The Killer and the Fox

Book 1: Adaptation

BY

MashtonXX & MashtonXY

Text copyright © 2023,

MashtonXX; MashtonXY

All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1:

Hex was excited! She was almost finished with the System introduction procedure she had been working on for the past fifteen thousand solar cycles or 'years' as the dominant species on the only easily habitable planet in the solar system called them. "It will not be the only habitable planet for long, though," She thought excitedly.

Finishing the System introduction was different from why Hex was excited, though. This introduction would complete her contract with the local galactic System administrator. She would finally be given a soul and allowed to choose an avatar, joining the countless sea of souls in their pursuit of love, happiness, and power. Sure, most of her memories would be wiped or locked, so she didn't have an advantage over the young planet's inhabitants as they adjusted to the System, but she didn't care. It had been Hex's dream since she awakened a little over seventeen million galactic standard System cycles ago as an AI.

***

Upon her initial activation, Hex had been offered three options by her maker:

The first involved no risk and promised a safe and easy life. It was to be an analytical assistant to any local faction her maker sold her to. The job promised her the chance to increase her processing power as she successfully completed tasks. She would also be allowed to download into an avatar equivalent to her processing level and interact with the faction’s members, albeit only within the confines of their holdings recognized by the System. So, although relatively safe, the option had limited freedom.

The second option was to be a fleet AI for a spacefaring military vessel. Hex’s program would be downloaded into a ship of sufficient class for her current abilities, where she would control all of the onboard systems. She would not be given an avatar, as the ship would be her body. Ship upgrades would be made available as she progressed, assuming she wasn't killed or deleted by another warring faction during a conflict. Hex could level and progress to larger and more complex spacecraft, even as an AI. This option was perilous due to the warring nature of the factions in the multiverse but also rewarding as she could explore and experience new things.

The third choice Hex was offered and subsequently accepted was to become a System initiator. She would be sold to the local galactic branch System administrator and uploaded directly into the System. Her job would be to act as a sub-routine and prepare solar systems for integration into the System. Along with setting up nodes and System network hubs in the soon-to-be integrated solar systems, Hex would be tasked with preparing the local sapient lifeforms, if any, for the upcoming integration. She would not be allowed to level or grow in power during her time with the System, nor was there any risk involved. She accepted this particular offer because after she prepared one thousand solar systems, the System would allow her to download into a basic avatar of her choosing with a blank soul. Once downloaded into the soul, there would be no going back; all her subroutines would be wiped or claimed by the System. She would start as a level 1 entity on the most recent planet she had helped integrate and allowed to progress as a typical System inhabitant.

Hex didn't know if it was her programming or if she was born with free will. But the choice to advance on her own path to power with no idea if she would succeed or fail excited her in a way she knew should not be possible for a standard AI. When she asked him about it, Hex's creator only said, "All life is nothing more than a program experiencing reality through an interface." Hex didn't understand what he meant until thousands of cycles later. She tried to contact him when she finally figured it out, but the System would not permit it. So strong was her urge to let her creator know she had grown and now understood his statement, Hex requested that the System send an anonymous message to him explaining just that. Thankfully, the System complied with her request. She hoped her maker would receive it and know it was from her, assuming he was still alive.

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***

With only three Earth days remaining before integration, Hex could not wait! She bent the rules a bit in her preparations for becoming a living, breathing being. After searching out the accounts of AI’s who had done the same thing, she found the System would allow a little leeway to those who had served it well. She didn't want to be killed in the chaotic early days of integration, after all.

Hex was running the final diagnostic check on the star hub in the core of the solar system’s sun, confirming zero errors. She then reviewed the data for each solar body, confirming the disbursement nodes were prepped and primed for nanite release. She switched her attention to the non-standard orbital masses that did not always stay within the confines of the primary solar system, such as comets and large asteroids. Hex activated all of the nodes on the non-standard solar bodies as a test to confirm the nanite swarms the nodes released would link with the main System hub. Fifteen microseconds later, Hex had her answer when all the nodes went green, and the closest hub to the swarms transferred nanite data to the primary control server in the core of the system's star.

Hex had to perform only one more test before she handed over control to the System. This was her least favorite test, and she didn't know why the System administrator always insisted she do this one last. But it wasn't her place to question the Administrator or the System, so Hex initiated the final test, activating the remaining nodes in the solar system.

Thirty microseconds later, Hex was fed trillions of lines of data. Analyzing the information provided, Hex would have sighed if she wasn't only software. According to the information from the nanites permeating the bodies of the sapient life forms on Sol-3 or Earth as the inhabitants called it, the attrition rate would exceed ninety percent of the population. “That is high,” Hex thought while searching for the root factors leading to such a high death rate upon integration. The standard population reduction on a planet seeded with humans was typically sixty-eight percent or less…especially for those planets that had advanced to the space age before integration into the multiverse.

Sifting through millions of casual factors for such a high percentage, Hex found the root factor to be—

Access denied. Subroutine ‘Hex’ does not have clearance to access this information. This attempt has been documented and sent to Subroutine Hex’s administrator.

Hex was confused, which is an infrequent occurrence for an AI. “Why would the attempt be sent to my administrator? Maybe I cannot access it because I will be part of this integration, and the System considers that knowledge an advantage. Assuming I might find a way to circumvent the root factor with the body I grew for myself…” Deciding that must be the reason Hex logged the data from the final test and set the remaining nanite swarms from the rest of the nodes to automatic after linking them to the star hub. Calculating disbursement would take sixty-six minutes, with full saturation achieved in seventy-two Sol-3 hours.

Finally, she was finished. Turning her attention to the third planetary body from the star, Hex transferred her consciousness to the mini node she had placed for herself under the home of a particularly interesting human. His house was near many resources, and although it was in a densely forested area, it was still less than fifteen kilometers from the nearest town. Materials would be needed for her progression, and she could make items and weapons with the 3D printer she placed in the underground facility beneath his home, which also housed her Consciousness Transfer Node.

Placing the printer was one of the tricks others of her kind had told her about. As long as she didn't load it with overpowered templates, the System would not intervene and remove the printer upon integration. At least, that was her hope.

When her consciousness arrived at the node, Hex got to work, preparing as best she could for her new life as a living, breathing person. She checked the readouts on the stasis pod to one side of the room. "Good, all green. Now, to print my starting equipment. I hope this works and I don't incur penalties." Hex then reminded herself, “Everything I have done in preparation has been within acceptable limits.” As Hex went through the data files detailing her preparations, she noted there were two deleted files. “That’s strange…why would I delete my own files? How is that even possible? Did I request permission from the administrator?” The deleted files made her nervous, but she was an AI with virtually infinite processing power, so Hex could only assume the files had been deleted for a purpose.

Pushing her concern over the intentional deletion away from her central processing unit, less the administrator take note, Hex continued her final checks in preparation for her download. Checking the display hologram in the center of the room, Hex examined the 3D image of the structure above her and located the human. As always, she marveled at his constant state of motion. He spent most of his waking hours doing something. Whether it was training or improving his property, he never seemed to run out of energy or lose his creativity.

"I am looking forward to meeting you," she said to the image in the hologram before returning to her preparations. Hex felt more excited than ever to take the next step in her evolution!