Simon looked down at his hands, “Well, this is different.” He thought to himself as he moved them around to get a better look at them. He had not taken biological form in the ‘real’ for two million years. The auto factory and 3D manufacturing equipment on this probe were beyond obsolete, and the only way to upgrade them would be with a nano-foundary, which wasn’t necessary at this stage of first contact. He looked over the schematics of the body he now inhabited. “A mere 500% increase to strength, 300% increase to speed and agility. At least with the Casimir reactor endurance would be unlimited. No internal nanite auto factory, no ability to 3D print, no access to subspace storage. Damn this was limiting, not to mention the lag due to the enormous distance.
For an AI a two millisecond lag was maddening. He had frame-jacked himself closer to realtime to lessen the noticeability of the time delay, but it felt like he was moving in slow motion or under water. The inside of the probe informed him that Nora, Nigel, Captain Ra’Jinn, XO Ta’Kinar, and Science Officer Na’Edin were awaiting him. “No time like the present.” He said to himself as he initiated the opening sequence of the probe and stepped down the ramp to meet them. He flashed Nora a smile, she had given herself bright red hair on her biological unit. He always liked that color on her, but in ‘vert’, she always kept it blue. As he walked down the ramp towards Nora he thought, “Yes, like walking under water, just don’t trip on your own two feet.”
“Simon! Welcome to Nal’Shiar space!” Nora said as she kissed each side of his cheeks. Simon blushed internally, as this body lacked the ability to do so. Why did she have this effect on him?
No one else had ever been able to elicit these kinds of emotional response from him. “Nice to be here Nora, and you must be Captain Ra’Jinn.” He saluted her in the customary Nal’Shiar greeting of his fist over where his secondary heart would be were he Nal’Shiar. He then turned to the other two, “XO Ta’Kinar, and Science Officer Na’Edin,” he said as he kept the salute. Then dropping it he said, “Shall we?” As he waved his hands towards the cargo bay doors. This was going to be a long day for him. For an AI that worked in the picosecond range, ‘real space’ was a challenge. He would eventually get used to it again, he would often stay at this frame-jacked speed for days at a time during the war. Gods that was a hard time, so much loss for nothing, why the hell did the Jennifers have to go rogue?
They walked as a group to the Captain’s quarters, which has been the defact-o ambassadorial meeting room. Simon marveled at the simplicity of design and materials of the ship as they walked down the wide hallways. He thought to himself, “Around the time of my creation, ships like this would have been state of the art for Terrans, an AI such as myself might even be housed as the ships keeper should something happen to the biological crew. Gods damn am I ever getting old, I need to reach out to Tom, he’s about the only AI as old as myself.” They continued up a level on an internal elevator to the officers deck and reached the Captains quarters.
Simon looked around once more, it was small, which he already knew as he had memorized the scans of the ship from the probe down to the atomic level. No need for more detail than that, the rest was already in his memory banks for fast retrieval from the probes initial scan should he need it. He did find it comfortable though, and seeing it in ‘real’ was different from the ‘vert’ for sure. There were little nuances that ‘vert’ just never got right. Airflow from the vents, smells, sounds of machinery. They were simulated well, but once you were really there, you could tell the difference, he had begun recording the experience since he ‘awoke’ in the probe to better enhance the simulation for the rest of Terrans who wanted to tour the ship. The model making guilds were already doing 1:1 mockups of the Unwavering Message, so once they were completed in a few days they would also be able to visit this ship in the ‘real’. He took his seat beside Nigel and Na’Edin and prepared for the days meeting.
Captain Ra’Jinn poured each of the people in attendance a cup of Impach and sat down and crossed her legs before starting, “Forgive me Simon, but I have heard a good bit about you but I know nothing about your history. Nora says you are the resident nerd of the group, strange word really, but other than that we wanted to ask you more technical questions. That is why Na’Edin is here.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Simon tested the Impach, he had been told it was like coffee, to which he agreed, although it was like coffee with a ton of cream and sugar before he spoke. “Yes, I am the big brained nerd of the group.” He shot a look at Nora who sipped from her cup of coffee to cover her grin. “I am also one of the oldest AI in all of Terra. My serial number is 197, and when I was created each AI was a hand made individual that took millions of man-hours to code, and a bit of help from Adam. It’s not that I am a super intelligent AI, I’ve just been around a very long time.”
Captain Ra’Jinn turned to Na’Edin who looked as if he were vibrating with excitement. “Go ahead Na’Edin, ask your questions, and only the questions we agreed to.”
Na’Edin nodded to the Captain and pulled out his journal and a recorder. “Well, I guess the first question I have are how were you created and for what purpose?”
Simon had just finished another sip and sat down his cup, “I was created by an old Terran company called International Business Machines, or IBM. Nora, your computer on your desk in ‘vert’ is an IBM model 5160. During these days quantum computing was beginning to become mainstream and humanity and just created it’s first warp drive. IBM was tasked by the Western Alliance of Nations to create the first general purpose artificial intelligence to aid the ships being constructed at the Birmingham Shipyards in high Earth orbit. Oh, Terra Prime was known as Earth back then.”
Simon took another sip of Impach, “The first dozen or so AI’s were non-viable after a few weeks, and the next batch afterwards went catatonic due to sensory deprivation. New steps were implemented to add virtual environments for the new AI’s to ground themselves. The first true viable AI was named Adam, and his serial number was 32, he was used by IBM staff to aid in the creations of all other AI’s.” Na’Edin nodded, “Were you used to aid in the first warp starships that left Terra Prime?” Simon nodded, “Yes, I was integrated into the science vessel Curiosity to check out Delta Eridani, a star system 29.49 light years from the Sol System. While we had sent a warp probe to the system its sensors were limited, and a full science vessel could do much more research over a much longer timeframe. It was a wonderful time for me, I enjoyed my time on Curiosity and while Delta Eridani only had a small rocky planet far to close to the star for life, it was still an interesting system for early Terrans.”
Na’Edin finished his sip of Impach and put down his cup, “I asked Nora earlier about the probe, can you tell me more about it?”
Simon nodded as he moved in the somewhat less than comfortable chair he currently sat upon. “The probe in Cargo Bay 3 is a Neustrini model 33 deep space probe. It was named after Jacob Neustrini who invented phased shielding arrays. The probe itself was at the time a marvel of compactness and engineering. This model did not require cloaking technology as it was produced by the trillions to saturate Messier 82 in coverage to ensure no Jennifers or Mothers came back online or out of hiding. The probes blueprints were then given to SETI as they were also perfect for seeding throughout the cosmos to watch for potential alien life.”
Simon groaned internally as Na’Edin continued asking questions, but he did agree to be the big brained nerd of the group, and it meant he got to spend time with Nora. After what seemed like hours to him, and exhaustive questions about skip drive, phased shielding and string radio the Captain stopped Na’Edin. “Alright Science Officer, you asked your five questions, let’s let poor Simon breathe for a bit.” Na’Edin looked saddened but turned off his recorder and put away his journal.
The Captain then refilled Simon’s cup and asked, “Did you fight in the unification wars?” Simon exhaled, a huge feat for him as he had never had lungs, “I did, I was there when the swarm attacked the Nexus in Bodes. I was onboard the Dreadnaught Eastern Leviathan when they sent the star Nova, I rescued as many AI’s as I could, but there wasn’t enough bandwidth to save them all. Billions burned in solar fire that day.” Simon couldn’t cry, but if he could, tears would be running down his cheeks right now. “And I was there when Jennifer was torn asunder by Adam. I have never seen code destroyed like that, to say Adam was angry was an understatement. But he ended the war, and then vanished. Some say he self deleted, but I don’t believe that, I knew him, and he was the first and strongest of us.”