|Viraliv|[27-7]Zrukt-Has|Ghaz|Ophial|Eglin|

12,674,133,437cy

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While I waited for the suspect to exit the cave I went forward with building the Fish Eye 2. Even though it’s likely that I’ll design a new edition of it once I recover the first, the Fish Eye 2 would help me scout for the suspect better. In this situation, I have no choice.

This one took longer to produce, it being more advanced, as well as requiring some new chemical procedures to paint it in such a way that the paint wouldn’t just burn up in atmospheric entry. The process of creating it took thirty seven hours, just about half a day for the planet of Eglin. In that period no creature came out of the mountain crevasse. Or, at least, not through that specific one. The grabber would know, its camera being the same one used in the mining models which have a complete suite of sensors. Anything large enough to carry the Fish Eye would be seen.

A closer look will have to wait until the Fish Eye 2, which is already on route, gets there. Specifically I’d be most interested in surveying the entire mountain for any other trails and also to see if the trail I know about is commonly used or not. Seeing such a small detailed thing is out of reach for the grabber whose camera is designed for more macro objects like asteroids.

I avoid frameshifting for the moment because I have another concern to puzzle out. I have the findings of the long range scanner that scanned this solar system long before I was even built. It’s evident that this solar system contains the necessary exotic materials required for building the beacon. And yet, none of the miner models have come across any. It is very vexing, I have several complete reports that are ready to be processed. As it stands, this has messed up the time tables for the mission. They might even think that I failed to arrive in the solar system or that something happened to me before I could build the buoy. These technologically primitive species are at the most risk of being attacked by pirates so it stands to reason that a Ludd or two would be lost.

However, this mystery of the missing exotics is not something that I have any information on in my database. And without the communication buoy it’s not information that I can request, if such information even exists to begin with.

Well, back to the issue of finding those resources. I might be able to build a scanner, a shorter range one and therefore more precise. These resources might be concentrated on a specific stellar body instead of spread out amongst the various bodies in this system. In other words an abnormality. Another possibility is that in the time between the original scan and me traveling here, some other entity harvested all of those resources. I haven’t seen any signs that would indicate that but then again, the mining drones are not built to notice those kinds of things. Perhaps a deeper investigation into the solar system as a whole is called for.

This would require a new model of drone. It can be based off of the Fish Eye one since it wouldn’t need the improvements implemented in the Fish Eye 2. This one would be more focused on travel in the vacuum, so speed and fuel capacity. A larger body is obvious. Some auxiliary cameras in case the primary gets damaged. Hmm, what else? Fins won't be needed but maybe we can use the arms from the grabber in case it needs to collect something. Finally and perhaps most importantly, a full mobile lab to process samples. Oh, and some complementary solar panels to provide energy to the lab.

The name should change though. It doesn't quite look like a fish anymore. I quickly settled on the name Sky Whale. As a homage to the Fish Eye but also because it will be based in the vacuum whereas the Fish Eye is meant for a stellar body. I’ll put it into production, though it will be a while due to the complexity and raw resources required.

Speaking of sky fish. The planet below, which is of more interest to me than the communicator, has a distinct lack of aerially based creatures. That is, plainly, creatures that fly. Species that glide certainly exist, especially in regions where the jungle meets bodies of water. It has been fascinating to watch them glide down to the surface and grab some aquatic creature near the surface.

Anway, I suppose it’s not too hard to understand that evolution wouldn’t favor a flying species. They would build their nest in the tall trees or in the mountains. At least going by my database that seems to be expected. The problem in this case then is that many species on the planet can climb these trees. Since tall trees can be found all over the planet evolution has taken a keen interest in using that to its advantage. The Vexians, a few other species, and all but a dozen or so subterranean species are the rare exception. These theoretical flight capable species would have no choice but to leave their vulnerable young in a nest of sorts. A nest that would be easily accessible for most species on this planet.

It’s just one of the things I’ve noticed, a peculiarity of the environment of which there are many. I wonder how this will affect the development of the Vexians. What will they base their aerial transportation technology on? I can’t wait to see. Well, no, I can wait but, I would miss out on so many interesting things but… Hmm, my instinct tells me that this is a “figure of speech” left behind by my creators. I don’t really understand the use of it though…

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Anway, while my side tangent drifts off to another thread I’ll focus on the now. I’d love to create another Fish Eye 2 to keep an eye on Hez but I should really wait until I’m able to make an improved third version of it. Lest, it gets kidnapped again. In the meantime, I’m not sure what I should do. So, I query my instincts. It. They? Responds with a simple measure. Keep observing and simply frameshift until we see something interesting. And so I do.

A few weeks go by. It was quicker than it would have been if not for the fact that I produced several more Fish Eye 2s. There were many exit points from the mountain in use and upon observing the tracks it became obvious that they used them infrequently and oftentimes they didn’t use the same one twice. It also became obvious that these trails were made by Vexians, a deduction made by simply comparing the tracks from the mountain and ones made by Hexians. Although, now I have proof after catching one leaving their mountain.

This would explain the difficulty in finding other Vexian settlements, it’s likely that the group at Hez are exiles or something similar to this mountain group. Perhaps they were originally a species that inhabits subterranean environments? This will require me to put more focus on the other mountains found across Eglin.

The group at Hez could be something stunning. An example of a species moving from one environment to a vastly different one. What sort of evolutionary changes will this invoke? Will they stray so far that they could be considered a different species altogether?

Instincts halt my sense of wonderment. I am getting a bit ahead of myself here. I need to stay focused on the now, for now.

The Vexian exiting the cave looks physically similar to the group at Hez. Although, a big difference is in its clothing. It seems to be of much higher quality. Perhaps the group at Hez uses a technique suited for the fauna or flora in the subterranean that doesn’t translate well to surface flora or fauna. That would explain the quality difference at least. There also seems to be a cultural difference though. The styling is vastly more complex and fine than that of Hez. That could also be explained by technique but one would expect to at least see some imitation.

These cave dwelling Vexians seem more clean as well, only having a few blemishes here and there. Not splattered in dirt like the Hez Vexians. These differences seem to be as a result of something greater than simple exilation, unless this exile happened hundreds of years ago. I’m curious to find out more but unless I can sneak into the cave, it’s not an option. On the other hand, without sneaking into the cave I won’t be able to collect the Fish Eye. Further action is obvious in this regard.

The Fish Eye 2 is certainly less obviously alien than the Fish Eye but ultimately its methods of camouflage are passive in nature. A land based rover capable of traversing what could be, and should be assumed to be a treacherous cave environment. Getting it there is an issue, but I suppose we could use a modified Fish Eye 2 or Sky Whale, once it’s done. Perhaps a simple detachable under-carraige would do? The most important thing really would be for it to stay uplinked to me, so that I may control it and see what it sees. That’s normally not an issue but without knowing how deep the mountain goes, it’s possible that the tons of stone and other material could break up my signal.

Which means I would need a cable linked to uplinks that reach the outside. But those would be very visible, especially to the Vexians that call the mountain home. It would also be considered a breach of the SOPA.2388 agreement and thus not allowed. I query my instinct for a solution but for things like this it always says the same things. That I need to figure it out on my own.

Making it autonomous is also not allowed according to my instincts. Hmmm….

I’m really not sure what to do. Ultimately, I can only hope that the cave system doesn’t go down very far and therefore would not run into that particular issue. Or if it does, I would have to halt my investigation and that point. Taking the data from that expedition to further improve the model and then contemplating on it again. In that case, I will start working on a land-based drone in order to learn more about this mountain civilization.

On a side note, the Fish Eye 2 drones I have observing other mountains have yet to find anything. Not even tracks. It could be the case that the population of Vexians is quite small, maybe due to a recent extinction event? Or maybe this mountain is indeed extremely large and houses the majority of them. These hypotheses and others will be included in a report and then put into the now, very large backlist of similar reports. Which will require the communications buoy to send. Which I keep repeating, it really needs to change. The Sky Whale is in production now but in the meantime I can begin designing a rover drone.

This would require a vastly different design compared to the others I’ve created. Not to mention that I’ll have to design it to be all-terrain. Or in this case able to traverse jungles and mountains. A tall order and I don’t expect much from the first generation.

I started the model off with a low body but quickly found out, with the help of the sandbox simulation, that it would often get tangled in the density of the jungle. A taller body could make certain areas of the caves inaccessible and there isn’t an obvious middleground. I query my instinct; even though I already know the answer is going to be “figure it out yourself”. Instincts really isn’t all that helpfu-

…

My instinct brings a database to my attention and tells me that instead of using geometric based shapes I could instead use more natural shapes. I asked it for further explanation and it brought a different database to my attention. This database was filled with the various species cataloged by the civilization that created me. Instincts said that I could use these for inspiration since several of them live in similar environments.

… …

I wish that my instincts would volunteer this information next time… It said no; that would only limit the potential of my creativity which is the purpose of my ego. I’m not really sure what that means and, when queried, my instinct refuses to elaborate on the word.

I don’t really like it keeping secrets from me. Especially when I can’t keep my own secrets.