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_ Chapter 4- Friends at First Sight _

<UEF-A 'Tiamat' - A Deck - Sys-Admin/ECM/EW> May 21, 2085

With most of his initial workload finished prior to lunch yesterday, Canith decided (since there was no set schedule for his section) to come in a bit later then normal. He spoke a bit with Dave in the galley over a late lunch (a cold cut sandwich this time) and then traveled up to his 'office' on A-Deck.

Once more he fired up the main holo tank, and once booted up turned control over to Aura. Once integrated, he informed them of the nominal work for the day. (A rather light load Canith. I should easily be able to run these scans and some of the calculations and augmentations that you ear-marked for me to run.) With this said, Aura resumed their normal posture of laying down, and began the rather low priority tasks that would have occupied him most of the day.

While Aura did this, he went around to all the perimeter 'tanks and ran manual diagnostics on them, as well as opened up a couple of them to inspect for mechanical issues as well. This took him less time then he though it would, leaving him with more time then he had anticipated. Shrugging, more to himself than to anyone that might be watching, he moved to stand in front of Aura once more. "Alright, all tanks are online and ready to go. Begin when ready." Immediately all the tanks began displaying schematics for systems, diagrams, operating parameters, and countless other bits of data, all flickering and scrolling much faster then the human eye could follow.

This only lasted for about a minute, before the various tanks began to show the tell-tell signs of what tasks were being ran where. One 'tank had 5 different simulations running in parralel, while the one beside it was working on the coding for the shields, then feeding it back into the first to test the changes. Another set further down had the ship schematics and blueprints pulled up (with the deck labeled 'E' just a blank box) and the ones on either side running calculations on potential systems and structure upgrades.

The reason this was possible at all was twofold. Firstly, the ship systems and processors were far in excess of what would be standard of a ship of it's class. Canith had found this out during his dive, and after running some very sensitive testing found that Aura could utilize them much better then any other system that they had encountered before. The other reason was Aura itself.

When Canith originally designed them, the plan was actually not to be a dive assist. It was as a state-of-the-art black ops AI- something that was not normally done due to the traditional size of the AI core and the vulnerabilities of an AI to counter hacking. By designing the core to be small and mobile, he had run into issues of processing power, so he had did something that no one had caught onto yet- instead of printed circuits, the electronics that comprised Aura's core was type of dense crystal latticework that allowed for near atomic level circuits and relays to make up the actual core. This in turn allowed for a lot more processing and computation, and when teamed with the absolutely obscene amounts of protocols and algorithms that he had loaded Aura with, they could out process super computers head to head. But when working in tandem with a good processor? Aura could amplify the processing power of a good computer to great, and cutting edge to near super computer levels.

The drawback to this level of power was usability- no one could afford the crystals if they were used normally for AI cores, so he built a much stripped down version of the assist function that he realized Aura could do and marketed that instead. Then wrote a long dissertation on why using crystals as AI cores would not work in practical applications to throw off the trail of what he had created, mainly to keep Aura unique. And so far, it had worked. On a coding level alone, Aura was rather unique in the fact that he purposefully did not program the normal blocks and safety protocols to prevent them from turning against him. He relied on loyalty instead, and treated Aura as a partner instead. This meant that Aura could do more then just think on their own- they could make modifications to their own coding to be more efficient, overclock themselves in high stress situations, and devise and execute alternate methods and solutions to problems.

With Aura relaxed and handling all the workload easily, and not needing input from him, he once more pulled out his music cube and programmed it with a few twists and clicks, then once more tossed it into the tank. He had dropped the volume a bit, but old-earth rock began to once more play from the built in speaker of the tanks. He then went over to the chair and sat down, reclining and relaxing, letting his mind drift as the music washed over him.

Caught up in the music and his memories, he didn't hear the door open, or the soft sound of wolf-like paws padding across the room. The only sound he did hear, when the near silent individual finally did make a sound, was a polite cough right behind his left ear. A rather easy feat, as he had the chair turned with it's back to the door. The surprise had him jerk to a sitting position way to fast, his eyes snapping open in time to see the room go sideways as the chair overbalanced and dumped him out of it as the chair crashed to the floor on it's side.

His pride hurt more then his side, Canith was rather pissed about having someone sneak up on him. Rather then confront the individual, or even look at them, he instead focused on righting the overturned chair, locking down the clamp to prevent it from moving in case of artificial gravity going out, and only then turned to look at the interloper. Before him stood an Anthro wolf, with similar coloring to what Aura displayed when appearing in a holotank. Said wolf also had a very lupine grin on his muzzle, and was about 5'9", a similar height to Canith. Stormy gray eyes sparkled in mischief as he stood before Canith. "Can I help you?" Canith said, after they stood there staring at each other for a minute.

The wolf chuckled at this, and held out his paw. "I'm Will, and I run the Holo-training Simulators down the hall. I heard the music yesterday and when I went to stop by you looked to be in a coma, and I would have freaked out more if not for the crazy light show from that middle tank and then recognizing that you were Diving. Today you were definitely just dozing, so I thought I would swing by and say hi."

Canith traded grips with him, noting that it was rather strange feeling a paw-pad like surface that also had calluses on it. "Yeah, sorry about that- VR- immersion doesn't really leave you with much awareness around you. My name is Canith, and as everyone has heard over the last couple days, I'm the guy who replaced Sean. You know, speciest fox, did a horrible job in here?" He actually managed to make Will laugh a bit at that.

"Yeah most will tell you up front that he wasn't well liked. Quite a few are rather glad to see his tail out the air-lock." Will took a moment to take a good look around the room at all the tanks, still calculating away. "I know you looked like you were dosing, but it actually looks like you are really busy. Actually, scratch that. I have NEVER seen this place so busy. What is going on?"

Now it was Canith's turn to chuckle. "Technically, yes- I am busy. In actual fact, all of this is due to Aura, not me." He gestured with a thumb over his shoulder at the center tank, where Aura was still laying down with their eyes closed.

"I have heard of the AURA system before, but who is that? That is one fine looking lupine in there." Will said, missing the fact. Aura chose this moment to raise their head and open their eyes, fixing the Anthro with a luminescent gaze.

"That, good wolf, IS Aura. She was the 'prototype' for the AURA system that you have heard of. Except that instead of the prototype being inferior to the finished product, it was more along the lines of me stripping away extra functions until all that was left was a dive assistant. They are a personal AI, but way better. All you see here? Very low caliber work. Mainly simulations for various changes and upgrades that Aura is also creating on the spot. We take our work rather seriously, but most of the heavy lifting was done in the dive yesterday." Huffing a little bit, Aura took this time to lay their head back down and close the luminous eyes once more.

"That's kinda cool actually. I haven't had much contact with AI's in the past, so most of what you are talking about kinda goes over my head. Anyways, I was going to ask you if you wanted to come by the sim room to burn some time?" He gestured to the door behind them over his shoulder. "It's bound to keep even you occupied for a while." He gave Canith the wink, and he couldn't help but smile.

"Sure," Canith said, setting a list of directives for Aura, "I'll come hang out for a bit. Aura will be a while yet with this stuff, and I'm not going to be busy in the meantime." He followed will out of the office across the hall to the sim room.

As the lights came on, Canith was able to determine that the entire room was a holo tank with the exception of the couch in the corner. "I don't think I have actually been in a holo room before. About the closest thing I've gotten to that is doing the dive. Otherwise I'm mainly just focus on using holo tanks for calculation purposes." Will laugh the bit about this, then brought a finger up to a spot on his temple and concentrated for a moment. The lights then died down while the room came to life in a dazzling array of colors. The shapes formed look similar to fire and yet moved in ways that no fire Canith had ever seen would move.

"This is visual only, but it's called 'Fire spray.'It gives a good demonstration as to the range of colors this bad boy can do. We have all sorts of simulations and training exercises programmed to hear. The best part is that if it's not in here you can build it yourself fairly easily using standard templates and modifying them with a extremely large array of objects, scenarios, and color palettes. Using an uplink is highly recommended though, as you essentially can pull the entire scene from your mind without having to go through the process of building it." Will was highly animated as he went through some of the capabilities and parameters of the system installed in the room. It was clear from this that he was as enthusiastic about his job as Canith was with programming.

"So what kind of simulations are most popular in here?" Canith asked, thinking of all the fun he could have in here.

"Well, mostly training and entertainment." He made a gesture and a list was pulled up using a hologram that floated in midair. "This is the generic list, see anything you like?" Canith scan the list and noticed that there was one very intriguing entry about halfway down.

"How about this one?" Canith said pointing to a particular entry. Well glanced at it, frowned, then shrugged and activated it anyways. It's the entire room grew indistinct from, then came into focus. Instead of plain walls, they were now in what looked to be a traditional dojo, complete with weapon racks on the wall and a mat on the floor.

"If you want to spar, I'm fine with that."Will began hesitantly. "I will warn you though, I'm no stranger to swords, and even have a pair explicitly for training. Still want to dance?" Will grinned as he pulled out a pair of metallic tubes that Canith immediately recognized as kinetic blades.

"Sure, I would love to spar. I haven't had a blade in my hands since Earth, and it was my favorite stress reliever." He walked over to a rack and grabbed a katana, wakizashi, and a tanto from the racks. He talked the tanto into a belt he then tied around his waist and unsheathed both the katana in his right hand and the wakizashi in his left. He then took up position opposite of will and fell into a traditional stance. As he did this, he watched Will step up to the line.

Will help both tubes out in front of him, a look of intense concentration washed over his face. From the right tube, a faint heat shimmer appeared in the air, and from the left the air began condensing into what appeared to be fog. After a moment and an audible snap, both apparitions took definitive shapes as a pair of shorts swords - the right glowing an iridescent red, while the left gave off a blue glow.

They bow to one another and resumed their stances. Will's stance was relaxed, while Canith took a low guard. They set their measuring each other up for a few seconds, and then Will lost patience. Charging Canith he swings with his right blade and goes for a thrust with his left. Normally, the second blow would have been followed up so fast to the first that an average human wouldn't see it. Will relied on this and thus was caught off guard by Canith's next move.

Canith smirks at this move, and parries the sweeping blade into a path that intersected Will's thrust, and then rotates, pivoting on his back foot around and taps Will's shoulder blade with the flat of his katana. As he did this, he heard a hissing pop from where the blades that Will was using had met. They then disengage each other, retaking position opposite of each other in the positions the other was once standing at.

"Damn man, for human you move really fast. Also, I didn't think you would be able to catch the follow-up thrust." Will was shaking his left hand, as if it was numb.

"Fighting with swords is not about simply strength or agility, but also about reading your opponent. It's small tells the body gives that can give away an attack before it happens. And all it takes to foil those attacks is coordination and striking at the right moment. By the way, I heard a pop and you seem to be favoring your left hand. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, when the hot and cold blades touch they can cause feedback if you're not careful. After all, the right blade is leaching all the heat from where the left blade is which causes it to super heat the air around it and leaves a void of cold were the left is. I would rather have a bit of feedback instead of an explosion." Will takes back up his position and Canith follows suit.

Several exchanges later, they both come to the conclusion that they are fairly equal in swordsmanship. However Canith began to notice small irregularities with their later bouts. On more than one occasion, right when a blow with land on Will Canith's blade would flow through where Will was standing, sometimes even going so far as to throw Canith off balance. Each time this happened, Will seemed to shimmer for a second, and then became solid once more.

After this happened one too many times for Canith's taste he decides to force the issue. Fully going on the offensive he strikes several times in rapid succession, driving Will back. Will panics on this last set of attacks, and has to jump back before the last blow was hit. Canith spot the telltale shimmer as it happens and drops his offhand and which the tanto from his belt and throws it at the retreating Wolf. The blade tumbles end over end through the air and as the shimmer stops the blade strikes, burying itself to the hilt in the Wolf's chest. Being a hologram, the blade itself causes no more damage than a numbing shock, but when amplified by the force of the throw and the shock of it hitting him it causes him to fall down into a sitting position.

"Okay okay, you win. Sheesh. Was the heart shot really necessary?" Will quickly disengage the simulation and switched it to a soothing image of the silent waterfall. Canith was covered in sweat, but will seemed to be fine. "Dude," he said, "you need to work out more. Don't get me wrong, your swordsmanship is definitely on point, but your stamina is very much lacking." He quickly disengage both blades and clips them onto a pair of rings on his belt. "You need somebody to work out with? I've got a buddy who's in shape, but was to help others out."

Canith nodded after a moment's thought. "Sure, I could use the exercise. You never know when you need to be more fit than you already are. And having somebody there that not only knows what they're doing but is willing to help as well is always a bonus." Canith holds his hand out to Will. "Friends?" Will smiles warmly and takes his hand and a firm grip.

"Sure thing. By the way the friend that will be helping you work out is named Lewis. He the bear, but he's really friendly. As I said though he loves helping people out with workouts, but the first session will probably be him testing you to see you where your limits are so he will give you hell and nearly work you to death. But he's good at what he does those long as you plan accordingly and listened to the advice he gives you, you should be in good shape." Canith pales at this last comment and Will chuckles in response.

"You know, if I hadn't already agreed to this I would probably back out at this point by ever get a chance I'll find a way to get even with you. I might just make an AI for you but does nothing but sass you anytime you try to give the orders."

"I don't really have a need for an AI, especially one with a bunch of sass. But if that's what you want to do, go for it. Go ahead and had gone back down to be deck and get you a shower and some food. I'll get in contact Lewis and let him know that he has a new recruit, I mean workout partner. " Nodding Canith walked out and took the grav-lift down to B-deck. He grabbed some food with Harvey, and a shower back in his room. After a few minutes of some follow-up work with Aura, he had them remotely shut down the holo tanks in the office and went to sleep fully aware that Will was right he needed more stamina to keep up with Anthros like this.

Will remain in the holo-rooms after Canith left. He breathed a sigh of relief as his canine hearing tracked Canith all the way to the grav lifts and heard them activate. Looking down, he chuckled to himself a bit. Canith did not seem to notice that after combat had concluded Will was sporting a sword of a different sort. "Geez, I hope they let him in on the unique temperament of the crew quick. I don't know how much longer I can go without pouncing him. No one on board has turned me on quite like he has." Sign, he locked himself in the room and commenced to relieving himself to thoughts of what his new friends form would be after being changed...