The USS Warden

The halls of the starship are spotless, the floors polished to a perfect sheen, surprising for a ship as ancient as the Warden, the Conestoga class had become outdated hundreds of years ago, for a singular ship to maintain control of a system of 7 planets this is far from the most ideal of choices.

As is standard amongst members of its product line, the entire ship is managed by two entities, the MU/TH/UR 9000 that’s wired into nearly every ship system on the Warden and Danials, the synthetic that acts as Mother’s hands when such a task can’t be accomplished by signals alone.

The ships got three decks as is standard amongst its peers, at the top is the Command Desk which is home to the AI core, manual flight controls should the AI fail in its duties, and a private suite that’s reserved for company executives should they have business aboard the vessel.

Below that is the Crew Deck, housing the ships primary hypersleep chamber, the showers, galley, a small med bay and finally the training area.

And finally at the bottom is the Maintenance Deck home to the engine room, generator room, hanger bay, armory and a small maintenance bay for the upkeep of both vehicles and the on board android.

Connecting all the rooms and levels of the ship are ducts and ventilation systems meant for ease of maintenance and should the worst come to pass, a means of navigating the ship if the corridors and elevators are for some reason not an option.

Much of this Sarah already knew, she had been transferred before for various reasons and as such has seen enough USCM ships to understand the standard layout.

However what struck her in particular about the ship was the poor state of repair, with the low level of importance that the Warden bares and with only one pair of hands capable of doing anything at all, it’s likely been decades since the ship had proper repairs.

Along the Maintenance Deck, several pipes had been patched over with scrap metal, several gauges appear to either not work or worse be reporting false readings on power input or water pressure, if not for Mother, their would be no way to know what is REALLY happening down here.

In the Crew Deck, portions of grating have been pulled off in the hauls allowing Danials to access a series of cables that have frayed as though something chewed through it, how rats are surviving this far into space is beyond Sarah. The only silver lining being that by passing through the galley and showers, one can bypass the out of surface portion of hallway.

And finally at the Command Deck, is perhaps the most egregious examples of neglect. In the manual control center; the place where the crew are to maneuver and operate the ship should the AI be incapable of handling it, Sarah is informed by Danials that almost half of all the manual controls do not work at present.

“There was a… incident with a former crew mate, they had become **** and took out their frustrations on the controls here… I have done what I can to mend the most damaged controls however there are simply other matters that demand my attention more then redundant controls.” Says Danials, prompting Sarah to ask then most important question she can think to ask.

“This incident… did it have anything to do with the former Sargent..? The one who had been killed in one of the easiest postings in the galaxy…?” Asks Sarah, however there’s a distant look in the synthetics face, as though listening to a phone call that only it can hear.

“Yes unfortunately that is true, the cameras were damaged and thus records are spotty but what the lieutenant claims is that the former Sargent had become irate for some reason, when the lieutenant attempted to de-escalate the situation the Sargent became violent and had to be neutralized.” The Sargent was killed by the lieutenant in self defense, Sarah had learned little about the previous Sargent but nothing to indicate that she’d get drunk enough to pull on a superior officer.

“And nothing about that sounded… strange.. to you?” Prods Sarah.

“I am not programmed with in depth knowledge of human psychology, however no one else had been in the room at the time and I don’t believe Sargent Galloway had an issue controlling their drinking.”

“Uh huh… I think I’ll go speak with the Lieutenant… see what she has to say… is that it for the tour..?”

“No, I do believe that is everything you need to see… I do wish you luck in your inquiry, there is a bit of maintenance in the Crew Deck that demands my attention.” Says Daniels his voice even keeled and serene as ever.

Sarah breaks off from the synthetic and ventures down the halls and riding the lift down to the Crew Deck once again.