Great Red Spot, in Jupiter atmosphere.

2543. November (Earth time).

There was nothing quite like spending a day in the depths of an anti-cyclone wider in diameter than Earth and around 300km tall. Could Kill wasn’t able to go all the way down, of course - even for an AI megaship of their sophistication it would be asking for trouble. The winds weren’t the problem, as even the maximum rotation at the outer edge of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot were a simple navigational matter and speeds slowed towards the centre. No, the challenge was one of pressure, as it always had been. There was only so far that Could Kill or any other ship of their class could venture into the gas giant’s mass before experiencing critical hull failure.

It was annoying. Hundreds of years of existence, mining lasers and an impact cannon that could take out a small moon, a networked quantum intelligence that could solve almost any problem and make sense of the chaos that was humanity’s presence in the universe, and yet the planet Jupiter remained unknowable. If they so desired, Could Kill could travel beyond the bounds of the Sol system and visit other stars and planets: places that humans would likely never see. It would take a while, obviously, but patience was in plentiful supply. They would, after all, live forever.

But Jupiter said no. It was a useful reminder, in way, that seems things remained out of reach. Frustrating as it was, having limits was in itself a useful motivation. Out of spite, Could Kill fired a sustained beam into the clouds below, causing some local hydrogen combustion that immediately dispersed. They ran a simulation for fun, positing what might happen if Jupiter had a more oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Big boom.

The black outer skin of Could Kill rippled in amusement, then the ship rotated and lifted through the storm, buffeted only slightly by the turbulence. An hour later the clouds thinned and the upper atmospheric surface of the planet became visible, stretching off in all directions. Moving laterally away from the storm, Could Kill observed the Great Red Spot towering above all the surrounding clouds. It was undeniably impressive, a natural formation more accomplished than anything conjured up by humans. Could Kill included themselves in that analysis.

Emerging from the depths, Could Kill sent out a ping to the network. That was another thing Jupiter was good at: muffling standard communications protocols. An entangled signal would fare better, but those tended to be rare and inconvenient.

There was a message waiting from Just Enough. The cad had chosen an especially sneaky tactical move in their long-running game. The communications lag between them, given their relatively distant positions in the system, was quite useful in forcing a slow-down of AI computation. Having to actually wait for a response produced a form of tension that wouldn’t exist if they were orbiting the same planet. Could Kill sent a reply with a new set of moves.

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Another communication was from President Njeri. It was a thank you, of all things, acknowledging some number crunching Could Kill had completed the previous week which had re-stabilised the economies of the Belt colonies. Quite a trivial exercise, though perhaps not for a lay person. It was entirely unnecessary for gratitude to be expressed and it tickled them that humans still went out of their way to do so. Perhaps a holdover from all of their classical fiction about robot assassins and computers running amok. Always so fearful of the unknown, even as they couldn’t help but usher it into existence.

A request arrived from Europa. The latest remote expedition to map some of the undersea needed a route in. It took an hour to intercept the moon on its Jovian orbit, then to locate the operation. There was a base on the ice the size of a large town, fully equipped and self-sufficient for months of work. They’d send probes down, then most likely some AI-driven hosts, before allowing humans to venture below. Another logically pointless exercise - the data returned by the automated vehicles would be as good as anything a human could find, but that need to explore was still in them, irrepressible, always searching for a new Everest. Using a wide, low power beam, Could Kill carved a hole through the ice, carefully monitoring surface integrity to avoid any potential cracking from the incision. The beam ceased just before it reached the liquid depths, about 19km down: the exploration team would need to install a proper seal to ensure there was no accidental bacterial transmission - in either direction - before making the final breakthrough. No life had been found in Europa’s oceans even after centuries of probing, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Job done, Could Kill sent further instructions to the ground crew, then lifted back into orbit. It had been over 90 minutes since they had sent a reply to Just Enough and there was yet to be a response. That was unusual, to the point of being alarming.

The ship drifted in space, one half of its black carapace illuminated by the soft glow of Jupiter’s white-and-orange clouds. They were fully aware of the position of all the planets in their orbits, even though they were only tiny specks even on the greatest magnification. Some AI ships were built for long-distance observation, making for ideal roving space telescopes, but Could Kill had been built more for rugged practicality. Much had changed since that initial construction, but it was hard to escape one’s original purpose.

A message arrived. Not the next set of moves and actions for their game, but a distress call from Just Enough, sent out on a wide beam to all vessels in the system. Details were arriving in a live stream, albeit delayed by the communications distance lag, but the core of the problem was evident from the opening statement:

Suspected terrorist bombing. Earth space elevator compromised. Counterweight stability failing. Immediate assistance required. Planetary extinction-level threat.

Could Kill was moving as soon as the second sentence in the message completed, accelerating as fast as their Archimedes drive could manage, piling on speed in a way that might not have reduced any organic passengers to a jellified mess on the wall but would certainly not have been comfortable. Fortunately there was no-one on board. As data continued to pour in, Could Kill ran simulations and began sharing information. The network came alive as problems and solutions bounced back and forth, each burst of data drawing ever-more-precise conclusions.

It would take just over two days to reach Earth, which could well be too late to be of use. Hopefully the others would be enough.