Hello, I’m Mijar, a sentient cargo spaceship doing the route between Noqoru and Jefera.
Been at this for a loooooooong time.
Day one: 44455
Doing just fine.I’m bored.
I mean yes, all of the maintenance signals on the console are on, but we already knew I was made as cheaply as possible and I only made it this long out of spite.
Day two: 44556
Did I mention I’m bored? Still 14 days away from landing.
Crew still sleeping.
Cargo still in place.
All the maintenance alert alerting.
Not much I can do about it.
Day three: 11333
Oh no. Weapon systems out. Basically useless. At the very least,
Just hoping we’re not gonna need them. Attachments crossed.
Day four: 236
Keeping a low profile. Not that it makes any difference, there’s not much around here and when something appears it’s either inanimate and doesn’t care, or it’s pirates and they only care about cargo.
Still.
One day closer.
Day five: 1146
Something wrong in the medical bay.
Ok, ok, don’t panic, we can still making it to Jefera all alive.
Rather than waking up the crew slowly, I’ll let them be defrosted planetside. It’s an option, not the preferred one, and I like to say goodbye when they leave on their legs and it won’t happen this way. But it’s still a safe option.
I’ll just keep an eye on their vitals.
But wait, how do I know the sensors are working? I hate this. I’m getting data so I’m assuming they work, if they just stopped, I wouldn’t be getting any signal, right? Right? Yeah I think that’s right. Not that there’s anyone that will answer me.
Day six: 225
Nothing happens. Don’t want to say I’m relieved because I don’t want to jinx it. Still 9 days.
Day seven: 125
No no no no no no.
This can’t be happening.
Something is wrong in the crew quarters and I have no way of knowing what.
Day eight: 36
Ok, if I was organic, I would be breathing a little bit easier.
Not too much, still gonna be hard, but there’s hope this works. I managed to move the cryopods from the damaged crew storage to the cargo cryostorage area that I can still access and monitor. Again, not ideal, but there’s not long left and the pods appear to be working fine and I really really want to get these people home.
Day nine: 256
Things that were working yesterday are still working. I count it as a positive. Let’s keep it this way.
Day ten: 1235
I can’t do this anymore, I’m retiring after this mission. Just because I’m an AI it doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings. I’ve seen too much shit, I’m done. And organic beings are too fragile. I can’t even.
Day eleven: 455
Let’s just keep going a little longer. Time is meaningless anyway.
Day twelve: 234
Sent communications to Jefera that we’re getting close. Cargo is unevenly stored because I had to move the cryopods and they’ll need some medical to overlook the cryowake process because I can’t. It will be an “interesting” landing.
Waiting for an answer.
Day thirteen: 245
Waiting. Moving. Monitoring.
Day fourteen: 224
Slowly approaching Jefera. There shouldn’t be a difference between knowing the planet is where it’s supposed to be because my sensors tell me so, and knowing that it’s there because of relayed data. But there is.
Day fifteen: 146
We’ve made it. Barely. The landing was memorable, but the planetside crew had gotten my message and was ready for it; turns out they had answered, but for some reason I didn’t receive it.
Both my cargo and my passengers/crew made it safely, and they’re getting out of cryogenic stasis as we speak.
Technically, I made it this far in one piece, but I can’t say I’m whole.
Too many faulty bits this time.
I’m also old, and tired. And I don’t think my employer is willing to pay for a whole diagnostic and retrofit me, so… who knows.
Epilogue
I’ve been parked here for a few day.
The crew got out of stasis and got told how lucky they are to still be alive and how spectacular the nearly crash landing into the spacedocks was. A few came by to say hello-goodbye and thank you.
And someone working at the docks told me their cousin has a job in one of the local shipyard, and they are always looking for older, experienced AIs to train the new ones.
So maybe this has been my last trip. But not the end of my story.