Nai was watching the screen as Deck rushed down the ramp. When she realized she was biting one of her nails she made an angry face and forced her hand away from her mouth. She definitely wasn't worried about some muscle-brained combat junkie. She lost her anger as she watched the fight. "Fuck me. He is good." She'd seen plenty of brawls and even been in a fair share of shootouts over the years. But never had she seen something like this. She just watched him seem to fly backwards avoiding several blasts at once when the ship spoke.
"Networking complete. Nanites ready for repairing sequence. Materials required. Attempting to locate materials that will be acceptable to the captain based on personality profile." The smooth female voice snapped Nai out of her opened mouth stare.
"Materials? Acceptable to the captain?" She half turned away from the screen as if not concerned but continued to watch out of the corner of her eyes.
"The easiest solution would be to break down another vessel. But based on the captain's personality profile this is expected to be unacceptable." The ship answered instantly, Nai noticed there was something in the tone it used. Almost as if it was leading her to something.
She didn't have time to think about that but an idea did come into mind. "You got them to be ok with getting the nanites because it was stealing from criminals right?" She could feel the smile spreading across her lips already. "Can we use the ship in the next slot to ours? Should be slot D4. A ship called the Grungy Box."
"We could but the captain…" Nai cut off the ship with a full blown grin on her face and a glint in her eyes.
"Just do it. I'll take full responsibility if he gets upset." Nai replied, a hint of laughter in her voice as she did.
"Very well First Mate Nai." The AI's synthesized voice had a hint of a smug tone to it. If she was dealing with a person she would have thought she had been tricked into doing just what it wanted but… this was just an AI, right?
**********
"Alright which one of you idiots did something stupid." Galg shoved one of his men hard knocking the smaller human down. He was your common stationer, tall, thin, with little muscle on his body due to a lifetime on a lower gravity station.
"It weren't none of us boss. I'm tellin you it was Nai. She is always causing us trouble. Ain't that why you got rid of her?" The prone man scrambled to his feet as he protested.
"Probably Right. Damn woman. Wish I had noticed her contract was an extended minor contract when I got her. Never trust a Gzalin when buying meat property." Galg snorted then started to say something else when he was interrupted as the ship lurched tilting slightly to the right.
"What the…" Suddenly the ship lurched left then began to shake violently. "Someone check the sensors." Galg stuttered out as his flabby body jiggled wildly. Before anyone could move the ground fell out from underneath them. No, they found themselves floating slightly as the ship seemed to go into free fall. With a hard thud, they crashed down to the floor as the ship came to a sudden stop.
Galg heard the groans of his crew as the world came back into focus. His head had bounced hard against the floor. Looking up he stared at… what was he seeing? Where was the ceiling of the ship's main cabin? Instead, he was looking up into a black stormcloud… no wait it almost looked like a swarm of flying insects seen at a great distance. That huge dark mass flowed away leaving them a clear view of the… station's dock's ceiling?
Pushing himself up to his feet he glanced around having a hard time processing what he was seeing. There was just half the main cabin left. No ceiling at all and crazier they were sitting flat on the bottom of the station's dock floor. Where there should have been a midsized frigate around them. There was now only a few bits of framing connecting the room they were into the ship's small Zero Reactor.
One wall containing a number of the ship's panels was still mostly intact and apparently still powered on by the reactor. One screen lit up showing a familiar face, one with a small upturned nose and a huge grin on its face. It blew him a kiss then winked out. "Nai!" Galg roared.
**********
Deck turned away from the fight to look back at the ship just in time to see what looked like a black cloud rushing over it. As the cloud rolled down from the forward of the ship to the aft it left the previously stripped down frame looking more like just a ship. Featureless panels formed in their wake. Sure it was the most basic lining, none of the ablative armoring he was used to seeing or anything else like it. But in theory, if it was solid enough, the ship could fly.
Moving up the ramp he approached a door surrounded not by wire mesh framing but actual exterior paneling. It slid open revealing a grinning Nai almost directly in front of him. "So what do you think, Captain." She loaded a ton of inflection on the word captain but it was mostly playful for a change.
"I think I don't want to know where all the base material came from." He slid past her brushing close enough to feel the warmth of her body radiate against him.
Nai laughed. "Oh no, you do. You reaaaally do want to know." She was practically giggling.
"Er, ok I'll bite. Where?" He was already moving through the entrance towards the bridge.
"Mmm nope never mind, don't want to tell you. Not with that attitude." She skipped right up and then past him still laughing. Then spun around right in front of him. "No wait I will give you a hint at least." She was all smiles. "Let us just say you met him today and his face was worse than his breath."
"Galg? That piece of shit?" Nai spun away from him and practically bounced ahead of him into the control room laughing. "Ship?"
"You are correct, captain. First Mate Nai assured me you would approve and accepted full responsibility." The serene voice answered immediately in his head.
Deck just grunted, she hadn't been wrong.
"Can we fly like this? I get the feeling we don't want to stay here." Deck made it to the control room, several of the screens displayed the exterior of the ship. Other security forces were gathering. He also noticed the locking arms were still attached to the ship as well as the main bay doors being closed.
"Departure is possible. Shall we launch, captain?" The ship asked.
"Hell yeah. Let us get out of this hell hole already." Deck glanced over to Nai sitting in one of the support chairs with her legs tossed up on a console as she shouted out. He noticed her watching a screen showing a group of humans and one Manlilian. It looked like the bulky figure was throwing a tantrum, all but throwing themselves down like a toddler.
Deck let out a long sigh. "Definitely not how I wanted to start my retirement. Get us out of here."
Around them, there was the hum of the ship coming fully online. The tingling sensation as the Zero reactor engaged to wrap the ship in its own personal gravity well. He was only mildly surprised when the locking arms attached to the ship detached.
Slowly the ship began to move towards the exit. The physical gate of the dock was still closed. He wondered if the ship was going to blast its way out.
"That would be impossible Captain as we are currently unarmed." He watched as the physical door opened while the "curtain" a dense energy shield activated to keep the station pressurized while the door was open. "But I do have full access to the station's systems. Their security AI are… inferior." Deck told himself he definitely heard more than a little smugness in the ship's tone.
Slowly the ship slid up to the curtain then began to pass through it. No defenses or security measures were activated. It was almost a by the book's departure. Except for the throng of security on the docks seeming to be losing their minds at their inability to control their station's various systems.
As they slid through the curtain and the portal began to close the ship chimed in. "Where to for our maiden voyage, captain?" There was an almost childlike giddiness in their tone again. He felt like he should be more concerned about the unusual nature of the ship's AI but right now he just felt overwhelmed.
"Somewhere safe for now." He barely heard the ship's response as the sea of stars began to stretch into lines of light as they accelerated to faster than light. Pain had started to bloom over his entire body and exhaustion came down like a lead curtain. For the second time in as many days, he felt himself drop into darkness.