“Are we out of jumpspace?” she asked.

  You know, it shouldn't bother me, it makes sense that people born on different planets in different regions of space would use different words in different situations for the transit space, but it still threw me.

  “Yeah.” I replied.

  “Anything bad I need to know about?” She asked sleepily, swaying where she sat.

  “No, though I had to divert to a gas giant because we are getting low on fuel.” I answered.

  “Oh... So we're good for a few hours?” She said back.

  “Five till we get to the gas giant, so yes.” I answered in the affirmative.

  “Oh good.” She said, and promptly fell back onto her cot. She was back asleep within seconds.

  I chortled to myself. I had had friends like that way back. They could be alert in a moment when something disturbed their sleep, but as soon as you reassured them, right back to it. I bet she wouldn't even remember asking after. Course, could be a programmed thing for the clones, sensitive to changes in the ship, but not anxious about them.

  The others had a different reaction to the sudden change in gravity.

  Hwang had rolled completely out of bed when she realized the change in gravity, I zoomed the camera out but immediately turned it to the side when I realized she was naked. Megan and Ricky-Rekki were both sitting up in their beds looking around.

  Doctor Smith was still snoring loudly, his leg dragging on the floor beside his bunk.

  “The fuck was that? Captain?” Hwang asked to the ceiling. I think she had asked before but I missed it as I was talking to Carolina. I dropped into a higher reference frame and played back what she said, and yep, she did.

  “Yes, sorry, I was talking to my Chief Engineer. We've exited transit and are heading to a gas giant to refuel.” I said. I was going to have to repeat this a lot I felt.

  “Oh... I guess we should get up and have a talk then.” She replied.

  “You can sleep awhile longer if you'd like. It's a good five hours before we enter the gas giant's orbit, and you've only been asleep for two, maybe three hours if you managed to pass right out like the doctor. I'm surprised you can't hear him snoring from here.” I commented. The audio I was getting from the doctor's room was intense.

  Hwang looked conflicted.

  “Look, Megan and Ricky have awoken, go talk to them, then maybe get some more sleep. When you're ready you can all get together any we can have a talk.” I said.

  Hwang nodded.

  “And maybe put on some clothes before you do.” I added.

  She smirked, then changed her stance to show off... well everything.

  “What, never seen a woman naked?” She asked.

  “Just trying to be respectful. Just because I am the ship doesn't mean those aboard don't deserve some degree of privacy.” I said, then switched to monitoring the ship as a whole before she could reply.

  She had looked good though.

  I let them have their privacy, the camera outside of their rooms showed Hwang going to each of the other's quarters before heading back to her own.

  I didn't completely let them run loose, I had the audio piped directly to myself, and told Hook to alert me if they heard anything that sounded like a plot... which I hoped Hook understood. New Hook was definitely less capable than old Hook, at least when it came to interpreting orders and acting on them.

  “Hey Brayden? Can we talk?” Megan's voice came through the microphone in Hwang's room. They had gathered there.

  “Hey, what's up?” I asked.

  They looked at the ceiling.

  I sighed.

  “It's a turn of phrase, it means what is going on or what do you want.” I stated.

  Hwang cracked a smile.

  “Oh we know, we were just fucking with you.” She said, and laughed.

  The other joined in, except for Megan.

  She just nervously giggled.

  I get the feeling she was not as used to jokes as the rest of them.

  “So what was it you needed.” I asked, sighed exasperatedly.

  “Well... I know we haven't really talked about it much but... we're getting a little stir crazy in here not knowing what is going on, and having to ask you every time we want an update sucks. Do you think we could have some access to the ships systems, or to the sensors to see whats going on?” Megan asked.

  “Or something to watch so we don't lose our shit?” Hwang added without batting an eye.

  Ah. Stimulation. What Bait had been adamant was the most valuable thing in C.O.G. Space.

  “Gimme a second.” I ordered up a fab queue for several datapads and VR sets.

  The time to complete was... seconds. Guess we had the parts in storage.

  Also that whole ass manufactory was paying dividends. I probably need to use it for more things.

  “I'm delivering some datapads and VR sets to your rooms. I'll give you some basic access to sensors, but most importantly, you'll have access to the C.O.G. Entertainment files on board.”

  I paused.

  “There's a lot of them.” I finished.

  Hwang beamed.

  Megan looked around and had a look on her face that made her look like she had won something. She wiggled in her seat happily.

  Rekki-Ricky looked around like he was... bored? He had seemed semi-checked out of the whole discussion. He had definitely said something before... or had he?

  Rekki-Ricky gave me a headache.

  A few minutes later the gear had been delivered to each of their rooms, and they returned to their rooms to try them out.

  While they played with their new toys I turned my attention to the star system.

  It was honestly really pretty when I looked at the images composited from the various telescopes and sensors festooning my ship, a bright white star that my systems helpfully said was a type F main sequence star.

  Going through the contents of the system, in addition to the four gas giants, there were four rocky planets in the inner solar system, though there was no helpful asteroid belt here for dividing inner and outer solar system, I just counted where the Gas giants started as the outer one.

  Unlike previous systems we had been to this one had significantly higher activity, nearly every transit point on the map had some kind of patrol around it, most of them the same configuration as the wing of bounty hunter ships that had greeted us.

  All but one, that one was being patrolled by two of the Baron class vessels from the empire. And also something bigger.

  It was also the one we needed to go through.

  “Huh... that might be an issue.” I said to myself.

  “Hook, you have any thoughts on this?” I asked him as I highlighted the patrol.

  “This does not bode well for our return journey.” Hook stated matter of factly.

  I mentally rolled my eyes.

  “Yeah no shit, I meant what do you think it means and how do we deal with it.” I said a tad snappishly. New Hook oscillated between overly helpful and taciturn it seemed.

  “What it means is that I. am. Unsure. Imperials do have SOP that they follow, but they often break it depending on the whims and needs of the noble in charge in any given space, however an easy assumption would be that they have secured the other side of the transit point in some way shape or form.” Hook laid out for me after the minor snap.

  “Damnit... What's on the other side?” I asked.

  “A heavily, but freshly colonized system. It has three colonies on three different worlds that have a very tightly tied trade system between them, apparently designed that way to allow them to thrive without outside assistance. C.O.G. Has good relations with them, and there has been recent pressure to call it by the inhabitants name for their system, 'Triarii' over it's numerical designation.” Hook said while it flashed the long designation on my screen alongside the 'Triarii' name.

  “Huh, okay, any thoughts on how we can get past?” I asked.

  “If I am correct about them taking the system... It will depend. This vessel is C.O.G. Through and through, nothing will change that, but with the credentials Joe and Bait had... It is possible they may let you through as a science vessel. They may force you to be escorted however, and they will likely demand any scientific data you have uncovered.” Hook said.

  “Which would mean exposing the location of the ark.” I said.

  “It would.” Hook replied.

  “To slavers.” I continued.

  “Also correct. However I will note Imperials aren't known for 'taking' slaves. They much prefer home growing them.” Hook affirmed.

  “And we still don't know really where those pirates came from, where they got their advanced armaments, and if they were hunting the ark OR Joe and Bait...” I continued, feeling uneasy. I hadn't really put much thought into... That. Every time I did images of blood and broken bodies came to mind.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Fuck, did Bait have anything in her logs that might say if she was worried someone was stalking them, or was there any opposition to their hunt for the Ark?” I asked.

  “Do I have your permission to go through Bait's personal logs to look for the requested information?” Hook asked.

  Still annoying that Hook had to ask for explicit permission for so many things, but after the berzerker virus I couldn't bring myself to give Hook blanket permission anymore. Once bitten and all that.

  “You have my permission.” I stated.

  Hook lapsed into silence, and I pondered my next move. I thought about just how useful the drones had been in our previous fights... and even in between, and looked into increasing the bandwidth on the hanger to allow for more active drones at once. It seemed doable, especially since we had dropped a cannon way back in favor of the manufactory... which would theoretically let me design and build different flavors of drones.

  “Hey Hook? I have a build idea...”

  ***********************************************************************************

  By the time we were making the final adjustments to enter the gas giants orbit. I had been spending a not insignificant chunk of the journey examining the system in real time, keeping in mind Doctor Smith's warning about remaining in higher reference frames having a deleterious effect on my brain.

  There were several smaller space stations in the area, and one enormous one in orbit of the gas giant we were heading to. A quick query to my systems indicated that this was definitely some kind of refueling platform.

  I was initially both wary and excited about docking with it and getting refueled. Wary, because my last interaction with humanity as a whole had lead to a planetary leader trying to steal my ship, and excited because, well, SPACE STATION!

  That excitement was replaced by more wariness as I saw the sheer number of ships attached to it, and sent a hail to the station.

  “This is Maximillion's Fuel Emporium, serving all your fuel and relaxation needs! Please hook into our docking arm and enjoy some rest and relaxation while our automated refueling system handles all of your ships needs for you. Current wait time for refueling: 7H 38M 21S”

  Along with the informational message came a deluge of advertisements for all kinds of... 'enhanced relaxation'. From restaurants to hotels to... bordello's.

  I tore my mental gaze away and focused on the number.

  That was... a lot.

  “Hey Hook, is this normal?”I asked.

  “The wait time or the excessive advertisements?” Hook replied.

  “Uh... Both I guess?” I asked, intrigued.

  “The wait time is not excessive for a station of this size considering it's current clientele. Most refueling times are restricted by the rate at which the station gathers fuel and the flow rate of the fuel to the vessels attached. As this station is in a higher orbit it likely uses tankers to dive down and grab fuel, similar to your ramscoops, which is a slower but safer process. Refueling times for vessels on stations in Prime can stretch into the days or even weeks during especially busy times. With regards to the advertisements... Those are common, though the fact that this is free space and trader's have free run of the place gives a much wider range of services available.”

  Hook said that last bit with some distaste as and advertisement for what appeared to be a combination maid-cafe/bordello/24/7 costume party appeared on screen. Admittedly what it was showing did make it seem interesting, enticing even.

  I mentally checked myself.

  I hadn't been 'out' out among humanity in a long time.

  But... no, our last foray into humanity had wound up with a bounty on my head.

  It would be better for everyone involved if I just took a trip down to the planet and filled up myself.

  I began plotting a course closer to the planet, trying to figure out how the ramscoop worked.

  As I delved deeper into the functionality new interfaces popped into my head, measuring everything from atmospheric density; null currently; to composition, wind speed, wind resistance, lift.

  It was a whole interface for interacting with the atmosphere of a planetary body.

  Which I now kind of wished I had had back on Hou Ji, but I guess my ships thrusters were strong enough to beat the atmosphere into submission there, this seemed specialized in dealing with both the higher pressures, gravity, and atmosphere of a gas giant.

  It looked like if I managed to reach a point in the atmosphere that was one barr, or one atmosphere of gravity, I would be able to fill up the ship in roughly a half hour.

  I tried inputting in parameters that would let me stay higher up, but one of the things I found fairly quickly is that outside of that pressure range, the tanks would not fully fuel.

  “Hey Hook, do we have a mechanical issue here?” I asked as I linked him my findings.

  “With filling the tanks? No. The ramscoops pull in gas to use for the reactor and drives, however hydrogen is by it's very nature not very dense. It must be compressed significantly in order to make it a viable fuel source, and to accomplish such compression the ramscoop makes use of pressure amplifying technologies to compact the gas as much as possible into the fuel tanks.” Hook said.

  “Huh.” I replied. Something didn't make sense.

  “So... why not just store it as a solid? I know we were theorizing about metallic hydrogen way back, figured you would have solved that by now? Or cryogenic hydrogen? I know we used liquid hydrogen in space shuttles, that should store better shouldn't it?”I said. I knew we had cracked this technology back when I was on earth, this seemed very odd.

  Hook replied mechanically, but I was starting to get a feel for the new Hook and could tell they 'felt' defensive. “While we are capable of creating metallic hydrogen, keeping it safely stored in a spaceship is unsafe to say the least. It requires massive pressures, and any increase in temperature in the containment vessel results in an immediate breach. The same reasoning applies to liquid hydrogen, there are so many sources of heat on board a ship that any breach in insulation, either from a micro-meteor or weapons fire, will cause the entire fuel tank to instantly flash into gas and cause a massive explosion. For a vessel expected and constructed to regularly get into combat, this is generally considered a bad thing.” Hook finished.

  “Okay okay, I got it, compressed gaseous hydrogen is less likely to blow us up than liquid or metallic hydrogen, got it.” I replied, ending the conversation. It still sounded weird to me.

  “Just wish we didn't have to dive into a gas giant to get it... Gravity is... two times earth normal at that pressure it looks like on this planet. Aren't ramscoops meant to be used to collect hydrogen in deep space anyway?” I said, looking at the readouts.

  “This vessel is capable of significantly more thrust than that, you need not worry about getting trapped in the gas giants gravity well Captain. And ramscoops from your time were, yes” Hook responded to my worries, and answered my other question with a cryptic statement, respetively.

  I filed that away for later.

  “Okay but... It's a gas giant, winds, storm cells... there is a lot that can go wrong.” I said. I remembered Jupiter's red spot, six hundred and fifty kilometer winds was no joke.

  “If you wish Captain I will monitor atmospheric activity and warn you should any danger is present, though I do recommend you enact harsh atmospheric protocols for this descent, from what I can tell you did not on Hou Ji.” Hook said, admonishing.

  “Wait, what?” I asked, and started going through the numerous alerts I had gotten so used to just ignoring.

  There were five hundred of them currently. I hadn't cleared them all out since Hou Ji.

  I went through them one by one... and yep there was an alert about my plotted course entering atmosphere, asking if I would like to enable atmospheric mode for greater control.

  Attached was an alert stating that all offensive and defensive gear would be disabled while in atmosphric mode, so I was actually glad I hadn't done that, but still I was mad at myself that I missed this relatively important warning.

  “Hook, if something like this pops up again I need you to tell me about it.” I said.

  “And by 'like this' you mean?” Hook replied.

  “An alert that is important to the continued safety of the ship.” I answered.

  “At the time it was not. There were no significant weather effects that could have harmed the ship on Hou Ji, and our functional drive and thrusters at the time was more than sufficient to handle Hou Ji gravity. Atmospheric mode merely retracts all external systems and smooths the hull while enabling control surfaces, to allow for semi-powered and unpowered flight as well as submersion in certain fluids.” Hook replied.

  I sighed in frustration.

  “Just... give me an extra ping if an alert comes through that is really important that I need to look at and not just push off for later, okay?” I asked.

  “All alert's are important for the running of the ship Captain.” Hook replied, being difficult.

  I mentally started counting to ten.

  “Whatever. Let's get prepped to dive into this.” I said after reaching ten, as I brought up the NEW pop-up that had appeared when I set a course into the gas giant, again asking me if I wanted to set the ship for atmospheric mode.

  This time I pressed yes.