40. Retrofit Conversion Planning

Abyssal wasted no time making it to the bridge. A great idea had come to her mind and she couldn’t wait to reveal it to the rest of her crew. It was a very simple idea but one that can turn their situation around tremendously. She travelled through the hallway with great speed before going through the automatic door to the bridge. She was in such a haste that she almost bumped into the said automatic bulkhead.

Once arrived, she scanned the place before locking her sight on the two people whom she was looking for. Kuon who was busy cleaning the place with her trusty broom and Meica who sat near her.

‘There they are...Hmm?’

To Abyysal’s surprise, they were not arguing, but were rather, talking to each other in a civilised manner. A small hint of curiosity struck Abyssal as she witnessed this. As far as she knew, they two were always at each other’s throat. What had happened between the two for them to be able to talk to each other like this?

It seemed that they had yet to notice that Abyssal was in the area and was still conversing with each other. They spoke in a careful and quiet manner that Abyssal was not able to hear from where she was. She couldn't help but feel curious about what they were talking about— a tingling sensation within herself urged her curiosity further.

Of course, Abyssal could easily eavesdrop on them but chooses not to. What with her being the ship and all it was only a simple matter to create a microphone nearby to spy on their conversation. However, privacy was important and she was not one to barge into other people’s private space. That is, of course, unless the situation requires it. This was not the moment.

Shrugging the thoughts to the back of her mind, Abyssal floated forward and called out to them. “Hey, Kuon, Meica. How are things? You guys doing fine?"

Meica body's jumped a little bit at the sudden appearance of Abyssal. "Nyaa?!!"

Abyssal tilted her drone in response.

Kuon, on the other hand, had a much more composed attitude. She gave Abyssal a slight bow. "Things are well. The mess from the fight earlier has been cleaned up. No major damages to my internal systems either."

"That's good. How 'bout you Meica? Doing ok?" Abyssal turned to Meica.

"Ah? Un. Yeah, Meica doing okay," she said as she nodded a few times. She then flexed her muscles in front of Abyssal to show that she was fine.

Abyssal turned to look at Kuon before turning to look at Meica. The two seemed to be rather alert at Abyssal's presence in the bridge. "Am… I, disturbing you two or something?

"No, nothing. I was just making an inquiry to her about her health condition. Isn’t that right?” Kuon replied before facing Meica. She only responded by nodding her head vigorously. “Is there something you require of us, master?” Kuon asked, shifting the topic.

“Ah right! I just wanted to ask you something, Kuon. You see...  the Maxwell is a pretty big ship right?”

“I’ve seen larger ships before. But if you are talking about size relative to the Fierca class, yes the Maxwell is akin to a frigate size ship.”

“Yeah yeah," Abyssal replied with a tired tone, ignoring Kuon's remark. "So I was thinking… won’t we get a ton of resources by deconstructing the whole thing? Like actual useful resources. Not those rocks and unrefined minerals.”

“Well… yes, we would get quite a lot of resources.”

“Yep. So you see… what we have here is a cargo ship, right? But what’s the point of a freighter like this if we can’t use it to haul goods? We don’t have the funds to even begin with trading. We pretty much have no need for a large cargo ship like this at this point in time. I say we scrap the Maxwell, and with the resources we get from deconstructing the Maxwell, create a brand new ship that is stealthy and can be used for combat!”

"..."

“I was thinking, you know. We might be attacked again in the future, so we need to prepare ourselves from now on. I was thinking maybe we could also upgrade the radar system and increase the ship’s stealth capabilities to better avoid detection from enemy ships. The Maxwell is so clunky and lacks a proper weapon system, so I was thinking of adding more firepower as well, maybe by adding more guns or even adding the…” Abyssal continued on but slowly stopped when she noticed that her enthusiasm wasn’t shared by her first mate.

“...”

Kuon kept silent at the matter, only looking at Abyssal as if unsure of the decision. Meica, on the other hand, stared at the two drones, curious in the conversation.

“What’s wrong? I thought it was a pretty sound idea,” Abyssal asked, a bit deflated at the lack of reaction from her maid. “We finally get to use the true power of the nanomachines…”

“No, it’s just that. I can see where you are going with this, but to construct a whole new vessel from scratch in deep space is a big endeavour that will take quite a while, even with our capabilities. It’s best to do this when we have access to a dry dock.”

“I see…” Abyssal said as she stared at the floor, dejected. “I should have known it won’t be that simple, huh.”

“While it’s certainly not impossible, it will take quite a long time and we would be all kinds of vulnerable during the phase. I suggest we refrain from the idea until we are ready.”

“I see… well, if a full reconstruction is not possible then how about a conversion?”

“A conversion?”

“Yep. You said to me that you assimilated tons of pirate ships before in the past right, Kuon? Surely there must be some good blueprints within those plethora of ships that we can use to modify or convert the Maxwell,” Abyssal said before moving over to the holographic projector. She then displayed a 3D map of all her current vessels. Within the display was also a list, showing the number of resources they have available to them, scrolling down at a fast rate. It also showed what resources were available to each ship should it be scuttled.

“I see… That might actually be possible in a certain timeframe...”

Kuon took a look at the holographic projections before going silent for a while, but not before moving its robotic arms in front of her body to mimic the motion of someone thinking.

…

..

.

“How about it? Any ideas if we can modify the ship?” Abyssal asked after a few minutes of silence.

Kuon went over to the projector before injecting her idea into the machine. The 3D map of the Maxwell slowly changed to reflect her modifications. The thrusters were modified and moved to another part of the ship, the cargo bay downsized and the hull shape changed. The bridge, engine room, camera system and many other things were modified and moved accordingly.

The arsenal of the ship changed as well, now incorporating the missile launcher gained from the Tsubame and a certain single big laser gun that looked like it packs a lot of firepower. The end result was a ship far different and smaller than the Maxwell. It was a corvette size ship that resembles a fish with big fins.

“This design is probably outdated by now, but the tech for ships doesn't usually advance that fast, so this should still be a viable ship. At the very least it’s better than the Maxwell in terms of combat capabilities.”

“Wow…” Abyssal went agape at the sight of the blueprints. The plans that Kuom provided even came with detailed instructions. Her logical-self, Abby, immediately absorbed the plans and has begun calculating on the project.

“It’s not exactly the Maxwell anymore. It is a design that closely resembles the Freedom United Ship, the Shark class Corvette. It is a stealth fighter with good manoeuvrability. Its main arsenal is a laser gun that can pierce thick armour. Merging the components of the Maxwell and the Tsubame class will allow us to construct this ship. By my best estimate, we should be able to finish this project within two weeks.”

"The main draw of this ship is the large calibre gun that would usually be mounted on a large ship. Though it's only a single mount, it still packs a lot of firepower. Wolf packs of the shark class can mimic the firepower of battleships while also being agile and stealthy. It's a ship that I had a great deal of difficulty trying to overcome in the past. The main gun itself is rather easy to construct with the resources we have. I guess you could say this is a super-efficient ship made from junk."

Abyssal was speechless to say anything back. It was what she wanted and more. She could understand the namesake of the ship. It looked almost exactly like one; a shark with guns on its body and thrusters on its fins.

Abyssal nodded excitedly about the prospect of the project. “Let’s do it, let’s do it!”

It was then that her excitement died down a bit. Abyssal looked at the projector to confirm something. “But we will have to scrap the Tsubame, won’t we? We just got that ship. I was even thinking of giving it to you to use as a vessel, Kuon. And we would have to scrap most of the Maxwell too, huh," Abyssal said as she let out a small sigh.

“I have no need for a vessel right now. I think this project will make use of the Dawning Star fighter better than however I can utilize that ship.”

“I see. Well, I can't be helped then. I’ll get you another vessel some other time. Let’s get started on the project then. I need some time to amass nanites and calculate our starting point. Oh right, hey Meica, I think it would be better if you move to Fierca during the whole thing. We are changing the ship inside-out after all. Don't want to accidentally to send you flying into deep space.”

“...”

“Hmm? Meica?”  Abyssal turned around to look at Meica when she didn’t give a reply. What entered her sight was the Nekomi staring intently at the holographic projector— at the blueprints for the to be converted Shark Class.

“Meica, did you hear me just now?” Abyssal asked again.

“Maid Drone, your designs weird, nyaa.”

“Eh?”“Pardon me?”

Abyssal let out a flabbergasted tone. Kuon, on the other hand, replied with an agitated tone.

“Placement of directional thrusters not optimal, nyaa. Design can be improved further. If put thrusters here instead of over here,” Meica said as she pointed at the ‘fins’ of the ship.

“Nonsense, this design is this way so that when damaged, the ship will still maintain a semblance of integrity. This way it could still function and manoeuvre even with damaged directional thrusters,” Kuon argued back.

“But is stealth ship, nyaa. Why need to take damage? With this can be more evasive. Also, placement of gun is weird too, nyaa. More angle if placed like this,” Meica pointed the hologram.

“You don’t know what you are talking about. This ship is already manoeuvrable enough. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. A girl with no real experience such as yourself shouldn’t be meddling with advanced blueprints such as these.”

“Nyaa?! Meica knows how ship works, unlike stupid maid drone!”

“As if I could believe a girl who has never even been to space before! You have zero credibility! No go away, while the ‘adults’ work. Shoo shoo!”

“Meica have legit certificate of ship engineering, unlike stupid maid drone only steal blueprints from pirates!”

“!@#*%!#”

“^&$%^#$”

‘Ahh, that’s more like it,’ Abyssal let out a satisfied nod seeing Meica and Kuon arguing with each other. She then turned her back on them and moved over to pick up Kapitan’s remains before leaving the bridge. She needed to pack a lot of things before the project could get started after all.

‘Hey Abby, what’s the completion percentage on the asteroid?’[Assimilation of Asteroid Y2, 3% completed.]

‘Asteroid mining is going to take a while, huh. This asteroid is larger than I thought. Abby, change of plans. Let’s use the Asteroid as a hiding spot instead. Construct a cave within asteroid Y2. Make it so that the entrance can be closed and open at will.'

[Affirmative.]‘Alright. Now that that’s done, come on Kapitan, let’s get you back to the Fierca.’ Abyssal thought to herself as she left the bridge.

Just right before she left the place, she took another look at the bridge. “Looking forward to seeing an upgraded version of this ship,” she muttered to herself.

“ %!@#&(*!# ”

“ *&^*&%!# ”