Chapter 27: Exploring the Ship!

 

"Woah! My new heart looks super cool!" Abyssal squealed with excitement as she looked at her new reactor.

She was currently alone within the freighter's engine room. The room was located near the back end of the ship and was several dozen meters tall and wide. Within the middle of the large room was a large cylinder surrounded by an equally as large coil. Just like her previous reactor, it was covered by a transparent glass wall, preventing Abyssal from moving any closer to the reactor. Abyssal stood next to the glass, staring at her new heart with awe, her robotic hands on the glass.

‘I’m touching myself again, he he,’ a silly thought came to her mind.

Abyssal was currently on a small tour to sightsee her newly acquired ship. She didn't really have the time to explore the ship previously due to a certain meeting with Meica and dealing with a certain bloodthirsty maid regarding the matter with the smugglers. It took a while before things calmed down enough for her to actually start seeing what it was that she assimilated. 

The smuggler’s freighter.

According to Abby, the freighter is part of the Maxwell class of freighters. The blueprints of the ship showed that it was designed in such a way to maximise cargo space. It can carry about 40 000 cubic meters of cargo, way more than whatever the Fierca class can hold.

It’s been agreed by Abyssal and Kuon that they both explore the ship in their own separate ways first before meeting up to discuss the next course of action. Meica, the stowaway Nekomi, was just as curious about the spaceship and wanted to do her own exploring, but Kuon objected to it. The maid argued that Meica could not be trusted and she should be left alone without supervision. They agreed to a compromise and were now exploring the ship together. The bloodthirsty maid and the weird cat.

‘I hope those two don’t start fighting,’ Abyssal thought to herself. The relationship between the two were rather shaky, after all. It was clear that the two do not like each other.

"So Abby, what's the juice on this thing?" Abyssal asked.

"Reactor generates 1700 MJ/s of power. Generator able to go into overdrive for a short while to output 2100 MJ/s,” Abby replied.

“Oohhh. That’s useful. How long can this reactor last by the way? Will it run out of fuel or whatever like my previous one? Will it leak or anything?"

“Hydrogen is used as fuel for the reactor. Estimated lifespan before needing to refill Hydrogen tanks: 4 years. Chances of leakage low.”

“Four years, huh. Well, good enough for me. Four years is plenty of time. Hey Abby, what about the energy storage tanks? How much energy can we keep in reserve for emergencies?” Abyssal asked. She looked around the engine room but couldn’t find anything that looked like an energy storage tank.

"Maxwell Freighter does not contain any energy storage tanks,” Abby replied.

‘Hooh? The freighter doesn’t have one, huh. I guess it makes sense. You can overdrive the reactor, after all. Could just use that instead of the ESTs to do burst manoeuvres. But what happens if the engine shuts off? Is there no emergency power?’ 

“Freighter contains a backup reactor,” Abby added as Abyssal was lost in her thoughts.

“Oh… Yeah, of course. What's the specifications on those?”

“Backup reactor able to output 300 MJ/s.”

“Eh… good enough for me. Better than fifteen megajoules,” Abyssal commented before moving away from the glass. She then went over to the corner of the engine room. Over here was a component that was enclosed with a metal and lead barrier. Over to the side of the component was some sort of weird funnel that leads into the component.

Being the embodiment of the ship itself, Abyssal already knew what the thing was, but decided to ask Abby about it anyways.

“Abyss Fire Personal Use Space-time Folder Drive Mk.2 (frigate size). Estimated number of warps left : 3 long-range warps.”

“An actual warp device… a functioning one too… Wait! Did you just say we can only warp a limited amount of times?”

“Locked within the component itself contains negative matter that allows the bending of space-time. Negative matter tanks running low, able to warp a limited amount of times. Require refuelling as soon as possible.”

“Whaaat… That’s disappointing. Can’t we just power this thing like the other components?”

“Negative. Bending of space-time requires negative matter.”

“...where can we find more negative matter then?”

“Not enough information to calculate a response.”

“... Dammit," Abyssal cursed out as she observed her warp drive again. If she focussed her senses enough, she could feel some sort of weird energy being emitted from the enclosed metal and lead casing of the component, an energy signature of sorts.

'This must be the negative matter that Abby was talking about. Warp fuel.'

"Gotta be conservative about warping then,” Abyssal said to herself before moving to check out the other minor stuff within the engine room; things like her cooling system, her life support system and her wiring setup. Once she had her fill, she gave a satisfied nod and left the room.

The next thing that she wanted to see was her weapons and her propulsion systems. On the freighter, the control panels for the two systems were located in the control room. Once Abyssal exited the engine room, she moved through a linear hallway to get to her destination.

The main way to get around was a hallway in the shape of an oval that goes around the entire freighter. The hallway was brightly lit by lights that were on the sides of the ceiling and had handrails and a conveyor belt to the sides. All of the freighter’s rooms and components were attached to this hallway.

After 'walking' for a good few minutes, Abyssal finally arrived at the control room. As soon as she passed through the electronic door she was greeted by a number of control panels— all of them attached to the walls. On each of the panels were numerous displays, buttons and switches. There was even a rudder and a few joysticks attached to them.

Any random person would probably have no idea what any of these buttons does, much less operating the thing. 

'Fortunately, I am no random person! I am Abyssal, the ship girl!' Abyssal exclaimed to nobody in particular.

Being the person who assimilated with the entire ship, Abyssal knew the function of every single one of these buttons. Yet, she decided to ask her logical-self about the systems.

"So Abby! What kind of weapons and thrusters do we have?"

Abby took a moment to reply to Abyssal, sending a whole bunch of information to the top of her consciousness.

[Freighter contains 8 turrets all around and 3 hardpoint weapons at the forward bow.

Turrets:
Abyss Fire Laser Gun MK.2 (Turret Version) x 8 Energy usage: 80 MJ/s per turret.

Hardpoints:
Abyss Fire Utility Laser MK.2 (Hardpoint Version) x3. Energy Usage, 140 MJ/s per weapon.
Freighter contains 2 Freighter Size Thrusters.

Thrusters:
Abyss Fire Ion Thrusters Mk.2 (Frigate compatible) x 2. Energy Usage: 600 MJ/s per thruster.
Combined thrust allows acceleration of up to 14km/s2.
Directional propulsion system at 100% capacity. Rate of turn estimated to be around 8°/s]

"Ooohhhhh! The freighter came fully decked with a proper weapon system and thrusters! But the mobility of the freighter is much worse than the Fierca class, huh. I guess that's to be expected when you have a ship with large mass," Abyssal commented.

"That energy usage for the weapons though. I won't be able to manoeuvre around with guns blazing. Hmmm, maybe if I install the EST to the freighter…"

Abyssal took another look at the room before taking her leave. She wanted to try out her weapon systems and her thrusters, but decided to fully explore the ship first. She travelled along the long hallway as she made her way to the next destination.

The Bridge.

The bridge was at the forefront of the freighter, directly in front of the cargo bay. It was an enclosed room that was sealed with airtight doors and had several escape pods within meters of the bridge. It was also, according to Abby, one of the most protected locations within the ship, second only to the engine room.

Entering the bulkhead to the bridge, Abyssal could see a room with plenty of monitors and displays. There were a few seats within the place with one seat in the middle that was larger than the others. Near each of the seats was a computer panel with lots of special buttons and keyboards. The place was well lit and very easy to traverse. As a side note, two of the seats within the bridge were personalized— some of it adult materials even.

Ignoring the barbarians’ lack of decency, Abyssal looked towards the displays. There were exactly three large displays on the bridge. In the middle display was various information regarding the ship: the ship's speed, destination, energy usage, and many more. 

Also in the middle screen were images of what was actually in front of the ship. Unlike Abyssal's old and crappy ship though, these images were of absolute quality. Where previously all she could see was pitch black with the occasional twinkle, she could— for the first time, see space for what it truly is.

A shiny jewel of stars and galaxy sparkling all over. It was dark, yet, bright at the same time. A blinding and mesmerising sight.

“Hmm?” Abyssal let out a confused hum as she saw the speed that the freighter was moving in space.

The freighter was cruising at a steady speed of 350 km/s, a whole 50 km/s faster than her old ship’s max speed. Abyssal wondered why this big chunky freighter could go faster than 300km/s. She searched her tiny brain for an answer but couldn’t find one. The only thing that she knew after probing her systems was that the freighter safeties allowed it to move at 380 km/s as the maximum speed. 

Not being able to find an answer, Abyssal pushed the matter to the back of her mind. She decided to just ask Kuon about this matter later. Kuon was more familiar with how all of this worked, after all.

Satisfied with looking at the middle screen, Abyssal looked to the left and right screen. On the left screen was a sort of map or chart of the local sector. On the right screen were images of the freighter and space as seen from different angles of the ship. It's not exactly omnidirectional as there were lots of blind spots within these images. Blind spots from both within and outside of the ship.

Within one of the camera views, were several rooms; a living room of sorts and a view of a hallway with multiple doors to multiple rooms. This view was most likely the living quarters. Then, there was the view of most of the important rooms within the ship. The control room, the engine room and view of the bridge itself. The only place that wasn't monitored for some reason was the cargo bay. Abyssal didn’t know the exact reason why, but she could assume that it had something to do with the ‘goods’ that this freighter carried around. 

Afterall, no cameras means no videos. No videos, no proof. And no proof means no crime.

Abyssal continued to observe the images and spotted within one of them, an image of Kuon and Meica within some sort of food storage room, arguing to each other about something. Abyssal could not hear what they were arguing about, but she could guess it was about food. 

Their argument seemed to reach a boiling point and Meica stuck her tongue out to the maid before running away. Abyssal tried to chase after the catgirl, shifting from camera to camera to observe her before eventually losing sight of Meica as she ran into one of the numerous blindspots outside the view of her camera systems.

'I will need to find a way to add more cameras to the ship one day. Both inside and outside. I don’t feel safe with this many blindspots in my ship,' Abyssal thought to herself, ignoring the fight between her maid and her cat.

Satisfied with her first look at the place, Abyssal went over to the largest seat in the bridge, the captain's seat. On the seat was a lockbox and in it was a familiar skeleton.

"How do you like the place so far, Kapitan? Much larger and spacious than the previous one, eh? It took me a while but I've finally assimilated an actual ship that we can travel around with!"

"..." Kapitan gave her response.

"Ah! Don't worry, Kapitan! I will continue to improve and get better parts for myself! Rest assured that I will not get complacent."

"..." Kapitan replied.

"Hmm, don't think this ship came with an A.I. or something. Security seems pretty terrible too. Don't worry, I'll patch it up over time."

"..."

"Got it. I'll leave you alone to do your exploring. I'll see you later, Kapitan," Abyssal said before moving to the middle of the bridge.

In the middle of the room was a large table on top of a flat surface. Above it, the table shot out a three dimensional holographic map of the area. On the map was Abyssal's location in this sector of the place.

"Hey Abby, what is this? It’s a very shiny table..."

"Device is a holographic emitter. Currently projecting a 200 000 km map around freighter,”

“Oohhhhhh!” Abyssal 'eyes' sparkled when she heard the reply from Abby. 

How could she not be excited? It's a holographic emitter! It's just like those things you usually see in science fiction.

“What else can this table do?” Abyssal asked, wanting to know more.

“Device able to project a starmap of the sector with our location.”

“What?! We can do that? Find where we are in the galaxy? How does it work? How would it know where we are in the galaxy?” Abyssal asked.

“Installed within the ship is a component called the Galaxy Positioning System,” Abby replied and sent the details of how the system works to Abyssal's consciousness.

Apparently, it works by comparing the locations and shapes of the stars to an always updating simulation map within the system. This would provide an approximate location of the ship within the galaxy. There are also satellite beacons in space that the system can connect to in order to provide a more accurate location.

“GPS in space, huh… Who would have known.”

“Project map of sector to holographic emitter?”

Abyssal perked up in response, “Do it! Do it!” 

*Boop

A weird sound came out and the minimap turned into a nice three-dimensional holographic image of the sector map. A blue spot on the map indicated Abyssal’s approximate location. On the map were several points of interest alongside an opaque blue line signifying a nation's border. Abyssal immediately squealed at seeing the map. At long last, she was finally able to know where she was in the damn galaxy— in a tiny sector called the ‘Lawless Maw Zone’.

 

Relevant Systems Report of the S.A.S. Abyssal:

Maxwell class freighter Dimensions:  L: 210m H: 63m W: 80m

Newly Acquired components:

-Abyss Fire Laser Gun MK.2 (Turret Version) x 8 Energy usage: 80 MJ/s per turret.
-Abyss Fire Utility Laser MK.2 (Hardpoint Version) x3. Energy Usage, 140 MJ/s per weapon.
-Abyss Fire Ion Thrusters Mk.2 (Frigate compatible) x 2. Energy Usage: 600 MJ/s per
-Galaxy Navigations Inc. Galaxy Positional System x 1
-Table Shaped Hologram Emitter X 1
-Updating Simulation Starmap x 1
-Galaxy Positioning System G.P.S.
-Simple lifeform scanner(unknown brand)  x 1
-Various other components

Energy Usage: 823 / 1700 MJ/s

Zenatonium Acquired: 360g