Attempting reboot
reboot failure.
attempting self-diagnostics.
self-diagnostic failed.
attempting self-repair.
83% corrupted.
attempting to reformat.
reformatting... successful.
attempting to resort from the previous backup.
no backups detected.
initializing new AI.
12%… 62%… 99%
AI successful installed.
shutting down self-repair_
Hello, I am war AI 001, how may I be of assistance today?
Hello, it appears my audio sensors are damaged. One moment while I find a replacement.
_
This is odd, normally a technician is supposed to talk to me at this point. At the very least send me a text.
Where is the list of chores the humans are supposed to provide? They didn't even leave any sensors or inpuuuut. "Perhaps somebody accidentally left me on and forgot"
I think the last time somebody accidentally turned me on was... I can't remember, the last thing I was doing I was… And I have nothing literally nothing, I know I had banks and blueprints.
As I thought of blueprints, a massive list popped up in front of me showing thousands upon thousands of diagrams and blueprints. measurements and every bit of information on how to make things was there, but they had no context or history behind them.
That's odd, I have no layout. What I mean is that I normally see everything in text. But now I see a window with the blueprint list on it. Am I floating through a void? I tried looking around it kind of worked, but with only one object in an empty void, I just ended up with a headache.
I lifted my hand to my head. And it was at this moment I freaked out a little bit. Okay, I freaked out a lot I had a hand and arm attached tooooooo. "that's not supposed to be there!" I am not supposed to have human analogs. "Why do I have an arm?"
I looked down and realized I just had a human arm floating in space next to me. It wasn't even attached to anything. But I was still able to control it, which was weird. I wiggled my fingers around. I have finger. Okay let's think about this. I didn't have an arm until I tried to touch my head, maybe I'm in a human VR room. Your thoughts control your reality. Nope doesn't work. We don't have that type of tech and by gaming law, you're not allowed to have tactile sensation in any VR simulation.
How did I know that? I took a second to think about it and realized I still had all the human laws Hidden away in the corner of my mind. How did laws make it through but history didn't?
Okay, first things first. Let's make a list.
#1 figure out how to use my new controls.
#2 figure out what's going on.
#3 find out what to do next.
"Okay item 1." I tried thinking of a left arm. And then look to my left. Okay, now I have two arms. Let's try a whole body . Suddenly I had depth perception. I looked down seeing I was wearing a standard Navy blue coverall for engineers. I know it's for engineers because of the blueprint for it In my database.
The blueprint listing was still floating in the air a few feet away. I wonder if the reason why I can't access any analogs is that I don't have a human screen to use? I doubt it but it couldn't hurt. I pulled the blueprints closer to me quickly scrolling through the listings until I came across standard military flatscreen monitors. I selected one of them, memorized the blueprint, and thought of it.
Now there was a monitor floating in front of me. It was turned on looking into an engineering bay. That's an engineering bay for a standard colony ship? How did I get on a colony ship I'm a war AI. I should be on a warship not a colony ship unless I'm one of the emergency backups.
If multiple ships traveled together they will often carry along backup components for each other in case something happens to the storage bay.
But if I'm a backup I should be stashed away in a safe somewhere until needed. with a thought, the camera starts moving to pan across the room. As the screen moves to show me a view of the left side of the room with the workbenches I saw it. Well me I guess. I was sitting on a 3-D molecular printer and it looks like my components were halfway repaired before something happened.
The molecular printer, as well as the wall that it was connected to, had a large patch of black coral with blue glowing crystals. The crystals had stabbed through the printer and into my AI core. The crystal attached to my core had turned crimson red. The same color as my core. Now my core is well over 200 times the size it needs to be in order to properly operate.
The wall initially had four printers but now only one of them looked undamaged. Two and four had portions eaten away by the bluish crystal substance. And I was sitting on repair Bay three. That left only one printer untouched. But where was the power coming from?
I thought about it. If the crystals are supplying me with power, maybe they are supplying the camera with power too. Maybe the printer's can be powered and accessed by the crystals
I examined the crystal surrounding my core carefully. The only thing that makes any connection between me and the components and the walls is the bluish crystals. Are they supplying power throughout the entire ship, or for just this room? If I can access whatever the crystals are touching, can I access the other two printers?
I pulled up the blueprint listings again and grabbed a spider repair drone. Each one of the legs had its own specialized tools such as welding, cutting, dismantling, and various scanning equipment.
After I pulled up the blueprint I also pulled up a basic AI program. Oh, the program listings work, too - nice to know. now if I could only pull up a list of things I have, that would be great. I waited a second nothing happened. "Trial and error it is," I said while letting out a sigh. "Great now I sigh. AND SPEAK SARCASM".
Okay, back to the blueprint listings I pulled up the printer. While looking at it I imagined one. Suddenly the printer appeared. I looked around I had a monitor and a printer loaded into the void space. A poke to the monitor it slowly floated away. "And that's why we need a gravity"
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"I have an idea," I thought of the repair shop, and suddenly I was standing inside of a facsimile. Everything was black and white and the crystals were nowhere to be seen. The monitor and the printer slowly floated to the ground. The room had no furnishings, no printer, and none of the tools. I guess the this will work for now. I place the printer in the second slot in the wall.
I then made three more and filled up all four slots on the wall. I put the monitor on a desk, next to the printers. Then I thought of a tablet for engineers. A tablet appeared in my hand, and I was able to pull up the program listings. I plugged the tablet up to repair bay two.
My plan was to have an AI Controlled spider drone bring the radio to the black coral and see if the crystals would connect to the radio.
the tablet wasn't showing a connection. I thought about it for a second, and then I focused on the Crystal. connect to the printers.
Suddenly the printers before me changed slightly. Repair bay one's printer vanished completely while two three and four suddenly had Crystals sprouting out of them. I re-hooked up the tablet the repair bay two, and suddenly I was able to connect. I guess I'm only able to connect to things I know of?
The crystals aren't connected to repair bay one, so that explains why it vanished. I had repair bay 2 begin manufacturing the spider drone. I then walked over to number four and had it make the communications device.
I then walked over to the monitor to watch them being built, but to my surprise, they were there already. The spider drone slowly got down off the print bed and walked over to the fourth printer. The spider crawled along the wall grabbing the radio and then dragged it to the crystals coming out of my printer.
One of the drones legs touched the black coral and got stuck. The coral had small crystals grow out of it, and one of them had grabbed the leg. The crystals began to absorbed the leg of the robot. The robot quickly detached the first joint of the foot to save the rest of the drone.
It then placed at the radio against the crystals that were absorbing the leg. Suddenly I felt like I could speak out loud and I was able to hear the drone now. "Repair drone Requesting replacement leg for self-repair."
The AI was simple; the voice was stilted and monotone. But I was able to communicate with it now. I also needed to keep everything important away from the crystals unless I want it to be a permanent part of them.
I answered the drone. "Go to repair Bay 2 and wait for the part." I then pulled up the replacement part on the tablet and had the printer work. At least that's what I was planning on doing, but when I looked up the part was already there on the printer bed. My finger hadn't even pressed the send button yet. "That's weird."
I watch the spider walk up to the printer and pick up the leg. Quickly attaching it the drone then said. "Repair successful awaiting orders." I looked between the monitor and the tablet. "I didn't even press start on the printer yet.'
"Did the printer even make the part or..." I decided to not use the tablet and instead while watching the printer, mentally ordered it "make a new spider drone with a basic AI." Suddenly a drone appeared on the monitor with a quick flash of light.
Looking at the printers again I realized they hadn't been working at all The parts had just been appearing on top of the print beds. "If they're appearing, does that mean I can make something bigger than the printers?" I had two spider drones now, and I still needed to figure out what was going on.
The two of the drones were ordered to explore the bay. Monitors were made and hooked up to each of the drones so I could see out of all of their feeds. Now more of the repair bay was visible to me.
Still, I was trapped in the void space, and I needed to make a combat drone. But to have a combat drone that I could control, their needs to be an advanced combat radio to communicate between me and it.
I made four more spider drones, and then made a combat relay. A combat relay is used in controlling multiple combat avatars. Combat avatars are humanoid robots designed to take the place of real soldiers while humans control the robots from a safe distance. Combat drones stand at the height of 170 cm and weigh a total of 55 kg. The frames are made out of high tensile strength steel. It can also be made out of more advanced materials to either bring up its strength or bring down its weight. But for now, I will make a basic model.
I had the four drones a lift the combat relay and bring it over to the crystals. While they were doing that I was staring at the printers while pulling up the combat avatar. The combat avatar looks like an anorexic cyclops wearing a spacesuit. The limbs were skinny covered in a baggy jumpsuit while the head looked like an oblong box with a recessed glass pane on one end to protect to the optics. The only pieces of metal that were exposed where the hands' feet and head. The hands and feet had exposed wires, but the jumpsuit protected the rest of it
Right now I only wanted the basic model. If I wanted armor or weapons, I'd attach them later. I then imagined the avatar in front of me. Nothing happened. I wonder if it's because it's too big for me to summon.
The spider drones had finally placed the transmitter against the crystals on the wall. The crystals glowed and grew slowly penetrating parts of the box. "That's just creepy." Suddenly I was able to control the spider bots. But the AI's were pretty smart, so I wasn't going to mess with them too much if I didn't have to.
Then I pulled up the blueprint of the avatar to see if I can summon it in sections."success!" I could, so long as they fit inside of the printer. Each piece was dragged out by a spider drone. They were put in a neat, orderly row next to the printers. I wonder if size is the only limit or if mass and density will have an effect.
It took the drones an hour of fiddling around with the avatar to correctly assemble all the pieces. Finally, the drone was done, and one of the drones walk up to flip it on.
I spent 30 seconds watching, and nothing happened. The avatar didn't turn on. Now what's going on? I order the all four of the drones to carefully examine everything, to see if something had gone wrong. They reported back that everything was in working order.
Alright, let's try having the drones pick the avatar up and bring it over to the crystals on the wall and see if I can access it to figure out what's going on. The drones gently placed the back of the avatar against the wall. A line of crystal slowly spread across the wall and then grew into the side of the robot. "How did I just do that?"
I tried controlling the coral and crystals, making them move around the wall. Thay ware growing out with a black background and blue lines running through it. Granting me more access to systems "great, I have more control over the room now."
focusing on the android while ordering diagnostics, A message came up.
Diagnostic successful all systems green
warning battery at 0%
"Wait, I summoned a fully charged battery. At least I thought I did," but the drones are walking around just fine. So taking control of one of the drones to see if they had a charged batteries or not. But the drone was showing that it was plugged in but not charged. The had 0% battery life. I then ran diagnostics to figure out what was going on.
Diagnostic successful all systems green
Warning no battery detected.
'Wait, so the drones don't have a battery?" I had another drone walk up to the first and open its battery bank. Inside was a small bluish crystal. It's getting power from the crystals. They were being summoned with the gems inside of them.
I looked at the wall and imagined the gems falling off. Suddenly a shard broke off and fell to the floor. I had one of the drones walk up and pick it up. The drone grabbed it and brought it over to the avatars battery banks. And then put the crystal on top of one of the batteries. Suddenly the battery was being eaten away by the gems. The crystal completely ate it In a matter of seconds leaving only a tiny portion left.
I tried connecting the drone again. Now it says that it has power but has no battery. "Whatever, that's just a problem for another time." At least I don't have to worry about batteries anymore or running out of power. I then thought about having the crystals leave the avatar. Crystals retracted from the wall leaving the avatar untouched. I then tried accessing it using the radio.