Eating Rocks?

Joshua POV

"So, Ruby, do you know how to pilot this ship?" I ask.

"Of course I do! The chip in your neck should probably have taught you all you need to know about the ship!" Ruby states, before sitting down in the helm seat.

"Huh? I thought it was to keep the crew in check..."

"Well thats one of its purposes. Two other purposes are to link people to the ships AI, its range is 2 AU (Astronomical Units, or roughly 93 million Miles) its third function is to aid you where it can, just think hard and start the sentence with, 'Hey system' and it'll answer to the best of its abilities, and don't worry, there is almost no delay time between the asking and answers." She says, motioning me to try.

I close my eyes and focus on what I think the chip would look like, 'Hey system, what's the status on the ship?'

Suddenly a voice in my head says, "The ships hull integrity is low, repair required, recommended strategy for repair, self-repair by cannibalization. Oxygen irrelevant for the Captain, however, the crew (You) needs it to survive, enough food to last 3 more months, Water. The fuel will last for 3 more months as well."

I think over what it just said, 'Hey system, what do you mean by Cannibalization?'

<Can't tell you. Ask the captain for permission.> The systems replies, I turn to Ruby and ask the same question.

"Ship Cannibalization is one of the many unique technologies of the Imperium Vorgasso, developed to permit ships to always be more powerful in melee against any other ship. Cannibalization lets the ship eat and absorb other ships to help either reinforce or repair this ship. However, this technology is sin early stages so there are many till weak points inside of its 'mouth', so its better to immobilize or neutralize the armament of the enemy ship before you attempt to eat it," Ruby explains.

"Yo Josh, what should we do first?" Violet asks, I guess there will be no questions until I go to bed.

"Isn't it obvious?" I pause, seeing if she knows, "Haiz... Your the CAPTAIN! I'm not! That means you need to do the commanding, not me!"

I suddenly feel a slight shock in my neck, 'Do not speak to the Captain in such a fashion,' The slightly feminine voice in my head says, with a slight warning laced into it

Wow... either the system is completely devout to its job as an enforcer, or its a sadist.

"System! What are you doing! Did I tell you that you may do corporal punishment on my First Mate?! You better Apologize and make sure it doesn't happen again!" Ruby says, furious. 'Huh so she does care...'

"Very well, Mistress... Sorry, First Mate," She doesn't sound sorry, but I really hope it doesn't happen again, or I don't think we'll be getting very close.

"So, anyway, what should we do?" Ruby asks.

"Well, since I am First Mate, I guess that I should make some recommendations. First and foremost we must repair the ship, cause its in a worse for wear condition, and then replenish our food supplies, I don't know if Titans need food but I sure do."

"W-what about a crew?!" Ruby asks.

"Well I don't think we need it, after all, this ship has run itself for what, 150 years? Also, remember this is Vorgasso machinery, if we enter anywhere where any half-ass criminal syndicate operates, they'll make us give the ship away. So we must run into more space pods along the way or raid ships for our crew." I say, before taking in a deep breath.

Then something totally random hit me. "Hey Ruby, I wonder what happened to those fox hybrids..."

Suddenly Ruby was standing right next to me, "They do not matter, don't EVER speak of them again, after all, they're probably dead," She says, in a very cold voice, I guess she doesn't like what the captain did? Might be a good plan to change the topic.

"Anyways, I think that the best thing to do for repairing the ship would be to do a scan for the strongest alloys and then eat those asteroids once we check that there are no Void Worms." I sweat nervously, cause if she wishes, she could kinda force choke me...

"Oh sure!" She becomes all rainbows and smiles again before sitting down back into her seat, "Hey Ocean scan the surrounding area for needed materials."

A few seconds later the System displays a holographic screen displaying 14 names, but 2 that I could actually pronounce was Titanium and Lead, "So I'm guessing this is made of an alloy made up of these materials?" I ask, aloud.

"That is correct, First Mate. It will also make the materials to make some rooms for you two." Ocean says.

"Wait, there are no sleeping quarters yet!?" Ruby asks, I don't know if thats surprise or excitement.

"No, there were hibernation chambers, which are practically public bedrooms where people sleep in cryo beds." Ocean says.

"Well, I should've guessed that, people from the Imperium are humanoid, and hold that human need for sleep, unlike me..." Ruby trails off, starting to look a little down, "That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it though!"

I walk up to her back and give some gentle pats, to reassure her, she nods in thanks before telling the system, "Set the auto pilot to cannibalize all asteroids, while it does that, would you like to take a tour of the ship, Josh?"

"Why not?" I say, getting out of my seat

*

Joshua POV

As she guides me down the halls she show's the various rooms, even though I already have the specifications of most of the ship there were some details that were left out, either due to the System probably hating me or because these specifications are deemed important to the ships integrity, so therefore classified.

Two areas that were extremely different from any other ship they've ever seen was the Engine Room and obviously, the Cannibalization Room.

The room had a rough, uneven shape, and honestly, the only thing I can compare it to is a Moon's sea of craters. Only there were countless red and dark lights, and behind them were massive machines. Huge Saw Blades for splitting, Industrial Lasers for more precise cuts, Massive Blast Furnaces to melt and purify, and countless other massive machines mainly to cut up, sort and purify materials that would make the largest industrial centers in our Solar System blush.

And then there was one massive machine, looking kind of a 3D printer but it clearly wasn't.

'Hey Ocean, whats that?' I ask

<That, my First Mate, is the ONE THING THAT IS CLASSIFIED> It ends up yelling, or at least as much as a System AI could.

'Rude... How can I figure out?'

<Maybe, you should the person thats babbling to the left.> I look to see Ruby on my left, oh wow, Ocean also makes fun of Ruby, if I tell her Ocean's gonna be in trouble, why does that sound so exciting?

"... Red lights mean that the machine is under operation and you shouldn't approach it, if no light is being shown, then the Machine is turned off and is safe to approach... Hey, are you listening?!" Ruby says.

"Sorry, I was too busy looking at that, do you know what it is?" I ask before pointing to the printer-like machine.

"Oh. Thats the... 3D Estructor. It was a technology that was developed by the Imperium for this one technology, it is used to destroy any asteroid and turn it into one large block of that pure material, we shall soon see how it works. Also, some things that the system is telling me, that the Saws and the 3D Estructor are used together, the saws are used cut up the asteroid into smaller pieces of roughly 30 meters by 30 meters cubes [That means 30x30x30 meters] and then its processed by the 3D Estructor, due to this maximum size of a 30 by 30 cube the process is quite slow, if you would like to upgrade it, we will need a lot of rare materials we don't have. Oh! And its telling me that the Cannibalization process shall now begin! So you should get out due to the vacuum coming!" Ruby says.

The door opens like it was cued to open right after she said that, so there was no chance for me to safely exit, 'That fucking system, already trying to kill me...'