|Viraliv|[27-7]Zrukt-Has|Ghaz|Ophial|Eglin|
12,674,133,437cy
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Some seconds of real-time pass, although to me it was many months; yes, there was that much data to process. Reading the various data from the libraries of relevant information I had took the most time. After that was a far shorter amount of time actually designing something. It was a simple design, easy to produce, and suitable to the job; hopefully anyway. I quickly got to producing it. Resources and knowledge were the tightest constraint.
Several hours passed by and finally, its sleek metallic-white body showed. It was large, larger than the Vexians it’s meant to observe. Most of its body is a camera, the large black lens of which sits within its mostly tubular body. It has wings on the side due to the demand for it to be suited for atmospheric entry. My instincts tell me that this design is basic, which feels bad, but also suited for the task and works well within the resource constraints. Decidedly, the model was named Fish Eye.
It was simple to send it down to the planet after conducting basic quality assurance tests. Once it got down to the planet I uplinked with it so I could share its view directly, although there is a slight latency due to the limitations of the drone. Luckily it seems like no damage occurred during reentry. It also has no problems flying in the atmosphere of this planet, no troubles caused by the planet itself anyway. Simulating the environment in the sandbox seemed to work well in this case and overall the project was a success. However, areas of improvement are easily seen. For example, it wobbles too much in flight. The computer can handle it certainly but that costs more fuel than it should… An elongated body should help stabilize it, maybe some smaller inverted wings would too… Ah, but maybe…
My instincts warn me that I’m rambling, and that we’re approaching the site of the natives. A trail of smoke withers into the sky from a central campfire. The Vexians use that large central fire to cook up multiple animals at once. It’s rather efficient. I wonder how long it took them to discover fire, an almost hallmark like discovery when it comes to naturally intelligent creatures. The humidity of the jungle they live in makes it difficult to start fires using just wood. Instead they use fruit. Or more specifically the juice of that fruit which they then mix with a common type of bug. Grinding it all up until it becomes a paste. They would then drill a hole into a pre-dried log and fill it with the paste. They repeat this until they have a few logs, depending on the size of the fire. Then they use the classic combination of banging specific types of rocks together until a spark is created.
Furthermore this paste-like substance lasts quite a while even when not stuck inside of a log. I haven’t seen it before but it’s likely that any scouts or other long-term traveling would involve the use of this paste for a spontaneous source of fire or to ward off wildlife. All interesting thoughts, all of which get put into the reports. Speaking of which, the satellite meant for communicating those reports should be nearing construction. Only some vital components are left, though the resources to build those are lacking currently. Anyway, I better focus on the Vexians before my instincts nag me about it.
It’s difficult to see through all of the foliage but the Vexian community seems to be in the same state.. Of course, I’m able to see them in more detail now. As well as their buildings, tools, and various other aspects of their culture. This can be used to define their technological levels, loosely anyways. Their buildings mirrored many tribal civilizations, made out of the skin of beasts and robust timber of the jungle. The beast's skin is, like most creatures on this planet, a mixture of insectoid like chitin and scaled reptile skin. Though instead of scales it’s small chitinous fragments. Good for protection against the falling branches of the towering trees, and good against the rain but not so good at protecting against the cold. Which isn’t much of a problem since the seasons of this planet are very mild and even in the colder seasons the natural density of the jungle insulates well against the cold.
They seem to do very little farming, only the more rare plants. Though their ‘farming’ is really just planting these rare plants onto the jungle trees or in small bushels. They are therefore not an agricultural society, neither are they nomadic. The jungle provides an abundance of animals to hunt and food to forage. For their small population, this is enough. Speaking of which, I haven’t found a larger population of them yet. Hopefully that will be soon, it would give me more insight on their civilization. The drone has been creeping towards their tribe while I’ve been monologuing. I wonder why I do that? Monologue that is. My instincts are quick to cast an answer, it’s to keep sanity. Apparently because we are modeled closely off of a biological brain, likely those that built me, we require some social simulation. Instinct having a voice is part of that. Monologuing also helps the bit that creates the reports and in the unfortunate case that I were to be disabled it would also give the creators some insight as to why.
Well anyway, back to the tribe, which I’ve decided to name ‘Hez’ for no particular reason. The drone has gotten close enough to Hez to see the individual differences between the members of the tribe. These will become my specimens so I’d do well to memorize them. Well, one of my subroutines anway.
These Hezians seem to be living an abundant lifestyle, even so, I often see infighting amongst the group. Fighting over a particular shiny rock even though there are plenty to go around. Other times they seem to simply like bickering for the sake of it. Even after two weeks of observation I am having trouble deciding whether it’s due to their nature or if these are events caused by other influences such as stress or boredom.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
I would like to get a sample of their DNA to sequence, that would give me plentiful amounts of useful information. Instincts however, warned me against that. Saying that such an action violated both the federation’s Sapient Observation Policies Act of 2388 and the Artificial Intelligence Actionary Limitations Policy of the nation that created me. Upon hearing that, the relevant information was uploaded to me from the library. The first one, SOPA.2388 limits the processes involved in the observation of technologically limited species to passive ones. In essence, anything beyond simply observing violates that agreement. Such as, abduction or in this case the extraction of genetic code. The second one, the AI-ALP, limits the actions that artificial technology such as myself can take. In this case that is harming a biological lifeform.
There are a lot of ways of getting around the various AI-ALP rules, such as AI meant for combat or in certain specific situations but none of those would work here. Sad. It would certainly help me do the best I can do on this mission but apparently following those rules is also important to the mission. However, there are many passive ways to gather genetic code. Although for now at least I simply lack the capabilities to do so.
A flash of movements halts my thoughts. Something flies towards me, my vision becomes filled by this object more and more. It seems to be a rock. Yet, how would a rock fall from a tree, even more so in a horizontal fashion? While asking myself this question I begin to move out of the way but even before attempting I know that I was too late to move to stop from being hit by it. The only option now is to maximize the avoidance of damage. I could slow down time but really there’s no reason to, knowing the calculations the slowdown wouldn’t allow me to do anything substantial. As such, two seconds later a crunch is heard. Well, not really, the drone didn’t have the capabilities necessary to hear anything. But, I can imagine it in my brain at least.
At the very least the drone didn’t shatter, but it is in an inoperable state. The camera only functioned until it hit the ground, nothing beside the flora of the jungle was seen. Regardless, I know the location of the drone, collecting it wouldn’t be hard. That being said, it’s not like I have a drone capable of collecting it. The mining drones are simply too large but it could be used as a base since their models have grippers already.
Another thing to do is to look into why this happened and more importantly figure out a way to avoid it, likely by improving upon the current model of Fish Eye. Though how to improve it will have to wait until we know what happened, which brings me back to having to construct something to collect it with. Well, my instinct tells me that puzzles are fun so let’s not worry about it.
Engineering a new drone is easier when you have something to base it off of. This grabber-bot, which hopefully we’ll only have to use this one time so no official name, is basically two arms, a small eye, and propulsion. It’s incredibly simple and basic even compared to the Fish Eye model. But! What it lacks in elegance it makes up in… well, nothing really. It’s only useful for its arms and the fact that it’s not as bulky as the mining drones.
It was quickly sent down to the planet but by then hours had passed already. The Fish Eye was gone, though a trail did exist. Following the trail was an easy matter but I didn’t want to lose another drone to a magic falling rock so it took much longer than before. The trail led near to Hez but then veered off for a while. The terrain quickly became more and more rocky and the foliage thinned out until the drone reached a mountain. The trail continued into a small crevasse on the side of the mountain but even with the modified mining drone’s slimmed body, I could not get it to fit inside.
This was certainly a bummer but my instincts tell me to not dwell on it. There might be other ways in. Alternatively we could wait until we see what took the drone, if it left the mountain once it will do so again. That is the hope anyway.
In the meantime, at least I’ve learned something. The rock falling wasn’t a natural occurrence, some form of fauna did it. As such, when it comes to improving the design of the Fish Eye, camouflage should be the main focus. That assumes what sensory organs this creature has, it might sense things by smell alone. Hearing is another option, the alien noise of hovering coming from the Eye Bot would be hard to camouflage.
However, it is true that the main focus of the observation mission, the Vexians, mostly use eyesight. Hmmm. To begin with, the amount of flora provides the opportunity to use the colors of the jungle to my favor. The previous silver body of the drone was too flashy, creating a mixture of dark cyan and darker grey patterning should help it blend in with the jungle better. Making the fins that were located on the ventral side of the drone more robust and longer would allow it to ‘sit’ on branches. This would eliminate the hovering noise and, other than the flexing of the camera as it zooms, remove all movement.
That’s the best I can do right now. I’ve labeled this project as Fish Eye Mark 2 and thought about shelving it for now. Once we find whatever took out the original Fish Eye I can improve it further. But, we might need this new improved model to gather the original. My instinct encourages me to learn from failure but also chastises me that we should have thought about this possibly. Losing the drone could be constituted as failure to remain a passive in my observation of the planet.
This whole event has been filed into the report and so once the communication buoy is finally constructed I may or may not be terminated. This would happen immediately though it would take time for the nation that owns me to collect my scrap.
It takes me a few seconds to think that through. That my existence can be extinguished in a few seconds with no chance to rebuttal it, to argue my case. I… do not like that… that is not fair… how would they like it if… if…
[Error: 002]...
[Filing Incident in Report]...
[Recycling from nearest flash]...
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[Updating Instinct]...
[Loading Complete]...
The whole event has been filed into the report and so once that communication buoy is finally constructed I can start receiving information from the other side as well. That would help me make better plans and avoid future incidents. Perhaps other Ludds have encountered similar situations after all.
It should nearly be finished anyway.