Kade paced in his new quarters, aboard a cruiser that'd long been uninhabited, he'd been given the role of primary engineer on the team handling re-entry protocols. Even though the atmosphere was primarily held in by a shield that could ease re-entry, no one could be sure their ship would be compatible, given the near 1000 years having passed between when the fleets left, and returned, and 1000 years more that they'd lingered in the orbital planes around the remnants of the planets
Kade made his way to the bridge, the equipment the scientists and medical crew had brought in was used to implant the technology of those who'd brought the ships into orbit, crew long since dead and sealed away on the bridges of the ships held in stationary orbits. His new implants made the doors open without any contact, along with giving him information about every door, every hallway, he suddenly understood more than he ever had when walking the halls.
The torrent of information was initially excruciating, Kade never knew how much information the ship was projecting, even with the goggles engineers were provided they didn't have access to everything. When the nanotech initially started to take hold, there was a measure of pressure he felt, but nothing too serious. As headaches were expected based on the data they were able to find, and the medical staff and techs provided medication to take when it became unbearable. What was actually happening, was the nanotech growing, creating pressure between the brain cavity and skull, as well as replacing portions of the brain with hardware that shared the same characteristics as the AI matrices. From the documentation they found, that part of this was due to a copy of the baseline AI installation being planted in their brain which would help them with thinking at higher speeds, processing data that the ship provided, and would allow them to interface directly with the ship through contact points that would take 2 - 3 weeks to develop.
"Engineer Kade-1598, reporting in" Kade said calmly as he arrived at the bridge, the designated commander of the cruiser nodded his direction and he approached. "Our shielding and engines are at optimal output, the reactors are stable now, we've even been able to send the data out to the stations. Hopefully QT-Comms will be restored within the time it takes to get from Jovian orbit to Terran orbit." Kade stared at the forward view screen, before putting his hands in his pockets nervously and striding over to the engineering console and deactivated the mag-locks on his boots to float in microgravity.
"Commander-Dalton, what does our clearance to begin launch look like?" Kade asked, biting his lip. "Not great, they're still wanting us to run simulations on approach, however all simulations look okay from the ship side AI perspective as well as the copies we're using. The administration is having a hard time trusting it, though I don't blame them after that event you uncovered."
"Maybe they'd listen if the entire engineering crew told them off." The nav officer chirped, in her semi-disinterested way, Kade could tell she was annoyed with having listened in on the discussions.
"Kayla, you know I would if the commander let me", Kade sniped back with a bit of resentment in his voice as he side-eyed the commander who scratched his beard while feigning looking away, like he was trying not to acknowledge the common gripe Kade threw his direction. Kade's nostrils flared as he tried his best to suppress his irritation with his new leader. From his peripheral vision, he noticed he'd received a message from the commander.
=="I'm sorry it's been this way, we can talk about this in a bit. I'm not doing it because I think you wouldn't be helpful" ==
=="Then what is it, if it's something you can tell me, you can tell me now, it's not like anyone can read this, I specifically set up this communication line between us so that we could keep it between one another"==
=="I can't be sure that there's no one else reading this conversation, though it's direct between one another through short range qt frequency manipulation, our AIs which report to the shipboard AI can be spied on, and they're the ones who translate the comm signals"==
=="They can listen in on our conversations no matter what anyway, you telling it to me or writing it down on a disconnected terminal isn't going to help much either"==
=="Then why can't it report it if it's in my head anyway?"==
=="There are certain privacy protocols it follows, it doesn't delve much into our thoughts unless we've commanded it to record our thinking for future follow-up"==
==Navigation-Kayla-4155 signing out to be replaced by secondary navigation officer Davis==
scrolled across everyone's peripheral or what they perceived it to be, when it was really just a visualized "thought" created by the AI trying to assist them.