Carpathia IV: Episode 211 - Inhibitor
Bridge, NCCS Shadowdancer-A
Shadowdancer slowed to thrusters as they closed in on the Sentinel. The hotoh ship did the same, followed shortly after by the Sentinel. Three ships now meeting in space for the first time.
Kit: Commodore Amaranth requests permission to board.
Quick, Aire thought, but not surprising. He would do the same in Adell's position.
Aire: Granted. Call Ramei and have him ready the shuttle bay. I'm on my way there now.
Kit: Understood. Contacting Ramei.
Shuttle Bay, NCCS Shadowdancer-A
Adell moved fast and by the time Aire got to the shuttle bay, the door was already open. Aire stood at attention while the shuttle flew inside and touched down on the deck. Adell emerged from the shuttle with a nekomi ensign in tow.
Adell: Captain Valro! At ease before you hurt something.
Aire relaxed while the nekomi ensign strode up beside Adell.
Adell: This is Kau Sesisi, my communications officer.
Kau: You're a legend, Captain! So good to meet you!
Aire absentmindedly scratched his cheek whilst giving a humble chuckle.
Aire: Heh. Well, I don't know where you heard that. Just doing my job.
Adell: I expected Phobos to be here.
Aire: He's in Engineering going over some technical details with Alka and Artemis. Shall we go?
Adell: Absolutely!
Aire: Captain to bridge. Resume course as soon as the shuttle bay doors are closed and request the Sentinel and the hotoh ship to do the same.
Kit: Yes, Captain. Relaying messages.
Engineering, NCCS Shadowdancer-A
Aire and Adell forged through the double doors of Engineering with Kau scrambling behind. There, they found the usual crew activity, so Aire immediately steered toward the lab, certain that Phobos and Alka must be in there. Indeed they were, with Phobos and Alka seated, facing each other, with Artemis on the screen and Minnie, Ramei, and Baal milling around. Phobos was the first to turn and look up and then immediately leaped from his chair.
Phobos: Dad!
Phobos nearly knocked Adell off his feet when he collided with a big hug.
Adell: It's good to see you again, Phobos. Or... Deimos?
Phobos: Phobos. Deimos is glad to see you too. We were just about to talk about what's in store for me.
For a moment, Adell stole a glance at Artemis on one of the monitors.
Adell: Hello, Arty.
Artemis: Glad you're here. We're going to need you.
Alka: Well, if I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. An interspecies marriage!
Adell: Not unusual for us, really.
Alka: The way nobody seems to make a big deal about it, I believe you. Come. Sit. The plan for Deimos involves you.
Adell nodded and had a deep sigh before taking a chair next to Alka.
Adell: I've been keeping up to date on everything, but I don't think all this has really sunk in yet, so hit me before I lose my composure.
Alka: Right, so we have to build a body for Deimos and she said she wants to be a human female.
Deimos: That's right! No more superfluous appendages and that includes the ugly wrinkled one in the front!
Adell blinked hard, squeezing his eyes shut tight for a moment, and then shook his head as he looked back toward Phobos... Deimos.
Adell: Deimos?
Deimos: Hi dad!
Artemis: You'll get used to it. We have to get on with it, so please continue Alka.
Alka: We're going to base some of her design on you, for a family resemblance. However, since she wants to be female, I'll need a reference for female human anatomy.
Minnie: Dr. Teagan and I can help with that. In fact, I think I might be able to provide a unique perspective on the differences.
Alka: And that brings us to Phobos. We can build you a new body, which would be easiest, but that means no more mini version of you. We just do not know how to pack everything into that small of a space. We could try to repair your cascade failure damage, but that's very risky.
Phobos: I see. I have a choice to make.
Alka: We won't be able to start building until tomorrow, so you can have that much time to decide, but I can't give you more than that. We have to hurry.
Phobos: I see.
Alka: Next, you need to start preparing yourself. The transfer is more psychological than technological. We can't just transfer your data into one body or the other like you were little more than a computer program. The bits that make you who you are have to go willingly. To facilitate this, I will connect myself to your inner psyches and together we will work out who is who.
Artemis: That explains why we could never figure out a way to shift Deimos to a new body.
Alka: It took some work to figure this out ourselves. It's not something we have to do often, but we have done it. Our AI expertise is what drew Lazmaedia's attention to us in the first place. We left because we didn't want to become her slaves and we didn't want her to obtain our knowledge.
Minnie: A sensible, but tragic, course of action.
Alka: Sadly, yes. Now, Phobos, I need to ask you two questions.
Phobos: Just two?
Alka: Two. First, how many hours do you sleep per night?
Phobos scrunched up his face and glanced at Artemis.
Phobos: Erm... None? I mean, I do a system reboot once a day. What do you mean by sleep?
Artemis: Why would he need to do that?
Alka nodded knowingly.
Alka: That would partly explain the current issues you're having. For an AI as sophisticated as...
Phobos let out a low, cat-like growl.
Phobos: I wish you'd stop calling me that.
Alka: Oh! Um... for one as sophisticated as yourself, you'll need to be able to enter a dream state to keep your mind healthy. We'll make sure to include the hardware for that. It will take some time for your mind to adapt to it and we can discuss the details on it later.
Phobos: That sounds strange...
Alka: Second, for how long have you been inhibiting your emotional subroutines?
Phobos's ears popped up on his head.
Phobos: How did you know?
Alka: I wasn't completely sure, but it seemed likely.
Phobos: A little bit, for most of my life. Once I reached a certain level, emotions were a bit too difficult to manage. I turned up the inhibitor to 75% when we figured out what was wrong with me. I... just couldn't handle all the feelings.
Through Phobos's answer, Artemis's ears flitted about on top of his head and Adell also had his eyebrows raised.
Artemis: Really! I never knew that.
Alka: For the psychological treatment to be successful, you'll need to turn it all the way off. If you've been running it for a long time, even at a low level, I suggest you get yourself to a place that's familiar and where you feel safe before you turn it off. I would also recommend removing that feature entirely, but we should do that after the transfer is complete. It'll be entirely up to you, though.
Phobos hung his head low, looking uncharacteristically unsure of himself.
Phobos: I see...
Baal: Would my quarters do? I haven't completely moved out yet and it's still kind of cozy.
Phobos: Well... familiar... safe... Yes, it fits both.
Alka: You get started on that, then. I'll work on getting set up here. Eventually, we'll need to move our equipment over here. Again, familiarity helps with the transfer process. I think we have enough to be going on with now.
Aire: We should eat, then, since it's getting late. Commodore Amaranth, would you care to join us?
Adell: I would, Captain. One request, I understand that Kit has been working for over 12 hours at this point without a break. With your permission, I'd like to ask Kau to take over. He'll be transferring to the Chrono Blade soon and I'd like him to familiarize himself with the Falchion-class systems.
Aire: Granted. Kau, head for the bridge and I'll let them know to expect you.
Kau: Thank you, Captain!
A long day drawing to a close and each little group went their separate ways, to dinner, to comms, and to Baal's quarters, for hopefully a little calm before the next day.
Commissioned art in this episode from:
AvareonArt
Zelbunnii
Less_End
Thatwildmary
Colourbrand
Falke2009
