Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirteen

First topic message reminder :

"Probably," Asher said. "That's the consolation prize."

Luka smiled softly. "Things are so much simpler when robots act like robots." She shook her head. "But you're not really robots anymore are you? You're too advanced for that. I like machines, I know where I stand with them, they're simple, they're kinda stupid. they do what they're told. And don't get me wrong, I'm fond of James, but it's so much easier to just... forget he's a machine. It gets too complicated otherwise." She frowned and looked at him, staring into his eyes which were definitely far too human. "Terrans are weird. So weird. The level of detail and trouble they went to is crazy. But I don't know if it's more or less freaky than something like the swarm, or the spider people outside. So alien, so completely different to anything I can even start to comprehend... but still people. " She looked away. "I'm pretty sure you're people." She decided. "Because you sure as heck aren't robots as i've ever understood them."

Asher nodded. "There are lots of robots who are just robots, like the ones Vestia uses. Even the first few androids were just simple machines with programmed responses. But modern AIs..." he sighed. "Life takes a lot of interesting forms, and we're one of them."
More cheerfully he added, "Can we go see the engine room? I'd love to see how this ship is powered."

Luka nodded, smiling at the sudden subject change. "Sure! And if you hear yelling, it's just the captain being grumpy. I think Vicky's looking after him and he's pissed about it." She shook her head, got up and lead the way to the engine room.

Asher followed, laughing. "Everything I hear about your captain makes him sound like an unusual guy."

"He certainly is unusual. I'm sure he has his reasons for being so grumpy, but I wish he wasn't quite so sexist. Still, he is my captain and I should show respect." She nodded, as if convincing herself of this. "He's not so bad really though. He's all talk, I don't think he'd actually hurt anyone and he wouldn't keep us employed if he really thought we were so incompetent."
They reached the engine room.

"He we go, the heart and soul of the ship!" She grinned.

"James seems very loyal to him, too. The stories everyone tells, I'd assume he was terrible, but he must be all right if he convinced even James to care about him."
Asher looked around in delight. "Oh yes, this ship is wonderful." The control panels, the pipes, the wires. Not state-of-the-art, but well maintained. He loved ships like this.

"She's a good ol' thing." Luka laughed. "My father always said the old ones were the best ones. not the best lookers, but they were still around for a reason, because they were reliable and strong as old boots. " She patted the wall affectionately. "Not everyone appreciates that. They want sleek lines and shiny chrome, the latest thing and that. The new ships, you don't even feel like you're flying them, they're flying you. No thank you." She shrugged. "James thinks the best of everyone I think. He's nice like that. Our captain has... issues... but whatever they are it's none of my business."

"Your father sounds like a sensible man," said Asher. "Sometimes people run their ships into the ground and mod them until they can hardly fly straight, and then they have to buy a new one." Looking at you, Thalia. "But in general, there's no need to use the latest ships and equipment. These older ones work just fine."
"James can be a bit too charitable at times," he said with a smile. "Still, I wouldn't go so far as to say he thinks the best of everyone. He despised Administration at our old space station."

Luka shrugged. "I think you have to do quite a lot to get him to hate you. I dunno, he puts up with all the hostility Esk and Acus throw at him pretty well. Maybe it's because they throw hostility at everyone in equal measure. " She smiled softly. "My father is a very sensible man. An excellent mechanic as well. He's why I signed up for Fleet." She looked wistful. Clearly she missed home. "A lot of the other cadets moaned and complained when they were assigned the older ships but Eckhardt and I, we loved it. He agreed with me, you wanted a ship you could FLY. The new ones yeah, they were faster but they didn't have the same level of response and feedback. In combat, you want to be able to feel what you're doing on an instinctive level, not relying on cold readouts to tell you what to do. "

"He always cared more about actions than words," Asher said. "Give him a few orders he doesn't like, and he'll hate you."
"I suppose they must have had stricter standards of maintenance in the Fleet, than in the civilian craft I worked on, so they didn't fly like they were already half broken. That probably helped a lot." Asher looked at the maintenance panels curiously.

Luka nodded. "of course. Can't have half broken ships in active combat, that's suicide." She shook her head. "At least he never has to worry about orders he doesn't like again now."

Asher looked approving. "That's good to hear. The condition some of those civilian craft are in, you hear gravelly noises when you tested the engine, and the atmospheric regulators are usually clogged." He shuddered. "Some of those ships are complete death traps."

Luka shuddered. "what do these people DO to their ships!?"

"Buy an install cheap DIY mods, ignore everything except the most obvious problems, find the fastest mechanic around because they don't want to wait and have the repairs done right. It's terrible how many private ship owners buy into that foolish 'I take risks' mentality just because they think it'll make them more cool and edgy." Why yes, this was one of Asher's pet peeves. Why do you ask?

"Idiots." Luka scoffed. "Your corpse floating in the cold vacuum of space is neither cool, nor edgy. " She snorted.

"They never seem to listen when we tell them that," Asher said. "Way too often, they have to have a near-death experience to convince them to change their ways, and on a small ship, those are rare. It's way more common for a critical failure to be fatal." He chuckled, "Sometimes we had to prevent them from leaving, for their own safety. A few times we towed a ship to a holding area until they paid us to repair it fully, or just gave up and left on another ship."

Luka burst into laughter. "Man, you guys were too nice. We'd have just let them go, their problem. Like back home, if someone wants to go for a stroll in the woods at night hey, we won't stop them. We just won't let them back in if they manage to drag themselves back." She shrugged.

Rigel walked in, all warm and clean and with long sleeves on, because this planet was too cold to him. He stopped when he saw Luka and Asher together in his favorite room on the ship. He debated simply turning around to leave them to whatever they were talking about now.

Luka froze when she saw Rigel, averting her gaze and looking a bit awkward. "uh.. hi Rigel. How are you doing?"

"Three Laws, remember? I would bother the mechanics until they did something to protect those poor idiots from themselves," Asher said with a smile. "Hello, Rigel," he said, "Come join us, we're discussing ships."

"I am well" Rigel said then glanced around the room uncertainly before coming over to them "I come down here to do repairs when I have nothing else to do." He added then looked to them and smiled again

"Ships and stupid people who shouldn't be allowed near them." Luka smiled at Asher. "those laws sound like a pain. Having to save imbeciles from their own idiocy, what a futile exercise. " She shook her head. "Asher wanted a tour. He's a mechanic, forced to be a medic." She snorted. "poor guy."

"You're in good company, then," Asher told Rigel. "We all love spaceships here."
He smiled at Luka, "Hey, they paid me a nice allowance for the ships I helped to fix. So it was worth it, because the allowance was bigger when the ships were really badly damaged. The First Law helped me to afford some nice stuff."

Rigel smiled and nodded "The older ships that couldn't be fixed always sold well for parts to fix other outdated ships." He said then shrugged "I liked making them run then putting the ugliest up against the new ones in races. My old ones almost always won"

"well at least they paid you." Luka grinned at Rigel. "Of course they did! the old ones are the best ones! So much more time and care was put into the older ships. The news ones they just stamp out, there's no artistry to them any more. " She shook her head.

"No, no artistry." Rigel agreed and shook his head "It's sad that they take one of the best achievements of a species and try to just make it so common. "

Luka laughed. "You'd get on great with my father. He'd bring back so many junked ships. Half of them he never got the time to fix, he gave up trying to stop my brothers and I from playing in and around them. It wasn't overly safe but we loved it. Sitting in the cockpit of some battle damaged fighter pretending like we were saving the empire. "