ShipCore

USD: Five days after mission start

Location: Gliese 1143Ab High Orbit, Thea’s Hackjob, Observation Deck A1

Time.

Time. Always time. Something they would never have enough of.

Alex stared out the observation deck’s crystal display. The glass wasn’t real—the high definition cameras presented a lifelike resolution view out over the moonlet’s surface.

Dozens of artificial mounts jutted out of the rocky surface containing emplacements for emitters, weapons and thruster ports. It was very different from a regular vessel, which in her experience were all smooth lines and angles.

The Hackjob was a mess. Part of that was the rush to get it operational, she was sure. But even then, it would have resembled something like a sea urchin with a bunch of sharp spikes.

“I can’t believe there actually is one,” Alex muttered.

[Notice: Detected moon is not entirely habitable without extensive equipment measures and protection.]

“It might as well be. The magnetic field and pressure are strong enough that people would only need a breathing mask for oxygen,” Alex countered. “Heck, I could walk around fine, I bet.”

[Affirmative: Environment is within Avatar adaptability range even without changes to ANUF system settings.]

“See? First system we stopped in, habitable moon. Kinda ridiculous,” Alex said. “They aren’t that common.”

She glanced back out to space and tapped her datapad idly. “Guess that isn’t as important as the resource list, though.”

Alex paused and waited for Nameless to respond, but the silence of the atmosphere recyclers was the only thing she got.

She sighed. “Update me on what we have found so far? Did we find any of those rare metals or transplutonic feedstock?”

Silence, silence, silence.

Her datapad finally beeped as the screen updated.

[Notice: Mining uninhabited system would present a considerable delay before reaching objective goal. Continuing the mission to Nu Crateris and investigation of frontier system events is suggested.]

The datapad filled with a stream of delay estimates and theories on what they might find there.

Alex frowned. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand—the need to get back and find out what happened to everything she had left behind burned. Delaying felt like running away.

But it wasn’t what she had asked.

Nameless knew how she felt. The guilt.

Why had he punched right for her vulnerable spot?

Why didn’t he want to tell her what the survey reports had found?

While he knew what was gnawing at her, she also knew that he didn’t really feel an urgency toward figuring out what had happed to A31 and H32. Amy and Logan. Ackman Station. Dedia…

At least, not until now, when she was considering prospecting the system.

Alex cleared the datapad’s screen. “Nameless, give me an update on the 1143 Ab system. Please.”

She could taste the hesitation.

But a flood of data suddenly pushed through.

Gliese 1143 A

Type: K4 V (Orange Dwarf). Mass: 0.539   M ☉ . Luminosity: 0.095   L ☉ . Temperature: 4,250 K

That was the star, yes. It’s companion’s data slid by next.

Gliese 1143 B

Type: M-dwarf (Red Dwarf). Separation: 67 AU. Orbital period: Several hundred years.

Not really relevant, though.

It was the Ab system she was interested in. “Show me the gas giant.”

Gliese 1143 Ab

Type: Gas Giant. Orbital Distance: 0.50 AU. Orbital Period: 180 Earth Days. Mass: 5.7e26 kg. Radius: 71,500 km. Eccentricity: 0.01.

“Right. And the resource survey?” Alex asked.

There was that hesitation again. She was starting to lose her patience when Nameless finally relented.

[Informative: Abundant Helium-3 composition has been detected in the upper atmosphere of 1143 Ab. Additionally, Deuterium/Tritium is available in processable quantities. Krypton and Xenon are also present, which are critical for transplutonic synthesis. The Meltisar system is relatively poor in these resources.]

Alex leaned back in her seat. The Helium-3 was what was mined in 92 Pegasi, and was a nice find. Although gas skimmers were less effective than the ice miners, it was the availability that was important. And the transplutonic catalysts were notable...

All in all, everything needed for power generation was available: antimatter harvesting from the star and the necessary gases for fusion.

She nodded and scrolled through the information until she reached the end. It was good, but not exactly a compelling reason to establish a permanent occupation, at least, not without a logistics network to move things.

“And the moons?” Alex asked.

[Notice: Ab I, Ab II, Ab III, and Ab IV all present various resource opportunities.]

Ab I - Volcanic Moon

High Accessibility: Uraninite, Thorite, Monazite, Beryllium, Lithium, Iron, Nickel, Cobalt, Silicates

She pulled up their best visual of the moon. The topographical estimation hinted at a surface that was tectonically ravaged with constant earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Lots of critical resources, but annoying to extract.

They’d need mining flitters that were capable of independent flight, mining, and orbital insertion. Probably inter-system travel, too. Not a cheap drone at all, but possible. It would just be a pain to build them in mass numbers like they could with gas giant atmo-skimmers.

Ab II - Rocky Moon

High Accessibility: Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Palladium, Iridium, Tantalum, Niobium

Inactive Tectonics present opportunity for deep core mining for a multitude of common elements.

Well, that covered the precious metals, although like a lot of discoveries humans had made, ‘precious’ was a misnomer. They were quite a bit more common now than when humanity had been locked on a single planetary body. Still, they were very relevant for industrial use.

Alex flicked the datapad to the next moon.

Ab III - Icy Moon

High Accessibility: Water Ice, Methane, Phosphates

Cryovolcanic activity presents opportunities for extracting rare superconducting materials in high quantities.

That checked just about all the critical resources needed to set up a viable independent system occupation, even without deep core mining.

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And there was still another moon left, the one that had stolen her attention in the first place.

Ab IV - Small Terrestrial Moon

High Accessibility: Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, Neodymium, Yttrium, Cerium, Magnesium, Silicates, Base Metals

Moderate Accessibility: Uranium, Thorium, Zeolites, Graphene Precursor Materials

There was her little miracle.

A thin but workable atmosphere at 35kPa—mostly carbon dioxide with traces of nitrogen. Not tidally locked like the other moons. A working magnetic field that deflected radiation despite having a gravity of 0.5 g and an average temperature around the equator ranging between -5 and 25 degrees Celsius.

Essentially habitable for humans without too much work. There wasn’t much water, but that was importable from Ab III.

Not that setting up colony was on the priority list, but…

Alex let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

The system had everything!

Literally everything, in one spot. Well, solar system. Gas giant system, even.

Alex rubbed the side of her head. The only downside was that everything was at the bottom of a gravity well. That would slow things down until large-scale infrastructure was in place.

Gosh, she was already planning a space elevator...

They couldn’t spend that much time in the system. Nameless had been right about the delay not being ideal, but this was part of their mission, and they were at 1143A already.

“Nameless, prepare a detailed report on the feasibility of setting up a self-sufficient mining platform that can bootstrap the system. Include the required materials from the Hackjob and timeframe for construction,” Alex ordered.

She closed her datapad and stood up, turning away from the observation window.

Talking to Thea, Elis, and the others about what they had found couldn’t wait.

Halfway to the exit lift, she frowned. “Did you hear me?”

[Affirmative: Processing Avatar instructions now. A report will be available shortly once all data has been compiled.]

Yeah. She was sure he would do exactly as she asked. No more, no less. That was the problem. Why didn’t he want to stay in the system?

Alex shook her head and pressed the key to shoot her down to the primary command section. There was a brief sensation of acceleration as she turned her attention to her HUD comms.

Sending a text message would be easiest since she wanted to see everyone. That’d be digital for Captain Turner and Commander Talbott, but Thea and Elis would be able to come physically. It took her a few seconds to author the message and send it out.

There was a meeting room not in use close to her arrival point and she headed there first. How did she want to present the data to her team?

Heck, how did she want to present the data to herself? Nameless had given her the rundown and raw data, but that wasn’t what she had wanted exactly.

She could do it herself, though. Creating a presentation was one of the things working as an ensign had taught her to do on her own.

She got to work.

Thea arrived first, twenty minutes later and ten minutes early. The other NAI waved but tuned her out while taking a seat and absorbing into something on her datapad.

Elis arrived five minutes later. “Hey, find something interesting?”

Alex turned and nodded. “Lots of somethings.”

Thea set her datapad down. “So there was something valuable other than the oxygenless-semihab?”

“Yeah. I’ll go over everything in five when the captains tune in,” Alex replied.

Elis moved to sit beside Thea. “But what did you find?”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Everything.”

“Everything?” Thea and Elis asked at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.

Alex nodded and focused on finishing her report while the two of them chatted about the pros and cons of mobile weapon platforms compared to power armor units in a ground combat setting.

Talbott and Turner tuned in, their holograms flickering to life in two empty seats. Alex stood and moved to the front of the room.

Everyone gave her their full attention. She went through the key points, gesturing to the room’s main holographic displays to put up the data. They didn’t have clear visuals on everything yet, but she encoded some generative video simulations.

Eye candy always made people pay more attention to the presentation, not that she needed a cheap trick to keep them interested. Everyone was intently focused on the mission.

And as she had reminded herself repeatedly, resource gathering was a critical part of that.

“Nameless, can you provide that report I asked for now?” Alex asked.

[Informative: Report is ready. Displaying now.]

1143A Bootstrap Operational Plan

- Atmospheric Harvesting: Deploy atmospheric skimmers to harvest Helium-3, Deuterium, Tritium, Krypton, and Xenon from 1143 Ab

- Terrestrial Mining: Utilize mining drones on moons Ab I, II, III, and IV to extract various critical resources

- Industrial Processing Platform: Assemble in orbit around Ab I for efficient orbital transfers between gas giant and moons

- Mobile Units: Use linear-drive-equipped units to transport materials between locations

- Bootstrap Replication: Once sufficient resources are gathered, units will begin self-replication to expand operations

Alex glanced around the room. Thea and Elis leaned forward, studying the list.

Another list detailing the specific stores and equipment required from the Hackjob for production of the various pieces.

It wasn’t light, considering the capabilities required for the operation.

“That’s a significant allocation of our resources,” Thea commented. “Can we spare that much?”

Alex nodded. “We have enough materials on the Hackjob to produce these units before we leave the system. It will require running the fabricators at full capacity, but it’s doable. The main issue I see is that it will leave us a bit depleted and unable to set another operation up without replenishing our own stores.”

[Notice: Diverting fabrication capacity to produce required equipment will extend our stay in the system by approximately 72 hours.]

She winced. Delay was inevitable, and she had accepted it, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. She was the only one that felt the press to get back to H32 and A31, though.

She listened as the others jumped into a discussion on the merits and cons of throwing their hat on 1143A.

For them, the mission was mostly about resource extraction, and finding out about the frontier status was secondary. Alex glanced at Elis.

That was true, even for her sister.

But… there had been almost no pushback on her rush to steer them to the frontier. Because…

They cared about her and felt her need to reach H32 and A31 was thus important? She wasn’t sure that was it entirely, but her chest still swelled with emotion.

It almost made her feel guilty, except…

Somehow, she knew finding out what was going on in Nu Crateris and 92 Pegasi was critical to everything.

Alex glanced at the chart Nameless had produced again. The 72-hour delay was just for the fabrication of the drones, skimmers, and proto-platform. They’d need time to get things operational as well, she was sure. Call it four- or five-day’s delay?

It chafed, but they had to find balance. It was acceptable.

She’d been gone for a long time, a week shouldn’t make that much of a difference. But it would make a massive difference on how much they would be able to produce in the long term. Getting started as soon as possible made sense.

Talbott coughed, breaking the silence. “Who’s going to stay behind to oversee this? And with the system isolated and only accessible by wormhole, what happens if something happens to the Hackjob and no one comes back for them?”

The room fell silent again, everyone considering the implications. Alex let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “It’s a pretty big risk. Developing another wormhole-capable craft would take too long. We could develop a sub-core for the operation so we don’t leave anyone behind, but it almost certainly would be better to have some oversight for the new NAI if we went that way.”

Thea nodded. “It’s our best bet. Engy and Wormy worked out, didn’t they?”

Alex winced, the ethical dilemma gnawing at her. Creating purpose-built NAIs felt wrong, but leaving someone behind—realistically, the entire crew of the Iron Horse or Alacrity—wasn’t a viable option either.

But then they’d be leaving the new NAI behind. It was the same thing she had done on the frontier.

Would it be the same mistake, repeated?

She didn’t even know if it was a mistake.

Not yet.

They didn’t have options. The more she thought about it, the more the need to get started on production, extraction, and industry gnawed. A week could make a difference for everything, everyone.

Something in the back of her mind told her Tia had almost certainly expected her to figure that out.

She had already slid down as far as she could imagine, deploying the smart munitions.

Once they had multiple wormhole-capable units, things would be different.

Alex exhaled and released her hands which had clenched into balls. “Alright, we’ll go with developing a sub-core NAI for the operation.”

But… how the heck could she instill the values into the NAI without destroying their free-will? She glanced at Thea, who held up her hands.

“Oh no. You aren’t foisting this on me. This is your baby,” Thea said. “I have my hands full already.”

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