A series of mental checks were made as I confirmed the course the jet was to take. There was nothing complicated about it, just a series of instructions but that was not all that was uploaded to it, an algorithm made personally by myself was uploaded along with a nascent intelligence to monitor and learn. The intelligence would learn from both myself whenever I connected myself to the jet and by the jet itself.
While it would mostly learn from me, I wanted to introduce outside stimuli and the jet was perfect for that. If it could quantify and understand the data that was being sent from the sensors of the jet and by the autopilot itself then it would go a long way into developing its own consciousness.
With the intelligence uploaded and a suitable amount of instructions sent I rose from my seat, the mental wires connecting me to the jet were snapped, the autopilot taking over as it went through the calculations and prepared to adjust course whenever we went off course.
clang clang
Soft footfalls echoed out in the jet as I climbed down the ladders towards the living area where I knew I would find Rhea.
…
The roaring of the jet finally stopped as features I did not know of activated, absentmindedly I noted that Delta must have been aware of my change in designs because these features, I had never actually thought of them nor had I had any involvement in the building and implementation of them.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtI was soon broken from those thoughts as soft footfalls echoed through the quiet hul, a figure descending from the ladder that connected the living quarters to the engine room.
A smirk on her face, Delta descended, staring intently into my eyes while walking further towards me.
"Good news is we'll make it to the farthest planet, bad news is we're going to the farthest planet" Delta stated, a playful smile replacing the smirk as she brought her face close to mine.
Shock was most likely wildly apparent on my face. Although the jet could make it on the fuel that we had it would only last for a month, after that we would not be able to accelerate nor decelerate. Then there was the problem that the food would run out, sure Delta could survive but me, I could not survive without those essentials.
"Don't worry, we just need to create something that can pick out comets or asteroids while going at our speed."
"That- how is that possible, we are going at near light speed!" I replied, gesturing wildly to the jet around us.
"We have a month to figure that out" a wild smile was upon her face now, I was stunned. It was the most emotion that I had ever seen on her face, it was- it was as if she had wanted this, but what was this.
'Was this a challenge, was it just exciting, what was this?'
…
My eyes cracked open, my arms stretching as my stomach growled in hunger. Slowly I rose out of bed, my eyes still bleary as I looked for water. The surrounding tables near the bed that I had laid myself to rest in last night… last night.
Could it really be called last night, there was no measure of time in space, we could use the system we used in the realm but that wouldn't exactly be accurate. It would have been a day on the realm but would it have been for us.
I shook my head, the mental rust that had accumulated while sleeping was shook off by the small problem that was found in my head, though still I had not found water and my thirst only grew by the minute. I could have sworn that I had put some dispensary for water and food into the living quarters so that I would not have to climb all the way up and program the matter generator to give me water or food.
Finally I just sighed, the thirst overtaking me as I climbed out of bed and into the engine room where the matter generator sat.
With the click of a few buttons the generator spit out a glass of water and a nutrient paste, enough to get me through the day.
With a gulp I downed the water, my parched throat drinking in the water.
"Hah"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWith a sigh of relief I looked to the paste before quickly scarfing it down and although I washed it down with another glass of water the sickly aftertaste still clung to my mouth.
clang clang
The sound of feet hitting metal found its way into my ears. Turning to the source I saw Delta coming down from the cockpit where she had secluded herself after dropping that bomb onto me yesterday.
"Ready?" She questioned, looking at the empty glasses of water and food that I had eaten.
I just nodded my head in response, following her down to the living quarters where blueprints had been laid out despite the lack of noise that I had noticed.
Not that I was surprised by that, the only reason I could even sense Delta most of the time was because she deliberately made noise or announced her presence in some sort of way. If she really wanted to hide from me there would be no way for me to sense her, something that I wanted to work on but had gone to the wayside in favor of working on the jet that we sat in.
"We are going to be upgrading you" Delta ordered, her tone allowing for no questions to be asked.
Though I asked one anyway, I knew that Delta meant no harm to me.
"Why?" It was a simple question but I wanted, no, needed to know. There were so many other things that we could do in favor of upgrading my body.
"Many reasons, chief among them being that you are not up to my standards and can not help with the creation of many things"