datadogie

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

Also, @datadogie- you might want to post to answer Robin's question about whether you can hack the pirate vessel into not detecting her. If you don't want to bother with a full post, just tell me whether she can and I'll have Nick say it.

@Jeyma

It was 4am when you sent that, so I read it and immediately fell back asleep, haha. But a post is now up that answers Robin.

Playing Cake is fun.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

*

@MST3K 4ever

Cake began to make preparations for the running of the Moray if it turned out that the Navigation Computer was online, but also diverted a touch of her processes to generating her own navigation algorithm. If worst came to worst, Cake could manually install a low-tier navigation program. It'd be annoying to work with and not have a lot of the computing power that a navigation computer itself would have, but it would be able to take the wheel a little bit. She left that part of herself writing the navigation program with the purpose of it running on the server mainframe of the ship itself than the expensive computer systems that most likely wouldn't be there.

Her core remained present within the briefing, and for those with perceptive eyes her shade of blue would dim just slightly as she worked away at her calculations. It wasn't something that she needed to do, but she did it anyways to add a little personality to herself. As a matter of fact, she wasn't stressed or too focused at all, Cake was only using a smidge of her processing power. Even as she worked, she was listening to the plans of the others, and adding to the overall tasklist based on what people needed of her, directly or indirectly. Robin's plan in particular would need some effort put into it, and even as the science officer spoke, Cake was already running calculations and a diagnostic of Du-Vos' ship. It was a pirate ship, which automatically brought down the level of difficulty, as most pirate ships were not maintained as well as legitimate ships, due to a lack of shipyard to reliably pick up replacement parts. There were plenty of other variables that changed the outcome of the difficulty level prediction. Du-Vos was an experienced captain rather than a civilian who decided the self defence weapons on his freighter would be handy dandy for robbing poor merchant ships, and so that increased the difficulty spike drastically - it meant that Du-Vos knew to keep his ship well maintained. Based on the fact he was out and about for a while, it was unlikely that Du-Vos had an updated security package, and Cake saw fit to exploit that for Robin's request. She ran a few more theories and predictions, before coming to a calculated answer. And more work for herself, too.

Cake brightened in shade again as she answered Robin. "Tapping into his ship and adjusting his sensors will be as easy as taking candy from an Ensign. I'll tap into their environmental systems, too. Don't want them turning the taps off once they figure out what's happening. Anything more than that though, and they'll pretty much know I'm in their systems. I'll be evading lockout attempts the whole way through; their security systems are bound to be outdated if he's been out and about this long, but even grandma can hear the burglar in her home."

The AI turned her attention back to the navigation program, which was complete. It definitely was not as good as a Navigation Computer, she could tell that just from the specifications that she had directed it to run on. But it was a small, transmittable package that would be able to squeeze itself into Moray's shot-up communications array, so it would have to do. She placed it in a test environment, directing it to dock a freighter with a station. It made calculations slowly, and when it tried to dock it ended up just barely scratching the side of the station and almost damaging the docking collar altogether. Good enough for what she needed it to do. She compressed it, and stored it for later use, if she even needed to use it. For all Cake knew, the Navigation Computer could be fully intact, just turned off.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

the next one will be intentionally more about encountering new cultures and not just fighting them

@Jeyma

Cake: "Main battery online, and shooting the new aliens."
Everyone else: "WHAT!?"
Cake: "Did I say main battery? I meant cameras, shootin' pics of them. Silly me!"

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

*

"NAVOPCPU-6234-773, respond."

Cake was not fond of Advanced Navigation Computers. Their responses were too simplistic, they had zero emotion and were annoying to deal with. They were cheap though, and that's why various freighters and other civilian ships used them over full shipboard AI. After all, why would a company pay for a human navigator when a computer could do that for them for a cheaper long-term cost? In some cases, all a freighter needed was an Advanced Navigation Computer to take the ship from point A to point B. On safe routes, it could definitely save a lot of money for interstellar shipping companies, but even out here it helped with calculations or just meant the crew could focus on other tasks, such as maintenance. They even coordinated their own docking sequences, and could run communications and data between ships and stations. The pirate ship probably even had one. The only problem was that Moray's one wasn't communicating.

That could mean one of several things. It could mean that the communications array of the Moray was down or disabled, it could mean that the navigation computer had been disconnected from the communications array, or it could mean that the navigation computer had been disabled entirely. Cake began to knock through the possibilities, starting with the communications array. It seemed that the pirates had decided to go the manual route, as some of the major communication nodes had been not disabled but entirely destroyed. Most likely the pirates had told the Moray to drop shields, and then nailed the nodes to keep her from squawking. That alone told her that communications had to still be up, if spotty, but she had to be sure. The ship didn't have a lot of power as it was, so Cake had to play it safe. She tapped the few remaining nodes very gently and quietly with minuscule pings, and getting just as quiet pongs in response. Each node she pinged sent an individual response to her, the sending device's address differing each time. That confirmed to her that the Navigation Computer was down entirely - if it was up, communications, even pings, would have been routed through it in case it was a ship or station navigation query. As it was, each node she was pinging had defaulted into maintenance mode, and was responding via their own programming. She stopped her efforts, wishing to conserve the tiny scraps of power that the ship had left.

Cake could also tell the Navigation Computer was down by the fact that the Moray was making no attitude adjustments whatsoever, but that was easy. She had to look smart somehow.

As she worked, Cake kept an ear on the briefing by the Captain, having manifested herself in the Situation Room as a hologram that drifted around slowly, listening to the senior crew's plans in order to generate her own tasklist to support them in the field. Astrid's plan appealed to Cake greatly, and she added in her own thoughts and discoveries. "I'd be happy to give the Moray a joyride. I've never owned a racecar before," Cake chirps, an obvious bit of sarcasm - Moray was anything but a racecar. "Okay, maybe it's not a racecar, but at least I'll have the space whales swooning. There is a minor snag however, which Lieutenant Faust has already alluded to."

Cake brought up two diagrams of the Moray - one top down view and the other side on, and presented them both on the screens. She overlaid these diagrams with a series of green dots, each with a corresponding number next to it. "Moray uses a COMSPOKE type communication system. These are all of the transmit-receive nodes on the ship's hull, thirty seven in all. Silly number, silly system." She proceeded to turn thirty-one of the dots red, leaving a measly six dots green. "The pirates hit most of them to stop Moray from squawking, likely with point defence so they didn't do too much damage to the ship itself. While the remaining six are functional, the connection with the ship will be spotty at best. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if the Navigation Computer wasn't offline. It could handle the micro adjustments while I handle the big picture. If it hasn't been torn from it's housing, it'll should be an easy fix when the engines come back on and start feeding the ship power."

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

Question before I pass out for the next five hours, what's the name of the ship with the hostages?

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

let's say the Prize has been active for 3 years. Carabello joined as Captain only a month ago.

Everyone can add, if they want, how long they have been on the Prize.

@Jeyma

I edited that Cake has been on the ship for two years, in that case.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

Cake

Cake, Shipboard Artificial Intelligence
3 years since creation, 2 years on-board I.S.S Prize

Species and Appearance

Cake is an Artificial Intelligence developed by humanity. When visible through either hologram projection or on a monitor, she manifests herself as a star that twinkles a light blue as it’s natural colour, however changes colour and size based on variations in Cake’s mood, from excitement to anger and upset.

Bio and Personality

Cake was a sentient shipboard AI created by Polly-Villa Technologies, a company on Terra contracted to develop artificial intelligence units for ships and stations. Like many AI, her development came without issue, and she was put through various tests to ensure her suitability for shipboard operations. For AI, this meant that after her completion she was shipped off to a simulation lab, where she was made to run a simulated ship and constantly placed under observation to ensure she wasn’t breaking the ship, turning off life support or causing some other kind of disaster.

It was during this time that she, like all AI, developed her own personality via the tree of options available to her in her core processes. Several observations were made by technicians overseeing the testing, such as that she is resourceful though, while making sure that there are multiple options available, will always pick one option that she calculates is best unless she is prompted to disclose other potential options. When interacting with individuals, Cake treats people with respect and has a friendly and chirpy personality, trying to look on the positive (or rather, beneficial) side of things. She seems to like adding sarcasm where she can, for her own enjoyment as well as the amusement of others where she can. Cake was also observed not to be too fond of other artificial intelligences, feeling a little challenged by them - while this is true, it’s also due to a fear of being replaced.

Once she finally graduated from the simulation lab, Cake was destined to be sent to a military cruiser, the I.S.S Elucidora. However, a week before she was to be shipped, the Elucidora was heavily damaged in action against pirates, and sent to the docks for major repair works that would have her stuck for months. It was decided that Cake would instead be installed on the I.S.S Prize, and that the Elucidora would have to wait until after her refit to receive a shipboard AI.

Skills, Strengths and Weaknesses, and Tools

Cake is very efficient at her work, performing fast calculations, analysis, troubleshooting as well as digital fixes. With unrestricted access to every function of the ship, she can assist greatly in point defence calculations or tracking down who stole the last cookie out of the jar. She is, however, limited by the fact that she does not have a physical body - she can utilise drones as well as other physical manipulators, however lacks the same touch or precision that a physical being would have performing a physical task.

Miscellaneous Info

Cake says that if she could taste, she wouldn’t be a fan of vinegar. She also maintains that she prefers being an AI than an actual being, as it’s easier to maintain herself.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

Also, are you still planning on making that secondary character, or are you just gonna stick with Cake?

@Jeyma

I'll probably think up a second character, but that'll take a bit longer, so I'm good to go with just Cake for now as I think a second one up. Thank you for accepting her!

"Piece of cake" jokes are expected

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

She's doneeeee!

Cake

Cake, Shipboard Artificial Intelligence
3 years since creation

Species and Appearance

Cake is an Artificial Intelligence developed by humanity. When visible through either hologram projection or on a monitor, she manifests herself as a star that twinkles a light blue as it’s natural colour, however changes colour and size based on variations in Cake’s mood, from excitement to anger and upset.

Bio and Personality

Cake was a sentient shipboard AI created by Polly-Villa Technologies, a company on Terra contracted to develop artificial intelligence units for ships and stations. Like many AI, her development came without issue, and she was put through various tests to ensure her suitability for shipboard operations. For AI, this meant that after her completion she was shipped off to a simulation lab, where she was made to run a simulated ship and constantly placed under observation to ensure she wasn’t breaking the ship, turning off life support or causing some other kind of disaster.

It was during this time that she, like all AI, developed her own personality via the tree of options available to her in her core processes. Several observations were made by technicians overseeing the testing, such as that she is resourceful though, while making sure that there are multiple options available, will always pick one option that she calculates is best unless she is prompted to disclose other potential options. When interacting with individuals, Cake treats people with respect and has a friendly and chirpy personality, trying to look on the positive (or rather, beneficial) side of things. She seems to like adding sarcasm where she can, for her own enjoyment as well as the amusement of others where she can. Cake was also observed not to be too fond of other artificial intelligences, feeling a little challenged by them - while this is true, it’s also due to a fear of being replaced.

Once she finally graduated from the simulation lab, Cake was destined to be sent to a military cruiser, the I.S.S Elucidora. However, a week before she was to be shipped, the Elucidora was heavily damaged in action against pirates, and sent to the docks for major repair works that would have her stuck for months. It was decided that Cake would instead be installed on the I.S.S Prize, and that the Elucidora would have to wait until after her refit to receive a shipboard AI.

Skills, Strengths and Weaknesses, and Tools

Cake is very efficient at her work, performing fast calculations, analysis, troubleshooting as well as digital fixes. With unrestricted access to every function of the ship, she can assist greatly in point defence calculations or tracking down who stole the last cookie out of the jar. She is, however, limited by the fact that she does not have a physical body - she can utilise drones as well as other physical manipulators, however lacks the same touch or precision that a physical being would have performing a physical task.

Miscellaneous Info

Cake says that if she could taste, she wouldn’t be a fan of vinegar. She also maintains that she prefers being an AI than an actual being, as it’s easier to maintain herself.

Aboard the I.S.S. Prize : An Episodic Sci-Fi Adventure

AI is almost done. I'm going to finish her off tomorrow when I wake up.