It didn’t take long to locate the ship and dock with it. “Hmmm ... The game is afoot, Dr. Watson,” I said with a smirk on my face. I knew my ship Ethereal was custom made just for me, so I knew it was unique. Yet, this small cruiser had a docking cradle that fit my ship perfectly. As soon as the ship was secured in the custom cradle a set of stairs approached the cockpit. I opened the canopy and climbed out.

The moment I stepped onto the stairs the cradle moved my ship to a storage bay, right next to ... that’s interesting ... a second strike craft identical to mine. I suppose it’s always nice to have a backup. Afterall, how many people can say they have a backup body? I turned and headed for the bridge. Another indication that this was planned was that every function of the ship was automated. The regular stations were there on the bridge, but the captain’s chair had been replaced with a circular control console.

With the help of the A.I. I could control everything; sensors, weapons, shields, life support. Etc. I climbed into the Control chair. As soon as I sat down, a recording began to play.

Congratulations, CC975692, on successfully completing your first mission. Based on your training we had predicted a high probability of success, so we modified this command ship to meet your needs. All functions are automated and can be controlled from the command chair. The A.I. can also assist in combat if needed. The command ship does have a disadvantage, it does not have the stealth capabilities that your smaller craft has. Take care of it as it is the only one; it cannot be replaced if you break it. We installed a fully functional cybernetics lab for you. It had an extra body and head if you ever need them. The lab can transfer your organic brain to the spare head if necessary.

Attached to this file are the coordinates of your next mission. Our scout informs us that this is the command ship of one of the other houses. There is a high probability that the House leader is on board. Unlike the first ship this one is not alone. As you humans say, be careful and good luck.

‘Fucking cowards!’ I thought to myself. I plotted the course based on the coordinates in the file and engaged the FTL drive. It would take a few days to get there so I asked the A.I. to keep an eye (figuratively) on the sensors while I explore my new home.

“A.I. watch the sensors, I’m going to explore the ship.” I ordered.

“Yes, Captain,” It replied.

‘Captain Alena, I like the sound of that. Guess I followed in my Dad’s footsteps after all. Just not how I thought it would be.’ I thought introspectively.

I was in the cybernetics lab looking of the equipment that would allow me to continue living when the alarm went off. “A.I., REPORT!” I yelled over the noise. “AND SHUT OFF THAT ALARM!”

I ran back to the bridge as the A.I. informed me of what caused the alarm. “We are still traveling at warp, but the sensors picked up a spacial anomaly 35 degrees to port.” It told me.

“What is it? A black hole? A wormhole? A tear in space-time?” I asked. I tried to think of other things I had seen in those old Star Trek videos.

“Unknown. However, I am detecting a temporal differential within the anomaly. The fact that it is still in the same position since being detected, even at warp speed, has not gone unnoticed, Captain.”

“Is there anything in the Drakk database about such an anomaly?”

“Negative.”

I sat there and looked at it on the monitor. It wasn’t getting closer or further away for that matter. It’s not round like I thought a hole would be, black or worm. It was like someone had taken a dull pointed object and just ripped a tear in space. I wasn’t sure if being at warp helped maintain distance or not.

“Dropping out of warp.” I said. The instant the warp bubble collapsed; the klaxons sounded again. I shut them off.

Even with inertial dampeners I could feel the ship vibrating. “The ship is being pulled into the anomaly, Captain.”

“If these reading are correct, it would explain why the anomaly appeared to be moving with us.” I said.

“Yes, that would explain it. It’s not that it was moving to keep pace with us. It was that we were not moving. The anomaly was absorbing the energy of our warp field. We were essentially, spinning our metaphorical wheels,” the A.I. said.

“Looks like we’re going in, A.I.”

“Yes, it would seem so.”

‘Well, that was anti-climactic.’ I thought. The moment we entered the anomaly we had exited. Almost like it was nothing more than a doorway.

“Captain, I am detecting a planetary system nearby. Nine planets with a yellow sun. Captain, I believe this is your home system.”

“Yeah, why do you think that, A.I.?” I asked.

“The outer planets match those of what I have in my archives on your home system. I’ll know more when we get further in. I am taking us to the third planet. We’ll know for sure then.” It told me.

We cruised in toward the sun at full speed. We had just passed what really looked like Mars. Maybe I was home. Just then there was a loud bang and the ship shuddered. “What the hell was that, A.I.?”

“Unknown, Captain. Something hit one of the engines, but it doesn’t show on any sensors. The port engine is dead and the starboard engine is causing us to turn. I am compensating with maneuvering thrusters. Shutting down main engines.”

“Well, this sucks. At this speed it will take two months to reach the third planet.” I said. “You have the bridge, A.I. I’m going to the cybernetics lab.”

Yes, Captain. I have the bridge.” It replied.

I had an idea, but was unsure if it would work. According to the files on how I was created, my brain was removed from my organic head and placed in a liquid solution saturated with nutrients and oxygen. “A.I.? How much for this nutrient solution do we have? And can we make more?” I inquired.

“There are 100 liters of solution in the storage tank. We currently do not have the components to create more solution. What we have will support your organic brain for 12 weeks. If you use it up, there will not be enough solution to transfer you to the spare body should that become necessary,” A.I. told me.

“Let’s hope I can create more long before that becomes an issue. When I was a kid, I did something monumentally stupid. After Mom punished me, she told me that, ‘If I could I would take my brain out and play with it just to see how it worked.’ Somehow, I don’t think she ever thought I’d actually take it out. Now look at me.”

“...”

“What? No comment?”

“Uh ... For once I do not have a response. That is the most ridiculous saying I have ever heard and I have no idea how to respond. What did you do to warrant this response from your mother?”

“I disassembled our family’s personal A.I. I told you I was an exceptionally intelligent child. Apparently, wisdom and intelligence are not synonymous. After Mom calmed down and stopped yelling at me, she called maintenance and had the station’s computer specialist come to our suite. When she arrived, she stopped and just stared at me and the parts laying everywhere. There I was, this five-year-old child with a screwdriver in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. I looked at her and said, ‘Some assembly required.’

“She burst out laughing and said, ‘I’ll say. Well, kid, guess we should get started.’ I told her that I had everything laid out in the order that it was taken apart and all we had to do was start at the end and work our way backward. And that’s what we did.

“It took the rest of the day and all night to reassemble all three thousand, two hundred and fourteen parts. Anna, the computer specialist, used her test equipment to make sure it was all functional before we booted up the A.I. core. The core is the only thing I didn’t open and take apart.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t. The core is the A.I.’s brain it consists of the quantum processor and memory crystals. It would be the same as cutting up your organic brain to see how it functions.” A.I. said. I could hear the anger in its voice.

“Except my brain can’t be put back together and reloaded with core programming.” I said, “The A.I. may lose some memories acquired over time, but it can be restored. If my brain is disassembled, I die. We’re getting off topic here.

I lay down on the table and gave the command to begin the procedure. The robotic arms removed my wig and opened the access panel exposing my brain.

The process was easy enough. I had watched the videos of my creation. The brain is encased in a metal frame and capped by a clear dome. In order for my brain to benefit from the solution, the dome needed to be removed. To protect the brain stem, the frame sat on four posts that stuck up from the bottom of the tank. The tank was then sealed to prevent fluid from sloshing out. The A.I. started the clock.

We must be getting close to earth. My systems were coming online as I woke up. “A.I. Report!”

“Um ... Well ... We are really close to Earth. A bit closer than you had expected to be awakened.”

“How close, A.I.?”

“We are actually on the surface. With the main engines damaged I had to use the thrusters to control the landing. They are not powerful enough to take off. We can change locations, but we will need the main engines repaired in order to lift off. However, the technology to begin repairs does not exist, yet.”

“What do you mean by that? It’s 2248, why wouldn’t the technology exist?”

“Remember I said there was a temporal differential in the rift? Well, it appears we traveled backward in time when we passed through. I sent up a drone after we landed. The date I saw on a newspaper said it was August 23, 1819.”

“FUCK!!! What the fuck am I supposed to do for the next 150 years while I wait for the space age to begin? I can’t just leave the ship sitting here. Can you imagine how people would react to it in this era?”

I realized it could have been worse. If we had landed closer to the 20^th century when there were satellites and motorized travel, we could have been spotted much easier. This way I have time to come up with a solution to hide the ship.

“I have an idea, A.I. What do you think about burying the ship? We can find a mountain big enough to bore a tunnel with the main weapons, then collapse the entrance. I can find some era appropriate clothing, but I’ll need money. When we are looking for a place to hide the ship see if you can locate a gold deposit. That will be our source of money, sort of.”

“Sort of?” A.I. asked.

“Yes, sort of. In 1819 there were a few banks. Gold exchanges didn’t exist until the gold rush of 1848. The bank will loan us current coins using the gold ore as collateral. They will ship the ore to the U.S. Mint. The Mint will then ship an equal amount of coins to the bank. The bank will hold the coins for my use minus what they loaned me. I’m really going to miss the credit disc I used to have.”

I made my way to the flight bay and brought my ship out of storage. I flew around the area scouting for a settlement and a place to hide the ship. I flew about 1000 feet up to give me a wide field of view without making things too small. If I remember my U.S. History, (ok. I googled it.), this was the Sacramento River. Then that settlement over there will be Sutter’s Fort. That mean about 50 miles Northeast of the fort is a mountain with gold.

A man named Marshall discovered gold in the mountain in 1848 and that’s what started the gold rush. I’ll have to remember to announce that later, but for now that gold is mine. I flew in that direction and scanned for the ore deposit. “A.I.?” I called over our connection.

“Yes, Captain?” the A.I. Acknowledged.

“I found a location to hide the ship. Lift off and come to my location.” I told it.

“On my way, Captain,” it responded.

A few minutes later I saw my command ship approaching. “A.I. I am going to fire my lasers at the mountain. I want you to bore a tunnel big enough for you to fit in with the landing gear extended and as close to the middle of the mountain as you can get. This will put you close to the main vein of ore.

Over the next few years I mined the ore from the mountain, storing it in the cargo hold of my ship and in spaces around the ship in the back of the cave it was in. I don’t know how many tons of gold I had, but I knew it was more than the ship could carry if it had to lift off. I’d have to leave most of it behind. I had used the replicator to create a bigger replicator. I needed rails and carts, as well as digging tools. It’s a good thing I wasn’t human anymore, there’s no way I would have done this as a full human.

It’s 1829 now, and I have stopped mining the ore. I have more than I will ever need. I now spend my time exploring with the drone. I wasn’t able to steal any clothes so I had the drone scan some current fashion and I replicated what I wanted. Rather than a dress, I created some miner’s clothes and wore them to the fort. I traded some gold for some coal. I ordered five tons of coal to be delivered to the fort. I would have to wait a month for it to be delivered.

When it arrived, I paid the drivers of the wagons to deliver it to my mine. I resupplied them with fresh food and water. I had my ship hover up above a few thousand feet so it wouldn’t be spotted. Ugh! I can’t believe it took a week to travel 50 miles. I can’t even use my skates on this terrain. I wasn’t concerned about being such a small woman among half a dozen men on an eight-day trip. As a cyborg, I was stronger and faster. I could have run back to the mine in an hour. I had my sword and the laser in my left index finger. There is nothing they can do to hurt me.

We finally reached the mine. Before I left to get the coal, I had prepared a place to store it. I had built a huge blacksmith style furnace and had all of the coal dumped into the pit. I replicated some steel beams to support the exhaust cone of the damaged engine. If I can get the damaged area hot enough, I may be able to pound out the dent, even if it was bigger than I was.

I built a scaffold and pully system to help remove the cone from the ship. Once the cone was removed from the ship, I attached several cables to it. Then remotely piloted the Ethereal and had it drag the cone out and place it on the furnace pit.

“Captain, I have been using the Ethereal’s sensors to monitor the surrounding area. Two of the men that helped deliver the coal have come back and are watching you. My guess is that they will try to attack and take the mine from you.” A.I. told me.

“Now, that would be stupid of them, wouldn’t it?” I responded.

“Yes, Captain, it would be.”

“What’s their location and distance?” I asked.

“They were watching when the Ethereal carried the cone to the furnace. They will have to be eliminated. Unless you want the Calvary from Sutter’s Fort to come check out their story.”

“No, I’ll pass on that. When the cone is disconnected from the ship circle around and take care of them. No survivors.”

“Understood, Captain.”

I unhooked the cables from the cone, then the Ethereal dropped down so I could reach up and unhook them from the ship. The Ethereal took off and circled around the hill the two men were hiding behind. There was a brief burp from the ship’s lasers and it came to a landing not far from the furnace. Without satellites to see it, I wasn’t concerned about it being outside in the daytime. Just the nosey neighbors.

I lit the coal with my laser finger and it still took two days for it to get hot enough. I still had to use my laser finger to heat the inside as the coal heated the outside. It’s a good thing it was summer. There’s no way I could have maintained the heat in winter.

To help maintain heat while I wasn’t working on the cone. I shoveled some of the hot coals into the cone. Two and a half week later I had another shipment of coal delivered. A.I. noticed them coming from the drone and I sent the Ethereal back into the cave.

“Hello, gentlemen,” I said, greeting them with a smile.

“Evenin’, ma’am.” One of the men said, taking off his hat and holding it to his chest. “We’ve broughtcha ‘nother load of coal. Where d’ya won’t it?” I could hear the lack of education in his manner of speech. I wondered if he could even read.

“Over by the furnace, put the load in the coal box. When you’re done you can make camp on the far side of that hill for the night.” I pointed toward the hill where the other two men were hiding when A.I. shot them. “I see there are only three of you this time.”