“So we are going to be greatly expanding the scope of our training program.” Peggy explained to her as the door on the nose of the bus opened on the deck of the hangar in her new ship. Peggy had her drone body waiting at the bottom of the ramp. Casey stepped down the nose ramp as the door opened, and saw that the hangar had a few different models of shuttle already present. Aside from the bus she was exiting, there looked to be two cargo shuttles and another devoted to carrying people, but it looked a great deal sturdier than the bus.
“This hull is intended to be a late stage training unit, focusing on scouting. The platform is nonspecialized enough to be fine to use for science support and mid-range logistics support. Its primary purpose is to be a mobile forward operating base for a flotilla of craft of the type we were in previously. As a matter of fact, that craft is one of our complement.”
Peggy walked her through the hangar and into a more central corridor that ran a considerable distance fore and aft. Across the hall were the doors to a transport tube, which the two took to a switching room at the rear of the line and then took a lift up to the bridge. There was another woman waiting for them there. Casey ignored the panoramic view out the large windows to focus on the new person.
“Casey, this is Xt-fv-hw-gn-lr-tk-hs, but for our purposes she has elected to be called Allegro.” Casey looked her over. She looked young. Cute, but young.
“I realize that I am probably missing something, but you look… Fifteen? Seventeen?” Casey speculated.
“And you would be right.” the girl replied cheerily.
“Allegro was scheduled originally to participate with the anthropologists in Earth observation, but our decision to reveal ourselves to you has put that program on hold. Two decades of preparation shouldn’t go to waste though, so she is helping me instead.” added Peggy.
“So you grew an organic human body?”
“Yes, all fleshy and everything. It’s my first time, and I have to say it took a LOT of getting used to.”
“How old are you really?”
“I was spawned in your year eighteen twenty.”
“And what have you been doing for two hundred years?”
“Mostly operating ships much like this one, in one capacity or another.”
“While I will still be overseeing the training for you and Petty Officer Lee, Allegro will be helping to run the ship and operating drones to simulate a human crew during training exercises.” Peggy interjected.
"That actually sounds pretty cool. Speaking of, where is the petty officer now?”
“I have him reviewing damage control procedures. A drone is escorting him around so he gets a good look at how things are put together.” Allegro informed her.
“Today you should get settled in and get the layout of the ship memorized, and tomorrow we start on what being an Operations Officer on a larger crew vessel looks like.” Peggy broke in.
Casey brought up a map on the wrist display of her ship suit and followed it back to the captain’s quarters, which was actually behind a duplicate bridge in the center of the ship, surrounded by specialized compartments where the different departments all did what they needed to do to make the ship functional. It was more than a little creepy though that all the compartments were empty.
“Peggy, how many people does it take to run a ship this size, typically?”
“With the level of automation that humans are comfortable with, about a hundred, give or take.” Peggy answered over her cabin speakers.
“And you two can do it by yourselves?” Casey asked as she started checking the lockers and cubbies to see where Peggy had stowed her things.
“Yes. We don’t have to fight anyone so there is no need for that part of the crew, life support and logistical needs are currently negligible compared to capacity, and the Hive fleet scouts shadowing us can remote in additional AI support if we need it. We’re fine for now.”
“The fleet is escorting us?”
“They have been the whole time. Any time the sensor ghosts resolved into something that the filters would flag I’ve just scrubbed them from the displays. I get to give the ship Captains a hard time about sloppy stealth and EW and they get practice trying to pull one over on a princess. Everyone wins.”
“Why tell me now?”
“The fleet being out there wasn’t a secret, per se. We just didn’t want their presence to influence the way you acted or reacted to things.”
“Are you still going to scrub them from the sensor returns?”
“Yup. Sorry. (not sorry.)”. Casey sat at her desk with a throwing-away gesture and activated her terminal to start reading ship status reports. After a quick internal debate, she keyed the intercom to the bridge.
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“Allegro, how much clock cycles would it cost to staff critical areas with drones and make them look busy? The lack of activity is off-putting.”
“We have the computational infrastructure for it. I’ll start moving assets on looping routines.”
Casey brought up a scrolling feed of the ship’s higher level notifications and cast it to the wall screen before switching her desk screen to ship schematics.
Unlike the overly thick lifting body aircraft that Peggy’s hull resembled previously, the current ship was a long flattened cylinder with rounded ends and no regard for aerodynamics. It was also many times larger. The bridge was on the top rear, on the port side. Almost all of the front two thirds of the ship was hangar bays and there was no sign of landing gear. As was typical of hive fleet ships, there was also no sign of thrusters or engines.
A comprehensive review of the ship took until lunchtime.
Lee met up with her shortly after she stopped to find food. The officer’s mess was a small compartment that seemed lonely, so she had instead found the rating’s mess. Allegro had set several drones to cycle through the compartment. They were simulating social interactions with empty bowls and trays on the tables. Rather than conversation though, they were all emitting a buzzing or other random sounds that combined to form a droning white noise.
Allegro and Peggy walked in a moment behind Lee. While Allegro and Lee fetched trays, Peggy joined Casey at the table. “How goes the emergency procedures refresher?”
“Blast doors, escape pods, atmosphere venting, utilities routing. It’s all coming together.” Casey replied. Lee and Allegro put their trays down and sat.
“Replacement wiring harnesses, adjustable structural members, nano-welding kits, plasma cutters.” Lee added. He had some kind of protein patty with a cheesy potato side.
“Should we have one of the scouts shoot us once or twice so we have some damage to repair?” Prompted Allegro. Casey couldn’t tell if she was being serious.
“Let’s not. We do have an image to maintain. Peggy, didn’t you say that your biological crews have augments to work in simulated environments? Can’t we run a computer simulation of battle damaged compartments?”
“That is the preferred way of doing it. Allegro is just being bratty today.”
“Well, we attendants do tend to model ourselves off of our Royals.”
“How long have you been Peggy’s attendant?” Asked Casey between bites.
“Peggy elevated me shortly before I was transferred over to the human observation program. That was probably the reason for the transfer. It was about twenty one years ago now. The first several years were just studying human genetics to design a body with the characteristics that I wanted.” Allegro was eating a smooth soup that Casey couldn’t determine the ingredients of. Peggy didn’t approve.
“Allegro, I realize that is your favorite, but I need you to reserve it for more special occasions. You have had over a decade to acclimate yourself to more traditionally human foods.”
“Yes, but solid foods weird me out. Chewing is something I have never enjoyed and consuming vegetable matter is just wrong on so many levels.” Casey looked down at her own plate, covered in a salad with chicken and avocado.
“How’d you avoid scurvy all this time?”
“It’s nutritionally balanced for human biology. I’m fine!” Allegro pouted.
“Well Peggy, she is your attendant, and you have the biggest issue with the behavior, so you can address it. I am curious about it though. Let me have a bite?”
A drone walked over with a shallow bowl and some spoons. Offering one to Casey and Lee it went back to the table it came from and collected its empty dishes and tray and resumed the programmed activity schedule it had been given.
Casey and Lee both took a spoon and tried it.
“Gross.”
“Absolutely revolting.”
“I won’t purge this from the computers, but I am flagging the system to tell me when it is requested.” Peggy informed them all.
“OK, I am going to go find the exercise room and then get an early night.” Casey mused. “These new brain mods are fatiguing when you are not used to them.”
“Just waiting for it to be my turn.” groused Lee.
“We resumed the build queue this morning, P.O.” supplied Allegro helpfully.
“Oh joyous day.”
“At least we already figured out the itching and the absolutely beastly first injection. Don't complain.”
“The what now?”
Casey excused herself and returned to her quarters. After changing into workout clothes she found that aside from the treadmills in the exercise room she could also run the hallway outside the hangars, which when the blast doors were open looped around the central cargo shaft and became a one kilometer track.
“How are the other pilots taking their new ships?” Casey asked as she showered after her run.
“They have been transitioned into hulls like our previous model. We think the standardization would better help us focus our training efforts. We will be meeting up with them at one time or another out in deep space.”
“That isn't going to cause resentment or feelings of favoritism? Am I the only one commanding a larger hull?”
“Your progress scores aren’t secret, nor are theirs. They aren’t pushing as hard as they could be, even with your advantages in information retention.” Peggy supplied. “Although the Chinese and Iranian pilots are trying harder now.”
“Well kick me in the ass if you feel like I am slacking. We do have an image to maintain.”
“That we do. And on that note, here is our first draft for the operations officer level one manual.” Peggy projected the first page onto the wall screen as Casey toweled off.
“In Galactic Standard no less. Alright, let me work some translations.” Casey ended up staying up later than she had intended, but she got a good chunk of the text translated with assistance from her new brain mods.
The next morning she met up with PO Lee again over coffee. He had a strange helmet under his arm.
“VR googles?” She asked.
“It’s a temporary workaround until I have the full set of augments built out.”
“What all is involved in that much augmentation?” Casey asked.
“It’s significant. There is pronounced intrusion into all areas of the brain. Certainly not a spur of the moment decision for you.” Peggy answered. Lee just looked thoughtful.
“No, but you know what my decision is going to be anyway.”
“We will get started. I will forward your latest scans to medical and they can start designing the circuit paths.”
“Why am I relieved that it is not just push button plug and play?”
“Mabe you care about your brain and overall wellbeing?”
“And what do you have going on today?” Asked Lee.
"Allegro has started mocking up a full crew roster. You may have noticed that she has put names on most of the drones and started shipping more in. I have duty rosters, training schedules and recertification windows to manage.”
“And you are going to have to deal with slackers and shammers.” Allegro said gleefully.
“I’ll have NCO drones to handle that for me.”
“Is that why those drones were doing pushups in the passageway back there?” Asked Lee.
