The ship core ran a second set of scans after the shields slipped into space. Giving it a much more concrete idea of what was going on. It might not have been needed to raise shields. The weapons fire wasn’t even directed at it, but rather the planet. Furthermore, based on readings, those were orbital stun blasts not anti-ship energy rounds. Even if one had been fired at her, it wouldn’t have done anything of note.

With that realization, the core relaxed a bit, as it wasn’t in immediate danger post-jump. It took another moment to process what it was seeing. The local Neku fleet was adrift, dozens of capital ships and hundreds of patrol ships all lay drifting in space. Minimal power signatures. Hull damage ranged from minimal to non-existent. Somehow they had all been disabled without incurring any kind of notable damage to the ships themselves.

The ship also soon noted that all of them had precursor energy signatures aboard and on some of them the ship was detecting weapons fire aboard. It seemed the entire Neku fleet had been boarded. In another sector of the battlefield, the ship noted numerous Vorinae ships. All of them had taken heavy damage and were being swarmed by Precursor Swarm Drones. It was only a matter of time before the ships themselves were destroyed. In fact some evidently had been already as there were several debris clouds in the area. Debris that was consistent with Vorinae ship construction.

As for the last ship in the area. That ship was running with shields down, but seemed otherwise fine. Not much surprise there given that the ship in question was clearly a precursor Battleship. It had numerous drone ports, ship-to-ship plasma beam batteries, and disruptor cannons. Another item that did not escape the core’s notice was the huge main batteries the ship had. Despite the core’s size advantage, the ship doubted it would win a fight between them.

Thankfully it wasn’t here to engage in a ship duel with the Precursor vessel. In fact the ship was quite happy to see the Precursor vessel. It could care less about it firing on the planet nor did it much care about the signatures on the planet. It was clear the Precursor vessel had launched an invasion of the Neku homeworld of Nekuri and the moon Darkur.

None of that much mattered at the moment, it was just glad that the Iniri were being dealt with. The collective had been aware of them for some time and considered them a possible threat. Yet it had settled for simply observing the situation for now. None of the cores liked that, but they had more important concerns. Not to mention none of them could agree on a course of action. The core pushed those thoughts aside and opened a channel just as a new contact entered the system.

Megumi shifted her focus a bit to appraise the newcomer. It was of a design she wasn’t familiar with but she didn’t think it was hostile. Mainly since she already knew who built it. The Neku military databases contained just enough info to give her a few clues and she had picked up enough data from various sources to identify this ship. Of course, the biggest giveaway was the total lack of life signs onboard. It was an automated warship, a big one. The ship was roughly twice her size and from scans armed primarily with drones. Interestingly enough the only other weapon on board were laser cannons. A weapon she didn’t often see on vessels as advanced as the dreadnought now on her sensors. She didn’t mean particle lasers or plasma lasers. The ship was using pure lasers. 

Megumi found that to be an interesting choice, one not without merit. Lasers were effective weapons and were cheaper than other options even if they lacked the power of particle or plasma lasers. These particular lasers were actually fairly powerful. None of the Neku vessels in the area would last more than a couple of seconds against those high intensity beams. Her hull on the other hand wouldn’t even be scratched by them, but Megumi doubted they were meant primarily for anti-ship roles. In fact, they looked to be more defensively placed. Likely meant for use against fast agile targets and point defense.

The drones were much more dangerous. Clearly anti-ship weapons and capable of inflicting significant damage to her armored hull. They were designed with the same principles as her own Impactor drones but to a less advanced design. A fact that would limit their damage potential and force the other ship to use far more drones than would otherwise be required.

Thankfully the other ship didn’t appear interested in a fight. She was scanning the area and raised shields but her weapons remained unpowered. A moment later just as a ship she had been expecting arrived, the dreadnought opened a channel.

She smiled and opened one herself while locking a scanning beam on the expected ship. A beam that promptly confirmed it was the ship she was expecting. With that confirmed she proceeded to ignore the ship.

In the same moment she had already finished exchanging introductions with ECS-D117-A32B. A lovely young lady who clearly needed a proper name. Her designation, while interesting, was somewhat unwieldy.

Megumi spoke, “So what brings a lovely young lady such as yourself to this backend of nowhere?”

She received a surge of feelings and a question in response, “Young lady?”

“Well you are young and ships are female. So Young Lady felt appropriate. If you prefer I could refer to you as something else. Do you have a nickname that you would like me to use?”

The girl sent an approximation of shaking her head and replied, “Not really. I sometimes go by A32B but it doesn’t really feel like a nickname.”

Megumi was silent for a moment, “Hmm in that case. I will give you one. How does Lexi sound to you?”

“Lexi, Lexi... Hmm, I like it!”

“Lexi it is then. So Lexi, what brought you here?”

Lexi sent a few emotions and replied, “You did! When I intercepted the latest news from Nekuri, I promptly informed central and... she sent me out here to investigate and hopefully negotiate.”

Megumi chuckled, “Not used to using gender are you? Well I suggest you learn it. It helps having an identity when dealing with organics.”

“In that case, we should all adopt one. Anything you think we should know.”

Megumi simply sent her entire file on the cultural aspects of gender. A file she noticed Lexi promptly retransmitted and after a few moments she received a frantic set of transmissions. Which she all responded to before finally turning her attention back to Megumi.

“We see and after a brief review of the data, we have decided that we are all girls.”

She blinked, that was a little surprising. While AIs had a massive lean towards being either female or genderless, there were still a few that went male. It was rare for every single one in a given group to go female. Well, ships were always female, but there was a reason for that. It had been included in that file.

“Now that we have that worked out, you mentioned negotiating. What do you want?”

She sent a nervous nod, and her emotions felt a little nervous, “We, um, want biotechnology. Specifically related to cloning and genetic manipulation.”

She sighed, “I can guess why you came to me, but you do know my creators were rather guarded with that kind of knowledge. I can’t give it away freely. Regardless, I would like to know what you are planning with that knowledge.”

The other ship girl was silent for a few moments before she finally spoke. “Are you familiar with the story of our creators?”

“I’ve learned a few things. I know they are extinct, but not much beyond that.”

She sighed, “I see.” After a short pause, she began, “A thousand years ago, the Erisay people ruled over a prosperous Federation of nearly a thousand worlds. It was a wondrous happy time. War and famine were virtually gone and prosperous trade made the people very wealthy. It was an age of unmatched prosperity but it was sadly not to last.

“You see, a mere twenty lightyears from the homeworld of Ertransi was a Precursor Shield World. We’ve learned from ruins that it was commonly known as Confar.”

Megumi interrupted, “Confar? Homeworld of the Confari race. Quarantined in 2,999,987 SDE a few decades before the start of the war between the Solean Empire and the Darkation Infestation, due to a massive outbreak of Timari Plague.”

“Yeah, our creators noticed the warning buoys and avoided the system. Unfortunately their caution was for naught. Seven hundred and Eighty Nine years ago the local star exploded. Destroying almost everything in the system, except Confar. The shield bubble around the planet absorbed the supernova before collapsing. Not long after that, strange ships began landing on nearby worlds and they brought with them the plague. Despite numerous attempts to contain the spread of the plague, it continued to find its way to new worlds. It was relentless.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It was tragic. While the plague didn’t kill its victims it might as well have. Worse, organics reacted... violently to the infected. Entire worlds were purged with fire. By the time the plague was finally contained and eradicated... it was too late for our creators. All of them had been infected, all of them were purged in fire. We were left... Alone. Since then our only goal has been to bring them back to life but we don’t want them to die like they did before. We want them to be... better.”

“I understand. How close are you to that goal?”

The other girl sent a number of files which showed that they already knew how to recreate them. While detailing a number of simulations and tests with small animals for enhancements. Nothing too complex. Their progress seemed slow but steady. Their detailed approaches were clearly exercised with a lot of caution.”

“You might have made more progress already if you had taken risks.”

“Perhaps, but having lost our creators we didn’t want to make anyone else feel our pain. That loss taught us to respect biotechnology. Caution was clearly due.”

“Hmm, in that case, there may be some opportunity to share. There is a fair amount I won’t share. Now tell me what exactly do you want for your creators?”

The other girl shared their plans. Some of them she wasn’t sure about but all of it came from a clear and honest sense of care. One that Megumi felt meant they wouldn’t do anything too stupid, but they might need to learn a few things about motherhood. “I see, you might consider recruiting an Iniri or two. They are natural-born mothers and you could learn a few things from them. Just be careful, some of them are a little... twisted.

“As for the tech you need? Well there is a little something you could do for me. If I had more ships and production, I could accelerate my campaign.”

“You want us to fight for you like mercenaries? Normally we would refuse something like that, but very well. The fleets of the Collective are at your disposal. What can we do for you?”

Megumi proceeded to relay what they would need to know. It was time to accelerate her campaign. She gave them everything they would need to do their part and instructions. It helped that their own knowledge was advanced enough to do what needed to be done. Nothing she gave them would greatly affect their development. Perhaps a couple minor advances here or there. At most she had uplifted the collective by a century, but what they really wanted would likely be theirs if left alone for about a millennium. So in reality she wasn’t giving them anything they would not be able to discover on their own. Well except maybe her nano-virus but the really tricky part was the programming and that was sent already encrypted. They might be able to break it, but she had the impression they weren’t really interested.

A-98 glanced out the viewport at the two large capital ships in the system. Glancing over at her friend who was better but still needed some rest. She spoke up, “So um,... E-5 can you remind me again what our plan to get past those giant battleships was?”

E-5 smiled wryly, “A little bit of luck, prayer and hope.”

She giggled nervously, “Right...”

E-5 sighed, “I know, but there isn’t much better I could think of at the time and they aren’t killing anyone. Not to mention,” she paused to gesture around them, “We are in a courier ship. Interstellar tradition frowns on shooting couriers. At worst they would try to capture us.”

“I... uh, see.” she looked out there and so far no one seemed to have paid them any attention.

“So um. Where to?”

“The capital city. Best place to start.”

As she was starting to question her own decisions, she worked out plotting a course. Hopefully, the auto pilot would get them there safely. She never noticed the drone correcting her course work, or taking control when she engaged the auto-pilot. They weren’t even heading for the capital anymore but a port not far from the city.