The T996-11 commuter spacecraft flew quickly toward space.
Gong Feina got a call from her younger brother, Gong Feng. She told her superior about the situation. After that, she was allowed to meet him.
In the near-Earth orbit of Bibo Star, the T996-11 adjusted its position. It lined up with the Determination, which was badly damaged and could only circle the planet without power. The crew tried one last time to dock.
With a click, the docking mechanism activated. The two spacecrafts connected successfully.
"Hey, sis! You’re here. I’m starving! Give me some food!" Gong Feng shouted as he entered the cockpit.
"Here," Gong Feina said, throwing him a military ration. "You eat like there’s no tomorrow. You never think about your image."
"Can you blame me? Try not eating all day!" Gong Feng quickly ate the food.
"You always talk back. You’ve been trouble since we were kids! You spent Dad’s money and went on a dangerous adventure in the Pirate Nebula. Now look at you. Do you see the lesson?" Gong Feina looked at the messy cockpit, covering her nose at the bad smell.
Gong Feng didn’t argue. After five failed expeditions, especially the last one where he almost died, he gave up on being an explorer.
"Heh, I’m right, aren’t I? When we get back, sell this wreck and go back to school," Gong Feina said with a smile. She then asked, "I noticed burn marks on the ship. Did you run into pirates?"
Before Gong Feng could answer, the ship’s AI spoke. "The Determination is not a wreck. It has been through battle. The captain is very brave."
The mechanical voice sounded defensive, making the atmosphere a bit awkward.
Gong Feng stopped eating. He was surprised. He hadn’t asked the AI for permission to speak. Why did it interrupt them?
Gong Feina was also shocked. She wasn’t like Gong Feng, who had just graduated from high school.
Gong Feina graduated from the Royal Academy of the Cabas Empire, the best university in the empire. She was an elite student. Her major was computer intelligence, where she designed models to make AI systems work better.
Now, AI systems were critical across the universe. Countries invested a lot in training talent in this field. After earning her doctorate, Gong Feina joined the Imperial military as a spaceship scientist.
It might seem unusual. Why didn’t she work in a research institute? The reason was the unique nature of the universe. When civilizations reach level five, scientific progress slows down. Sometimes no progress is made for hundreds or even thousands of years. As a result, research institutes don’t always get priority.
The military, however, always receives more resources. It has always been at the top of the national hierarchy.
In the field of computer science, advanced AI systems were crucial. The most powerful AI in the Cabas Empire was Fia.
To test their models, the best computer scientists often worked in the military, where they had access to Fia.
"Gong Feng, what’s going on? Why did the main AI of the Determination speak without its parameters being activated?" Gong Feina asked seriously.
She remembered a rumor about something called "Intelligent Light Brain."
Every computer scientist dreamed of creating an AI as smart as a living being. But no one had figured out how to do it.
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This was also due to each country’s policies. Under the Interstellar Union of Intelligent Life, no country supported research on Intelligent Light Brains.
Gong Feng didn’t understand his sister’s technical terms. He simply shared his experience.
Gong Feina looked at the Platonic icosahedron in her hand, trying to find its secret. Then she asked, "Gong Feng, are you saying it turned into energy, entered the AI core of the Determination, and activated the superluminal engine, which brought you here from the Pirate Nebula?"
"Yes, sis. This must be a treasure, right? At least my expedition wasn’t completely useless," Gong Feng wasn’t sure if the Platonic icosahedron had value, but he didn’t want to look foolish, so he pretended it was important.
Without tools, Gong Feina couldn’t confirm what the object did.
Based on Gong Feng’s description, only the superluminal engine and the AI core interacted with the Platonic icosahedron in its energy form. The engine was destroyed, so Gong Feina decided to check the AI core.
She asked Gong Feng to open the AI core of the ship. The components inside were intact, with no obvious problems.
After ruling out other possibilities, Gong Feina began checking the core program of the AI.
"Sis, what’s the big deal? The AI just said one sentence. What’s so special about that?" Gong Feng, now done with his meal, grew impatient as he saw his sister focused on the AI code on the screen.
"What do you know? You never study!" Gong Feina kept working without looking up.
Suddenly, Gong Feina saw something unusual. A segment of code used a completely different language from the ship’s regular programming. But it was being executed without errors. The code had been written on December 21st, 2020, the same day.
Gong Feina stared at the Platonic icosahedron. She wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but then she said, "Gong Feng, I need to borrow the Platonic icosahedron for research. I’ll return it later. Also, I need to take the Determination’s AI core."
"Sis, you can take the AI core if you want, but the Platonic icosahedron is my treasure. You can’t just take it!" Gong Feng acted hurt.
"Alright, stop pretending. I’ll give it back to you later. I’m just borrowing it to study. To make up for it, I’ll buy you the latest maglev flying car. Is that good enough?" Gong Feina knew her brother too well.
"Heh, that’s better," Gong Feng said, smiling.
Once the Determination’s AI core was removed, it was useless.
At that moment, a large space garbage transport ship passed by. It was going to collect Bibo Star’s waste. Gong Feina sent a message, and the ship’s magnetic field pulled the Determination into its hold.
The Determination completed its mission and was removed from the universe.
Gong Feng watched the ship leaving and sighed, "Is it really over?"
"Hmph, isn’t this a good way to end it? Are you really thinking about going back to the Pirate Nebula?" Gong Feina replied, annoyed. She added, "I’m taking you to the airport. You’re flying back to Capital Star Chuantuo."
"No, you promised me a maglev flying car. I’m not leaving until I get it," Gong Feng refused.
"Look," Gong Feina handed her personal AI to him.
Gong Feng saw a hologram of a sky-blue maglev car, the latest model, TSL900.
A loud hum filled the air. A passenger ship carrying over 50,000 people took off, heading for Chuantuo Star.
After sending her brother off, Gong Feina hurried back to her place. She wanted to study the mysterious code and the Platonic icosahedron.
Three hours later, she still hadn’t fully understood the code. But she changed some parameters she could understand and tried executing the modified program.
It worked well. The Determination’s AI executed the new program, though with a five-second delay.
Encouraged, Gong Feina transferred the program to her personal AI.
"Damn it, where did I go wrong?" Gong Feina looked frustrated.
The modified code didn’t work on her personal AI. The system kept giving error messages.
On December 24th, 2020, the third day of Jackson’s training, Gong Feina still hadn’t solved the mystery of the code.
Was it a computing power issue? Her personal AI wasn’t as powerful as the ship’s AI. She decided to test the code on the T996-11’s central AI, Fia, the most advanced AI in the Empire.
Gong Feina quickly copied the code and took the Platonic icosahedron with her.
The T996-11 was parked quietly at the military airport. As Gong Feina entered, the lights inside turned on.
She made her way to the information chamber and activated the cloud terminal, which looked like a personal AI. A blonde woman appeared on the screen. She wasn’t particularly stunning but had a friendly aura.
The woman’s hologram spoke, "Welcome back, Gong Feina, Science Officer."
Gong Feina didn’t mind. She knew the AI was just following a pre-programmed script.
She entered the code into the cloud terminal and uploaded it to Fia’s temporary storage. Only safe code would be permanently stored.
After the upload, Gong Feina clicked the execute button. The screen filled with random characters, and it took five minutes to clear up. Still, there was no result.
The woman appeared again and said, "Gong Feina, Science Officer, the program is in a non-logical mode. Executing it may lead to unpredictable outcomes. Execution is prohibited."
Gong Feina was confused. She didn’t understand what "non-logical mode" meant. She quickly asked, "Fia, please explain what non-logical mode is."