My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole - Part 5

Edit: I totally edited the name before it's too late. This is a bit less repetitive.

_{This is a continuation in my ongoing freewrite series, My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole.}

_{I tried to do this part in the series yesterday, but sort of failed due to being tired and had trouble concentrating. So the first 500 words or so are gonna be a bit more edited. As in they usually aren't at all, other than occasionally fixing typos, or mistakes.}

_{To read the previous installments of this series, you can click below.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4}

_{Now, on to the story!}

(source)

"Julia, how long did I sleep?" I rubbed my eyes, and winced from the pain of the injury the other day.

"3 hours, captain."

"I doubt I'm gonna last long on that. Not after passing out. There's no way I'm gonna fall back asleep though." I began taking the straps holding me into the chair off my shoulders, to get up. "Oh well. Guess I'll get to work." As soon as I got up I realized I had no clue where my boots were though.

"I hope you aren't planning on going back outside captain."

One of my boots was floating near the ceiling, but the other was somehow alluding me. "No, not unless I get a bit more sleep in. I don't wanna risk passing out again. I'm a bit limited with what I can do though. The sensors have to be top priority. We can't dodge what we can't see. Or rather, we can't dodge something that we only see at the last second."

"What do you propose we do then, captain?"

"Well, I have to figure out how to assess the damage." I finally found my second boot, wedged under the edge of the chair. I still hadn't found my booties though. "Julia, can you run an analysis on all the data you have on the damaged systems, and cross reference with location of systems and parts in the blueprints. Model the likelihood of damage based on known impacts and statistical information in the database of failure rates and corresponding causes, compiling a list of likely damaged parts." I saw one of the booties up in the corner of the ceiling, half hiding behind one of the rafters, and pushed myself toward it. "Cross reference that list with the ship's manifest, and give me your best estimates of the feasibility of repair of different systems. I'll be accessing the data with a data pad while I move around the ship, so I also want to see a display of the locations of items needed for repair while I move around the ship. Understood?"

"Yes, captain. But it may take some time to fulfill your request."

"Well, you have until I get my boots back on, and I find a data pad to use, before I want at least enough to use. You can update it as you make calculations and get more information. We're gonna have to do a bit of triage here."

"Yes, captain."

"Now Julia, where's my other booty?"

"I believe it's behind the screen captain."

At least she didn't try making a joke. I pushed off from the wall and made my way over to the screen. I eventually found the other booty behind the right side. As I floated around getting my boots on, and ran into a wall or two, I started to think about that "dream". I knew it wasn't a dream. At least I didn't think it was. It was too real. But if it was real, how could I have a daughter with Julia? Humans and androids can't have children together. Was she just an android that Julia was raising as a daughter? Then, had we raised her together as a daughter? Or was she my daughter, and I died? Was Julia then raising her as her own? She had said it had been so long, and that she barely knew me as I was now. So it was a long time from now. When? I finally had gotten my boots on, activated them, and touched down on the floor.

Maybe I could work on improving the deflectors. Maybe that could give us an extra few seconds. But first I had to at least get the stuff together to start working on repairs after a bit more sleep.

I walked through the door into the hallway. "Now, where did I put a data pad?"

"There's a signal coming from one in the lavatory, as well as one on the bridge, and another in the workshop."

"I'll use the workshop one I guess." I walked down the hall to the workshop.

"You got any of that list compiled yet?"

"I have a basic list compiled so far, captain, but I'm not sure how accurate it's going to be."

"That's alright. We don't even know what's wrong yet. Maybe I can just make my work load a bit lighter. Now where is that tablet?"

"My internal sensors show it to be on the back wall somewhere. I could search the visual data to see if I have a record of where you left it."

"Nah, I'll find it."

The place was a mess. I had parts shoved in all sorts of places. I'm sure there was a lot that Julia didn't even know was here, let alone where it was. I looked around for a few minutes, and found it in the bottom drawers of one of my work surfaces. Julia had already put the data on the display.

I started going through the list of things that needed repaired and what likely needed to be repaired. It wasn't exactly a short list of parts. What likely couldn't be repaired wasn't exactly dire though. At least, it wasn't thanks to Julia. She had done a search on designs in her database, and created alternatives to some of the things that couldn't be repaired. I didn't even ask her to do that much. No matter what I say sometimes, she was always trying her best.

I started emptying out some drawers without much in them. "Hey, Julia, you got enough processor free right now to do some image processing to search the database for the parts I'm pulling out here, so you can record where I'm moving them, or put them in your manifest?"

"It might be a bit difficult, but I'll manage, captain. There may be some slightly more delay than usual though. I'm currently processing every part from multiple systems on the ship, and searching for possible fixes or workaround in my database."

I sort of half laughed. "Don't worry, I don't need it right away."

It took me an hour and a half, but I managed to get all the parts in the room that we likely needed into a few boxes that I labeled for the system they were designated for. Well, the majority I put into their own boxes. There was a bunch of extra odds and ends for different systems that I just put into one big box, because they didn't really warrant having their own box.

I started going through one of the boxes that wasn't on the manifest, and sorting it into boxes where I knew certain parts fit better. Then I found it. At the very bottom of the box, was an old worker robot chassis. It wasn't anything fancy. It wasn't even very big. It did give me an idea however.

"Julia. Do we have any spare bot arms?"

"Yes, captain."

"Put a new project on the list. Repair droid. Search the database for references to repair droids, and droids in general. Adapt a design to the parts we have, in addition to this chassis. It's gonna need to be able to repair the hull at least, so I guess at least two arms, and preferably multiple tools."

"Yes, captain. Judging by the chassis you have, and your specifications, I have already listed a few possible designs that we likely have the parts for. Unfortunately though, we don't have any boards capable enough to delegate tasks to it, so I will have to control it directly."

I looked at the pad. "Other than the main board, this might just work. I'd have to sacrifice my old welder, but this could work. It was really just a spare anyway." I got a replacement a while back, but it held a lot of sentimental value. I don't even know how it held up over the years. I got it second hand from a junk shop, and I had used it on practically every system in this ship. I had it when I got her, and it helped me turn her into what she is today.

I started going through the boxes, and getting out parts to repair and upgrade the chassis. It went together quite well. I was surprised how easy it went together. Of course, it wasn't the hard part yet.

"Julia, before I move onto the arms, I'm gonna need you to test this. Can you connect to the board I put in the repair droid chassis?"

"Yes, captain."

"Diagnostics run okay?"

"Everything seems to checkout fine, captain."

I took it and placed it near the floor. "Okay, try the mag-treads." The small bot chassis zoomed around the room pretty quickly. "The little bugger's fast. Course he'll probably slow down a bit once he's got arms."

Now it was time to put on those arms. I gave him two claw arms from different bots. One of them was quite a bit larger, with larger motors, so I ended up putting the heaviest tools on it. The other arm just had the welder on it for now.

I put it near the ground, and moved away from it. "Julia, can you run a series of tests on it and ensure everything is working properly?"

It whirred to life, and moved it's two arms around. A drill on it's beefy arm spun up, then suddenly stopped, and switched heads to a miniature saw blade. Oh, this thing will do nicely!

"Other than you reversing one of the actuators on the right arm, it appears to be working perfectly."

"Oh, seriously? I guess I'll open it back up and fix it."

"Don't worry captain, I can compensate for it. It's not an issue.

"Oh well, okay then." I looked down at it, and laughed a bit to myself. "Hey, don't you think it kinda looks like a crab?"

"The use of the two different size arms, claw like graspers, and low profile are all factors that might lead one to suggest it does, captain."

"Now the name."

"Can I name it, captain?"

I didn't exactly expect Julia to ask to name it. Although I suppose her database does contain millions of names for all manner of things. And she is the one that's going to be working with it most intimately. "Well, what would you suggest?"

"Scrappy."

"Heh heh heh. You know what, I think that's befitting. Alright little guy, we'll call you scrappy. And I'll be sure to pick you up a real board when I get to the space station. Julia, can you manage to let him out yourself, and get him to work on your outer hull?"

"Of course captain."

"Alright. Go fix yourself!"

"I prefer when you fix me, captain. I can't fix myself quite like you do. I don't have the ingenuity to really know what to put where to get everything working right."

Was she flirting with me? Couldn't be. "Well, unfortunately I can't exactly start repairs outside until I'm sure I won't pass out, and I just don't feel 100% yet." I looked at the clock on the data pad. It had been three and a half more hours past when I finished sorting the components. "Guess I stayed up a bit longer than I planned. I'm gonna go lay down in the cinema room. Do you think you can pick me out a movie?"

"Yes captain."

I walked down the hall to the cinema. Julia was playing some old cartoons that used to play before old movies. I took off my boots and booties and put them in a cabinet near the door. I wish I had done this the night before, but I was just too damn tired. I unstrapped from the exo-suit, and strapped it to a handle built into the wall. Finally, get to get some sleep. Well, hopefully anyway. I strapped myself into my comfy chair, and the movie began playing. It was an old black and white romance movie of some type. I don't remember the name now. It was nice seeing something from a completely different time. Like opening a time capsule, and seeing things you can't even understand.

_{Okay, I'm gonna leave it here for now. I hope you liked today's chapter or whatever it is. If you did, consider upvoting or resteeming. And be sure to leave a comment below!}

Click here to read Part 6.