First encounters

"Twenty," a panicked Eighteen called out to the still groggy captain, “There is something else in here with us.”

Twenty jumped to her feet, and rushed to where Eighteen was standing. She met her eyes and followed her gaze to a shadow on the other side of the immense bridge. She saw nothing.

“There’s nothing there corporal,” Twenty said under her breath, more angry that she had allowed herself to fall asleep than anything.

“There’s something there alright, I saw it move.” Eighteen said shakily. The lieutenant looked back and sure enough there was something there. It was short, shorter than either of them anyways and it was hidden perfectly save for its two almond shaped obsidian eyes that reflected the dim lights of the bridge.

“Who or what are you?” Twenty called out, trying to fill her voice with as much confidence as possible so as not to appear weak in front of her subordinate.

The figure stepped out of the shadow. It was small; roughly the size of a child of six or seven, but it was like nothing the guards had ever seen before. She, and they felt they could call it she because of the obvious breasts and the narrow waist that widened slightly into feminine hips, was clearly robotic.

The strangely beautiful robotic female regarded them for a few moments with her dark reflective eyes before she began to speak.

“I am AISS 1,” A decidedly feminine voice spoke at them in fluent English. “I am the Artificial Intelligence Sub System responsible for maintaining bridge functions. Of the 8 AISS’s aboard this system, I am the only one that is semi-autonomous, meaning that I have the ability to continue functioning even if the primary AI fails.”

“Can you give us control of the ship?” Twenty asked inquisitively.

“Not exactly,” The robotic girl responded. “This ship is currently in lockdown following an attack that occurred exactly 1256 years 10 months 15 days and 8.36 hours ago. Though the subsystems aboard this ship have been able to repair most of the damage caused by the attack, we are unable to restore primary propulsion or long range sensors without an organic crew.”

“Why is that?” Twenty asked.

"Our creators wanted us to be dependent on them, so they locked us out of certain systems aboard this vessel. Try as we might, there are a number of areas that we still do not have access too.” The android paused,” As our entire crew died in that attack, we now require your assistance.”