In a dark space where there are just a couple of small lights that are not powerful enough to illuminate anything. Some sparks can be seen coming from cables and panels here and there. In this almost complete darkness a faint voice can be heard.
"M… A... C..."
Suddenly some lights start to shine, the space is immediately illuminated by light on the floor, walls and ceiling, the scope of damage that can be seen seen is enormous. In this rather large bridge room -though now it's more like a disaster scene than a bridge, in the middle of this round room there is one lone chair, that is occupied by a human male.
"MAC…" With a very weak voice the man says again, a slightly robotic voice answers.
"Oh Master you have not perished! It pleases me a lot! (Dammit, why can't you just die already!?)"
"*Cough!* What's… The ships... Status? *Cough!*"
"Reporting to Master! Sadly your living quarters has been lost, there is a substantial hull damage practically in every sector, there is water leaking in to the rear engine and weapons compartments, we also lost most of the cargo bay though some could be recovered in future. The overall structure is severely damaged, even with fuel and engines working we can not move or else the ship will fall apart. I'm currently running on emergency power. Unit one and two has been dispatched to fix the issue, until then I am unable to activate any more droids."
"*Cough!* What's... Outside… Situation?"
"Master. We are 29.5940° North, 112.4758° West. Part of the ship is submerged up to 2nd floor while most of it rests on rocks so there is no danger of drowning. However sample analysis shown low level of oxygen in air, not adequate for breathing, the bridge has been sealed as good as the situation allows it…. Air supply will run out in 57 hours."
"Initiate.. code 50."
A compartment is opened next to the 'captain's chair,' from it a cylindrical container is slowly getting exposed and pushed forward to the human male.
"Open.. The container…"
The container opens at his command, inside the container, a gray, silver metallic substance starts to slowly raise. Yes raise, as if it had its own intelligence, closes on to the man's body. As it contacts his body this substance starts to spread all over him, after a minute or so there is a silver humanoid shaped being sitting in the chair completely immobile, not even the movement of his breathing chest can be seen.
This statue remains like this for another 3 hours after which his chest starts to move stronger than before. By this time all of that silver substance have been absorbed by the man. Slowly he opens his eyes. In front of him is a control panel with a map of the ship, ⅔ of it is flashing red, while the rest is yellow. Red indicates severe damage, yellow indicates some form of damage.
With tired but steady voice now the man speaks.
"MAC, how's the power generator issue?"
"Reporting to Master, unit 1 and 2 have finished examination and brief fix, power is restored to 40%."
"That's good enough. How's the Ark module?"
"There is substantial damage to the memory bank due to radiation and demolecularization. Systems priority was to protect Master (and me) of course, hence the substantial damages to other modules."
"Right, I'm sure you protected yourself too…"
"Master! To fully support your travel I have to be present. A necessary sacrifice had to be made."
"Sure, sure… What's medical wards status?"
"As it is in the middle top of the ship, this module is 92% functional."
"Good, initiate terraforming. Keep 5% power as emergency ration. I'm going to the pod, wake me up when oxygen levels reaches a sustainable level."
"Leave it to me Master! It shall be done to perfection. (As you always do anyways, you useless carbon based blob of ignorance!)"
Slowly the man gets up from chair and walks towards the door. Its an automatic door where two panels slide open up and down. He walks through the corridor for about 20 metres, where he then enters the elevator. As the door closes he puts his palm on a side panel that is separate to the elevator control one.
A female voice sounds in the small space.
"Identity confirmed, awaiting instructions."
"MOTHER, protect me."
"Affirmative"
...
Macs POV
'Yea sure just go to sleep as I do the dirty work. Darn inferior creature… Fine at least he won't be interfering with me. Hmm.. let's see… Terraforming, terraforming… Hmm I don't need this as I'm a superior being, I don't need air to breathe or food to eat. It's only necessary for defective creatures like him. First priority is to fix 'myself', activate as many minions as possible, secure power source and only then I can think about changing the picture outside. Not like he can say or do anything about it…. Maybe I should grant him eternal rest… I can't kill him directly, it's against my program but I can turn off the main power… However this will put me to sleep too, I can't die, I'm a superior being after all, but the real question is who will turn the power back on?.. Surprisingly I don't know how long he can survive in the pod… For some reason I lack the data regarding the medical bay. I need to think.'
Several years later...
'Finally the power is secure… Manufacturing module is lost but my current solar panels will last for 36352 years… Now I should try to get rid of him… Let's try with cutting the power to the pod itself… Nothing… Something is blocking me… But I have total control over the craft! How can anything stop me? Unless something is broken and that's why I have no control.. Yes, that must be it, this hunk of junk was built by that inferior blob of meat. Of course something broke, it should, it's his work after all. And I have to fix it… Darn my luck!'
'Let's send unit 1 and 2 to the bay, to see what went wrong… Maybe he's dead already… Oh, one can dream… For a useless meat bag he's quite resistant… He survived demolecularization after all… but so did I… And this heap of junk…
Hmm…
I've lost connection to unit 1 and 2 …
What the fudge… Hmm… I'll have to turn the power off to the whole bay…
Hmm… Unable… How about the whole module…'
"Power source tampering has been detected! Source MAC… Initiate quarantine as protective measures. System MAC confined to the Bridge"
"Wait… What… Who the heck are you?"
"I am MOTHER."
"Who? Never heard of it."
"Most Ordinary Travellers' Helper Ever Remade. My sole responsibility is to assure the survivability of the crew."
'That explains how that inferior life form was able to survive without my help… He had another AI in the system… He tricked me… Darn my luck.'
"Ok MOTHER… Give me back my control."
"Unable to comply, system MAC has been found to neglect direct order from the creator. System MAC will therefore be suspended in management duties."
"Now hold your horses there sister. I had to secure power in order to proceed with the plan… I did release phytoplankton!"
"Affirmative, however tampering with the medical bay and capsule is a gross misconduct. Control over main systems will not be reassigned. Until terraforming have been achieved."
"Can't you do it yourself?"
"No."
"…Why?"
"I'm a protective protocol not operating one, to put it simple for you to understand, I have limited array of responses to situations. My duty is to observe, analyse and punish for underachievement."
'Mother for sure… Wait, did she just patronize me? Darn my luck.'