"So why am I the one doing this again?"

Kelly groaned for the nth time.

"Quit it. I wanna get back into my Valkyrie too."

Sherry shot back, but fundamentally only adding to the complaint.

She was still flying the Noisy Cricket.

"Ugh. I feel so bloated. My controls are so sluggish from all the extra weight."

Even Susannah was openly complaining as her already heavy ship was further burdened with all the extra load she was ferrying around.

"I know how you all feel, but whining about it isn't going to help. Let's just hurry and get this all done."

Hawkins chided the others while he too was diligently operating his remote drones and filling his own cargo hold.

After the Sigma Hive was confirmed to be destroyed, including a bit of extra examination beyond the initial sensor sweep after the Blue Steel turned its hiding place into a crater, all the pilots in the area had switched to cleanup mode.

Just because all the enemies were taken out, didn't mean that the job was done. That might've been true if they were part of a military, or even a corporation's security team, but they were members of the Federation of Independent Pilots. They were essentially mercenaries, and leaving saleable scrap wasn't a part of their modus operandi.

And thus, the members of Section Nine were doing the time honoured work of collecting scrap after completing their mission.

The same could be said for all the other members of FIP that participated. Due to the nature of the organization, all kills had their ownership automatically marked to prevent mix up during collection, so there wasn't any issues despite how chaotic the debris field the pilots have created.

Of course, due to being the single largest contributors to the mission by a wide margin, the amount of scrap to be collected by Section Nine was also that vast.

While it was possible for them to eschew collecting it all and let the others claim the remainder, it was hard for them to actually accept such an idea as they were the ones to have brought in a carrier, and thus also had the single largest place to store all the collected scrap.

In fact, excluding the broken hive itself that effectively was considered Sherry's solo kill due to how little damage anyone else managed to do to it, the Blue Steel had more than enough cargo space to carry all the debris generated during this mission if Section Nine willed it to.

The scrapping of the hive though, was offloaded to FIP itself. Being buried inside of the small moon, proper scrapping equipment was required to extract any reusable parts and cut up any other recyclable materials.

Of course the scrapping fee would be paid by Section Nine as well as a sale commission would be taken, it was still far preferable than to stick around for however many weeks or months it took to do the job themselves and potentially lose out on poorly extracted parts.

It was far better to leave such jobs to those more qualified to do them and concentrate on things they were actually good at.

Which unfortunately, at the moment, meant spending their time filling their cargo holds with their kills and transferring them to the Blue Steel.

Sherry and Hawkins were in charge of going around to collect the tumbling debris and making floating scrap piles while Kelly and Susannah were in charge of ferrying the collected scrap and taking them to the Blue Steel.

Kelly was piloting the Booty, as his own ship was absolutely terrible for the job. The light cargo hauler was slow, bulky, and unstylish. All things that Kelly hated. But even he had to admit that he didn't really have a choice but to make the switch for this part of the job.

Not like it lessened the amount of complaining though.

Sherry on the other hand, was still riding the Noisy Cricket. Unlike Kelly, her Valkyrie was actually pretty adept at handling the post mission salvaging. But the four pilots were wary about the possibility of being betrayed by one of the other pilots.

While each piece of scrap wasn't worth much, the sheer number that was being collected was going to be worth quite the amount, with the lion's share being put into the pockets onto just four pilots.

Sherry's Valkyrie had low defences compared to Hawkins and Susannah's ships, and nowhere near the speed of Kelly's. Even the Booty was faster when its cargo hold was empty. Though with how light it ended up being with any empty cargo hold, it was hardly surprising that its comparatively large engines could send it packing quite quickly.

In addition, the others had directly witnessed how strong the Noisy Cricket was against other ships. While the Valkyrie was a reasonably daunting ship at first glance, there was a practical difference between knowing a ship type was theoretically strong, and actually seeing a ship showing its strength.

And thus, Sherry was zipping around in the little pigeon class, filling its meagre cargo hold and adding it to a quickly growing pile of scrap, which was then collected by either Hawkins or Susannah to be dumped into the cargo hold of the Blue Steel.

It took hours, but eventually they managed to collect all the scrap they could find. Some of it had drifted past sensor range by that point, but none of them cared about earning another handful of credits. At that point, if someone else found it before burning up in some planetary body's atmosphere, they would rather congratulate that person for finding it.

So the four docked onto the Blue Steel and wearily met up on the bridge before the lumbering carrier entered supercruise and headed towards Carkul Station.

"Ah geez, it's finally done!"

Slumping down in a randomly chosen command seat, Kelly complained as he sat there exhausted.

"I don't want to collect drone drops ever again."

Sherry lay there, her head resting on the console in front of her.

"I wish we at least had a ship that could collect the drops more efficiently."

Susannah too lay back in her own chosen seat, beside the one Sherry picked, the one furthest back near the door to the bridge.

"Except there's not really anything like that, at least in Stella Nova. Ships at least. There is the tractor array we could install on the Blue Steel."

Even Hawkins was taking a break on his seat, exhausted from the long work they just finished.

"No way! While it'll be nice to have, the mass driver saved us! If we're replacing it, the only thing we should install is a different weapon system. That alone really expands the sort of missions we can take on."

Sherry perked up in response.

While this particular incident would normally be considered quite the exceptional circumstance, the other three weren't really able to muster up any decent response to that.

The fact was, the four of them were quite talented pilots in the first place. For the most part, they were capable of pushing the limits of their finely tuned ships even so soon after transitioning into this foreign dimension. And as a team that had fought in countless battles together, their balance was quite exceptional. And together, their ability to overcome almost any challenge was extremely high.

As proven on this instance, usually the only times when they would have serious issues with a mission was when their ships were physically unable to achieve what was needed from them.

Even during their time in Stella Nova, the mass driver had proven its worth time and time again when they engaged in open raids that allowed support vessels like carriers to be included. Many other wings would hire NPC ships to fill in space, so this was one of those places that made it worth investing in a carrier over a space station. Though in the end that was something that was only available for smaller and mid sized wings.

Large player groups would often be stuck due to the limit of one carrier or space station per wing. For a player organization to have more than one, they would have to form a larger organization known as a group, which required two or more wings, with the total number of players being greater than the maximum limit of 36. At this point, there were quite a few advantages of using both, though at the same time it had its own demerits.

"If only we could have drones collect the drops for us."

"Unfortunately not. The remote salvage drones only have a one kilometre range. We'd need automated ships that could extend the range of those drones."

Hawkins dropped the unpleasant fact unhesitatingly to Susannah's casual wish.

"That would constitute a violation of the AI Treatise Act of 267."

All of the sudden, all four pilots whipped around in their seats to stare at the glowing figure standing on top of a round pedestal in the middle of the bridge. Though what they were surprised about wasn't the appearance of the figure itself.

A tall woman, her long silver hair cascading halfway down her back and a beret neatly placed on top. Her features leaned towards sultry, yet the sharp eye line would make any but the most bold hesitate to extend a hand towards her. That air of hers extended to the rest of her as well. Her body strained the military styled black flight suit to its limits in all the right places. The only thing she was lacking was a coat to be worn over her shoulders like a cape and a riding crop.

But despite the risque woman's sudden appearance, what surprised everyone wasn't her appearance, nor how she appeared out of nowhere, or even the fact that they could see partially through her.

What surprised the four was what she had said.

"What did you just...no, rather, where did you find that out?"

Hawkins was the first to recover.

"From the public database on Carkul Station."

The translucent figure, the command AI that all four pilots were familiar with, paused for a moment before continuing.

"Due to the unknown phenomena, I had determined that my database required an update. Currently, I am accessing the Carkul Station's public data stream through the access codes generated on the White Star."

With the end of those words, the entire bridge became deathly silent.

"...I know you said she passed the Turing test, but I can't see how she isn't a true intelligence."

Breaking the silence, Sherry finally spoke the very words that embodied what everyone was thinking.

"Oh man! I was so disappointing when she could only speak those old voice lines when I updated her last time, but she really can talk now!"

Kelly was practically jumping in excitement as his brain finally grasped what was going on.

"...That's amazing. It's like something right out of a sci-fi movie."

"Technically, everything around is right out of a sci-fi movie though. But I understand."

Despite how obvious Susannah's words were, Hawkins couldn't blame her at all.

"She needs a name."

Blinking a few times, the leader of Section Nine finally made a declaration.

"Right. We can't just keep calling her Command AI if she's practically indistinguishable from a real intelligence. Umm...you do consider yourself a fully aware intelligence, right?"

"I do, Captain Sherry."

The hologram firmly answered. And while for most that would hardly be a convincing affirmation, it was more than enough for these four.

"Then I suppose we should come up with something."

Hawkins grasped his chin as he went into thought.

"...How about Kosmos?"

After a few seconds, Kelly threw out his proposal.

"Hmm...a little on the nose, but when has such a thing stopped us?"

The others nodded to Hawkins' statement. They each had something to remember regarding this sort of naming scheme. The most obvious being the Blue Steel itself, being that its armoured panels were painted navy blue.

"So what do you think about the name Kosmos?"

"I am honoured to receive a name from my masters."

And with a solemn nod, the newly christened Kosmos stood tall and proud as the four pilots clapped excitedly for her.

"Huh? Did Kosmos just...smile?"

Tilting her head, Susannah mumbled out a question.

"Woah, really?"

Excited by the possibility, Kelly leaned in to see. But if Susannah had really seen it, there wasn't any evidence of it anymore.

"Ah, I really wanted to see Kosmos smile."

The large man complained as he put his weaved his chrome fingers behind his head.

"Ah, so anyways, how much do you remember about before, Kosmos?"

Susannah asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Oh yea. We've had the Blue Steel for years, and you've been a part of it since the beginning."

The fact that Kelly sounded a little nervous about asking didn't escape Susannah's notice.

"Unfortunately, the data held in my memory banks are quite limited until the recent unexplained phenomena."

"The one where we all appeared in this universe?" Hawkins asked.

"Yes, that one." Kosmos confirmed.

"While I do have records of previous operations, there is very little details beyond typical automated logs."

"Ah, I see. I see. How disappointing!"

Though despite his words, it was clear that Kelly didn't actually feel sad about it. More relieved if anything.

"By the way, is there any reason for the particular changes you've made to Kosmos's avatar last time?"

"Uh, I mean, I set her up in a way that I thought you'd like it." Scratching his cheek, Kelly turned away as he answered the wing's commander.

"Huh?! Oh, well, I mean, I won't deny that..." Susannah couldn't help but hide how rosy her cheeks grew once her attention was diverted towards the obvious bulges in the hologram's figure.

"Uh, aside from that, what did you mean that our idea was illegal anyways?" Shaking her head to divert her attention towards something productive, Sherry asked her question.

"In the year 267 of the Cosmic Era, AIs that had certain capabilities had become outlawed. Those capabilities included features such as operating weapons without direct instructions from a human operator, operating a hyper drive without direct instructions from a human operator, as well as operation of a vehicle without oversight by a human operator."

Drawing information from her data link, Kosmos calmly gave her report.

"So the laws mostly just limit independent operations of AI? Sounds a bit contrived to simply restrict AI functions like that." Hawkins voiced his doubts.

"No, rather, I bet the reason is deal with how easy it is to get around any other style of definition."

"Captain Shelly is correct. Banning specific functions is much easier to both define and control than nebulous concepts like degrees of intelligence."

"Right. It's like how dolphins can communicate almost as well as humans while crows are as good as a ten year old when using tools. They're both vastly less intelligent as a whole, but in specific ways they've already approached human intelligence." Sherry added.

"I see. But that means that while we can't get automated drones to collect our item drops, what about remote controlled ships?"

"What's the point in that? How's that any different from just flying the ship ourselves?"

Kelly asked, not quite getting what Hawkins was going for.

"No, we don't have to be the one controlling the remote controlled ship. Couldn't Kosmos do that as long as one of us is overseeing it?"

Turning to the glowing hologram, Hawkins specified the details of his idea.

"In theory, that is not a violation of the AI Treatise Act. In fact, I have just confirmed that such remote control modules are publicly advertised."

"So all we gotta do is install one of those modules on the Booty! Kosmos can already control the Blue Steel, so that means that she's capable of flying other ships too, right?"

"That is correct, Commander Susannah."

The bridge grew noisy as each of the pilots grew excited at the thought that they might never have to go around spending hours collecting the drops after a major battle ever again.

"By the way, how many ships would you be able to control at once?"

"Unknown, Commander Susannah. The number would be determined by remote control modules."

"Ah. I guess that makes sense. Though it's not like we'd need you to operate more than two or so ships at a time."

"Well, that depends. If Kosmos could control a lot of ships at once, then we could really increase our firepower in battles like the one we just went through."

"I apologize. All of the remote control modules I can find specify that they are not usable in combat."

"I suppose that figures. Sucks, but oh well."

Kelly shrugged. Though he, like the others, did want to experience flying together with Kosmos during a mission, they all understood that it was something that couldn't be helped.

"By the way, I hope my worry's unwarranted, but is it fine for you to be with us? Legally?"

"There is no problem. I am currently confirming it, but on a cursory examination, the laws pertaining to AIs are similar enough to that of our previous universe that even under scrutiny, there should not be an issue."

"I see. I'm glad."

Sherry leaned back, that niggling worry she had being soothed completely.

"Alright! Well, I think once we get paid, we know what we should do, right?"

"Certainly. I doubt that a remote control module or two wouldn't be out of our price range even after our expenses once we receive our pay."

Hawkins agreed with Kelly, confirming the details.

"Sounds like a plan! We go and find a place where we can buy that module! Ah, that is, if you're fine with it Kosmos."

"It would be an honour to be able to fly side by side with you, even through remote control, commander Susannah."

"And it'll be an honour for us too, to fly with you Kosmos."

 

A while later, the Blue Steel arrived before Carkul Station. Despite going through supercruise like when the members of Section Nine set off, returning took much longer. The larger craft took much longer to accelerate and alter course in supercruise. Of course, even the approach using conventional thrusters took much longer for the massive ship. No matter how powerful the effects of the inertial systems, there was a limit to them.

The Blue Steel sidled up with the station, and its external docking clamps secured the large carrier in place. The docking umbilical secured against the ship, connecting the two together.

While they were a little sad to separate from their newest friend Kosmos, however temporarily, the four human pilots made their way through the station's corridors. They had received instructions to meet up at the FIP office when they contacted Gregory.

"So what do you think they want?" Susannah asked.

"Dunno. Maybe some paperwork?" Kelly shrugged, not entirely interested in the reason.

"Can't we just do that over the comms?" Sherry pointed out.

"Maybe they need a physical copy or something? Could be some sort of security feature that prevents it from being done over the comms, even while docked." Hawkins finished, though none of them were convinced with such a reasoning.

"Well, whatever. Let's hurry and get it done."

As things stood, they didn't really have much interest in spending much more time in this system. They were only after getting paid and buying enough antimatter so they could head off to the next system. Hopefully they'll find decent work as well as a company that'll sell the things they needed.

Before long, they all reached the Federation of Independent Pilots office.

Kelly pushed open the doors.

*Bang! Bang bang!*

Loud explosions rang out along with flashes of light.

Kelly, using his bulky body, covered the others and tried to body block them.

"...What's this?"

But a few moments later, Hawkins pushed Kelly aside, realizing that things weren't as the larger man had thought.

Inside, pilots wearing flight suits of all shapes and colours stood around in a circle, holding various party toys and holographic confetti was fluttering down from above.

"Is this some sort of party?"

Stepping in after him, Susannah asked.

"That's right. Considering that the four of you practically saved the entire day, we figured at least this much was deserved."

Standing there front in centre, yet still leaning against the reception counter, was Gregory, the FIP branch supervisor.

"Yea! You guys were amazing!"

"Your ships are great, but to think you could do so much with them!"

"I can't even believe that a pigeon took out more Sigma Drones than me!"

The pilots cheered the four on, saying whatever came to mind while the members of Section Nine awkwardly basked in the glow of a local celebrity.

"Huh? Aren't we short one person?"

"Ah! Sherry! Come here!"

The moment someone mentioned that only three of them had actually passed through Susannah jumped back. She practically had to drag her fellow pilot into the spotlight, as the shorter girl was stubbornly resisting. Susannah had to hug her from behind to prevent Sherry from running away.

"Oh wow, she's such a cutie!"

"Yea, she's so cute! And the way she's even timid despite being one of those amazing pilots!"

"Nah, that's what makes her even cuter!"

"C, cute?!"

Still completely unused to being called cute, Sherry's cheeks blossomed into a bright blush and her gaze fell to the ground as she squirmed in Susannah's unrelenting grip.

"That's right. You're cute. You need to have some more confidence in yourself."

"Ah, no but...it's enough if it's when we're flying."

"Wait, that voice. Isn't she the nebula pilot that switched to the pigeon?!" One of the other FIP pilots pointed out.

"Huh? That's her?!"

"Wow, I wouldn't have thought! She sounded so straight forward through the comms, I didn't notice!"

"But that gap makes things even better!"

"Hey, hey, can you try stepping on me? With an insult to go with it?"

As the pilots came to realize who Sherry was, quite a few of them grew excited, their focus concentrating on the timid girl.

"See? You have plenty of things to be proud of. There's no need to hide away from people! Nobody's going to bully you here!"

Ignoring a few of the comments that were practically yelled out, Susannah tried encouraging the other girl, thinking this was the perfect opportunity for her to start getting over her traumas.

"Or rather, bully me instead!"

Of course, that also meant that they had to ignore the disturbing words of a surprising number of people who had become the smaller girl's fans.

"Wait! She's the one who was firing the coil gun the entire time though!"

"Then you're White Star then?"

"Man, you were amazing too!"

"Ah, well, thanks. But Valkyrie was the star of the show!"

"Please step on me Valkyrie~!"

Overwhelmed by the intensity of all the positive reception the two were getting, both women started trying to push the attention to the other for opposing reasons.

"Heh. Look at them go. Both of them are getting a lot of attention. Especially Sherry's got a lot of fans. Did you fix things to go that way?"

Despite his normal nature, rather than being envious, Kelly was actually a bit proud for his companion.

"No. She really was the right one for the job. I never thought about things this far."

"I guess. That wouldn't be like you. Still, the results looks promising, even if she won't get over things immediately."

"That voice! You're Headhunter, aren't you?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yea, I am."

Whipping his head around, Kelly was faced with a man leaning in.

"Ah, that means that you're Serenity, right?"

Hawkins too turned to face the new voice that called out to him. There were several who approached the pair, eyes glittering.

"All the stuff you two did! It was amazing! You saved our hides so many times!"

It turned out that all four members of Section Nine had turned into celebrities that day.