After Milanor was done with Fianna's errand, he immediately headed toward the main lounge located near the ship's bow. As always, he wondered whether having two lounges was an obvious waste of extravagance.
He couldn't understand what his mother was thinking at times. His father was much the same. Milanor had a feeling that being so much accomplished people they were, they actually had little understanding of common sense.
He had to walk a distance of almost 100 meters just to reach the ship's bow, where the main airlock was located. The whole way, Milanor could feel the lonely feeling hidden beneath the sophisticated interior of this ship. If he, who had been living here for more than a year, could still easily feel such nuance, what about a recent addition like Naya who just arrived yesterday?
Milanor didn't know. Maybe that was such a silly first-world problem to have. Or maybe it was just him.
"Hey, I'm here. Sorry for the wait," he greeted into the expansive room as soon as the automatic door slid open. Naya was sitting comfortably at the central table, looking toward the view of the window screen. Just like yesterday, the lights of the stars raced past the ship as trace lights.
She turned to look at him, not saying anything. Milanor wondered what she wanted to ask him about, so as soon as he reached her table he spoke up.
"So? Is something wrong?"
"Here," she said as she opened the bag that was set beside her. She brought out a round, metallic ball thing that Milanor *felt* he had seen before when he met her.
"That's… that robot thingy you have with you before, right? I almost completely forgot about it…" It was a lie. It wasn't about forgetting as much as a denial. Milanor purposefully hid the memory deep under his mind.
"It has a name, Lynx. The professor I'm looking for was the one who created it," she explained.
"Is that so…?" He didn't know what field the good professor majored in. Maybe something similar to his Mom?
"Lynx, wake up," she declared to the ball. Its surface soon began to shine in bluish light in some spots.
The ball then sprouted arms, legs, a tail, and lastly, what looked like a head. Now that he saw this transformation calmly, Milanor felt like he had seen an animal that was similar to this thing before… What was it called again?
"A… cat? That's right, a cat! Is it based on that animal?"
Naya immediately frowned at him. Did he say something wrong?
"It's not a cat. It was based on an animal called lynx. Totally different species," she crankily told him.
"Huh? Really? I never heard that animal before…" Milanor said, observing the glossy robot again.
"…"
He couldn't picture this thing as anything other than a cat, though. Those small, quadruple, adorable fuzzballs that came with the First Founders aboard the sleeper ships. Not like he had seen much of them, however. They were mostly contained within higher-class planets, living indulgent lives as pets of middle-upper families. Still, they were widespread enough in the all-encompassing Network that Milanor glimpsed them quite often.
"Yep, definitely look like a cat."
"I told you it's not a cat! It's a lynx!" she yelled at him. This was the first time he saw Naya being actually angry and not just grumpy.
"Oh, c'mon…" He turned on the console on the table and opened the Network. A quick search turned up a clear hologram of this animal called a cat. "See! An obvious resemblance!"
"It. Is. Not! There're differences in their appearance! Can't you see that the ears' have different shapes? You blind or something? Need eye correction?"
"…E-Easy there. Alright, let's just assume this thing was… based on this lynx or whatever you called it, what do you want me to do with it?"
"There's nothing to assume, but… forget it…" She seemed to have given up trying to convince him about her mechanical companion. Milanor didn't expect her to be someone that had a weird fixation on anything, much less on this… whatever the heck this was.
Naya put her hand on top of the robot's head, between its ears. It closed its eyes under her gentle pat, looking pleased. Milanor heard this was common behavior for those pets with human owners like cats and dogs.
'I knew it. Definitely a cat.'
"It's been a long while since I last charged him… His energy level is now quite low, you understand?" Naya told him.
"Ah, is that so? I think I know where you're going with this…"
If she told Milanor this now, she probably wanted to ask him whether it was possible to charge the robot on this ship. He doubt the power outlet in her room would be appropriate for this, especially if the damn machine was the kind that had big battery storage and high voltage consumption.
Well, like Miledi, basically.
Milanor wondered what she would think of him comparing her to an animal robot…
"When was the last time you charged him?" he curiously asked.
"…Maybe around 2 weeks ago? Can't remember clearly. Usually, I put him to sleep to save power," she replied. They both looked toward the sling bag sitting beside her that she always carried around. Milanor hadn't seen her without it ever since he met her, in fact.
"So it HAS a long-lasting battery then… Hmm, I guess that means any old outlet won't do, will it?"
"No… I had to use the public high voltage-amps charging station, and they often had a ridiculously long queue..." she said with an irritated expression. She was probably remembering something unpleasant.
Milanor never had to use one of those stations himself, so he couldn't relate to her experience. But he was not a fan of waiting in line either. When he was calling Monoceros earlier in Koilingen Milanor had to wait for quite a while too, and it was definitely annoying.
"I suppose we just need to consult the expert, huh…" And by that of course he meant their mechanical helmswoman.
He had wanted to watch Naya's videos again, but it probably needed to wait for later. He wasn't sure whether she would allow him to copy them to the ship's computer so he could watch them on his own, but… Milanor assumed asking her would be a risky idea.
'I suppose I should be patient.'
He called Miledi with his PAW and explained to her the circumstances.
The maid looked toward Naya's robotic cat and contemplated something.
"I am not sure whether it would work as my charging station wasn't designed for anyone other than myself, Master. However, testing it would not be a problem either. Will we go to the engine room?" she asked him while looking at Naya.
"Hm? Yeah, of course. It's fine, don't worry." She was probably silently asking whether it was okay to let Naya enter the engine room.
Milanor couldn't see any problem with it honestly. Furthermore, when you considered the fact that the continued running of this ship was, well, basically depended on her? She might as well be the captain of this ship at this point.
They headed to the stern area of the main deck, where the engine room was located. Along the way, they crossed paths with Fianna as she was leaving the kitchen.
"Yo, Fia. Finished with the grocery stuff?" Milanor asked her.
"Mm? Of course. Like, I planned what menu I can use for the next few days or so. It feels new that I'm going to be making for one more person, you know?"
"…I bet, huh?" he hesitantly responded. The reason why they never added any more crew members even after all this time had something to do with the uncertainty he was harboring.
Something to do with Fianna.
"You okay with that? I don't know much about cooking but if it became too much…"
"What're you talking about? This is easy-peasy! You just don't understand it because you keep relying on those instant microwaved foods all the time. Maybe you need to try real cooking once in a while," she readily denied his concern.
"No, I mean…"
"It's fine, it's fine! I usually have a lot of free time, anyway. Like, right now for instance. I'm going to watch my purchases in the sim room, okay?"
"You…" Milanor almost retorted at her easy-going way considering where they were heading, but looking back, this was indeed just her usual day-to-day activities. He scratched his head as she entered the elevator into the upper deck.
"…I guess she's just going in her own way as usual," he shrugged his shoulders. It was true that although Milanor accepted her self-proclaimed position as executive officer and part-time engineer, there were few tasks to be done in his highly automated, AI-driven ship crewed by two humans and one android.
Really, her chef job was the main routine task she volunteered to do every day so he could understand where she was coming from.
"Is something wrong, Master?" asked Miledi.
"No… Nothing. Let's get inside," he said as he turned to the engine room's entrance.
The big, locked door slid open as Milanor pressed his hand on the terminal.
A massive, round, metallic container was nestled compactly in the center of the equally massive room. It emitted a persistent humming sound indicating something very energetic was running inside the thick casing.
It was the Neptunian core that powered the ship, containing the acceleron warp drive that propelled it into superluminal 'speed,' as well as the anti-matter/fusion plant that powered everything else.
The core was not the only thing that filled the engine room, however. Countless machinery and other engines were scattered across the expansive room, giving it a labyrinthine look. Admittedly, not even Milanor understood what most thing here does. He left that for Miledi or Fianna to figure out.
They navigated through the mechanical mess following Miledi's lead. Soon after, they reached a small exclave in the corner of the room. A glowing sign above read 'Central Autonomous System: Miledi Unit.'
This was the place where Milanor found Miledi for the first time, more than a year ago.
The door to the small room opened right as Miledi approached. "Lady Naya, you can try to put the robot in this station. It operates much the same as the ones commercially available," she explained.
Behind the door stood a tube-like capsule with glowing radiative nodes covering its interior surface. This was the same capsule where Milanor found Miledi, at the time sleeping dormant waiting to be activated.
"Go on, Naya. Let's see if this works," he encouraged her. She was looking around so much since they entered the engine room he almost had a suspicion that maybe she forgot the reason why they came here in the first place.
"…I just put it here?" she hesitantly asked. With Miledi's confirmation, she set her cat robot in the base of the tube capsule. It had curled back into a ball when Milanor wasn't looking.
A glowing red line appeared on a spot on the robot's surface. They waited for a bit and the line soon changed into yellowish orange.
'Does that mean this thing was recharging?' Milanor wondered.
"It looks like it works, huh?" he tried to confirm.
"Yeah… It's rechar—Huh!?" Naya suddenly shouted. He quickly observed the robot looking for what was wrong, but… It was just the line—indicator, Milanor presumed—had turned green.
"Uh, is that done?"
"…Y-yeah," she stammered. She sounded like she wasn't sure herself.
"That was way faster than usual… I had to wait 5 to 10 minutes before…" she elaborated.
"Really…?" Milanor glanced at Miledi. He didn't know much about this kind of thing so maybe she could give an explanation?
"Hmm… This station was built for the purpose of my power needs. If you cannot see the obvious difference, Master, that animatronic should have far less energy consumption than I am."
"A-Animatronic…?"
"Therefore, it should be apparent that the recharging period would also be far less compared to mine," she said with a tone slightly prouder than normal.
'Are you seriously feeling competitive with this metallic feline?'
"A-Anyway, looks like the problem's solved, right, Naya?" he called her. Milanor thought she was still crouching down looking after her robot, but when he turned his attention back to her she was already standing and staring at Miledi with evident irritation, her robot cradled in her arms in front of her chest.
"…Don't call it animatronic."
"Ah! Hey, hey! Remember when I told you I wanted to see your videos again!? I really wanted to, like, right now! You totally gotta show it to me and stuff, okay!? You don't get to say no!" Feeling a sudden tense atmosphere, Milanor immediately tried to steer the situation away from a possible confrontation. His sentence even sounded like Fianna's in his hurry.
Around five hours they would be arriving in the independent world of Qwattor, where anything could happen. He had to ready himself for when they touched down, even when considering that he already had prepared the biggest insurance that he could currently obtain.
Fianna was currently busy indulging in her movies, while Miledi and Naya got into an unexpected argument revolving around artificial intelligence and the limits of sentience. Clearly, Milanor was the only one having any doubt about their near future inside the star cruiser. Not that he had any intention of letting their way of life up to chance but…
He hoped that nothing would happen.