Post by Alex Tamora on May 22, 2017 22:23:05 GMT -5
It was hard to think about the machinations of pirates when you knew that somebody somewhere knew your biggest secret. Recovering from a severe beating didn’t help matters either. I groaned in pain as I attempted to get comfortable, everything hurt. The match against Hiroshi Yukio had taken more out of me than I ever expected it to. In fact the only reason I won was because someone interfered and clocked Hiroshi in the face with something. They told me later that it was an old Nintendo Entertainment System Power Glove, I’m actually a little sad I didn’t get to see it.
This wasn’t going to work, even days removed from the match I was still feeling the effects. My jaw had taken the worst of it, in fact I was fairly certain that if weren’t for the fact that my musculoskeletal system was heavily reinforced I’d probably have a broken jaw. I oozed off of my sleeping mat and slowly made my way to my feet. I still had a few days before I faced off against High Tide, but at this rate there was no way I was going to be a hundred percent for our match.
High Tide presented the final hurdle on my way to finals of the tournament. Christ, what a freaking hurdle. He was certainly no stranger to tournament matches. This would be the fifth Icemann Invitational he’d competed in and unless I missed my mark, entirely possible after a boot to the head, this was the furthest he’d ever made it. He had just as much riding on this match as I did, maybe more. Tide was already a decorated champion in Pure Class Wrestling; a former North American Champion, a two time Underground Champion, and a two time Tag Team Champion. It was a respectable career by any standards.
And now, poised to finally break into the main event after years looking at it from the outside, all he had to do was beat me. Likewise, all I had to do was beat him. No sweat. Then why was I sweating it so much? I attributed it to rookie jitters. No one had expected me to get this far, hell, I didn’t expect me to get this far. Yet here I was one match away from the tournament finals. Yeah, no sweat.
Well I was already up and on my feet. If I wasn’t going to rest up then I figured I might as well do something productive. I padded over to the closet that I’d recently filled and went through the clothing I’d bought. I was going to go run some diagnostics on my ship as well as tinker with it a bit so I wanted something I could work it. But what about after? I hadn’t left the apartment in several days and cabin fever had set in with a vengeance.
I settled on an outfit to blend in with and tossed my grubby jumpsuit and a pair of sturdy boots into a duffel bag. No sense sticking out to much while I was in public. I caught a glimpse of myself in the little mirror I’d hung by my apartment door. The yellow sundress was almost eye hurting in its intensity but I enjoyed it. The council would say I’d gone native and of course they’d look at that as a bad thing. Bunch of stuffy old gits.
My ship was right where I’d left it. I let out a sigh of relief. After last week I was all but certain it would have been taken by some shadowy government agency and that they’d be waiting here to capture me. What a silly notion, this was real life, not some science fiction story.
I tapped my temple, “Quincy, wake up, sleepy head. I need your help running some diagnostics.”
“There is no need to attempt waking me, Alexandra. I am always awake.”
I rolled my eyes, “It’s a saying Quincy. Remind me to update your sub-routines to include 20th century colloquialisms.”
“I don’t believe we have the equipment necessary for you to upgrade any of my sub-routines, Alexandra.”
I smirked, “Guess I’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way with a chisel and an ice pick.”
“I would highly recommend against that, Alexandra, as I do not believe you are coordinated enough to attempt such an endeavor and not irrevocably damage yourself.”
I snorted. Who said AI’s didn’t have a sense of humor.
“Quincy, interface with the ship and give me a status update on how the system repairs are coming. Also, see if you can interface with the ships external security systems. I want to see if we can get a picture of our visitor last week.”
“Yes, Ma’am, interfacing now.”
Having Quincy interface with the ship was an odd experience to put it mildly. Try to imagine that your mind is sentient and suddenly a piece of it slithers out of existence. It’s a disconcerting feeling and not one I ever thought I’d get used to. It didn’t do anything to impair my own cognitive functions; it just left a noticeable void in random corners of my brain.
I worked around the ship as best I could while I waited for Quincy to finish diagnostics. There wasn’t much I could do without him, not that I’d ever tell him that. He was already kind of insufferable. I managed to rewire the internal dampeners so that they’d bypass some of the downed systems. Though any sense of catharsis I might of felt was drowned out by the reality of my situation. I could fiddle with internal systems till the sun went nova, but none of that would matter unless I could find a way to stabilize the Chronodrives and find some way to replace the fuel intake system for the engines. Dark matter was in criminally short supply in this century.
“Diagnostics are complete, Alexandra. The ship is still without a suitable power source for the engines or the Chronodrives, however the internal batteries are still receiving a charge from the solar panels. The solar panels are operating at…”
I tuned him out. Everything was still broken and the only power the ship was receiving was through a trickle charge of solar power. Glad I picked a warehouse with a gaping hole in the roof.
“Furthermore,” Quincy continued on, “I have ascertained that the external security features of this ship have suffered severe damage.”
My heart sank, “So no way to see who came snooping? Well I guess I can always see about finding some way to move the ship in case he comes back.”
“That is a distinct possibility as the ship’s repulsors are still operational as is the cloaking system. However with the computer systems still down, I do not recommend that course of action at this time.”
“So we’re just supposed to sit here in the open when someone knows about the ship?”
“We can set the cloaking system to work remotely which will hide the ship more effectively than the cloth you’ve been covering it with.”
I blinked in bewilderment, “You mean that was an option this entire time and you’re just now telling me about it?”
“No, Alexandra. Prior to this most current cycle it would not have been possible. However while interfacing with the system I have rewritten the command algorithm to interface with the QNC systems in your cerebral cortex.”
“So I can literally blink the ship out of existence? Neat!”
“No, Alexandra, not out of existence. Merely out of the visible light spectrum.”
I rolled my eyes again, “No I understand that, Quincy. It was a, you know what, never mind. What about the security systems? Can you fix them?”
“The external security systems are still taking in data from their surroundings, however the data is being corrupted when the system attempts to compile it in a usable format. I believe I can reconstruct the date given time.”
I felt my spirits lifting, it was just a matter of time before I got a glimpse of my voyeuristic shadow. That would be one less problem to deal with.
“Okay, Quincy, go for it. Just alert me when the reconstruction is complete. I have a date with a pirate I have to go get ready for?”
“A pirate, Alexandra? I must say that sounds most unsanitary, please exercise caution as pirates of this era is known to carry filth and disease.”
I felt myself blushing. WHY WAS I BLUSHING!?
“Ice pick and a chisel, Quincy; ice pick and a chisel.” Stupid perverted AI.
He wasn’t entirely wrong about the need to exercise caution though. So far I’d fallen into the habit of not taking my opponents entirely seriously in the ring. Hiroshi had thoroughly disabused me of that notion and I was not keen to have a follow up lesson with High Tide.
“One more match,” I reminded myself.
One more match.
This wasn’t going to work, even days removed from the match I was still feeling the effects. My jaw had taken the worst of it, in fact I was fairly certain that if weren’t for the fact that my musculoskeletal system was heavily reinforced I’d probably have a broken jaw. I oozed off of my sleeping mat and slowly made my way to my feet. I still had a few days before I faced off against High Tide, but at this rate there was no way I was going to be a hundred percent for our match.
High Tide presented the final hurdle on my way to finals of the tournament. Christ, what a freaking hurdle. He was certainly no stranger to tournament matches. This would be the fifth Icemann Invitational he’d competed in and unless I missed my mark, entirely possible after a boot to the head, this was the furthest he’d ever made it. He had just as much riding on this match as I did, maybe more. Tide was already a decorated champion in Pure Class Wrestling; a former North American Champion, a two time Underground Champion, and a two time Tag Team Champion. It was a respectable career by any standards.
And now, poised to finally break into the main event after years looking at it from the outside, all he had to do was beat me. Likewise, all I had to do was beat him. No sweat. Then why was I sweating it so much? I attributed it to rookie jitters. No one had expected me to get this far, hell, I didn’t expect me to get this far. Yet here I was one match away from the tournament finals. Yeah, no sweat.
Well I was already up and on my feet. If I wasn’t going to rest up then I figured I might as well do something productive. I padded over to the closet that I’d recently filled and went through the clothing I’d bought. I was going to go run some diagnostics on my ship as well as tinker with it a bit so I wanted something I could work it. But what about after? I hadn’t left the apartment in several days and cabin fever had set in with a vengeance.
I settled on an outfit to blend in with and tossed my grubby jumpsuit and a pair of sturdy boots into a duffel bag. No sense sticking out to much while I was in public. I caught a glimpse of myself in the little mirror I’d hung by my apartment door. The yellow sundress was almost eye hurting in its intensity but I enjoyed it. The council would say I’d gone native and of course they’d look at that as a bad thing. Bunch of stuffy old gits.
My ship was right where I’d left it. I let out a sigh of relief. After last week I was all but certain it would have been taken by some shadowy government agency and that they’d be waiting here to capture me. What a silly notion, this was real life, not some science fiction story.
I tapped my temple, “Quincy, wake up, sleepy head. I need your help running some diagnostics.”
“There is no need to attempt waking me, Alexandra. I am always awake.”
I rolled my eyes, “It’s a saying Quincy. Remind me to update your sub-routines to include 20th century colloquialisms.”
“I don’t believe we have the equipment necessary for you to upgrade any of my sub-routines, Alexandra.”
I smirked, “Guess I’ll just have to do it the old fashioned way with a chisel and an ice pick.”
“I would highly recommend against that, Alexandra, as I do not believe you are coordinated enough to attempt such an endeavor and not irrevocably damage yourself.”
I snorted. Who said AI’s didn’t have a sense of humor.
“Quincy, interface with the ship and give me a status update on how the system repairs are coming. Also, see if you can interface with the ships external security systems. I want to see if we can get a picture of our visitor last week.”
“Yes, Ma’am, interfacing now.”
Having Quincy interface with the ship was an odd experience to put it mildly. Try to imagine that your mind is sentient and suddenly a piece of it slithers out of existence. It’s a disconcerting feeling and not one I ever thought I’d get used to. It didn’t do anything to impair my own cognitive functions; it just left a noticeable void in random corners of my brain.
I worked around the ship as best I could while I waited for Quincy to finish diagnostics. There wasn’t much I could do without him, not that I’d ever tell him that. He was already kind of insufferable. I managed to rewire the internal dampeners so that they’d bypass some of the downed systems. Though any sense of catharsis I might of felt was drowned out by the reality of my situation. I could fiddle with internal systems till the sun went nova, but none of that would matter unless I could find a way to stabilize the Chronodrives and find some way to replace the fuel intake system for the engines. Dark matter was in criminally short supply in this century.
“Diagnostics are complete, Alexandra. The ship is still without a suitable power source for the engines or the Chronodrives, however the internal batteries are still receiving a charge from the solar panels. The solar panels are operating at…”
I tuned him out. Everything was still broken and the only power the ship was receiving was through a trickle charge of solar power. Glad I picked a warehouse with a gaping hole in the roof.
“Furthermore,” Quincy continued on, “I have ascertained that the external security features of this ship have suffered severe damage.”
My heart sank, “So no way to see who came snooping? Well I guess I can always see about finding some way to move the ship in case he comes back.”
“That is a distinct possibility as the ship’s repulsors are still operational as is the cloaking system. However with the computer systems still down, I do not recommend that course of action at this time.”
“So we’re just supposed to sit here in the open when someone knows about the ship?”
“We can set the cloaking system to work remotely which will hide the ship more effectively than the cloth you’ve been covering it with.”
I blinked in bewilderment, “You mean that was an option this entire time and you’re just now telling me about it?”
“No, Alexandra. Prior to this most current cycle it would not have been possible. However while interfacing with the system I have rewritten the command algorithm to interface with the QNC systems in your cerebral cortex.”
“So I can literally blink the ship out of existence? Neat!”
“No, Alexandra, not out of existence. Merely out of the visible light spectrum.”
I rolled my eyes again, “No I understand that, Quincy. It was a, you know what, never mind. What about the security systems? Can you fix them?”
“The external security systems are still taking in data from their surroundings, however the data is being corrupted when the system attempts to compile it in a usable format. I believe I can reconstruct the date given time.”
I felt my spirits lifting, it was just a matter of time before I got a glimpse of my voyeuristic shadow. That would be one less problem to deal with.
“Okay, Quincy, go for it. Just alert me when the reconstruction is complete. I have a date with a pirate I have to go get ready for?”
“A pirate, Alexandra? I must say that sounds most unsanitary, please exercise caution as pirates of this era is known to carry filth and disease.”
I felt myself blushing. WHY WAS I BLUSHING!?
“Ice pick and a chisel, Quincy; ice pick and a chisel.” Stupid perverted AI.
He wasn’t entirely wrong about the need to exercise caution though. So far I’d fallen into the habit of not taking my opponents entirely seriously in the ring. Hiroshi had thoroughly disabused me of that notion and I was not keen to have a follow up lesson with High Tide.
“One more match,” I reminded myself.
One more match.