+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Lubola System

I continued to stare silently into the void. The last battle…well, I guess it went well, all things considered. Still, the fallout…it would only be a matter of time before the pirates active in this system found their fallen comrades and chased us.

We…well, we left the bastards that survived in their escape pods, or whatever. We had a bit of a verbal scuffle, me and her. Apparently, Juliett wasn't fond of the idea of shooting surviving enemies that "couldn't fight back". I think it was the first time that she slightly raised her voice.

"Juliett—"

"Look, it's passed already. I understand why you wanted them gone." She said over the intercom. "But it goes against everything I stand for. Call it a stupid code of mine, but that's how I operate. Please, understand me too."

"I…I do apologize. I…that was nasty of me. Killing survivors…it’s just…well, again…but, you know, we won." Well, if that wasn't quite the worst way to fix a sudden disagreement. "So maybe it's just alright now. Still, I find myself in unease with them broadcasting those distress calls."

"Yeah, as I have said, you have a point. But I can’t. No, we can’t. We'll do our best to work around that issue. Just like last time. I won’t let the two of us commit a crime just to survive a little longer.”

I breathed out. Perhaps my paranoia was just eating me, and I was acting stupid. Or maybe she was stupid for letting them live and possibly endangering us. But what was done was done. We already left them, and they already broadcasted their distress calls. There was no going back, only forward, and forward with her.

"Alright, Juliett. Alright." I checked back on the condition of our reactor. It was green. "Is there really no damage?"

"Yes. I've already checked. You can ask SYS and he'll tell you the same." She said. "That hit was a minor scratch. Our armor there suffered some integrity loss, but it's otherwise alright. Think of it as a scratch on our paint job!"

I laughed.

"Yeah, I guess I'll take that."

"Soo…you good?"

"Yep. I don't see why you would have to ask that. I'm fine as a fiddle. I probably need a bit of sleep, but, all good."

"Well, I wouldn't want my partner having unfortunate health problems. After all, if you do, then I'd have to take more of the workload."

"I have never met an AI who hates work."

"Are you calling me lazy?!" She gasped. "Oh, now, you really can't go for just a moment without striking at me."

"Well, quite the bridge you jumped there, tin can. I didn't say any of that sort."

"There you go again. How rude. This might be why you have no woman in your life."

"Low blow, but accurate." I laughed. Indeed, even when I had been alive for twenty-four years, I had never had a woman. That was not unsurprising considering my lifestyle. "It is accurate."

"You even admitted it!"

"And I'm proud of it."

"You're insufferable."

"Thanks for the compliments."

She reacted just as expected. At the very least, the mood around me slightly improved. I’d take that as a positive development.

In any case, our burn toward the unidentified gas giant where her wreck was long. Hours long. In that time, I gave each nook and cranny of the critical subsystems of the Jukebox a thorough look. Quite frankly, the battle didn't affect it, even that one hit from their autocannons when my ship was venting.

I closed the door of the reactor control chamber. I placed the last check on the list of the things I should check for damage, just as one of the floating maintenance drones stopped in front of me.

"What is it again, Juliett?"

The floating ball flew up and down, almost bouncing when the intercom opened up.

"Just wanted to say hi! You're a hard-working boy." That sounded way too sarcastic. This was why she should piss off at all times.

"Great. Can you distract yourself with more important matters? Those overheated PD mounts need some attention, last time I checked. And don’t you dare call me a boy again.”

"Oh, but you’re more like a boy compared to me. Did you know that I probably was created when the Federation existed? Compared to me, you’re more like a child. And I can multitask, thank you very much."

“Oh, that so? Then start doing the important tasks, old hag. Age can do a number on folks. Meat bags and advanced hardware included. Though, I suppose I can’t blame you. We all go senile at some point.”

“...You’re such a killjoy, you know that?”

I frowned at her, and the drone moved forward, almost as if it was trying to challenge me. Indeed, this…this AI, she was a handful. Beyond a handful even.

The maintenance drone continued to follow me as I walked through the cramped passageways of the Jukebox. I groaned.

“Do you really just plan to bother me at all times?”

“Nope. I just thought it would be nice to give you some company. Watching you do work alone was depressing.”

“Who even told you to watch for me in the cameras? Those are for security purposes, not for peeping purposes. You really are a predator.”

“Hey! Now, now, we don’t know if there’s a security risk. You know, what if you flipped the wrong switch or cut the wrong wire?”

“Oh, great, so I’m the security risk?”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You practically did.”

“You assumed.”

“I like to assume. It’s in my nature.”

“Great to know, jerkface.”

With a tired breath, I placed the maintenance tools in the storage bay. It took me quite a while, all while dealing with Juliett’s incessant mouth. At some point, I seriously considered if it would be a great idea to yank her core off the ship’s AI port, but, whatever. Somehow, having some dipshit take a piss on my arse was better than a cold, dead silence.

Once I was done, I then pissed off from the storage bay and made my way back into the tiny mess hall that was, well, populated by no one but me. The food, well, it wasn’t the best. Naturally, it was the basics. Mostly simple rationed crap. Was it bad? Well, somehow it tasted less shitty than I expected. Quite frankly, fresh ones would be better. But hey, we are sixteen light-years away from the Inner Sector. Who would expect proper food at such distances?

Well, wouldn’t that be a business opportunity? This was a problem to be solved! Proper food management. Why in the holy hell, in this day and age, do Union corvettes lack proper food storage management systems? Though, to be fair, Stable Dynamics probably long figured it out. Naturally, corvettes probably had fewer life support systems.

Not discounting the fact that I just stole Jukebox. I sighed as I took another spoon of heated potatoes. From a military-held scrapyard.

That probably caused a thing or two. No point in moaning and whining about it.

I looked back down at the lone orange juice package on the table. It was half empty…much like my soul.

+++

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

So…that was her?

"They really did me rough…" the annoying voice over the intercom said. "My…guns. Wait…no…my weapons systems! Those heavy Particle Lances are hard to find! No, my creators built those things in. Those Union jerks!”

“What even is that?”

“Extremely important weaponry, Jon. I use those two Lances for long-range suppression. If you catch the enemy late at raising shields, it dunks on armor and soft hull as well. Even capital ships won’t last long when under pressure from it.”

“Well, I can still see the missile pods and everything else,” I smirked. “Should be fine with just a few patches.”

“The mere fact that you’re leering at my exposed figure makes me feel violated.”

“Turning the tables, huh?”

“Equality!”

“Yeah now shut up.” I gave a wide scan over her ship. It was massive, almost the size of a Union-heavy cruiser. It was sleek, with blue-like geometric lines running through her hull. Almost triangular in shape, with two massive mounts on the bow that housed her Particle Lances. I would bet money that it was an anti-capital weaponry on those turrets. There was even a spinal mounted something in the middle. In fact, it was as if the ship was made around that spinal-mounted weaponry. Whatever it was, it must be something good.

“Right. So what’s the plan, Juliett?” I asked, preparing myself for an eventual detour inside her ship. Some questions remained. I mean, should she get that ship online, it would only take a shot from her weapons to annihilate the Jukebox from the universe. Briefly, I almost didn’t want to place her inside of it, until I remembered her two drone ship frigates hanging around nearby. Absolutely no chance. I almost felt like a hostage, yet…when she spoke back, her cheery voice seemed soothing. Like nothing would go wrong for me.

Why?

“I…Jonathan! I know this sounds cheesy, but thank you so much for helping me! We just need to get my core to the command center of my ship, and you just need to plug me in there, and the magic happens. I’ll get you through it!”

Why?

“Are there no hazards in that ship?”

“Uh, well, I don’t think my maintenance drones have been doing much ‘maintaining’ since I was yanked off my ship.” She paused. “So maybe?”

“Great, extremely reassuring. Yeah, I’ll be risking my own limbs for this, won’t I?”

“They say the scriptures say that self-sacrifice is a path to—”

“Don’t quote the damned bible on my face, tin can.”

“What, do AIs have no right to get to heaven, jerkface?”

“For…” If there was anyone I expected to be religious, it wasn’t this damned thing. “You know what? Let’s just get this nonsense done. SYS, move us close to that thing. Juliett, you sure your systems won’t blast us if we get close?”

“Of course not! I wouldn’t set my own ship to behave that way.” She paused. “I think.”

“What do you mean ‘I think’? Clarify that.”

“Let’s just go!” I didn’t need to hear her cheerfulness. I wanted explanations and reassurances! I sighed and rubbed my temple as I took control of the Jukebox. I flew the ship close to her very own ship. A Void-Class Cruiser, as she said. Never seen this one in the records. Definitely never. Just looking at it sent me messages that this was really strange.

I really wonder what I’m really getting into. The fact that I wasn’t yet fully sure about her intentions turned my stomach upside down. What if she turned around, and “disposed” me the moment I placed her core inside? What if she left me here? What would I be able to do? The Jukebox would not stand anything that she could dish out. I was nothing…nothing compared to her.

Perhaps I should have listened to that Union officer. “Don’t mess with that shit son, I ain’t joking.” As he said. Yet I didn’t pay heed. I was now here, with the same AI that possibly destroyed the fleet he once was in. A mistake or not, I suppose I didn’t have much choice left. My money was running dry. My supplies were on their last legs. The Jukebox wouldn’t hold out on another fight. And the situation in the Inner Sector was reaching its boiling point.

This leap of faith…indeed, it would be my last hurrah. Perhaps I would strike gold…or I would die alone in the cold fringes of the Outer Sector. As I deserve. I reminded myself. As I deserve.

Who am I, a dirty outlaw and a criminal, to ask for anything but cold death?

Yet I would never give up. That was my ethos. Never give up. If death was my fate, then I would die standing. That…ultimately, was all that matters now.

“Hey…Jonathan. Are you alright?”

“I am,” I said back, keeping my eyes focused on her ship. “I am.”

“You were spacing out.”

I looked up at the camera.

“Juliett…is there really a chance?” I asked, and her soft voice replied.

“I’ll make sure that there is.”

I detached her from the Jukebox’s control core. Somehow, when I placed her here days ago, she managed to fit in well, even when I thought she would be incompatible. How that happened, I didn’t know, as she refused to let me tamper with her hardware. In fact, now that I noticed it, her core didn’t seem “truly” similar to computer hardware. It was...I swear I saw some of its parts move, almost changing shape. I shook my head, refusing to believe it, but what was done was done.

I once again wore my suit, before I ventured out of the airlock, keeping her, this time around, in a secure case. The tether attached behind pulled me into a stable trajectory, while the thrusters of my suit pushed me forward. Juliett already relayed to me the bay that I could access, and I made why to it.

Immediately, when I was simply meters away from it, the thing opened up. I went inside, and the airlocks closed, just as the cabin decompressed.

“Well, that was smooth,” Juliett said. “Now, Mr. Jones, just follow the directions in your HUD. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

“No need to be patronizing, tin can. I can navigate.”

She giggled. “Yeah, sure you do.”