Chapter 75: 75. Downtime

"Freeborn Shipyard this is MV Demeter," I said into the mic. "Requesting clearance and a vector. We uh, require some repairs? And possibly scheduled maintenance."

It took a few seconds before Mel's voice came over the comm. He sounded friendly but concerned as he responded, "Hello Amanda, I wasn't expecting the Demeter back here so soon. What sort of repairs, and is everyone ok?"

I glanced over my shoulder at the captain, to see if she wanted to take over the conversation. She just nodded for me to handle it. So I thumbed the mic and replied, "Everyone's ok now. We've got damage to the ramp and we lost one of the cockpit windows. And uh, there's a bunch of little holes but we patched them up."

After a longer pause Mel asked, "And you want me to take care of the regular maintenance too? That's ahead of schedule."

"We know," I nodded. "But I guess if we're here for repairs anyways, we figured it was easiest to get it all done at once?"

"All right Amanda. I'll get you landing clearance and a vector. We'll put you in bay ten this time. And we'll talk about the repairs and the maintenance when you're here."

I thanked him and added, "See you soon."

As I set the mic aside Rebecca nodded, "Good job Amanda."

"Thanks boss," I smiled. That shifted to a grimace as I asked, "Are you sure you don't want to take over?"

She shook her head, "Nope. I'll talk you through it, but you're going to land the ship today."

"Ok..." I sighed nervously.

A moment later Jenny reported, "We've received the vector, along with landing clearance."

Our AI crewmate was sitting in the engineering seat behind me again, but she was actually physically here. She was in her android body, though she was controlling it remotely like she did with the HPD.

"Thanks Jenny," the captain responded. "Could you please load the vector into the helm?"

The boss was standing just behind me and to my right, sort of between the two front seats. It meant she could see everything I was doing, and I figured if I made any serious mistakes she could just lean over and take the controls.

"Amanda use that control to step through functions on your nav display," Rebecca said as she pointed to the dial in question. "Set it to assisted helm mode, and the landing vector should come up on the screen. Then just follow the on-screen indicators."

I followed her instructions, then angled the ship's nose downwards as I followed the on-screen guide. We were over the night-side as we started down, and from the look of it our arrival would be in the morning, local time. That was convenient as it more or less aligned with our ship-time. Our six-hour level one jump from Fuminja lined up with our night-time, we'd only been up for an hour or so today.

While I was doing that, the captain reached past me and tapped a control near the communications gear. I was about to ask what that was, when the intercom came to life and some familiar tinny music started playing over the ship's intercom speakers.

I blinked and turned to stare at Rebecca, but she was ignoring me as she looked at the helm display on my screen. There was a tell-tale smirk on her face though, as that old waltz music accompanied the Demeter on its descent towards the planet's surface.

My ears twitched and angled backwards, and I was positive I could hear my girlfriend's laughter from all the way back in the engine room.

With the old music from that vid playing in the background, the boss commented "You know how she handles a bit sluggish? That gets worse in atmosphere. So rule one is no sudden movements, rule two is slow and steady. If you try flying her like she's a grav-sled you'll end up overcompensating, then fishtailing, then you'll lose control and we'll shake apart or spiral in."

"Good to know," I grimaced as the ship started to shudder slightly when we entered the upper atmosphere.

I glanced back at the captain again and asked, "Shouldn't you sit down and strap in?"

She smiled, "Think of it as extra incentive to do a good job. And I doubt Sarah's strapped in back in the engine room either, so just fly smoothly. You're doing fine."

Her words didn't actually make me feel better, but I stayed focused on what I was doing. She continued to give me pointers now and then, like when to throttle back the engines and what speed was acceptable as we got into the lower thicker air.

The descent felt like it took about six hours, but in reality it was probably no different than any time Rebecca was piloting the ship. The shipyard came into view ahead as I reduced our speed further, and we finally ended up slowly circling while I figured which bay we were supposed to be in, and out how to do the actual landing.

Jenny pointed out bay ten, which was a medium-sized bay with a retractable roof. The roof was currently open, and with both hands clutching the controls I angled the thrust so we slid sideways into position over the designated location.

Finally I hit the control to extend the landing gear, then slowly and carefully lowered the ship down into the bay. There was a gentle bump as we touched down, and as soon as we were stable on the ground I quickly switched the engines to idle.

"Well done Amanda," Rebecca smiled as she gave me a couple pats ontop of my head, followed by a few scritches to one of my ears.

That caught me off guard, for a few seconds I had no idea how to respond. My tail seemed happy though, it started swishing back and forth behind me.

Next thing I knew the boss was talking me through the landing check-list, and within another minute or two we had most of the ship's functions powered down or on stand-by. Finally the three of us left the cockpit, and headed down to the main cargo hold to greet Mel when he arrived.

Sarah was already down there waiting for us. She was sitting on a crate working on the disassembled airlock controls again, manually controlling the ramp so it wasn't further damaged when it opened.

"So should we start packing up some clothes and things?" I asked. "Assuming we're going to be spending time off-ship while the repairs and maintenance are happening?"

Rebecca replied, "No rush. We'll talk with Mel first, get an estimate for the repairs, then see if he wants us to clear the ship or not."

Sarah had the airlock doors sliding open and the ramp was slowly opening. She glanced at Jenny and asked, "Assuming we have to pack up and leave for a few days, will you be coming with us? Now that you're in your new body and everything?"

The AI hesitated. "To be honest Sarah, I think this time I'd rather remain with the ship? I feel like I need more time to get used to this body, before I take it out in public. I'd also like to have all the software modifications in place before letting it spend any length of time operating autonomously."

She added with a grimace, "And to be honest I'm not sure this world is the best one to start getting used to being off-ship, especially before I've cleared any hidden or unexpected 'sexbot' routines from the software. I know it's unlikely, but I'd hate for someone to recognize me as a Platinum-SX Model 6900 Synthetic Companion. That would mean either explaining why you three were walking around with a sexbot, or admitting I'm an AI and a realistic android. Both of which are frowned upon on this world."

I had a feeling my girlfriend wouldn't care if people thought we were taking our sexbot out for a tour around the city, but I agreed with Jenny. It'd be embarrassing or awkward, for all of us.

"That's fine," Rebecca replied. "If you want to stay with the ship, we'll just let Mel know. Will you have something to do to keep you occupied if you're alone for eight or ten days?"

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Jenny nodded, "I'll continue working on the software modifications for my new body. Amanda may have mentioned I'm also reverse engineering some of my Re/Gen software, I'm still working on that as well. And if I complete both of those projects I can always download more courses to study. Or perhaps I'll simply enjoy some downtime. Even AIs need to take a break now and then."

By the time the conversation wrapped up the ramp was finally down, and I was the first one out. The roof overhead was still open so we had some sunlight down in the landing bay, and the air was unrecycled but not entirely fresh.

The others followed me down the ramp and out of the ship, including Jenny. It was probably her first time off-ship in three decades. In fact it was probably her first time off-ship ever. She moved alongside me as I wandered a little ways from the ship, then we both turned to look back at it.

"Not exactly a looker, is she?" I asked quietly.

Jenny smiled, "I knew what to expect Amanda. I've seen it often enough in Rebecca's mind over the years. Though I suppose through her eyes it looks a little nicer, a little more polished."

At that point a grav-sled descended into the landing bay, it set down off to the right from the Demeter's bow. Me and Jenny both turned to look, as Mel slowly climbed from the craft. It was only about twenty days since we were last here, but I was positive he'd lost more weight again. And his expression seemed a little strained, like he was in pain and trying to conceal it.

"What have you girls done to the Demeter?" he asked as he walked to where Rebecca and Sarah were standing.

He paused and almost did a double-take when he noticed the captain looked younger again, but he didn't comment on that. I figured he'd seen it enough over the past couple decades, he knew what it meant.

Jenny and I headed over to join the others as well. Mel gave Rebecca a hug, then greeted Sarah and I with handshakes. Finally he looked at Jenny and asked, "Another new face? I don't think we've met?"

The AI held out her hand and Mel shook it as the boss did the introductions.

"Actually you met her last time Mel," Rebecca said with a smile. "This is Jenny."

"Hello again Mr. Lancaster," Jenny added.

Mel looked shocked and confused, "Jenny? But you're... How?"

"Let's head inside, we can sit down and talk in the mess?" the captain suggested. "I'm sure you'll want to have a closer look at the damage too."

The shipyard owner hesitated, "Actually Rebecca why don't you and I head back to my office and talk there? I'll send one of my people over to do a proper inspection of the damage later."

I noticed a momentary look of worry on the boss's face before she nodded, "Ok Mel, sounds good. Sarah, Amanda, could you two get our grav-sled down and prepped? I'll talk with the three of you after Mel and I are done."

"Sure thing boss," Sarah replied.

It didn't take long for her to get our grav-sled down from its storage spot, then I drove it out of the hold and parked it to the left of the ramp. With nothing else to do for the moment, the three of us headed back into the ship for now.

"It's funny," my girlfriend commented as she settled into her usual seat in the mess. "It's the first time we've been here that we didn't have any salvage to sell."

I got some drinks for Sarah and myself then I pointed out, "First time for you and me anyways. The ship's probably been here a hundred times over the years."

"True enough," Sarah agreed.

Jenny sat with us as well, she commented "I hope everything goes ok with Mel. I'm worried my android body has made him uneasy."

"He's probably just surprised. He's an engineer at heart, I'm sure once he's had time to think about it he'll realize how exciting it is," Sarah responded.

The three of us talked a bit more about Jenny's situation, then we discussed Mel, and finally we started talking about the ship's condition and the repairs it needed. We were still on that topic about an hour later, when the captain finally returned and joined us in the ship's mess.

She got herself a drink then as she took her seat she announced, "It sounds like we're all going to get some down-time. Mel estimates the repairs and regular maintenance are going to take about twelve days, and he wants us out of the way for the first six."

After a sip of her drink she continued, "He figures six days will be enough to complete all the work on the interior of the ship. That's overhauling the power plant, jump drive, and the rest of the stuff they need to look at in the engineering section. That should be enough to repair the cockpit window too. After that they'll be working on the exterior. That's overhauling the main engines and repairing the ramp, and maybe replacing some of the hull plates damaged by the warhead."

"Your patches are fine obviously," she added to Sarah, "But I'm sure you know that patched hull plates are weaker than intact ones."

My girlfriend smiled, "I'd have made the suggestion myself, but I knew Mel would be ontop of that sort of thing."

"Will we be leaving the ship today?" I asked.

Rebecca nodded, "Pack up some clothes and whatever else you think you'll need for six days away from the ship. We'll be turning the Demeter over to Mel's people in the next hour or two, so be ready to leave by then."

"Jenny I spoke with Mel about your situation and he agreed they won't cut the main power feeds," the boss said as she addressed our AI. "Mel asks that you keep your android body out of the way though? Same for your holographic body as well actually. For the six days while his staff are working on the ship, anyways. The cabins will all be sealed, so you could store it in one of them? How about you take Amanda and Sarah's old cabin?"

"Very well captain," she agreed. "I assume I'll be able to contact you via comm if anything comes up?"

The boss confirmed, "I'll have a commlink with me, I'll make sure Amanda and Sarah both have one as well."

"Any idea where we'll be staying?" Sarah asked the captain. "I'd ask what you do for fun on shore leave here, but I already have a few ideas that should keep me and Amanda occupied."

My girlfriend had a wide smile on her face while I blushed slightly. Before either me or the captain could reply Sarah's smile became a smirk and she added, "Maybe you'd like to join us for some of that too boss?"

Rebecca rolled her eyes and replied, "I know somewhere nice we can stay. In fact I'll treat you both this time around, but next time there's shore leave you'll be paying your own way. You might want to pack some extra money regardless, in case you plan on any shopping sprees."

Eventually we finished our drinks, then three of us went to our cabins to pack while Jenny waited to see us off.