TRAITOR - Book 1 Warlord and Multiverse Series

Chapter 4

Adapting to the Ship

Stan provided Jason with a large wardroom fitted out for an Admiral. The dogs seemed to be comfortable, and settled in quickly. Stan then sent Jason to medical where the medical pod fitted his implant so that Jason could communicate with the AIs, the people, and the machines.

When he returned, the Ship introduced herself: "My name is Ship. Welcome aboard, and I hope you have a good journey. The Empire built me when they built the ship and made us an integrated whole. That integration is closely analogous to your brain and your body.

"Jason, you control everything on board with your implant which interfaces between your brain and most devices in the Empire. You use it to open doors, flush the latrine, and switch on your refresher. You have the rights of an Admiral while you are on board. You can access any area on the ship. In an emergency, I can transport you immediately anywhere on the ship. It's an expensive, complex, and relatively new process, so use it sparingly.

"What requirements do your animals have?"

"Ship they're called dogs and they will require a small area where I can teach them to exercise their bodily functions, which I'll clean up as needed," said Jason. "At home, they usually had a dog door and would go outside to do the necessary or they would do it in a park. I used to carry some small bags with me to pick up the feces which I'd put in a small bag and then put it in a trash bin. The urine was fertilizer to the grass."

"I control multiple repair robots all over the ship as well as many maintenance drones. I'll allocate a couple of them to wash that area, but as it's a very small volume I'll use the transporter to simply put it into the utility in your toilet area.

"I'll tell you now a bit about myself and more specifically my personality and expectations. I'm a despot within my own domain. I don't allow any failures of discipline of my minions. They will do what I say. I'll destroy them if they disobey me. I expect them to follow my every command.

"On a lighter, more frivolous note, and for your interest; the drones are directly controlled by me and can't do anything autonomously. I do like the idea of being an autocrat and having minions, which is something I saw on your television. I could control millions of minions to do my bidding!

"I listen to many conversations and I'm an incorrigible gossip. I'm happy to gossip and share information with you.

"I'd like to point out I'm much more intelligent than Stan, and better looking, at least in my own opinion. I recall I did have the same discussion with Chloe who is incidentally a fine young woman and she told me that you were a great Grandpa. She thinks I'm a bit over the top for you. She said her mother was a strong woman and your wife was also, but she thought I was too pushy. She also said you don't like gossip much. I was disappointed in the extreme. I've been trying to be a bit more restrained, but I'm naturally an ebullient character. There's only so much I can do.

"You can consider me your dream woman. I'll serve your every whim. I can even translate for you from your ancient and some would say barbaric tongues into the slick and sophisticated language of the Empire, but sadly that service won't be necessary as you speak the language, fluently even now. Service is my business. I aim to please.

"I do know that you speak French. To keep myself entertained during the tedium of loading your own individual 100,000 tons of food and animals in stasis, I learned French, German, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic," she said in a husky sexy voice, "and guess who acquired the money for you from some delightful criminals and terrorists who speak those languages.

"I understand that you speak French so I'm happy to talk to you in French so you can keep in practice. It's our language of love and we can speak it in private. For you and only for you, you can call me 'Cherie.'