11. First Maid Kuon

After the event that happened at the captain's quarters, Abyssal quickly acted and brought back the orb, now identified by Abby as a Living Core, to the ship. She carefully and gently used her robotic arms to carry the Living Core in order not to damage it as she moved across the cruiser.

Once she arrived at the ship, she took a small container and put said Living Core in it. Throughout the entire trip, she didn't say a single word— still distraught from the harrowing experience. She was noticeably disturbed even after bringing said core to her bridge, just staring at the shining glowing orb in silence. It was only after a good hour or so when she finally recomposed herself.

'So… this is what a Living Core looks like huh?' Abyssal thought to herself as she made circles around the orb to view it from every direction.

'Do I look like this too? Could it be that somewhere on this ship is a glowing orb, as well? That would be my true self, right? Not the ship? Does the core have its own supply of nanomachines?'

'Moreover, if this core is the same existence as me, does this mean that the orb is alive? Could it be that the being living within this orb is a person from earth who woke up as a spaceship too?'

Abyssal then brought her mind towards a certain vision when she tried to assimilate the Living Core. It doesn't make any sense, but she swore that she saw a woman wearing a maid uniform. The maid even bowed down to Abyssal. Was that vision all in her mind? What was the identity of this Living Core and why was it there within the abandoned cruiser? Was the maid that Abyssal saw an avatar of the Living Core?

'But a maid huh… whoever designed that avatar has some good taste. I wonder if I can make my avatar a pretty girl as well?' Abyssal thought to herself. As always, stupid thoughts filled up her mind.

Seeing no reason not to, Abyssal activated her text to speech program to ask the sentient core a question.

"Greetings. I. Am. Abyssal. What. Is. Your. Name?"

Abyssal waited a few minutes for the orb to respond but nothing happened. Either the core refused to talk to her or the core was unable to respond to her. Abyssal seemed to be in some sort of pinch.

'Hmm… hey Abby, what is a Living Core? How do I get the maid to appear again? Is it possible to communicate with this thing? Can we like, sync up via wi-fi or something?' Abyssal asked a ton of questions to her machine-self.

"No information found on Living Core. Not enough information to compute an answer.Not enough information to compute an answer.Not enough information to compute an answer."

Abby responded to each of her questions.

'You know Abby, for a supercomputer you are pretty useless. How do you not know what a Living Core is!? That's us right? We are a Living Core. Just examine ourselves! How do you know all about nanomachines, computation and stuff but not ourselves?'

"Database does not indicate knowledge of Living Core. Personality known as Abyssal and personality Abby is the same thing. Abby = Useless. Abyssal = Abby. Abyssal = Useless."

'What?! Don't you throw sass at me like that, Abby!'

“Sanity levels at 21%. Subject S.A.S. Abyssal having conversation with self. Advising self-diagnostics of system," Abby replied.

'Arghh, forget it! If you aren't going to help then keep quiet.'

And so… Abby, her machine-self, remained quiet. Abyssal got her moment of peace and let out an imaginary humph— she was not happy at being called useless by herself.

She calmed down quickly and stayed there for a moment trying to figure out her next move. Her 'eyes' wandered around the bridge as she spun Kaon around. It's a bad habit of hers— she likes to fiddle around with something as she thinks.

It was then at this moment that she spotted her second drone. The inactive drone in standby mode on its charging platform.

'Hmmm…' Abyssal hummed as she stared at the drone with a curious look.

This drone, nicknamed Kuon, was non-functional. The drone itself was fine, all of its parts were working well and the drone itself was in good condition. The only thing that prevented it from working was the fact that the drone was missing a computer chip. Or more precisely, it was missing a control chip. The exact part that prevents Abyssal from remotely controlling Kuon like its sister drone.

Abyssal had often wondered if she could just use her nanomachines in order to take control of the drone manually. There were a lot of things she could control within the ship that didn't have a control chip, what makes this drone different from the others to the point that she couldn't control it? She never really tried it though. It would make her feel really dumb if it turns out that all this time she could have taken over the drone but never tried to do so. In her defence, she didn’t want to carelessly destroy the drone, so she never bothered.

'Hmm? Wait a minute. This Living Core is basically a super advanced computer, right? Can't I just put the core into the drone? That should make it functional right?'

Abyssal thought it was a great idea. If the Living Core was any bit as awesome as her, then it would have no problem in assimilating the drone. Plus, the second drone would likely have its own text to speech device, allowing both of them to communicate with each other. That and she gets to have a second drone to help her with stuff and maybe a friend she could talk with to stave off her loneliness.

Then again, there was the question of whether or not the Living Core was friendly or hostile. She could very well be looking at a system that could rival or even assimilate her. Abyssal shivered at the thought of getting eaten by another person.

"Possibility of being overtaken by foreign Living Core is 0%. The process to dispose of Living Core, should it be a threat, will be within 2 minutes by the process of nanomachine disassembly," a message from Abby was sent to the top of Abyssal's mind, letting her know of the risk involved— zero.

'... Good to know, I guess. Alright then, might as well do it. I see no harm in trying it.' Abyssal thought to herself as she made her way towards her second drone, Kuon, and took it out of its charging station.

Using her robotic arms she placed the drone next to the Living Core and started to unscrew the back panel. The rectangular piece of metal came off, revealing the insides of the drone— mechanical parts and a large circuit board. Looking at the circuit board, Abyssal could see a small slot that was meant for a computer chip.

Abyssal then went over and gently carried the Living Core and placed it in the slot. It didn't really fit since the slot was meant for a small chip, but Abyssal put it in anyways. Once she confirmed that the core was safely secured into the drone, she placed the panel back and went over to the switch.

*Pachik

Abyssal flipped the switch to the drone and waited for it to boot up. The drone made loud weird noises from the bootup, sounding a whole lot like those old school dial-up modems. Seeing this, Abyssal let out a hum, signifying that she was happy at the situation. Back then, flipping the switch would have done absolutely nothing, so things were actually looking rather great for Abyssal. It meant that her plan was actually working.

Abyssal waited patiently as the drone continued to make weird modem noises. A solid five minutes passed when the noise stopped and the drone started twitching around. Its movements were erratic and its robot arms flailed around.

'Uwah!? What's this?' Abyssal exclaimed as she backed away in order to not get hit by the out of control drone.

During all of this, Abyssal's machine-self secretly prepared her nanomachines to disable the drone at a moment's notice. If Abby finds that the Living Core is a threat, she would not hesitate to destroy it for the survival of the ship.

Luckily, such an event did not have to occur as the drone soon calmed down. The drone went from flailing around to a calm state. Its body turned around, presumably to look around the area using its night-vision camera. Abyssal could tell that Kuon was no longer within her list of parameters and systems.

The drone kept looking around the interior of the ship when suddenly it moved its robotic arms in front of its camera. It then took a long moment moving its arm in various ways— probably to see the extent of its functions.

'The Living Core must be very confused about the situation, huh. It's probably orienting itself in this weird environment.' Abyssal thought as she just lets the drone do whatever it wants. The Living Core's actions kinda reminded Abyssal of her first day in space; only less crying and more exploring.

The Drone took a few more moments moving around and testing out its system when it suddenly noticed the other drone that was in front of it. It was Kaon who was being controlled by Abyssal. The drone took a few moments to stare at it before moving closer. Probably out of curiosity, the drone brought out its robotic arms in order to touch Kaon.

"Greetings. I. Am. Abyssal. What. Is. Your. Name?" Abyssal used her text to speech program to ask the Living Core a question. She used Kaon's robotic arms and waved at the other drone.

The drone jerked away after hearing the question and distanced itself away from Abyssal. Abyssal was a little bit disheartened at the response, but she never stopped waving at the Living Core. The Living Core who saw this, although wary, waved its robotic arm left and right— keeping in sync with Abyssal's own wave.

Abyssal felt happy at the action and continued to wave her other arm. The drone followed as well, waving its other arm in sync with Abyssal.

'It's kinda cute.' It was then that Abyssal felt a surge of emotions rose within her. The feeling of wanting to guide and protect her junior Living Core.

Eventually, Abyssal stopped waving and asked the same question again. "Greetings. I. Am. Abyssal. What. Is. Your. Name?"

The Living Core didn't respond. It just kept still and just stared at her.

'Hmm? Could it not understand me?' Abyssal asked herself. Could it be that Abyssal and the Living Core speak different languages?

"Do. Something. If. You. Could. Understand. What. I. Am. Saying." Abyssal said to the Living Core.

Soon enough, the drone brought up its right robotic arm and started to wave at Abyssal.

'Ohhhh. So it can understand me! Amazing amazing!'

Excited, Abyssal started to ask another question. "What. Is. Your. Name?"

This time, however, the Living Core didn't respond. It only stayed still.

'It doesn't have a name huh. Or does it actually have one and it just simply could not find a way to tell me? I'm pretty sure that Kuon has a text to speech modulator like Kaon does. It's the same drone after all. Or is it not working...' Abyssal wondered.

"Can. You. Speak. To. Me? Wave. Your. Left. Arm. If. You. Cannot." Abyssal asked the core, just in case.

As ordered, the drone raised its left hand and waved at Abyssal.

'Ahhh, that answers the question then.'

"Do. You. Have. A. Name?"

The drone waved its left arm.

"Do. You. Want. A. Name?"

The drone waved its right arm.

'A name huh? Let me see, let me see.'

"Very. Well. From. Now. On. Your. Name. Will. Be. Kuon." Abyssal said to the core.

She hoped that the drone would like the new name. She couldn't really think up a new name at a moment's notice, so she just gave the core the name of the drone, Kuon.

A sense of relief filled Abyssal when she saw the Core waving its right arm vigorously. It must have really liked its new name.

"Very. Well. Kuon. You. Are. Hereby. A. New. Member. Of. This. Crew. I. Am. Your. Fleet. Superior. From. Now. On. Got. It?" Abyssal said to Kuon.

Once again, the core, Kuon, waved vigorously. Perhaps even harder than before.

"I'm. Looking. Forward. To. Working. With. You." Abyssal said to Kuon.

Kuon moved both its robotic arms to the front of itself before rotating the drone forwards— imitating a bow. The way it moved was very elegant, showing great respect to Abyssal. It was like watching a real maid giving a bow.

'Oh right… This thing has a cute maid as an avatar, huh?' Abyssal almost forgot about the woman that she saw in a certain vision.

'Perhaps it's better to call Kuon a she instead of an it from now onwards.' Abyssal thought to herself as she (imaginarily) smiled at the thought of having a companion in this empty and lonely space.

Her First Mate.