Heki in Deep Space

“Belle, please send the newest research results of OCU to my Interface.”

[Requesting access to Origin Central University’s research database… Authorisation complete, research material and reference materials sent, please check your designated folder.]

Heki already began reading the newly arrived research material before Belle could finish her sentence. Belle would have sighed at this point, unfortunately for her she doesn’t posses the capability to do so, since she is this ships AI. Belle controls all of the ship’s functions from navigation and movement all the way to lighting and the bathroom. Yes, although the AI controls everything on paper, this world is still a meritocracy and as someone who has many great achievements to her name and continued to prove herself Heki was given a spaceship, with a full-fledged bathroom.

If this ship were compared to an ordinary mansion, the ship would be bigger, due to having to reserve a lot of space for the ships control, maintenance and other systems. In terms of the internal space’s size, it is smaller than a mansion, so as to not waste to much space, but still bigger than a family house. The rooms all connected to the hallway, which went from the control room, to the engine room. The left side towards the control room was packed full of storage and maintenance rooms, the “garden” was on that side as well. On the right side was Heki’s living space, in this order: the bathroom, the bedroom, the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and closest to the control room, the work/research room. Not that Heki used them much, anyways.

All of these rooms were fully equipped with long lasting devices and equipment after all, during a long exploration/mining mission, there are no shops to stop by and repair or replace equipment.

Heki’s missions usually consist of mapping out new planetary systems, examining the individual planets, their resources, whether they are habitable or not and examining the star or stars of the system. She also has a certificate to bring back samples for research. When given the opportunity on the way home or the next stop, she examines the samples and does her on research on them which she sends to OCU.

OCU is the most well-known university and research institute in the world. They have the most research achievements in history, and the world’s most famous researchers with only a few exceptions are and were part of this university. Due to their achievements Anna has given them more freedom and privileges, than even governmental leaders have. Heki is an honorary member of this university, thanks to her discoveries, and providing accurate data to researchers. She also does experiments for the institute, which can’t be done in a lab.

Right now, she was reading the most recent research data done by the energetics department. The research is about a new source of electricity, which could cause a new revolution in energetics. Currently the main source of power is the sun, even spaceships use the stars’ power to move.

The research was deemed as crucial, since at the current rate, in a few decades, consumption will overcome production, and the energy reserves can only provide for half a decade at most. After that, they would have to regulate consumption, which would reduce efficiency. This would have a great effect on space exploration, since they would have their energy consumption cut first. Though it would mostly mean the end for establishing new mining colonies, since they take up most of the energy. Energy meaning, the production of equipment, for building infrastructure, comms and producing more ships, in an endless loop.

Though these concerns seem pointless, since the department is progressing well. They will perform their first tests with their new machine in a few minutes.

Looking over the research material Heki is deep in thought.

[Network connection lost. Some operations may not be possible in offline mode. Reconnecting to the network in progress…]

Heki stopped reading the research and immediately went to see if the cause of the error was an obstacle or interference from an unknown source. She couldn’t find any. She started testing the ship’s system, but it was working fine as well. There was no prior notice about a network shutdown. This kind of problem hasn’t occurred for over two decades, even the last time, there was a prior notice, before shutting down.

Possibilities started running through her mind.

(Maybe multiple relay points were damaged and shutdown, but then a backup relay point should have started its operation within seconds, but if it also had a failure… there is no point in thinking about it, let’s see what we have.)

She started looking through the ships systems. Her ship was one of the few, which had a full offline navigation and mapping system, so she could continue her exploration, even without the network. Other ships only had the map and navigation functions deemed necessary for their mission. For her ship, completing the mission without the network was possible.

She didn’t find any problems, that she could solve locally, so she went back to read the research material, only to find that, it was no longer available.

“Belle, do you have a copy of the recently sent research materials?”

…

“Belle, status report!”

…

She tried to open the interface of the chip, that was planted in her during her life lengthening medical treatment, but nothing came up. She could still feel connection to the chip, but it had no data and no OS on it. Basic interfacing with it still worked, but without an operating system, that was all it was good for. She went to check on the various systems of the ship and found that none of them had any data on them, they only maintained the tasks given to them before the wipe.

She quickly headed to the server room and opened the manual access terminal. This terminal should’ve been locked with multiple identification procedures protecting it from unauthorised tempering.

(It seems that the security chips were wiped as well… Does it have any connection to the network going down?... Forget it, first is to get the basic systems working.)

Power management, basic navigation, oxygen, water, food, these are the five most important things to get back up and running. The first one is obvious, without this the ship wouldn’t be able to do power management. The second one meant that the ship should be able to avoid any dangers that came its way, while staying in one place. While the ship stayed “anchored”, Heki could focus on the other three problems. The last three are self-explanatory.

Yes, during her years of exploration Heki studied programming. The reason for it was, that on one of her missions with her 2^nd ship, the shield meant to protect the ship from outside interference stopped functioning. Due to this and being near to a star, the ship’s systems were wiped. These ships still had manual controls for emergencies, so she could still control it to a certain degree. She managed to land on a nearby planet, which was in the habitable zone. It even had an atmosphere. A few hours later the rescue team came and they were able to repair the shield and reinstalled the ship’s systems.

After that incident she started studying programming. She got so into it, that she managed to create a new AI, called Cecil. Unfortunately, she was never given authorisation to operate, since she was too unconventional and independent. Though in reality Anna, the super AI, feared the existence of a new and superior AI. Heki was forced to erase Cecil.

(This should be enough for the power management systems, next up is the navi…)

Due to her brain chip being wiped, she had to type manually on an outdated physical keyboard. White characters on a black background.

Suddenly the ship came to a halt.

(Basic controls are done… It seems like the navi and the ships gravitational field management systems are one and the same. Ugh, I don’t want to float around, let me fix that as well.)

While writing the navigation system’s code, she had also nullified the gravity field of the ship as well.

(Thankfully, everything is secured in place, so I don’t have to worry about anything breaking. Next is oxygen.)

Dishes, cups, chairs, tables and other moveable items were stored in a way so that they won’t move. This gravity field is one of the latest technologies implemented on the newest ship models. For safety reasons, they still had everything fixed in place, so in case of a malfunction, things don’t start flying around, unless they were left outside.

(Oxygen and water are connected, so this should be easy.)

An average person can only survive without oxygen for 3 minutes. Permanent brain damage comes around ~5 minutes after clinical death, and a person becomes braindead around 10 minutes. Basic health training still includes this info, since oxygen tanks blew up sometimes, back in the day. An average person could survive ~3 days without water and ~3 weeks without food.

(Plantation is next.)

The plantation consists of nutritious food. They have been genetically modified to be able to be grown on a spaceship, with special lighting in place of the sun. It is possible to cultivate them on many planets.

(Guess I should create Cecil again, so she can take care of the ship and attempt communication with Origin.)