Starship Engineer

Chapter 6 Creating Eve

The sixth term started with a bang. Asher and his crew ambushed me again the second week. Apparently, he had learned Gwen had warned most female students away from him in retribution for his attack on me. Well, it didn’t quite go as planned for them. They attacked me as I was taking a shortcut to berth 12-A to rebuild the holding tanks on a cruiser’s aft backup life support systems. There were six of them this time; four were in front of me and two behind, blocking me in. Well, I did take a beating, but I handed out six times what I received this time, and I was able to hobble out of the alley, leaving them behind, moaning or unconscious.

I immediately reported the attack, already knowing there would be no video footage. I had just a lot of bruising, one cracked rib, and a mild concussion, so the auto med station didn’t call for help or a live doctor.

How the hell was I supposed to make it another year like this? I thought about setting up an accident for Asher but decided the risk was too high. I could carry my sidearm…but that might escalate things. A bodyguard? Well, a humanoid bot might work. I checked the regulations and I was allowed one personal service bot or one pet bot during assignments. I reported two hours late for my shift on the cruiser, but my supervisor knew me well and accepted my tardy excuse.

So, the next day, I told Camila my objective. She opened her library of advanced robotics to me. I decided on a humanoid bot with a feminine shape. I knew I would get jokes about it, but I didn’t care. Then, it was in the junk bin for material to bring to the fabricators. Getting my metals refined from scrap would be cheaper than buying stock. I went with a titanium alloy frame, twisted helix carbon fiber musculature, a fission battery core, and Grade 5 AI with maximum allowable processing power.

It took six weeks to get her together, and I neglected my studies. I had emptied my bank account again, and my debt had doubled. But the bot, whom I named Eve, was a masterpiece. According to Camila, she was easily worth over 90,000 credits if I decided to sell her. I still needed to work out her programming, but she could think and function like any other high-end bot out there. I got her registered at the station before she left the lab and let them do their checks. I couldn’t upgrade any internals legally without going through the certification process again, so I kept the AI flexible for learning and adapting.

I brought her to my session with the Marines, and they taught her unarmed combat. This was easier than writing the combat programming and cheaper than buying it. After the first day, Abby said I should get her coated in some synth skin. It would make it easier for the sparring as Eve had a hard alloy shell.

I spent a week reading and researching my options for synthetic covering. I eventually decided to start with the same product they used on sex bots. It actually proved to be a headache as I had to rework her exterior quite a bit and add a thermostatic circulatory system for the synthetic flesh. The end of the sixth term came, and I had only added two propulsion certs. Well, I had vastly increased my knowledge of androids, but that didn’t appear on my profile. I dropped all the way to 165th in ranking.

My advisor wasn’t happy with me. Apparently, I had black marks on my record as well. Missed classes, a failed class, tardiness to work, and repeated usage of automated med terminals. Yeah, it was Asher’s family getting back at me for kicking his ass. Looking at the incidents, they were all overblown and some rewritten. I had been very careful to stay as safe as possible recently. All those demerits hadn’t appeared in my previous five terms when they occurred but were now backdated.

I asked what effect they would have on me. Well apparently it would affect my assignment after graduation. Well, shit. The best I could do was take the easiest classes possible and finish them during the break so I could have my term free. So, against my advisor’s advice, I selected two history courses focused on ship combat and a propulsion course for shuttles. I could read and take the history exams in a single day. The propulsion course should take three or four days.

Well, I ignored Eve for a bit. I gave her a data pad and allowed her access to my education credits to watch shows to pick up human mannerisms. I was still weeks from finishing her new skin as I adapted and modified six different technologies. I told Eve she also needed to decide on hair and eye color. During the break, Eve became a very competent hand-to-hand fighter. She was four times as strong as a human and three times as fast. She dialed it back for our sessions with the Marines, but when she maxed out both her strength and speed, she could take all four of us. She was going to be a great bodyguard. It took me the whole break to finish the courses; maybe I was slowing down or just distracted.

The term started, and I tested out of all three classes on the first day. So, at least I wouldn’t be charged with missing classes this term. My focus was on making Eve as life-like as possible. The eyes were easy except for the tear ducts, glassy-eyed drunk stare, and bloodshot look. She decided on a light blue iris. The eyes took me two weeks to finish, but I would say they looked more human than actual human eyes.

The next phase for me was adding muscular flexions in the skin during movement and the ability to sweat. I had to add a secondary circulatory system for salty water. I also had to rework the entire overlay system of the twisted carbon fiber musculature. This process took me three weeks of constant work and five iterations. Fortunately, it was mostly just computer design work and letting the high-end fabricator and micro-assembly bots do the work.

I also managed to give her the ability to change her skin tone from pale to a dark tan color. It would take her a few minutes to change, but it was possible. I was able to do the same thing with her hair and eyes as well. Her hair was very special as it contained a powerful antenna in the strands and echolocation system if her eyes were not functional. The first iteration of this hair was a bit stringy and stiff. After some reworking, it flowed like normal silky human hair. The problem was if damaged, it would have to be replaced one strand at a time. The hair did give her awareness in 360 degrees and excellent movement perception out to 30 meters. She decided to start her life as a blond as that was a popular beauty image on the station and in the vids she had watched.

Facial musculature and interior musculature of the mouth were next. I wanted her to be able actually to speak and not just use a speaker. It just took me a week to get it right, mostly because I had tons of reference articles. Eve would have a full facial expression range available and the ability to consume up to two liters of food and fluids. Then I realized I forgot to add sensors to the skin. So that took to the end of the term, but in the end, the skin had the human sensory ability, and she could get goosebumps now and flush areas of the skin with color or add additional heat…I wasn’t sure why I added that ability.

I thought I was done. She would look basically human. She had a belly button that acted as a plug-in recharge port. She just had no vagina or nipples. It was something I wasn’t comfortable working on, so I skipped it. During the break between the 7th and 8th term, I would finally add the final skin evolution to her frame.