Chapter 2: Change of Command

After eight hours of sleeping in the stasis field, he was awakened and alerted as it shut off with a soft ‘shish’ noise. He settled easily into the bed and discovered that it really was pretty comfortable. Recalling the last instructions left by Aurora, he sat up and consumed the glass of juice placed there for him. It was time to get up.

He was a bit unsteady but rapidly gained his ‘game’ legs by walking around the room for a few minutes.

“Aurora” he called.

“Yes, Simon. How are you feeling?” spoke Aurora as she appeared behind him.

That popping in and out thing could be a bit unsettling, he thought.

“I feel pretty good. My stomach is a bit queasy, the ringing in my ears is going away slowly, but still there, and I have gotten over the dizziness I had a few minutes ago. I still feel some pain in a couple of joints and my headache is lessening. I don’t think there are any lasting ill effects now. What is the next step?” he said.

Aurora said “Next you need to know the protocols for assuming command of this ship.”

She touched his forehead with the palm of her hand, holding a humming disk-like device that stopped humming shortly after making contact with his skin. He slowly began to ‘know’ what to do. Incredible!

“What was that?” he asked Aurora.

“It is called a ‘Mini-Trainer disk’. It works by a process that ‘flash-encodes’ a small portion of your brain and activates the connecting links to the information. We also have a much larger version here in Medical that can train various professions and skills as well as impart historical ‘knowledge’.” she replied. “Follow me to the Aurora Central Control room and we can begin the transition process.”

Aurora walked with him to a small door deep in the heart of the ship and opened it for him. He walked inside the door with Aurora and it closed behind them. The room was only about four feet square with a small metal plate on a raised tray in front of him. The room was devoid of any other obvious controls.

She spoke and said “There is only one way out of this room and that depends upon your success. You must understand and complete the procedure to become Captain.”

A voice spoke to him and said, “PROTOCOL TO CHANGE?”

He sensed that the language spoken was not English, but he recognized the question and somehow ‘knew’ the response in Daandru.

He replied “Protocol Change Captain Authorization Omega Alpha Alpha One Seven Three Nine.”

The voice spoke “INSUFFICIENT AUTHORIZATION, AURORA RESPONSE REQUIRED”

Aurora responded “Protocol Change Captain Authorization Omega Alpha Alpha Nine Three Seven One, Initiate and Proceed”

“PROTOCOL CHANGE, CAPTAIN, WORKING, STATE FULL NAME OF NEW CAPTAIN” the voice said.

Simon replied “Simon Gordon” as he placed his hand on the metal plate in front of him.

A slight burning sensation washed through his hand but he did not remove it from the plate. He waited.

The voice returned “CAPTAIN NAME ‘SIMON GORDON’ ENTERED IN MAIN DATA CORE. DNA ENCODED. COMPATIBILITY MATCH LEVEL ACCEPTED AND CONFIRMED. IDENTITY CONFIRMED. PROTOCOL CHANGE, CAPTAIN, COMPLETED. AWAITING NEXT REQUIRED PROTOCOL.”

Simon had to give some thought to the next series of changes and when he was ready said, “Protocol Change Ship Name to ‘Blazing Star’. Authorization Kappa Kappa Alpha Two Three Nine Eight, Initiate and Proceed”

“PROTOCOL CHANGE, SHIP NAME TO ‘BLAZING STAR’, ACCEPTED AND LOGGED” said the voice.”

Simon continued, “Protocol Change ‘Blazing Star AI Name to ‘Blaze’. Authorization Kappa Omega Beta Three Nine Nine Eight, Initiate and Proceed”

“PROTOCOL CHANGE, BLAZING STAR AI NAME, ACCEPTED AND CHANGED TO ‘BLAZE’. ALL NECESSARY PROTOCOL CHANGES SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED AND LOGGED.”said the voice.

Three things happened simultaneously. He removed his hand from the plate, Aurora disappeared and the door opened. He was now the Captain of the ‘Blazing Star’. A grounded, almost dead, Aurora Class Battle Cruiser, but he sensed the potential and paused to consider the great responsibility.

Stepping out of the room, he headed to what he knew to be ‘Command’. On arrival, the door to ‘Command’ opened by itself, allowing him entry to the very heart of Blazing Star. Never in his wildest dreams had he pictured this. There were consoles and viewing screens all around the room. There were several doors out of the room as well. It was dimly lit and only one small console had any power evident. Initially nothing that he saw made much sense but gradually, more and more of what he was looking at started to become recognizable. He started to call ‘Aurora’ but realized she no longer had that name. He sat down in the Captains Chair. At least he felt it should be the Captains chair. It was more like a bulky sofa and it fit him perfectly.

“Blaze”, he called. No response.

“Blazing Star”, he called.

“Yes Captain”, came the reply seemingly from nowhere and yet from everywhere.

“Where is your hologram or android form?” he asked.

Blazing Star replied, “They are being prepared to serve the ship. It will take about five minutes of your time for their programming to complete.”

“Thank you.” he said. “Can you provide me with a status report?”

“Certainly Captain, Status Report follows: Shields offline, unable to power up, Sensor Arrays offline and unable to power up, Weapons Systems offline, unable to power up, Reactor Cores one, two, three and four are offline, unable to initialize. Repair Subsystems offline, unable to power up, Maintenance Systems offline, unable to power up, Engineering, Crew Quarters, Research, and Food Services Levels, on minimum power, Sub-light Engines offline, unable to initialize. Shift Engines offline, unable to initialize, Command on minimal power, Medical on minimum power, Life Support on minimum power, all systems reduced to ‘on demand’ power levels, Central Core Power now at 0.03% and falling. We are approximately 20 Meters underground and have one functioning Shuttle. The good news is we have a new Captain, Simon Gordon.” it replied.

Simon did detect a bit of possible sarcasm in the last comment and found it amusing.

He thought, “It is going to be interesting dealing with AI’s, androids and holograms.”

“And how long can we survive if this condition is not improved?” he asked.

“Nine of your days at our present level of usage until Memory Core failure.” was its response.

He also noted, but did not need to be told, that well before that time it would shut down all power drains to preserve its own Memory Core. It only made sense. He understood that memory core failure meant the death of the ship and all of its technology preserved in that core. He was running out of time and needed help. Big time!

“Blazing Star, can you show me the dry-dock start up procedure sequence when Aurora was initialized?” he asked.

“Yes Captain”, it replied.

A clear view panel materialized in front of him and proceeded to show him a history of the creation of the Aurora with particular emphasis on the power up procedure. He made note of the sequence used to start up the Aurora, hoping that it would show him the proper and safe way to build up her power levels. It seemed that the first order of business was to get the main power levels to 15% before starting up the core reactors. He already had a functioning core memory, but for how long? Life support was activated at 10%, but that could be ignored as this ship was now in an atmosphere, not in a deep space dry-dock. It looked like the best procedure was to get the maintenance and repair systems online first. They would not start to power up until Blazing Star had over 5% power. It was then critical to get the reactors online. That should be possible at 15%. Two orders of business then, temporary power and crew to help. What resources did he have? He had limited communication at the cabin, but he did have two large tanks of volatile fuel, at the cabin. He had a transport shuttle. How far could it travel? He also had several electrical generators, also at the cabin. He had the ship and Blaze to help him. James would be returning to pick him up in, what, four days now. At that moment, Blaze chose to make her visual appearance in typical AI fashion, materializing behind him.

“Blaze reporting for duty Captain!” she said.

He turned around to speak to her and was momentarily taken aback. This was obviously NOT Aurora with a new name. It was clearly someone new. Blaze stood about 5’ 8” and had long light blonde hair with massive streaks of red and orange. She looked like her hair was on fire or ‘ablaze’.

“Appropriate”, he thought.

The rest of her was picture perfect, more beautiful than any other woman he had ever met or seen, he thought. She was dressed in a tightly clinging outfit that emphasized that she was all woman, except that she wasn’t, she was a hologram.

“My goodness, you are gorgeous!” he said.

“Thank you, Captain” she replied. “I am only average looking compared to a true Daandru woman.”

“Well, I hope I get to meet some of them some day, just for the experience.” he said to himself.

“Blaze, we need to get back to my cabin to contact some people.” Simon said, “First, however, can you give me information quickly on what it takes to be a captain of this ship, preferably by direct ‘training’ as before by Aurora.”

“Medical has the means to train you by using a training device placed over your head. The process can take from a few minutes to several hours depending on your capacity to absorb the information but sometimes causes headaches or nausea. We can stop by Medical and use the training device on the way. Transport Shuttle One (TS-1) is still in Command Bay and will be ready to go by the time we get there.” replied Blaze.

Almost instant communication between the ship, and a mobile AI could be very useful.

“Blaze, what is the fuel or power source for the shuttle and how far is it capable of traveling now in atmosphere and at full power?” he asked as they headed for Medical.

“TS-1 is capable of atmospheric flight for 10,000 miles and currently has only 3% power remaining or 300 miles of travel. It uses a small conversion reactor that will consume almost any combustible liquid for fuel.”

Arriving in Medical, Blaze seated Simon in a chair reminiscent of one of those old barbershop chairs, nice and comfy with raised arms. A helmet like device lowered from the ceiling and clamped itself around his head. He felt a momentary drowsiness and then seemed awake again. The helmet retreated into the ceiling and he rose from the chair.

“That wasn’t bad.” he thought and asked “How long did that take? Only a few seconds?”

Blaze replied, “You were in the training helmet for 32 minutes while your brain focused on absorbing all the information. The Bio feedback from that process did show some latent mental skills that have been awakened. Were you able to communicate with other people using telepathy in the past?”