C: One Core to Another

Saying that they were going to connect the experimental core to the beyonder core was one thing, actually setting up that connection was something else.

There were two people who weren't with them who made it possible. The experimental core's developer, who had included the connection schematic in the core's basic functions, and Rafaela's mother.

Her mother had been a scout with a truly amazing breadth of skill, even though she hadn't been a technician or a developer. She had studied the technology of her new home, and begun the process of mapping her ship's core connections long before her daughter had begun creating her own blueprint. She had hoped to recover data from it, such as recordings from her family members.

Her mother's schematic of the core connections had actually been what had inspired Rafaela to believe that if she mapped the rest of the ship, they could replace the control nodes. There were some question marks left, and her mother had never recovered more than the simplified damage log which Rafaela supposed was part of its own basic system, but it was proof of a working connection.

Even though Schmidt had argued against it, he did most of the work involved in building the adapter to link the two systems. Rafaela and Bellamy used the rented scooter to scuttle back and forth from one end of the three dimensional 'field' to the other, as they brought in the components Schmidt demanded. They also took the time to gather every node and wiring net left in any wreck they touched, and because they had to dismantle them to such an extent anyway, they also collected many components in the parts list that the junkyard accepted.

In a way, they were doing what they'd always done, mining their target of everything valuable, and leaving behind a clump of useless material. Not that the discards were completely valueless, because eventually they would be mined again for their elements. The 'end' of the junkyard was a refiner larger, more modern, and more complex than the ones SkyWater used.

By unspoken agreement they avoided the 'claims' of the other scrappers, even though they could probably have gathered the components they needed much more quickly from the closest and most recent discards. Since they weren't interacting with the other scrappers, Rafaela was shocked when Schmidt connected to her suit from the repair shuttle and told her that one of the scrappers was offering to sell them the components they were collecting for slightly more than the junkyard was giving for them, but much less than they were being sold for.

"How do they know what we're collecting?" she asked worriedly.

The long pause before Schmidt answered told her that he had relayed her question. It also made her wonder if the scrapper in question was inside the repair shuttle, although she couldn't quite explain why the idea made her feel so uneasy.

"Says we're in twentieth place on the scoreboard, which is rare for newbies, so she looked up what we've been turning in. Says she figured we're keeping the rest of what was probably left in targets we chose," Schmidt relayed.

The way he freely added his own thoughts a moment later made Rafaela decide that the scrapper probably wasn't aboard to hear them.

"She's not wrong about what we're keeping, probably worked over some of the wrecks you chose and knew exactly what was left, but I don't know if it's worth it Cinderella. It would speed things up if this gamble actually works, but we'll need every credit if it fails, in order to get you a working core," Schmidt pointed out.

Rafaela silently sighed over the nickname, but she only suggested, "Maybe we should ask if she's got a core?"

Another long silence answered her, and she helped Bellamy finish dismantling the old fashioned shielding plates on the section of the elderly cargo pod that they were currently stripping.

Schmidt finally reported, "Says that cores usually get pulled before ships come to the junkyard, and that the ones that don't are never functional." He hesitated before adding, "But she also said she knows someone who builds unregistered cores out of core scraps. I'm against that option. Your life kind of depends on your ship's core, apart from any licensing problems."

Rafaela stopped moving for long enough that Bellamy looked at her, shut off her cutter, and asked, "What is it?"

Rafaela added her to the connection and told them both, "I think we want to see if we can't talk to that scrap core builder. They might know how to identify the function of the remaining unidentified wires, and be able to verify what we think we have properly identified. It would greatly improve our chances of attempting the copy without damaging either core wouldn't it?"

Schmidt heaved an audible sigh and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Out of the mouths of babes." He declared much more firmly, "I'll get the builder's contact details."

--

Rafaela strongly suspected that they were dealing with a pirate. A mad genius of a pirate, but… definitely someone who regarded laws and certifications as quaint traditions.

The man hadn't even blinked at the notion of copying the system program from one core to another. He'd even offered to sell them a copy of a system that was a mere decade old for a quarter of the price of a new core, if their attempt failed. Rafaela hadn't turned him down, because after they paid him for his services, she didn't think they would have any chance left of finding a core that was cheap enough to buy with what remained.

The core of her mother's ship had been cut free, disconnected, and removed. It currently lay naked of its protective shell and looking half dismantled on the core builder's worktable. The compartment they were crowded into was actually quite large, it was just very full. Parts of cores, connection cables, wiring nets, and more were tied into cargo frames that covered every wall.

The new experimental core sat at the other end of the table, like a glossy example of what every core wanted to grow up to be, with its schematics displayed on a high-end holo screen beside it.

The mad genius plucked another tiny fragment out of the broken core's heart and muttered, "Maybe a b2270?" The resident system responded to his mutter by changing the display on a standard display panel into a 2d blueprint with hundreds of tiny information blocks. He merely glanced at it before shaking his head and announcing, "That's not it."

He reached for a vial that he'd said contained a non-conductive filler, and maneuvered a frame into place over the core before attaching the vial to it. When he'd used it before he'd simply dipped several broken filaments into it. This time he had the system print the substance into the place he'd plucked the tiny fragment out of.

"Well, let's see if she'll live without it!" the core builder declared as he snapped the power connection with the strange looking adapter, that he'd cobbled together in mere minutes, into place, and pressed the system panel, that now lay in a lonely fashion beside the main bulk of the broken core, attached only by a handful of fine wires.

The broken core booted up and the display screen attached to it lit up. The characters it displayed belonged to her mother's original home system. Rafaela translated the ones that had never shown up before the system had shut itself down before aloud, "System damage detected. Running diagnostics…"

"Success!" the mad genius cackled.

--

Several hours later, the adapter that Schmidt had been assembling, which the core builder had given grudging approval of, and added a single connection to after examining both cores, was snapped into place.

The broken core's display screen announced a moment later, "Replacement detected. Transfer data?" There were more options in smaller print, and Rafaela squinted at them.

"What's it say?" Bellamy asked. Schmidt had gone back to the repair shuttle to sleep, but Rafaela had insisted on staying with her cores, and Bellamy had stayed with her.

Rafaela translated the first lines and the mad genius interrupted with a long whistle. "That's impressive. I want a copy. Maybe you could let me keep her, miss Cinderella?"

Rafaela hadn't argued when Schmidt had insisted on having her use the name as an alias. He and Bellamy were going by their family names, and the secretive core builder had grudgingly given them Brennant as his own name, without indicating whether it was a personal or family name. They were all being careful.

"What's so impressive about that?" she asked warily.

"Well, both systems get some credit," he admitted, and pointed to the new core's display, which announced the direct connection of a system requesting full access. "But it's really impressive that such an old system could detect that a system this new was connected, let alone that it's empty. Honestly? I really didn't expect this to work, because none of the old standard systems I've run across can create a connection without at least having a patch applied."

Rafaela didn't reply immediately, as she silently pondered the options. Transfer data sounded simple, and like exactly what they wanted, except for the fact that one of the tiny alternatives was 'Transfer system?' Another option was 'Transfer system and selected data?' There were more options that sounded like diagnostics for the connected system. There was also a line of yellow text at the bottom that warned, "Data storage damaged, recovery incomplete."

"It says recovery incomplete at the bottom," Rafaela reported. "Maybe it needs more time?"

"Nah. It's the sectors that we chose to archive instead of delete after it completed its diagnostics," the mad genius assured her almost airily, as he instructed the new core to approve the access request. "Start the transfer attempt!"

Rafaela selected the tiny option that said transfer system instead of the large transfer data. That was the part that they needed most, and the part that would make this gamble a success or a failure.