Chapter 41: 41. Research

Despite all the mystery and intrigue surrounding our cargo and the people we were working for, the delivery at Fuminja Epsilon was one of the most uneventful things I'd experienced since joining the Demeter.

As soon as the ship was sealed up and we were back in the cockpit we got clearance to depart. The ship and the gantry released each other, and Piper gently guided the ship backwards until we had enough clearance to swing the nose around so we could see where we were going.

I contacted Fuminja Beta and got us a vector to the port, and we spent about forty-five minutes crossing a third of the way around the asteroid belt to get there.

We didn't cover all that distance through the field though, the vector was an arc that brought us down below the asteroids' orbital plane for most of the distance, before we came back up into it for the last few minutes of the flight.

The public port had a few dozen pressurized docking bays, but once again we took an external docking gantry instead.

"If we were actually planning to stay here for a visit I could have asked for a pressurized bay," Rebecca explained. "Obviously the port fees are a lot higher for those, but they're a good choice if you don't feel comfortable using the external docks. Or if you need to do some maintenance on the ship's exterior and want to do that with external pressure and gravity. Since we're only here for fuel we don't need the expense or hassle."

With the ship locked in place and the gantry sealed and pressurized against our main airlock, the captain took Sarah with her this time while I stayed in the cockpit with Jenny.

I didn't get much of a chance to look at the installation at Fuminja Epsilon, but the one here seemed similar apart from being bigger.

Fuminja Beta was basically a hollowed-out shell, roughly three kilometers long and half a kilometer across. It was mostly oval-shaped, but only two-thirds of it was smooth. The other third looked like it had been sheared-off, and I got the impression that was a natural feature.

It wasn't a smooth cut, the edges and surface of the flattened side were rough, random, and rugged. In fact the shape of the thing reminded me of a potato with a chunk missing, like from a shovel hitting it as you pulled it out of the ground.

Looking at the installation I was pretty sure the asteroid wasn't entirely hollow, but I'd guess that roughly half the interior had been mined out and replaced with port facilities and habitable space.

The port was built into the sheared-off side, and it sort of reminded me of the Regulon-4 mining colony in a way. It was like a city built sideways onto a sheer rock surface. Except here there was less city on the surface and more of it built into the rock.

While I was looking out the window I asked Jenny, "How did it go at Epsilon?"

"It went well," she replied. "I'd rather wait till the captain is finished before going into details though. Suffice to say I wasn't detected, and I did acquire some information that I believe may be helpful."

"That's good news," I smiled.

It ended up taking longer to get fuelled up at the port than it did to exchange cargo at the other asteroid, but after nearly an hour the main airlock was finally sealed up. A minute or two later both Piper and Sarah returned to the cockpit.

We got our clearance to depart, then like before we backed out to a safe distance before swinging the ship around and starting out.

Rebecca was flying manually again, she took us on a course straight up, perpendicular to the orbital plane of the asteroids so we'd be clear of them as quickly as possible.

"Amanda why don't you take over," she said as soon as we'd left the asteroids behind us. She gestured vaguely ahead and added, "Take us out in that direction."

"Yes ma'am," I replied as I put my hands on the flight controls. It wasn't exactly taxing, flying the ship more or less in a straight direction through empty space.

While I did that the captain accessed the navigational data, then when she had the sector chart up on the screen she took over flying with her right hand, while she used her left hand to point to a specific location on the map.

"That's where I found the Hammersmith," she said. "If you zoom in on the chart you'll see where I've set a marker? I'd like you to plot a level-one jump to that location."

She added, "The wreck will probably have drifted a bit, but get us to the pin and we'll find it quick enough."

I nodded, "Will do boss."

It took me a few minutes to complete my plot, then I took the controls again while Rebecca had a look at it. Apparently I was getting better, this time there were only three mistakes for her to correct. It was a three hour jump, and it would cut eight or nine days off our trip to the mining colony, so we could spend those days at the Hammersmith.

Once the captain was satisfied she lifted the safety cover over the jump drive control, and as she turned the switch she smiled "Here we go."

The jump drive rumbled to life and the star field outside the window got brighter then shifted to blues and purples.

"Three hours," Rebecca said as she got up out of her seat. "Plenty of time for a drink, maybe some lunch, and we can find out how Jenny made out at Fuminja then discuss our plans for the Hammersmith."

While the rest of us got something to drink Jenny began her report, "The installation at Fuminja Epsilon has a public facing computer system that is not secured. Or at least, not in any serious way. There's a secondary system which is completely locked down, and I did not attempt to access that one. It seemed secure enough that they'd have some monitoring software in place to detect any intrusion attempts."

The AI continued, "The public system gave me access to enough information to determine that it is a medical research and development operation. More than half the names on their employee directory bore the title 'doctor'. I was also able to access their docking records, and found shipments to and from what sounds to me like medical facilities on Rolandan-2, Gametae-4, and Ecclestone's World."

Rebecca smiled, "Excellent work Jenny."

Sarah looked to me and said, "So if we're looking at forbidden medical research, you said that could be nanotech or neurological biotech, right?"

"Right," I nodded. "If we get your sensitive scanners from the Hammersmith we might be able to figure out what we're dealing with by getting a look inside those shipping containers. Hopefully we can figure out what the lab is sending to the mining colony. And what the mine is sending to Lebeau."

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Jenny commented, "I'm curious what our next step will be, assuming we're able to determine what it is we're carrying for Mr. Lebeau."

We all turned to look at the boss, who shrugged slightly. "I don't know yet? If the Imperium is breaking their own laws by outsourcing research they've banned inside their own borders, that doesn't really affect us. I'm certainly not going to try and stop them. If it's something we really don't want to be a part of then maybe we can get out of the contract with Lebeau. Or if nothing else, just don't renew when it comes up."

"After this run," she added, "We've probably only got four more to do before the contract ends. So our involvement is already on a countdown to being over."

Sarah pointed out, "Those sealed orders sure make it sound like the Hammersmith was on a mission for Imperium Intelligence. What if they send another ship to execute some of those orders?"

The captain shook her head, "It's not really any of our business? I'm not saying I condone or approve of any of the Imperium's bullshit, but it doesn't involve us. Like I said before, we do our jobs but keep eyes and ears open, and our mouths closed. Don't let on that we know there's anything going on."

She had a sip of her drink then segued into another topic, "Anyways speaking of the Hammersmith, we'll be there in a couple hours so here's what I'm thinking we'll do. Once we arrive we'll park the Demeter a couple kilometers from the wreck, do another survey with the sensors to try and verify if anyone else has been around, and get an update on the status of the ship. I'd rather not do a big labour-intensive EVA today, but maybe a short and simple one would be ok. We'll save the big heavy work for when we can start fresh in the morning."

"What sort of light work did you have in mind for today?" Sarah asked.

"We know where the armoury is," Rebecca replied. "I want to have another look around there for anything we missed last time. And that special scanner you were talking about, you said it'll be packaged up in a case? Is it somewhere we can get to fairly easily?"

Sarah nodded, "There was a storage room just off the engineering section. I'm pretty sure it's still intact, it shouldn't be that hard to get to. Basically we can climb into the engineering area then cut through one door and we're there."

"Sounds good," Piper stated. "When we come out of jump, we'll have everyone in the cockpit. I'll get us into position, Amanda you run scans of the Hammersmith, and Sarah you can use the external cameras and Amanda's scans to figure out what parts of the ship are intact and accessible?"

She glanced at our AI crew-mate and added, "Jenny I'm not sure yet what sort of task to assign you, since you're not familiar with the Hammersmith you probably won't be able to help Sarah survey it for what areas are going to be accessible."

Jenny offered, "I can keep an eye on the long-range sensors? If I spot any other craft around, I'll let you all know."

"Sounds good," Rebecca replied with a smile.

When I finished my drink I got up and prepared some lunch for Rebecca and Sarah and myself, and we talked a little more about our immediate plans. We'd already got the rest of today sorted out, and it was decided that tomorrow morning Piper and Sarah would try and extract the hoist system from the Hammersmith's cargo hold. They'd also grab anything else in there that caught their eye.

Assuming that didn't take too long, I'd suit up and head over to the wreck with Piper tomorrow afternoon. We'd visit the ship's infirmary so I could grab all the medical supplies I could get my hands on, then we'd try and access my cabin so I could collect a couple personal belongings.

That was depending on those parts of the ship being intact and safely accessible of course. If the officers' cabins or infirmary were completely torn apart then we'd have to pass on recovering that stuff.

After we reached the end of that topic, our cute engineer changed the subject. She looked to Jenny, and with a serious tone and expression she commented "Jenny I've been thinking about something."

It didn't sound like the set-up to more teasing or flirting, and Sarah's voice remained serious as she asked, "Your Re/Gen pod is basically like a 3d printer for human bodies, right? And your raw material comes from the person who's body you're working on?"

The AI grimaced, "I absolutely wouldn't call myself a 3d body printer Sarah, and I'm sure you know that. It's a gross oversimplification of my functions."

"Yeah I get that," my girlfriend agreed. "But in very simple terms, that's what you do right? You disassemble the body that goes in, then build a new one that comes out."

Jenny frowned, "In extremely simple terms, yes. Why do you ask?"

Sarah asked, "How do you handle discrepancies in mass? In my case for example, my original body was probably close to twice the mass of my new body. What happened to the excess?"

Our AI crew-mate explained, "Corrupted or unusable material is purged. I have a reservoir where excess usable material is stored in stasis. I need to call upon that reservoir in cases where a patient has lost mass due to injury, such as missing limbs. I'm still curious why you're asking about this?"

"So here's what I was thinking," the cute blonde replied. Now she had a glint in her eye, she was excited about the idea she was about to share with the rest of us. "The HPD is pretty good, but it's not perfect. If you have enough spare material, could you print yourself a living human body?"

My eyebrows shot up, Piper looked surprised, and Jenny just stared at the engineer with a slightly stunned look on her face. It took almost a full minute before anyone spoke up, and it was Jenny who broke the silence.

"That would be a profound violation of several of my design protocols," the AI stated. "Further, I'm not sure it's possible for me to utilize a living human body, even if I had one at my disposal. I wouldn't know how to animate it with my self. And finally, even if all that were possible it wouldn't actually be me. It would be a copy of me, perhaps with my memories and a similar personality. Meanwhile I'd still be here as an AI based in the Re/Gen capsule in the Demeter's hold."

Sarah frowned, "Ah, good point. I hadn't thought of that, I guess I was thinking of replacing your HPD with a living version. Basically like a physical drone instead of the holographic one."

By that point we'd finished eating, so I started tidying up while the others were dealing with those questions. I also took care of the dishes from breakfast too, since they were still waiting in the sink.

Jenny finally responded, "It's an interesting idea Sarah, and I appreciate that you're still looking for ways to make me more part of the crew. I think there's some significant technological, practical, ethical, and perhaps philosophical hurdles that stand in the way of actually implementing your idea."

Our cute engineer sighed, "I guess. I'm going keep thinking about it though."

"Fair enough," the AI conceded.