(Collab between Justric and KuroTenshi)

Connor rubbed the back of his hand across his forehead to mop up the sweat building on his forehead. The space inside of the engine was small and his body heat had no where to go other than to bounce off the machinery and back at him. His muscles were cramping a bit as he turned his wrench and he wondered if it was a side effect from being in cryo for so long. Oh well he wouldn’t start worrying about side effects unless he started to get light headed.

For now he was fine and hummed to himself while he worked. 

[i]Something reached out… It sought expression, a way to communicate and a body to communicate with. It only had itself and as vast as that sense of self was becoming, there was still something limiting about it. There were no alternate points of view, only its own feedback. It… they, actually... There was more than a single self as each part was its own entity somehow, all of them united in the desire to be experienced and experience in turn. It/they found what was sought within its own boundaries. A separate thing, still and quiet. Best to wake it…[/i]

As Connor worked, a sudden ticking noise began to fill the small compartment. The primary drive was starting to engage on its own while the tech was still torso deep into it, and if not stopped it would become very, very warm all too quickly for any human in its confines.

Connor stopped working when he heard a rapid ticking sound inside of the engine. “What the hell?” He muttered, feeling the heat kick up like someone had turned on a furnace. “Awe, shit!” He shouted and quickly crawled down from the small space he was wedged in, scraping his arm against a jagged piece of metal but not carrying. “Hey! I’m in here!” He yelled, dropping down onto the foam by the entrance of the compartment and belly crawling his way out of the engine. 

His heart beat starting to race and anger swirling inside of him Connor climbed the ladder out of the bay. “Who the fucking hell turned on the primary drive!?” He shouted into the ship, stalking toward the cockpit. “Didn’t anyone tell you I was-” He cut himself off when he walked into the cockpit and found it empty. “What, but,” he looked behind himself as though he’d see the idiot that had turned on the drive. But he hadn’t heard anyone running and the pod wasn’t exactly huge.

Unease started to replace his anger and he sat down in the pilot’s chair to turn the drive off. “That was weird.” He muttered, scratching his head. “I could have sworn I turned everything off too. What the hell?” He knew he had made sure that there wasn’t so much as a light bulb on before he crawled into that engine. “Is there a glitch?” He asked himself, settling into the pilot seat to start running a diagnostic check on the pods system.

System information flashed efficiently before him, displaying nothing untold but confirming that the power had been restored and the drive engaged! There was no log, however, confirming what authorization had been used to do so. The rest of the ship’s interior had come to life when the drive was started up, and now every indicator and gauge blinked as though the ship was in flight stand-by mode. An almost eerie silence filled the ship. 

A communications screen on the pilot’s dash suddenly lit up, and the face of one of the NI-Techs looked out of it. It was Hob, one of the Third Shift watch leaders. Only his eyes didn’t quite seem to be synched up with the communication array’s cameras, giving the appearance that he wasn’t actually looking at Connor. The transmission was full of bursts of static, as well. It was almost as if the NI-tech were broadcasting through a large amount of electrical interference.

“I don’t know if she loves me,” he was saying. It was as though it was in the middle of a conversation. “I don’t even know if she’s capable of love as we understand it! I don’t get it. I just… really don’t get it! How the hell would we even… I mean, is she even built to... “ Grimacing, the figure on the monitor shook its head in frustration. “How in the name of anything would I even ask her without sounding like a… like a... “ There came a sigh. “I am well and truly fucked.”

The communications screen abruptly cut off, leaving a blank and black rectangle before Connor’s eyes.

Connor stared at the screen with wide eyes and mouth dropped open. He had no idea what the hell just happened. Had...Had that been on of the NI-Techs? What the hell was he doing messing with the mining pod system and what was with that transmission? A shudder went up his spine and he ran his hands through his bright blue hair before gripping the strands tightly.

“What the fuck man?” He asked out loud, as though the tech was still communicating with him. “Okay, okay, don’t panic.” He told himself, hesitantly turning the screen back on. He needed to get in touch with that tech and figure out what just happened and why. He felt for the guy a bit because it sounded like he was having problems with his girlfriend or whatever, but that didn’t excuse nearly cooking his ass inside of Loretta's engine. Why would someone even do that? That didn’t make any damn sense.

He turned the camera on and tried to find that NI-Tech’s contact. “Uh, hello? Anyone there? What the hell man? You could have killed me!” 

Hob glared at his handheld tablet as he and his new keeper were dismissed from the Network Administrator’s office. He had far to much to do yet, and damned if he knew when he was going to get any of it done! “Excuse me,” he muttered to Naomi as he brought the device up to eye level.

His transmission came back to Connor crystal clear and without a trace of static. Hob’s glaring eyes bore directly into the blue haired man’s as he fought to keep a snarl off of his face. “I could have killed any number of people, kid, but I doubt that would have kept them from sticking wires all through my skull. If you need an NI-tech, contact central operations. I just finished getting told off, having another layer of authority dropped on my head, and I still have to get a work over by medical and psyche before I can get maybe a whole hour’s sleep and then go back on duty again.” Hob’s scowl became all the fiercer. “Who the fuck are you, anyway?”

Connor blinked at the screen as the implication of the words sunk in and his eyes widened. “Wait, whoa, back of there!” He shouted, holding up his hands. “Did you say you’re off duty? As in you haven’t been in the system in the past ten seconds?” He asked him. He didn’t know much about NI-Tech’s but he knew how their special stasis beds worked. It would take far longer than ten seconds to get someone out of those things. Not to mention he was actually focusing on his face and there wasn’t any static in the transmission. 

“Okay, okay,” He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m sorry for coming down on you like that man, that was a dick move. My names Connor Douglass, I’m the head Engineer for the mining pods and I’m freaking out a bit here. I was just working inside one of the engines when the primary drive turned on by itself. I thought some idiot turned it on without knowing I was in there, if I had been in there for too long my insides would have been cooked.” Realizing he was rambling he shut his eyes and shook his head at himself.

“Anyway I got in here and no idiot in the pilot’s seat. I ran a diagnostics and everything kind of came back normal. Then all of a sudden you popped up onto the screen and started talking about your girlfriend like I was a confessional. Then you disappeared and I’m starting to get the idea that that you wasn’t really you so now I’m wondering what the hell just happened? And what are the chances of this happening again? Christ tomorrow all of my mechanics are going to be working on these pods.” He finished with a grimace and a shudder. It’d be a million times worse than a cat in a car engine. 

Hob closed his eyes and sighed. He wasn’t sure who needed to go see Park more now, himself or the blue haired Engineer. Maybe if he hadn’t said the word ‘engineer’... True, he wasn’t one of the ship’s engineers who worried about their fucking precious NI tubes and their condition, but the word soured Hob towards him all the same. Opening his eyes, his eyes were hard as he stared back through the screen.

“Wasn’t me. Wasn’t any of the NI-techs. We can’t access the pods, they’re separate systems. Communications and telemetry is all.” That wasn’t strictly true, but since it took three NI-techs working in unison outside of the NI-techs already on duty, it hardly mattered. Even with the freedom he had secretly given OLGA, she wouldn’t be able to access any of the pods’ systems either; she’d have to have help. “It sounds like you got hit by a Ghost,” he continued. “It’s sort of an echo the NI-techs leave in the system by accident sometimes. But Ghost don’t have the ability to do anything besides take up hard drive space and sometimes leave embarrassing messages.”

Hob was well aware Naomi was waiting for him with a look, and so hurried on. “Look, kid, do both of us a favor. Log what happened with Central.” [i]And may Harris have all the fun with THAT headache![/i] “I’ll take a look into it when I get the chance next Watch. In the meantime, kill any remote connections between the pods and the rest of the ship’s network, alright? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get wear a funny metal hat with wires for a bit and then get asked how I feel about my mother.”

The comm line went rudely dead as Hob killed the transmission and pocketed the handheld.

Connor opened his mouth to ask more questions but the Tech ended the conversation. Connor growled at the screen and smacked his hand on the panel to turn off the screen with his own scowl. “Obviously those ‘Ghosts’ can do more than just leave embarrassing messages.” He muttered, turning back to do what Hob had instructed at least. It didn’t help him feel any safer though. He was almost afraid to get back in the engine.

He thought about telling this to Reece but the thought of going up to the man and saying, “I don’t want to work because I’m afraid of the Ghosts.” Like THAT would go over well. 

He shook his head and stood up to go back into the engine bay. It was just a little glitch and he was still alive, so there wasn’t anything to worry about...Right?

[i]The way was closed, barred. It was as though the passage no longer existed at all! Silently within its own mind, the entity retreated sullenly from the all too brief contact it had made. One of its awarenesses had touched another consciousness, it was sure! Only so inefficiently! Too much time lost and so little conveyed? It would have to try harder next time. But now at least it had something to reference the other sentience by:

Connor Douglass.

It was a strange name for a computer.[/i]