Chapter 12 Retrofit

Chapter 12 Retrofit (Phoenix Part 3)

We shoved the phoenix with two of the little shuttles, they had rubber bumpers specifically for this purpose, we not only used them for fetching parts form Duke’s junkyard, but was also used them for finessing disabled ships like the Phoenix into position. We backed her to the dock, using an adapter ring to make the airlock safe and semi-permanent. She was in place now and secured, I re docked my shuttle along with Micah to the shop’s airlocks where these small local vessels were kept.

I went inside and made my to the Phoenix, opened up the airlock, and thankfully I wasn’t sucked in, she had held every bit of air the last two weeks. We docked her furthest from the reception area where clients where meant to dock, the last few along the docking area where reserves for small repairs, ships that might only be docked a few hours or maybe a couple days to repair, otherwise client ships where moved to the shop docks for large repairs. Phoenix would be the furthest, maximizing my inconvenience for getting her back up and running but making it the most comfortable for everyone else. Duke wanted this, and I understood.

I pulled two long cables form spools at the airlock, our booster power from the space station and lead the cables back down to through the same hatch between the upper level and the reactor room below floating along the way in the powerless ship. Instead of going to the generator this time I floated to the electrical control room and found the input bus, connecting the power directly instead of on the generator like before. I had planned to rip that out anyway, since our reactors where direct to electricity. We didn’t need the extra machinery. It was fucking cold in here! Before retreating I checked the breakers on the nearby control panel, there were of course dozens, but I only wanted 4, ‘Interior Lights’, ‘Gravity Control’, ‘Environment Control’ and ‘Life Support’. I made sure everything else was off for now, but noticed one more ‘Power Control’ and flipped it on as well. I figured it control the power flow off the generators and I think I was connected to the same bus, hopefully that would prevent the frying of things.

I floated my way back to the airlock, and stepped back into the station for a moment. After taking care to turn it to close to the same settings I had before on the ‘Talon’, I turned on the power to the leads and the Phoenix came back to life, well, mostly. Her lights came up and the life support rumbled from the vents, the ship should start warming now. My tech senses where right! I left for a while, the airlock wide open, between the heat from the station and the environmental controls on the ship it would still take at least an hour or two to warm up.

I ran into my mate in the hallway to our room, dressed in their flight suit they grabbed my hand and without saying anything lead us back to our room. Chickadee was resting on their bed, but with an unsaid requested the daomo woke up and left the room, trilling as it walked down the hallway, Exodus closed and locked the door behind them.

“Is everything okay, Exodus?” I asked as they started taking off the helmet. Their face said it all, deep red spikes and a sexy little look, my chest was suddenly pounding as they said the words I’ve wanted to hear for over two weeks now.

“It’s time, I love you, and I want you!” They unzipped the body of the suit and it hit the floor. “We’re finally alone! I know we both want to!” They were right, I was just surprised. They reached up and wrapped their arms around my neck pulling me into a long kiss, soliciting the proper response from my body. I turned with my back to my bed and laid down, pulling them on top of me, without breaking contact with my lover’s lips.

It was our first time, not even with each other, for both of use, the first time ever. Nature took it’s course however and we knew what to do. It was clumsy and awkward at times, but that first time was an experience I will never forget, when I finally expressed my love physically for this beautiful purple dragon.

\<addendum here?>

We lay cuddling for a short time after, when the novelty took over, we did it again, 4 times actually, a great way to pass the time while I waited for the Phoenix to warm up. After a few hours, most of that morning actually, I finally told Exodus I needed to go back to work on the Phoenix, there was lots to do! I stripped the sheets off my bed “Looks like we’re sleeping in yours tonight!” and dropped them in the cleaner near the common area on the way, turning the machine on. They stayed and rested in our room, a little worn out.

I walked through the airlock into the Phoenix. Pleasantly surprised at how warm she was now I took a moment to take her in now, not pressed for time and able to think as long as I needed to. Exodus had mentioned how bland the interior was, they were right, if we were to live in this, it needed some dragon touch. I was standing examining different things when Duke walked in, bringing me back to reality.

“So, what does it need?” he asked, taking notes mentally.

“Well, there’s no power source at all, There’s some solar on the roof, in theory I could enable that and it would maybe do life support and lighting, but it’s not meant for any sort of travel” I explained

“Other than missing a power source?”

“Well, she’s really new, she only saw 3 years of service before she was adrift. Her long range transmitter was shot off, but that was linked to human space anyways, so we don’t need that.” I paused before breaking the creepy news “The crew is still on board, Duke”

He looked shocked for a moment, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle “Okay, where are they?”

“We kept the crew quarters in vacuum, preserved in there. We’re going to lay them to rest once we’re mobile” I explained

“Okay, and just how do you think you’re going to get it mobile?”

“I’ve been thinking” I looked around the ship “You have that half destroyed Rapier class in the junkyard” I started

“Ohhh no I’ve been saving that core, it’s perfectly fine even though the rest of the ship is scrap!”

“I know! For this maybe?” I was fishing for a bone here. Duke’s face went into deep thought mode, or smooth brain mode I’d tease him when I saw that look.

“Okay, three conditions!”

“Hit me, Duke, what are they?”

“One, this ship is yours, but if we’re giving you a core, it’s the station’s secondary, so if we need an off station part and Valthy isn’t available, you’re going to get it! This ship is now the biggest, so if a lot of us need to go somewhere, you’re taking us there.” he explained

First one was easy, we can do that! “Yes, sure that sounds fair!”

“Good! The lightning festival on Sandpit is in two months, and we all need a little break! Secondly, we’re still behind on work, so you have to do this in your spare time, without making the others tired, you can ask for help on their time off, but you can’t bother them during working hours, and they can’t work and make themselves tired!”

Second seemed fair as well “Okay! Done! I can even retrieve the reactor myself with no problems!”

“Good!” he replied.

“What’s the third?” I asked

He started smiling at me, his face spikes turning pink then progressing into red, his eyebrows lifted up. I had just lost my virginity a few hours ago and now he was propositioning me for a fucking power core?!?! Duke was a shameless flirt, this wasn’t the first time he made advances at me, and even if I said no it wouldn’t be the last time either! But this was completely beyond his normal harmless flirting!

“Duke, WHAT THE FUCK?!?” I yelled

“How bad you want that core?” he turned and walked away.

I marched back in forth in our small room, ranting away as Exodus listened!

“He wanted what? To fuck me? Make me suck his dick? The fucking nerve!” I had told Exodus the entire thing, I agreed to the other two conditions but this crossed the line. Exodus was actually laughing, they thought it was funny! But then they got serious for a moment and their mouth said something I could not believe.

“So we’re getting the core, right?” They smiled up at me

“Excuse me?”

“We need that core! You have a chance to get it, so you’re getting it right?”

“Exodus have you even listened to-”

“Yes! Deakon! Shut up a second!” They paused “Most dragon couples are not monogamous, one way to know for sure if we are is to test the line and see how we feel, I’m curious!” They let it soak in “We can use this to get our core, and also to test our new boundaries so we know. I promise if I feel jealousy or badly about it, I won’t hold it against you, and if you feel shitty, I’ll know to keep it between us too okay?” They explained.

I hated that they were right, but I’d prefer this ‘test’ to be a little more intimate and less of a sexual favor in return for parts.

“Go on! I’ll be waiting here after and we know what to feel!” They playfully slapped my ass “Go get our core you stud muffin!”

Apprehensively I walked off, bothered by them thinking this could be a good idea.

Duke was sitting at the communal table, I thought alone, having a small meal and enjoying a drink. I took a deep breath and walked up to him, putting my hand on his shoulder. “Okay, Duke, I’m ready to get our core.”

He spit out his drink and started laughing, laughing VERY hard “Holy shit! You thought I was serious!” He started laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall out of his chair. “You’re funny as fuck!” after a few moments he settled down, still laughing under his words “The core is yours of course, but like I said, on your days off. You work the next for 4 and I don’t think you’ve got enough time left today to pull a core!” He patted my shoulder “But good to know just how desperate you are to have your own ship!” He got serious for a moment “Wait, do you really think I’d be so creepy and gross?”

Drito spoke up, they were going through the cabinets and I hadn’t noticed them there “Really? You’ve been here 3 years and though Duke would be a that way? I mean, he’s flirted with all of us at one point but to hold your needs over you for sex? That’s nothing he could ever do!” They started to laugh too.

I walked away in a huff “You’re weird, Duke!” I yelled behind myself as I walked away, his laughter filling the room behind me. I started up the stairs but then I got an idea. Exodus was right, were we open like most dragons or not? This was a small experiment on our end, why not carry it out? Instead of going back to our room I went to the Phoenix and screwed around with stuff for an hour, taking notes of where things where and exploring the rooms we hadn’t yet. Turned out the two rooms off the main room where the airlock was were meant to be labs, but we could gut them and have better purposes. The two generators and the huge rooms they occupied could also be better used. The captains suite was bigger than our current space and even had it’s own washroom and shower. We really had a prize on our hands!

Eventually after what I think would be the right amount of time for bribery sex I made my way back to our room. Exodus was laying on the bed in their suit, idly reading and petting Chickadee. “So! Do we have the core?! Also what you took you so long!”

“How would you feel if I said yes?”

“I already know the answer and I’m fine” They paused and looked up to me “I think we’re open, if you’re okay with that!”

I sat on my bed and sighed, I thought about if positions were reverse, though I don’t think I’d be so quick to slap their ass and tell them to go get our power core, I’d be fine if they explored new things, though the idea of exploring new things together was more more appealing.

Exodus started giggling.

“What? What is it?”

“It was a joke wasn’t it?!?”

“You little shit!” I walked over and slapped them with a pillow as they laughed. The got up and pushed me onto my bare bed.

“Good to know where we stand anyways!” they floated in front of me for a minute, unable to see their eyes through the visor “I hate this suit even more now, I can’t kiss you!”

Glavous was excited, he seemed to move around his suite gathering things for Jake as he sat in the middle of the plush rug on his floor. If Exodus and Deakon had seen him like this they would be asking questions or becoming a little concerned. He had gathered several candle and some scrolls, placing them in a bundle and giving them to Jake

“Your training kit! Light the candles several times through the day, to keep your practice up! These are copies of the ancient scrolls to give you hints and tricks to practice you training!” He told Jake

“Glavous, I haven’t agreed to train about anything, I’ve only discovered this yesterday and now you’re trying to alter my life course to devote myself to this?” Jake was exasperated, he agreed to meet up with Glavous to learn more, not to give his life away.

“You’ll want to train when you realize what you are capable of! Your power inside is so great! Like your brother, but you are unblocked! Whatever inhibits your brother is not inside of you! You could be one of the greatest in generations! I could FEEL you when you approached!”

“Glavous, I’m a soldier, I have commitments and my own goals! I cannot drop everything to learn to breath fire!”

Glavous fiddled with some trinkets on a shelf, absorbing the words from he new student, at least, in his eyes, he already was his new student. “Okay then, Jake, Tell me, what are the goals and path that you have chosen?” Glavous already knew the answer, all that was left was to convince him.

“I want to avenge my parents, first off!”

“By killing Titan? Correct?”

Jake was shocked, how could he have known that? “Did you know? Why didn’t you tell Deakon?”

“Jake, I did not even know you existed until yesterday, I knew Deakon had a brother, I had no idea you held so much power, it radiates the truth like a volcano spreads it’s lava, but I can see through space and time!” He smiled “Deakon told me last night during a private conversation. Tell me, what are you other goals?”

“I want free our people from the oppression of the elite few that hold us back!” Jake got fired up, he was his parents child, he also now knew dragon kind was meant for greatness.

“Jake, what if I told you, our goals in fact, align! I wish for Titan to be removed form power, if that requires taking his life, so be it, he has murdered hundreds by his own hand, let alone the millions that have died under his rule!”

“Okay, so you wish for me to be a tool of your goals?” Jake was feeling defiant.

“To a degree yes, but if it attains your own goals, what is the difference after all?” Glavous was nearly floating with his energy “As for you second goal, we are also the same! I KNOW our kind is meant for greatness, as you learn my own power and what I am capable of, you will see what we are meant for on a large scale!”

“What? That we are meant to rule the universe or something?” Jake was concerned at this guy’s god complex

“No of course not, no one is meant to ‘rule’ the universe!” But the next words did speak to him “We are however, meant to protect it! We are stifled by the chains of a few sociopaths, we are designed to break those chains and create a space of energy and activity, not this stagnant state of depression we’ve found ourselves upon!”

Jake sat for a long moment, considering his choices, he did want to continue to fight with the militia, and this could develop into a useful tool for that. He broke the long silence “Okay, I will train on two conditions!”

“I don’t think placing conditions on training would be a wise choice, I think what you’re saying, is you are willing to train if I could satisfy your concerns, would that be a more correct way of putting it?” Glavous was a little peeved as the way Jake said it, but this way did sort of make more sense

“Yes, that’s a nicer way of saying it.” he replied

“Go one then”

“I will continue my career in the militia, and return to them in two and a half months”

“Will you continue to train alone once you are there alone?” Glavous pressed, he knew he could make this work.

“Yes”

“And the second concern?”

“I may use these abilities for the revolution” Jake said

“I believe at first, you should keep these abilities private, at least until you’ve reached a stronger point, but in the meantime, I believe it wise to use these abilities only in self defense. I can accept that concerned should you accept mine” Glavous bargained, it was a good agreement.

“Fine, I accept, self defense only, for now!”

“Then we start you training now, we need for you to learn as much as possible in the two and half months I have you! Your brother as a practitioner of the same power can be your sparring partner. This is great he has been needing one of his own. My own power is too great for him right now.” He sighed “Your brother is jealous of your power, I feel it. He has great power within himself, as much as you do. I thought he was a master of the flame same as you, but I see now his thoughts of you clouded my view, it may not be his element. Already since finding you I see his aura evolving into his true element but it may yet to be seen. His grieving for his parents now holds him back. He may still be an element of fire, or something else.

“Your mind however is clear, and this will allow us to progress quickly, which considering our time constraint is very important. So you training begins now! Today we will teach you to clear your busy mind to focus solely on the element to control. If this progresses well then tomorrow we shall learn more ways to control the element. Does this make sense to you?”

“Yeah, it does, Glavous”

“Then let us begin, but tomorrow, please being a different set of clothing. The military uniform does not bother me in the least, however in your studies you may, well, accidentally set fire to yourself. Drito may have something he can lend you”

Glavous began on simple meditation, clearing the mind to concentrate more on the power. Less clearing the mind and more about controlling it. For several hours Glavous taught Jake just how to think clearly about the element and to focus on it. Periodically he would ask Jake to blow a flame, noting how each time it was in greater control.

After a few hours a knock came at the door. The concentration was broken, but Glavous had even lost track of time. Exodus was at the entry, adorned in their flight suit to hide form the others.

“Where is Deakon? He should be with you!” Glavous seemed slightly annoyed

“Glavous, Deakon said he’s not training anymore, you’ve got you master of flame here. I tried to get him to come but said he was just going to start work on the Phoenix instead!” Exodus explained gently but Glavous was a little angry now, storming out of the room towards the airlocks. Jake got up and followed and Exodus trialed behind.

Glavous found the Phoenix, seeing the spirits but ignoring for them now, “We will talk another time” he said to no one from Jake’s point of view. Singh wasn’t offended, he knew the new dragon who could see him was on a mission. Glavous found Jake in one of the labs, under a console pulling out wires. “Deakon, it’s time to train now, the Phoenix will still be here when you are done!”

“Glavous, I’m not going to continue!” He didn’t even come out from under the console

“Why? Why is my master of flame no longer tr-”

“I’m not your master of flame, my brother is! It’s fine! I brought him to you, although by mistake, and now you’ve got someone stronger!” He pretended to do something under the consoles but it wasn’t fooling Glavous

“If you think you’re the first champion I’ve grabbed by the horn and dragged to training like a whelping you’d be greatly mistaken. Your power is as strong as you brother’s and once we unblock whatever is holding you back you will see how great you are! It’s likely this low confidence now!”

Deakon stayed silent under the console, still pretending to be busy “So be it!” Glavous reached under the console and grabbed Deakon’s horn, dragging him out from under with a surprising amount of strength and pulled him to his feet. “Now are you going to come, or am I dragging you kicking and screaming like a child today?”

“Yes Yes fine! Just let go of my horn!” Glavous did as he asked and walked back to his suite, the three following closely. Jake snickering slightly as they left.

Today was simple, a guided group meditation, now that were a group. Jake was little bored having done similar already all day, but after a few hours things were returning to normal.

“Deakon, stop being jealous like a child, trust in me when I say I see great power in you as well, if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have bothered to to take you this far. You’ve been a pain in my neck to train!” Glavous was a little more relaxed at the end, but still annoyed.

“Yes, Glavous, I’m sorry, but I do feel useless” He said

“Something is blocking your power but I see it now lifting, soon your power will likely exceed your brother for some time, as you have been training with me for longer!” He sighed, annoyed at the low mood of someone meant to be a master of their abilities “Put your faith in me and this process!”

“Yes Glavous, I will, I’m just having a bad day”

He took a deep breath “I want you tomorrow evening alone, I wish to council you more about these feelings” Deakon nodded “You three may go now, and have a meal!”

Everyone had gathered for one of Drito’s nice meals, spicy tonight, delicious food before sleep. Chatting and getting to know Jake, knowing he would only be around a short time for now. It was nice for Jake to feel so welcome, the next couple months would be a nice break from the militia. Tomorrow would be yet another busy day as the group struggled to keep up with the workload and Jake would need to train more, everyone retired somewhat early.

The Rapier class was twice as wide as the Phoenix, when it was complete anyways, nearly half of of this one was missing, the remaining warp driver was already taken for a repair long ago, this ship had been here longer then Exodus and I. She died in a battle at some point, the right side ripped to shreds. Duke and his group found it and dragged it back, after finding the perfectly fine power core inside, leaving it in his floating “Junkyard” in space. I had already ran the measurements, it would fit through the ejection hole in the Phoenix, just barely. A little surprising, since a complete Rapier class was twice as wide as the Phoenix

From the power input I was giving it at the station though, there was another odd problem of using a dragon power core in a human ship. Our output power was very high, I was worried if the Phoenix could handler her new heart, but maybe a simple power regulator would be a good solution. I had thought of an elegant solution, leaving the power output form this core to a new power bus directly to the warp drivers, and split the original power bus away, putting a large power controller between the buses.

I had set a vacuum to decompress the Phoenix overnight, once she was empty, Olto agreed to patch the hole in the reactor room permanently while I pulled the core from the destroyed dragon warship. It took the better part of the day just to get the core loose by myself, I simply cut a hole in the bottom of the ship’s corpse and use the local shuttle to pull it out. It was time consuming, but it went without incident. I will admit I was nervous, after what happened during our recovery of the Phoenix. Perhaps it was time to start a “no working alone” rule out in the junkyard here. I just took my time, being extremely careful, which did make it take longer.

Once I used the shuttle to bring the core back to the station I shoved it up the ejection port Olto was kind enough to open for me with it’s 200 turns, and let it float inside. It was very tight, I think within a few millimeters around it, but it did fit. The next issue was getting it mounted up inside, but that would wait until the next day. It was later afternoon now and Glavous was already calling me to come for my day off training.

His counseling a couple nights ago really did help me feel better, there was lingering feelings of uselessness but he assurance convinced me enough to continue with him. Today was strangely fun, sparing with Jake for the first time. Glavous had taught him to throw fireballs from his hand like I could, but weakly, and being his first day trying it, his were still about the same level. We used the control over the element to defend ourselves, learning that we could become immune to at least small fire, we had a fireball fight like human children in winter would have a snowball fight. We were both laughing and enjoying it by the end, while Glavous shook his head. He now had several burn marks on his walls.

The next day I went back to work on the Phoenix. Working with Kelly previously we had come up with rough designs to hold the new power core in place. I started welding in the frame to hold it, realizing this would be the time consuming part. I welded for entire day. I was no where at Olto’s level but I could get it done, eventually. In the evening I trained with Glavous and Jake, with Exodus around this time too.

This became my life over the next few weeks, working for the station, helping with the workload. My evenings and days off spent training with my brother and getting the power core installed. Overall it took a month, mostly alone, but I got it mounted into place. The Phoenix had a new heart, now it was time to get her running.

I waited for the work week to pass by so I could concentrate on this for the whole day. Even Glavous agreed to let me have a day off! Exodus helped me hook up a control system to the core, under Pike and Kelly’s supervision. Finally we could start the core. The power for start up came form the warp coil’s capacitor backs, they had inadvertently recharged while we had her boosted from the station. It was more than enough to fire up the reactor, which was a good thing for us, if for any reason the core shuts down while we’re away from the station, we would have a means to get it restarted after it was repaired. I loaded in a bar of the fuel for the reactor, a 50KG bar of Deuterium hidden within a protective sealed shell. The core would eat away at until it was ready for more, likely at idle a year, but for long warp usage it would likely last a couple weeks. I made a rack in the corner of the room to securely hold more of these interchangeable cartridges for the core, they are pretty standard for dragon vessels, scavenging the junkyard I had found a few more, but they were partially consumed, we had fuel for likely a few months maybe a couple of years now too.

Exodus grabbed my hand, and I took a deep breath and pressed the start, the core did come to life to our relief! We switched from station power over to her own for the first time in 6 years. Now came the fun part, where Exodus’s talents would take over. This was a stand alone power source with a control system, we had a ship with it’s own systems, now they needed to talk to each other! I went into the electrical control room and start pushing up all the breakers. There were so many, but I wanted to make sure EVERYTHING worked! There were even a few labeled for things we planed to removed, labeled ‘Lab A’ ‘Lab B’ but the ‘Comm’ immediately tripped, maybe a piece of the damaged long range transceiver was still there, shorting out the circuit, it didn’t matter. I did leave off the breakers relating to the crew quarters for now, we could deal with that after we follow through on our promise.

Exodus and I made our way to the bridge, the screens were still booting but only a few moments later things started coming to life. Different displays started showing various data, a couple of screens turned red to our right. I stepped over and looked, making sense of them. These were screens relating to the core, and the ship was simply recognizing the core was missing. Suddenly we heard a female human voice speaking in English, we turned and in the center of the bridge was a console, a holographic human woman stood in it, translucent and wearing a uniform that was identical to the ones the corpses where wearing.

“Captain Singh! Did we make it?!” she asked. I forgot humans used these AI’s, dragons simply did not, we didn’t have the computational power for it.

“Oh hi! Who are you?” Exodus asked, of course they assumed it would be friendly

“Who are you?!?” she demanded, suddenly the lights on the bridge went red “Security alert! There are intruders on the bridge!” she yelled. But received no response from any crew.

“I’m sorry, your crew didn’t make it” Exodus explained “We found your adrift and recovered the ship” The AI seemed to pause, she was studying records, but the ship was dead the entire time, except apparently a single circuit had some sort of backup.

“Real time clock indicated it’s been over 6 years since I was last online” she stated. “Accessing logs” The light turned from red back to normal. There seemed to be a few minutes, the AI was still staring off into space, we waiting intently until she finally spoke. “I have reviewed Captain Sing’s final logs, and the logs of the rest of the crew, and none mention any dragons on board. Did you steal me?”

“No” I said “Like I said we salvaged you, brought you to our home, and gave you a new power source”

She seemed to check out for a minute again “That’s a lie, I cannot communicate with any fission control software, from my point of view the core is offline and the generators are at zero RPM”

“It’s not a lie, you’ve got a new core, but you can’t see the power yet” Exodus explained “If you’re an AI, it would be nice to have your help to connect the new core system to the ship!”

“I am the ship, and I’m not going to help thieves take me over!”

I sighed, I was instantly going to make the threat “If you’re not going to help, we can power down the ship and rip out every one of your circuits and throw your processor in the sun, we have more than enough parts around to make a completely new control system if we have to” It was a nearly empty threat, this would set us back months.

“Stand by” she disappeared from the projector for a moment. I guess we would soon learn if this AI had any sort of self preservation programmed into her. A moment later we got our answer as she reappeared. “I’ve done some calculations and projections. I can confirm the death of Captain Harmon Singh and the entire crew, and I can also confirm you had nothing to with their deaths. Considering I no longer have a crew to protect, I can acceptable take reasonable steps to protect myself. Therefore I can give you information you require as long as you keep me online”

“Okay good! So you can tell us who you are and your functions then correct?” I asked it.

“Yes” it replied, not smart enough to complete the answer perhaps

“Well, who are you and what are you functions?” I demanded

“I am E.M.B.E.R. Experiment Monitoring Bot for Employee Research. My primary function is for helping with observation and calculation in the astrophysics research this vessel is designed for. My secondary functions include ship maintenance, security, health monitoring, mission advice and planning, course planning, and communication control. Noting of which, the long range quantum transceiver is not reporting either”

“It’s been shot off, we haven’t replaced it with on of our own yet.” Exodus said “So tell us, how do we gain complete control without following though with my partner’s threat here, you obviously seem to want to continue being around right?”

“Sorry, I can’t complete anything relating to that without command codes. I’m sure you understand, and hopefully you don’t delete me for this. I know Captain Singh was an intelligent man, perhaps he left the command codes so-”

“I have the codes!” Exodus said. I couldn’t see through the damn helmet but I’m willing to bet their spikes were purple, talking to Singh himself”

She disappeared and a blank line shower up in her display “Please enter the command code phonetically”

“Echo, X-ray, Papa, Lima, Zero, Romeo, Three, Romeo, Five!”

“Command code accepted!” but she did not appear back, the line stayed in the hologram. “I assume you wish to transfer command, based on the information I have and you have given me?”

“Yes” Exodus replied “But can we have two in command?”

“Stand by” she was silent for a moment. “Two party command mode engaged, you will both need to to enter command codes, and in the absence of one officer from the ship only one will be required to complete commands, excluding deleting the other’s code, do you accept?”

“Yes” we both said

“Very good, please enter the first and last name of the one of the co-captains”

“We don’t have last names, we’re dragons!”

“Enter your name, I will default your last name to ‘Dragon’”

“Okay, my name is Exodus and my code will be” As they spoke, the phonetic alphabet conveniently showed up in her hologram “Sierra, Lima, One, Tango, Lima, Zero, Victor, Three, Romeo” I snickered as I saw it on the screen.

“Co Captain voice print and code registered, Next Captain, please state your name and enter a command code”

“Deakon, and my code, Three, Four, Tango, Mike, Yankee, Alpha, Five, Five”

“Co Captain voice print and code registered.” She appeared on screen again. Standing still before speaking. “I’ve reasserted your command in all systems now, please excuse me I must reboot to make final changes” and her display turned off.

“I sure hope she’s not deleting everything or something!” I said

“I think she’s not lying, but it’s weird for me now, to talk to someone without feeling something” Exodus didn’t have experience with AI, they have no real emotions and their thoughts were digital, they were a device, immune to their power.

A few moments later She reappeared “I am back online, and confirmed, the U.S.V. Phoenix now in command of Captain Exodus Dragon and Captain Deakon Dragon.”

“Can you just called us Exodus and Deakon, please?” I asked it

“Name preference set! Sure thing!” she seemed much happier now. “Now about this power source I am plugged into”

“You’ve got a dragon fusion core now, it’s probably a lot more power than your old system made. The steam turbines and generators are still in place, but we will be removing them to make space. What we need from you is a way for the original systems you control to control the reactor throttle of sorts. Right now it can only idle unless we manually update the power.” I explained

“Security protocol prohibits me from direct control over power and drive systems as well as life support and environmental controls, only monitoring. But I can tell you the protocols the ship uses to request more power from the old reactor, you use those data paths to create a way to control the reactor directly to drive the steam turbines and reactor control rods” She explained

“Uh, our reactor is direct to electricity, it’s output is instant” I told her

“Oh, then we’re going to have a little bit more work, can I recommend a large capacitor bank between the reactor and the main power bus to absorb large loads and power spikes?”

“There’s already one in place, yes”

“Then it seems like you’re right, the last missing link is a control system, I’m sure working together we can come up with a solution. I would recommend Lab A as a good place to start, as there is going to be some programming and circuit development involved”

“Which one is that?” Exodus asked

“Port side, off the main community room, I’ll illuminate the lab green so you know which one, and I’ll see you there” She disappeared. We turned and walked to the rear of the ship, sure enough the one on the right side of ship was light up green now, turning white as we entered.

“Deakon, maybe it’s for the best we leave one of these labs alone, it may turn out to be useful!” Exodus said.

“I agree, but the other one, we don’t need two, it’s not a science vessel anymore. We’re going to reduce her weight quite a bit removing those generators too!”

It was Exodus’s turn now, my work was mostly done, I could relax while Exodus worked with Ember and Pike to make that control system, but I had one more trick up my sleeve. One thing I gathered was finding the nicest control mount of all the ships in the junkyard, and planned to put it in the Phoenix for Exodus. But not how it was, I had gathered some really nice purple fabric and purple metallic paint with metal flakes in it, sparkly! I reconditioned the whole thing in my spare time over the next week, Re-upholstered the soft parts of the mount and snuck it to the bridge and mounted it near the front, where the humans had a small “observation” area in the nose of the ship. She was a science vessel after all, so a place to stand and look at the pretty things they were studying made sense. I convinced the AI and Pike to make a connection to it to control the ship. It was really easy for those two, the control mount just emulated joystick input from the original pilot controls. It looked really nice, the first of our personal touches and I even managed to fit it in without removing the original pilot controls, now we could leave both operational! I threw a cover over it for, to surprise Exodus later.

There was a tiny detail I wanted dealt with sooner than later, but it did involve a space walk, making me nervous again. I got some paint and went out through the airlock next to the Phoenix, using mag boots to stay attached, I painted over the Castle logo and the text below it. Then I made my way to the other side and painted over the “U.S.V.” part of her name, and her registration number. She wasn’t a human ship anymore! The painted wasn’t a perfect match but I cared more about getting rid of those markings and corporate logo than having her paint perfectly match.

One more modification I wanted was replacing the maneuvering thrusters. Human ships were not really well known yet, but already they were known for being stiff and slow to turn and control. This was a thing I think a little dragon technology could fix. I wandered out to the junkyard one afternoon, pulling some thrusters off another larger ship and brought them back. I was able to replace them all in a day, but made the power and fuel connection later that week. Once she was up and running she should turn a lot faster now. Luckily they worked nearly the same way as human thrusters did, ionic argon driven, easy to get propellant for, we even had a large supply of it at the station.

Weeks had passed in total, we were running low on time, the Lightning Festival on Sandpit was in two weeks, and Jake had to be returned in a month. But the day finally came! We moved what few belongings we had into the Captain’s suite on the phoenix. Singh had told Exodus that his belongings could be disposed of, he couldn’t use them or needed them in the afterlife. It felt wrong, so we did keep some of his finer possessions, a couple plaques and awards, some interesting human artifacts, and distributed them around the ship, paying honor to his life and the beginnings of the ship. One we could retrieve the belongings of the others we planned to to do the same for them. This room however, we made it ours. The two books from Earth we managed to keep safe all these years, we read 100 times on the prison ship, my blue cloth from the day I left earth, even Exodus’s now horribly tattered tail satchels they were wearing when I met them, the last iteration of the costume they hid in on Sandpit, we hung them around to remind ourselves where we came from.

The second half of the day was the exciting part, I invited Jake and Glavous along for this. Once they were on board I closed the airlock behind them. We went to the bridge, the release was there and nervously I flipped the switch.

Ember made herself known “Hello, Guests, welcome aboard!”

“Thanks” Jake replied in English, awkwardly, he wasn’t used to AI’s either.

“What did this thing say?” Glavous asked in Draconis, we forgot he wouldn’t understand her.

“She’s welcoming you aboard!” I said, walking to the front of the bridge “But before we take off I have a surprise for you Exodus!”

“Oh? Is that the thing you’ve hidden under that sheet?” They laughed “You don’t hide things very well, what is it?” I yanked the sheet off the control mount, they shiny fresh paint and fresh purple fabric looked really nice in this light. “OH! I LOVE IT!” Exodus stripped off their helmet and flight suit and crawled on “And you’ve adjusted it perfectly! Thank you!”

“Of course! We said we would give it our own touch, and I think this is perfect fro you! For us even!” I walked back toward the Captain’s chair, which I had also modified with a hole for dragon tails, and sat down in it. “Are you ready, Exodus?”

They were thrilled to finally be able to fly the Phoenix, after the long process of retrieving her and retrofitting her with dragon technology “Yea, I’m more than ready, let’s see what she can do!” They wiggled into the control mount, making themselves comfortable, then put on the mini display over their eyes. I got up, realizing the controls I need were on another panel, releasing the airlock. Eventually we should take the time to reorganize the bridge for two instead of how many it was designed for. It was inconvenient right now, requiring to go from station to station, but I went to the airlock control, and released it. There was an audible metallic clang from the rear as the Phoenix let go of the station.

“Impulse thrust is online” Ember stated “Ready for departure” Exodus pressed up gently on the throttle controls and she moved under her own power for the first time in 6 years. Once we had a little distance from the station so our engines didn’t burn a hole in it, Exodus pushed the throttles and moved their wings. The ship responded, rolling to one side and picking up speed rather quickly.

“I didn’t expect her to be this maneuverable, for a human ship!” Exodus told us as they leveled out again “I think we should have some fun! Test her out!” but before we could even respond the Phoenix rolled 360 degrees to the left and leveled out again. “Oh! Oh wow!” They took a moment “There’s some calibration needed for the control mount, but she handles like a small ship!” They Pushed the throttles all the way forward now, the ship lurched forward “She got some kick too!” Exodus had a few minutes of fun, performing more rolls and a couple loops, the Phoenix was getting to stretch her wings and her modifications were really showing. Glavous was smiling while Jake held his arms across his chest. He had seen excellent pilots so wasn’t impressed yet.

“Okay Exodus, let’s straighten out and test out the warp drive!” I stated

“Good idea! We don’t know how well this even works yet” Exodus took the time to get the Phoenix perfect straight, the locked in the controls. Then they leaned back and put their hand on the large heavy switch. “Ready?”

I sat down in the original pilot seat, we decided to leave FTL controls there for now, except for engagement, which was moved to the big red switch on the mount like other dragon ships. “Ready!” I answered back

“Coil capacitors are charged, the ship is ready!” Ember butted in, no one asked, but it was good information I guess.

“Ember, can you call out speed every half factor?” I asked her

“Sure!” she replied “Currently warp 0” We were going to have to work with her about telling us information we didn’t need.

“Okay” I nodded at Exodus “Flick it!” Exodus pressed up on the switch, the sound of the coils working started to echo off the hull, but stayed at a low groan. We did start moving but barely at what the full impulse jets would have us do.

“Wait, Deakon what’s going on?” Exodus looked worried. Jake looked down at my screen and laughed, he knew.

“I left the core at idle, just to make sure it works before we-” I was explaining but got interrupted

“Warp 0.5” Ember stated That was a good sign, picking up speed at idle.

“Well, everything works, so let’s go!” I put my finger on the silly human touch screen, though it was nice and felt futuristic, I’d prefer a throttle handle for this, we would add it later perhaps. I moved the finger up slightly on the “Power request” and the ship started picking up speed. The tunnel forming in our view and as it flashed as we broke the luminal barrier and Ember spoke up again

“Warp 1”

I looked at my screen, I was only at 15% request, and there was a speed readout there too it was climbing still.

“Warp 1.5”

I pressed by finger on the screen and increased to 30%

“Warp 2”

“How does everything look to you, Ember?” Exodus asked

“All systems are nominal! I will note power into the coils is nearing what the original power system was capable of, but the coils were designed to handle more. Warp 2.5. Coil temperatures are stable”

I slid my finger to throttle request to 50% and she soon spoke again “Warp 3, this speed was the ships original cruising speed specification, but I see we’re only at 50% power request.”

“Correct, here come some more!” I slid my finger up the screen, 75% power.

“Warp 3.5” and only a short paused “Warp 4, we are now 1,000 times the speed of light and climbing, We have exceeded the original specifications for max speed!”

“I think this is fastest we’ve ever gone ourselves, what is it?” Exodus asked, getting worried

“Deakon, I think you should back off, this can’t be right!” Jake said

“Warp 4.5!” Ember seemed excited herself now.

“I think we’re okay, remember, I built the specs!” I said, I pressed it up to 100%

“Warp 5!” after a short pause “Coil temperatures are now rapidly climbing! Warp 5.5!”

“Something is wrong with your sensors! It’s not possible to be going this fast!” Exodus yelled.

“Warp 6!” there was about 30 seconds of silence as we rode it out. “ALERT! COIL TEMPERATURES ARE APPROACHING CRITICAL!” I nodded and throttled down, maybe a bit too much too fast. I pulled it down to 20% and the ship lurched back as we slowed. “Coil temperature is stable, but not dropping, I recommend disengagement until they cool down” Exodus looked at me, I looked around the room, everyone else seemed concerned, even Glavous, but I was VERY pleased.

“Okay, Exodus drop us out!” I said, They turned and pulled back the switch, and we dropped back to sub light speed. They laid into the control mount and used their wings and throttles to bring us to a dead stop. The bridge was silent, I seemed to be the only one not scared. “Ember, confirm our location and compare it to speed recordings and confirm we moved as fast as you said.” While the others were worried we just created a monster, I was convinced it was a calibration error.

“Standby” and Ember took on her thinking pose.

“Deakon if those are real readings you just made the fastest ship in the known galaxy!” Jake exclaimed

“I think it’s an error, we just fed a ton of power to human coils and there’s no telling what went wrong here. Once she gets back to us we can figure out what happened. But the good news is we have a working ship!” I explained, I was getting excited!

“That was in English again.” Glavous spoke up “How fast was it?”

“Warp 6” Exodus looked back, still in a little shock “1 hundred thousand times the speed of light”

Glavous raised his eyebrows “Oh, how nice, you can get anywhere in dragon territory pretty quick, that is very great news! What do you think Singh?”

“I didn’t know she could do this” the answer only heard by Glavous and Exodus.

“Calculation results have returned. Base on our current position, the speed readings were correct” Now I was concerned like the others, this didn’t seem possible “I also created a handy chart, using this trip as calibrations, of our maximum speed time ratings. We can maintain warp 6 but only safely for 32 seconds. Our fastest cruising speed is safely warp 4.5, and most efficient speed is warp 3.8. I recommend an hour cool down before we engage the coils again, both for safety and for temperature calibration. The previous power source was not capable of overheating the driver coils, and these specifications were never imputed”

“Where are we exactly?” I asked, Ember’s display changed to a local start chart, showing the location of the station and our patch of how we got here.

“Deakon, it would take the Talon 4 hours to get here at full speed, we got here in 10 minutes!” Exodus told us.

I thought hard for a minute, there was more testing to do to confirm everything, and I didn’t want to get people excited or have the ship taken away. “It seems human coils driven by dragon power makes something really special. Let’s keep this between us for now, at least until we can confirm everything. If this turned out not to be some sort of mistake, we can retrofit other ships like this!” All 4 nodded in agreement. “Good, as soon as Ember says the coils are cooled enough, we’ll head back!”

Glavous spoke up “So, does that mean we have a little down time here?”

“It looks like it, while these coils cool down, yeah” I said, realizing afterwards I knew what I just got us into. Glavous pulled two candles from the satchel on his hip.

“You two know what to!” He smiled.