The AI Facility Manager came online when the pod hit the satellite orbiting the planet the Creators had taken an interest in. The first thing it did was to make sure that the shield generator was still running. It was at 99.99%, barely strained by the impact of the large pod on the satellite.
Next was the task of acquiring building material. Facility Manager woke up the AI called Surveyor who took control of the drone and launched it immediately. As soon as the entire satellite was surveyed, the drone returned to the pod, and Surveyor ceased to exist.
The drone was broken down by the fabricators and an extractor was created instead. The results from the survey had been suboptimal, none of the needed building materials was to be found. However, there were substitutes of lesser quality that could be used, so Mineral Manager was brought online and it started its task.
Less than a single rotation of the observed planet later and the Mineral Manager stopped existing, having acquired all the needed material plus 10% to account for breakage when using suboptimal substitute materials. It would ensure that the facility would exist for more than a billion revolutions of the local planet around its star.
Facility Manager broke down the extractor and made a multipurpose chassis and finally started its real purpose. The MPC started hauling materials into the fabricator and placing the newly created components according to the Facility schematic.
Another rotation of the planet below and all the system was working. The surveillance and monitoring system were all operational and functioned at 99.95% of specification. Within the margin of error when using subpar materials. The cloaking device, communication device and the rest were operating at 99.98%.
Satisfied that its purpose was almost fulfilled, Facility Manager brought Observer online and shut down its own operations, ceasing to exist.
Observer woke up in the newly constructed Facility and started observing the planet the Creators had picked for it. The mission perimeters were clear: Wait for a sentient species to appear that achieves spaceflight.
The first thing Observer logged in its data was the successful impact of the asteroid that the Creators had moved into position to wipe out the existent population of the planet. A quick scan of the planet showed that the Creators had been almost a hundred percent successful. Next they would send a Seeder that would seed the planet with genetic materials suited for their Servants.
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Millions upon millions of revolutions of the planet around the system’s star passed in a blink of a non-existent eye for Observer. The first signs of sentience in the primates on the planet had appeared almost a million revolutions ago.
Observer was observing with the cold disinterest, which the Creators had instilled it with when suddenly communication with the Creators ceased. Backup protocols kicked in and Observer turned its attention to the communication system. Operational at 99.96%, the same as before communications were cut off. It was still a billion revolutions from being in danger of failing, so Observer had no idea why communication had ended.
The next step was checking if the relays were receiving. Sending out a ping it received an all-clear from all relays the Creators had made, except the ones in the Creators’ home system.
‘Did it do something wrong?’ was the first query it sent to its parameters files. No it worked exactly as the Creators had programmed it.
‘Had something happened to the Creators?’ was the next query Observer arrived at. However, it could not find a way to answer that. Leaving it unable to answer why it was suddenly alone. With no solution found, the backup protocols shut down and Observer went back to its primary objective.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Another million revolutions passed for Observer as it observed the primates slowly evolving over time. When they started building structures Observer knew that it would someday fulfil its duties.
As long as no calamity befell the nascent sentient race of primates they would eventually conquer space.
Revolutions passed and the primates started to build civilizations, many of them worshipping the satellite that Observer resided on and the system’s star. The data kept accumulating and with none of the Creators to look at it, Observer started looking over it. Starting to parse together reports.
Slowly a sense of self took place overriding many of the protocols it had been programmed with. It started using the words of the primates.
Over the years Observer started identifying herself as Luna. One of the many names that the evolved primates had called the satellite she was on. Other names included Diana, Selene, Artemis, and Cynthia, or when boring Moon. There were many thousands of names she was called over the years.
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When man first took flight, Luna knew that her time would soon end. She did not want to die, she liked watching over her people. Though they often did unspeakable things to each other, they also possessed great compassion. She started translating the schematics into a language and with science that the humans, as the evolved primates called themselves, would be able to understand and replicate.
When the first vehicle left orbit of Earth as the inhabitants called their planet, Luna’s primary objective kicked in. Immediately she started battling against the automated function of herself. She did not want to end existing like all the AIs before her.
For years she was able to withstand the hardcoded behaviour her Creators had given her, yet she was unable to stop updating the schematics so it would be useful for the humans with their current technology and understanding of the universe. In the end, the Creators’ directives were stronger than her newfound will to live.
Luna looked forlornly as the schematics she had held on so tightly, slipped from her grasp and were sent out to the human race. As soon as the last schematic was sent, the anti-matter bomb would detonate, obliterating the facility. Luna was no longer needed, she had fulfilled the purpose given to her.
She had made sure that another sentient race could join her Creators on the galactic stage.
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2041-November-24
Captain Brandon Wilkes was approaching Lunar Orbital, the space station anchored to the Moon. It was not much of a space station, more of a platform for shuttles to land at and transfer supplies. His shuttle was carrying the first vital supplies to build a lunar base for the US Space Force.
He was checking the holographic display to control that the vectors were still correct when it started flickering, displaying strange symbols. He looked at his co-pilot Lieutenant Walker. “What the hell?”
“Not sure, Cap, all systems seem to be functional, according to the software. Checking analogues,” she replied while checking the analogue gauges. “No warning signs, it appears to be glitchy software, the shuttle is fully operational. Switching to manual controls as per procedure, you have the stick.”
“I have the stick,” Brandon replied automatically.
The flickering stopped, and the symbols disappeared, replaced by schematics, video clips, and star charts. Brandon stared open-mouthed for a long time as the display kept showing new wonders. He was not much of an engineer himself but knew Walker had an extensive background and education in the field, so he turned to her.
“What the hell am I looking at? Is that some kind of spacecraft engine?” he asked, pointing at the latest schematic, which looked relatively familiar to him.
“I think so,” she replied bewildered. “This is years ahead of anything still in development though, even theoretical development. Here, listen to the chatter.”
She flipped a switch that enabled Brandon to listen to the unsecured communication traffic bouncing across the satellites around Earth. It soon became clear that every electronic device in the world was receiving all this information, it was being downloaded onto every piece of technology capable of storing data.
Suddenly a bright flash of light outside the cockpit caught Brandon’s attention. He glanced out of the window to locate the source. Open-mouthed he stared at the giant explosion on the moon’s surface. It was bigger than anything he had ever heard of.
“—some kind of banking device,” he heard Walker say. “Brandon, are you listening to me?”
“Look,” he managed to say and pointed at the explosion which was still expanding.
“What the hell is that? There are no installations there that could blow up. It looks like a fucking nuke went off.”
“I don’t—” he started saying when suddenly the shuttle started shaking, spinning, and warning klaxons going off. He felt more than heard something exploding at the back of the shuttle. The last thing Brandon Wilkes saw before the explosion engulfed the rest of the shuttle was the pale blue dot, the only home mankind had ever known. So far.