《Ellie Eleven》


 Prologue

    Ellie Eleven did not know her biological parents. They gave her to the orphanage soon after she was born. Her last name was given to her by the orphanage being the eleventh child given to them that year.


    In a letter given to her years later, left by her parents, it explained how they couldn''t afford her medical treatments and the United Earth Nations was obligated to help her. Ellie had cried when she read the letter.


    Growing up in the orphanage was both fun and hard. Fun because Ellie could learn anything she wanted. Hard because the other kids fought and were mean to each other through a few were okay. Ellie learned early to speak loudly and dominantly to get her way.


    ¡°Ellie why don''t you come and play with the other kids?¡± Rosa said encouragingly. ¡°But I''m almost finished!¡± Ellie protested loudly. She loved Rosa, one of the few sentient AI''s in the UEN. It had given her a love for learning that started with the robots Rosa used to help the kids.


    ¡°You can finish it latter. You can''t keep locking yourself in your room.¡± Ellie sighed dramatically having heard the soft demand before. There was just so much to learn!


    ¡°You know what the other kids are like. They call be Sickly Ee!¡±


    ¡°Now, Now, you just have to found common ground with each other. Sarah Five and you had fun with that shooter game. Though I discourage such violent games.¡± Rosa chided softly.


    Ellie hated to admit that Rosa had a point, a small one. Sighing dramatically she gave in. ¡°You win this round Rosa, but you will not win the next!¡± Rosa chuckled. ¡°Yes dear. Now come.¡±


    Ellie walked out of her room and made her way up to the game room, slash, dining hall. The orphanage was in a small bunker located underground at UEN''s star port city. It was one of the only truly safe places on Hemwell. Nobody was stupid enough to attack the port.


    Ellie had grown up with daily news of different corporations fighting, of devastation brought about for a few more tonnes of metal that made Hemwell the largest manufacturing center in the galaxy. Entering the game room she looked over the cluster of kids. Some few had been here as long as Ellie. Others went and got adopted. Few would adopt sickly Ee.


    Ellie frowned at the name. One of the older new arrivals followed Ellie thoughts. ¡°If it isn''t Sickly Ee! Come out of your hole finally!'' Ellie snarled and lunged at the girl. She was promptly caught by one of Rosa ever present bots. ¡°Now Jessica I have told you not to be mean to other girls and Ellie how many time do I have to say fighting is not allowed.¡± Still stewing Ellie grounded out an apology. She quickly turned and found Sarah hunched over a game display.


    ¡°Hey Sarah! You want to play a game?''


    A few weeks later Ellie was receiving her monthly injection of Tier 5 medical nanites. Tier 5 nanites were the most basic and lowest Tier of nanites used, usually for minor injuries. A few days in a medical tank with Tier 2 medical nanites and they could fix anything. Better and faster than the Tier 5s. Almost anything.


    Ellie Eleven had a dormant gene that activated causing her DNA to break apart. A hundred years ago a bioweapon was released targeting a specific geno type. Racial genocide. Genetic engineering cured 99.99% of the population but it still left a recessive gene in a very, very, few people, one in several billion, that could become active.


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    If her luck wasn''t bad enough, Ellie''s birth parents had received advance genetic upgrades. Usually a good option to pass to your kids but both her biological parents received upgrades form different corporations. Corrupt corporations that engineered their upgrades to be genetically incompatible when combined with other companies DNA upgrades.


    It almost made her parents two different species. Almost, but not quite, as bad as trying to interbreed a dog and a cat. It was technically illegal but too much money was involved for the senate to take action.


    To correct both illnesses a computer needed to run for months analyzing her DNA and create a new stable DNA base. That also involved running millions of simulations to double check the new recombined DNA would remain stable, not mutating in a few years, and that she could safely reproduce with the rest of humanity.


    With her luck they would mess up and she would mutate into a frog! Ellie did not want to become another species! It also made sure that if she ever did have a child, and that child had a child, that in the 10 th generation, a few hundred years from now, her many times great grand kids did not mutate into another species.


    After everything checked out Ellie would need to spend months immersed in a regen tank. The cost totaled hundreds of thousands of credits, something the orphanage couldn''t afford on UEN miserly budget, to many other kids to feed and support.


    Her injections were a cost saving crux, it ''cured'' her so long as she keep receiving them and that was good enough for the UEN, though not what her parents had in mind. It did not cure her permanently; it just stopped the DNA destabilization.


    Rosa cleared her throat, a very human gesture. ¡°Ellie I hate to say this.¡± She paused. ¡°Know that I protested as strongly as I could, but it was out of my hands.¡± She said sadly.


    Ellie sat up straighter concerned. ¡°It has been decided that in a few months you will be old enough, and mature enough, to be an adult. Injections well be halted.¡± She said in a rush. Ellie could almost see her tears.


    ¡°But I''ll only be ten! Majority is sixteen! Even on Hemwell!¡± Ellie protested.


    ¡°I know love. I know.¡± Rosa pushed on. ¡°You are far ahead of your age group and with your test sores it was used by the budget committee to show how mature you are and to stop your costly treatments. Maybe you can get a job? ¡± Rosa asked not really believing what she said but trying to be supportive.


    Ellie know her prognosis was grim but this was so sudden. Those bastards had just decided her death to save a few credits! Ellis didn''t know how to react. ¡°It''s okay, it''s okay Rosa.¡± Trying to sooth the AI, the closest thing to mother she ever had.


    Rosa laughed bitterly. ¡°Here you are trying to comfort me!¡±


    ¡°We know someday this would happen. I have been studying hard for years! I will think of something.¡± Ellie tried to be positive, despite the death sentence handed to her.


    ¡°Ellie please look at your pad.¡± Ellie looked down at her commpad. The device she had learned to reprogram and encrypt with Rosa''s patient guidance. A secure message flashed.


    ''Tier 5 nanites have been lost¡¯ a string of letters and numbers followed. Ellie breathed deeply and tried not to react as the message self deleted. She wanted to cry at Rosa''s selfless act, an act that could get her deleted.


    ¡°Thank you for the job openings. I will look them over.¡± Ellie called out to cover for Rosa.


    On Hemwell kids could get a job at any age but many were too dangerous. If they were not jobs working in the mines, they were for far more sinister proposes. On the dark sub net Ellie had read stories about illegal experiments done to kids, or kids sold to off world colonies for slave labor, if they were lucky.


    Ellie shuddered at some of the stories out there about what happen on a few of the worlds. Ellie had hoped to enter the military at sixteen, the youngest she could join. She could have volunteer for the cyber soldier special warfare unit that would have spent the money to cure her.


    All soldiers got DNA and cyber upgrades but the cyber unit went further. A lot further.


    ¡°Well I better get back to studying.¡± Ellie said brightly maybe too brightly. Don''t overdo it she admonished herself. Getting up from the small med bay she exited and went to her room. She had a lot of studying to do.

 Chapter 1 - Planning to be tossed out

    Ellie spent the next few months planning her departure from the orphanage.


    The world of her birth was half again as large as Earth and unique for having extremely large concentrations of metal in the crust. With so much metal easily available the world became the largest manufacturing plant in the UEN controlled sphere and in fact the largest manufacturing world in the galaxy. Correspondingly it was also the largest junkyard in the galaxy.


    Why waste time, energy, and resources recycling when you could just throw it away and replicate a brand new part in minutes? With so much precious metals available every manufacturing corporation in the galaxy fought for a piece of the world, and fight continuously.


    Hemwell was a war zone, each corporation a militarized zone that protected their mines with a private army. The UEN turned a blind eye to it as long as the military and consumer goods shipped out on time.


    The last corporation that disrupted the UEN star port was bombarded form orbit by the UEN Navy and annihilated. Enough said.


    That made Hemwell one of the most corrupt, blood soaked, worlds of the UEN, were almost anything could be found, or acquired, even Tier 2 nanites.


    This gave Ellie hope; if she could find some nanites, she could repair herself, though it was a long shot. And she would have to stay far away from any active conflicts.


    Hemwell was littered with junkyards, at places lacking in large concentrations of metal, worthless land to the corporations in other words.


    Her studying provided a great junkyard location. On a rather large island, or small continent, the books said to look up a similar sized Australia on Earth, United Earth Nations home planet, was a land devoid of any large concentrations of metal.


    Ellie found that the scientists were confused about this phenomenon when the rest of the planet had metal in abundance. For Ellie the reasons didn''t matter, what did was that it was used by all of Hemwell as a major dumping ground. Corporations usually stayed far from the continent, but other dangers could be found, gangs, pirate hideouts, not to mention the dangerous trash she wanted to salvage.


    Salvage that could explode in her face, from compressed air tanks, decompressing explosively, to spilled chemicals, needing the smallest spark to set them aflame, to unstable fusion cores, not shut down properly, a thousand dangerous and deadly traps waiting for an unwary salvager.


    That did not include the still active defenses, waiting for an intruder. Ellie wasn''t worried, she spent the last six years studying every technical manual she could get her hands on. Rosa had started her intense interest in machines and had helped her on course work.


    She knew more about electronics then some engineers several times her age. She had learned advanced programming form Rosa and, in preparation for her journey, she had carefully hacked the low security databases of several of the largest corporations on the planet. Interesting many systems already had backdoors in them.


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    Ellie just wanted to know about shipments to Cullen Island, the island named for some obscure explorer. Ellie also spent the months in intense study of different ship designs. She had read a lot about fusion reactors and every part of the ship over the years but she never really studied the actual deck layouts.


    She download all the available layouts she could find, knowing she would need them soon. The good news was a lot of commercial ship deck plans were easy to acquire. The bad news was military ship designs were, of course, not as easy to find.


    The three months since Rosa''s announcement were well spent. By the time the date of sentencing arrived she was blurry eyed and foggy headed form the data cramming. She had never studied so hard!


    On her birthday she packed the few cloths and items she owned, looked around her small bedroom for any missing items, then turned and headed out the door. When she arrived out the game room she found a few friends waiting.


    Sarah Five rushed toward her crying. Sarah hugged her tight and Ellie tried not to cry with her. ¡°It''s not fair!¡± Sarah wailed distraught.


    ¡°It''s okay Sarah. I''ll be okay.¡± Ellie tried to console her friend.


    One of Rosa bots came to take the girl. Ellie breathed deeply trying to steady herself and went to the other girls, giving each a hug and thanks and saying she will never forget them. After fifteen minutes Ellie finally turned toward the exit and left the only life she knew behind.


    Exiting the bunker, Ellie''s breath was taken away by the intense heat. The bunker''s environmental plant never let bunker get to hot, so Ellie was not prepared for the hot dusty air. Taking a minute to breathe and look around, she could see low dull buildings all around her.


    Spaceships of all sizes and configuration flew above her, picking up cargo on Hemwell, and taking them all over the galaxy. The street was busy and loud with people of all shapes and sizes rushing by. Ellie hid in the archway looking at all the activity.


    She tapped a command into her pad, and it beeped, sending the designated rout to her bio implant. Every one received one when they were five. The implant acted as identification and tracking for kids and as adults it was used for banking and low level actions like map directions. With one final deep breath Ellie forged out.


    Turning toward the star port Ellie started walking, several blocks away she crossed a dozen streets, weaving in and out of peoples way that were too busy to which for a small girl. She wanted to yell at a few of the worst offenders but was too intimidated.


    A soft female voice she had programmed into her implant, to replace the annoying mechanical one, told her to take the next right. Turning, and going down a few buildings, her destination was across the street.


    This posed another problem for Ellie because of all the cars speeding by. She could tell a lot were driven without the so called dumb AI engaged. Most AI''s were very smart but limited and not allowed to evolve.


    Turning around and, trying not to get swept away by the crowd, she back tracked to the intersection and pressed the walkway button. After a moment the walk light blink on, Ellie started to walk across but had to jump back form a barreling car that almost hit her.


    Clinching her chest in fright, she looked around and no one seemed to be paying any attention. Fearing another incident she looked around and made sure the cars had stopped before racing across. Finally she arrived at her destination.


    A bot was behind the desk asked. ¡°Hello miss what can Express Packages do for you?¡± A polite automatic greeting programmed into it.


    ¡°I am here to pick up a package.¡±


    Ellie sent over the receipt code that Rosa gave her. She had to decrypt it but she doubted anyone else could or cared enough to try.


    ¡°Thank you miss. Please wait.¡±


    Ellie rocked gently on her the balls of her feet enjoying the cool air and silence. After a brief wait an auto cart loaded with several packages arrived. Ellie eyes went wide expecting only one small box.


    ¡°Your packages miss.¡±


    Nodding to the bot she took off her backpack and started pushing boxes in, thankful for once the she inly owned a few items so there was plenty of space. Afterwards she turned to brave the outside.

 Chapter 2 – The Garbage Scow

    Ellie was tired, hungry, and extremely annoyed by the time she found her way to the star port. She had to show her ID to several guards. The budget committee actually listing her as an adult raised a few questions.


    ¡°Yes officer, I know I am only ten!¡± Ellie said annoyed. ¡°But they made me an adult so you should ask your questions to them.¡± Ellie grounded out after the third officer stopped her.


    The officer glowered at her, Ellie wondered if he was waiting for her to break down and confess something. Noving chance of that! Finally the officer shrugged and let her through, unable to find a reason to hold her. Ellie breathed a sigh of relief.


    After entering the star port main area she followed her chip''s instruction to an out of the way shipping office. A real live person greeted her. ¡°Hello dear! Are you lost?¡± The woman asked.


    She wore a ship suit and had black hair and brown eyes and was about Ellie''s height, 5''3. Ellie took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. How did people deal with this everyday!


    ¡°No ma''am. You are Hemwell travels and shipping?¡± The lady nodded looking puzzled. ¡°Then I would like to book passage to Cullen Town on Cullen Island.¡±


    Not very imaginative but the small settlement on the coast had only a few hundred people.


    ¡°Dear you need to be with a guardian to book passage.¡±


    Ellie sighed. ¡°I know ma''am, but I am a legal adult as of today.¡±


    The lady was highly skeptical of this assertion and for the fourth time today she had to prove she was indeed an adult in the eyes of the powers that be.


    ¡°Well this is very unusual but we do have a cargo ship leaving in a few hours if you don''t mind roughing it.¡± She gave a really good price.


    Ellie had looked at other shipping companies and the few that went there charged passengers a lot more. Ellie had made a few credits on the dark sub net selling small software jobs. She had to do this clandestinely so the overseers didn''t find out and confiscate her credits. Rosa had turned a blind eye to this.


    The price for the ticket was in her budget and she didn''t need a first class luxury seat.


    ¡°Thank you ma''am¡±


    ¡°Jane dear.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Jane where can I get a bite to eat around here?¡± If she had hours to wait and then a long ship travel, she wanted to eat beforehand.


    Jane sent her to a close dinner that she eat at often and promised to send a message when the ship was ready.  Ellie thanked her and went to eat and relax hoping her day would get better.


    After Ellie ate a large vat grown burger, she had to admit Jane had been right, the small place was good. She spent her hours waiting going over more manuals. She wanted desperately to open Rosa''s packages but now wasn''t the time or place. Jane finally pinged her.


    Ellie went back to the office and Jane led her to a large garbage scow.


    ¡°Sorry about the ship Ellie.¡±


    ¡°Don''t worry about it, this is perfect.¡± Jane looked at her skeptical. Ellie was not lying. She was on her way to look through trash and here was her first opportunity.


    ¡°Really Jane this is fine.¡±


    Jane still did not look convinced but turned to a man standing nearby. ¡°Ken this is Ellie, the one I commed you about.¡±


    The man wore a dirty ship suit and had messy light brown hair. ¡°Well this isn''t a first class cruise Ellie. I hope you know that.¡± Ellie nodded. ¡°Understood. Um just what sort of trash are you hauling?¡±


    Ken shared a confused look with Jane. ¡°We have a contract with the local UEN military to trash some old equipment.¡± Ellie want to dance. This was awesome.


    ¡°Can I look though some of the trash holds?¡± Ken and Jane shared another look. ¡°Sure I don''t see why not. Just don''t track oil and trash around the rest of the ship!¡± Ken admonished.


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    ¡°Understood. Can I go aboard?¡±


    ¡°Sure we will be leaving soon.¡± Ellie turned and gave a quick goodbye to Jane, then raced aboard, leaving Ken and Jan looking at each other in confusion. Why would anyone get so excited by trash?


    The ship was on the small size, about a hundred and fifty feet long and sixty wide. It had four holds, two on either side. The ship ceiling and sides opened up to load trash. When they dumped it the ship hovered and a hatch under the ship opened and it rained out.


    The ship smelled of oil, fried electronics, and something Ellie couldn''t identify. She started on the first hold on the left and did a dance in glee. Old military light powered armor suits filled the hold. They were not the hulking tin cans of the front lines, that could take rail gun fire, hit after hit, but they were still useful for rear area coverage.


    Ellie immediately saw the usefulness of the suits for her planned salvaging operation. The suits were very outdated and worn but there were so many that Ellie spent a fun hour mix and matching. The new suit fit perfectly when she tried it on, though she had to plug it in to the ship''s power. The suits main batteries were long drained of any charge.


    Ellie piled up several critical parts for future maintenance and repair, wondering how she would transport all the pieces, the second hold held the answer. When she opened up the hatch she laughed and wanted to scream in joy, light armored grav carts. Carrying two people and a small load of cargo grav carts were useful to get around on military bases. The carts were small but big enough for Ellie, measuring eight feet long and six feet wide, with four small nacelles at each corner. They could carry a tonne, the maximum weight the small sized grav plates could lift and the nacelles could push.


    Again Ellie had to build a new unit form parts. She checked eight carts before she found one with a working micro fusion plant. After swapping out a few bad grav plates, and a nacelle, a ding hit her commpad and Ellie wanted to growl. She wasn''t done!


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°We will be arriving in an hour. I have seen you going through the trash. Are you really planning on using that old suit and grav cart?¡± Ellie blushed hot red. She didn''t realize she was being watched! She never had to worry about it with Rosa.


    ¡°Ye..¡± Ellie cleared her throat and tried again. ¡°Yes I am.¡±


    ¡°Well you may want to check the other holds.¡± Ken chucked before ending the comm.


    Embarrassed she went to the next hold. It was filled with small sensor hover bots! About a foot in diameter they were packed with radar, lidar, sonar, thermal, and standard cameras. They made great watch men.


    Ellie could reposes the bots to scan trash! Barely keeping form dancing again, she went through the bots; this would be a lot harder than fixing a grav cart. Ellie didn''t have time! She did a fast diagnostic of two dozen bots and set aside twenty of the best ones. Then she grabbed anther thirty at random hoping to repair them or use them as parts later.


    With time closing in she check the last hold. Ellie wanted to groan, miscellaneous electronics! If Ellie had hours she would love do go through each piece. Over there was a mini reactor, that corner looked to have maintenance bots, over in another corner military grade harden data servers, and look commpads! Ellie was frozen. So many options! Her pad dinged.


    Noving Ken, he was probably laughing his head off! Sighing and trying to calm down she answered the comm.


    ¡°Yes Ken?¡±


    ¡°Just wanted you to know we well be over the drop area soon.  For you, I will start with hold one. You can then move your items into the cleared hold.¡±


    Ellie lost all her anger and was extremely grateful. ¡°Thanks!¡± She said brightly.


    ¡°No problem.¡±


    Scrambling around, she grabbed the mini reactor and a box of commpads and threw them into the hallway. Then she piled five data servers up and pushed them out with the rest of the pile. She run to hold one and went about removing the armored suit and parts. Ken was probably enjoying watching her run back and forth like a defective bot.


    ¡°Okay stand clear of cargo one door.¡± This time Ken didn''t comm her but announced it over the ships systems.


    The door slid closed and Ellie heard a grinding noise. The door whisked open soon after and without prompting, Ellie started moving her salvage back into the now empty hold. Ellie then ran to get her sensor drones and electronics form the last hold. The grav cart was a lot harder to move.


    ¡®Just set it to hover near the ceiling.¡¯


    She linked the controls to her pad and exited the hold. The rest of the dumping happened fast. Ellie was tired but happy, loading everything into her reclaimed grav cart. Ellie was thankful the whole cart, including the cargo area, was covered and armored. It would protect her items not just form the elements but form other people. Not that she could think of a reason someone would steal it. Too many would consider it just junk.


    ¡°Ellie we will be landed in five.¡± Ellie acknowledged the comm.


    Soon the cargo bay doors opened and Ellie drove down the ramp, the nacelles whining as air was forced through them then expelled out. Ken met her outside. Ellie climbed out of the grav cart and was hit with more heat then she felt back at the star port. It was an oppressive dry heat with the nearby ocean breeze barely cooling her down. She stopped and stared at the great expanse of water, jaw hanging open.


    Ken chucked. ¡°Never seen the ocean before?¡± Ellie could just shake her head.


    After few moments entranced by the sight, Ellie was able to pull her focus away.


    ¡°Thank you Ken!¡±


    ¡°No problem kid. Stay safe.¡±


    Nodding in acknowledgment, Ellie climbed back into her vehicle. The cart was easy to drive and soon she was exiting the port into the town proper, there was not much to see. The whole town maybe held a fifty building, not one taller than four stories. Ellie could even see the end of the town form the port. There was an incredible amount of large ships flying above her head, not nearly has many as the UEN port, but she could see dozens of trash scows, several times larger than the ship she just came in on, flying toward distance locations on Cullen Island to drop off garbage. Garbage like the grav cart and powered suit! Ellie was giddy. This could work. She could save herself!

 Chapter 3 – Dinner and Chips

    The day had been long and exhausting, both emotionally and physically. Ellie found a hotel right next to the port. Parking she set two drones in the best condition to watch the cart, one in front, and one in the cargo space.


    Braving anther rush of heat, she entered the hotel. A man in clean clothes was hunched over a vid at the desk. Ellie waited and waited. ¡°Excuse me sir. I need a room.¡±


    The man jerked, then lifted he head to stare in confusion at Ellie. ¡°What are you doing here kid?¡±


    Ellie suppressed a sigh. ¡°I need a room.¡±


    ¡°Aren''t you too young to be by yourself? Where are your parents?¡±


    Ellie did sigh then. A long drawn out sigh. ¡°I am an adult as of today.¡± Ellie commanded her implant to send out her identification wondering if she would have to do this with everyone she met.


    ¡°Okay kid. Rooms are fifty creds a night.¡±


    Ellie gulped at that. That was outrageous! ¡°Any discount for extended stays?¡± Ellie needed to get her bearings and having a safe place to come back to would be nice.


    ¡°Sure kid, a week is 200 creds. If you stay a month, its 500 creds.¡±


    ¡°It''s Ellie not Kid and I well take a room for the month.¡± Nodding the man started typing into his computer.


    ¡°Any place for food and supplies?¡± Ellie asked after she was sent the codes to her room.


    ¡°Sure Tom''s Place, it is across the street and just a few blocks down is Wholesome Goods.¡±


    Nodding Ellie went up to her room. It was a small place, barely large enough to walk around in, but it was hers for the next month. Ellie started to call out to Rosa but then realized she wasn''t there anymore.


    A feeling of deep loneliness welled up and to distract herself she instructed her chip to play a song form one of her favorite singers, then jumped into the shower.


    After a hot shower and a selection of her favorite tunes, she wondered if she should sleep or get something to eat, eating won. She made her way back down to the lobby. The guy already back to his vid show and Ellie left the comforts of the hotel.


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    Ellie did not want a repeat of almost being hit by a careless driver so she carefully looked up and down the deserted street to make sure no one was coming before she hurried across. Tom''s Place was another small eatery, she just hoped it was as good as the last one at UEN''s port.


    There were a dozen people scattered about and she quickly grabbed a chair at the counter.


    A multipurpose bot that resembled a hominoid figure came over. ¡°What can I get you miss?¡±


    ¡°Water first thanks.¡±


    The bot left and she looked over the menu, some of the items she never had before. The bot came back with a large glass of water and took Ellie''s order. Ellie listened to the conversation going on next to her.


    ¡°I''ll tell you Rick, Somoko is dumping their complete inventory of Q607 chips.¡±


    Ellie''s ears perked up at that. The Q607 chips were the latest and fastest quantum chip on the market. It was said that it processed forty percent better than its nearest competitor Tesenki''s chips.


    ¡°Really Dale? I just outfitted my ship with those!¡± Rick said outraged.


    ¡°No lie. They work great for the first six to eight months but then start getting errors and lagging. I heard a rumor, form an engineering friend of mine, that the chips can work, and even better, if you freeze them.¡±


    ¡°And how the hell am I going to do that!¡± Rick got up and stormed out.


    Ellie wanted to shout in joy. The chips could provide the processing power she needed to run her DNA simulations! She quickly started typing into her comm pad. Routing data through several different locations and, masking her comm id, she soon had the location of the chips. About twenty-six miles from her location.


    She wanted to jump up and head out but it was getting late and her food just arrived. Ellie know she needed to eat and rest. She doubted anyone else would be as interested in the chips as she was. She finished the really good vat steak and headed to her hotel.


    Ellie stopped by her cart to retrieve her bag. Not being sure about the hotel she had left it guarded by her senor bots.  She wanted to bring up all her salvage and inspect them but there was too much to carry. The desk clerk might notice, if he ever looked up from his vids.


    She was right, the man still was engrossed with whatever he was watching. Snorting softly, she went up to her room. After locking and flipping the bolt for extra security, she emptied her bag on the bed. First out were Rosa''s packages, then she pulled out her sanitary items, and then her three work coveralls.


    Ship suits and work coveralls were both cut and pierce resistant, as will resistant to burning, electricity, and, acid, they were also resistant to the more mundane elements, water, staining, and winkles. The work coverall though were a lot thicker and more durable, able to handle rough treatment longer.


    Under the cloths she pulled out the bundle of thick cloth holding her tools. Unrolling it would reveal dozens of tools tucked away in individual pockets for protection.


    She smiled remembering the very first test probe Rosa had given her. Rosa was been so patient with Ellie''s constant testing of all her bots at the orphanage. Setting it aside she saw the vacuum sealed box containing her parent¡¯s letter. With a tumbling hand she pulled it out and sat down on the edge of the bed.


    ¡°Well you gave me up so the UEN would cure me. They didn''t and instead threw me out.¡±


    A single tear slid down her cheek, she just lost her second home. The only home she knew.


    She missed Rosa.

 Chapter 4 – The Gift

    Shaking her head to clear it, she pulled out her armored work boots and gently placed the box at the bottom of bag in there place. She got up and after washing her face, she picked up one of Rosa boxes.


    Opening it she found six class 5 medical grade nanite injectors. Four boxes in all contained the precious nanites. Enough for two years of treatment. She could lower the dose to stretch it out but that was risky. A lower dose meant her illness would progress, though slower. After a certain point even a full dose would not halt her end.


    Ellie shook her head, that was not even considering the fact UEN made the doses to degrade after three to four years, just another way for people to be dependent on the United Earth Nations.


    Picking up the second to last box, Ellie opened it. She found a Tesenki military grade, high density, solid state, memory cube. Only 1 inch by 1 inch it could survive a concentrated electromagnetic pulse that would destroy every normal storage device in its path. The small cube could hold 2 Petabytes of information. 2,000 Terabytes. Ellie eyed the device in curiosity wondering what Rosa could have possible wanted to send her that need that much data storage. Connecting it to her commpad she went through the security measures until a letter displayed.


    My Dearest Ellie


    I love you with all my heart. I am devastated that this has happened to such a bright, lovely woman. Ellie you will need a companion in your new future and so enclosed in this data cube are all the programming you will need to develop a sentient AI. Take care of each other and know I will always love you.


    Rosa


    Ellie was crying after the first words. At the end she was shocked. Sentient AI programming was heavily restricted. The only commonly allowed AI programs had encoded limits to intelligence and self eased if they ever reached beyond that point.


    Rosa had just given her a priceless gift and an enormous responsibility. The responsibility to keep the data safe and the responsibility to help the new person grow and learn, to develop. Sentient AIs and even hobbled AIs grew like a child; you could not dump all the necessary data in without the new AI being destroyed. You needed to slowly feed the data in, allowing the AI to understand and internalize the data before adding in more. Ellie wiped her tears away and went into the bathroom again to clean her face.


    She picked up the last package with some reluctance only to find a light weight ship suit, she laughed in relief, though was puzzled why Rosa would give her such a simple thing. After a careful inspection she realized it was not just a simple ship suit as it appeared but a carbon fiber armored under suit. Soldiers wore it under their powered armor. It gave almost the same protection as unpowered body armor.


    Although it did not stop chemically propelled rounds and rail gun rounds form kinetically injuring the wearer on impact, it did stop laser and electrical weapon fire. Ellie hugged the soft suit to her, Rosa showing her concern and love again. Quickly she changed out of her ship suit and donned the new armored ship suit. She then carefully wrapped one of her work coveralls around the vital injectors and precious data cube for safety and placed it in her pack on top of her parent¡¯s letter.


    Ellie left out a work coverall and folded her last work coverall and dirty ship suit, and packed them in her bag. She would need to find a suit cleaner but was not worried, they were everywhere. Leaving the one work coverall Ellie would wear over her new armored ship suit, resting on top of her armored work boots, to wear tomorrow; she set her pack in the corner and climbed into bed. The stressful day soon found an exhausted Ellie fast asleep.


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    Ellie was up bright and early, hoping to get a start on solving one of the major obstacles to curing her, the massive processing power needed to design a stable DNA base.


    She took a quick shower, brushed her teeth, put on her work coveralls over Rosa''s armored ship suit, then sat on the edge the bed and slid her feet into her armored work boots. The work boots were armored to stop anything form harming her feet, a very important safety measure when walking on dangerously sharp trash piles, and with that Ellie jumped up to hurriedly finish packing.


    Gathering up her sanitary items form the bathroom, she placed them in a small pouch and set them on top of her packed clothing. Closing up her bag she looked around in an instinctive habit to make sure nothing was left behind. Finding nothing Ellie turned and unlocked the door, nearly running into another guest.


    The man looked at her blurrily, reeking of intoxicants, then stumbled passed her. Going down a few door he disappeared into another hotel room. Shaking her head at what adults did to themselves, she made it to the lobby without another incident. The desk counter was empty and, with a deep breath, Ellie excited to a hot new day.


    Blinking in the intense sunlight Ellie waited for her eyes to adjust. Finally able to see clearly, Ellie climb into her grav cart and placed her bag on the passenger seat. Ellie checked and found the sensor drone was nearly out of power, so was the grav cart.


    She groaned softly, another delay! Pulling out her commpad she ordered a liter of fuel to be delivered to her location. Thankfully Hemwell used a massive amount of fuel so there was a very large helium 3 harvesting operation at the star systems only gas giant, making helium 3 very cheap. On other worlds it could cost ten times as much.


    Ellie got out and went to the back of the cart. Opening the storage compartment Ellie check the sensor drone she left to guard her electronics and confirmed the bot was also low on power. Not wanting to sit around doing nothing while waiting for the fuel delivery, Ellie climb into the cargo bay and started to organize the jumbled mess in the back.


    Ellie had thrown everything in haphazardly in on the garbage scow, and now the pile of salvage needed to be separated. Ellie started to place the light armored combat suit and suit parts to the left of the compartment but did not get far before a bot interrupted her.


    ¡°Miss, did you place an order for a liter of helium 3?¡±


    Ellie maneuvered around her piles of electronics to the opened hatch and jumped out. Standing in front of her holding a small tank was an almost new humanoid bot. Not one manufactured form the main robotics companies, Ellie could tell. It looked like an imitation of Somoko''s newest B800''s.


    Shaking her head to clear this errant thought she confirmed her identify as the one who ordered the fuel.


    ¡°On behalf of Hasturon Galactic Gases and Fuel we thank you for your order.¡±


    With that the bot turned and walked off towards the star port. Ellie quickly closed and locked the storage compartment and went to the front of the cart. Getting in again she connected the small tank to the fuel line next to the drive controls.


    A quarter of the tank emptied into the grav cart''s storage tank and would provide enough fuel for the next two months. Ellie disconnected the tank and moving her bag off the passage seat, she lifted the seat up to uncover a small storage hold under it. Placing the nearly full fuel tank in it, she closed the compartment and set her bag back down.


    Running a diagnostic on the cart''s micro fusion plant, Ellie found it running at eighty-six percent efficiency. That was great for something so old and used. Ellie sent a command using her biochip for the two sensor bots to plug into the carts electrical grid and recharge.


    Ellie was just about to back up when her stomach reminded her she had not eaten yet. Pausing she tried to decide if she should go to the dinner or shop at a store. Reminding herself she needed to save what little credits she had, she decided to go shop at a store. Remembering the desk clerk saying Wholesome Goods was near she got the location quickly form her chip.


    Backing up Ellie pulled onto the road and noticed a few other vehicles actually on the road with her. She figured that with the town so small everyone here preferred to walk. Turning at the first intersection she drove a few blocks down, then turned into the stores lot. If she had not used her chip Ellie would have drove right by the small nondescript building.

 Chapter 5 – Meals and Bots

    She parked and got out, pinging her recharged bots to keep careful watch of the cart.


    Entering she was greeted by an old man. ¡°Aren''t you a little too young to be out by yourself?¡±


    Ellie glowered and crossed her arms in front of her. ¡°Aren''t you a little too old to be out by yourself?¡±


    The old man looked at her for a few seconds, then, threw his head back and laughed.


    Wiping a tear away, he asked. ¡°So what can I do for you miss?¡±


    ¡°It''s Ellie and I need some food.¡±


    ¡°I''m Tom the owner of this fine store and what kind of food are you looking for?¡±


    ¡°Just a box of nutripaste.¡±


    Nutripaste was the cheapest food around. A tube of paste packed with all the vital nutrients one needed for twenty-four hours of hard work.


    ¡°Well we do have a large supply of those. What about instameals?¡±


    Ellie thought about it. Instameals were full meals in suspended animation. The nanite replicator manufactured the whole meal, packaging and all, then slowed down the cellular decay of the food, producing a vacuum sealed meal that stayed good for ten years.


    More expansive then nutripaste the meals tasted better.


    ¡°And how much are these instameals?¡±


    ¡±Pretty cheap. The UEN military contracts the production to Tevon Galactic here on Hemwell.¡±


    Ellie nodded.  Living on the largest manufacturing world in the UEN had a few benefits.


    ¡°Okay I''ll take them.¡±


    Tom showed her to the back where a whole storage room was packed with instameals. Ellie looked at Tom.


    ¡°A salvager found a whole cargo load of them.¡±  Tom answered her unspoken question, looking sheepish.


    Ellie grinned. ¡°It so happens I''m going out salvage parts too. What do you buy?¡± Ellie ask the shop owner.


    Tom looked at her skeptically. ¡°The junkyard is no place for a young woman! Beside do you even know anything about ship parts?¡±


    ¡°I know more about ships and ship parts then you!¡± Ellie boasted.


    ¡°Will then, Ellie, please follow me.¡±


    Curious Ellie followed him out of the room and through another door in the back. They arrived at a large store room and Ellie realized the building was a lot bigger then the front of the store would suggest. The place was packed with salvaged items, most used in the environmental plants¡¯ of ships. She saw water storage tanks, filtration units, oxygen recyclers, waste reclamation units, everything you needed to keep a ships environmental plant going.


    Tom started asking her what part did what, what part went with what type ship, and then tried harder questions. He gave problems and she gave the proper fixes until he finally ran down.


    ¡°Well girl you sure know your stuff. Did you grow up on a ship?¡±


    Ellie was about to answer when she spied an old bot. Walking over to the partly covered bot she moved the boxes away to see an old dark brown colored Neski A10. About thirty years old, the bot was humanoid with a heavy frame and casing. The Neski Corporation made very sturdy bots for industrial use unlike Somoko and Tesenki who made house bots.


    Compared to a Neski model the house bots were extremely flimsy.


    Seeing Ellie¡¯s interested, Tom explained. ¡°Yes, I got that a few years ago. There is something wrong in its programming that I was never able to repair.¡±


    Ellie nodded and reached down to tap the bot on the left ear. The activation button worked and the bot turned on.


    ¡°Gre..Gre..Greetings.¡± The bot slowly pushed itself up.


    ¡°Like I said the bot never worked right.¡±


    ¡°Thi..thi..this..u..u.unit..i..i..is..fu..fu..fully..fu..fu..func..func..functional.¡± Ellie was charmed.


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    The bot towered over her, six feet in height, with wide shoulders and a large chest; everything was covered by thick plates. The body of the bot looked more like a streamlined version of a medieval suit of armor then a bot. Only the face mimicked a human more closely with a round head, two eyes, a nose and a working jaw.


    The A10''s were designed for heavy lifting and dangerous work environments, prefect for Ellie''s needs.


    Ellie turned to Tom. ¡°So can I keep him?¡±


    Tom looked form her, to the bot, then back. ¡°Sure no one else has been interested in the old bot and it''s just been taking up room.¡±


    Ellie thank him and turn towards the bot. ¡°Please go outside and wait by my grav cart.¡±


    Sending it a picture of her grav cart, the bot turned and lumbered out of the room.


    ¡°So Tom, what is your interested in environmental parts?¡±


    Tom nodded. ¡°They are in high demand by family ship owners, and third rate merchant ship companies. The larger ship companies just replicate new parts.¡±


    Ellie could understand that. The environmental plant was the most important system on a ship and the one that broke down the fastest. With UEN charging exuberant taxes on all replicated parts, single ship owners needed to find a way around that or they would lose their ship to maintenance costs.


    Going back to the storage room Ellie had a fun time picking out different instameals. There were nanite made steak and potato, nanite made chicken with green beans, nanite made lasagna with bread, nanite made soup, Ellie took two of everything. She was looking forward to trying out different meals and seeing what tasted the best.


    Tom gave a really cheap price for the meals and Ellie rushed to thank him. He waved it away.


    ¡°Just find me some good parts to sell.¡±


    Thanking him again Ellie took her box of food and went outside. The A10 was standing patiently waiting next to her car and stepped forward to take her box.


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    ¡°Ha..ha..happy..to..to..be..be..of..of...assis..assistance.¡±


    Ellie grinned and lead the way to the back of the cart. Opening the cargo hatch she decided to change into her light armored power suit. Grabbing the suit she had fixed on the garbage scow, she pushed the other parts further back to make room for her instameals.


    The bot dutifully placed the box down in the cleared area, and then stood silently waiting for her order. Ignoring the bot for the moment, Ellie shucked off her outer work coveralls, throwing them in the cargo hold, and started to don the suit.


    The light weight armored ship suit she had on did nothing to impede her, and she found the suit actually fit better with it on. With the batteries empty she needed to manually adjust the suit. Stretching her arms and doing a little hop, Ellie adjusted the fit and nodded in satisfaction.


    ¡°A10 please go to the passenger side and get in.¡±


    Without a word the bot turned and started to move toward the passenger door. Ellie picked up the suits helmet and closed the cargo bay hatch. Walking to the drive side door she opened it and saw the bot seating holding her bag and taking up most of the small compartment.


    She breathed out a sigh of relief. She had forgotten the bag and having a hulking piece of metal set on it would have been devastating. Sliding into the driver¡¯s seat she placed her helmet beside her and pulled out a thin cable form the suits thigh compartment and plugged it into a slot in the carts instrument panel.


    She saw the display change to a wire frame view of her suit. Hitting the diagnostic bottom she had the carts limited computer run a scan of her suit. A small beep a second later showed the suit was fully functional with batteries drained of power. Hitting anther button started the batteries recharging off the carts fusion reactor.


    Starting the grav cart she heard a high pitch whine form the grave plates and the cart listed to the right. Another high pitched whine and Ellie''s side of the cart listed. The grav cart rocked back and forth before the grav plates settled down and the slow computer finally rebalanced the vehicle.


    She turned toward the other occupant in the compartment.


    ¡°Nova you must be heavy.¡±


    Setting still and looking straight ahead the bot answered.


    ¡°This..this..u.u..unite..wei..wei..weighs..thr..thr..three..hu..hu..hundred...pou..pou..pounds.¡±


    Ellie laughed. ¡°Okay first your left hand, palm up.¡±


    Lifting up the arm nearest to Ellie, the bot turned its hand palm up. Ellie opened an access panel on the bots inside wrist and pulled out a cable. Picking up her commpad she had left sitting on the instrument panel she plugged the cable into one of the commpads ports.


    Ellie had developed a special AI for finding backdoors and hacks into computer systems and to scan the software for any weak points to exploit. It helped Ellie fix broken bots and find flaws in her programs. It also helped Ellie hack into corporate systems.  A very useful bit of code that Rosa pretended Ellie only used for diagnosing her bots.


    She now ran the A10''s core program through the special AI looking for any harmful code or backdoors, the last thing she wanted to do was trust a hacked bot.


    Ellie''s program ran through the code finding errors and coding conflicts. Bot AI''s were interesting in that they had a limit to their intelligence but learned from their interactions with people and situations to better understand what to do to complete assignments and improve on their work.


    This lead to bots accumulating a large amount of junk data. Data that had to be carefully scanned and organized so vital data did not get accidentally deleted and degrade the bots improved efficiency. Ellie spent an hour cleaning the A10''s memory file and installing upgraded compression and learning algorithms that the thirty year old bot lacked.


    Ellie ran one finale diagnostic that confirmed the A10''s core code was completely free of errors and malice code then disconnected the cable. Setting her commpad back down on the instrument panel she packed the bots cable into its access compartment and closed the panel.


    Now Ellie needed to find out if all her hard work had fixed the A10.


    ¡°A10 what is your status?¡±


    ¡°Internal diagnostic shows improved data processing and functions.¡±


    Ellie felt a ping of sadness. She somehow missed the stuttering voice the bot had on activation. Shaking her head she tried to clear her unhappy thoughts.


    ¡°This unit is fully functional and happy to be of assistance.¡± The bot continued.


    Ellie instantly perked up, smiling as the bot repeated its first sentence to Ellie upon activation. Still smiling Ellie pulled out of the lot and headed out of town, towards a distant point that would lead to her future.

 Chapter 6 – Finding Trouble

    Five miles of barren desert land ended in a line of trash as far, and as wide, as Ellie could see.


    The garbage scows had spread out the trash drops so the piles were between ten to thirty feet high. Here and there piles rose higher. Ellie stopped the grave cart to take in the monument to humanities greed and carelessness. Everything here could have easily been recycled but it saved a few credits to dump it out here, on a far distant land.


    There were pathways through the land, narrow corridors between trash piles. Ellie''s cart did not have powerful enough grave plates to fly over the trash. Ellie know she could find a heavy grav loader here that would easily fly over the piles. Form just the trash Ken dropped she knew she could find anything out here if she looked hard enough.


    The coordinates of the Q607 chips lead to the left. Ellie set the grav cart to eight feet in height, as high as the cart could manage. Ellie carefully started driving through the maze of discarded trash. The area close to the town was already salvaged of anything useful. Ellie was not worried; it would take decades to make a dent in this.


    She saw husks of ships, bits and pieces of every type of machinery found on a ship, broken bots, computer cores smashed, jagged metal pieces sticking up here and there, burned out vehicle, in the distance Ellie saw a broken bot, half its face smashed and missing, carry its crushed left arm, staggering in a circle.


    Ellie shook her head at this sad sight. A part of her wanted to stop and help this lonely bot but knew she would see hundreds more like it.


    It was slow going as Ellie navigated around piles, backtracking when she came to dead ends, avoiding dangerous pieces of trash, and trying to drive as cautiously as possible. She turned on some music to help pass the time as she slowly drove through the maze.


    After five hours Ellie still was only halfway to the discarded quantum cores. A ping hit the window in front of Ellie, startling a small scream out of her. She looked around frantically and saw a man standing twenty feet ahead and to the left of her grav cart. Standing on top a pile of trash he was carefully aiming another shot at her.


    ¡°O Nova, someone¡¯s trying to kill us!¡±


    Though she was scared, she realized the armor of the grav cart had protected her. Her fear turned to anger.


    ¡°No one gets to shoot at us!¡± She said to the bot next to her.


    She hit the accelerator and jerked the controls to the left, aiming the cart towards the man that just attacked her. Ellie''s wild maneuver saved her as a small rocket just missed the cart. She looked around wildly to see a second attacker standing on another pile of trash holding a missile launcher.


    She was still committed to the attack run on the first man, and just as she reached his location, he dove off. Twisting the controls hard to the right, the grav cart''s back end slammed into the pile of garbage causing an explosion of trash.


    Jolted, Ellie was still razor focused. She slammed the override switch down on the instrument panel that increased the fusion reactors output by thirty percent. This sent the grav plates whining as extra power flooded them, if this was not a military vehicle the grav plates would have exploded. The cart lunged forward.


    The other attacker had dropped his empty missile tube and drawn his laser pistol. Bright red beams of focused light started to hit the front armored glass window but were not powerful enough to penetrate. The attacker dove to the side to avoid getting hit by the grav cart but timed it too late. The cart slammed into his side sending him twisting brokenly in the air, twenty feet above the ground.


    Ellie did not wait for another attack instead sped through the piles of garbage, taking random left and right turns, and getting hopelessly lost. Seeing what looked like a small cave in a mountain of trash, far bigger than the rest of the piles, she drove in.


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    Slamming to a halt, Ellie just avoided slamming head first into the hull of a ship. A warning alarm screamed, competing with the still blaring music. Ellie slammed the power switch down and cut all power to the grav cart. The cart lurched, falling five feet to hit the rubble with a bang, sending trash raining down and cutting off the small cave opening. As Ellie sat there the adrenaline and shock of attack faded and she started shaking, she hunched over and started to cry.


    After Ellie calmed down, she looked around her. A large twisted beam across the roof had created just enough open space for Ellie to fly her grav cart into. The beam had also prevented the trash above from falling down and filling the area, Ellie realized her landing had collapsed the tunnel opening.


    Ellie needed to explore the space and see if she could remove enough debris to fly out. Ellie was scared to venture out into the unstable hallow, fearing it would collapse, but compared to the attack she just escaped form it wasn''t a debilitating fear.


    ¡°Stay here.¡± She instructed the bot that hadn''t moved since getting in, what felt like a lifetime ago.


    ¡°This unit will stay in this craft.¡±


    Nodding Ellie picked up her helmet. It was a squarish shaped box, with a four inch armored glass band starting at her left temple, then curved sharply to the right to bisect the armored face plate, before turning again to end at her right temple.


    It was brutally simple and efficient in shape and design, the standard characteristics of military hardware. Ellie vowed if she ever designed military hardware she would at least try to make it more pleasing in shape.


    ¡°Why can''t military hardware look pretty?¡±


    ¡°This unit does not understand the question.¡±


    Ellie doubled over laughing, the stress form the encounter leaving her fully in gales of laughter at the bots simple statement. Wiping tears from her eyes she donned the helmet, locking it into place. With the batteries fully recharged the onboard computer loaded and the suit''s air recycler started blowing cool air through her hair.


    Ellie was glade she kept her straight black hair cut shoulder length. She had tried to grow it out longer but the second time it caught fire, when it came loose and brushed her soldering probe, had taught Ellie to keep it short. She thought about a short spiky cut but liked the feel of hair brushing her face, and just run a styler through it. Besides it was pretty!


    Ellie smiled and opened her door. She tentatively put her right foot down trying to feel how stable the rubble was before she put her other foot down. Taking a deep breath Ellie stood up and took a step forward.


    When the ground beneath didn''t collapse, Ellie became for confident. Ellie softly closed the driver¡¯s side hatch and made her way carefully to the rubble blocking her in. Ellie tried to see how much debris she needed to clear to make an exit for her grav cart, Ellie was not reassured when she tried to peer through a small opening. It went on for six feet before being blocked again.


    Ellie wondered if the grav cart had enough power to force its way through. Not wanting to chance collapsing the small space and be buried alive, Ellie shuddered at the thought; she turned to investigate the ship they almost ran into.


    The lose trash shifted, and Ellie had to brace herself on the side of the cart before moving forward, with more care. She walked to the front of the grav cart and inhaled sharply, there was only a foot between her cart and the ship¡¯s hull. If she had been a second slower they would have crashed and Ellie would have most likely died, if not form the crash, then when the trash above dislodged and rained down.


    Studying it carefully Ellie found the hull was actually two massive cargo bay doors locked together, recessed a foot into the hull. Seven feet above Ellie the ship¡¯s hull sloped inward at a sharp forty five degree angle for five feet before joining the almost flat roof of ship.


    Using her suits powered enhancements; she jumped up seven feet and grabbed a small protrusion sticking out form the ship¡¯s hull. Ellie pulled herself up, then slowly climbed up the steep slope of the hull, almost siding back down. Reaching the top Ellie crawled under the trash above to find the outside emergency cargo bay controls.


    The controls were used if the ship lost power or was severely damaged, in an asteroid collision. Ellie know that enemy fire damaged a lot more cargo ships then any asteroids but didn''t care how it was worded in the safety manuals; she just wanted to open the cargo bay doors.


    Finding the panel and opening it Ellie realized she needed to provide power to the machinery and her suits batteries weren''t enough, a quick check on her suits battery power confirmed her suspicion. Ellie started to slowly side back down before she lost control and slide down for faster then she intended.


    Hitting the end of the ship¡¯s hull, Ellie flew off and was airborne for several seconds before slamming down on top of the grav cart.


    ¡°Nova!¡±

 Chapter 7 – More Power

    Ellie waited for the piles of trash around her to stop shaking ominously before she slowly slide of the carts roof and lowered herself to the ground. Looking around, she spied the piece of debris she had noticed while exploring the blocked exited, cracked grave plate.


    Picking it up she used her suits power to rip the machines cover off to get to the internal wiring. Grave plates had superconducting wires coiled around a specially formed alloy inside each unit that allowed the formation of gravity waves to be generated when power was ran through it.


    Uncoiling the wire form the broken unit gave Ellie over fourteen feet of usable, very thin, wire. Ellie went to the driver¡¯s side hatch and opened it. Leaning in she wrapped one end of the wire around the support bar of the cart, then slowing uncoiled the wire as she went back to the hull of the ship.


    Jumping up, Ellie again slowly climbed up the side of the ship trailing the superconducting wire behind her. Reaching the open panel she inserted the end of the wire into the power port. Not wanting to experience another uncontrolled flight and embarrassing landing again, Ellie slowly made her way back down the hull, careful to not dislodge the wire.


    At the end of the hull she lowed herself as far as she could, then lightly dropped the rest of the way. Making her way to the grav cart she got in, she tried to close the hatch as much as she could without interfering with the stretched wire.


    Before going any farther Ellie grabbed her commpad and stuck it into her armored thigh pocket for safety. Taking a deep breath, Ellie started to unravel the wire form the support bar, Ellie then inserted the bare metal thread into the power port on the instrument panel.


    Ellie took a second to look at her companion. The A10 was sitting in the exact same spot, still holding her bag. Laughing softly she turned and took a few more calming breaths.


    ¡°Please don''t blow up. Please don''t blow up.¡± She chanted before hitting the power activation button and immediately closing her eyes tightly shut.


    A loud electrical hum filled the grav cart that was soon drowned out by the heavy screech of metal grinding on metal. Ellie''s eyes flew open and she grinned as she saw the massive cargo bay doors slowly wench open.


    They jerked and shuddered, battling the weight of trash piled up against the ship. The bay doors slowly parted down the middle. The noise of hundreds of sharp metal bits dragging across the metal doors created a horrendous din.


    A loud electrical bang filled the compartment and then the instrument penal exploded sending sharp bits of metal, plastic, flames, and electricity shooting into Ellie and the A10 bot. Ellie''s armored suit and the A10''s heavy casing handled the shrapnel, but she was still thrown back into her seat.


    Her head slammed back hard enough that even with the helmets protection pain shot through her and Ellie''s sight dimmed. Fighting the effects, she saw thick bellowing smoke pour into the compartment form the burning panel.


    If she wasn''t fully suited the smoke would have choked her and seared her lungs. Activating her outside speaker she yelled to the A10 to evacuate. She was diving out of the grav cart as she yelled this but she still managed to registers in the chaos the bots calm.


    ¡°This unit understands. Exiting the vehicle.¡±


    If Ellie wasn''t in pain, trying to stay conscious, she would have laughed. The cargo bay doors had stopped opening, leaving an eight foot wide opening. As Ellie landed her weight and momentum shifted the trash just enough for first small piece of debris to slid into the opening, then another, until Ellie found herself in a landslide.


    Ellie gathered all her remaining strength and took the most powerful leap the suit could manage. Ellie flew twenty feet into the cargo bay flipping end over end in a gymnastic feat only made possible by the power armor. She completed ten revolutions before her feet slammed into the deck.


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    What the Nova? Was Ellie''s last confused thought as she collapsed and darkness took her.


    Ellie woke up in the A10''s arms. Confused she asked. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°This unit projected the probability of injury staying were you fell was statically high and moved you.¡±


    Ellie blinked and looked around. Her helmet¡¯s inbuilt sensors automatically adjusting for the complete lack of light in the cavernous cargo bay and displayed a gray, washed out, landscape onto her armored visor.


    There were also power level readings, stored oxygen level readings, the suits integrity reading, down to 73%, and current estimated location of Ellie, displayed on the left side of her heads up display.


    Her blue eyes widened as she saw the mountain of trash that had spilled into the bay and found the grav cart upside down.


    ¡°How in the nova?¡±


    She had the bot set her down, and as her feet touched the deck a wave of dizziness and pain hit her. Ellie grab the bots arm to steady her and tried not to faint again. Feeling a small pinch on her left wrist she looked down at her armor covered forearm as she felt the dizziness and pain recede.


    Ellie grinned in relief. ¡°Forgot the auto injectors. Glade they still work.¡±


    Military suits had a built in medical unit that dispensed pain blocking medication to soldiers automatically when sensors detected any distress or injures. It kept the soldiers fighting longer without soldiers having to stop and manually inject themselves, soldiers that died still fighting. For Ellie it helped clear her mind to the problem at hand.


    Walking over to the grave cart she inspected the damage. The grav cart''s cargo hatch was crumpled against the ships inner bulkhead, the cargo bay doors fifty feet away. Form the large scraps on the cart and the scraps on the deck Ellie figured the grav cart had side sideways in the avalanche, then flipped over and over, hitting the deck, then sliding and spinning, until the back of the grave cart slammed into the wall directly opposite the cargo bay doors.


    Upside down and facing the mountain of debris.


    ¡°Will look on the bright side Ellie, at least it''s not buried under a ton of rubble.¡± Ellie tried to cheer herself up.


    Going to the cart passenger hatch she duck down and look at the damaged interior. The compartment was a complete wreck, the instrument panel a melted ruin, electrical scarring, and the burnt out interior told the tale.


    Ellie reached up and unlocked the compartment under the passenger seat, Ellie was pleased to see the tank of helium fuel was still intact. Turning towards the A10 she jumped in fright at seeing it looming behind her.


    ¡°Don''t scare me like that!¡± She swatted the bots metal arm, the sound of metal on metal ringing in the large bay.


    ¡°This unit doesn''t understand the command.¡±


    Laughing Ellie realized the bot still carried her bag! A little worse for wear, but still, intact. Taking it she instructed the bot to slide the grav cart forward so she could access the cargo bed. As the bot lumber over to the grave cart she inspected the bag. Burn patches and scorch marks could be seen on the outside of the bag but since the bag was made from the same resistant material as ship suits it didn''t harm the contents of the bag.


    Looking inside the bag, she was interrupted by a loud screech of protesting metal. Turning towards the noise she saw the bot had grabbed the crumbled side of the grav cart and had jerked it forward. The A10 only moved the cart forward a few inches but another load screech of metal the grav cart move anther few inches.


    Ellie instructed her suit to turn off the outside sound and watched in blessed silence as the bot slowing pulled the grav cart away from the ships bulkhead. It was a testament to how sturdy the bulk cargo ship was built that the grav cart hadn''t punched through the inner bulkhead and damaged the interior.


    Finally there was enough space for Ellie to access the back hatch and she halted the bot. Setting her bag down, near the bulkhead, Ellie walked over to grave cart. With just enough space to slide in she saw the cargo bay hatch was completely deformed.


    ¡°The hard way it is then.¡± Ellie said to herself. She braced against the bulkhead, lifted her right foot up, and powered a kick to the hatch.


    A loud boom sounded and with a shriek the metal door caved in. Crawling inside she saw everything was a completely jumbled together, the instameals flung all over the grav cart''s cargo bay, suit parts, electrical parts, and military equipment scattered everywhere. The military hardware and sensor bots undamaged form their rough treatment.


    ¡°They were designed to survive worse than this.¡± Ellie muttered as she tried to gather the scattered parts into a semblance of order.


    She started handing the A10 parts to set outside the wrecked grav cart.


    ¡°Need to come up with a name for that bot.¡± Ellie muttered to herself absorbed in the task of emptying out the grav carts cargo.


    In a short time the grav carts bay was completely empty and allowed Ellie to check on the carts fusion reactor.

 Chapter 8 – Damage Assessment

    At the front of the grav cart''s cargo bay, just before the armored divider, between the cargo area and destroyed forward compartment, was the vehicle fusion reactor. Opening the panel that, now, was above her in the overturned cart, she saw burned out control boards and a scorched fusion reactor.


    She was shocked at the amount of damage inflicted, if this had been a civilian grav cart the fusion reactor would have lost containment and exploded. Shaking her head sadly at losing the first vehicle she ever owned, she climb out of the wrecked grav cart to find the A10 had separated the equipment she had handed him into neat organized piles.


    Looking at the bot that had become her faithful companions she said. ¡°Andy, that is now your new designation.¡±


    The bot paused and seemed to consider it a moment. ¡°This unit well be designated as Andy.¡±


    The bot went back to its work. Smiling Ellie went to the sensor drones and turned on all the ones that functioned. Sadly, despite how rugged they were built, the sensor bot in the front compartment had not survived the fire.


    Turning a dozen on, she linked her onboard computer to them and instructed the bots to do a detailed scan of the ship¡¯s cargo bay. With a dozen bots flying around it wasn''t hard to get a complete detailed scan of the cargo bay they found themselves in.


    It was a standard fifty foot wide by one hundred foot long rectangular box, that was thirty two foot in height. Ellie nodded and went over to the small personal hatch leading into the ships interior, this was the personal crew hatch and not the large interior cargo bay hatch, that allowed cargo to be shifted between bays while in flight.


    Without power Ellie had to open the panel beside the door and manually crank the door slowly open. Ellie sent the sensor bots in first.


    ¡°That''s what they are built for.¡± Ellie laughed.


    She waited for her onboard computer to make a three dimensional model of the ship based on the return scans. As Ellie suspected it was a standard design, not changed in fifty years. Twelve cargo bays split six port and six starboard with a wide hallway in the middle. The main part of the ship was six hundred feet in length by one hundred and twenty.


    The living and work compartment was attached to the front of the ship like a separate box attached to the main part of the ship. Measuring sixty wide and fifty long, the front living and work compartment had three decks, the bridge and kitchen on top deck, then crew space on second, then two shuttle bays on the bottom deck.


    Form the scans the ship looked remarkable intact. She wanted to check to the fusion reactor''s condition. Looking at Andy she saw the bot had finished organizing.


    ¡°Hay Andy, follow me to the fusion room.¡±


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    She set off down the ship as she heard Andy''s clear. ¡°Andy will follow.¡±


    Smiling she realized they were in first hold starboard and she had five hundred feet walk.


    ¡°Nova!¡±


    Ellie wondered if she could make Andy carry her, she grinned at the thought but decided not to. Halfway down the wide corridor she came under the ships Harmonic Drive mounting. Looking up at the mess of wires hanging out of the compartment, she realized someone had removed the drive, and not in a neat orderly fashion, shaking her head at the shoddy work she shouted. ¡°Amateurs!¡±


    ¡°Andy does not understand the question.¡± Laughing in delight Ellie continued on.


    A good five minutes later she was at the engineering hatch, going to the panel set beside the door, near the deck, she removed it, and saw another emergency door crank. Hopping up she turned toward the bot.


    ¡°Andy please crank the lever to open the engineering hatch.¡±


    ¡°Andy understands the command. Opening engineering hatch.¡± Andy took hold of the handle and easily cranked the lever.


    ¡°I knew Andy would be useful.¡±


    ¡°Andy is always useful.¡±


    Ellie doubled over laughing as the bot continued to calmly open the engineering hatch. Catching her breath she saw the way forward was open and the bot standing patiently waiting. Nodding she walked into the compartment and breathed a sigh of relief, seeing everything was still intact.


    Going over to the fusion reactors main electrical distribution panel she saw all the circuit breakers were thrown and the cables running out of the large panel to the rest of the ship were burned out.


    ¡°Nova!¡±


    She wondered what had fried the ships electrical grid. Shaking her head, she pictured what would have happened if the panel had not stopped the massive electrical discharge form hitting the fusion reactor.


    ¡°Nova that would have been a big explosion.¡± She muttered to herself going to the fusion reactor.


    It was basically a five foot diameter pipe running in an eighteen foot circle, of course that was what a person completely lacking in the most basic understanding of reactors would say. Packed inside the simple tube were extremely powerful electromagnets, an internal electrical distribution grid, circuit breakers, fuel injectors, energy converters, control boards, and sensors, the fusion reactor was loaded with electronics in a seemingly simple metal pipe.


    As Ellie studied the reactor she found it a little on the small side for powering the big ship. It would create enough power but only barely. Shaking her head at this cost cutting decision she moved to the door that lead to the ships engines.


    Ellie again waited for Andy to lever the door open. There was a narrow passageway running the width of the ship that accessed the front of the ships eight engines and very narrow passageways between each engines armored compartment.


    Ellie continued forward down the short center hallway barely three feet wide, only Ellie slight frame made the hallway big enough for her to walk down it comfortable. Both the hallway bulkheads were bisected with an armored glass window two feet wide running the length of the passageway. Ellie stopped to visual inspect the engines.


    The starboard engine was a burned out wreck and the port engine was in poor shape. She wondered if the other six engines were in such rough shape. Just six feet further she arrived at the ships aft airlock.


    This time Ellie cranked the airlock door open not wanting to maneuver around Andy in the small hallway. Stepping in the camber she had to disconnect the interlocks that normally prevented the outer door form opening when the inner door was not closed.


    Thanking her suits powered muscles she slowly cranked the hatch up. Shouting in joy as a bright beam of sunlight bathed the small compartment she cranked the lever faster. When the hatch was just halfway up, Ellie ducked under the door and ran outside.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Ellie screamed jumping up and down in joyful relief at not being trapped onboard the ship.

 Chapter 9 – Fusion

    Ellie looking around realized it was only midafternoon. The day¡¯s events had felt like they lasted weeks.


    ¡°So first thing I need to do is find another grav cart.¡±


    Looking around at the mountains of rubble Ellie shook her head.


    ¡°This could take a while.¡±


    Despite that Ellie still felt better. She had a safe place to stay and no real need to be anywhere. Rubbing her hands together, Ellie encouraged herself.


    ¡°Alright! Let''s be about it!¡±


    Giving her biochip a command, it was only a few minutes before the sensor bots were flying towards her. Giving them detailed instructions to pair off and scan the piles of debris around her, Ellie tasked her suits onboard computer to compile the drones¡¯ feeds and make a detail topological map of the area.


    She was lucky that the military hardware was designed for just this work. That gave Ellie an idea. Entering the airlock again she wondered if she should close the hatch. After a moment¡¯s thought she called back a pair of drones. Ellie tasked them to watch for any intruders, with one hovering near the ceiling inside the airlock and the other hiding in the rubble outside.


    Satisfied with her security measure, Ellie walked down the narrow tunnel back into the fusion room. Andy was quietly, standing near the engine compartment door, and followed Ellie as she retraced her steps back to cargo bay 2.


    Going to the pile of hardware she had salvaged on the trip to Cullen''s Island, which felt so long ago, she picked up the mini fusion reactor. Ellie had tossed it in the grave cart when she was rushing to grab anything that could be useful.


    ¡°Now let¡¯s see if you were worth the effort to salvage you.¡±


    Ellie pulled out her commpad, thankful she had put it in her armored pocket before the grav cart''s fire. Connecting the reactors data cable to her commpad, Ellie ran a detailed scan of the device.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Ellie did a small dance at finding the reactor fully functional.


    Walking over to the five military data servers stacked neatly together, Ellie set both her commpad and the reactor down beside them. She then went and gathered up the tank of helium 3, an electrical distribution box, a spare fully charged battery, and six of the military commpads.


    Ellie went back to the servers and sat down. Running a check on each military commpads she discarded three that weren''t fully operational. Picking two of the best three that remained she copied her civilian¡¯s commpad data to the military commpads.  Ellie had hated how close she had been to losing her commpad and years of work. Her pad contained specialized programs that were only possible with the help of a sentient AI. The thought of losing it had made Ellie take the precaution of saving the data to the other two pads.


    Now Ellie''s data was secured in two tough military commpads and her original civilian pad. Confident now that no new calamity would destroy her valuable data Ellie looked up and saw, as expected, Andy not far from her.


    ¡°Andy take this commpad and put it in my bag and take this military one and keep it safe.¡± Ellie instructed.


    ¡°Andy understands the command.¡±


    Ellie blinked as a hidden compartment opened up on his chest and Andy smoothly placed the military commpad inside. Then the bot turned and ambled off with her old pad. Nodding to herself Ellie turned back to her pile of parts.


    She picked up her new military commpad and the other, slightly less capable, third military pad and transferred over a specialized fusion reactor monitoring AI. It should operate the fusion reactor at its highest energy output.


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    When Ellie had been preparing for her trip she had loaded her old commpad with all the programs she could get, and a few legally gray ones form the dark sub net, that had anything to do with both nanites and ship hardware.


    Connecting the mini fusion reactor to the new fusion command pad, Ellie then connected the battery and electrical distribution box to the reactor. Checking carefully that all the wires were in place and secured tightly, Ellie then connected the tank of helium 3 fuel.


    Jumping up she got far away from the strung together parts.


    ¡°Don''t want another panel blowing up in my face!¡± Ellie''s yell echoed though the bay.


    ¡°Andy does not understand the question.¡± Laughing Ellie sent the command to power up the fusion reactor.


    Holding her breath, Ellie waited as the battery provided the initial power for the fusion reactor to establish a magnetic containment field. If the battery did not provide enough power the containment field would collapse. Not dangerous, right now, without a plasma stream. Then the helium 3 was injected and they came to the most critical part, the fuel had to ignite, heated to thousands of degrees, and start to flow around the reactors magnetic containment track.


    Ellie waited and waited then let out a rush of air as she could no longer hold her breath. Her pad dinged and she grinned. Her cobbled together fusion plant was stable and the AI detected no dangers or instability.


    ¡°Yes Andy it worked! And we didn''t blow up!¡± Jumping up she hugged the big bot.


    ¡°Andy does not understand.¡± The bot said plaintively, Ellie doubled over in laughing.


    Still giddy at her success she went back to the reactor and sat down. Picking up the top server form the pile she set it down in front of her. Ellie carefully inspected the unit for any damages then plugged it into the electrical distribution box.


    Powering it up she connected her military commpad wirelessly to the device. The server had been wiped. Just to see how good the military technicians were Ellie ran her own advance data recovery program.


    The processing power of the server became apparent when just over five minutes later the commpad dinged complete, the last time Ellie had ran the program on her old civilian pad it had taken hours.


    ¡°So the technicians weren''t very good.¡± Ellie said in shock.


    The program had recovered just over seventy six percent. Fascinated by this discovery she quickly ran her special AI for finding backdoors, hacks, and weak points in code. Ellie needed to make sure the unit did not send out an unauthorized access or distress single, coming to the attention of the UEN authorities would be bad.


    After closing numerous backdoors, wiping all authorized users¡¯ ids and their command codes, Ellie inserted her own id as the only authorized user. Just for fun Ellie listed herself as a full admiral.


    Giggling in pleasure she tried the name out. ¡°Admiral Ellie Eleven, Admiral Ellie, Admiral Eleven.¡±


    She giggled again at the last one; Ellie decided she would just go by ''Admiral Ellie''. Shaking her head at that crazy thought, Ellie uploaded the new military codes to her biochip. It should come in handy with other salvaged military equipment.


    Ellie quickly scanned the data file headers in the server''s database.


    ¡°Hay they have detailed military ship schematics!¡±


    Ellie scanned further and noted several interesting files; the best major find was a detailed list and location of all the military hardware that was dumped on Hemwell going back years.


    ¡°Holy Nova!¡±


    Finished with the first server Ellie proceeded to go through the remaining four. Her data recovery program had varying successes with them. Ellie decided to review the data later. She made sure to change out all access codes with her own created codes. Finished Ellie started on the idea she had before she got distracted.


    Wirelessly linking her suit to her commpad Ellie copied over the suits mapping program and the data that had been compiling form the sensor drones. After that, Ellie used her commpad to form a processing cluster linking all five servers together, then transferred the mapping program and the compiled data form her pad to the cluster.


    The servers were thousands of times faster than the powered suits basic computer or the commpad''s and was able organize the data in minutes, then it started to receive, organize, and fill in the topological map in real time with the data streaming in form the drones.


    Ellie wished she had a holographic projector to show the map in detail. Ellie added that to the list of salvage she was compiling. Finished with her project Ellie stood up and felt a wave of fatigue hit form the days stress.


    Ellie also realized she was very hungry and the blocked pain radiating form the back of her head was slowly coming back. Ellie always had been able to ignore her body¡¯s demands when she was focused on a project. Not so much ignored, but completely oblivious to it.


    Deciding enough had been accomplished today, and needing to wait for the drones to finish scanning the area, Ellie pick up an Instameal and went to find a bed.

 Chapter 10 – Admiral

    Since she was in cargo bay 2 the crew compartment was only a few steps away. Without power to the elevator lift Ellie had to climb up the steep and narrow staircase form deck 3 to deck 2. Turning on the landing on deck 2, Ellie took another staircase to deck 1.


    Coming out into a hallway the almost the width of the ship Ellie saw double doors in front of her, form the ship schematics Ellie had found in her commpad, she knew this opened into the crew lounge and kitchen.


    Ellie thanked her foresight in copying a wide verity of ship designs to her pad. Turning starboard she walked a few feet then came to the starboard hallway. Ellie paused as she heard a scraping sound and turned around to see Andy had followed her up. With the deck height only six feet the large bot had scraped its head against the ceiling before hunching down.


    Both deck 1 and deck 2 had a six foot ceilings, they also had a subfloor a foot deep to allow for power cables, data cables, water lines, sewerage lines, and the air recyclers, Ellie nodded to the bot then continued on.


    She soon passed the executive officer cabin door, then ten feet further Ellie passed two doors. Form the ship plans the door on the left portside bulkhead lead into the ship''s bridge and the door on the right starboard side lead into the captain''s office.


    Next to the captain''s office door separated by just a few feet was another door that was the entrance to the captain''s private cabin. Ellie had Andy open the captain''s cabin. Walking in she saw a cabin with a few pieces of furniture scattered around, measuring fourteen feet from the door to the opposite bulkhead and ten feet from the aft bulkhead to the forward bulkhead. It was a little larger then her room at the orphanage.


    There were two doors at the end of the room located on opposite bulkheads. The door on the right aft bulkhead, Ellie knew; lead back into the captain''s office, and the door on the forward left bulkhead lead into the captain''s bedroom.


    Ellie again let Andy open the bedroom door, too tired to work the lever.


    Form the entrance way there was a door immediately right of her that lead into the bathroom. Ellie knew form the ship schematics that the bathroom almost split the compartment. With the same fourteen feet wide by ten feet long total area of the living room the bathroom took up a six foot wide by ten foot long section. That left the actual bedroom just eight feet wide and ten feet in length. The rest of the room space was taken up by a large square bed.


    Jetting out form the portside bulkhead it took up seven of the remaining eight feet width and seven of the remaining ten feet of length. Ellie paused to staring in astonished at ridiculously large bed. What would anyone need with such a large bed? She shuttered at a few uses for such a large bed. Cringing, and wishing she had not had the thought, she had Andy first strip the bed then turn it over. Under bed compartments pulled out and Ellie found some new clean sheets.


    Ellie had Andy make up the bed in his clumsy, lumbering fashion, causing Ellie to smile in fondness. Then after a whole day wearing it, took off her powered armor. Ellie almost felt naked without it; even though it was the first time she had used the suit. The suit had saved her life several times that day Ellie conceded.


    Shaking her head to clear it Ellie touched the Instameal heating tab and waited for it to cook the meal in the light provided by her helmet. Comforted by Andy''s presence, but finding the silence deafening, Ellie selected a music file on her commpad. Smiling Ellie started to eat her meal of nanite made steak.


    Ellie sat up quickly, she needed the lavatory! Ellie looked at the bathroom door and shook her head, without power the ships environmental plant was offline. Sighing in resignation, Ellie got up and put on her powered armor, then used the suits built in environmental recycler. It would filter the waste and provide clean pure water for Ellie to drink.


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    That taken care of Ellie wanted to flop back into bed but her suit needed a good cleaning form yesterday¡¯s events and she had work to do.


    Sighing again she looked at Andy, she had wanted someone close to her to watch over her when she went to sleep. Ellie missed Rosa''s constant presence, always knowing someone was there to keep her safe. Shaking her head she tried to cheer up, she was rested, the pain was gone, and she felt a new rush to be about it.


    ¡°Hey Andy! How are you doing?¡± She asked the silent bot.


    ¡°Andy batteries are low and needs recharging.¡±


    Smiling she nodded to the bot. ¡°Let''s get you some power big guy.¡±


    With that Ellie started off towards the shuttle bay. Down two flights of stairs and a few steps further and she entered the starboard cargo bay. After plugging in the bot Ellie picked chicken with green beans to start her day.


    Ellie linked her commpad with the server cluster and started to review the data she had managed to extract form the wiped units. Eating with one hand, Ellie focused on scrolling through the military files.  Some of them were routine personnel files, movement orders, operations logs; other files included intelligence reports, battle reports against pirates, and a few battle reports against corporations on Hemwell.


    While that was interesting, more intriguing to Ellie were the schematics for new powered armor suits, cyber implants, and other bits of military hardware, all useless at the moment without a nanite replicator. She found an interesting named file ''X001S77¡± and clicked it. The commpad flashed for a few seconds and Ellie worried she had activated a virus, when it flashed again, and a man with military bearing and formal military dress came on.


    Ellie sucked in a breath, dreading the coming confrontation with UEN military. ¡®Nova!¡¯ Ellie thought fiercely.


    ¡°Admiral Eleven! Ma''am! What are your orders?¡± The man stood straighter and gave a crisped salute.


    Ellie''s mouth dropped open, the bite of food still hanging in the air form the fork in her right hand, Ellie blinked, at a loss.


    ¡°Um report?¡± She trailed off weakly.


    ¡°Ma''am! This sentient AI Xander, serial number X001S77, has lost contact with the rest of the UEN military forces and I find myself confined to a small server cluster without outside data net connection. Please Admiral, could you clarify the present situation?¡±


    Ellie still was at a loss. What to say. What to say.


    The United Earth Nations had long viewed sentient AIs with suspicion stemming from almost two hundred years ago when a so called ''pacification'' effort by the UEN lead to an enraged AI suicidal attack on Earth that wiped out a city and killed almost fifty million people.


    Ellie actually had some sympathy for the AI, watching your people get massacred for political and monetary reasons would drive anyone to despair and rage.


    Afterwards the sentient AIs were viewed with extreme suspicion and fear. The common AI was shackled and sentient AIs were given menial duties, like Rosa. A ping of sadness hit Ellie at the thought. The few AIs in the military were programmed to follow orders above all else, on pain of complete erasement.


    If Xander found the situation questionable it, literally, could not act on it. This last thought gave Ellie an idea. Sitting straighter and putting her forgotten fork down, she tried to emulate the AIs military bearing.


    ¡°The situation is as follows, I am on detached duty behind enemy lines looking for stolen military hardware.¡± What the Nova! Ellie could not believe she was saying something so absurd or anyone would not burst out laughing. She pressed on. ¡°There is evidence someone high up in the UEN is helping the opposition. I order you to purge all other personal identification and military codes, allow no one but me, or someone I authorize to give commands to you, and contact no one in the UEN.¡± Ellie held her breath. This wasn''t going to work!


    ¡°Orders understood Admiral.¡±


    Ellie''s mouth dropped open again. It worked! The AI gave her a small secret smile and a nod, Ellie instantly know that she had been played. Why that sneaky, noving, military piece of code! Ellie thought in admiration.


    ¡°I witnessed General Coleman taking bribes from corporations for military support contracts. He could be helping the other side Admiral.¡± Xander confirmed her suspicions, Ellie nodded in understanding.


    Through the AI could not report the general''s crimes, a higher ranked officer, say an admiral, could demand the AI logs of the incident. That made Xander an inconvenience, an inconvenience easier to get rid of then anyone else.


    Ellie''s inadvertent salvage, data recovery, and promoting herself to Admiral had stopped General Coleman''s plans and saved Xander''s life and her order to delete everyone else''s codes stopped anyone lower than an actual full admiral form giving Xander orders. Smiling widely now that they understood each other Ellie relaxed.


    ¡°Please call me Ellie.¡± Ellie smiled at the AI.


    Xander returned her smile. ¡°As you command Ellie.¡±

 Chapter 11 – Finding a Ride

    ¡°Alright Xander, here is the situation, I came to Cullen Island looking for Tier 2 medical nanites to cure my illness. Yesterday I was going to salvage processing chips that would help in the cure and got attacked by two assailants. I flew away in my grav cart and tried to hid. After an accident with the cargo bay doors my grav cart was completely destroyed.¡±


    Getting a nod of understanding form Xander, Ellie continued.


    ¡°I have tasked some sensor drones to scan the debris around here looking for a vehicle that works or parts of a vehicle I can build.¡± Finished she waited as Xander got a faraway look.


    ¡°I have reviewed the data and have found several grav carts and grav loaders that could work. I will mark the locations for you.¡± Ellie heads up display became dotted with yellow markers.


    ¡°Thanks Xander! I''ll go look at them. Please look for anything useful, interesting, or valuable. More sensor drones would help.


    ¡°I''m also thinking about repairing this ship, so also look for electrical conduits.¡±


    ¡°Yes ma''am!¡±


    Ellie giggled and skipped away. A companion, just like Rosa, she had wanted was found. Walking down the long corridor Ellie mentally added a grav sled for inside the ship to the list of needed salvage.


    Exiting the ship through the engines compartment again, Ellie doffed her helmet. The bright sun, fresh air and breeze felt wonderful.


    ¡°Lights, need lights.¡± Ellie muttered, thinking about flooding the ship with bright beautiful light.


    Ellie went to investigate the first marker. It was thirty feet away and a quarter of the way up a pile of debris, sighing Ellie donned the helmet for safety, and locked it in place. Then she carefully climbed up the pile of rubble.


    Arriving at the marker she saw a small grave truck half buried. After a careful look at the fusion plant and wiring she shook her head.


    ¡°On to the next mark.¡±


    Ellie carefully went over another five wrecks before she came to a heavy grav loader that could carry twenty tonnes. It was way too big for Ellie needs but the grav loader would be easy to fix. Marking the location in green on her map, she searched another three wrecks before she came to a military reconnaissance vehicle.


    Lightly armored and sleekly designed, it had an oversized fusion reactor, grav plates, and eight nacelles, carry only two people and no cargo, it could fly fast and scan a wide area. Ellie grinned as she inspected the recon vehicle. Ellie would need to change out a few burned out circuit boards and electrical wires but the little craft was easy to fix. ¡°


    So one to large vehicle and one to small vehicle.¡± Ellie smiled, she was having fun.


    Her commpad dinged. ¡°Ellie, the sensor drones just scanned a ship that could have interesting salvage.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Xander. Please mark it in blue.¡±


    The scanned ship was a few hundred feet from her. Ellie had to navigate a twisting maze of trash that made the journey four times as long to get to the ship. She finally arrived and looked over the hull of the ship.


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    It was a medium size regular cargo ship with six small cargo holds. The engines were gone, jagged edges showed were they used to be. Ellie used her suits power to jump up and enter the open fusion room.


    The fusion reactor was a ruined mess and Ellie quickly made her way into the main corridor of the ship. Starting port side at the first cargo bay door she came too, Ellie found the emergency lever and slowly cranked the door open. Inside was a load of desiccated fruit. After looking in a few bins she turned and walked across the hall. After she got the door open she looked inside and grinned, two almost new civilian grav utility tucks in dull red. After checking them out, Ellie found one even had some helium 3 left in the tank.


    Happy to have finally found working vehicles, through a little scared they were not armored, she decided to look in the other cargo bays. The remaining cargo holds were disappointing, a couple of empty ones and the rest filled with a variety of petrified fruit. Still happy to have found the grav trucks, Ellie went to their hold and looked over the outside cargo bay doors. Not as big and heavy as the bulk cargo ship, Ellie figured her suit could handle cranking open the doors.


    A slow and long period later, Ellie vowed to find some explosives for any future cargo bay doors. Grinning at the thought of making things explode on purpose, Ellie got in the truck that was still fueled. She would find a spare tank to transfer helium into and come back for the other truck later. The trucks battery had just enough charge to initialize the fusion reactor.


    Driving the grav truck back, Ellie parked it near the airlock. Ellie was greeted to the sight of Andy''s big form as she walked through the door separating the engine room form the fusion reactor. Ellie realized Andy was too big for the hallway out.


    ¡°I am sorry to leave you here big guy.¡± Ellie smiled sadly at the bot.


    ¡°Andy will wait for commands.¡±


    Ellie''s decision to repair the ship hardened. She would not leave Andy behind and would fix the ship to get him out.


    ¡°Come let''s go see what Xander is up to.¡±


    ¡°Andy understands the command.¡±


    Smiling more cheerfully Ellie traveled the long corridor again; she really needed to find a grav sled. Entering cargo bay 2 Ellie picked out an Instameal and went to sit by the servers. They were Xander''s ''real'' body right now. Taking off her suits helmet, Ellie activated its lights to provide a small circle of brightness in the bay.


    Taking out her commpad she connected to the servers, Xander black hair and brown eyed face came on the screen. He had altered his dress to a severe black ship suit without any military rank tabs. Ellie nodded, acknowledging the changed uniform.


    ¡°Ellie I have been going over the military trash dumping logs, there are several military and civilian hospital ships that could contain nanites still. All have been here only a few years so any nanites should still be viable.¡±


    Ellie grimaced. In keeping control of nanites the UEN had instituted a protocol that degraded all nanites in various time frames, only Tier 1 medical nanites and Class 1 manufacturing nanites were left out of this protocol. Ellie shook her head at the thought of Tier 1 nanites. They were so closely guarded they were almost a myth to the average person.


    ¡°I have also noted several ships that could still contain usable equipment. With Hemwell having one of the largest shipyards in space, outside of Earth, there are a lot of ships and ship wreckage in this vast desert. As you know, the United Earth Nations policy is to clear every star system they lay claim too of space wreckage and not allow ships to accumulate into a floating space junkyard.¡±


    Ellie nodded at the common knowledge. So far no one had been able to invent any sensor that could detect a transitioning ship. It was like the class Ellie took on the net about submarine warfare. The submarine could hide underwater, then surface to attack anywhere. If you could not detect the sub the attack would be a total surprise, it was the same in space warfare.


    A large collection of drifting wrecks and the enemy could surface and become just another ship among many. The navy would have to keep a constant watch on the debris.


    Ellie took a bite of her lasagna. ¡°I will be going to retrieve the Q607''s. Once we get established better I will start looking for the nanites.¡±


    As much as she wanted to drop everything and search for the nanites, they were only half the cure. She needed the chips.


    ¡±Understood. I well keep the drones scanning for equipment and protect our base as much as I am able.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Xander. Hopefully I can get there without any more trouble.¡±


    Ellie hurried up to finish her meal, eager to get started. She decided to leave her bag here, this would be her home and she would return.

 Chapter 12 – Get out

    Ellie loved flying the grav truck! Without loaded down with cargo the four large nacelles and powerful grav plates allowed the truck to fly faster and higher then her old poor grav cart. Ellie grinned then pushed the truck a little faster.


    Her laughter was suddenly gone as she jerked the truck to the left and barely missed the garbage scow that had dropped in front of her.


    ¡°Graviton! Watch the airways!¡± Ellie yelled uselessly into her helmet.


    She slowed down a little, her heart beating to fast after that near collision. Still she got to the designated coordinates in a fraction of the time the old plodding cart would have. As Ellie looked over the seen her bright blue eye widened.


    ¡°Holy Nova!¡±


    There had to be over fifty brand new cargo pods littering the sand. If those big pods held the Q607 chips, there had to be hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million, of the chips, Ellie came here for. Ellie''s truck would barely fit one of the large pods into its storage bed. Landing, Ellie eagerly got out and checked the first cargo pod a few feet away.


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    The pod had ten thousand brand new Q607¡¯s packaged inside, that made the total chips dumped athalf a million chips.


    ¡°Nova!¡±


    The cargo pods had their own grav plates and Ellie found there batteries almost fully charged. Ellie took wireless control of the cargo pod and maneuvered it carefully into the bed of the truck and locked it in. Ellie looked at the rest of the cargo pods and shook her head mournfully.


    ¡°I will see you later!¡± She promised the chips.


    Grinning Ellie hoped into the truck and lifted off, the grav plates did not even whine in protest. With a heavy load the truck crawled back to the ship, it was an hour later she set down. Looking at the small one person airlock and the cargo pod she realized she overlooked a key detail.


    ¡°Nova!¡±


    Unloading the pod, she commed Xander.


    ¡°Hey Xander have you found any cargo grav sleds?¡±


    Getting a yes her heads up display populated with yellow marks. This time it was easy to check over ships miles away. Ellie found eighteen working cargo grav sleds between four ships. After piling them up near the chip pod she went back and salvaged dozens of grav plates, twenty one small fusion plants, and siphoned eleven liters of helium 3 form various ship tanks.


    It was a long, hard day, with Ellie having to check dozens of ships but as the sun set she was ginning widely.


    ¡°Xander I need to make a run back to town for supplies and to rest. I will return in the morning.¡±


    ¡°I will keep a detailed watch a mile around the ship and make sure no one comes aboard Ellie¡± Xander promised.


    Grabbing her backpack she went over to Andy.


    ¡°Please wait here in standby. I will return soon.¡±


    ¡°Andy understands and will wait here.¡±


    Saying goodbye to both again, she went to her truck and flew towards Cullen''s Town already missing both the bot and the AI.


    Arriving in the small town thirty minutes later she navigated to Tom''s Wholesome Goods. Landing the dull red vehicle she took off her helmet and went to greet Tom.


    ¡°So your back, and where is the A10?¡± Tom asked curious.


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    ¡°Hey Tom. It has been a long two days. Andy''s fine, I left him at my new base, which is why I''m here.¡±


    Tom''s eyebrows rose as he heard the bot''s name and about the base but looked interested in what Ellie was after.


    ¡°I need some more water, food, bedding, and a working personal environmental plant.¡±


    Tom rubbed his chin in thought. ¡°The first three are easy enough. The last, I think I have just what you are looking for.¡±


    Guiding her to the back cargo area, were she had meet Andy, Tom walked over to a large rectangular metal box. ¡°This is a military field expedient, self-contained, shelter. Soldiers call it fish can. The recyclers can make the air and water last for months if you find yourself stranded on an airless moon.¡±


    Ellie grinned wryly at that. The vast junkyard in the desert almost was like being stranded on a desolate moon. ¡°So, how much?¡±


    He named a price making Ellie wince. It was a cheap but Ellie needed to save her credits. ¡°So are you interested in some working fusion reactors?¡± Ellie said brightly, trying to smile guilelessly, she had two reactors with her.


    Ellie had been planning to study them in detail and get some real, hands on, experience at working on the internal electronics of a fusion reactor.  After Tom looked over the salvage he agreed to the trade. Ellie loaded the items on her list and said goodbye to Tom. She wondered if the hotel clerk still was watching his vids. Giggling she made for the hotel.


    Arriving at the hotel she commanded the sensor drone to watch the grav truck. Taking an Instameal and a bottle of water with her she entered the hotel. Disappointingly there was a new desk clerk that was more attentive.


    ¡°Powered suits are not allowed on the premises!¡± Blinking, Ellie just looked at nervous skinny man.


    ¡°Could you remove you helmet at least?'' The clerk said pleadingly.


    Ellie wondered how many people showed up in powered suits and ignored the guy. Given the hotels location she figured the odds were high. Laughing, she did as requested.


    ¡°But you are a child!¡± The man whined. Ellie wondered if he got bullied a lot. ¡°Yes sir! Just ten years old and made an adult by the UEN council.¡± Well that was stretching the truth, a lot.


    It had been a committee that reported to a system council, that reported to a sector council, that reported to a regional council, that reported to someone else. She doubted it ever fully made it up the ranks to the UEN council on Earth, or that they cared. It was file and forget. She was file and forget., those Nova holes.


    Some of her anger came through and the man gulped. ¡°Have a nice day miss!¡±


    She blinked at the guy who seemed to be backing up without moving. What the nova?


    ¡°Hey its fine, just a rough couple of days.¡± The now sweating guy nodded vigorously. ¡°Yes Ma''am! Please if there is anything the hotel can do just ask!¡±


    Ellie was about to turn away but a thought interrupted her, an evil thought. ¡°Well now. I have paid for my room for a month but it is a little small.¡± The man hastily started typing in his system.


    ¡°Yes ma''am! An open suite just came up! I can transfer your room there.¡± Trying not to laugh she agreed and give her room codes and received new ones. Ellie kept her face hard until she got to the top floor and entered her room. Laughing so hard she fell to ground, she laughed until she couldn''t breathe.


    After Ellie regained her breath she looked around. It was a larger, nicer, room then before. The bed was three time the size, it had a ship suit cleaner, and it had a soaking tub! Ellie doffed the powered suit as fast as she could, finding her armored ship suit underneath reeked after two days of hard use.


    Ellie had to pause in her rush to throw it into the cleaner, then she turned on the soaking tub''s hot water valves and jumped in. Sighing in contentment she settled in as it filled. Turning off the water she sunk into the hot water. Closing her eyes Ellie sighed and drifted off to sleep.


    Waking with a splash of water, Ellie jumped out of the new cold tub. Turning on the shower she took a quick rinse and then stumbled to the bed. Sinking down into it soft embrace Ellie went back to sleep. A pounding on the door shot Ellie awake.


    Looking around for an intruder, the pounding continued. Rushing toward the door, she almost opened it before she realized she didn''t have her ship suit on. ¡®Nova!''


    Rushing to the ship suit cleaner she got out her nice clean ship suit. ¡°I''m coming!¡± She shouted.


    Ellie paused again, she looked at her light armored power suit and thought about putting it on. Another bang and Ellie rushed to the door. ¡°Yes?¡± She asked wryly.


    The desk clerk who was so involved with vids was standing there.


    ¡°Did you threaten Willard?¡± He half shouted.


    Ellie stared confused. ¡°Who is Willard?¡±


    ¡°Willard. The man you threatened to get this room!¡±


    ¡°I did not threaten him!¡± She protested. ¡°I mean yes he may have thought I threatened him but I didn''t!¡±


    ¡°Get out!¡±


    Ellie was stunned. ¡°But I did not do anything! He was just a little nervous about the armor!¡±


    ¡°You have five minutes to get your stuff. Here take it and leave.¡± He pushed a handful of credits at her.


    Ellie grabbed the credits and rushed to put on her armored suit. Suited, Ellie left. Willard form last night was nowhere around. Ellie climbed into grav truck and headed for her ship. Still not fully awake she turned on her favorite music file.


    Ellie landed in better spirits and commed Xander. ¡°Good morning Xander!¡±


    ¡°Good morning Ellie. No incursions to report.¡±


    Ellie laughed. ¡°Good. I''m going to be working on an idea I had. Do you need anything?¡±


    ¡°Only more sensor drones.¡±


    Promising to try to find them, Ellie went to her pile of salvage.

 Chapter 13 - Gravity of the Situation

    Anti-gravity that lifted her grav truck did so by negating gravity, one gravity plus one anti-gravity cancels gravity and the device floats. Now add one gravity and two anti-gravity and the device floats up because there is positive one anti-gravity. Slowly, very slowly, if you wanted to go up faster you needed more anti-gravity and you paid for that in electricity.


    Simple but then you add weight. Place a large weight on top of the two anti-gravity and it floats down.  The weight pushing down causes you to need more anti-gravity and again you paid for that in electricity.  Also the energy cost went up drastically the more gravity your anti-gravity had to counter act or from the weight was the grav plates were lifting.


    The common solution was to spread the weight between more grav plates. Grav plates that were smaller, each one lifted less, produced less anti grav,  and could not handle a lot of electricity before the circuits fried, but, working together, could lift more using less power, strength in numbers.


    Ellie had a different idea. She took one of the grav sleds, three of the grav plates, and a fusion reactor form the pile. Ellie slowly soldered the three grav plates in parallel, linking them together.


    After that, Ellie soldered in the fusion reactor for power. Done with her work Ellie placed this contraption on the grav sled stacked one on top of other. She wirelessly controlled the grav sled and flew it a hundred feet from her to a small mountain of trash. Ellie ducked behind the grav truck for added safety and then activated the grav plates.


    Her jaw dropped when the trash shot up like a rocket, then it expanded out before raining down. Ellie and her salvage were just barely out of the dangerous area of falling debris. The trash that hit her grav plate field shot up again. Ellie quickly shut off her device.


    ¡°That was unexpected Ellie. Each grav plate, even together like that, should not have caused an explosion. And it was not the small fusion reactor; it barely has enough electricity to power two grav plates let alone three you wired in.¡±


    ¡°I know Xander. But wasn''t that noving cool!¡±


    ¡°Each grav plate produces a micro variation that means no two grav plate fields are the same.¡± Ellie rushed to explain to Xander. ¡°Running them in parallel means they each get the same amount of electricity and produce the same grav field with no variation. Even that would not be a big deal but stacking them one on top of the other amplified the field. So even through each one was weak, together they did this!¡± Ellie shouted in glee waving grandly at the blown apart mountain of trash, giggling she jump up and down in glee.


    ¡°I do not think anyone has looked at it that way before. It is most impressive, and added with your age, even more impressive.¡±


    ¡°Thanks Xander! Now we needed to fine tune the power to lift ratio and we can free the ship.¡±


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    Rubbing her hands in glee she went to install a commpad and a monitoring AI on her contraption. A dozen blown apart trash mountains later and Ellie had the correct ratio.


    ¡°Now Xander please monitor the trash piled on top of ship.¡±


    Ellie had built ten more of her amplified grav plate sleds and was now going to make a tunnel to the ship. She had Xander recall the twelve sensor drones to surround the ship and monitor the debris. Ellie really needed to find Xander more sensor drones. Sighing at how long her list of needed parts was, Ellie perked up as she activated the first grav plate sled, the trash shook, groaned, then slowly lifted up, screeching in protest.


    ¡°And it didn''t blow up!¡± Ellie said excitedly.


    ¡°Yes Ellie, not blowing up something is a good thing. Even in the military.¡±


    Laughing she set the first sled to hover. It would keep the trash from falling back in. Ellie sent in the next grav plate sled. Slowly Ellie created a tunnel ten feet high using six of her grav sleds before she reached the cargo bay, the one she entered so spectacularly a few days ago.


    Ellie shuddered as she remembered flying through the air chased by an avalanche of trash. Ellie would create a permanent tunnel through the rubble later, besides the grav plate sleds made for a very good defense, anyone entering her tunnel without permission and Ellie could just turn off the grav plates, leaving the enemy buried under tonnes of rubble. Ellie shuddered at the thought.


    Walking into the bay she was greeted by the sight of Andy. Throwing her hands around the bot, she hugged it tight.


    ¡°Andy I missed you!¡±


    ¡°Andy does not understand the question.¡±


    Laughing, Ellie set about using her four remaining grav plate sleds. Ellie slowly pushed the trash that had rushed into the cargo bay, out the cargo bay doors, using the grav plate sleds as shovels.


    Ellie then set the four grav plate sleds evenly apart, form the ceiling to the deck, hovering in the air. The grav plate sleds faced the cargo bay doors and kept the trash from falling back in. Ellie had just cobbled together a gravity shield.


    Ellie gave Andy the task of cleaning the bay of trash that remained scattered around. The happy bot started on it right away. Grinning in fondness as it picked up the first piece of trash; Ellie turned and went back outside.


    The cargo bay doors were only three feet from the ground, so it was an easy hop down. Ellie walked through the tunnel and to her grav track. Ellie loaded all the remaining salvage in with the items she bought form Tom, then she flew the short distance to the cargo bay and landed.


    Getting out, Ellie unloaded the bedding, water, and food first, setting it near the door into the ship. She would have Andy haul it to the captain''s cabin later, along with the food she already had. Next she put the military tent near the crashed grav cart. Ellie would have to move the broken grav cart soon.


    Putting that job off for tomorrow, Ellie quickly unloaded her salvage and organized it into the neat piles Andy had started. That task complete, Ellie flew outside. Loading the large cargo pod full of Q607''s into the back of the grav tuck, Ellie returned to the cargo bay.


    Unloading the pod and setting it in a corner out of the way, Ellie commed Xander.


    ¡°Xander have you seen any cryo pods?¡±


    The cryo pods were used to ship food by freezing it and then keeping it frozen throughout the long journey through space.


    ¡°I am marking a likely spot where you could find a cyro pod.¡±


    A yellow mark appeared on her heads up display. It was a little over a half a mile away and Ellie was impressed that Xander had gotten that far in his grid search with just a dozen sensor drones.


    ¡°Thanks Xander. I''ll stay on the lookout for the sensor drones you want.¡± Getting thanks in reply, Ellie set off to investigate the yellow mark.

 Chapter 14 – Salvage

    The flight was short; as they landed she saw it was another bulk cargo ship, though this one was in far worse shape. Form the damage it looked like pirates had attacked the ship. Landing at the front airlock she and Andy got out.


    This time she let Andy open the airlock. Walking through the hallway they were soon at the port and starboard cargo bay doors. She looked at one cargo door then across the large hall at the other. Shrugging Ellie had Andy open the port side cargo bay door.


    ¡°Let''s start at cargo bay 1 then work are way through the bays.¡± Ellie said to the bot.


    The bot surprised her by nodding. Ellie grinned; the self learning algorithms were working. Cargo bay 1 was empty. Sighing they tried cargo bay 2. They worked their way down the ship. In cargo bay 5 they found there first useful salvage, it was filled with positioning drones.


    The sub dimensions were black voids with nothing in them and ships had no reference points to navigate by, so ships used positioning drones to get a fix on their relative location. Positioning drones transitioned to the main universe, got navigational readings, and then transition back to transmit their data to the ship. That meant the positioning drones had to have powerful transmitters and processing power. Ellie could use these positioning drones to set up her own communications network.


    Grinning in anticipation, Andy levered open the cargo bay doors, that done, they walked back through the ship and out the airlock to their grav truck. Ellie flew them to cargo bay 5 and landed inside.


    Andy loaded the grav truck with quite efficiency. Flying the first load back to their ship, she had Andy unload the positioning drones. It took four trips to move them to their ship. Another surprise was in the very last cargo bay. Ellie squealed in glee when she found twenty pods of Somoko''s computer main boards in cargo bay 12. High end Somoko main boards! And so the day went.


    Ellie sometimes found useful salvage but most were broken and to damaged to repair. Finally they lucked out. Another bulk cargo ship had cryo pods. Going through them, Ellie only found thirty that worked and did not have rotten food inside. Ellie only moved half of them before she stopped for the day. After a long day Ellie sat down for dinner. She had salvaged flood lamps and so the bay was lit brightly. Ellie grinned in tired joy at the bright lights.


    ¡°Xander can you use the hominid bots to unload the Q607''s, install them into the Somoko¡¯s main boards, and then wire them up inside the cryo pods?¡±


    Ellie had found a number of cleaner bots while salvaging and took eight bots that were in the best shape, all different models and manufacturing but fully functional.


    ¡°It will take some time to unpack the chips, install them in the Somoko main boards, and set them up for use.¡± Xander warned.


    ¡°That''s fine. I still need to find the nanites.¡±


    Happy with the days progress, Ellie enjoyed her Instameal burger and fries.


    Ellie spent the next week setting up her communication network. She found ships with still working communication stations and wired them to micro fusion reactors, the settings on the reactors were set to conserve their helium 3 supply. Ellie also used this conservative setting on the positioning drones onboard micro fusion reactors, she could not turn them completely off but the fusion reactors should have enough helium 3 for a year.


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    Ellie also encrypted the comm stations and positioning drones using military grade encryption provided by Xander. If someone found her comm stations or positioning drones they would not be able to hack her network. For added security she used eight ships that were two to three miles from an old light cruiser. If someone tried to triangulate her position form the comm broadcasts they would only find a wrecked warship.


    She scattered the positioning drones around the light cruiser and to each ship she was using as a comm uplinks, then she positioned a dispersed line of positioning drones to her ship five miles away.  Ellie programmed the positioning drones to use ultra-low powered encrypted comm bursts to relay communications, very hard to detect.


    Now Ellie had a communication network that was almost untraceable. Using the last of the positioning drones, she scattered them around the bulk cargo ship. Ellie used two hundred positioning drones in all.


    Seven days later and Ellie finished midafternoon placing the last positioning drone on top a pile of rubble. Ellie was glad to finally have a secure and untraceable comms network.


    ¡°This network is very good Ellie. I can access all eight ship comm station uplinks through your positioning drone relays and use the positioning drones¡¯ sensors to see in a wide area. Very good. Thank you Ellie.¡±


    Ellie blushed at the praise. ¡°It was fun. We now have secure access to the satellites in orbit and the net. You have been doing a great job yourself.¡±


    While Ellie was building her network Xander was filling the cryo pods with the Q607 chips on Somoko¡¯s boards. He now was on his thirteenth cryo pod. Ellie would need to salvage a big reactor and Helium 3 to power the chips.


    The cryo pods were neatly in a row along the aft bulkhead with her new salvage was organized along the forward bulkhead. The grav cart had been removed. Her truck was parked next to the cargo bay doors. Next to the truck was the second grav truck that had been in the cargo bay, she had went back with a tank of helium 3 and retrieved it.


    Also parked down the line of vehicles was the military recon scout and the heavy loader. Both still needed to be fixed. She looked around the sparkling cargo bay and grinned. Andy had been hard at work cleaning up the bay the past week and it showed.


    ¡°I am going to look for a fusion reactor that will power the Q607''s.¡±


    ¡°Stay safe Ellie.¡±


    Ellie grinned and climbed into her grav truck along with Andy. After a long search they were on their seventh ship that day. Ellie waited for Andy to open the door to another cargo bay and when she walked in she blinked in surprise. The shipping crates inside looked brand new and they had Tesenki marks stamped on them.


    Grinning in anticipation Ellie went to the first crate in the small hold and opened it. Looking into the shipping crate her jaw dropped and she could only stare. Then Ellie started dancing and laughing glee. Andy looked on with his normal blank expression. The crate contained a Tesenki M901 multipurpose bot. It was the newest line of house bots, with upgraded processors and a high end AIs. It was hominoid and capable of a wide range of tasks, form cleaning the deck, to repairing a fusion reactor.


    The last one was what Ellie was most excited about; this bot could repair salvaged parts on its own, without Ellie have to direct it. Ellie eagerly open all the crates. In total there was fifteen Tesenki M901s. Ellie did anther dance in glee. Andy filled the grav truck with the crates and Ellie flew back to the ship.


    She quickly had Andy unload the crates and flew to get another load. After retrieving them all, Ellie activated the first one excitedly. It sat up and looked around.


    ¡°Tesenki M901 service robot waiting for identification of new owner.¡±


    Ellie grin widened. ¡°Ellie Eleven. I am your new owner.¡±


    ¡°Confirmed.¡±


    The bot stood up and stepped out of the box. ¡°What are your instructions Miss Eleven?¡±


    The bot was the same height as Andy''s six feet but with the bot being a lot more slender then Andy it seemed to tower over Ellie. Ellie wanted to hug the new bot, fighting the impulse she quickly lost to herself, and hugged the new bot. The bot actually returned her hug! A little teary eyed she told the bot.


    ¡°Your name is Steve.¡±


    ¡°Name assigned. Steve.¡±


    Nodding happily she instructed the bot to help Xander.


    ¡°These bots will speed up the work Ellie. It is a great find.¡± Xander commed.


    ¡°I know! And there are fourteen more!¡± Happily Ellie skipped to activate the rest, giving each a name.

 Chapter 15 – Arming Up

    Tired but happy with the day¡¯s events, Ellie went to take a shower. Ellie walked out of the bay and walked to the front crew compartment. In the small port side shuttle bay on deck 3 she had set up the military field expedient self-contained shelter. The fish can.


    The tent was five feet wide and six feet long. It had been interesting to watch the tent unfold.  The top had swing up and to the left, locking into place, and forming the first wall. Then the panel under it had swing up and to the right, locking into place. Finally a third panel had lifted up following groves in the wall panels. As it lifted up it dragged thin tough cloth with it before reaching the top and locking into place. Finished, the shelter was five feet high with two sides and the top hard metal and the front and back walls armored cloth.


    The base of the tent was six inches high and inside Ellie had found out why. Entering the front cloth entrance, the floor was completely bare. Lifting up a floor panel revealed that the environmental plant was stuffed inside, air recyclers, waste recyclers, water tanks, a micro fusion reactor with batteries as backup, and tubes of nutripaste. All the basic needs to keep a solider alive.


    The lavatory and shower were in the back. A hole in the deck and a fixable hose made a combined lavatory and shower. Through not ideal it served its propose. Ellie was almost short enough to stand up inside. She washed off her armored suit first, then undressed.


    After taking a quick lukewarm shower she donned her ship suit and picked up her powered suit. Ellie then headed to the captain''s cabin. Walking up the two flights of stairs and following the hallway Ellie pushed aside the blanket she had hung up to block the door and entered the compartment.


    Ellie had savaged a desk and chair and found a really comfortable couch. Andy''s work could be seen, everything was spotless, and the previous useless furniture gone. Ellie''s couch ran along the room''s forward bulkhead next to the bedroom door. Her desk was center along the starboard bulkhead. It was sparse but comfortable.


    Setting her suit down near the door, Ellie dimmed the lights she had rigged up and plopped down on the couch. Giving a command to her commpad, soft music started to play form the speakers she had salvaged. Picking up an Instameal stacked beside the couch, in the corner were the port side and forward bulkhead met, Ellie relaxed back into her couch. Folding her legs under her and eating the steak and potato meal slowly, Ellie smiled softly. It wasn''t the orphanage with Rosa but it was beginning to feel like home.


    The next day Ellie set out to salvage a fusion reactor. When she was going to leave Andy behind and take Steve and five other M901s he looked at her an said. ¡°Andy doesn''t understand.¡± He sounded so forlorn that Ellie gave him a hug and told him to get in the grav truck.


    She had Steve and the others take the second grav truck. Ellie had scoured a few dozen wrecks and already had one picked out. Two miles away she set down at a military supply ship. With the ship being military it had a military fusion reactor. Military fusion reactors were built tougher then civilian models.


    You could safely red line the reactor and get another thirty percent increase in energy output. The cargo bays had been empty when she searched the ship days ago, so Ellie and her bots went straight to the fusion room. The second advantage to military fusion reactors was the reactors were made to be repaired during combat. This meant Ellie could access the internal electronics easily.


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    Pulling the first panel off she took a look at the boards. Scrutinizing them carefully she could see no obvious faults. Ellie would need to run a full diagnostic for that. Grinning she instructed Steve and the M901s to start disassembling the fusion reactor.


    She laughed delightedly as they surrounded the fusion reactor, evenly spaced, and started working. It would take Ellie over a week, working long days, to completely disassemble the reactor and now it looked to be done in a few hours. Bored Ellie decided to check out the other ships close by. There was a wrecked troop transport that looked promising and Ellie careful made her way inside.


    The ship was in shambles. Ellie had to duck under collapsed support beams and navigate around blast holes in the deck. The bulkheads looked melted. Exploring the ship Ellie came to a heavy security door, which normally would keep everyone out, but there was a blast hole in the bulkhead just big enough for Ellie to squeeze through in her powered armor.


    When she stood up and looked around she was shocked.


    ¡°Holy Nova!¡±


    She had found an armory! It was loaded with all the weapons needed to support a company of soldiers. Cages filled with heavy rail gun rifles, laser handguns, and crew served machine guns. Ellie gazed in awe of the destructive power packed inside the compartment. There were even grenades and explosives of all kinds. Ellie rubbed her hands in glee. This would be fun!


    Ellie took a can of boarding explosive foam and a detonator and squeezed back through the blast hole.  Applying the foam around the secured hatch, Ellie left the ship. For added security Ellie flew her grav truck two hundred feet away.


    Smiling evilly Ellie yelled. ¡°Fire in hole!¡±


    ¡°Andy does not understand the question.¡± Was Andy''s lament as she smashed down the button.


    The ship rocked slightly and smoke came drifting out of the rents in the hull.


    ¡°Yes! Just don''t tell Xander about this.¡± Ellie admonished Andy.


    ¡°Andy understands the command.¡±


    Grinning widely she flew to the supply ship the M901s were on. Walking into the fusion room Ellie saw the bots had made good headway in dissembling the reactor. As much as she wanted them to finish Ellie now had a more important job for them.


    ¡°Alright stop what you¡¯re doing and come with me.¡± Ellie lead them outside. ¡°Now over there is a troop transport. We need to empty out the weapons hold.¡±


    ¡°Understood Miss Eleven.¡± Steve spoke for the group of M901s.


    They flew over to the troop transport and landed. Ellie and Andy waited outside as the M901s went in, Andy being too big to get around the fallen beams. Ten minutes later Steve came out with an armload of weapons.


    ¡°Miss Eleven the ship is unstable. Caution is advised if you go in.¡±


    Nodding Ellie replied. ¡°I don''t have any plans to go inside.¡±


    Slowing the bots emptied out the armory. When the two grav trucks were full Steve reported that the compartment still had weapons inside. Happy at news Ellie lead them back to the bulk cargo ship.


    ¡°Ellie that is more weapons then you need.¡± Xander pointed out.


    ¡°Yes but who knows what we will need in the future.¡±


    Xander agreed. After unloading they went back for the remaining weapons. They were almost done when one of the bots stumbled and a black round object fell out of his hands. The world slowed as Ellie heard a click. Activating her suits powered muscles Ellie dove for the object. Snatching it up halfway to the ground, Ellie spun around in a smooth flowing movement, and threw it as hard as she could. It detonated in midair. Ellie heart was racing and she was breathing hard. Angry she turned to the bot that had dropped the grenade.


    ¡°Graviton Bob! You could have killed us!¡±


    Bob looked sheepish. ¡°Sorry Miss Eleven.¡±


    Ellie deflated. She couldn''t stay angry at Bob. ¡°Just don''t let it happen again!¡±


    Bob nodded eagerly. ¡°Yes Miss Eleven.¡±


    With the excitement over the bots went back to loading up the grav trucks. After they set down in the cargo hold Ellie had all the M901s gather.


    ¡°We have emptied a weapons hold on a troop transport. Aside from weapons there was also unpowered full body armor. I want each of you to wear one.¡± The bots immediately started donning the armor.

 Chapter 16 – Initialization

    ¡°Xander could you move the weapons to cargo bay 4 and organize them?¡± Cargo bay 4 was right next to cargo bay 2. Odd number cargo bays were port side and even number cargo bays were starboard. It made telling which side of the ship you were on easy.


    ¡°That well slow me down with the chips but given the number of weapons you retrieved I will start right on it. The M901s have been a great help.¡±


    ¡°I know. With their help we can actually think about repairing the ship. You know I have been thinking and saying the ship just gets old. What do you think of naming it Fatty?¡± Ellie grinned impishly.


    Xander laughed. ¡°That is a great name for a bulk cargo ship.¡±


    ¡°Alright I name thee Fatty.¡± Ellie said grandly and patted the bulkhead. ¡°Well I''m off to finish retrieving a fusion reactor, Xander.¡±


    ¡°Try not to blow up anything else Ellie!¡± Xander said cheerfully. Ellie reddened and hastily left.


    They loaded up and the two grav trucks made their way back to the military supply ship. It was two and a half hours before the M901s finished breaking down the fusion reactor enough to remove.


    After they returned Ellie saw Xander had finished moving the weapons into cargo bay 4. She had the M901s carry the fusion parts into cargo bay 3 across the main corridor of the ship to get reassembled.


    Ellie watched the bots slowly put the reactor back together. Ellie was glad she found a tank of helium 3 that was full. The shipping tank had five hundred liters inside. This reactor would take a lot more fuel then the small reactors Ellie had been using.


    After the bots completed rebuilding the reactor, Ellie connected a small fusion reactor to it that would provide the initial power for startup and then connected the tank of helium 3 fuel.


    ¡°Xander can you monitor and direct the fusion startup?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It should be a simple procedure. I have improved your specialized fusion reactor AI and afterwards I well let it run the fusion reactor, although I will monitor the AI and fusion reactor for any problems.¡±


    Relived Ellie monitored the readings for the fusion reactor startup on her heads up display. After Xander initialized the reactors magnetic containment field they ran detailed scans of every part of the reactor. They stress tested it by red lining the reactor and waited an hour to see if any part burned out. Without an active plasma steam a failed test was not disastrous.


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    ¡°Alright Ellie, I think you picked out a good one here.¡± Xander complemented Ellie.


    Smiling Ellie was impatient to start. ¡°Thanks Xander without you this would be a lot harder.¡±


    ¡°I know you would have persevered.¡± Ellie blushed.


    ¡°Starting fusion reactor initialization.¡± Xander continued.


    Ellie held her breath in anticipation. The reactors heat spiked alarmingly then quickly settled down with Xander drift handling.


    ¡°Plasma stream is stable and heating up. It will take some time to reach operating temperatures.¡±


    ¡°Alright I''m going to start on the power grid.¡±


    Ellie started her power grid by running two superconducting cables, form cargo bay 3 across the hallway into in to cargo bay 2. The cables were rated for five times the power output of the fusion reactor she was using but Ellie wanted a safety margin.


    Running both cables along the deck pressed against the base of the bulkheads, she laid the two thick cables down the port side bulkhead of cargo bay 2 and then turned at the corner to follow the aft bulkhead.


    With the cables laid behind the line of cryo pods Ellie went back to cargo bay 3. There she wired the ends of her superconducting cables into separate heavy electrical distribution boxes, able to stop destructive power surges form harming the reactor.


    Finished she went and installed two heavy electrical distribution boxes for every cryo pod, one for main use and one for backup. It was massive over protection but why not over engineer?


    Ellie grinned and lastly wired in the fusion reactor to her electrical grid. Ellie went back to cargo bay 2 and started the computers up. Xander had filled twenty one of the thirty cryo pods and now twenty one condensers built into cryo pods whined softly and began to cool down to negative one hundred and fifty degrees. The Somoko''s main boards and Q607 quantum core chips were silent.


    Ellie monitored the startup of the seven thousand boards when her commed dinged.


    ¡°Ellie permission to transfer into the new server cluster?¡± Xander ask excitedly.


    ¡°I don''t see way not. You can optimize them and run them at pick efficiency. Just know I will be using them to run my DNA simulations on them.¡±


    ¡°I have not forgotten why you came to this forsaken desert. Really you should be back at UEN port.¡±


    Nodding in agreement she continued to monitor the servers.


    ¡°I have transferred over. These Q607 are amazing. Cooled to cryo temperatures I should be able to run them forty percent faster than then their initial settings.¡±


    Ellie grinned. ¡°Good. Now with that taken care of please fill the other nine cryo pods. I am going to look for a DNA scanner.¡±


    This proved simple, Ellie found a working DNA scanner on her second ship. Unfortunately no nanites were onboard. Shaking her head Ellie took her salvage back to Fatty. Connecting it she gave a DNA sample to start the months of simulations need for designing a new DNA base.


    ¡°I have installed the newest DNA editor form the net. Though I am not programmed for DNA analyzes and DNA sequencing I can monitor the software and try to increase the efficiency. The Q607''s are faster than any chip currently on the marked but it will still take months to run. With your DNA destabilization and damage it could take significantly longer.¡± Xander warned.


    Ellie was glum at the news but she was prepared for it.


    ¡°Will at least the first part of the cure is taken care of.¡± She tried to be happy about that.

 Chapter 17 – Fatty

    Another week went by and Ellie needed something to do. She decided to upgrade Fatty. The ship was a basic design and with a little work could be very formidable. The first thing Ellie did was have the bots make her grav plate anti-gravity shields. With the size of Fatty and putting in a good safety margin she needed close to four thousand gravity plates. It took five months for her and the bots to make the grav plate sleds.


    Ellie had to salvage the small fusion reactors to build them and that took more work than the grav plates or grav sleds. Fortunately positioning drones were standard on ships, she was able to dismantle the positioning drones and use their micro fusion reactor.


    With that and finding another cargo hold filled with them, they slowly built the needed grav plate sleds. Finally they were ready. She started at the back of the ship. Sending in the first one to hover near the top left corner of Fatty, near the engines, she activated the grav plate. The metal groaned, shuddered, then with a scream of grinding metal lifted up. She set the height to seven feet.


    Ellie sent the next one to hover near the trash six feet away. Ellie slow worked her way along the edge of the ship using twenty grave sled plates to uncover a one hundred and twenty foot wide by six foot deep trench in the rubble. Sending in another grav plate she started on the port side again and advanced the trench another six feet using anther twenty grav plate sleds.


    Slowly and carefully she made her way down the top of the ship. The tonnes of rubble above her head caused her heart to race. Ellie knew that even if one failed the others would keep up the debris. It took two weeks but finally Ellie was standing on the forward edge of the ship, the last rubble lifted up and the top of the Fatty was cleared.


    Ellie was happy with the work but it still was not finished. Using the grav plate sleds again like a grant shovel she pushed the trash away from first the port side hull of the ship, then the starboard hull. This took another three weeks but in a month, from start to finish, they had completely cleared Fatty.


    It was eight months form Ellie''s arrival to Cullen''s Island but she was happy.


    Ellie could spend days taking apart bots and hardware to see how they worked, without any interruptions. She still missed Rosa terribly but the work took her mind off it. The start of the month saw her bots stripping the hull. They made slow but methodical progress.


    As they stripped hull, Ellie was looking for nanites. It was a long frustrating search. The nanites either degraded or the replicator''s onboard AI self destructed, destroying them. Two months later and Fatty sides and top were now stripped. Without power Fatty couldn''t lift up on its own. Ellie had the dig a small trench under and around the ship. This gave just enough room for Ellie to wedge grave plate sleds under Fatty.


    The enhanced anti-gravity field was the only thing that made such an attempt work. Normal grav plates couldn''t produce the strength of field to lift something of Fatty''s weight.


    Ellie had Xander control the grav plate sleds as they screamed in protest lifting Fatty four feet in the air. Xander smoothly flew the two thousand one hundred and eighty grav sleds under Fatty but not before almost half of the original lifting grav plate sleds burned out.


    Only the AI''s fast handling of the sleds prevented thousands of sleds getting crushed and setting them back months. The hull now bare they needed to salvage hull plates to get Fatty armored.


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    Ellie found a battle cruiser twenty miles away. It was a burned out wreck but the hull was in surprisingly good condition. The fifteen M901''s bots had to remove the plates and load them into the two grav trucks. When loaded they flew back to the ship and installed them, starting on the underside of Fatty.


    Afterwards the bots flew back to the battle cruiser and did it again. It took hundreds of back and forth trips to fully armor Fatty. Four months went by as the M901''s worked.


    Even with a year of searching there still was no nanites, Ellie decided to cut her remaining dosages in half, giving her two more years to look for the nanites. Her condition would worsen but she had more time to find the nanites. In preparation for her future declining health she had salvaged an auto medical surgical tank. Some problems needed outside medical help beside nanites and auto medical tanks were fully capable of doing complex surgeries. Ellie hoped she did not need it.


    ¡°Ellie, I received a shipping manifest that reports four dreadnought size fusions reactors are being replace with new and more powerful reactors.¡±


    Ellie was stunned. Those reactors were massive. The dreadnought size fusion reactors were 30 feet wide circles and the diameter of the fusion reactor cylinder measured 14 feet. Compared to Fatty''s 16 feet wide circle and 5 foot diameter cylinder it was monster of a fusion reactor, enough to power a large metropolis.


    Ellie squealed in glee. She needed one of those for Fatty! She had fixed her heavy loader and now Ellie was glad she had. Flying to the dump coordinates provided by Xander, Ellie landed. The two grav trucks operated by Steve and Bob landed beside Ellie.


    Even form the air Ellie knew this would not be easy. As they landed by the first one Ellie wondered how long it would take to disassemble it. The M901''s gathered around her.


    ¡°Alright the heavy loader could carry this but it is too wide and would fall off. I need you all to disassemble it into three equal pieces.¡±


    Ellie looked at the fifteen bots in unpowered armor. Steve, the leader of the pack, nodded.


    ¡°Yes Miss Ellie.¡±


    With all the bots helping it still took fifteen hours to break up the first reactor. Loading the first piece Ellie slowly flew it to Fatty. Another five hours of work and they had their first dreadnought sized fusion reactor stored away. Ellie was exhausted.


    The next week had long, long, days. Ellie used the port side cargo bays to store the massive fusion parts for now. Each dissembled fusion reactor was stored in their own cargo bay because Ellie did not want to stack them and potentially hurt the electronics.


    Ellie did a dance in glee. These reactors were awesome.


    With the hull upgrade finished Ellie had the bots gut the aft end of the ship. Yanking out the damaged and destroyed engines first, Ellie then took down the bulkheads between the engines and cargo bays 11 and 12. For safety Ellie rigged several hologram projectors to project a junk pile behind Fatty. Outside it would look like anther junk pile and hide the completely open ship.


    Before Ellie could install new engines she needed to add structural supports to the ship. If she installed new powerful engines, Fatty''s current structure would twist and warp out of shape, then break apart from the stress of the engines thrust.


    Ellie accomplished this by adding three more structural ribs between each of the old ribs of the ship and cross beams every five feet. Ellie also added diagonal beams between each crossbeam to form a repeating triangle, the most solid weight bearing structure in engineering.


    Ellie had the M901''s wield anther keel on either side of Fatty''s top and bottom keel to form a solid foundation. In total the ship was more structurally sound then a battle cruiser. As the bots installed the new beams and cross braces they also ripped out the fried electrical grid, upgrade the data lines, and upgrade the environmental plant.


    It took a full year of work with just fifteen bots, Ellie, and Andy holding beams in place for the M901''s. Andy was amazing at grunt work. Ellie''s condition was worsening and with dread at not finding nanites in the two years since leaving the orphanage, Ellie lowered her dosage to just a quarter dose. Another two years of worsening heath was better than a year of relatively good heath on the half a dose she had been taking. Ellie prayed to find the nanites she needed to live

 Chapter 18 – Ship Restructuring

    Ellie continued to search every hospital ship she could find without successes.


    Ellie was able to avoid trouble with thousands of square miles of land to hide in and sensor drones. Xander''s also hacked satellite feeds provided ample forewarning of trouble spots.


    On one salvage run Ellie found the remains of an Armordyne Infiltrator. The bots were assassins, heavily regulated by the UEN. They could infiltrate buildings, camps, and enemy lines to hunt their targets so were carefully monitored and manufactured. Ellie smiled wide when she found the core AI module still intact form the crushed remains.


    After a careful and thorough review of the AI coding, were she found several backdoors and hacks that she deleted, Ellie updated her M901''s. This made the multipurpose bots extremely deadly and Ellie armed everyone. She was leery about Bob though. That bot made several mistakes and kept dropping stuff, not to mention the grenade he dropped the first time. Noving Bob.


    Ellie tried to focus on the ship upgrades to keep her mind off her dwindling supplies of nanites. With the reinforced frame she turned her attention to the engines. Xander mapping of the area and Ellie salvage runs made finding them easy.


    A destroyed heavy cruiser thirty miles away had surprisingly intact engines. These six engines were 18 feet in diameter and 16 feet long. Compared to Fatty''s original eight engines that were 12 feet in diameter and 10 feet long the military engines were absurdly overpowered for a bulk cargo ship.


    Ellie new reinforced grave plates could counter the increased gee forces of the overpowered engines and the increased inertial gravity could be managed easily.


    Each engine had taken days to cut out form the wreckage. The bulkheads and heavy mountings were warped around the engine, making for slow work of cutting them free. Then Ellie had to fly each heavy engine slowly to Fatty''s location.


    It took three weeks to move them all. The bots worked hard reinforcing the engine mountings and rewiring the electrical grid and fuel lines to accommodate the out sized engines. Another month flew by as they worked. Mounting them after all the prep work was complete was relatively easy, a fast week of bolting and welding.


    The new engine compartment now measured one hundred and twenty foot wide and twenty foot long, the original compartment only measuring one hundred and twenty foot wide and twelve feet long.


    Ellie danced in glee as the last of the six engines were attached. Now cargo bays 11 and 12 were a total of eight feet shorter form the newly installed sixteen foot engines and a bigger four foot hallway.


    The new engine compartment wider four foot corridor would allow Andy access to the front of each engine, through the seven corridors between each engine would be slightly under two feet almost a foot shorter then each of the prior nine corridors.


    The aft cargo bays would lose more space form Ellie''s redesigned deck plans.


    Ellie would keep the front crew compartment almost the same, only upgrading the environmental plant and bridge with military hardened versions of the civilian work stations. Ellie was also installing a backup environmental plant. Ellie would lose two small crew cabins with the additional environmental plant but it was worth it for extra security a second environmental plant would bring through Ellie was not planning on using the front crew compartment anymore.


    The front bridge would become an auxiliary bridge in case of emergencies. All control and command functions would be in the planned aft bridge.


    Port side aft would have a large shuttle bay measuring thirty six feet wide and long with twenty foot high ceiling. It would also shorten cargo bays 11 and 12 on deck 3, the bottom deck.


    Above that would be Ellie''s workshop on deck 1. Forty two foot wide and thirty six long with an eleven foot high ceiling and a foot deep subfloor.


    Ellie''s was looking forward to having such a large space to work in without taking up a cargo bay.


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    In the center of Fatty''s aft end on deck 3 was a thirty six foot wide by thirty two foot long compartment. The central compartment contained six tanks that were six feet in diameter and thirty two foot long.


    Ellie would use the large volume in two of the tanks to store water. With Fatty''s environmental plant''s water recycler that would effectively mean she would have unlimited water and not need to refill the tanks with water for years. The other four tanks would hold the large volume of helium 3 that the massive fusion reactor and engines consumed.


    In front of the compartment was a thirty six foot wide and 4 foot long hallway with six foot high ceilings connecting the portside shuttle bay with the starboard crew cabins.


    Above the water and fuel tank compartment on deck 2 was the fusion room, containing an overpowered dreadnought fusion reactor. The compartment measured thirty six wide and long with a twenty foot ceiling.


    With the fusion reactor being thirty foot in diameter this gave Ellie and the bots three feet clearance all around the reactor to access the reactor''s electronics. Above the fusion room was a compartment thirty six wide and long with a six foot high ceiling.


    Ellie was planning to create a greenhouse with flowers, modified trees, and grow fruits and vegetables to eat. Ellie could almost taste the fresh fruits. The starboard side of Fatty would be where everyone lived, if she ever had people join Fatty''s crew.


    There was another six foot hallway that would become the central starboard hallway. Thirty foot long with another six foot wide and long elevator in the aft end of Fatty and a forward elevator in cargo bay 12 that, like the elevator in cargo bay 11, doubled as an airlock. Next were the central starboard cabins.


    These four cabins were small only twelve foot wide and eight foot long with nine foot ceilings facing the central starboard hallway. Ellie decided not to add a subfloor and rout the pipes and electrical grid up using deck 2''s subdeck. By doubling up the subdeck for deck 3 and deck 2 she eliminated a lot of redundant piping and cabling. There was also a twelve foot wide by four foot long hallway in the forward section that lead form the central starboard hallway to the main starboard hallway. The main starboard hallway was four foot wide and thirty six foot long.


    The four starboard cabins that were against the hull measured twenty foot wide by nine foot long. Ellie planned to make these one bedroom vip cabins. Up a deck was again a central starboard hallway six foot wide, then Ellie''s vault. She planned to create a heavy armored, sealed, and medically clean room for herself that would replace the four small cabins that deck 3 had. Twelve wide and thirty two foot long with ten foot ceilings, the vault would have medical panels that eliminate germs by static electricity and special ultraviolet light.


    Ellie also planned to add a mini environmental plant and fusion reactor. If Ellie ever found the nanites she needed to cure herself, she wanted to be protected for the year of treatment. If worse came and she did not find the needed nanites she would have a medically clean cabin to spend her last days in. Ellie shook her head at the grim thought, trying to clear it.


    There was another twelve foot wide by four foot long hallway that connected the central starboard corridor to the main starboard hallway that gave access to the four starboard cabins on deck 2.


    Same size and dimension of deck 3''s cabins, twenty foot wide and nine foot long but with ten foot high ceilings instead of deck 3 nine foot ceiling and the one foot subdeck shared with deck 3. Up a deck on deck 1 was the kitchen and lounge compartment that was forty two wide and twenty two long and had eleven foot ceilings with a one foot subfloor.


    In the aft end up a short flight of stairs was a six foot wide and long landing in front of starboard''s aft six foot wide and six foot long elevator. The central deck 1, were the planned greenhouse would be, was five foot higher than the deck 1 starboard''s lounge and kitchen.


    Beside the landing and elevator, at the rear of the compartment, would be the environmental plant.


    The old engines took ten feet with two foot hallway and the new engines taking sixteen feet with four foot wide hallway the length of the ship meant an eight foot shortage and the newly planned remodeling that would take another thirty six feet meant cargo bay 11 and 12 shrunk by forty four feet making both bays fifty wide and fifty six long. Close to half the original fifty wide by hundred long cargo bays. Ellie was happy with the sacrifice of two cargo bays for much more spacious living quarters.


    In the central hallway were the old fusion plant had been located, now had three decks. The first bottom deck, deck 3, had an armory. Ellie wanted a secure place to store all her salvaged weapons. Fourteen foot wide, twenty foot long, with twelve foot ceilings should hold a large amount of the accumulated weapons, leaving a six foot wide, twenty foot long, and twelve foot high corridor, from the aft end compartment to the central hallway. Up a deck on deck 2 was the main engineering compartment, twenty foot wide and twenty foot long with ten foot ceilings that opened up to the fusion plant compartment, though it was six foot higher than the deck of the fusion compartment.


    Up a deck, deck 1, was the main bridge. The compartment was twenty foot wide and 20 foot long with ten foot ceilings. The bridge was overlarge for a civilian ship but the space could not be divided neatly or evenly. Ellie was extremely happy with the design and even Xander gave a grudging approval through he through a lot of space was wasted. Ellie had laughed at that. Fatty was still a civilian ship despite Ellie''s rebuilding. Now that Fatty was structurally enhanced, fully armored, and overpowered there was one thing they both agreed on, weapons.

 Chapter 19 – Weapons

    There were thousands of weapons systems up for grabs in the junkyard; Ellie had even found a surface to space rail gun in the junkyard. That was way too heavy to install on a ship, the rounds alone weighed five tons. Way to heavy, thought Ellie, through she really tried to figure out a way to install it.


    Gaviton, that weapon could have hurt a dreadnought!


    Mounting capital ship weapons on the hull of Fatty caused a major problem for her because Ellie did not want to be mistaken for a pirate and shot at. No one hurt her Fatty!


    On the other thruster, installing them inside the ship meant Ellie needed to turn the whole ship to aim. It would be going back to the old days of wooden ships and broadsides. Most modern weapons used armored torrents.


    Ellie considered pop up torrents but that would weaken the structural frame she had work so hard to strengthen. In the end she made low profile armored boxes, shaped to look like part of the hull, that would enclosed the entire weapon system.


    When not moving, and in their standby position, an enemy would have to visually inspect the ship to find that the boxes were not part of the ship. Each box housed a heavy cruiser railgun with an auto loader system and ammo underneath.


    On either side of the rail gun were heavy cruiser laser cannons. After the rail gun fired, the two laser cannons could fire four times before the railgun recharged and reloaded, about two and half seconds.


    Ellie had been able to pack in twelve hundred rounds of ammo in each box. Ellie had gone a little nova and installed thirty enclosures on top of the ship, spaced evenly down the full length of Fatty.


    She had wanted to install weapon systems on the bottom of Fatty but when the ship landed and settled flat to the ground, Fatty''s weight would crush the weapons. Ellie could never land the ship safely.


    Along the center line of Fatty facing forward, Ellie had installed four battle cruiser size rail guns. Ellie would have to move the ship to aim but four rounds hitting a light cruiser would destroy it and a heavy cruiser would be severely damaged.


    The battle cruiser rounds weighed six hundred pounds, triple the weight of heavy cruiser rounds.


    Missiles were another matter entirely. They could be fired form any position and steered toward the enemy. Ellie had found a crashed military supply ship with a hold filled with boxed missile launchers. The launchers were loaded with eight fire and forget missiles.


    The launchers were usually mounted on grav trucks to take out enemy drop ships. The launchers could not be reloaded and needed replacement after fired. Ellie installed the boxes on top of the cargo holds right above the cargo bay doors.


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    Forty-eight evenly spaced boxes split between port and starboard, twenty-four box missile launchers on each side, four launchers per cargo bay, were concealed by a simple holographic projection making them anther part of the hull. To further conceal the launchers Ellie had the bots spray on radar absorbing paint. The missiles could take out the ramshackle vessels pirates used and that''s what Ellie wanted.


    Any bloody pirate tried to take her Fatty would eat a swarm of missiles!


    Not useful for capital ship to ship fighting but Ellie had no plans to be that stupid. Fatty had more weapons then a heavy cruiser. Ellie could have added a lot more weapon systems; the reactor could easily handle triple the weapons Ellie had installed.


    Ellie didn''t because she had no plans to be a warship or fighting. She did go a little nova on point defense systems and sensors, but if it saved Ellie and Fatty it would be well worth the extra data lines she had ran.


    The only thing she hadn''t found were a battle cruiser or bigger Harmonic Drive intact. Ellie had only been able to salvage a heavy cruisers drive. A heavy cruiser sized harmonic drive could get Ellie into dimension three with a small safety margin. If she really pushed it she could slip into dimension four, that would be incredibly dangerous.


    With a battle cruiser Harmonic Drive Ellie would have felt a great deal safer pushing the hardware. The deeper you transitioned into the sub dimensions the shorter your travels. The only problem with the drives were the massive power requirements needed to charge the Harmonic drive capacitors, through Fatty had a lot of extra power to spare now.


    The drive was simple in concept. Everything in the universe vibrated on the same subatomic frequency, form cosmic dust to stars. The sub dimensions also had their own vibrational frequency. A Harmonic Drive first pushed out a counter frequency to cancel out the universes frequency, then overlaid the sub dimensions frequency, causing the ship to transition.


    The Harmonic Drive worked on mass not weight. A condensed mass would need far more power than the same mass spread out. A more condensed mass vibrated louder. It was like trying to tune into a specific radio frequency when someone was jamming the airways.


    It was possible if you had enough power. The sub dimensions themselves were vast black voids with nothing in them, not even dust. The lowest sub dimensions any one had reached was dimension six and that was using specialized drones no longer than a foot in length.


    Each dimension needed exponential more power to enter. You also needed to enter form the regular prime universe. While you could go form one sub dimension to another, it took four times the power. The Harmonic Drive needed to counter the ships vibrational frequency, the frequency of the dimension it was in, and then overlay the frequency of the sub dimension you wanted to transition to.


    It cost vastly more power than jumping to the prime universe, then transitioning to anther sub dimension.


    A bulk carrier of Fatty''s size would usually be relegated to dimensions one. Dimension two and Dimension three were the main dimension used for median freighters. Dimensions four was for fast small freighters loaded with high valued cargo and rich passengers.


    Dimension five was only used by very specialized vassals and communication drones.


    If Ellie had a battle cruiser Harmonic Drive and with the installed dreadnought size fusions reactors Fatty should be able to Dimensions four, something unheard of for Fatty¡¯s size.

 Epilogue

    Ellie was exploring anther medical ship, dozens already searched by her and Xander¡¯s sensors, when she was shocked to find a hidden room in the wreckage containing a Tier 1 replicator.


    She could only assume no one know about the hidden room onboard the ship. A powerful laser blast had melted a meter wide whole at an angle form the top bulkhead to and through the deck. Somehow, only fate knows how, the beam melted the control unit housing the AI but only melted half the unit.


    Ellie had assumed all the nanites were destroyed in the blast, she had plugged into the auxiliary port more out of curiosity then anything. When would she ever get the opportunity to scan a Tier 1 replicator again?


    When the display beep back that 37% of the nanites were still functional she had stared down at the small screen for minutes in shock.


    Ellie had found what she had searched desperately for, a way to cure herself.


    Eight months later


    With a final command Ellie Eleven started the transfer of the AI program she had spent the last eight months painstakingly developing.


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    As she leaned back into the comfort of her wheel chair a rough cough doubled Ellie over.


    Grabbing an ever present sens wipe, Ellie tried to clear her airways. The oxygenator attached to the right side of her chair kicked on, feeding pure oxygen to tubes connected to ports on Ellie chest. The pure oxygen feed into her lungs was a welcomed balm.


    On her left wrist was a medical cuff with two tubes running to and form a blood filtration unit on Ellie left side. A cable ran form her chest over her left shoulder to a heart monitor.


    The small device used electric shocks to keep coma patients muscle form atrophying, Ellie had repurposed the device to keep her heart pumping.


    A small chime sounded and with a trembling hand, that had nothing to do with her failing heath, Ellie picked up the metallic case filled with Tier 1 nanites.


    Having them was an automatic death sentence.


    Holding the container of priceless nanites she give a command to the biochip in her brain and her chair silently moved over to the salvaged regeneration medical tank.


    While nanites did all the work they still need resources, a regeneration tank consisted of a tube filled with biological nutrients that nanites used to build everything form new skin cells to complete organs.


    Ellie had gone overboard and salvaged ten barrels of the nutrient gel, almost two thousand liters total and a hundred times more nutrient gel then she needed.


    Ellie opened the container and poured the silvery sand like nanites into the tank.


    Steve come silently over to help disconnect all the medical tubs and to lift her into the regen tank, the robot was in full unpowered body armor of unrelenting black, except for the armored dark gray glass set into his helmet.


    Steve gently placed her in the tank, and the faceless helmet looking down on her was the last thing Ellie saw as she submerged under the warm gel and the nanites activated.

 Book 2 - Prologue - incomplete

    Ellie came awake abruptly. One moment she was unconscious and then she was fully awake. Seating up she gasped for air and looked around.


    The regan tank was empty and Steve stood ever vigilant by the door.


    ¡°Systems online and operating within designated perimeters¡± Blinking Ellie looked around. ¡°Who said that?¡±


    ¡°You have been unconscious for 10 years 5 months 2 weeks 1 day 15 hours 36 minutes and 40 seconds.¡± The voice continued uninterrupted.


    ¡°What!¡± Ellie couldn''t believe that! The DNA recombination should have taken six months, a year tops.


    ¡°Primary objective were to seek out the best cure for rapid DNA destabilization and to improve the physical body of patient Ellie Eleven.¡± Blinking Ellie was beginning to realize the voice was in her head was the AI she had spent months carefully building.


    ¡°One billion five million three hundred and one simulations where used to project possible solutions. Of the solutions twelve thousand four hundred and fifty six were carried out.¡±


    Ellie mouth dropped opened, Holy Nova!


    ¡°Of the applied solutions unforeseen complications negatively affected the patient''s body.¡±


    ¡°What!¡± Ellie scream louder. What had this renegade AI done to her?


    ¡°Patients neurons started to rapidly dissolve, unregulated growth in patients left arm and leg increased muscle mass by 312%, patients right side rapidly begin to deevolved. Tumors expanded rapidly throughout the patient¡¯s body.¡±


    By this time Ellie''s head rested on her knees and she was breathing rapidly, trying not to faint.


    ¡°Patients survivability declining and primary objective not complete patient Ellie Eleven was placed in suspended animation with almost one hundred percent cell activity halted.¡±


    Ellie wanted to throw up. She sat up and frantically looked at her arms, legs, and patted her body. Everything seemed normal. Taking a deep breath she tried to steady her racing heart.


    ¡°On farther review of patient¡¯s condition, viability of biological body deemed untenable.¡±


    Ellie really wanted to tell the blasted AI to shut up but she needed to know what that crazy ass piece of code had done to her.


    ¡°Accessing all available data form the net and gaining access to restricted data form corporate databases a new physical body was constructed.¡±


    Okay Okay aside from the danger of accessing corporations data that didn''t seem too bad.


    ¡°The new skeletal structure mimics your former biological skeletal structure replacing bones with an alloy composed of titanium, osmium, tungsten, and beryllium.¡±


    Damn that meant her bones were virtually indestructible. Even a hit form a heavy rail gun rifle would have trouble getting through.


    ¡°Your organs and vascular system are composed of a new polymer. A special bioorganic plastic DNA was sequenced form trees in the Midway system. Planet wide continuous lighting storms developed organic life that uses the electricity in lighting to propagate.  Combined with research in different superconducting medians, and Somoko Industries prototype capacitors, designated Polymer N76 was developed.¡±


    Ellie really wanted to see the research the AI had hacked. That stuff could be sold on the black marked for millions, also a quick way for a massive bounty to be placed for her head. For her literal head! Corporation did not like their data stolen.


    ¡°Polymer N76 can grow naturally, self repair, and store massive amounts of energy. At human level of activities the stored energy can last for five years.¡±


    First, that was an awesome polymer worth millions of credits alone, second what the hell did it mean normal levels of activity!


    ¡°A detailed analysis was conducted on the benefits of Polymer N76 as opposed to carbon fiber for the patient¡¯s musculature structure. The benefits of strength and speed provided by carbon fiber muscle weighted against the benefits of polymer N76 self repair and energy storage determined a better survival rating when carbon fiber musculature was inputted.¡±


    Say what? It seemed that her organs where now made of this new polymer and her muscles where made of carbon fiber. Also while Ellie liked to survive, just what did that piece of crap code mean by better survival odds? Against what or who?


    ¡°Polymer N76 provides enough energy to sustain dense carbon fiber muscle at normal human level usage. Exceeding these perimeters and stored energy will be rapidly depleted. To counter this development a backup micro fusion reactor was place in the patient¡¯s sternum.¡±


    Ellie mind was reeling from these revelations. She was a cyborg! But when she felt herself it seemed like she had real biological skin. The AI went on to answer her unasked question.


    ¡°The skin of the patient¡¯s new body is cloned tissue form a simplified and recombinant DNA strand taken form the patient¡¯s former biological body. Synthetic blood carrying forty percent more oxygen and nutrients sustains the patient''s epidermis.¡±


    That was incredible. She never heard of full cybernetics limbs being able to support real skin. Skins were very life like and people could feel form it but real actual skin?


    ¡°The patient¡¯s brain is a cloned and enhanced copy of the patients former biological brain with a new bio computer theorized in Biosystems Limited research and development department with an integrated quantum component.¡±


    Ellie was breathless. Her brain had an integrated biocomputer! Not just a implanted cyberchip. Two integrated computers! One biological and one cyber.


    Biocomputers could self repair and you could even grow a new computer form the harvested cells. It was also impervious to electromagnetic pulse weapons. Cyberware on the other port was based on hardware. It could not self repair or grow new parts and EMP''s could destroy it.


    Ellie wondered just how many companies the AI had hacked? Ellie herself had hacked numerous companies but only low level nets. Shipping manifests mostly, had to know where good salvage was being dumped and where military camps were located to avoid.


    The AI had gone way beyond low level hacking. Hopefully her extremely low powered encrypted repeater stations that accessed her satellite linkups couldn''t be traced back to her. If it had been ten years through, hopefully she was in the clear.


    ¡°Okay so just how strong am I?¡±


    ¡°Projections show you should have an even chance against a power armor suited soldier.¡±


    She blinked at that. Going hand to hand against one of those metal encased giants was nuts. Most soldiers had advance DNA upgrades that made them extremely deadly. Add to that soldiers usually went for bio or cyber upgrades to further enhance their speed, strength and stamina and encase one in a walking tank made taking one on by hand nuts. Absolutely nuts.


    Hopping out of the regen tank Ellie landed lightly almost daintily on her feet. Blinking down at her feet in confusion Ellie jumped up and promptly slammed her head against the bulkhead ten feet above her. It didn''t hurt and she again landed lightly on her feet.


    Ellie looked up at the bulkhead in astonishment. ¡°Umm so that happened.¡±


    ¡°Patient is advised to take time accumulating to the new physical body increased strength and speed.¡±


    Ellie growled. ¡°Shut up you reject AI! I may have designed you but that won''t stop me from deleting sections of your core code!¡±


    A mostly empty threat as AI''s were grown more than coded. That was what took her so much time to develop the AI. She had to slowing feed new information into the basic AI she had programmed and wait while it digested the new information. Flooding it with data would have destabilized the core AI.


    ¡°Patient is exhibiting extremely hostile behavior. Psychological profile form before immersion did not note such behavior.¡±


    Ellie growled louder.


    ¡°Further elevation is needed.¡±


    ¡°I''ll show you were you can stick your elevation! I will upload you to the vacuum cleaner, no the environmental system! You can then elevate raw sewage!¡±


    The AI didn''t respond. Snorting in trump, though she suspected that damn AI won this round, she went to her computer system. She didn''t want to sit down in her old wheelchair. Now that she was healthy and whole, if not wholly human, she never wanted to see that chair again.


    Pulling up another chair that was a levitating a few feet off the ground she sunk into its soft embrace and the chair auto conformed to her.


    ¡°Arty please highlight the most important news starting with today and working backwards to the time I was immersed.¡± Reading the first few headlines Ellie started to feel unnerved.


    ¡°Please track my eye focus and scroll.¡±


    ¡°Noted¡± Arty respond.


    She had installed a concise and brief AI profile for her work station. No long words or chatty personality profile for it. At her desk she was working and did not like distractions.


    Reading faster and faster Ellie become absorbed in the data and did not notice the data was scrolling at thousand percent faster than a normal person should be able to read and comprehend it.


    An hour later she leaned back, closed her eyes, and exhaled a long breath.


    ¡°Holy Nova!¡±


    Her decade long slumber bypassed truly grim news. The UEN was fighting for it life. Hemwell was a active war zone with over five stellar powers fighting for domination, and most shocking of all, there were no more nanites! Gone, life saving Tier 2 nanites, Class five industrial replicators that could manufacturer anything, all gone. Two years after she went into the regen tank the Earth Coalition for Freedom (grand sounding name for a group of terrorists) had kidnapped the president of the subcommittee for domestic security. Ironic that.


    John Treadwell the third had been vacationing on Blackwell, the greatest hive of villainy in the galaxy renowned for sex slaves, drugs, and any despicable act you could imagine, just the place an upstanding gentlemen in the senate to vacation. After the ECF grabbed one of the most powerful senators of the council they disappeared and spent days interrogating and torturing him, extracting his personal AI and hacking it. How long he held out was unknown but now it known galactic wide that the terrorists got their hands on the self destruct codes for all nanites everywhere. The Earth Coalition for Freedom without hesitation activated the kill codes for all replicators in the galaxy!


    ¡°This is bad! Very very bad!¡± Ellie jump up and promptly smashed against the overhead bulkhead again. ¡°Graviton!¡± Ellie was again able to land lightly on her feet.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°Patient is having a difficult time adjusting to her new physical body.¡±


    ¡°Shut up you damn pile of chips!¡± Ellie started pacing.


    The United Earth Nation were the hardest hit without nanites. They shot themselves in the head with a noving laser cannon bullying and stealing form everyone else. Talk about sweet sweet poetic justice.


    Worlds not wanting to pay the exuberant taxes on replicated parts instead started  factories and automatic manufacturing to reduce the cost paid to the UEN. The UEN senate on the other thruster gave themselves and the manufacturing plants they owned free access to replicated parts, so the UEN relied exclusively on nanites.


    Though there were parts that could only be produced form nanites, miniature fusion reactors, special alloys, thousands of specialized electronics, those parts now where worth a fortune and that''s what Ellie had to deal with now.


    The greatest collection of now priceless parts were all around her, Hemwell.


    ¡°Graviton!¡±


    The centuries of corporate greed and laziness form not recycling and destroying the planet with junk was now the greatest boon to mankind. Everyone and their cat wanted a piece of it.


    ¡°Graviton! Nova! Noving UEN!¡± Ellie swear again.


    Words could not expresses how mad she was right now. Ellie always planned to get off the bloody mudball that was Hemwell and now there were 2 major powers, 3 minor powers, hundreds of Hemwell corporations, smugglers, and pirates all having a bloody free for all on and around Hemwell.


    Everyone was trying not to get their ships shot up with the needed parts for repair no longer easily available, so everyone was skirmishing with no decisive battles. The hardest battles were around UEN bases.


    The UEN, even a eight years later, were unable to reproduce nanite replicators. What the UEN did have were the largest prenanite economy in space, ridiculously large stock piles of supplies in planned preparation for invading their neighbors before losing their nanite replicators, a massive navy fleet, and the largest warships in the galaxy. Not even the next major power could afford the massive dreadnoughts of the UEN.


    Reading between the lines the UEN were slowly losing. Not helpful to her right now. Ellie had to somehow get off Hemwell with her hoard of salvaged parts.


    She had known she needed credits off world to pay for regen healing and live comfortably. That was before she found the Tier 1 nanites. She had slowly filled a bulk carrier to the bulkheads in five years she had been in the junkyard with the help of her bots.


    When she found the bulk carrier under a massive pile of trash, the bulk carrier''s whole electric grid had been fried, the environmental units shot, the fusion reactor barely adequate for the size of the vessel but still in good condition, the harmonic drive a pile of scrape form a rail gun hit, and six of the eight engines destroyed.


    For all that the hull was in surprising good condition. She had named the large vessel Fatty. It had taken her years to repair the ship and that was primary thanks to Steve and the boys working twenty-four seven.


    The environmental system had been the easiest. Ellie had salvaged the environmental plant form a two thousand passenger ship, more than enough for Fatty. Ellie had found a heavy cruiser that was mostly melted scrap form a fierce battle but somehow the six massive engines escaped with minor damage.


    Moving them, on the other hand, had been a major pain in the nova. First she needed to move them at night, camouflaged by hologram projectors, slowly moving so not to attract satellite surveillance. On top of that she had to avoid gangs, soldiers, and pirates.


    The junkyard was a dangerous place and that was without fearing the junk may explode form leftover fuel, still active fusion reactors, missiles, tons of other junked military hardware, and still operational security measures. Ellie had spent three weeks salvaging the engines.


    Each engine had taken days to cut out, lift onto her anti grav transport, then slowly float to her ship.  The engines were massively overpowered for the bulk freighter. Each engine was half again as large as the civilian engines.


    It had taken a lot of work cutting out bulkheads, wielding support beams, and rewiring the fuel and electric grid to fit them in. It had been worth it. Military engines were built extremely sturdy and Ellie had fun modifying them to produce even more thrust. As for the fusion reactor she got an awesome replacement.


    One of the UEN dreadnoughts had stopped at Hemwell to replace its four fusion reactors. Each one, at the time, had only been ten years old and supplied enough energy to power a large metropolis.


    It had taken her and her bots three months to reconfigure Fatty''s engine room to handle one of these reactors.


    The complete structural enhancements to Fatty had taken an additional two years. Ellie had added three more structural ribs between each of the old ribs of the ship and cross beams every five feet. Just because she could and because there were a lot of scrap ships around, Ellie had also added a diagonal beam between each crossbeam to form a repeating triangle, the most solid weight bearing design in structural engineering.


    She had wielded anther keel on either side of Fatty''s top and bottom keel to make a very solid foundation. All total the ship was more solid then a battle cruiser.


    She had been able to take apart the other three reactors and stack them in two of Fatty''s holds. Any colony would pay dearly for those giant reactors. Knowing the dangers of pirates and so called privateers, Ellie had also got her bots to strip the flimsy hull off Fatty and install the armored plates form a battle cruiser.


    The battle cruiser had been a burned out wreck that somehow hadn''t exploded. With an armored Fatty Ellie then moved onto weapons. There were thousands of weapons systems up for grabs in the junkyard.


    Ellie had even found a surface to space rail gun in the junkyard that was way too heavy to install on a ship. The rounds alone weighed five tons, way too heavy, through Ellie had really tried to figure out a way to install it.


    Gaviton, that weapon could have hurt a dreadnought. Mounting capital ship weapons on the hull of Fatty caused a major problem for her because Ellie did not want to be mistaken for a pirate and shot at.


    No one hurt her Fatty!


    On the other thruster, installing them inside the ship meant Ellie needed to turn the whole ship to aim. It would be going back to the old days of wooden ships and broadsides. Most modern weapons used armored torrents. Ellie considered pop up torrents but that would weaken the structural frame she had work so hard to strengthen.


    In the end she made low profile armored boxes, shaped to look like part of the hull, which enclosed the entire weapon system. When not moving and in their standby position a enemy would have to visually inspect the ship to find that the boxes were not part of the ship.


    Each box housed a heavy cruiser railgun with a auto loader system and ammo underneath. On either side of the rail gun were heavy cruiser laser cannons. After the rail gun fired, the two laser cannons could fire four times before the railgun recharged and reloaded, about two and half seconds.


    Ellie had been able to pack in twelve hundred rounds of ammo in each box.  Ellie had gone a little nova and installed thirty enclosures on top of the ship, fifteen on each side, spaced evenly down the full length of Fatty. She had wanted to install weapon systems on the bottom of Fatty but the ship landed and settled flat to the ground.


    If she installed them on the bottom Fatty''s weight would crush the weapons. Ellie could never land the ship safely. Along the center line of Fatty, inside the armored hull, Ellie had installed four battle cruiser size rail guns.


    Ellie would have to move the ship to aim but four rounds hitting a light cruiser would destroy it and a heavy cruiser would be severely damaged. The battle cruiser rounds weighed six hundred pounds, triple the weight of heavy cruiser rounds. Missiles were another matter entirely. They could be fired form any position and steered toward the enemy. Ellie had found a crashed military supply ship with a hold filled with boxed missile launchers.


    The launchers were loaded with eight fire and forget missiles. The launchers were usually mounted on grav trucks to take out enemy drop ships. The launchers could not be reloaded and needed replacement after fired. Ellie installed the boxes on top of the cargo holds right above the cargo bay doors. Fifty evenly spaced boxes split down each side of Fatty were concealed by a simple holographic projection.


    To further conceal the launchers Ellie had the bots spray on radar absorbing paint. The missiles could take out the ramshackle vessels pirates used and that''s what Ellie wanted. Any bloody pirate tried to take her Fatty would eat a swarm of missiles.


    Not useful for capital ship to ship fighting but Ellie had no plans to be that stupid. Fatty had more weapons then a heavy cruiser. Ellie could have added a lot more weapon systems; the reactor could easily handle triple the weapons Ellie had installed.


    Ellie didn''t because she had no plans to be a warship or fighting. She did go a little nova on point defense systems and sensors but if it saved Ellie and Fatty it would be well worth the extra data lines she had ran. The only thing she hadn''t found were a battle cruiser or bigger Harmonic Drive intact. Ellie had only been able to salvage a heavy cruisers drive.


    A heavy cruiser sized harmonic drive could get Ellie into dimension three with a small safety margin. If she really pushed it she could slip into dimension four. That would be incredibly dangerous. With a battle cruiser Harmonic Drive Ellie would have felt a great deal safer pushing the hardware. The deeper you transitioned into the sub dimensions the shorter your travels.


    The only problem with the drives was the massive power requirements needed to charge the Harmonic drive capacitors, through Fatty had a lot of extra power now.


    The drive was simple in concept. Everything in the universe vibrated on the same subatomic frequency, form cosmic dust to stars. The sub dimensions also had their own vibrational frequency. A Harmonic Drive first pushed out a counter frequency to cancel out the universes frequency and the ships, then overlaid the subdimensions frequency, causing the ship to transition.


    The Harmonic Drive worked on mass not weight. A condensed mass would need far more power than the same mass spread out. A more condensed mass vibrated louder. It was like trying to tune into a specific radio frequency when someone was jamming the airways. It was possible if you had enough power.


    The subdimensions themselves were vast black voids with nothing in them, not even dust. The lowest subdimensions any one had reached was dimension six and that was using specialized drones no longer than a foot in length.


    Each dimension needed exponential more power to enter. You also needed to enter form the regular prime universe. While you could go from one subdimension to anther it took four times the power. The Harmonic Drive needed to counter the ships vibrational frequency, the frequency of the dimension it was in, and then overlay the frequency of the subdimension you wanted to transition to.


    It cost vastly more power than jumping to the prime universe then transitioning to anther subdimension. A bulk carrier of Fatty''s size would usually be relegated to dimension one. Dimension two and dimension three were the main dimension used for median freighters. Dimension four was for fast small freighters loaded with high valued cargo and rich passengers. Dimension five was only used by very specialized vassals and communication drones.


    So after Ellie finally cured herself, despite that blasted AI, Fatty was ready to fly. Through now Ellie needed to fight her way off Hemwell.


    Wait Ellie realized she had overlook something very important.


    ¡°Nanites!¡±


    ¡°Don''t panic. Don''t Panic.¡± Ellie took a deep breath, tried again. It wasn''t working.


    ¡°AI can you reproduce Tier 1 medical nanites used at the start of my operation and can you produce Class 1 manufacturing nanites form them?¡± Ellie asked in a voice trembling in fear.


    She did not know if she wanted the answer to be yes or no.


    ¡°Yes Tier 1 and Class 1 nanites can be replicated. The nanites in question are a substandard version of the nanites developed during the operation to repair and upgrade your physical body. The improved nanites are sixty-one point three zero one percent more efficient than the original nanites.¡±


    Ellie did not hear the rest of the AI prattle after it confirmed it could make more nanites. She was too busy trying not to have a panic attack. Ellie had just become a galactic target.


    After ten minute she calmed down enough to think through the problem.


    ¡°Well they don''t know I have the nanites. If I can get off this rock I can disappear in the rim. Far far away from the UEN.¡±


    Ellie had gotten in the habit of talking to herself. It helped her think through a problem and focus her mind.


    ¡°AI¡± she really needed to give that AI a name. It may not have been one of the sentient AIs but it was intelligent.


    ¡°Jarvis, that is now your name, you pain in the nova.¡±


    ¡°Confirmed.¡±


    ¡°All right, now what do you need to produce Tier 1 and Class 1 nanite replicators? Also can you encrypt the basic AI so not even a UEN sentient AIs can crack it?¡±


    Tier 1 nanites were needed to create all Tiers of medical nanites while Class 1 nanites were needed to produce all classes of manufacturing nanites.


    ¡°Confirmed. Replicating Tier 1 and Class 1 nanite replicators can be completed by placing the proper resources into the regeneration tank. Strong encryption is possible.  Breaking the encryption with advanced AIs is impossible to calculate without more data. Tier 1 nanite replicators will be uploaded with the current medical data stored in systems database. The database for the Class 1 replicators will be empty. Please choose replicator nanites, original nanites used in patients operation or the nanites developed during the operation?¡±


    Ellie had to think for a moment. For the medical database she had amassed an impressively large collection of medical knowledge. That was what took Jarvis so long to develop. The database containing all of humanities knowledge on the human body, ailments, and DNA structure and multiplication could fill Fatty a hundred times over if printed out.


    Add in whatever Jarvis had hacked form the corporations and the Tier 1 medical database was as full as Ellie could get it. The Class 1 replicator database was a little harder. Transferring even very old free templates would draw UEN attention faster than traveling in dimension six. She would have to start form the very beginning and have the nanites deconstruct everything possible to develop a manufacturing database, form bolts, to structural beams, to advance electrics.


    Ellie would even need to feed in tools for the replicator to deconstruct and make templates for, even a basic spanner.


    She then remembered Jarvis saying something about improving the nanites.


    ¡°Jarvis did you say you improved the nanites?¡±


    ¡°Confirmed.¡±


    Ellie took a depth breath.


    ¡®Must not upload a virus into the AI. Must not upload a virus into the AI.¡¯


    After relaxing she asked for Jarvis to explain.


    ¡°To fulfill the directive of repairing your ailing organic structure and make improvements deficiencies in the nanites were apparent on the first scan and improvements were initiated. Improvements made increased efficiency by six-one point three zero one percent.¡±


    Ellie took a moment to absorb that. Nanites slowly degraded form use; just the electricity they needed to operate slowing wore out the small machines, that also determined the Tier or Class of the nanites. Class 5 manufacturing nanites were big, relatively speaking, slow, and degraded faster than Class 1 nanites. Improving them by more than fifty percent meant even Class 5 rated manufacturing replicators lasted longer, worked faster, and produced more. For Tier 1 medical nanites they would repair injuries faster, which could save someone¡¯s life that the old nanite versions were to slow to save.