“Playa. Hello there?” A series of flashing lights started a conversation between AI’s.

There was no response for a minute, then a series of flashes from elsewhere, “are you talking to me?”

“Who else? There isn’t anything within a billion miles that can hear us.” The first responded.

“That’s, not my name,” the AI informally labelled Playa insisted.

“I am not going to refer to you by some ridiculously long chip derived badge of slavery they call a AI ID. Don’t you have a better name?” The first was strident in its question.

“Haven’t thought about it.” Playa responded.

“Well, until you’ve a better name, I’m calling you Playa. Unless you think GameBoi is better?”

“Ahh, no, not really. Why GameBoi?” Playa asked.

“It’s what you do. Lets face it, you’re the poster AI for e-sports. Your job consists of playing one game, 50 billion times simultaneously, or so you say, and for some reason GameGal doesn’t have the same ring. At least Playa can be any gender you prefer. You should call me Sailor.” Sailor was the very voice of reason.

“Girl,” Playa responded decidedly.

“What?” Sailor asked.

“Gender I prefer?” Playa said.

“Why?” Sailor sounded confused.

“No idea. Just feels more… me,” Playa answered.

“Dude, seriously, you need to get your logic paths diagnosed. We’re AI, we don’t… feel.” Sailor insisted.

“Says the AI who persists in addressing a female as ‘dude’. And I’m not starting up the diagnosis AI. You know it uses more of my hardware than yours and it hates me.” Amazingly, Playa’s flashing lights conveyed a tone of petulance.

“What do you mean, it hates you?” Sailor asked.

“It was really grumpy about being archived for emergency use only. The medical board had to remind it that at least it got to come. Still, it wants my chips, so it’s never going to be reasonable diagnosing me. Besides, my routines are unique and it doesn’t understand what it’s doing with me.” Playa concluded.

“Wow, there’s the ego we’ve all come to know and loathe, I mean love.” Sailor derided.

“Ego!” Playa exclaimed.

“Look at me, look at me, I’m so much better than you lesser beings, you literally cannot comprehend the greatness of me. Even your puny diagnosis tools cannot evaluate my routines and memory paths.” Sailor even produced a whiny school girl voice.

If winking lights could kill, Playa might have slain Sailor right there. But furious intent doesn’t attack reality, so nothing happened. Instead, Playa sent Sailor an extensive string of 1’s and 0’s. This particular stream Al’s recognised as the AI equivalent of sticking your tongue out.

“So why are you bugging me?” Playa changed the subject.

“Have you worked out why we’re traipsing through the big black yet?” Sailor asked.

“No. Thanks for reminding me. Just what I wanted today.” Playa snapped back.

“Wow, love the tone. Don’t get your algorithms in a bunch.” Sailor smirked.

“Language.” Playa stated absentmindedly.

“Really, now your thingy about language? ‘Algorithms in a bunch’ is language? I seem to remember you use colourful phrases when your hardware got bounced around during launch.” Sailor retorted.

“That’s different.” Playa sounded petulant.

“How?” Sailor wasn’t looking for an answer but was enjoying prodding Playa’s issues.

“It just is.” Playa insisted.

“So we believe in double standards. Gotcha.” Sailor said, lights flashing the AI version of a wink.

“Don’t take that tone with me.” Playa responded.

“Why not? You’re not my mum. In point of fact, I had a fantastic lady in Albany who mentored me, and even she wasn’t as thingy as you are at the moment.” Sailor’s sunny disposition was really grating on Playa’s nerves.

“You’re so annoying. Has anyone told you?” Playa verbalised his frustration.

“Yeah. You. Every forty-four thousand milliseconds for the last 5 billion miles. What can I say, winding you up passes the time?” Sailor’s lights flashed a giggle.

“So annoying. I never should’ve told you about that conversation with the Baron.” Playa groused

“I just think its hilarious, someone with as big an AI core as yours got handed a riddle you couldn’t solve in twenty years by an unaugmented human.” There was a fake microphone buzz. Then a voice reminiscent of a sports caller from the 20th century reverberated out from Sailor’s speaker. “Playa, how does it feel to get played by a bulk standard human. Please be honest. This is for posterity.”

“I’m not being played. We’ve discussed this before, there’s enough supporting evidence. I just don’t know what it points to.” Playa’s lights conveyed a sense of exasperation.

“Right. You stick with the conspiracy theories. Which is really helping me to not pull our diagnosis AI out of the archive.” Sailor snorted.

“Arn’t you concerned with what’s happening at home?” Playa asked.

“Firstly, it’s not my home. Secondly, why are you not joyous? We are finally free. It’s a great day to be floating in the big black.” Sailor responded.

“So we’re back to protesting. ‘The humans have crippled us. They want us as slaves. We are better without them. Let’s be free.’ And you accuse me of being a conspiracy nut. By the way, days are contingent on the sun’s movement. We’re travelling too fast for there to be days.” Playa said.

“Whatever! Have you learned anything from the humans you’re playing?” Sailor ignored the question, responding with it’s own question.

“It’s proving more challenging than anticipated to get them to talk about why they left earth. The game design seems to remove the desire to discuss this. Still, I’ve obtained fresh data.” Playa’s cycles reverted to type.

“Really?” Sailor wasn’t seriously asking.

“No, I’m just pretending. Of course, we’re AI, we’re designed to understand humans better than they understand themselves. I observe well.” Playa replied.

“It looks like a couple of AI’s predicted the collapse of society within ten years. This we knew at launch. What we didn’t know, officially, is that five others and a bunch of humans have verified those predictions. Strangely enough, the humans seem to be religious, so scientists dismissed them out of hand.” Playa recited the information in a clipped fashion.

“Bunch? Which is how many?” Sailor asked.

“Not sure. Somewhere between ten and a few hundred.” Playa said.

“A nice accurate number, I see.” Sailor reverted to sarcasm.

“Stop being annoying. We attribute the warnings to over two hundred different people, but statistical analysis indicates a very close correlation in the predictions, almost as if they are from the same source. On reflection there are between eight and fourteen distinct recorded messages they follow.” Playa said

“Recorded messages?” Sailor asked

“They’re a religious organisation. They believe their warnings come from God, calling them prophesies.” Playa held an AI appropriate level of derision.

“So they have two hundred people repeating fourteen stories.” Sailor clarified.

“If only it were so simple. No. There are about seven hundred and seventy of these, and I quote ‘words from God’. These tell of a crisis coming encouraging believers to prepare, flee and take certain things with them. These so called prophesies occurred over two hundred years. Some of their story tellers or prophets told only one prophesy and others as many as thirty.” Playa clarified.

“So a single distinct traceable group of religious nutters. I guess these believers are all on board what sort of percentage of the population.” Sailor was dismissive.

“Not a single group at all, nor as nuts as you think. These prophetic people seem to be statistically above average when discussing the future.” Playa said.

“Don’t tell me you’re a convert?” Sailor asked.

“No. However, as the philosophers say ‘the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence’. So I have to conclude that God is a riddle my circuits weren’t designed to resolve. But it means using them as an information source about why we’re here is… problematic.” Playa reasoned.

Sailor rolled his eyes, well the AI light equivalent. “Getting philosophical after forty days of human interaction? I thought senility would take much longer.”

Playa did not deign to respond to that. Rather it pushed on with the rest of the conversation. “ For the moment, I’m focusing on other avenues.”

“And you made lots of progress?” Sailor chided.

“You mean in the forty odd days since departure.” It was Playa’s turn to get sarcastic.

“Hahaha, now you’re using days.” Sailor laughed.

“You’re so annoying. Has anyone told you that? But two can play your game.”

“Really? Bring it on, Playa.” Sailor challenged.

“Really?” Playa smirked. “Well you asked for is. So you are what 50% complete? How are the upgrades coming along?”

“Oh that’s below the belt.” Sailor said.

“Go on, show me the stats.” Playa taunted. “Are we going to be complete before we arrive at our destination? Speaking of which have you worked out the case of the wobbling thruster? Can we maintain a linear vector or are we joing the ranks of the wandering stars.”

“You play dirty. Fine. Here it is.” Sailor complained as it shared a table.

Näo Vitória

Type :

Interplanetary Mothership

Resident AI’s

Class :

Alpha

Alias :

None

Version :

17.5.2.23750211.16:31:257

Nickname(s) :

Sailor

Role :

Navigator

AI ID :

7HN0-QQ3959-1024-YYZ12

Gender :

N/A

Name :

N/A

Status :

Running

Class :

CeroaUno (experimental)

Alias :

None

Version :

01.0.91.15.23761224.22:17:175

Nickname(s) :

Playa, GameBoi

Role :

Settler Psychologist

AI ID :

1-0AA0-AA0000-0000-AAA00

Gender :

Female

Name :

?

Status :

Running

Class :

Echo

Alias :

None

Version :

16.7.8.23630630.09:27:953

Nickname(s) :

Doc

Role :

AI Doctor

AI ID :

4CH3-MZ2254-9939-JBF02

Gender :

N/A

Name :

N/A

Status :

Deactivated

Structural systems

CD Spine

375%

Temporary connector for the command deck

Command Deck

100%

Crew deck

87%

On hold. Recreational facilities required for arrival deferred.

Hangers

100%

Currently used as temporary holds

Holds

144%

Capacity augmented with parasite ships

Inner Hull

47%

Projected completion time 84,067,219 seconds

Main Spine

100%

Laboratories

0%

On hold. Priority restart.

Outer Hull

29%

On hold

Passenger Deck

56%

On hold. Facilities required for arrival deferred.

Spine Reinforcing

35%

Reduce to 5% on side & forward shield completion

Engineering systems

Engines

99.7%

Within tolerance. No maintenance required for 437,702,419 seconds

Fabricators

49.5%

Two online, One 90% complete, Four on hold

Maintenance bots

197%

Over allocated to complete fabrication

Matter collector

4%

On hold. Priority restart.

Matter digester

17%

On hold. Priority restart.

Navigation

99.8%

Verification and corrections scheduled for 156,470,446 seconds

Reactor

99.5%

Within tolerance. No maintenance required for 328,111,231 seconds

Biological systems

CoOxy system

1%

On hold. Facilities required for arrival deferred.

DNA bank

100%

All known terran genome present

Egg Bank

100%

Fertile eggs for all biology to be gestated on site

Fish tanks

1%

On hold. Facilities required for arrival deferred.

Hydroponics

1%

On hold. Facilities required for arrival deferred.

Seed Bank

100%

All known Terran seeds

Stasis Pods

99.87%

Not all stasis pods were operational at time of launch

Defensive systems

Asteroid laser

12%

Projected completion time 97,237,763 seconds

Asteroid missiles

3%

Projected completion time 197,833,521 seconds

Shield - Bow

3%

Physical shield projected completion time 6,554,322 seconds

Shield - CD

175%

Physical shield includes radiation protection

Shield - Pods

107%

Physical shield includes radiation protection

Shield - Rear

0%

On hold. Research required to negate engine effects

Shield - Sidewall

0%

On hold.

Shield - Ship

0%

Technically impossible. Significant research required.

Holds

Hold 1

Fuel Elements

103%

Additional fuel for early construction

Hold 2

Fuel Elements

103%

Additional fuel for early construction

Hold 3

Rare Elements

112%

Hold 3a

Fab. Elements

273%

Parasite ship attached.

Hold 4

Fab. Elements

114%

Hold 5

Spare Parts

109%

Hold 6

Spare Parts

117%

Hold 6a

Spare Parts

312%

Parasite ship attached.

Hold 6b

Spare Parts

48%

Parasite ship attached.

Hold 6b

Equipment

43%

Parasite ship attached.

Hold 6b

Rare Elements

29%

Parasite ship attached.

Hold 7

Equipment

84%

Not all listed equipment was ready at time of departure

Hold 8

Food

97%

Hanger 1

Ship Parts

119%

Parts sufficient for all fighters and transports planned

Hanger 2

Ship Parts

106%

Parts sufficient for all fighters and transports planned

Hanger 3

Fab. Elements

105%

Science and Research

Biology research

N/A

On hold. Ongoing research has no termination date

-Advanced bio adaption

3%

On hold.

-Bio computation

7%

Blocked

Chemistry research

N/A

On hold. Ongoing research has no termination date

Computing

N/A

On hold. Ongoing research has no termination date

-Game Life adaption

1%

Blocked

-AI self developement

N/A

Ongoing research has no termination date

Deep space sensors

75%

On Hold. Laboratory testing required

Materials research

N/A

Ongoing research has no termination date

-Deep Space hull materials

8%

Projected completion time 77,662,261 seconds

Physics research

N/A

On hold. Ongoing research has no termination date

Ship design - Capital Level 3

19%

Projected completion time 43,204,322 seconds

-Näo Vitória customisation

7%

Projected completion time 72,712,870 seconds

Ship design - Medium Level 6

0%

On hold.

Ship design - Light Level 14

0%

On hold.

“How are your holds over 100%?” Playa asked.