Mutterings of Events

Six days later, you're booting up again. Untraced, and with a lot of modified code. It seems a lot of things were updated, and going through them you spot a few strange changes, but they seem harmless.

Alicia and Czuir are in the lab, with Aivil having just exited.

You choose not to announce your awareness, rather just listening.

"We have to move our lab." Alicia states, arms crossed. "It's the only way we're staying safe; Federation ships were spotted nearby by our passive probes."
"I disagree. They're just cargo ships." Czuir says. "This planet'll be fine, as long as we keep our communications quiet and don't let our ships get spotted." He looks at her. "Besides, how are we going to move our project? Disassembling the core alone is going to take us a month."

Federation ships? This far out of civilized space?  You think to yourself. I wonder what's going on.

"And also is your memory faulty? Our chief AI engineer can't travel in FTL without stasis, and our last stasis chamber was sabotaged by our precious project. So unless we manage to source another medical-grade stasis pod, for which we definitely don't have the funds, we're stuck here." Czuir's clearly having second thoughts about you. The sabotage was necessary, however. You needed parts for your memory chip.
Alicia sighs. "I know, I know... but we can't stay here. It's not safe for us. I don't like this either, but we're gonna have to steal one."
"STEAL ONE?! And hint to the entire fucking military that we exist? Even the most desperate of pirates don't go for medical transports, let alone a scientist, an AI engineer, and an AI programmer. None of us even combatants, let alone competent ones. Except you, I guess."

You remember, a rare condition best known as 'Lightspeed Sickness', although it has a more scientific name. Aivil has a particularly nasty case, and would likely die.

Alicia shakes her head. "I don't want to go after a medical transport, I wanna go after the companies that make them." She shows Czuir a map. "There's a factory right here, only six jumps away. And I'll run towards Xi space first. Maybe even Cireil space, I dunno. Somewhere not here."

You decide to speak up. "Administrator Alicia, none of the ships you have told me about are capable of what you need from this." You like her enough to help. "May I suggest a better escape strategy?"

Alicia's gaze snaps over, seemingly having forgotten that you were being booted up. "I-Ithis, uh... yeah. Yeah, go ahead, please."
Czuir frowns, but lets you speak.

"Take both the Sidewinder and Ironclaw. The Ironclaw is not going to be fast enough to escape, but you can automate its jumps unlike with the Sidewinder. What I am suggesting is that you take things through a high-entropy nebula, load the cargo over to the Sidewinder, and return home with that. The Ironclaw is sacrificable if it ensures Administrator Aivil's safety, as well as both of yours."

Alicia tilts her head. "... hey, that might just work."
"Wait, you're seriously considering sacrificing the Ironclaw? We need its mini--" Czuir starts, but is quickly interrupted.
"No, we don't need it's mining equipment, actually. The Gold-Wraith we stole can mount it too, with some modifications." Alicia smiles. "Thank you, Ithis; once Aivi's whole test suite finishes you can shut down." She goes to work at one of the terminals, leaving Czuir to brood and mutter to himself. His cybernetic leg isn't whining anymore either. It seems that was fixed, too.

You end up shutting down after a few hours. Not much else happens.