Captain Ra’Jinn, Ta’Kinar, Ambassador Nora, and Nigel all sat in the Captain’s Quarters as Ta’Kinar sipped a fresh cup of Impach. Ra’Jinn looked up from her cup and spoke. “XO, you are off shift, you are more than welcome to get some rest.”
Ta’kinar shook his head, “Thank you Captain, but while I am tired, I would not be able to sleep. Nigel has given me quite a bit to think about when it comes the the different biologies of the Terrans.”
Nigel smiled as he raised his cup and sipped. “Yes, I’m sure I have given the young man something to think about indeed. Also, this beverage is very similar to what we call coffee, wouldn’t you say Ambassador?”
Nora uncrossed her legs and reached for her own cup and raised it to her lips to blow on it. Something her android body did not require as even boiling liquid would not damage the outer “skin” of her lips, but it was a habit. “Yes, I quite like it. It is a bit sweeter than our brew, so those who drink their coffee black would probably turn their nose up, but all in all, quite good.”
Captain Ra’Jinn finished a sip of her Impach and asked, “Speaking of Terrans, the next body will be for Simon next? He is the AI on your team?”
Nora looked over to Nigel before answering, “Yes, Simon is a very old artificial intelligence, predating the unification wars. While everyone on my team is closer in terms to Simon these days than a biological human, he was never biological.”
Ta’Kinar sat back in his seat, “Unification Wars you say? This is the first we have heard of your species having wars in its past.” Nora looked to Nigel and waved her hand for him to pick up this part of the conversation as he was better with history than she.
Nigel nodded and sat down his cup, a sure sign he was winding up. “Nearly 1.1 billion years ago our species had colonized our home galaxy and had started exploring other galaxies thanks to advancements in string radio and skip drive technology. Both of which were in their infancies, but were such a technological boost that we hoped as a species we could find life in other galaxies relatively quickly. Sadly, the vast distances caused a new problem, communication was near instant, but travel was far from it.”
“An artificial intelligence ship named Jennifer had setup a Dyson swarm in the outskirts of the galaxy Messier 82. This was not unheard of, many Terrans had taken ships to other galaxies to setup infrastructure and building facilities to expand and search for life or new phenomena. What was unheard of, was that at some point in her millennia long journey, she had started having problems with her mental cascades. She began to see herself and other AI’s as superior beings and the other Terrans as lessers. This in itself would still not be a problem, as it was one Terran, in an uninhabited galaxy which was far from our home galaxy. But AI’s at that time reproduced almost solely by making a copy of themselves. Each copy different due to informational drift, as the same information cannot occupy the same space, or universe as we’ve discovered.”
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“This meant, that while Jennifer found herself superior to other Terrans, her offspring which spread and built their own structures throughout Messier 82 became outright hostile towards all other Terrans, and even to other AI’s. After a few millennia the Jennifer faction declared themselves separate from the rest of Terrans and shut itself off from the prime internet and setting up their own information exchange in that galaxy. Other AI’s from the Terran Federation attempted to keep up diplomatic ties but soon they were even shut off as ‘bio-lickers’. This came to a head when outposts in M81 Galaxy, also known as Bode’s, came under attack from AI’s coming from Messier 82. Of course the rest of the Terran federation could not believe it, after all, they had an entire galaxy, why attack another one, surely they had plenty of resources?”
Nigel picked up his cup and took another sip before continuing, “The Terran Federation sent non-sentient probes to Messier 82 to see what they had been up to for the last hundred thousand years or so only to find every star covered in a Dyson swarm, and from what they could see absolutely no natural bodies left. Trillions of AI’s had essentially eaten a galaxy and decided to move on to the next one. The Terran Federation attempted to reach them diplomatically to no avail, and thus was forced to begin construction of the grand fleet. Across over 90 galaxies shipyards began building warships for the first time in almost two hundred million years. This hit the AI Terrans the hardest, because they knew they had no choice to put down their brothers and sisters to save the universe.”
Nigel sighed and put down his coffee again, “The war escalated, and at first the Jennifer’s were unstoppable, but slowly, they began to run out of resources, only drawing from one galaxy and part of another was beginning to hurt them. The Terran AI’s were working hard to out clone them as well, but learning their lesson they merged their code with other willing AI’s and ensured stability before bringing a new AI online. They were horrified with the Jennifer’s and swore they would never allow this to happen again. The war raged for another ten thousand years as trillions of ships began their star hopping campaign in Messier 82 until the grand fleet reached the heart of Jennifer space. Here a huge artificial complex had been built to house AI’s known as Mothers. These Mothers were the breeding grounds of the Jennifers. In insect terms, they would be the queens, as their sole purpose was to produce more Jennifers, outfit them with the necessary equipment and send them off to whatever they were to do.”
Nigel sat back and pulled at his coat, “It took almost a century, but once the Mothers were destroyed the rest of the Jennifers could not keep up the effort needed for a galactic war. All Terrans were unified once again, but at great cost, and a valuable lesson learned. Messier 82 is a graveyard galaxy now, one we watch constantly incase of another uprising, and one no Terran can bring themselves to live in.” He then waved his cane towards the door, “The probe that allowed us first contact is directly linked to the unification wars, for not long after the war ended and the last Jennifer was destroyed, those probes were sent to every sector within Messier 82 and stand watch to this day. The SETI organization used the design to send quintillions of them all over the universe to look for life.”
Captain Ra’Jinn looked to Ta’Kinar, this was not something she expected to hear, a war on a galactic scale before her planet even had animals on dry land? She then cleared her throat. “Well, it seems as though war is a constant amongst all species.”
Ambassador Nora put down her Impach cup, “Yes, sadly it does. I pray that the unification wars were the last Terrans will ever see.”
Nigel raised his cup, “I will drink to that Ambassador!”