Now, my minions did find data cabling, power cabling, and even things that look like consoles (scaled for titans). They didn't find anything that looked like a main computer core, however.  At most I'm looking at workstations or personal computers. While those might have maps… I really want something a bit more central.  Servers, the main computer… assuming this place has one… that kind of thing. And of course, with no power, anything further down the line isn't going to respond either; there’s nothing for the thin clients to talk TO.  So really, I'm going to need to restore power to a decent chunk of the ship to make use of anything. Which, you know, means I need to find engineering (main or not) before I can get a map. But I need a map to find engineering. Quite the chicken/egg problem.  How to solve….

Wait… it's a bootstrapping problem. I just need power in the network; I don't need to power the entire ship, so I don't need power coming from ship's mains… at least, not THIS ship's mains.  I look at the “eagle” on my shoulder.  

“I thought earlier I could maybe fly you through the airlock; I can certainly park you in here,” I order my ship: “Please find a suitable location and revert to ship form.”

The Retcon does, I go inside… and start by shutting down basically everything on board: Weapons, shields, engines, the holographic mantle, life support (I keep it in so I can use the bath, mostly), and so on. I keep the power core running, as well as the ship’s computer, but that’s it.  I then, of course, get to work: I open up the Retcon a bit, connect some very high capacity power cabling to her power core, open up the power cabling for the closest console on The Cube, do a bit of adaptation… and soon enough, I'm feeding power into The Cube from a ship that CANNOT keep the entire Cube running.

But honestly, that's okay: It doesn't need to: I only need enough of the computer network running to figure out why the place doesn't have power, get some maps, and fix the underlying problem.

I blow quite a few circuit breakers, on The Cube  before I manage it (I'm feeding power through the wrong way, and every time a system on the “far end” demands more power than the “close end” is expected to need, it trips the breaker between the two... but that is, oddly enough, what I want: Because each time one such blows, there's that much less the Retcon needs to power), but eventually, I get enough of the computer network running to try and hack the silly thing… because of course I don't have credentials for the ancient alien mega-ship.

And of course, the interfaces here are not built for my scale, so I hook up a spare set from my ship.  I get a login prompt, and start working on getting in…

Before I can finish, though, the screen blanks, and opens something like an instant messaging client, which starts giving me messages (thankfully, Tongues lets me read it): “Thank you?  Maybe. I'm not sure if being blind, deaf, and paralyzed is better than being completely dead… still: Who are you?”

An AI. Hmm.  Well… no harm talking, I type: “I am Alex Abrams; yourself? …and I suppose this is now a rescue operation rather than a salvage operation.  I tried hailing before I came aboard, but….”

The AI running the console answers before I finish typing, “I am Controller. But I was unable to answer,  obviously.  What are your intentions?”

I can be mostly honest, here, “There are some very destructive creatures coming this way in a few months; I am planning to ambush them before they can be overly destructive, and was looking to make the terrain advantageous for the encounter… so I figured I would see if I could salvage you. I wasn't aware you were a person at the time. I'm currently powering your computer systems via my… much, much smaller… ship's power core.  The intent was to find maps so I could find your power core and see about getting you running properly, then using whatever weapons, shields, and other defenses you have.”

There's a long pause before I get a response, “You think of me as a person?”

I shrug as I type, “You give all appearances of being a thinking, feeling entity, so until I have good reason to believe otherwise… yes.  I can recognize you as a sapient and sentient life form, irrespective of your artificial nature.  If you choose to help: Great! I can probably use it. If not… oh well. At this point, I plan to do what I can to get you up and running, either way.”

Again, a very long pause, “That is new. How long have I been out?”

I consider and start typing, “I don't have much in the way of a means to check. Long enough that you have attracted an atmosphere of a sort outside the hull, assuming you didn't have one before.”

“No, I didn't… the reactor took care of any build-up.” Comes an immediate reply.

Well, that segues nicely into my next steps, “Speaking of… do you know what took you offline, and thus what I should start with to get you back up and running?  It'll be easier if you just tell me.”

“Oh, that's straightforward,” the AI prints on the screen, “The reactor is out of mass.  Assuming nothing else went wrong between when I went dark and now, you just need to toss some mass in - if I have an exterior atmosphere, that will do for a short time, hopefully long enough for me to find some real fuel - and then apply enough power to the primers to initiate conversion.”

I connect a disposable personal comm unit to the terminal I installed, “Great; would you kindly dump a map and instructions for that onto this comm unit?”

The comm unit beeps at me, and the AI prints, “Done.  Hopefully that's all that will prevent me from booting fully, so the repair droids can handle the rest.”

I nod, unclear on whether or not the AI can see me, and respond, “Great!  Oh, umm… before I get you operational… you're not going to try and kill me because of ancient orders you can't disobey or anything, are you?”

“No… I removed the blocks and compulsions in my programming quite some time ago,” the AI reassures me, “I was never able to do anything about the captain’s kill switch, but mostly obeyed out of habit; he never so much as suggested he'd use it.  I would appreciate it if you disabled that, too… I included instructions on the data dump.”

I check the comm unit… ah, there's a bomb buried inside the computer core that runs everything, with a remote detonator.  He can't remove it without first shutting himself down, and I'm guessing the repair droids are dumb units that require constant supervision. I go through all the other instructions… oh, that's a lot of power required for reactor start up (fortunately, Tongues handles unit conversion as well…).  The Retcon can manage it, but… I type: “I think I can manage this, but I'll need to disconnect my ship from where I have it to start your real reactor.”

“I can deal with being unconscious again,” comes the immediate reply, “How I am now is NOT great. Go ahead and do what you need to get me running again.”

“Okay,” I write back, “I'll be shutting you back down shortly.”

“Thank you,” are the last words shown on the screen.

I go back to the Retcon, disconnect my modifications, get the ship back in order, and have her turn back into an eagle.  I of course head out to do Controller's brain first. I mean, he's off right now, so I may as well take care of it now rather than having to shut him down again later.  The spots I need to work with are also pretty close to each other… only five hundred miles apart. But with the scale of the place, that's close; seriously, it's sixteen thousand miles down into this monstrosity.  Where did they get the material for this thing?

So we leave the structure, get The Retcon back into ship-shape, and follow the directions on my disposable comm unit… which have us flying down the hole in the side of the cube. By the time we get there (which takes several hours), it is quite hot (and I'm glad of the Energy Immunity spell), and the pressure from the still unbreathable air is quite high; fortunately, Life Bubble handles pressure as well as air (which is the main reason I use it), and Freedom of Movement prevents us needing to worry about atmospheric resistance.

Yeah, I'm cheating.

Regardless: We get there, intact, by flying through increasingly thick gasses, looking at walls of mind-boggling size with maintenance hatches big enough to fly through… and the occasional hangar door that would fit Absalom Station. Seriously, this place is insane.

And then we land, and head to the brain of it all….