Jacob watched from the station’s sensors as the eiraxin shuttle departed from Melody’s hull and transitioned into FTL. The station had been able to repair the coil, and even better, Jacob now had a full diagram of the part and most of their vessel. He wasn’t sure if the data would help him to build more of his own or if he wanted to reproduce something that looked even worse off than his ancient transport, but it was a start.
The overall dimensions of the new coils surprised him. They were similar to the older style coils he had on the transport, so retrofitting them in shouldn’t be too difficult. At least for the transport. Adding the newer technology to Melody’s hull was a different story. Unlike the replaceable coils, Melody had massive phase coil pillars.
It was too bad he hadn’t gotten a better scan of Hallik’s ship. That vessel was head and shoulders above anything else he had seen so far, and the upgrades would have been appreciated for the transport and maybe even Melody.
Unfortunately, beggars couldn’t be choosers, so he would take what he could get for now, and maybe he could purchase some of the parts on his next visit to Vorlos. There were a few issues to take care of before he departed, however, and the main reason he wanted them gone as quickly as possible instead of pumping them for more information.
From what little information they had been willing to provide, and what he was able to verify by checking their physical responses, it was pretty obvious that they were desperate, and desperate people could be unpredictable. They had already proven that by attempting to seize Melody. If what the leader said was true, nobody would willingly risk capital punishment if they weren’t either desperate or dumb, and the eiraxin leader didn’t strike him as dumb.
Jacob knew they would be back in some capacity, but he already had a few choices to stop them if they did return. He needed to verify a few things first, which meant contacting Hallik.
“AI, please contact Hallik,” Jacob said.
“The address on file is invalid,” the AI happily replied.
“What do you mean by invalid?” Jacob asked in annoyance as he popped back into his virtual space.
“It does not match my communication protocols.”
“Of course,” he muttered. “AI, can you send messages to the Vorlos Station?”
“Negative, Head of Station Services. No such station designation exists in my data archives.”
Jacob sighed. He already missed Melody. While their relationship hadn’t been great, the ship AI would have understood what he was attempting to do and actually offered advice. “Designate the station I visited as Vorlos Station. Can you send a communication now?”
“I have updated my address log with the designation, but I am unable to communicate with the station.”
“But you can pick up Vorlos Station’s outbound communications?”
“Yes, Head of Station Services.”
That was going to be an issue.
He paused as he remembered something. “I was able to communicate with Vorlos and Hallik’s ship communicated with you. Can’t you just use that communication format?”
“That was a short-range communication format, Head of Station Services.”
So, no FTL communications. Which meant he would have to visit Vorlos just to contact Hallik. He sighed once more before addressing the AI. “From now on, just call me Captain, or Chief Jacob. No more of this Head of Station Services nonsense.” He didn’t have the time or patience for the AI to state such a long title every time it communicated with him.
“Your specifications have been logged, Captain.”
As important as getting additional information was, Vorlos would have to wait. Jacob hadn’t gone through all the material from his last visit, and the new power cores he planned on taking to purchase more materials were still in production. If he was going to visit the station, he might as well make the trip as efficient as possible.
Besides, the merging process was nearly complete. He wanted to be present to greet the three people who had been abducted with him. Leaving them to figure things out by themselves or having the station AI assist seemed like a monumentally bad idea, even by his standards.
Normally, he wouldn’t be worried, but the process had not gone smoothly. More than once, Melody had to step in to assist, which was only possible with Jacob facilitating the connection because the station AI refused to acknowledge the rogue AI.
The biggest issue occurred a few days ago, when their bodies died. Jacob had panicked when that happened. It wasn’t until Melody assured him that the merging process would continue uninterrupted that he was able to calm back down again. Much like him, they might lose some memories, but the majority of what made them who they were was preserved.
He wasn’t looking forward to explaining that to the other abductees, but there was no sugar coating what happened, and he wasn’t cruel enough to hide the information from them as Melody had.
***
Jacob spent the following days trying to get a handle on his new mental capabilities while he waited for the merging process to complete. Unfortunately, having the data from an AI added to his mind didn’t make him any smarter. It was more like having access to a massive library that he could peruse at will. A bit overwhelming.
Most of the data Melody had left him pertained to how to operate the ship or certain directives the AI had to follow. The rest was filled with random bits of what Jacob came to realize was leftover code from Melody.
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He tucked those bits away for later. While he had no clue how to rebuild an AI, maybe one day he would, although he doubted the little snippets that remained would be enough to recreate Melody. Melody hadn’t been very good to him since they met, but after seeing all the restrictions it had been under, he felt sorry for the AI.
The other part he had to get used to was all the automated processes that pinged his mind nearly constantly. It would have driven him insane if he hadn’t figured out a way to silence the messages and just dump them into a log file.
Jacob would have just erased them to save space, but he figured some of them might be important.
He pushed that thought to the side as the shared virtual space he built formed for his three guests. That meant they were almost ready to be awoken.
Jacob hadn’t wanted to shock them with a blank white room, as Melody had him, or with the void—he shuddered—that Melody had first placed him into and which he currently stood within. So, he built what he called the waiting room.
It was comfortably furnished with three plush chairs set around a small circular table. The walls were colored a warm, inviting terracotta. He even added a slightly faded cat poster on one wall that cheerfully read ‘Hang in there!’ to help lighten the mood.
The bodies began to form from diffuse light, and Jacob grew red in the face when he realized they were all nude. Before he could get more than a brief glimpse at their forms, he produced some clothing for each.
That had been close. He didn’t want to cause further stress or embarrassment for any of them, especially since one of the three looked to be a woman around his age, while the two others were males. That hadn’t been clear in the stasis feed from the science ship.
Jacob was pretty sure one of the men was barely an adult, while the other looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the three looked familiar, but he was awful with faces even before part of his memories were lost to the void.
The three finished forming, seated in the plush chairs, eyes closed. Satisfied, Jacob completed the final wall of the room and created a door.
He waited a few minutes to give them time to wake and acclimate before he entered the room. He knocked first, then opened the door, only to freeze in place.
The three were shouting at each other, and the two men sported bright red slap marks across their faces. They froze and turned to Jacob when he entered, and the woman stormed over to him and gave him a matching mark.
The slap rang through the room, surprising him.
“What the hell was that for?” he demanded as he placed his hand over the stinging area where her hand had landed on his cheek.
She didn’t respond; instead, she shoved past him and fell, screaming into the void.
A petty part of him wanted to let her fall for a bit, but he decided to be the bigger man and recalled her to the room. She appeared a few feet off the floor and hit the ground with a grunt.
Slightly bigger man, he amended. She had slapped him pretty hard after all.
As the woman groaned and tried to catch her breath, Jacob addressed the two men who stared at her in stunned silence. “Whatever you think is going on, you’re wrong. Why don’t you three have a seat, and I’ll explain. Or you can walk out the door. Your choice,” he added before stepping aside and leaving the door to the void wide open.
The younger man approached the door, but what he saw must have terrified him, because he immediately stepped back and fell into one of the chairs.
The reason why there was nothing outside the door was that Jacob hadn’t bothered to create anything. The small room was taking up a considerable amount of storage space as it was, and he would be erasing it once they were done and able to generate their own space, which would be extremely limited given the available storage.
As long as they could come to an understanding, he would share his virtual space with them. There was no reason to leave them trapped in a windowless box devoid of anything but the basic necessities if he could help it.
The older man stepped around the coughing woman, taking a seat as well. Jacob noticed with a bit of amusement that the man had subconsciously adjusted his clothing to fit better. Unlike the other two, he didn’t look like he was draped in his older siblings’ clothes.
The woman eventually picked herself up off the ground and glared at him. “Why have you kidnapped us? What is this place?” she demanded between wheezing breaths.
Jacob ignored the question and gestured to the chair. After a moment, she reluctantly sat.
“Let’s start with names. My name is Jacob—uh, I can’t remember my last name.”
Dammit Melody!
“Franky D,” the younger man said, as if it should be obvious.
The name did sound vaguely familiar, and Jacob was finally able to remember where he had seen the name and face. Franky D was on the leaderboard for Omacron Six, the game his friend played. Seventh place, if he recalled correctly, which annoyed him.
Why was that considered knowledge to be kept when he couldn’t even recall his friend’s name?
He turned to the others. If his guess was correct, they were on the list as well.
“General Yao,” the older man said in embarrassment. “But you can just call me Barry.”
He looked nothing like a general nor was he Asian, but Jacob chose not to comment.
The group turned to the last member.
“Ugh, fine. Katty. And you’re mental if you think you’re getting my real name.”
The younger man snorted. “There’s no way a hottie like you is fifth place on the boards.”
“How about I give you a matching welt on your other cheek, twerp?”
“This is going wonderfully,” Jacob muttered.
“And you,” Katty said, turning on him. “Answer my questions, or I’ll do more than slap you. Just because you abducted us doesn’t mean I won’t fight back. I’m not some helpless woman you can take advantage of.”
“Crazy B—” Franky started to say before Katty launched herself out of the chair at him.
The younger man screamed like a little girl, but Katty never made it over there to strangle him. With a thought, Jacob deposited her right back in the chair.
“Alright, let’s be civil, or next time I’ll toss you out the door and let you fall for a few minutes. And I want to make one thing clear: I didn’t abduct you. I saved you from certain death.”
Franky looked like he wanted to say something, but he glanced over at the door and snapped his mouth closed.
“And how are we supposed to believe you?” Barry asked quietly. “You obviously have some control over this space that isn’t normal.”
Instead of spending hours answering questions, Jacob placed a small version of the room he woke up in over the table and let the scene of his abduction and subsequent interaction with Melody play out. It included his merging process and everything up to him agreeing to be the captain, or at least the parts he could remember. He was forced to recreate most of it, apart from him agreeing to be Melody’s captain, since the AI had erased large chunks of data associated with the incident from both his mind and its own.
It was embarrassing to watch, but Jacob suffered through it in silence.
Once the recording ended, he looked to the three. Barry looked lost in contemplation until Jacob took a closer look and realized the individual wasn’t moving. He waved his hand in front of the man’s face, but there was no response. Turned out he was catatonic. Not a good sign. Franky was having a very different response as he chuckled maniacally.
Probably best to let him sort that out on his own.
He turned to the last person in the room. Katty was hyperventilating.
Jacob sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. These were the people Melody had hand-picked to be a replacement captain or at least crew, but not one of them was handling the news nearly as well as he had. He had to wonder what would have happened to the AI if he had chosen one of them to be captain instead of him.
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