200 words about a gunship

[feldman]

Work blows. Fic happens in the breathing spaces between stupidity and hammering.



First Contact

The little ship is still warm from the Parent it came out of, but unlike him, it is inert. It fits into his bay like a tool into a socket. Reassuring. The pilot steps out of the little ship. Internal weapons prime, and the pilot is watched from every direction. The pilot is not like a tool, even though it also fits inside him. It is like a tiny Parent.

The pilot is exchanging some of the oxygen in the atmosphere for a mix of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and oddly familiar trace gases. The pilot uses the outflow to carry modulated vibrations, and the stimulus triggers the first of a series of imprinting programs.

This first program analyzes the vibration sample, then executes a series of commands. Internal weapons power down, natal language functions are brought online, and the ship begins to understand.

The pilot is speaking a Sebacean military dialect, and is an ally. The being is not a tiny Parent, it is his commanding officer. The commanding officer's speech is re-routed to the primary biological interface, and the ship begins to learn.

The first thing the ship learns is that the command structure is no longer valid.

Comments

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it 8 )