It was the next day, after a good rest, that Astral came out of her ship and called for another meeting. She stood outside of the stasis field, laying her back on a pillar. In her hands was a metallic device or component of sorts— something that Abyssal was unable to determine from sight alone.
Astral waited there for a good minute or two before all three crew members of the S.A.S. Abyssal came out of the gangplank. It was then that Astral’s eyes widened upon seeing two new humanoids among the crew. At first Astral thought that Abyssal had two other crew members that she didn’t reveal the day prior, but upon closer inspection, Astral could see that the two new figures were just Abyssal and Kuon herself. One spotted a blue futuristic outfit while the other one wore a victorian maid outfit with a similar style with that of New England.
As Abyssal and company walked towards Astral, she scanned Abyssal from top to bottom, carving her image into her mind. Floating next to Abyssal’s humanoid body, was the sight of the familiar drone body that she used prior.
“What?” Abyssal asked, feeling awkward by the weird stare from Astral as she arrived.
“Nothing,” Astral replied.
“Alright then...”
“Should have just led with that body from the get-go,” Astral muttered afterwards, looking away slightly.
“...”
“So, blue-haired hatchling, to continue our conversation from yesterday. I want to ask, what do you plan to do here from now on onwards?”
“Pfft… Blue-haired hatchling,” Kuon muttered out, barely containing her chuckle.
‘Oi! Is that how you treat your master!’ Abyssal yelled out internally.
“Ahem,” Astral coughed to get Abyssal’s attention.
“Right... What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, I’m going to be hanging out with ya for a while. We’ll be moving towards the next hideout soon, but surely you got something you want to do right? I’ll help you out a bit.”
“Astral going to help us? Yay! With Astral things will be smooth sailing!” Meica gave out a large smile— a pure innocent smile.
“I’m doing it to kill boredom, not because I want to help you all or anything, alright? Don’t be misunderstanding me. I just think you guys are quite pitiful, someone needs to look after ya.” Astral said, but not before looking away from the Nekomi.
“Well, I guess the plan is to get out of this hideout?”
“Haahh?! Your plan moving forwards, you dimwit. What are you going to do after this hideout crap? Don’t tell me you plan to just run around aimlessly? ” Astral raised her voice.
Abyssal was pushed back by the sheer intensity of Astral’s voice. “... No I mean… I do have a plan.”
“Un. Is that so? Then what is it?”
“Well… basically to just collect more resources and technology, improve my ship and explore the galaxy? I want to be a nice and giant battleship one day!” Abyssal replied, her hands stretched out wide. Looking to her right, towards the drone orbiting her, one could see that it was also stretching out its hands. It seemed to be mimicking Abyssal in action.
“That’s all? You can’t be serious?” Astral asked, a flabbergasted look on her face.
“...What?”
Astral shook her head before putting a hand over her face. “That’s not a plan. That’s just what you want to do… You said you want to collect resources and tech, but how are you going about it? What’s your current plan to become a super big battleship?”
“... Well, I haven’t thought of that far yet…”
“Well, start thinking about it, holy crap. How are you even still alive at this point?!”
“...” Abyssal didn’t respond. She only gave a pout and looked downwards. “I mean I kind of thought about it. It’s just that every time I plan something, things go mumumu…” she muttered softly, the end of the sentence were barely audible numbles.
“Oi, don’t give me that attitude. What are you a kid? Don’t be throwing a tantrum for every little scolding you get,” Astral pointed her finger towards her.
“I did my best you know…” Abyssal responded, still pouting.
“You are a core aren’t you? You have great potential, just how in the hell did you get stuck in that ship? Are you some dumbass or something?!” Astral continued scolding her.
“It can’t be helped alright! I mean every time I want to do something important and start moving forward, some stupid crap happens to me and I get sent back five steps. It’s frustrating, okay!”
“Being with her for the better part of last year, I can vouch for her words. Though Master did make some questionable decisions, a large part of our setback is due to some bad series of events,” Kuon stopped before looking towards the shark-class.
“Perhaps, without all those setbacks, this ship would have been a cruiser or something bigger by now.”
Again, Astral put her hands over her face before looking towards Kuon, “What about you, then? You look like you have some common sense, why aren’t you in charge?”
“I must admit, though I complain about her actions a lot… I’m not actually that much better at planning ahead, what less trying to get out of the situation that we are in. As a matter of fact, the whole situation gives me a headache. Besides, things are more fun, this way,” Kuon said as she gave a satisfied smile, looking at Abyssal.
“Oi! What's with that answer!” Abyssal retorted.
Astral took a deep breath before letting it all out. She then holds her head with her right hand. “Dammit, I forgot how quirky cores can be when they are fully awake…”
“Awake?” Abyssal and Kuon asked, not understanding what she meant by the term ‘awake’.
“Huh?”
“Awakened cores, nyaa. Like Abyssal and stupid maid,” Meica answered.
“Awakened cores like us? What’s that supposed to mean?” Abyssal asked, still not sure of what they meant.
Astral put her hands under her chin before nodding to herself twice. “Hey, how old are the three of you?”
“Hmm? What does that have to do with anything.”
“Just keep quiet and answer the question.”
“Meica just turned seventeen, nyaa!” Meica raised her hand to respond.
“You kid, are underage. You shouldn’t be out here.”
“Nya! Ahahaha…” Meica jumped a bit before backing away slowly, giving Astral a dry laugh.
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Shaking her head at the young Nekomi, Astral turned towards Abyssal and Kuon. “So? What about you two?”
Kuon responded first. “I am unsure. If you include how long I have been asleep, I would probably be more than twenty years old. The amount of time I’ve been conscious should barely reach three or four, I think.”
“Asleep?”
“I was damaged during a battle and had to retreat. I was in hibernation until recently.”
“I see. I got a rough idea of how old you are. Abyssal? What about you? How old are you?”
“Hmm…” Abyssal looked upwards, thinking about the matter. The drone to her side, followed after her movements, looking towards the skies. “I think I’m about twenty-eight this year.”
“Bullshit,” Astral replied immediately, no hesitation.
“Wha?! It’s true! I was—” Abyssal eyes opened wide, her hand covered her mouth as if she came onto a realization. “Right…”
“What? What do you mean by that? Don’t play around the bush with me.”
“No… it’s just that now that I think about it, I don’t actually know how old I am. But I am old! It’s true!”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?!” Astral yelled, making Abyssal backing away again.
“Well… I have a small feeling that my memories aren’t real so…”
“Urghh… my god, you are a real piece of work you know that…” Astral crouched to the floor and covered her face with both her hands.
“Please ignore my master for a moment. What does our age have to do with anything,” Kuon asked.
Astral let out a sigh, before sitting down and laying her back on the pillar.
“Awakening is the term we use to describe a core who have become self-aware. The moment where their emotional circuit overpowers their logical circuits. Well, not like cores aren’t self-aware. It’s more like when they started developing their own personalities and quirks as a core. It’s when they become more than what was programmed into them. Their sentience becomes stronger as you may call it. The moment where they become more than just A.I.. They start making human mistakes, lose a lot of their effectiveness, start to disobey orders, bla bla bla… You get the point.”
“Is this a recent thing? I do not believe that this is a thing during my time in New England.” Kuon asked.
“Not really recent. It started occurring after the first few years Living cores were discovered. First-generation cores started showing signs of awakening. Though it was kept a secret for a while. It was only after the war that the term came into popularity as more and more cores started developing personalities of their own. A birth of a new sentient race if you may.”
“So, according to your logic, we are awakened cores, right? So is E?”
“Yeah. You can tell a non awakened from an awakened one easily.”
“A non awakened core… That’s what I used to be. Just a slave following orders…” Kuon muttered to herself.
“I don’t think I need to explain much, but the law hasn't exactly caught up to this concept yet. Some rules exist and more are in the making, but nothing special yet. So don’t go telling everyone that you are cores, alright.”
“I see. Got it,” Abyssal nodded.
“Good.”
“By the way, what is this about First-generation cores?” Abyssal asked, hearing another concept that she hasn’t heard before.
“It’s the order of cores which are taken from each nation’s vault, master. First generations, usually the more powerful of cores, are taken out of the vault first. Subsequent generations are usually weaker in computational power or have a fault of sorts. I’m of the early batch of the third generation if I am not mistaken.”
“Hoh… So the further the generation, the weaker?”
“Not always,” Astral answered. “It usually means that they are taken from the vault at a later date than the earlier generations. But when you take a product off the shelf, you would usually take the best ones first. So yeah….”
‘I wonder what generation I am?’ Abyssal thought to herself.
“Oh right, I almost forgot. Here, take this,” Astral said before throwing to Abyssal, the metallic box-shaped object in her hand. The object passed through the barrier with ease.
Astral’s aim was slightly off to Abyssal’s right, forcing her to move out of her way to catch the object.
“Good reaction,’ Astral said after Abyssal caught the device.
“Oi, throw the thing properly dammit!” Shouted Abyssal.
“That’s a blueprint for a radar. Not exactly state of the art, but it should be better than whatever crap you are using prior. Comes with an aiming component and the ability to link our two radar feedback much more efficiently.”
Abyssal took a look at the device before looking back at Astral. “Th-thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. If there is anything else you need or want, you can let me know. I see how I can help. There are a lot of things in this hideout that I can share I guess. Just not the best tech.”
“Why not?”
“Girl gotta have her own secrets, ya know.”
“Noted. We will take a look at our inventory and make a list later on,” Kuon responded with a small bow.
“Good. We’ll be leaving The Cove in two days. So let me know as soon as possible. Anything else?”
Meica raised her hands.
“What?”
“What about Astral, how old are you?” Meica asked.
“Look at the time, I need to do some scouting, make sure that nobody followed after us. I’ll see you guys later,” Astral turned her back immediately upon hearing the question. She left the place waving the back of her hand towards the trio.
“Hold it! Come back!” Meica shouted to no avail.