My Vacation On the Exotic Shores of a Black Hole - Part 6

_{This is the latest installment in a series that I started based on a freewrite done from an image of a black hole by NASA.}

_{To read the previous installments of this series, you can click below.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5}

I opened my eyes to see a colorful display of Mandelbrot sets and fractals glowing on the screen, morphing between shapes and colors. It was beautiful and simple and complex.

"Julia, how long did I sleep?"

"A bit more than 8 hours, captain."

Finally got a good amount of sleep. I don't really remember what I dreamed about. No beaches in my dreams last night. I just remember flashes of images, broken up, and disjointed.

I got out of my chair, floated over to the cabinet, and put on my boots. It was far less of an ordeal than I'm used to. Then I took my exo-suit off the wall, and proceeded to strap it on. Somehow I managed to hit my head on both the floor, and the wall. "Son of a bitch!", I said, after the second hit. With my head over my heals, I strapped the final strap, and up-righted myself. My exo-suit finally on, I activated it, and touched down on the floor.

"Julia, how are the repairs on the hull going?"

"Beautifully, captain! Scrappy has already patched the majority of the hulls, and even managed to get some of the sensors back online."

"Heh. Julia. You know he's just a remote control bot. It's you that has been repairing yourself."

"I refuse to acknowledge that I am capable of doing my own repairs, captain."

"Ha! Alright Julia. Keep doing what you're doing. I'm gonna wait until I'm a bit more awake to go outside and take a look."Suddenly, I was acutely aware that my stomach was empty, and very much so. "I didn't eat anything after I woke up yesterday, did I, Julia."

"No captain."

"That's what I thought. I'm gonna go grab a bite in the mess."

The mess was really just a table that folded down in the corner of the kitchen, but I actually really liked to eat there sometimes. When I first got my ship, I was really into making it a home, and one of the first things I did was make that fold out table. I bought some hinges, and used an thin piece of poly-fiber of some sort that I found at a junk depot, then glued down some tiles of different colors that I got. You'll find tiles all over the place at junk dealers. There are all sorts of functions for tiles of all sorts of design. One of the most common is heat shields. I made a beautiful mozaic of different shapes and colors on the surface, then grouted it with some fill-all, and sealed it. A real piece of junkyard art with a practical purpose.

I got a packet of granola from the food dispenser, and had it squirt in some alga-milk. Then I grabbed a grape PolyPure. As I ate the granola, I realized very quickly that it was the first thing I ate since I got out of hyper sleep. Being in hyper sleep, all your nutrients are provided for you. You can last a bit after without anything, but with your stomach not being used for so long, you can forget to eat. That's probably part of why I passed out. Idiot. A drink is nothing to have on an empty stomach, and it certainly can't be all that sustains you. And this granola certainly wasn't going to be enough to sustain me with all that in mind. I wasn't feeling particularly hungry this second though. Must still be recovering from hyper sleep.

I went to the food dispenser and picked out two energy bars to take with me, and was about to zip them up in a pocket, when I realized I had none. I was still wearing my space suit. Dirty space monkey. "Julia, I'm taking a shower. Get me a pair of coveralls for after. And wash my suit if you would."

"Yes, captain."

The shower was it's usual amazing self. I remember when I first bought this bucket of bolts, I had to take quite a few sponge baths while I was fixing it up. It was hell. I knew then that there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to do cargo runs unless I had a functioning shower, because I also knew there was no way this ship wouldn't have problems.

I honestly didn't know if I was going to be able to do all the work myself when I got the ship. I did end up renting some droids to help with some tasks, but I learned so much in the process. I took basic mechanics in school, but I was never really that good at it. Getting a ship and having to fix it up taught me so much that now I don't seem to ever really have any trouble. I'm lucky my mom sent me to college, but I learned so much more once I got on my own two feet and had to run or I'd fall.

I activated the drying function of the shower, and then got out, and got dressed, put the energy bars in my pocket, and managed to get my exo-suit on without killing myself.

I still felt so tired. "Hey Julia, how are the repairs going? If a micro-meteor were headed at us, could we see it in time to evade it?"

"Unlikely captain. Only if it were going to strike somewhere near the edge."

"What about if we somehow managed to increase the deflector's power?"

"That should increase our chances of evading indirect impacts significantly."

"Alright, let's try that then." I started to make my way towards the machine shop. "Check your database for all designs of deflectors. Run a comparison between the design of our deflector with other designs, and extrapolate modifications we could make to increase efficiency and power based on the parts in your manifest. I'll be looking at them via the data pad. Also, play the loudest most kickass metal you can find. I'm gonna need to concentrate."

"Yes, captain."

Metal began blaring through the entire ship. "JULIA!"

The music lowered, "Yes, captain?"

"I changed my mind. Something with a bit less screaming, more musical structure, and a few decibels lower."

"How about this, captain?"

Some metal with screaming leads and a quick beat started playing. "That's much better." I arrived at the workshop. I had just left the data pad floating in the air. I grabbed it, and looked through the designs. This was gonna take a while.

I spent the next few hours pouring over the designs, collecting parts, going back and forth from the deflector access panel, and the machine shop, working on things. It was tiring work.

After eating the second energy bar, I went back to the kitchen. I got an orange Scuttlebutt, and drank a bit of it, then got a packet of crisps. This was killing me. Repairing things was one thing, but I was having to pour myself over designs. This was the hardest I'd studied since college. I really hoped I was going to be able to do it. Wasn't going to unless I got back to work though. I put my drink in my pocket, and walked back to the workshop eating my crisps.

I completely lost track of time. I don't know how long I spent working on the deflector, but eventually, I turned it back on one last time. "Julia, how's that?"

The music turned down. "Wonderful captain! It seems the deflector has increased in power more than 266% at peak."

"Good. I've got a few ideas on what to to try to actually destroy any projectiles we might encounter, but first I need a break. Can you make me a movie? Something with lots of space battles. I'm feeling restless. And orchestral music. I'm feeling a bit tired of the metal for now."

"Anything else, Captain?"

"Yeah, I need some dinner. Can you make me some enchiladas?"

"Yes, captain. What would you like inside them?"

"Rice and...surprise me. I just need to go sit down. Have one of your bots bring it to me. And another drink. Make it a beer. Coffee flavored."

I left the machine shop and went to the cinema. After taking off my boots, putting them away, and strapping myself in my chair, I settled down for the movie. It was quite good. Julia had Robert bring me my enchiladas. I hope he wasn't upset about Julia overriding him to bring me inside. He could have floated away. His mag-treads weren't nearly strong enough.

"Hey Robert." The bot stopped and turned around. "Thanks for bringing me inside. I know you didn't really have much say in the matter, but without you, anything could have happened to me." The robot turned around and started to leave. He didn't have any form of voice functionality. "I'll buy you some stronger mag-treads when we get back." The purchases were really starting to add up, like always. Robert continued out of the room.

The enchiladas were good. They had some kind of algae based meat product in them. It gave it a rather unique green vegetables tastes, and had a spicy sauce that seemed to meld really well with it. Julia really was a master chef. It probably would have tasted even better without these plugs in my nose. I was lucky to have her. She did so much for me. I suppose any AI is similar, but you start to get attached when your AI is your only crew.

The beer had a strong hoppy flavor. It seemed to invade my sinuses, and had some kind of effervescent chemical to simulate an effect similar to carbon dioxide, since carbonated beverages don't work so well in space.

"Captain?"

"Yeah, Julia?"

"I don't mean to interrupt your movie, but I was wondering if I could put in a doggy door."

"Hahahahaha! What?"

"It's a small door meant for canines to enter and exit as they wish."

"I know what they are, but why would you need one? We don't have a dog, and we're in the middle of space. We can't exactly take a dog for walks, even if we had one."

"So Scrappy can enter and exit the ship."

"Oh! Now it makes more sense. You want to be able to have him enter and exit without having to depressurize the entire airlock. Yeah, sure."

"Thank you, captain."

I swear. Doggy door? What... Is Julia losing her mind? I honestly didn't know what to make of all of it. Wait...could she be turning more human? Nah, that's impossible. The emotional subroutines I bought for her didn't work out so well, and I had to remove most of them. There were a few still remaining, but only the ones that weren't deemed to cause issues.

I watched the rest of the movie in silence. It was pretty good. But I let out a sigh as soon as it ended, because I knew I had to get back to work. "Julia, search all designs for point defense lasers and weapons in general, and see if you can come up with some designs with the parts we have."

"That might take some time and considerable processing power."

"Alright. In the mean time, put all the places that aren't on your manifest on my pad. I'm gonna go hunting for parts. So be sure to watch me and add anything I find to the manifest." I paused to think for a moment.

"Yes, captain."

"And Julia, can you also check the internal sensors for any readings from the cargo that seem to contradict the manifest? Make that a higher priority than the point defense lasers for now. I can't work on those until tomorrow likely anyway. And if we can find something useful that can get us out of here, it's worth pissing off the clients if we have to. Better they get their shipments minus a piece or two than nothing at all. I'll replace anything I have to use."

"Yes, captain."

I got up, put my boots back on, and went to the machine shop to check for lost treasures. Even though the old point defense lasers I found ended up being useless, I had found that bot chassis that was a godsend. Scrappy probably cut a week or more off my work load. And there had been a few parts that I found that increased our chances of repairing multiple systems.

I spent quite some time going through the boxes. The chance of repair of multiple systems went up as I went through every box. I didn't have any amazing ideas to get us out of the situation, but I did find a few cool parts. I guess I had gotten them in junk boxes or something.

And then I was done. "Julia, how's the search going? Are there any designs that we could make that would be powerful enough?"

"I haven't been able to find anything that fits the criteria yet, captain."

"Alright, time to raid the cargo." I checked the pad for the anomalous readings I asked about. I went through them, and then I saw something really strange. "What the hell is this?"

I went straight to the rear of the ship, past dozens of crates in the cargo bay. I finally got to one near the back, and tried to unlock it with the set of keys that the client had provided me. I required that all clients give me keys for any locked crates, so that I could check them if need be, with the understanding that I wouldn't unless I had to. The ways that laws were in the area, you were actually better off if you didn't know. Checking all cargo can be a laborious task for an independent captain, so they're often understanding if you don't check your cargo. Of course, that left things open for people like me to make extra money if we weren't too picky about our clients.

The key didn't work. "Son of a bitch!" They gave me a false key. Not exactly surprising, but annoying.

I hurried off and got the plasma cutter, and hurried back, walking at such a brisk pace I almost fell again a few times. I set it down in front of the crate, and proceeded to cut off the two locks on the front. Then, I tried to open it, and burned my hand a little.

"Holy shit!" A huge smile crossed my face. I couldn't believe what I had just found.

_{And I think I'll leave it at that for this week. Yes, I totally left you on a cliff hanger. What do YOU think is in the case? Yes, I actually do know, but I'm not telling you. I can tell you one thing, it's not a tentacle monster.
I'm just exhausted after writing all that. I managed to get to a really good point to end though, I think.}

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Click here to read part 7.