Star Force 12 Demon Star Read Free

ships currently floated in close proximity to a cluster of asteroids, with a mixture of marines, crew and Raptors—minus Marvin—working at full speed to mine and process raw materials into desperately needed parts.
    “Slowly, Captain Riggs,” Kreel said. “Lieutenant Turnbull has allocated priority to Valiant in most instances, as is proper.”
    “Sorry about that, but given the location of our sole Nano factory, she’s correct to do so. It’s better to have the most vital ship fully repaired as quickly as possible.”
    “No apology is necessary, sir. I merely state facts.”
    “Have you had any luck getting the Nano ships to produce spare parts for you?”
    “No, the machine intelligences are not cooperative.”
    I sighed. “Their factories have to be programmed in detail by someone with expertise in cybernetic systems, or you’ll never get what you want. Do you have anyone like that?”
    “No. We’re all warriors.”
    “Damn.” I thought for a moment, but I couldn’t see any easy options. “Unfortunately, Nano ships don’t like it when strange people come aboard, especially if they’re of different races from their own command personnel, or I’d send over some human technicians.”
    “Perhaps the sentient robot could reprogram them,” Kreel suggested.
    “I’ve already tried that. The Nanos like him even less than biotics. I think they view him as some kind of deformed Macro.”
    “Then the Nano ships shall continue with their standard replication protocol.”
    “Agreed.”
    I’d ordered the Raptor command personnel on the Nano ships to give them instructions to autonomously mine the asteroids and build copies of themselves using their own internal factories. It would take weeks to produce even one more ship, but given years of time and materials, they could build a new fleet for me. It was the best we could do right now.
    “I’ll talk to Lieutenant Turnbull and try to get you some more spare parts for Stalker , Kreel,” I continued. “We’re going to sit here and rebuild until we’re either at full strength, or something forces us to do otherwise. Any other concerns?”
    “No, sir. We live to serve.”
    “Glad to hear it. Riggs out.” I let out a long breath after I closed the connection. Dealing with aliens, even friendly ones, made my brain hurt. I suspected I was in for more headaches ahead.
    Two hours later, I turned out to be right.
    “I’m receiving a message from species number two,” the ship’s AI said.
    “Which one is that?”
    “The gas giant dwellers, of course,” the AI replied with a hint of testiness.
    “Don’t you dare go all Marvin on me, Valiant.”
    “Command not understood.”
    “Never mind. Let’s call them Whales from now on, shall we?”
    The aliens that inhabited the Jupiter-like world had tentacles in various parts of their bodies, but otherwise resembled their namesakes.
    “Rename successful.”
    The ship’s brainbox hadn’t been updated since we’d fallen through the Eden ring, and it had been slowly developing more and more personality as it drifted further and further from its baseline. I figured the reasons for this were obscure, and I’d already decided not to inquire too deeply.
    “What are the Whales saying?” I asked.
    “Unknown. Processing power has not been dedicated to translation databases.”
    “Then dedicate twenty percent of your neural chains to the task. How long will it take to translate with that level of allocation?”
    “Approximately thirty hours.”
    “For one message?” I demanded incredulously.
    “That includes all the time to populate the vocabulary and syntax databases. Afterward, translations of text should approach near-simultaneity.”
    “Right. What if Marvin helps?”
    “Far less time will be needed. Marvin’s translation capabilities exceed mine.”
    Was it my imagination, or had bringing up Marvin caused a hint of peevishness to enter the ship’s voice?
    “Get Marvin on the line, then,” I