//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9:  Upgrades 
// Story: The Equine Starliner 
// by computerneek 
//------------------------------//

Kayla stepped quietly into Fusion Six Two- one of the other reactor rooms with a crew of slackers- and looked around.
Immediately, she saw another fake basketball hoop, and a rack underneath it to hold multiple real basketballs.  At least nopony was throwing them around.
“Gah!  Captain!  Th-This isn’t what it looks like, I promise!”  It was the nearest tech- who was doing something at the base of the hoop.
She raised an eyebrow.  “Then tell me what it is,” she ordered.
“It’s…  Uh…”  The tech looked at the hoop, then back at her.  “A basketball hoop.”
“You do remember how Fusion Four Seven got blown up, right?”
She flinched.  “Y-Yes.  Um…  We, er, predicted something like that, so we never use the hoop without an appropriate shield set up to contain any…  stray balls.”
She raised the eyebrow.  “And this shield?”
“Well, ah…  The, erm, maintenance mech over there ripped them out, so…”  She gestured towards the far end of the room, where Reactor Eight was off, a large machine- decorated with the ship’s badge and name- replacing parts on it.
Kayla looked at the mech, and back at him.  “And you didn’t think that perhaps you should use one of the exercise chambers in the crew quarters for your basketball court, not here?”
“Well, uh…  if we did that, the LT wouldn’t be able to play whenever she had nothing to do.”
“That’s the point!” she yelled.  She didn’t like ensigns that tried to rat out their own lieutenants, and would have to review the footage…  No, ask the shipboard AI.  “I want that thing down and out of here immediately, you hear?”  She glared dangerously around the room.  “And no playing on the job, I don’t care how slow it is!”
She then marched past them while everypony else in the room scurried over to the hoop, clearly trying to avoid her ire.
She walked up next to the massive mech, and watched it reassembling some of the reactor’s innards for a couple seconds.  Finally, she spoke.  “Athena?”  She wasn’t yet sure exactly what got the AI’s attention for conversation.
It answered, the voice coming from the mech.  “Yes, Captain?”
“What’s…  this?” she asked, gesturing towards the mech- which hadn’t interrupted its work at all.
“This Mark Nine Space Construction Vehicle is installing upgrades to Fusion Six Two dash Eight, following the design failure revealed by the destruction of Fusion Four Seven dash One.  The upgrades are addressing issues pertaining to structural integrity in the event of an impact and containment field destabilization detection, and adding new features that will allow a preemptive Emergency Stop to be actuated when an imminent containment field destabilization is detected- a feature which would have prevented Plasma Escape on Fusion Four Seven dash One, and in so doing rendered the precautionary Emergency Stop of Fusion Four Seven dash Two through Ten and the brief arming of Reactor Ejection System Four Seven unnecessary.  Additionally, the reactor will be more likely to retain operability after an Emergency Stop.”
She scowled, tilting her head.  “Where did these upgrades come from?” she asked, as the mech finished putting together what looked like the spinning ring assembly for the spinning arms- ‘containment field projectors’.
“These upgrades are part of an automatic self-upgrade routine, after a weakness was detected during the above named incident.  So far, seventeen reactors have received these upgrades.”
“Ahh,” she muttered, unsure if she should be glad or worried that her ship was creating its own upgrades.  “So…”  She glanced across the room, to where the basketball hoop had just fallen to the floor with a clang.  “What about the basketball?”
“Reactor Rooms with such sports taking place were selected for priority upgrades,” the machine answered.  “Any sports installations, including hoops and ball shields, have been removed from these locations.  Some were subsequently reinstalled by crew members.”
Her eyes narrowed.  It had only been two days since the event- the damaged reactors, then, had not been repaired yet.  “Well then.  Have the Colonel- or her people, or whatever- round up the ponies involved in such horseplay, and bring them to see me in my quarters.”
“Orders received.  The Colonel is currently running her elite team through a blizzard scenario, and is expected to have the players ready for judgement in approximately one point seven hours.”
She tilted her head.  “Is expected…?”
“Simulation confidence is niner seven point niner three one two percent.”
“Oh.”





Several crew replacements later…





Kayla looked up as the door to her quarters slid open, revealing Captain River Song.  “Good evening,” she greeted.
River bowed her head.  “Evening to you too, skipper,” she returned.  Then she sighed.  “The crew is…  mostly working, now.  The latest replacements seem to be actually trying to do their jobs.  I think.  We can probably finally get the Admiralty off our necks.”  The ship had been assigned to the Fleet- and participating in Fleet exercises- mostly just to kill time, after all.  Especially once it had been confirmed that it was a passenger ship, the rumor was that the Admiralty had a long list of assignments just waiting for them.
Kayla sighed.  “Even though that means taking on passengers.”
River nodded.  “We can be fairly sure our crew won’t be killing them, at least.”
She shrugged.  “Well, might as well.  Athena?”
River raised an eyebrow; Kayla hadn’t told any of her officers about the talking AI.
Then it answered.  “This vessel’s waste processing plant is undergoing expansion after design capacity was found inadequate; initial expansion completion expected in four one point niner three hours, for long-term capacity of four niner three seven passengers beyond current crew; further expansions are scheduled to increase long-term passenger capacity by four million in one six point three one days, then an additional two one seven million in niner two point seven one days, and finally to originally intended capacity in niner one seven point two three days.”
“...  Uh…”  River muttered, caught between surprise and disappointment.
Kayla facehooved.  “Of course there’s something wrong.”  Then she looked up.  “So how many can we take?”
“Maximum average passenger capacity, beyond current crew, is approximately two six one niner two three point seven one ponies until the secondary expansion is completed.  Combat redundancies will be made unavailable by an average of over one niner two six one seven point two seven passengers.”
“What if we offload to external waste processing facilities?” River asked.
“This vessel can currently support approximately two one seven million passengers, provided resupply on intervals no longer than two point six one days.  Final scheduled expansion will raise independent long-term life support capacity to two niner one billion.”
“...  Or approximately three times as many as we have the beds for,” River noted.
Kayla nodded.  “Redundancy.  Or we could have them share bunks and sleep in shifts.”  She let out a snort.  “In any case, yep, we’re officially ready for our first assignment.”  She tilted her head.  “Athena, can you take care of that for me?”  Reporting the ship as ready for duty was, after all, one of the most paperwork-intensive tasks there was- and since it consisted exclusively of paperwork, literally thousands of pages of obscure information about the ship that she’d never need again, all Captains despised it- and it usually took a couple of weeks to fill out.
“Will she be able to?” River asked quickly, an eyebrow raised.  No known ship had any kind of paperwork assistance, let alone automatic completion.
Kayla only shrugged.
“Affirmative,” Athena announced, as Kayla’s console blinked to show the completed paperwork on it.  “Ready to submit Readiness for Duty paperwork, four one six niner pages.”
She glanced at the console, and smiled.  “Ahh, so that wasn’t a vain hope,” she mused.  “Send it in.”