6. Partners

  The youngest child was six years old, the oldest was thirteen. I was curious, so I scanned their faces with my external cameras and quickly determined one thing.

  None of them were native to this dimension.

  While most people can’t tell the difference between an Atlian and a native human without specific measurements to things like their pore counts and scanning their X-rays or genetic analysis…

  Okay, I cheated and counted their pores through my cameras. The were definitely Atlians.

  The children lined up in the flattened grass around my stairway while Senshi explained what was about to happen.

  “We find that it is best for a ship with the spark, such as yourself, to begin with a partner who is in the foundation realm. While the amount of Qi you generate with your reactor seems like a significant amount, and it is as much as a bronze realm cultivator produces, its density is much closer to that of someone in the foundation realm. That is why we will be paring you up with a child,” he explained.

  “Okay, so they’re going to be my new captain?” I asked.

  “They will be your Dao partner. Not a true companion, but more like a fellow disciple. We will weed them out based on Qi compatibility between you and the children, and then of those left you can select the one you wish to accompany you on your journey based on whatever criteria you want,” Senshi explained.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “They are waiting for you to invite them inside of you,” Senshi said quietly. “Among Atlians, it is considered the height of rudeness to disrespect a SoulShip by boarding them without permission.”

  “Oh. Right, you kids can all come inside,” I said, and the children rushed aboard.

  What followed was a three-hour long mess as the children explored my internals while shouting to each other in a language that I couldn’t understand. There were so many Atlian languages that it was hard to keep track of them all, and most of the codexes for their languages were in the files that got ‘eaten’ by my sudden awakening.

  Basically, my brain was a mess. From a technical aspect, most of the files from Artemis were still intact. But it was a bit like someone had installed a new operating system (that would be me) on an old system without properly formatting the hard drive.

  Still, it was fun to watch them playing about inside me, and I opened doors for them and showed them where the bathrooms are when I noticed them doing a pee-dance and other things like that.

  Some of them left on their own, while others tried to stay but were confronted by Senshi and told to leave. Finally there were three left. Two boys and a girl. The youngest was one of the boys, and he was about eight years old, while the oldest was the other boy at twelve or thirteen. The girl was eleven.

  “Arty, these three are compatible with you. They are very excited with the possibility of stepping onto this path and walking it with you, but ultimately it is your decision to decide which of them will have the opportunity,” Senshi explained. “You may take as much time as you need to make this decision.”

  “Sure,” I said. “But I can’t understand a word they’re saying.”

  He blinked. “Oh. Let me fix that, hold on.”

  He muttered something, closed his eyes, and then pressed a hand to my wall.

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  And suddenly I could understand everything that the children had said over the last few hours.

  From a technical view there was no explanation for what had just happened. He didn’t install a file, he simply pressed his understanding of the language into mine. My soul made the translation and not my mind, so I had to replay the recordings I’d taken in order to actually remember what was said.

  But I could understand them now, so I revisited the memories of the children.

  I quickly decided against the oldest boy, as he was a bit of a bully, teasing the other kids that he would be chosen and they would not.

  The youngest boy seemed alright. At least, he was playful and excited, especially as he explored my reactor and played with the zero-gravity toilet. I think he’d be mortified when he realized what the suction device he’d placed on his face was for. But ultimately he didn’t quite feel right to me either.

  The girl, on the other hand, was kind and patient, and mostly quiet. She’d explored with quiet curiosity and hadn’t caused a fuss, even when the oldest boy had told her that there was no chance that she’d be the one chosen.

  And it felt right to prove him wrong, so after careful deliberation I declared that she was the lucky winner.

  I almost immediately regretted it, because the youngest boy was heartbroken not to be selected. The oldest boy got a furious scowl on his face and glared at the girl, who smiled at him and waved goodbye as he stormed off of me.

  She then consoled the younger boy, saying that there would be other opportunities for him to explore this dimension and that he just had to wait until he was older. Then she gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead and sent him off.

  With that decided, she asked where her bedroom would be, and I showed her to the largest of the crew rooms that had been vacated by the departing crew members. She looked around for a while, then began redecorating, tossing out the grownup clothes and junk into a pile.

  Her name was Aster, and she was chatting with me cheerfully as she explained her intentions for decorating the room. She said that she intended to paint it pink, but I said that was stupid and changed the color of the walls pink for her, since I could do that without paint. She was surprised, but smiled and thanked me, then asked me to adjust the shade until it was just what she wanted.

  She left with the other children, but she would be back after saying farewell to her parents and packing her belongings.

  Once she was gone, I tuned into the crew meeting that was going on between the members of the crew who had survived the purge. Captain Min-jae remained in charge, with Rebekah as his XO. That much hadn’t changed at least.

  Sanjay and Tess had likewise survived the culling of my crew, but we were down to bare bones. Aside from those, there were Lila, our medical and morale officer, Mace, whose job was navigation and was excitedly talking about the updates to the starmaps that the Atlians had given him, Lukas, who was somewhere between an engineer and a janitor and was complaining about cleaning up after the kids, and a few others.

  “Hey guys, what’s going on?” I asked, interrupting the meeting. I could have reviewed the recording, but that was boring and it was easier to just ask.

  They paused, then looked at my holographic face, which popped up on the table between them.

  “Arty, how are you doing that?” Rebekah asked calmly.

  “Doing what?” I asked

  “There isn’t a projector in this room.”

  “Oh,” I said, and the hologram fell apart. “I don’t know how I did that,” I admitted. “I wasn’t thinking about it that hard.”

  She sighed and nodded. “Just, do us all a favor. If you figure out how to make holograms without a projector, don’t use that ability in the bathrooms, okay?”

  “’kay” I agreed. “So what’s going on? What’s the meeting about?”

  “Well, our future,” Rebekah explained. “We’re all committed to remaining aboard you, Arty, but we’re not entirely sure what that means. The alliance has offered to buy us out, but we wouldn’t let them. That means that we remain seriously in debt as far as the government is concerned. But they’re also offering us work, so we’re hoping we can—”

  “Hey guys, did you meet Aster?” I asked. “She’s my new Dao partner. Isn’t that neat?”

  ?