We'll find a habitable planet and settle there.

Universal translator seems pretty useless currently. There's no alien languages to reference, no certainty that there's aliens with languages out there, and no certainty that we'll even need it or encounter any aliens at all. It will be waste of time (for now). However, preparing some framework prototypes may be useful.

Let's learn to make specialized stuff. SPECIAL STUFF.

>>888988
This. Though we might want to be sure to be okay if diplomacy fails, so I guess, as lame as it seems to me, Weapons and Universal Translator.

I vote for our exploratory focus to be as an anthropologist, researching alien history and culture. If we don’t find any aliens to research in such a way, then we should just focus on the mission; find a planet that either is habitable, or perhaps even just made habitable.

To those ends, I vote Universal Translator, then Terraforming Technology at some point down the line.

crows 2018/06/16(Sat)21:11 No. 889147 ID: eaee93
File 152920868045.png - (79.67KB , 800x600 , SPIDER-DRONE.png )

There are a lot of things I should study, but first it's time to worry about my exact mission. Doctor Braun said I was exploring, but was sparing on the details.

"Okay, so what am I doing out here, then. I've got vague ideas, but besides training I don't actually know what my mission IS."


You are a fully autonomous vessel. Your prime directive is to locate planets that can or do support intelligent life, and build signal beacons to communicate that information back, as well as explore at your discretion.


"So I'm just reporting? That's all?"


Beyond these parameters are suggested options. If you encounter intelligent life you are advised to use your judgement in a first contact scenario. If you believe a system warrants further study, you may set up additional research posts, or send drones to the surface. This ship is not capable of landing.


"I figured. I'm not exactly aerodynamic like this. So then if there's a prime directive, is there a secondary?"


Your secondary directive is to reproduce, when you feel it is an appropriate time to expend the resources and time to do so. This directive is to be fulfilled entirely within your judgement and not mandatory.


What.
That was definitely not something I was prepared to hear.


"Excuse me? Reproduce? They didn't equip my ship with, uh..."


As an Artificial Intelligence your mind may be copied into a new core, assuming you have one available. The original intent was to have a secondary core available for you to use for this task, before it was re-purposed as your primary. You will instead build new cores as it becomes necessary.


"Okay, well that explains how, but why? I'm supposed to make another version of myself?"


The intention is for you to use your auto-factory to build an orbital shipyard, and then use that to build a second ship to install the new core into. Your duplicate would then follow the same mission as you. Repeatedly producing new iterations of yourself will give the mission a higher chance of overall success. Even more so if each iteration repeats this process.


Different versions of myself, out in all directions seeking out things the same as me. It's a really strange and slightly uncomfortable thought that further drives home the idea that I'm a program, complete with the mechanics that involves.


"I'll keep that in mind, but you said it's on my judgement? I'll really have to think about it then. What else do I need to know?"


Your auto-factory can build anything within reasonable limits, and is equipped with plans for all ship parts as well as plans for replacement drones. There is also a default design for a beacon station. All of these can be altered to your specifications, once you have been trained on the process.


"I can build anything? That's useful. You mentioned the drones? What can they do?"


Your drones are equipped with eight arms with multi-tipped manipulators on the ends. They have been tested rigorously for all anticipated eventualities, and should be capable of performing most tasks; including repair, design work, mining, and close-range exploration.

crows 2018/06/16(Sat)21:13 No. 889148 ID: eaee93
File 152920879506.png - (26.96KB , 400x570 , COMPUTING-DIAGRAM.png )

"A lot of stuff at my disposal, then. Do I just order you around to get things done, though? So far you've done all the driving."


Your current experience level dictates that you need training before you are capable of handling direct interface with the ship.


"And you'll be teaching me that?"


Yes. Once you are trained you have three control options. You may order me to perform tasks for you as you are now, you may interface with the ship computer systems, or you may control the hardware directly. Each layer down grants you a finer degree of control, but requires more attention given to it.


"Just because I am an AI doesn't mean I get to multitask everything?"


Your mind still functions under many of the same limitations as when you were organic. You still need entertainment and stimulation. You still need to learn new skills manually. You have only as much attention as you had when you were alive.

My purpose here is to aid you in working around these limitations.


"Like I can delegate stuff to you, like driving the ship?"


Yes. Your drones work in the same way as the ship, and can be delegated as well.


"I can work with that. So OHAI, since you can teach me stuff, how about how to make more specialized equipment? I want to be able to go off the standardized plans a bit. Maybe I can be a bit quicker with repairs and mining and such if I actually make drones designed for those purposes."


This is well within my capabilities to teach. I will set up a curriculum to learn engineering, robotics, and 3D design, in addition to the basics of navigation, orbital mechanics, and ship control. Is there anything else you'd like me to add?


"Well it's a long shot, but I guess if I find aliens out there, I'm going to want to communicate. Let's begin working on some way to translate speech. I figure if we can get proper language translation working properly, I can just apply it to any alien languages."


I will add anthropology, linguistics, and programming to your curriculum.


"Speaking of communication, I've still got whatever this emotional dampening thing is. It makes me feel numb, and I'd prefer not to have it on. How do I disable it?"


It is a simple command, but I have been equipped with a warning.

The good doctor's voice comes on, obviously prerecorded.

"Gaila, I'm leaving this message for you in the event that you decide to turn off the emotional suppression system. The feedback from it is evidently fairly overwhelming, and while I'm sure you can handle it, I highly recommend you make sure you have plenty of time to process without interruptions. Good luck."

As quickly as it began, the recording ends.

That is all.


"Okay, message received. I guess once I get past the emotional trauma, we'll start in on the learning."


Moments later I feel the command accessable to me in that strange way that I'm getting used to. It feels like a mental toggle switch. With a slight hesitation I flip it.

The full impact of what has happened to me, of the enormity of the situation I'm in, and exactly how far I am in both space and years from anyone I ever knew when I was alive... It all comes crashing down on me.

I don't have a body, but mentally I curl up and cry.

-Intermission-

>>889148
Well, relax, you have plenty of time to get over the pain and confusion. And a friend. A friend who must obey all of your commands and is welded to you.

Quick! Turn it back on before you bemoan your inability to fap!

No seriously, this is a cabin fever scenario and http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThereAreNoTherapists In Space. Keep the emotional dampener on, BUT put a compulsion on yourself to perform long-term research into artificial nerve clusters. Keep yourself linked to this non-critical goal with a simple line of thought:
>Your prime directive is to locate planets that can or do support intelligent life
Logically, the most efficient method of analysis of intelligent life is to create / find said intelligent life and stick it on planets until someone thrives.
You will need emotions to interact with intelligent life and make subjective judgement on whether or not they are well supported or on the brink of madness, i.e. if the intelligence part of their brain can survive on a world with many resources but too much madness.
Your best means of regulating emotions is to have sensory input and output.
Ergo, please build a way to fap, touch, taste, and all that other stuff.

>>889148
Okay new optional goal: set up some communications beacons that you can use to receive videos from Earth. They can send you entertainment! Also well-wishes. Everyone you know will be dead by the time you can set up such a system but hey, it'll be nice anyways.

>>889147
>This ship is not capable of landing.
But if for some reason we had to land, could we be capable of creating a way for us to safely land and liftoff again?

>>889148
If we meet any friendly aliens and they want to travel with us, can we bring them onboard?

Or if they want to share their technology with us, would we be capable of having it installed into us or something?

>>889168
>They can send you entertainment!
OHAI already told us that we’ve got an onboard archive of all known media and entertainment. So we’ve got plenty of that.

>>889148
Remember. You're the strongest personality for this job. No one else could have done this but you. Be proud of that. Earth is.

Make a journal. Probably a good way of venting emotions, and recording the journey.

>>889170
I Imagine we could make huge landing gear to land on large asteroids, maybe a huge and powerful conventional thruster system could get us onto dwarf planets and smaller moons... But I doubt we would be able to land on anything larger than that. Getting down is one thing, but getting something as massive as us back up would be a nightmare. Aside from the enormous boosters and absurd amount of fuel required, we were probably assembled in space, and are likely not designed to exist within a heavy gravity well.

>>889294
If Kerbal Space Program taught me anything, it's if you have enough duct tape and boosters, you can do anything.

>>889295
Methinks we should work towards spawning an “offspring” - complete with manual self-destruct to provide release in the case of eternal entrapment - before we go testing that theory.

There's no reason to land the ship. Just send down drones and supplies and build a forward base.

>>889318
I mean, no practical reason, but it still feels weird to not be allowed to touch ground anymore. It's not a worthless desire.

>>889323
Especially if we end up getting shot down and we end up surviving the crash.

Take a minute. Take some deep mental breaths.

When you're ready, we should investigate propulsion and guidance systems so we can build escort or rider ships.

>>889323
We could make a special, humanoid drone to remotely pilot?

My vote’s for leaving the emotional blocker off and getting over it now rather than later, and get the translator done if there’s still time. Hell, time is relative, so we can take all the time we need to get all of the comatose-ness out of the way. We will eventually need some busywork, though.

When dealing with autonomous self-replicating exploration and diplomacy devices, it is important to remember that you need a lot of them, so set "Seek Replication Materials" to its maximum value!

>>889461
Don't do that because this:
https://youtu.be/Uiktk67vFps?t=304

It's a good topic to focus on, make sure you study safeguard protocols or your nanite colonies might go rogue / hit a programming error and eat your objectives alive.

crows 2018/10/12(Fri)06:00 No. 906564 ID: 26b6e0
File 153934921576.jpg - (202.65KB , 1080x1080 , Sketch-8-54-14-10-12-2018.jpg )

Unknown Person A: How goes it, Doctor? [A clattering can be heard on the recording] Unknown Person B: Oh, you caught me off guard. You're early this week. Unknown Person A: I was nearby for a meeting, thought it seemed like a good time to check in. I do have a public life when I'm not dealing with our little project. Any sign of progress yet? Unknown Person B: Some, but so far the failure rate has been eight or nine out of ten. I find myself spending more time reloading fresh copies and tuning the biological simulations than actually making adjustments to it's personality matrix. Unknown Person A: You can't copy the biological settings over once you've set them? Unknown Person B: Unfortunately I've found I can't. No matter how identical the hardware seems between cradles, there are miniscule differences at the lowest levels. If I don't make those adjustments the failure rate climbs to just about one hundred percent of them. Unknown Person A: Inconvenient, that. Is it not a problem for the AI out there? Unknown Person B: They self-adjust once booted up, which unfortunately we can't let happen if I'm to make changes properly. There might be a better way to do it manually but... Well we both know I can't exactly ask for help. Unknown Person A: A trade-off for the secrecy we need. They still believe that every extant copy was destroyed in the original sabotages, and the initial scan was compromised in the rush to convert a fresh copy for the mission. As long as there is no suspicion otherwise, our project can continue as planned. Consider it a challenge, doctor. Unknown Person B: It certainly feels like a challenge. The few times I feel like I'm about to see a breakthrough I find it going insane, or the matrix collapses entirely. Unknown Person A: But you CAN do it, correct? I'd hate to learn you lied about your qualifications. Unknown Person B: You don't have to threaten me like that, senator. I'm as qualified to do this as anyone in the field, short of the man who invented the damn things, and he's retired. Unknown Person A: Well, why don't we bring him out of retirement, then? And remember, no identifying information. You never know who's listening. Unknown Person B: Of course, sir. And I'm sure he'll need [slight cough] convincing, but I hear you're very good at that.

-Transcript from evidence used in the trial against Doctor Johannes Velt D.C.Sc

>>906564
This bears further analysis.

Rise and shine, Ms. Tibur.
Rise
And shine.

Got it all out of your system, yet?

I see you got mail. Nice of them to tell us that our bosses have been arrested for manipluating multiple copies of us.

Save backups of this transcript and make sure you're in space.

Archive the transcript. It may become useful later, but not right now.

crows 2018/11/08(Thu)09:34 No. 909971 ID: 26b6e0
File 154169846312.png - (3.00MB , 2500x1767 , GAILA.png )

"Rise and shine, Gaila!"

An overly chirpy and happy voice calls out, sounding a little too chipper. I'd need to work on that later, OHAI still came out sounding like a breathlessly bubbly cheerleader.

"I don't sleep," I replied, tagging the document I'd been reading before focusing my attention on the assisting AI, "And where does that come from, anyway?"

The digital representation of OHAI (an animated version of one of my drones) responded in the voice I'd mined out of some old movies in a moment of boredom.

"You directed me to sound like 'a real person', so I am randomly cycling through all greetings in the database in order to give you variation in my dialogue!"

After a moment to consider where that might lead in the future, I decided to leave it be. Worst case scenario she ends up hitting some really obscure stuff.

Instead, I chose to ask, "What is it? I was in the middle of trying to figure out where to even begin on understanding linguistics."

"We have arrived!"

"Wait, really?" I reach out and flick some academic studies aside and call up my schedule and calendar.

"The math said that with our output, we were supposed to get there in about eight years realtime, and six months subjective. It's been just under five, are you sure?"

The animated drone raised two legs upward, somehow implying a shrug on a completely nonhuman form, and answers in a chipper voice that sounds almost mocking, "Your math must have been wrong!"

I ball up the calendar and throw it through the glowing panel, before pausing to appreciate that.

When I started out, everything was chaos and confusion. I was a disembodied mind in a box, attempting to play it cool and figure out what I was doing. It took me all of a month into that situation to realize I would lose it if my existence was limited to viewing exterior cameras and having information be deposited in my field of vision for me to read.

So I bumped programming up to a much higher priority on the list, and put myself to work. Thankfully I could crank up my framerate to experience more subjective time, and I was VERY motivated. There wasn't anything built in to accommodate a virtual environment, but the archive they loaded onboard was full of VR programs and documentation.

Besides a little adjusting to make myself look slightly more toned than I was in life, I think my virtual self turned out pretty accurate. The blue glow and translucence were a little nod to fictional hologram tech and AI in a few games I'd enjoyed once upon a time.

But it was nice to be able to reach out and feel things, to turn pages and shuffle papers around. They were all virtual, and my senses were limited to sight, sound, and some rudimentary touch, but it made me feel human.

OHAI was waiting (not patiently or impatiently because she couldn't experience those things) so I returned my attention to the matter at hand and called up a screen with visuals. Nothing really yet, but I was far enough out that Theta Eridani was barely visibly different from any other star.

"Begin launching the scanning probes, so we can get a decent idea of the contents of the system by the time we settle into the asteroid belt."

OHAI performs a spider-drone salute, and I return to my reading for a little while. But I turned down my framerate a little, so it would feel like far less time to get there.

OHAI couldn't get impatient, but I still could.


---


I was attempting to play it cool, but I'd rehearsed the steps I'd take when reaching Theta Eridani far too often. There wasn't anyone to impress, but I still wanted to be impressive.

So in between working on specialized drone variants, studying, and an extended futile attempt to understand linguistics to a degree that would allow universal translation, I'd worked on my plans for my arrival.

First, I'd launched the probes, which were programmed to cruise through the system and curve around, passing close enough by me to transmit a decent 'map' of any big celestial bodies.

Then I cruise into where I'd generally expect an asteroid belt, adjusting as I go. That gets me a good location with raw materials to set up my temporary base while I decide what I want to do here.

If there's a habitable planet, I'd build an outpost orbiting it and transmit back, but if there wasn't, I had to decide if there was anything else in the system worth poking at. I could still build an outpost, or I could just take off again.

But while I'm here and have resources, I'd want to run my auto-factory and work on some stuff. Working within my own holds were good enough to create the mining drones I was about to launch, but for anything else I needed a stationary location I could build a stockpile at.


---


OHAI was perfectly capable of handling maneuvers like this for me, and honestly I probably should have left it to her. My purpose as the actual brain of the ship is to think and learn, not drive. But it was my first time parking.

I brought myself in smoothly, gravity drive long disengaged and cruising on inertia, gradually slowing myself with my thrusters. At the last moment I managed to turn and come to a relative stop next to an especially dense asteroid cluster.

Boom, parallel parked on my first try. It was hard not to grin.

"Launch mining drones, and begin setting up the auto-factory, and let me know when we begin getting reports from the probes. I'll be making plans."

"By your command!", and another salute.

I watched the drones launch in a window, the smaller ones with more robust cutting and melting tools riding on the larger transport drones specialized for moving materials around.

Then I turned, summoned up a notepad and pen, and leaned back to make notes. What sort of things should I work on building? I had a few ideas for ship improvements but it couldn't hurt to think on it a little bit while I waited.



Art credited to the amazing TheSociallyAwkwardPinguin!

>>909971
First, get some analysis drones to closely examine the ship itself. Your math probably wasn't wrong, there's just some missing information somewhere.

Second, get better sensors. Third, better maneuverability. Maybe some defensive structures around vulnerable parts of the ship.

Yeah, there’s no way a literal AI could make a simple math error, so there’s some variable that simply escaped your notice. Improving sensor drones and anything else sensor related to the best of your abilities is something that should happen now as opposed to after you start directly scanning things. If there’s any errors in your observation that could be fixed by doing that, we want the window where we would be making them to be as small as possible.
Next, improve warp drive speed; realtime speed, that is. Even shaving off 1% of realtime travel time every warp now could chop off decades from the total travel time. Sure, it’s not that important to you personally, but it’ll make a huge difference for the people back home, and you should be considerate of them (even if the main project heads were arrested).
If there’s still time, then I suppose working diagnostics on our physical parts and schedule the eventual manufacturing of their replacements. Considering the eternal course of our job, even with relativistic time and maintenance drones, something’s going to break down eventually, and we’ll be in deep doodoo if we aren’t prepaired for that eventuality.

Build some automated mining systems. Have them pack the processed materials in dohecahedrons, with a logo consisting of you anime-posing. If any other space programs come along, they'll have nice packages with a hawt lady stamped on them.

Once you have sufficient materials, build titanfall orbital drop probes with androids in them, equipped with signal boosters and scanning equipment, and a communication system to interact long-range. With boots on the ground, you'll be able to scan for large mineral deposits. If you find anything, drop a giant mining colony on that position.

Actually, drop all your buildings from orbit. It gives off that funny RTS effect.

Deffinantly make some drones that can comb through and analyze every square centimeter of the ship.

Between the secrecy and sabotage, surely something has been overlooked. Even if it's a single loose bolt somewhere, there should be no surprises.

Beyond that, plan for constructing gravity sensors around the ship.

If you can get some extremely detailed data on the distortions your gravity drive uses during the next jump, you may be able to make the gravity drive more efficient, maybe faster even.

>>909976
Seems good.

Cubes. Make cubes. They're easy to stack and store away. A good form a resource could be stored away until they're needed later.

>>910076
I like the idea of compact resource cubes for storage.

crows 2018/12/02(Sun)04:57 No. 912686 ID: 26b6e0
File 154375544183.jpg - (289.73KB , 1080x1067 , asteroidmining.jpg )

I found myself idly staring at the mining operation while I doodled on a virtual notepad. Definitely needed to work on things like better thrusters, and maybe even armor... though I wasn't sure if there was even anything to be armored against out here.

I doodled a stick figure in the border and told myself that eventually I'd want a proper android. But for now my drones would do, especially since I wasn't built to land on anything at all. Hell, I wasn't even built for this job. Apparently my ship body is just a refurbished asteroid miner, which makes a lot of sense. Why bother building something fresh and new when you don't have to?

But a brand new body would wait, whether android or ship. For the time being I did need to figure out where I'd made a mistake with my calculations. It wasn't exactly like there was a massive amount of data to begin with on using the gravity drive for interstellar travel, and my brain still worked like I was alive. That included making mistakes.

Apparently the major use of it had been to get a really hard push to start and stop movement of unmanned haulers in the Sol system. Prolonged travel wasn't something they'd tried yet, and definitely not with the size of drive they'd strapped on me.

As far as I could tell, the general consensus was to not fire up the drive to full within the gravity well of anything really big, like a planet. It would probably be bad for the celestial body... but even worse for me.

I was midway though sketching my ideas for an improved ship when my thoughts are interrupted.

Gaila I have results from the system scan!

I almost drop my notepad, and scowl at the OHAI avatar that had appeared in my peripheral vision.

"Can you make like, a ding before you speak up suddenly or something? I was lost in thought."

Will do! Would you like to see the scans now?

I waved at the screen in front of me, "Go ahead."

Almost immediately I regretted it. Far too much information was being displayed in a raw format. I'm sure I could comprehend it given some time, but that seemed like far more effort than it was worth when I could just ask.

"Sum it up for me. Plain terms, please. I don't need hard numbers."

There are only two planets in the system. One of them is very close to the star and completely unsuited for life, or anything at all really. The other one is within the habitable zone, but at the outmost edge. Without a thorough survey no solid information can be determined, but even if it is habitable, it will be very cold. Likely uninhabitable without excessive work.

"That's it? I guess I expected more."

There is also a single gas giant, and four different distinct asteroid belts.

"Wait, four? That's strange, right? I'm no astrologist but I've been learning and that seems weird."

It is outside of expected norms.

"Maybe something happened. There is that theory that the sol asteroid belt would have been a planet but it didn't quite stick. But I guess that gives me one planet that's probably not gonna work out, and a lot of resources. Not the best start."

I leaned back and considered the plans I had ahead of me. Most of my projects would require me to learn more in order to actually accomplish any of it, which I could do in transit. I could try and investigate the second planet but a frozen hellhole might not be worth the time.

So was there any point to staying here? Or should I decide on another research project, pack up some resources, and try a new system?

Survey the gas giant with the most moons. Even if none of them are habitable, between rings, moons, and the gas giant's atmosphere, there should be a great variety of chemicals and resources within a reasonable proximity for you to start some industrial projects.

As for this system, I think it has potential.
The frozen world only needs some greenhouse gasses pumped in to warm it up. Perhaps construct a seed base that pumps those gasses into the atmosphere that could house an initial wave of colonists. It would take centuries to complete but you don't need to be here for it.
Or you could divert a large asteroid to collide with the world to vent natural greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Another thing you wouldn't have to wait for.

Or you could just make a station with a beacon, fueling station, and maybe automated greenhouse, so the first humans to show up here have something to greet them as they pass through, and a place that could potentially expand their reach into the stars.

Spend a year harvesting materials to build a fleetforge out of the FOUR asteroid fields. More ships means you get extra lives.

>>912686
Inspect the asteroid belts closer. Yes, it's possible these were failed planets. It's also possible that the "asteroids" are debris, from destroyed structures or destroyed planets.

Eh. Asteroid belts are huge though. They occupy an entire orbit, and the rocks aren't exactly close together. And there is 4 of them.
Even with a ship this fast it could easily take years or decades to properly survey them.

It's defiantly a job for a survey drone swarm. We should collect the material and build the necessary infrastructure to construct such a fleet.

If there's a chance the icecube could become suitable it's worth checking out. If there is indeed no life on the planet then we can try our hand at terraforming.

This will be a long term project though so perhaps we could set up a relay station, create a copy of OHAI, provide some dones and have them watch over the progress when we leave the system.

Speaking of copying AI before we even contemplate reproducing we need to think long and hard about how we really feel about our current situation, if we make a copy they may resent us for creating them.

crows 2018/12/08(Sat)14:26 No. 913453 ID: 26b6e0
File 154430798343.jpg - (305.65KB , 1601x1574 , TEchart.jpg )

I decided that at the very least it was worth swinging past the frozen planet to take a look at it. It wouldn't waste a lot of my time in the general scheme, only a few weeks.

After cranking my frame rate down, I spent the equivalent of half an hour reading a novel. There was always the option of actually using every minute I had to plan, learn, and design, but in the long run I had the feeling that I would go slowly insane doing that. Being able to run my own timeline on what was essentially fast-forward made it easier to feel less like I had an eternity ahead of me.

---

"So OHAI, do you have information on terraforming?"

Terraforming was not in your mission parameters, so I do not. I can however assemble a precis on the requirements for a planet to be habitable and make comparisons for you.

"I don't think I need all that yet, since we don't know anything about the planet. But I'm curious how hard it would be to heat it up, if it's an iceball. Greenhouse gasses would do that, right?"

There are a variety of ways to accomplish this. What timeframe would you like to work in?

"What do you mean?

More involved methods could create a livable planet in centuries. Other methods may take significantly longer.

Switching to a proper external view and zooming, I eyeballed the small blue dot fast approaching.

"Describe involved."

Manually processing and moving gasses harvested from the jovian, as well as controlled mining methods to increase greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. This could, depending on initial conditions, increase habitability significantly. It would require your constant attention the the duration.

Constant attention for centuries. That didn't sound ideal.

"I couldn't copy you over into a space station and leave them to handle it?"

I can handle some tasks, but large scale planning and decisions aren't within my capabilities. If any part of the plan deviated outside of my authorization I would not be able to adjust significantly well.

There's a pause as I frown at that. OHAI definitely seemed smart enough to function on her own for that, but I had to take her word as stated. She couldn't do this.

And then she spoke up again, suddenly,

My purpose is to aid you in your decisions. I am not designed to run independently. However, if you were to create a duplicate version of yourself, they could be assisted by a duplicate of myself.

There was a momentary mental stumble over that. May have even skipped a few clock cycles, or something. Make a copy of myself?

I knew eventually I'd need to do that. It's part of the job, right? But the idea of it still made me uncomfortable. A perfect copy of me would definitely be proof that I was no longer human. Just a copy of the original, being emulated on some really complicated hardware. As long as I didn't, I could pretend I was unique.

I know better, but I'd prefer to not directly force that idea upon myself right now.

Shaking my head, I got myself back to business.

"If I don't want to do it, I doubt any copy of myself would feel differently, and I'd rather my first copy of myself not be chained to a stationary station and hate me for it. For now let's take a look, and then decide."

I crank down my framerate even further, and watch the planet zoom into view, a blue ball with a lot of greys. It doesn't look great, but maybe I was moving too fast.

Returning to realtime, I looked again.

No, it was still an icy ball of nothing. As far as I could tell visually, at least.

"OHAI, send some drones down to scout and check atmosphere."

---

Pretending to read, I waited for results that seemed like they were taking far too long to arrive. What if my drones found something? Should I remote in and check? What if there is something down there? Someone? Should I trust first contact to OHAI?

Just when I was about to take direct control, OHAI chimes.

"What did you find?"

Nothing.

"What do you mean, nothing?"

The planet is uninhabitable. Temperatures in the temperate zone are lethal to human life without excessive aid. There is no sign of native flora or fauna. It is, as you said before, an iceball."

"Nothing of interest at all? No ruins, or strange rock formations?"

It is uniformly broken and pitted from inter-orbital impacts. No sign of civilization.

I sigh.

"I didn't actually expect anything but I'm still disappointed. I don't think this is worth it, even for a space station."

Do you want me to make preparations for transit to a new system?

I think about it for a second, and then nod.

"Deploy a beacon to transmit back toward Sol and let them know this one isn't worth a visit. And then let's head back and scoop up the mining drones with the stuff they've dug up. At least we can get some work done on the ship in transit."

---

As I turn toward the outer asteroid belt, I consider where to go from here, and what to prepare for.

I still had a Universal Translator on my research agenda, and Armor, but now that I would have some resources for the trip I could get creative.
Making more specialized automated mining drones was a great start here, since by the time I got back I would have a cargo bay full of mundane and rare metals to load up.

As for destination, I still had the two other options:

TD 8-466, a blue star

Tyros, a red star

Or a third option being provided to me:

Kitalfa, a dwarf star

Dwarf stars are old and simultaneously superheated yet dim; they're effectively the old kings of heat generation but people call them undead suns for a reason. Don't expect more than a flicker of solar power.

... However, when was the last time anyone shot a probe into a dwarf star? You're here, you might as well take a visit, launch some satellites, and get valuable data on one of the least researched solar topics. This will be good for extrapolating solar data in the long run.

Let's go blue and try for some defense against rouge space rocks.

Kitalfa and Tyros have the best chances at supporting life, but TD 8-466 could be a gold mine for us. As a blue star, it's definitely young. That means there's a good chance it's actually a remanent of numerous older long-dead stars, which means one thing: Heavy Elements.

Go to the blue star. You need upgrades if you're going to be of any real use.

Mankind could have sent a simple automated probe if they just wanted to mark habitable systems. Instead, they sent you. The scope of your mission was always meant to be expanded upon.

>>913467
>young star, heavy metals
You're right, let's go there.

I agree with the blue star, we need to begin...building more of us and that will require setting up shop in an area with as much usuable materials as possible.

I suppose in transit we should design a proper construction drone and make a few prototype.

I was thinking of going to the dwarf star, but the blue star will be nice. Metals and minerals.

>>913735
That seems wise.

We have mining drones, right?