Commander Log 06-02-3034 "Know Your A.I"
15 Feb 2021Matteus_Prime
*Our scene starts in a sector new to Commander Prime. Lets just say its near Deciat. As usual our story picks up in yet another sub-standard dive bar he seems to have a fancy for. Matteus Prime is leaning on the corner of the bar talking to the keep.*"So it turns out I have been able to do this all along. But I just never put two and two together. I cant frakking believe it. " Matteus explains to the only slightly interested man polishing drinking vessels for the clientele.
"Yeah so what? So now you know you can use a material trader for the signals and shit. AND for the raw elements." The barkeep chuckles "How bout a nice root beer on the house genius? Will that make you happy big boy?" Loud laughter and another huge drag on the tetra meth stogie hanging limply from the side of his crooked smile.
I open my mouth to speak. But my breath hangs and I don’t utter another word. Somethings happening in the ol' noggin. Some kind of idea is struggling to the surface of my mind. Its having to make its way through way too much alcho-pop right now. I turn my head from the barkeep and whisper on my sub dermal to my ship.
"Gerhardt ," I studied a bit of German during my last sleep cycle. Time to put it to good work, "du bist großartig Ich möchte mich mit erneuerbaren Energien befassen"
"Commandant, I took the liberty of installing some English and Spanglish linguistics banks during your last rest cycle. " replied Gerhardt in a heavily accented although grammatically correct dialect.
"Impressive Gerhardt, but I didn’t ask you to?"
"Forgive me Commandant, my sensor arrays are made from Tungsten Meta Carbides, one of the most durable materials in this galaxy, but they can only take so much of your attempts at speaking German. Lets stick to English shall we?"
This A.I is impressive. Un-nerving, but intelligent. I don’t know if I feel reassured or nervous…
"Sure Gerhardt," I sigh as I drain the last of my drink. "Heading back now. Prep de-cont. please. This place is greasy AF. "
"Affirmative Commandant" came the automatic reply.
Placing one foot before the other at a particularly languid pace I keep moving the pieces around in my mind. Eventually the chems start to wear off and the truth finally bitch-slaps me into alertness.
The system is preparing for something. Raiders o'th' Void and few other system mega powers are gearing up their fleets. After the last system wars, engineering materials are of high value and through luck, serendipity or sheer stupidity, I have never down traded before. I start looking through the manifest Gerhardt just sent me. Frag my dog! There's enough in my hold to engineer a small fleet and gain a valuable tactical advantage for the party that gets their hands on these mats.
I need to get back to Deciat. I may still have one or two contacts that can help me figure out who is behind all this before anything starts playing out. As long as I can maintain the "oblivious, naïve commander only interested in chems and ass vibe" I should be fine. I lay the bait for Gerhardt and whoever is listening in with his aid.
"Lets go back to Deciat Gerhardt! Its only 1 jump away," I force an evil grin "and with all this holiday money I can finally get some quality time with Ramona. Find me the best place within a 3 minute walk of the entertainment sec. in Garay, I'm going to need at least a week."
I start heading back to the ship, chucking a few creds to a vagrant as I pass by. My bit of good karma, out into the universe before the stellar-scale shit-show begins.
*Camera leaves Commander who keeps walking towards the loading docks. It pans back to the vagrant holding the cred stick. As soon as Commander Prime is out of sight the old beggars smile mechanically disappears. The farce over, he pushes a finger to his ear. . . . and starts talking to someone. All the while his eyes locked on the commander.
Bad moon rising starts blaring from the sound decks of a nearby lounge as the scene fades out*
(Happy Friday Commanders! o7)