24. Spying for Information

"This place is pretty bright, huh," Abyssal muttered as she observed the bay around her. This was the first time in her life as a ship that she saw actual bright lights. The lights seemed to come out from various light bulbs on the ceiling of the bay.

“It seems that we are really in an unknown ship. What else do you see, Master?” Kuon asked.

“Hmm, let me see,” Abyssal focused her omni-directional cameras and observed the other parts of the bay.

"I see lots of cargo crates. Some of them are open but I can't make out the contents from here. This place looks like a huge warehouse," Abyssal replied.

"I think I see a few construction thingies. Like, large ones. I see lots of cranes, as well. The equipment seems to be parked near the cargo ramps. Oh, and there seems to be an entrance at the far corner of the bay. Looks like some sort of bulkhead," Abyssal further added.

"Any signs of living beings?"

"None that I can see at the moment. I don't see any cameras within the bay either. No surveillance.”

“I see. What about any signs, logos or insignias?”

"Nope. Don't see those either."

"This ship doesn't belong to a military unit then. A cargo freighter in space… could it be traders?"

“Hmm, maybe... Abyssal replied before observing the place further. It was then that she noticed something weird. For some reason, she couldn’t see what was behind her thrusters. It seemed like there was some sort of blindspot where her ‘omni-directional’ cameras did not reach.

‘Hey, Abby. Is one of our cameras at the rear end of the ship broken or something?’ Abyssal asked.

[Negative. Lancetech Omni Camera(350° view) at 100% functionality.] Abby replied, sending all relevant information regarding her camera system to the top of Abyssal’s consciousness.

‘Hmm?’ Abyssal scratched her imaginary head.

Abyssal was confused at first, asking herself why she couldn’t see this blind spot despite her camera system being at full functionality. It was then that she saw a certain wording on the system’s name.

Lancetech Omni Camera(350° view).

‘Goddammit, these bloody Lancetech products… What’s the point of calling it Omni directional if it does not give a full 360 view!? That’s just false advertising!’ Abyssal thought to herself before vowing that she will purge all Lancetech components from her system one day.

“Master, may I ask a question?” It was at this moment that Kuon called out, interrupting Abyssal’s thoughts.

“Hmm? Huh? Yes, anything?”

“...are we really going to hijack this ship?” Kuon asked with an uncertain voice.

“Eh? Why are you getting cold feet now? We’ve talked about this before. If they beam us into their ship, we assimilate it. That’s the plan.”

“Yes, I am aware. It’s just that… What if the crew of this ship are good innocent people? We might very well be stealing their only livelihood.”

“...” Abyssal didn’t reply, she only stared at Kuon.

“What is the matter, Master? Did I say anything wrong?” Kuon tilted her head at her Master’s response.

“No… I just didn’t expect you to be a person who upholds morality,” Abyssal replied.

“You are mistaken, Master. This is not about being morally good or bad,” Kuon said, shaking her drone left and right.

“Huh? What is it then?”

“This is about honour. If these are truly innocent people, then taking their ship would be akin to piracy. We would be no different than those lawless scum at that point.”

“...I see,” Abyssal paused for a moment. “Do you... hate pirates or something?”

“I despise them,” Kuon said with conviction, no hesitation in her voice.

“I- I see… Then my dear maid, let me ask you a question.”

“... what is it, Master?”

“Let’s just say, hypothetically speaking, if this ship were to be crewed by pirates or smugglers, what would you do?”

“We liberate the vessel and jettison those filths to the void,” Kuon replied without giving the question a single thought.

“Ehhhh… Even though they haven’t done anything wrong to us? Also, ejecting them into space would kill them, Kuon.” Abyssal asked.

“Those scum forfeited their lives the moment they resort to such barbaric ways.”

“...”

‘Kuon has some really twisted sense of morality, huh…’ Abyssal thought to herself as she viewed one of the opened crates within the cargo bay. She could see within them was some sort of blue powder in a packaging. The entire cargo crate was filled to the brim with this package. Abyssal couldn’t really confirm it, but she suspected that this blue powder could be a drug of sorts. Contrabands.

There was a high chance that the freighter belonged to criminals— smugglers to be exact.

‘Better keep an eye out for Kuon. Don’t want her randomly ejecting people into space,' Abyssal thought as she continued to monitor her surroundings.

She also made a note to herself to stay out of piracy for her new space life. What a shame, piracy was often her most liked part about space games.

….…...

Abyssal stayed in that position for about a good twenty minutes when all of sudden the bulkhead at the far end corner of the bay opened up. Shortly after, two men wearing thug-like clothing walked through the entrance and made their way towards Abyssal. One of the goons had a mohawk while the other one was bald. Abyssal couldn’t help but think that the two goons look like some generic baddies from a movie or something.

‘Oh my god… thousands of years in the future and hooligans still dress like hooligans, huh…’ Abyssal thought to herself before dubbing them as Smuggler A and Smuggler B.

The two men took a few minutes before arriving at Abyssal. They then went a few rounds walking around her, looking at her features. During this, Abyssal could see that the men were talking to each other about something. It was unfortunate that Abyssal couldn’t hear what it was that they were saying as there were no microphones on the exterior of the ship. The two men took their sweet time looking at Abyssal, observing her from every angle. Their inspection ended when one of them, the one with the mohawk, slammed his hand on Abyssal’s rear end.

“Ahh!” Abyssal involuntarily let out a cry as he did that. She immediately went to put her imaginary hands over her mouth, her face slightly blushed.

The two smugglers who weren't aware that Abyssal was a self aware ship then went towards her airlock before starting to pull on the bulkhead in an attempt to board her. When they realised that pulling on the handle won’t work, they started to bang on it with a hammer.

‘Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Stop that! You got to treat a girl more gently!’ Abyssal yelled out internally.

It was unfortunate that the two goons couldn’t hear Abyssal and continued to forcefully open the bulkhead. It wasn’t long before Abyssal saw that one of them went over to a nearby table to grab some sort of futuristic looking saw.

‘What is that?! Wait wait wait! I haven’t prepared my heart for this! OUCCHHHHHHHH,’ Abyssal yelled out in pain as the two men sawed her bulkhead.

....…...

“Just you wait, you bastards. When I assimilate this ship, I’ll.. I’ll… uuuuu,” Abyssal moaned in pain.

“Please be quiet, Master. They might hear us,” Kuon reprimanded Abyssal.

“.... okay,” Abyssal replied.

She ignored the pain from her bulkhead and brought her attention to the two humans who had boarded her. She observed them through the various night-vision cameras within herself.

The two were looking around the ship, navigating through the mess with their flashlight. They were currently within the engine room talking to each other about something. However, unlike before where Abyssal couldn't hear them, now she could. Through the small microphones within the cameras, she spied on their conversation.

"Oh damn mate, look at this ship. This whole thing is an antique," said Smuggler A.

"Yeah, this is an original mini nuclear reactor. They don't make these things anymore. Plus, those thrusters, Lancetech antiques. We could fetch some good money if we refurbish some of the equipment or even sell the ship wholesale to a collector," Smuggler B said.

"I can't believe our luck, man. Two great loots this week! We might actually strike it big this time" Smuggler A replied with a creepy chuckle as he exited the engine room.

'Based on their direction, he seemed to be walking towards the cockpit.' Abyssal thought to herself.

On the way there, he inspected all of Abyssal's other components before arriving at a certain skeleton.

"Oh my god!" Smuggler A yelled out as soon as he saw Kapitan, backing away in shock.   "What the hell…" he muttered once his initial fears died out.

"What? What is it? Why did you shout like that?" Smuggler B came into the cockpit before letting out his own yell.

"Rest in peace…. How long has this ship been in space? This guy is just bones at this point," Smuggler A asked.

"No idea… and I don't want to know. Alright I'm out, we'll clean this ship later," Smuggler B said before leaving the room in a hurry. Smuggler A followed shortly after.

'How rude, calling me an antique. The ship may be old but I am forever ten at heart!' Abyssal lamented as she watched them make their way out of the ship— back to the bulkhead at the end of the cargo bay.

Once the two goons were out of sight, Abyssal did one last scan of the area— double checking to make sure there were no cameras or anybody else within the cargo bay. Once done, Abyssal turned to look at Kuon before asking her a question.

"Hey Kuon, I just want to ask a question. Let's just say we are to start assimilating right now, would they notice us? Like will our presence be immediately made known to them?"

"Master… Please forgive me for what I am about to say.... But we have come this far and only now you are asking that question?" Kuon said in disbelief.

Abyssal looked away to the sides. "I'm new to this alright. Cut me some slack."

"New..? I thought you mentioned that you have been through this before?"

"That's different!" Abyssal yelled softly before letting out a sigh. "Just answer the question."

“Understood. Our detection would depend on whether or not they are actively monitoring their ship for any irregularities during the assimilation. As long as we don’t make any obvious actions like turning off their engine systems, we should stay undetected.”

“I see, I see. How fast do you think we can assimilate this ship by the way? Answer me in such a way that assumes I have no clue on how to use nanomachines,” Abyssal asked.

“...It would depend on the number of nanites we have and other factors like power, range and general control of the nanomachines. At your current capability, Master, I estimate that we would finish assimilating this freighter in a few days.”

“A few days?! That’s way too slow!”

“It cannot be helped. Master’s power generation is too low and we don’t have nearly enough nanomachines to expedite the process.”

“I see… “ Abyssal paused before taking her time to think about something. A few seconds later Abyssal asked Kuon another question: “You mentioned something about range just now. How far do I need to be away from the object in order to assimilate it?”

“As far as your nanomachines can reach. I’ve assimilated things kilometres away before. Things are faster if you are near the object, of course,” Kuon answered in a clear manner.

“Ohhhhh! I see, I see. Kuon you are amazing!”

“I- I… this is basic knowledge, Master. Not something praiseworthy,” Kuon tried to stay calm, but one will not miss her stuttering voice.

“No no! You are amazing! It would have taken me a long time to figure these things out by myself. It's hard for me to test out what I can and cannot do with these nanites in that small tight space,” Abyssal said before she left the secret room.

“Ah! Wait, Master. Where are you going?”

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to assimilate this ship."

"Now? Wouldn't it be better if we waited a little bit longer? To collect more information about the vessel and its crew?"

"And wait until they start dismantling me? Non non non. She who strikes first has the advantage! Those that have the advantage will win the battle!" Abyssal said while giving out a heroic pose; or at least the best heroic pose she could make with the drone.

"..." Kuon stayed quiet, unable to find the words to reply.

“I’m going to look around the place further, see if I can find their reactor or life support systems or maybe just look around the cargo hold to see if we can find something to repair the ship. You stay here and watch over the ship, Kuon. Don’t let those goons do anything to me! I permit lethal force!” Abyssal waved and left the place before Kuon could say anything else.

* * * * *

‘Alright Abby, I need you to take a chunk of our reserved nanomachines and find their reactors and life supports. Assimilate anything else that you think is important but don’t get caught. And please for the love of god, notify me before you do something.’ Abyssal said to her logical-self.

“Affirmative,” Abby replied. It was then that Abyssal could see a swarm of black and blue nanomachines exit her personal drone. The swarm travelled outside the ship before seeping into the cracks of the freighter. If one took a look from the outside of the ship, they could see swarms of nanomachines exiting the pores of the ship as well. Like sand, the dark blue microscopic dust seeped out from the ship and into the freighter.

Together with the swarm was Abyssal herself, who exited her ship in order to further explore the place. Along the way, she touched her bulkhead and ordered her nanomachines to immediately repair the damage done to her. The pain slowly dissipated as the bulkhead regained its former look.

“Meanies,” Abyssal let out a comment before floating away from her ship.

“You know, now that I think about it, I never really did see what I looked like. At least not under proper lighting,” Abyssal said before turning around to look at herself.

Within her sight was a blackish-blue metallic craft with bright blue lines on it. If Abyssal had to explain what the ship looked like, her answer would be that it looked like the dark blue silhouette of a swallow extending its wings. At the bottom of the wings, Abyssal could see two rail cannons—most likely her twin mass drivers.

“Ooohhh, this colour scheme is badass,” Abyssal said out before floating around to the other side of herself to inspect the ship from every angle.

She went to the front, to the sides and ultimately to her rear. She arrived at her back to see her two glorious ion thrusters.

“Amazing….” Abyssal gawked in amazement. “ If only this ship wasn’t such a piece of shit,” Abyssal let out a sigh.

“Welp, time to explore this cargo bay further. I wonder if I could assimilate that huge drone over there,” Abyssal said to herself before moving away towards said construction drone.

However, before she could go too far, she heard a weird noise coming from behind her.

“A talking drone, interesting, interesting,” a female voice said.

“Huh?” Abyssal turned around in surprise the moment she heard the voice.

It was then that Abyssal saw a large cage. Within it was a girl with ears and tail akin to a cat. The girl grabbed the bars of the cage before tilting her head, looking at Abyssal’s personal drone, Kaon.

“Nyaa?”