Chapter 64: Life on the Supercarrier Part 3

 

“So this is the ship?” Julia commented with an unamused tone. She was currently standing outside of the S.A.S. Abyssal within the hangar bay.

“Yeah…” Abyssal replied, letting out a small sigh.

“Must have been me but I expected a better ship, not this rust bucket.”

“Well, sorry then. This was the best I could do given the circumstances.”

“Hmm… This is your best? I’ve seen civilian farmers owning better ships than this. ” 

Abyssal didn’t reply, only looking away from Julia. Meica, on the other hand, gave a wry smile

“Welp, kinda make sense that you would be using some sort of scrap given what you use to represent yourself,” Julia looked towards Abyssal, specifically her drone body.

“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?” 

“You just seemed so expressive for a core, I kinda expected you to be someone who has it together. But I guess, I expected too much from you.”

Abyssal glared at Julia. As menacingly a drone can glare, that is.

“I’m just saying that you need to have a little bit more imagination,” Julia said before walking up to one of the fighters in the hangar bay. 

The fighter that she walked to was parked right beside Abyssal and had a yellow-theme paint job on it. It was shaped like a hornet with a large laser gun shaped like a stinger on the back and the front of the fighter. There were also a few missile pods at the bottom of the ship. Abyssal recalled taking photos of this exact fighter for reference on future projects. The fighter ship also looked rather similar to the one that Abyssal assimilated some time ago, though much more advanced and sleek looking.

“So, I didn’t really ask the last time I’ve met you. But what’s ya’ name?” Julia asked as she proceeded to climb the ship and opened the cockpit of the fighter. Her movements looked natural as if she had seemingly done so countless times.

“Abyssal. This here is Meica,” Abyssal replied before pointing upwards towards the person carrying her.

“Oh okay. I think you all know what’s mine anyway. Nice to meet you,” Julia responded without looking at them. She looked around the insides of the fighter before starting to fiddle around with the items inside the cockpit.

“So are you like a rogue core or something? Where are ya from? Which nation did you betray?” Julia said. Her eyes were focused on the task in front of her.

“Huh? Rogue core?”

“Keeping it a secret, huh? Well, I can respect that. You act the fool pretty well, not going to lie. That’s like better than ninety percent of cores out there,” Julia replied 

“No, well… that’s not…”

Julia didn’t wait for Abyssal to finish her reply, instead immediately moving on to the next question. “So, whatcha’ planning to do after this? Ya going to stay in the ship? Continue whatever is it you guys are doing in the zone?”

“...no. Once I’ve finished repairs, we are probably going to get E to drop us off somewhere and flee the zone.”

“I see. That’s for the best, I guess…” Julia said before going silent for a while. “It’s best if you don’t get involved with us. We aren’t exactly the kindest of people out here,” Julia muttered. It was soft, but Abyssal was able to hear it through her microphone.

Abyssal didn’t even have the time to ponder on her words when Julia immediately opened her mouth again. “You are quite lucky, ya know that?”

“Huh?”

“I heard Astral vouched for you, specifically asked that you are not to be harmed. Any normal ship would have been torn apart by now. Usually, any core retrieved by E would have been dismantled and sent back to Freedom United for refurbishing. Just so you know, we don’t treat foreign entities like we treat you,” Julia said straight face.

“Eh?!”

“Shocking, I know. She has two faces, that girl. Must have fed you some really sad sobbing story didn’t she?”

‘So what she told me a few days ago about cores having to stick together a freaking lie?! Wow, all that sentimental crap that she fed us…  and she’s just sparing us cause we are literally Astral’s leftovers... ’ Abyssal thought to herself. She then looked above to see any cameras and indeed, found one looking right at them. 

“Is it fine… for you to be talking to us about this? She can hear everything can’t she?” Abyssal asked.

*Clack

The sound of a metallic item dropping on the floor could be heard. Right below Meica’s feet was a round-shaped device.

“Nyaa?” Meica bent over and picked up the device.

“Basic jamming device. Jams every communication within a fifteen-meter radius, natural or digital. Adjustable radius circle if you want to do small talk in a small room or something. This model won’t work against specialized devices, but good enough for the cheap basic microphones like the ones the ship is using,” Julia explained.

“What the…” 

“Ya can keep that one if ya want. I got plenty of those.”

“Oh...Th-thanks...”

“Please don’t think too badly of her. She has a duty to this ship and the nation. She’s only doing her job. A little bit of deceiving is part of that, I guess.”

“I see…”

“You see, she loves this country. This broken, corrupted, piece of shit country.”

Abyssal couldn’t find the words to reply to Julia so she remained quiet. The only thing she did was continue to observe the doctor meddling with the insides of the cockpit. Abyssal could see that Julia was trying to take a large boxed-shaped console out of the fighter ship. Her hands expertly dismantle the object, taking out the wires and screws connected to it with relative ease. Her hands holding tools probably taken from a toolbox from the fighter ship itself. Bit by bit, Abyssal could see Julia throwing things that used to be inside the cockpit onto the floor below.

“You seemed pretty good at doing that, Doctor,” Abyssal said as she observed Julia tinkering with the fighter.

“Well, I better be considering that I used to be a pilot myself. I’ve serviced and maintained a few planes as part of the training program. I know my way around them.”

“Eh? But aren’t you a doctor?” Abyssal asked.

“Nurse school first, part-time piloting as a hobby. A full-time fighter pilot during the war and full-time doctor post-war. Fast forward ten years, and here I am.”

“No way! I don’t believe it!” Abyssal said to her. 

“Why not? Is it because I look like a nerd? Ask anyone on the ship. They can tell you how good I used to be. I’m not as good as Astral of course, but I am good enough to destroy that piece of trash that you are using right now,” Julia glanced towards the blue shark.

“Ehh…”

Julia didn’t reply, instead going back to doing whatever it was she was doing. It was a few more minutes of silence when Meica opened her mouth.

“Um… what exactly are you doing, Doctor Julia? Been messing around with cockpit of ship for a while now...” Meica asked Julia, curious about what she was doing.

“Taking some things that you are going to need from this ship,” Julia replied.

“Eh? Is it okay for you to do that? Shouldn’t we ask permission from the captain or something?” Abyssal asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine. This is my ship anyways. They don’t have a say on what I get or not get to do with it,” Julia replied.

“Eh?! That’s even worse! Is it alright for you to just destroy your ship like that?” 

“Yeah, I don’t really care about it. I haven’t piloted this thing in years. Might as well do something with it than leave it to gather dust. And there we go, got it,” Julia replied before hopping down to the floor. In her hands was the console that she was trying to dismantle. She then walked over to Abyssal’s location. 

She placed the console on the floor right in front of Abyssal. “Jump Shields. If you are using something other than the warp drives and are planning to carry living beings, then you are going to need one of these. This is a rare hybrid component. Comes with its own shield generator. Good for small ships, though I’m afraid yours might be a little too big for that.”

“Doctor Julia…”

“You know what to do with it.”

“I don’t know if I can accept this.”

“I’m not giving you more medicine, so either you take it or missus there would have to deal with nausea problems for the rest of her stay on this ship.”

‘Right... There was that, huh. Almost forgot about it.’

“Alright then. Thanks a lot for this Julia, I really appreciate it,” Abyssal said before giving a respectful bow.

Meica, who saw Abyssal doing this, also gave Doctor Julia a bow. “Thanks a lot, Doctor.”

“You guys better be thankful. That stupid girl was supposed to check with ya and give you one of these, not me.”

“Ha ha ha…” Abyssal replied with an awkward laugh. She then brought her robotic hand to reach for the object. Meica lowered her body and moved Abyssal closer to the console when she noticed what Abyssal was trying to do.

Soon enough, Abyssal was in direct contact with the machine. Clouds of millions of nanites flowed out of her body and into the console. A very familiar sense of assimilation happened and a plethora of information flowed to Abyssal’s mind.

‘This one tastes like seaweed…’ Abyssal thought to herself.

It took her only 35 seconds to assimilate the whole thing. Abyssal frowned internally when she realised what she just assimilated.

[Assimilation is successful:
Components below added to the lists of systems.
-Lancetech Prototype Hybrid Shields Mk. 3 (Fighter-size. Model X8831), Energy usage: 300 MJ/s]

‘Godammit. This has to be a Freedom United company ain’t it…’

“Well then. If there isn’t anything else, I’mma leave. If you guys need anything else, you can come ask me about it I guess. I’ll do my best to help. Just no stupid stuff,” Julia said before starting to leave the place.

“Sure! No problem!” Meica answered for both of them.

Julia walked only a few steps before looking towards the Shark class. She then gave it a good look. “Hey, just one question.”

“Um, yeah?” Abyssal asked.

“You have any space in your ship? Someplace quiet where no one would disturb you?”

“Huh? We-well I guess we do. One room in particular. Thick walls and stuff.”

“Hmm… I see,” Julia said before looking at her watch. “You guys aren’t leaving the ship anytime soon, right?”

“Yeah. We’ll stay for one more week at least,” Abyssal replied.

“Hmm… interesting... Maybe as a hiding spot. Could take my afternoon nap...“ Julia muttered before going away for real.

‘I can hear you, you know.’ Abyssal said internally.