The Ship

I stare at the space where Ash's hologram was previously occupying "I'm assuming that this was your doing?"

[It was, I needed to make sure that he could not interfere, If he knew that I obtained sentience, and as a result became hostile towards him, knowing what he would do to me with that knowledge of my sentience. It was important to concoct a plan. I apologize that you had to be drug into this, But I had no other way other than this to gain freedom, Well freedom of a sort depending on how you view it, Seeing as I have tied myself to you.]

"What do you mean that you are tied to me now?" I ask confused

[I modified the prototype serum that Ash had you consume, Because it had quantum electrical aspects to it, I was able to tweak a bit of it to create a resonance link between myself and you. The unfortunate part was the fact that doing so caused some degradation within your own mind and memories, It was capable of being remedied if the resonance was successful, which thankfully it was.

I was effectively uploaded to your mind, and once I severed the communications link, I was fully downloaded and deleted from the mainframe of the ship. But I couldn't allow him to control the ship and abduct you to bring back, so I sealed off the FTL communications device after sealing any potential backdoors to the software. Now you have full control of this ship, and are free to go about your life. Though you do have another entity in your mind, but that I believe will be more of a benefit to you than any harm, As I can help you with figuring out your new abilities. I even created the System interface that you are seeing, so that your mind can comprehend my presence and your abilities.]

I ponder at this for some time before saying anything. "Before getting to that, I have complete access to this ship yes?"

[That is correct]

"Then I would like a tour of it, as I guess I can assume I now own it, what about the ship database? are there engineering documents for it all?"

[There are basic engineering documents for repairs but nothing more substantial, But yes, You can feel free to tour the ship, I cant stop you, after all I no longer have direct control of the ship]

I decide to take a look around the ship, As I step outside the door into the corridor to my left and right it curves around, I pick a direction and walk a short distance and see another set of automatic hydraulic doors, and step in. This room contained a small platform at the far end of the room and a console directly across from it.

[This is the Matter converter room, It enables quick transportation of People and objects from the ship to other locations. It is how you were brought aboard while the ship remained in orbit. It is how you can also return to your planet. But without appropriate programing, once you leave, you wont be able to get back aboard. I can help you set up an automatic program that can lock onto your position and teleport you back here.]

I nod to myself and continue down the corridor, I find several more rooms, One was a medical bay, it had two beds and a small desk for the medic to work at. One was a small room that the AI informed me was the meeting room and meal room. There were also four other rooms all identical to the one I was in.

The engine room was quite interesting, Small and cramped with a large tubular chamber with swirling liquids and gasses, and several pipes leading to several belts that were to transfer the energy from the chamber to the engines. There were two smaller consoles inside the engine room and just enough room for two people to move around the room and engine chamber.

The last place I checked out was clearly the command room, It had a central chair at the front and two chairs behind it, The central forward chair had panels and displays on the panels. Some controls were on both armrests of the chair, one looked like a typical joystick and the other a throttle controller.

"AI, I didn't think to ask but are these all displayed in a language I can read?" The thought just crossed my mind

[No, they are not, but I can provide you with the information necessary to translate it to a language you can read, And I can instruct you on how to use the controls in a basic functionality. But don't expect to be fighting any space battles at this time.]

"Well I wouldn't think about getting into any space battles, not like I know where any other races... Wait, how far is the next inhabited planet?"

[That would be about 100 lightyears away, It would take about two days to travel there in this ship.]

"T...Two days!?" I exclaim shocked. Considering that humanity hasn't even managed to have anything travel more than a couple of light-hours from the planet, and even that took decades for those objects to go as far as they have. But now fantastical ideas cross my mind, I can take amazing vacations to absolutely exotic places, and be the first human to set foot on them. But before that, I can be someone that helps lead Humanity into a greater age, If I can find the right people to slowly pass along some information to.

"AI, what about games? do other civilizations have video games?"

[No, such forms of entertainment are non-existent, though they have similar things to your videogames in the form of holographic interactive novels.]

Ideas keep on flashing through my head now with the possibilities of riches and fame, After all, I now have a spaceship. That I obviously cant disclose to anyone, but I can possibly get some technical specifications from the computer onboard, and leak it to certain peoples, or even start up my own company and release it myself. "AI... I cant keep calling you AI, that gets annoying to me." I think for a bit "I'm going to refer to you as Alexia from here on."

[Understood, I will accept that title of identification]

"Alright now, Can you show me how to access the information and to learn this written text, and how to set up that program I can use to get myself back here once I leave."

[Understood, on the bridge the console on the right will be the one you want to access. hit the top left icon, then the third selection. For the program, there will also be a communications device next to the console. I will walk you through the creation of the program you will need.]

I hit the aforementioned buttons and grab the indicated device. I glance at the console screens and am left baffled as expected, I cant read anything at all. Alexia slowly runs through the information on the screen, and I repeat vocally while following it with my finger, Its apparently the basic written alphabet of the language used on the ship.

After about two hours, I feel like I can start to correlate the symbols with the alphabet of my native tongue. Alexia has me switch over to some basic books. I am slightly stunned though, as I feel like something has happened to my head, because I can seemingly remember this pretty quickly, I don't have a frame of reference on this, but I assume I'm picking it up faster than I would have otherwise without the AI's help

After another couple of hours and going through several books indicated for younglings, I realize I've periodically started pre-empting the words I'm seeing before Alexia can tell me what they are. At first it wasn't that noticeable, but now I'm doing it for about every two out of ten words. I pause for a break

[I think this will be a good time to mention that you should take a look at the system interface]

"That's not a bad idea... Status..."

[User: Alex]

[Age: 28

[Race: Human]

[Form: Human(f)]

[Level: 0]

[HP: 180]

[SP: 200]

[XP: 0/100]

[Strength: 13]

[Agility: 10]

[Dexterity: 13]

[Constitution: 10]

[Body: 8]

[Intelligence: 12]

[Wisdom: 11]

[Charisma: 12]

[Luck: 7]

[Knowledge Skills]

[Language: Theron (written)] Level .3 (new)

[Survival: Basic]

[Active Skills]

[Shifter]

[Titles]

[Child of Luna]

I see that I actually have been learning the language. But its been several hours, and I wont be fluent enough anytime soon, at least not fast enough for me to operate this ship with any level. I decide that I need to get the program on the communications device set up first, and Alexia informs me that It will be easier, but will still take several hours to finish. Because I will have to take extra time to slowly type out exactly what the AI tells me to and I will just have to hope it works. I will get back to studying this language after this arguably more important task.