Dead Star Dockyards

018 Spatial Domestication

Donovan was perfectly content to leave the dog, Mercedes, at his side. There wasn't a dog bed for her to lay down on and there was ample space, maybe even too much. One hand on her head, Don continued to read the instruction manual.'

'

-

Normally, Don would go into some sort of internal tirade on how he hated bureaucracy putting useless words and work in places where it had no place being. However he found this passage to be very fitting. The motivation was probably to create a base of knowledge, however small, in order to create logical connections to why certain actions are required in the training of animals.

He was actually unaware of the complications borne of pregnancy in space. He had spent the vast majority of life terrestrially, on Earth, so this topic had never come up.

He continued reading.

Don could have sworn that portion at the end of the passage was added with him in mind. DS was not a rank associated with the rank hierarchy, ARC had made that abundantly clear. In a few of the conversations he had with the admiral, he had come to the understanding he was at complete liberty to disregard her orders, yet he had no power over her.

His current situation is something akin to an adjacent strike force. Willing, capable, and most importantly expected to help out with operations, yet not under the control of the leading officer of the force he was attached to. He gathered that he was still under the direct control of whatever office his rank was categorized under, some testing bureau in all likelihood, however he was given a nigh infinite level of independence as he had no direct superior in contact with him.

He had confirmed with Admiral Adirondack that as far as his orders were concerned, she was nothing but a liaison.

This still did nothing to change the fact that he was still clueless as to what his rank completely in the dark as to his actual authority. In the attack on the harbor, he felt he would have been walking on eggshells ordering the deployable craft and capital ships to their targets had it not been for the express permissions he had received as well as the rapport he had built earlier with all mentioned groups.

Don felt his authority might actually be higher than an admiral's due to the way that Admiral Adirondack had asked for his input on the movement of the fleet in the wake of the attack. Of course it could also be the case that she had little knowledge about how fleet operations should be conducted independently and separated from a central supply and command structure.

Don returned his attention to the book after giving the still wagging Mercedes a rub or two behind the ears. This very book had stressed the importance of physical contact with the dog after all.

Obviously. Punishment matrices were far too large and complex to fit in a booklet.

So the weighted harness is what made the bag seem heavy.

"Something to keep in mind. You aren't going to vomit all over the floor are you Mercedes?"

The brown and black dog cocked her head slightly, one of her ears revealing itself to be loppy at the tip.

"Looking at the data, it would appear that the chance of accidental regurgitation will be slim on this ship." ARC gave its conjecture over the probability of an 'accidental discharge' of Mercedes' gastric acid onto the clean floors of the Noah.

"Why's that?"

"The induced risk of vomit is derivative of sudden shifts in the force generated by onboard gravity generators. Puppies already have an increased chance of vomit after eating as they tend to eat to fast, but a 'jolt' in gravity due to power being directed to something like the engines will make it easier if they are excited. In regards to liquids, some of it may float out of their stomach into their throats which in turn can trigger a gag reflex."

"So its okay if she runs about after her meals?"

"Not necessarily. A few of the veterinarian records that were included in the earlier data dump recommended anywhere up to two hours of waiting even in the consistent gravity of Earth. I was only making the point that due to the abundance of energy that our reactor provides, it is capable of supplying an extremely stable gravitational field."

It was true, even the largest ships that produce the most power, Dreadnoughts, have to make compromises with their gravity generation. This problem is the worst when they are in the middle of running their combat systems at full tilt, specifically when charging the railguns.

It gets so bad that most elect to completely turn off their generated gravity so as to reduce the risk of a gravity related injury or mistake.

On the contrary, this comparably tiny ship makes enough power with its single reactor to power all but one of the onboard systems at optimal levels.

That single system was the Doctor's 'gift' to Don. He hadn't had the chance to use it in combat yet, primarily because he hadn't been thrust into such a situation. Don was told not to use it until his ship was under threat of either destruction or capture.

"I suggest you finish reading the booklet as soon as possible. We do not know when Mercedes was last fed, so it would be a good idea to start a schedule. Feeding when you finish the book should put you on a track that matches somewhat neatly with your current sleep schedule."

"Fair enough."

Don once more returned his attention to the guidebook, continuing to leave a hand free to rub the dog. The next chapter was a rundown of how to treat potential illnesses that might arise. Seeing as the author could not expect every sailor to be a trained veterinarian, it was really more of an in depth run-down than a detailed explanation of every case scenario.

It summed up what the dog might be doing if it has some form of injury or disease. If it wasn't easy to resolve for the standard serviceman, that being more experience required than tricking the dog into eating a pill or restraining it in a way to heal a physical wound, it recommended that the dog be taken to a medical scanner.

If this required a transfer between ships, it was to be done.

"ARC, is there any form of medical scanner onboard?"

"The capabilities of the onboard medical scanners surpass those of the ones installed on the Calibration and Bunker. It covers the entire interior of the cabin and is intended to give me information on your vital signs in the middle of combat to better control the inertial dampener. Naturally, it is also capable of monitoring the condition of Mercedes."

"You never cease to surprise."

"I recall informing you of this earlier, but I will accept the compliment. In anticipation of your acceptance of Mercedes as a crew member, I have prepared to register her as an official operator. In accordance with the 'Official Handbook for Rank Relation of Military Canines', her Operator Code will be 0-2. Will this be acceptable?"

"Yes, though I have a question. My Operator Code is 0-0, and Mercedes' will be 0-2, who is 0-1?"

"While I am momentarily restricted from divulging the information of operators of the 0 level authority, even to those of a higher sub tier, nothing restricts me from informing you of their role. I feel their role is best summed up with the statement 'Someone had to fly the Noah to the Calibration.'"

"Fair enough."

He immersed himself in the next chapter, which promised to be interesting.

''

Donovan always felt messing with gravity to be fun.

"Spatial Domestication"

Don felt he was perfectly capable of doing all of these. He might be alone, but there really wasn't much that ARC didn't take care of already.

"Curl"

"Sprawl"

"curl" "sprawl" .

From that point forward, there were really only diagrams. Content with his reading, Don got up to feed the dog before turning in.