Goofing off... And exploring... A bit.
07 Dec 2020Teafox
It's a disconcerting feeling to wake up to the sound of voices when you're so used to being alone in your ship. I thought it was just the galnet report, but no, the kid's been messing with Covas. Years ago, I installed an AI companion to keep me company. Voice control is useful from time to time, but after a while some of the additional routines started to grate.The kid seemes to be having a blast, though, currently we're in orbit around some kind of planet and he's dropping probes. Kid's been busy whilst I was napping.
He's calm, enjoying himself, it's kind of an infectious feeling. I make some tea and a random pack of baby food, some kind of spaghetti and mystery meat, I think. Tasty, in a way. Kid doesn't want to be relieved and I'm curious to see how he handles the ship by himself, so I just wait for him to finish the scan and motion for him to continue whilst trying not to make it look like I'm paying a lot of attention.
He's gotten Covas to give him a list of systems to visit. He has to get the computer to repeat the spelling for him a few times as he feeds it in to navigation. He checks the fuel level, checks that we can refuel at the next star, engages the drive, throttles up and angle adjusts like he's been doing it for years. Confident, efficient and absolutely by the book. He adjusts the throttle down a little as we come into system. His angle for fuel scooping is a little shallow, but that's a question of experience more than anything else. Good habit, the last thing you want to do is to go in too steep and cook yourself.
I ask him where he learned to do this and he says he asked the computer how to do it. I push a little further and he seems confused at my surprise. I don't think he knows where he got these skills from. He has a tendency to roll and pitch and ignore the yaw controls at all. It's less intuitive than waiting for a slow yaw and then correcting the roll. Something of an Imperial flying style, orderly and accurate but not necessarily as efficient as the Federal doctrine of learning to use all of the axis at once.
I didn't get a long time to muse on it at the time, but I'm starting to form a theory. What would happen if someone were to make use of someone's imprint before they were dead? Would you effectively get a clone? Would you be able to, for example, mass produce copies of the same person? An exceptional fighter pilot perhaps? Would you be able to interrogate them?
But then, if he were an imprint, wouldn't he know who he was?
Covas says there's a data packet waiting for collection. Probably the kid's medical scan. We'll have to pick it up from somewhere. May as well get a few more planet scans and then pick it up when we drop those off at Betancourt.
On the plus side, we've been dropping out of supercruise from time to time to watch for passing wakes. We've seen a few, but they are all good natured explorer types looking for that big payout from the Sirrius Atmospherics corp. A few were open to a few rounds of interdiction practice. Reassuring to know that there are some things the kid doesn't immediately do well. No mysterious ships, no thruster flares in the darkness. I'm beginning to think maybe we have lost 'em after all.
On the minus side, I'm going to have to turn that AI off again when the kid goes to sleep. Once you've grown tired of a voice, it's surprising how quickly it can start to spoil an otherwise promising day.