeavors, adding new lines, testing it in a virtual environment, separate from the actual system, just to correct and add even more lines, until the desired results where achieved. The code was becoming pretty cluttered with the amount of makeshift implementations he created, but streamlining the system was the least of his worries for now. He would risk a reaction delay in the execution of the programming, long as it was getting him to the NH 03, once he would get his hands on Maggie, he could leave the streamlining work to her, as well as many of the ship controls.
Sure, it would mean essentially crippling the Vita network, and it went against everything he was taught about AGI, but Maggie was his creation, and he was sure she would not turn on him, not anytime soon anyway.
So the coming days he would manage only gradual success on the Vita system, but he overwrote and regained control on the bulkheads, to the point that he could lower and raise them on command. It was noisy, and Ina was not very fond of it, but it was an important step forward.
Anthony was unable to verify the exact measurements of temperature and pressure as the sealed off sections showed normal values, but he could not trust the output just yet, given the presence of the lowered bulkheads. But he could seal off a section near the sealed area, and then remotely open another behind, and as long as no decompression event happened within the newly sealed section, he could truly be certain about the state of the sealed section. All he needed was a direct path to the NH 03, if he could manage that, he’d be set.
Meanwhile, his approach with Ina gradually paid off, she sure wasn’t happy with him, forcing her to get closer to him for her meal, but she had accepted him enough to keep up her game of fetch and nibble until her bowl was emptied out, providing him with a source of amusement.
And then it was time, finally. By his estimate, it had been over two month now since he had awoken. And all his work seemed to come to fruition as he lowered the primary bulkheads to seal of the area below the reactor cores. Once again to watch if the system displayed any indication for him to worry about before he gave the command to unseal the bulkhead closest to the NH 03, then the next, and the next, every-time expecting the ship to shake under the distress of a rapid decompression, but nothing happened.
He did this for three times, only to seal the first bulkhead again, opening a path of two bulkheads at a time, with every other behind those being closed again, until he reached the one he had manually closed. Expecting to carry a pocket of void closer to the pressurized sections, which would then equalize the moment he would release the final bulkhead. That, or ideally, for nothing to happen, suggesting that the hull-breach was not effecting the desired path, or for there to be no hull-breach at all.
And then the moment of truth finally arrived as he triggered the engage command, the audible Que of metal being raised as the bulkhead was being unsealed, leaving Anthony to hold his breath, half expecting to feel a sudden and violent shake to go through the ship as air would be sucked into a possibly de-pressurized section. But, nothing happened, even after waiting for a few painfully, near breathless moments, nothing seemed to happen, with only a loud clanking sound denoting that the bulkhead had been raised in full.
Anthony stood there, still unsure what to think, but his expression grew elated, to the point that he finally catches his breath again, only to fall into loud laughter, filled with one or the other euphoric “ YES ! “, being shouted at the top of his lungs. He would even jump and dance about for a moment, only to release how relieved he was.
It would take him a few minutes to finally straighten himself out again, and he would take yet another moment to purposely in and exhale deeply, just to find his center again, to calm and focus on the goal he had set for himself.
He exhaled deeply, and then commanded the bulkheads between himself and the transporter to be raised again, leaving what else was sealed untouched until he could be absolutely certain that these sections truly where OK. Then it was a painful moment with the finger over the emergency seal for the bulkheads, just in case he had made a mistake. But, the bulkheads towards the transporter where being raised, and there was still no decompression event.
“ Good girl. “ He praised the INC Hope itself for not disappointing his hopes, before he would make his way off the bridge, his steps growing gradually in haste as he made his way for the NH 03, not content to waste anymore time before he could finally hear the voice of his creation again, a voice that was going to help him survive this situation.
And when he finally crossed the docking port, over to the NH 03, he was glad to see that the ship was in good condition still, with standby lights blinking and shining lively, as though he just needed to turn the system on.
One more deep inhale, and Anthony would take a seat on the bridge of the smaller vessel, engaging a system boot-up sequence that finalized only moments later with the melodic sound of Maggie reaching operational status.
“ AGI systems engaged. Synchronizing. Unable to Synchronize, connection to MAGI could not be established. “ Maggie’s voice cut through the sounds of beeping consoles and the otherwise long silence Anthony had to endure, and he had a hard time to hold back the feelings that welled up in his chest.