Many thanks to Grundy_Golem for his help with the editing of this chapter
Progenitor
Chapter 12
After Sam got back to her room she decided to take a few minutes to review some of the previous Security Logs. She opened the last log.
This was very interesting, some type of security lockout had been installed. She would have to check on that in the morning, after she saw what types of weapons were available on the base. It seemed strange that her predicessor had referred to this as a ship and not a base. Slightly confused, Sam went to bed and finally fell asleep.
Meanwhile the rest of the "crew" had gone to their quarters; there wasn't much activity to note in the different areas. The two young girls didn't even have the energy to "fool around" with each other and went to sleep quickly. It was the same all over the base.
The next morning AL woke up the crew with a gentle chime in each of the quarters. Everyone got up excited, dressed in their new uniforms and went to their assigned stations. Except Amy; she thought she might as well start in her own quarters. After giving it some thought she had the rooms rearranged to her preference as to style and decor. She then went to the galley, had a cup of hot chocolate, and started changing the menus so that they could stomach it better. She asked AL if it would be possible for her to go back to Earth and get some samples of the different types of food that they were used to having and eating. She did decide that there would not be a lot of "junk" food included. AL told her she was the captain, what she wanted was what he would do. Amy said she would get the input from the rest before going. She did want coffee included now though and of course some of the standard breakfast items. She made up a menu for their lunch that day so as to surprise the others. Next she went to Med Bay to see what she could do to improve the looks of the "Doc". She had brought several pictures of different people to use as a model for the outward appearence. She also wanted to improve the "bedside" manner of the "Doc". After these changes had been made, she had AL call everyone to the galley dining area for lunch. Lunch consisted of burgers, fries, and sweet tea. Every one seemed to enjoy these. While they were eating she asked each of them for their input as to what their favorite foods were. But told them that lots of junk food was out of the question. Amy got all the feedback she needed and saw that Italian, steaks, and some Mexican was most listed. Of course Sam wanted some Japanese foods included. Amy told them she would see what she could do about it. The lunch break lasted about an hour and a half, then everyone went back to their assignments.
Jake had gotten up as soon as the chime sounded, dressed, requested a cup of coffee, and then gone to Engineering. The first thing he did was to review the base wide scans done by the droid. Not finding anything special, he went on to review the full diagnostics that he had requested from AL last night. Only one thing jumped out at him, the readout showed that the communication array was not responding at all. Jake asked AL if this would effect the data from the satellites in orbit. The reply was not what he wanted to hear. With the communication array not responding AL had no access to any external data. That would have to be first on his list of things to check and repair. He did note that the nuclear power was online and working well. This was good news as they now had sufficient power to make the needed items, after redesigning them to use what was available. He went to lunch when AL called as instructed by Amy.
John was slow to get up that morning. He had never been a "morning" person but guessed he would have to get used to it. Like Jake he had coffee before going to the Science station. Once there, he noticed that there was not any data coming from the satellites, he would refer that to Jake. AL informed him that they really needed more nuclear material to provide the power they would need if they ever wanted to try and lift off. John was not aware that this was possible until that moment. This could really be interesting, he could study stars that were too far away to see even with his telescope back home. Getting back to work, John next looked up the logs from the previous Science Officer but found that there wasn't much information that was useful to them at this time. John decided that he really needed the satellite feeds back up before he could look for more power sources or more crew. He next took a look at the learning program that AL had made for him and saw he had a lot to learn. Most of it was types of elements and their uses. He was just really getting in to it when lunch was called.
Kate and Sally were as hard to get up as John. But unlike Jake and John they didn't have coffee. They wanted to be sharp but not "wired". After dressing, they went to the "classroom", which turned out to be several cubicles with video screens. The first thing they were exposed to was the theory of flight in general. Then it got harder. They were then introduced to the different types of ships available on the base, shuttles, single person scout ships, dual person scout ships, remote controlled drones, and two different fighters. AL informed them that they both would start out in the shuttle and progress to the others as they became more proficient in operating them. AL once again reminded Kate that the fighter was the most complicated craft next to the main ship itself. This tweaked both of them, so they asked what main ship. AL then informed them that the base was really just a big ship that was grounded and that hopefully it would some day be able to lift off and return to it's mission. About that time lunch was called.
Sam, like Jake got up easily. She too passed on the coffee and went straight to her duty station for today. Once inside the armory Sam was shown the different weapons on board for personal use, primarily handguns, stun batons, and pulse rifles. AL explained the workings of each. Afterwards, Sam practiced with each of the weapons to acquaint herself with them. This took all morning, the next thing she knew it was lunch time. She had been surprised that she picked up on the weapons very quickly and was pretty good at hitting the targets, even the moving ones.
After everyone had finished eating, and giving Amy their opinions about the foods they liked, they went back to their work. Amy looked at each of their quarters and made suggestions as to how to redesign them. Jake went straight to the communication control and started tracing the circuits, he found a burned out module, removed and replaced it then slowly fed power back in until it was at "full" power. The data started to stream in in large amounts, almost too much at one time so he restricted the data flow for a while to let the system catch up. Once he was satisfied with this, Jake went to the engine control area to see if he could get some idea as to what type of engines were used. The engines were, of course, like nothing he had ever seen before. He started to pull the manuals on them but decided that engines were not the highest priority right now. Going back to main engineering he reviewed the rest of the problems reported by his diagnostics and went to the next major problem.
John was glad that Jake had gotten the satellite feeds back on line. As he looked at the data he noticed that there appeared to be a large concentration of nuclear material in the dessert in the Middle East. AL told him that the material was not very pure but could be made to work, and purified, once on board.
Amy had AL prepare her shuttle so she could return to earth for groceries. She then remembered that she didn't have much money on her and wasn't sure as to how to get groceries without it. AL came to the rescue, he asked how she was going to obtain the items; then suggested that she just scan them with her "CD player". That way he could just take that data and introduce it in to the replicator database. Amy left for Earth.
Sam went back to the armory to practice more and to give AL the list of items she would need to instruct the rest in self defense.
Kate and Sally returned to the flight deck for a hands on look at the different type craft. Kate was surprised to find that the fighters were so small, as compared to the size of the shuttle she had been riding in. AL explained that the Captain's Gig was the largest of the shuttles. After seeing an example of all the craft the two girls went back to class for the rest of the day.
After Amy returned from the surface, she had AL insert the data she had collected in to the food database. Supper that night was much better than the one before. Everyone had steak, baked potato, small salad, and iced tea. After supper AL notified them that since taking over most of the satellites he now could give them any of the TV channels that were available, in many different languages. The crew elected to watch HBO.
The next morning John approached Amy with his finding about the nuclear material and about this being a ship. Amy told him she already knew this was really a ship but had wanted everyone to find out on their own. As to getting the nuclear material, she said that Jake and the rest of the crew would need to be brought up to date on this as she thought it would take all of them to get it. Amy checked with Jake and Sam to see if they could break away long enough for a strategy meeting, neither said it would be a problem.
After Jake and Sam arrived John repeated his discoveries; neither were surprised about this being a ship,but both were interested in the nuclear material. Sam said if they had more people then they could just send a shuttle down and remove the material and bring it back. Jake was concerned about the material being impure as that might indicate that there was a hazard to be dealt with. But suggested that they might be able to use a couple of droids. John then gave them AL's solution of using a scout ship with a remote. Amy asked AL how long it would be before one of the girls would be ready to fly that type ship. AL told her that he could use the "rapid learning" and have them ready in a day or so. In fact he would suggest that Sally fly the scout ship and Kate cover her in a fighter just in case there was trouble. AL said he had not suggested this to the girls as he wanted to evaluate their ability to comprehend the subject on their own. Amy told him to go ahead and do it. AL said he would that care of it that night while they slept. But they would still need two days to practice in the actual ships.
Kate and Sally were informed of the change that night at supper. Both asked why it was not suggested before and were given the explanation. The girls were also told that they needed to get plenty of sleep that night as they most likely would be flying in space tomorrow. Sam said she would go with them when the time came to provide some ground support. Jake mentioned that he also needed to be able to fly at least a shuttle and thought all of them should be qualified for shuttle duty. Amy agreed and asked AL to provide the "rapid learning" for all of them but to concentrate on Sally and Kate for now.