NationStates Jolt Archive

Just outside Jupiter`s Magnetosphere

"Goddamn radiation. I hate Jupiter." As large, as fascinating as Jupiter is... Aeka hated it`s magnetosphere. Granted, the ship was (relatively) save, but... Well, she hated to be inside of the ship... However, staying outside of the ship, even in their protective suits, was, basically, suicide.
"We will be there, soon..."
"I hope so, Michael. I hope so... You know, I really, really hate working here... I startzed working for IPX to enjoy the vastness of space, not to stay inside of this... box." The man she talked to, a strong- looking man in his fourties with an enormous beard, chuckled.
"Well, reality hasn´t much to do with our dreams... You should know that, being almost-"
"Shut up." She was actually 38, not 35, like she told him, and a bit touchy on the subject.

Entering Jupiters magnetosphere. deceleration continues. ETA four hours, 6 minutes.

"Bah. I need to take a shower." Aeka left the room, cursing the "Ship and it`s ridiculous behaviour. It´s a friggin human wired to it`s core, not a f*cking AI, damnit."
"Watch your language, or Carlos will cry."

Aeka didn´t answer, although one could call her slamming the door an 'answer' of sorts.

Ouch.

The sound came from the ship itself, mocking Aeka some more. As a matter of fact, mocking Aeka had been the primary source of amusement for the the five other crewmembers (Not counting the avatarless AI)... And the ship, the Sky of Stars, a 440m long explorer vessel, refitted during the past year to prepare for this particular mission. Just like the other five vessels in their small fleet. Just like the six other vessels that had already arrived at Themisto a week earlier, doing the basic preparations. Just like the twenty- four vessels that would come during the next weeks, to finish the work.

Four hours and some minutes later. Themisto

Slowly, the six ships came in, synchronising their own speed with the tiny moon`s velocity.

Aeka and Michael were watching it and the small group of ships already waiting for them. "It´s... tiny. I mean... wow. Compared to Jupiter..."
"Uh... Aeka, I wanted to ask... With the AI`s..."
"Shut up. Just shut up, Carlos... please."
"I like you, Aeka, but I feel a bit insul-" He continued, but couldn´t be heard anymore, since Aeka had turned off the speakers.
"Well... lets begin." With that, she turned around and left the room, heading towards the shuttle bay.

One week later

Space is chilly, and thusly, Aeka felt cold. Well, actually, the temperature outside the ship could hardly be the reason, since she was inside the ship, but psychology do weird things.

She didn´t have much to do, they still kept the moon in orbit, rather than moving it to it`s destined position... And as long as the construction of a basic shuttle bay and living quarters wasn´t finished by the drones, she couldn´t exactly get out and do something.

Well, it would change tomorrow... When said quarters and shuttle bay would finally be finished.

Meanwhile, she had to work over the basic constriction plans, again. It was all nice and sweet, with significant parts of the moon already mined out, which made their work easier... In a way. On the other hand, it also made it harder.

"This will be fun, eh?" She sighed, talking to herself, hoping that neither Carlos nor the ship were watching then the undressed to get her shower. [i9Annoying AI`s...

Tomorrow, the real fun would begin.

Semi- independent mining unit #4896 lives a happy life. It`s mining, and it loves to to do it. Mining is its greatest joy.

Of course, mining alone would be very boring, but whenever it is awake (And it is always awake), it lives in a world full of beauty, of fun and great friends. It`s a bit confusing that it is a black and white world, but then, it doesn`t like to think about it overly much. To keep digging keeps it happy. Breaks are unpleasent.

So it works. Always.

It can listen to all the other mining units, #5638 is his best friend. It creates a tunnel not far away from him. But then, all the other Mining units are its friends.

Today, something very exciting happened. The rock it works on was moved. And then, other machines entered it. This machines refer to themselves as 'humans'. They are his masters. Nobody ever told him that they are his masters, he just knows it.

Something important begun. It looked almost like they planned to stay... that was when the stone hit him.

---

"Goddamit. This is the first thing I have to do?" Aeka looked at the wreckage. "A mining bot. Oh heck... Any nasty Isotopes?"
"No. That part stayed ok."
"Good. Just gimme a hand..."

---

The next Day

Semi- independent mining unit #4896 is happy. It had a bad accident, a very bad accident, and it looked like it would die. But a nice machine came, a version 2.0, female, and repaired it.

Now it is working again, tellig all it`s friends about the nice female, and they are all happy.

For work is their greatest joy.

Tag

tag

Themisto, one month later

"Well... that went well." Aeka exclaimed, coming out of the shower. "Tiny piece of rock is now fairly inhabitable..."
"Indeed." Came the half- yawned answer from the bed, where Michael was lying. "How far are they with the magnetic accelerator rings?"
"Uh... will take a while... say..." She sat down on the bed, fondling Michael. ""Why do you always talk about our work? There are so many other things..."
He laughed. "Indeed... Well, I guess they wont care for us coming ten minutes later."

---

The moon moved, slowly. Finally, they changed its orbit, the giant engines they had installed having problems accelerating the even larger piece of stone.

Several ships had been attached to the moon, and were slowly accelerating, trying to move it away, into the desired position...

It would take a while, about a month, until this task would be finished... Until then, the work inside and on the surface of the moon would continue. It would be something... big, that much was for certain. It´s functions as trade port, as diplomatic center, but also as military base would demand a lot from it...

Well, it would still take a while... but right now, it was at least semi- operational.

Just the funny little secrets hadn`t been finished... yet.

But their time would come.

Several weeks later

The orbit had been stabilised, seventeen million kilometers from jupiter. However, the work continued, far from being done.

The quarters had been finished, as well as most minor installations, flight guidiance, FTL inhibitors, and minor defences.

However, the basic telepathic systems, as well as the major defence parts were anything but finished, neither were the shipyards, not to mention the civilian parts of the station.

However, there was one other problem...

Inside Themisto

"Focusing lenses work... but they melt at 14% energy output. And we have problems with the reactors."
"Meh." The chief engineer looked annoyed at the ring. "First the reactors. Carlos, you go in."
"What happens if the optic harddisk melts?"
"You die."
"I`m not going."
"You WILL go!"
"No."
Goddamnit, I hate AI`s...

A few days later

The process continued, and it continued fairly successful.

Now, that the reactors were working with surplus energy output and the ore mining begun, the next step could be done.

And on the surface of the rocky moon, structures begun to grow... some made from minerals, others from metals, others being bioorganic structures...

Max was walking on it`s surface, watching crystalline structures growing, slowly rising towards jupiter...

Within the next two hours, Themisto would reenter Jupiters magnetosphere, he didn´t have much time...

But he enjoyed it, and the sight of jupiter was, simply, magnificient.

He turned around, watched some bioorganic parts of the moon... station... well, whatever it was. Above his head, some maintenance bots were flying around, searching for objects to remove, repair, or add to the construction.

It went on, an endless circle... Finally, when he had less than an hour to get back, he walked away from this world of wonders, his boots crushing a few crystals which were soon reconstructing themselves.

Themisto, several weeks later

The moon, once looking like a giant potato floating in space, was now almost round. Almost a sphere.

Which was like it was supposed to look like.

Michael and Aeka stood on board of the Sky of Stars, watching Themisto. Many, many things had changed since they had come here.

"They`re almost finished, aren´t they?"
"Yes." Michael kissed her back. "Even with the... nastier things. Well..."
"Yes?" She smiled at him, teasingly.
"I`m sure there are other things besides techtalk we can do..."
"This..." She giggled. "This is true."

Humans... Carlos decided to go into debug mode, checking the most recent additions to his program. He was certainly not interested in the 'dirty' things humans tended to do when they believed to be alone...

Although... Perhaps I should videotape it, for the others...

Another month later

Slowly, the ships accelerated, leaving the place... Their work was done, finally...

Sure, there were a few details (For example the supergun) that still refused to work like they were supposed to do, however, the station in general was now basically...

Working.

Carlos was silent, he was still frightened, as he had been leading the 'inauguration ceremony', as they called it.. The connection of a human being, a human mind with the station.

He, or rather, she, was conscious, the whole time, waiting eagerly for the process to begin... They say it is wonderful, a wonderful experience... Well, this might be true, however, the beginning is...

Painful.

When the connections were established, when Carlos added them to her, closed the circuits in her spinal cord, he could feel her, see her by way of the monitors. She didn´t scream, but her pain was visible.

Then, when the work was done, when the biotronic connections had been established, when she descended into the black, viscous liquid, still breathing... Well, sorta breathing...

Then the connection was established, and she screamed.

No, not she.

The station screamed, a scream that could be heard in space, in your mind...

A scream so terrible, one could hardlöy believe the person uttering it could survive it.

It took several hours until she recovered, until the base was really operating the way it was supposed to operate...

For some moments, they were actually scared the stations core, the human being wired to it, might even destroy the station.

It was, of course, unnecessary to worry about it, since they did succeed. They always succeeded.

And finally, the (by now spherical) station was illuminated by a bioluminiscend light. Finally, their work was done. Finally, they could leave.

Of course, a few vessels stayed there, and a few others came, docking at the station, now, that it was finally done.

In any case, the crew, Carlos, Michael, Aeka (Both who had just learned to hate each other... again) and the rest didn`t have to travel for long, since Thebe, their next destination, was still in the jovian system...

Just waiting for them, very much to Aekas unpleasentness.