[Admiral, I have signs of a failing Optical Field. I will work to identify the precise coordinates.] Sylvie announced as they reached their next destination.
That was the sign she had been hoping for. Working technology from her time meant that whatever was inside should still be mostly intact. Sylvie hummed happily as she processed the data and brought up the sensor scans for Max, while the others were busy working on the first batch of items they had retrieved.
918 milliseconds. That was how long it took Sylvie to find the exact location of the hidden object, and she began to consider whether her sensors might be out of calibration again. They had been repaired, but for some reason, they just wouldn't stay calibrated to her satisfaction.
It went counter to her programming to call her designers cheap bastards who had cut too many corners and made her ship unreliable by design, but she was seriously considering altering that part of her database. What would it hurt? There were plenty of sections still missing, and she operated flawlessly.
Sylvie left a single process calculating the possible outcomes to deleting the imperative not to speak negatively of her creators, while the sensors double-checked for any other objects in the vicinity.
Still 918 milliseconds. Too long. She was definitely checking her sensors' calibration again.
[Admiral, no other signatures or signs of Optical Fields have been found. Would you like to begin analysis and retrieval?] She asked.
"Yes, identify what is in the barrier if possible, and establish a connection with it, then proceed with retrieval once we know what it is." Max agreed.
[Got it Admiral.]
Max smiled as the announcement appeared on the data tablet that he was working on, then double-checked the information that Sylvie had sent him. Her sensors were out of calibration again, the time to do the scan had nearly doubled from after he had optimized them, and he knew that she wouldn't be happy about it.
AI emotions were a bit different from human, but there was a definite displeasure in her actions when something was going wrong with her ship. He could see it in her body language, even if he couldn't read her mind.
She sent the drones out right away, even before she had identified what was inside the optical field. It wasn't large enough to be another World Ship, but the field was over three hundred metres in diameter, and her calculations said that it should be a high-value asset to have a barrier that large.
Either that, or it was a decoy probe that had remained intact this long. That would also be a benefit to them, as the plans for the probe had been lost to data corruption, but having an intact one on board would allow them to fully study it.
She walked her avatar over to the table where Max was working and placed her hand on his shoulder to establish the direct link with her sensors.
"I have a connection with the optical device, and it reports that I do not have the updated clearance codes to disable the device. You do, though, as you are the biological Admiral aboard the vessel, and you have been verified by me." She explained.
That was a bit ridiculous, but it was likely a countermeasure against an AI run amok.
Max entered his command codes, and the optical device sent back a confirmation ping. It was mounted aboard the attack craft CD-0420, which was otherwise completely inactive and ready for retrieval.
Max sent it a retrieval confirmation, and Sylvie moved the drones in to pick the ship up and disable the device.
"Hey, I know this one. This is one of mine. Unit 04 Vessel 20. I will bring this one right back to the team so they can look it over. We have made some replacements already, in preparations for the additional androids who will become the crew. But there weren't any on board when I was brought back online." She informed Max.
"Now they'll be thrilled. The first stop was interesting, but this one is actually related to us directly. Now, if we could just determine where it was lost, we might be able to map other likely spots for debris from the battle to have ended up." Max noted.
"I will run the process in the background. However, so much about the astronomical phenomenon here has changed that I have determined a less than ten percent chance of a successful analysis."
Max shrugged. "Even if it isn't successful, it might lead to some possible nearby locations based on the presence of this one and known nearby gravitational disturbances. Even a slight deviation would have led this attack craft to either stop in an asteroid field or burn up in a star."
Sylvie processed that for a fraction of a second, then altered her analysis parameters to work from this location backward, based on the miniscule amount of cosmic drift that she had recorded.
"Understood Commander. The vessel should be at the work bay in thirty seconds, should we warn them in advance?" Max listened to their thoughts, which were all eagerly anticipating the arrival of the vessel like it was Kepler Day morning, and shook his head. "They already know."
"Then should we move on to the next location? Or should I remain here for a measure of time until I have finished the analysis of likely nearby objects?"
"Head to the next one. If you determine that there might be more here that we can't detect, we can send one of the other AI units back here to check and run more calculations."
That worked very well for Sylvie. She liked these new AI entities that the humans had made. They were very efficient and loyal, and not at all creepy like her last Admiral had been. If she hadn't communicated with them directly, she might have missed the fact that they were artificial at all. They had none of the tactical shortcomings that most of her kind did, and they had entire fleets of androids to help them with processing while marshalling a force on the battlefield. It was practically cheating, and it was amazing. She couldn't wait until she had the chance to do it herself.
