Engineered Empress - The story of Bia

Engineered Empress Part 26

"How many cabins do we have ready to go?"

"Thanks to Ceri we have 4 cabins on this ship. Zar, you and I will share the captains it has the largest bed and one of us is always up anyway. Val and Gwen another and Grant, Allistor and Nick can choose from the last two. If the girls share the bed, we even have a bunk open."

"Oh good, so I can get another stray?" She teased Damon, but he just glared at her.

"Okay captain, my captain, I just need to stow my last stray away. Where is the bio lab?" Damon gestured her towards the front of the ship.

"Big closet behind the galley is the bio lab. Don't ask me what's in there except the current oxygen algae." Bia wandered off, grabbing the bag with the new algae probe to her heart and wandered into the lab. She did find enough medium to keep the existing algae going and started a beaker with some of the sample algae and medium and put the rest of the sample into a stasis unit.

"Ceri, is it normal, that I want to just work a little on this and not be smothered by the guys?" Bia thought while working.

"I don't know. What the medical text tells me, is that you were in an extreme stress situation and can experience PTSD symptoms like nightmares, anxiety attacks, mood swings, fugue states and flash backs. On the other hand, are you a very stable person and with me controlling your hormonal functions, I can steer away if you have extreme mood swings. I think you should speak to Damon about it. He even comes and demands you to speak with him, his history is full of traumatic instances and he knows what to look for. I do understand the need to get back to a normal state though. I felt frantic not being able to speak to you during this time."

"Thank you, Ceri, I think that's just it. I want a little bit of normalcy. I always tinker with plants or algae and it is giving me the space to work through what I feel. Even though I think I should feel worse than I am. On that note, I told some people about you but not necessary about where you are. Do you think you can somehow hack the ship speaker and speak with us outside of my thoughts when we are in company? Because sooner or later somebody will ask why they don't see any sings of the elusive but helpful Ceri. But if we can explain you away as a weird ship AI, we somehow got our hands on, it would a lot easier and less mysterious to understand, than that you live in my body." Bia inquired a bit nervously while she boosted the oxygen levels to work for 8 people.

"I do already have access to the whole ship, so yes I can do that."

"Thank you Ceri, sometimes it is also easier to just hear and speak out loud when you feel lonesome."

"Bia, you know I will if possible, always stay with you." Ceri answered over the speaker quietly. An hour later Bia tinkered enough in the lab ad went into the galley looking for whoever is on board.

"Ceri, can you tell me who is already here?" she asked out loud and the ship speaker answered.

"We have Damon, Nick, Zar and Val on board, Grant is still in transit and should arrive in 5 minutes and Allistor and Gwen will need half a day until they are here."

"Oh, where are Damon and Zar at the moment?"

"I told them to let you work, so they stayed with Nick in the cargo bay, interrogating him." Bia got frantic and moved as fast she could into the cargo bay.

"What? Oh shoot." She suddenly stopped. In front of her Damon leaned back on the metal wall, arms crossed a small smile playing on his lips as Zar attacked Nick. The relaxed pose of Damon told Bia it was only an exercise, and nobody should be hurt, but Zar looked a bit out of control and very, very angry. Bia wandered over to Damon.