I'm Destiny
By Lore
- 143 reads
Whirring. The final panel flickered to life. Destiny was awake.
“Please insert the tablet you received from Silus.” Her voice was monotone but conveyed a degree of warmth. Lore obliged placing the tablet in the flashing receptacle. “One moment please.” A bar appeared on the viewscreen indicating the interface loading. After a minute or so, the bar began to shake. The shaking was accompanied by a slight titter before erupting into a laugh. “Just kidding. I’ve already sorted the data for you!” Destiny seemed impressed by her comedic prowess. Char and Lore looked at one another confused. Char grinned
“Of course. So you.”
“What?” Lore replied shrugging.
“Only you would program a ship with a sense of humour.
“Lore didn’t program me.” Destiny’s screen flashed red. “Lore found my data drive in a shipwreck and rescued me. They taught me everything I needed to know to do the job and made me a little more approachable.”
“Still, I could tell Lore had something to do with you.” Char tried valiantly to return from the corner she had backed herself into but failed.
“Here’s the data.” A map filled the view screen. Four planets were highlighted. “We have four objectives. We have to do three of them before we can start the fourth.” She circled three of the planets. “We’ve got a ways to go and a lot to do. Lore didn’t leave an explicit order to do the jobs in but I’ve got some recommendations. But first, we should get acquainted.” With that, a hand stretched from the view screen. To Lore and Char’s discomfort it latched onto the fore station. Lore’s head began repeatedly slamming to the right as the hand dragged itself out of the monitor. Within moments a recognisable shape had emerged. “Oh dear, is she alright?” Now stood along side Lore, looking down at Char’s unconscious body, was Destiny. She was slightly taller than Lore with pale silver skin. Her eyes frozen blue. Together the two of them lifted Char into the captain’s quarters and laid her to rest.
“On with the tour then!” Destiny whispered excitedly.
After returning to the bridge Destiny spun on her heels.
“Welcome to the bridge… You’ve been here before but this is where everything gets done.” She ran her hand along the brim of the lonely seat. “This is the captain’s chair. Or the pilots. Depends on the crew. I’ll make sure Char gets a seat too don’t worry.” She smiled. “This is where I live. If you need me and I’m not with you, I’m probably here.” She extended her arm and placed her hand in Lore’s. She was cold to the touch and her hand had a weird weight to it. It was significantly heavier than it looked. “Nano tech. My body is made up of millions of microscopic elements which I can program and manipulate to create myself. It also allows me to copy other people.” She smiled as Lore’s face replaced her own. Lore twitched. It was weird seeing their own face smiling back at them. “Sorry. Forgot you weren’t a fan.” She returned to normal. “Follow me. Rooms to see.” With that, she left. Lore followed.
The pair gathered in the corridor. There were seven sets of doors running along one side of the corridor with only three on the other. The doors directly in front of them led to the bridge. The next door over on the left was for the captain’s quarters the others on this side were unlabelled.
“The rooms on this ship are designed to be whatever you need. Need a lab? Done! Hungry? Instant mess hall. Each room has access to a variety of templates to allow for unrivalled utility and personalisation.” Destiny spread her arms in a stretch. She pointed towards the other wall. Lore turned to face the double doors to the stair case. “That’ll take you to the garage-entryway and those two doors,” She pointed to the doors at the very end of both sides of the corridor, “will take you to the warp cannons.”
“Warp cannons?” Lore looked at her in awe and confusion.
“They’re not active now but when we’re in combat configuration they are just about the most powerful weapon in our arsenal. They can fire anything from a ball bearing to a rod with similar dimensions to you at the speed of light. Wonderfully versatile. Can be used to disable enemy ships or level entire settlements.”
“…” Lore stood there blinking, lost for words.
“Moving on.”
They entered the stairwell and crossed it, reaching the last room.
“Welcome to engineering. Not much to look at here so I’ll make it brief. That’s the ships core otherwise called the Eye of reality. Very on brand with the whole ship.” She smirked. Within the box was a collapsing star surrounded by a series of rings. “That’s about it. Any questions?”
Dumbstruck and in awe, Lore’s mind was flooded with questions .“Loads. What the hell is combat configuration?”
Destiny smiled. “Let’s get back to the bridge and I’ll show you.”
Back on the bridge, Destiny had eagerly jumped back into the main computer. “I’ll get us permission to disembark and I’ll show you this ships true colours.” There was a series of confirmation beeps before Destiny displayed a thumbs up on her monitor. “Are you ready?”
Once the Destiny had moved away from the station, Destiny showed what she meant by ‘combat configuration’. The entire front section began to move. The interior was still and the viewscreens orientation hadn’t changed despite the fact the corridor section was now vertical rather than horizontal. The warp cannons ignited, ready for use. Lore rapped their fingers along the arm of their chair. Choices.
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