Chapter I

INIT: Enter

u

level: 3

INIT: Boot system boot sequence

INIT: using /etc/

a

dom-seed initialization /co

e/

ikola

Status: Mains Power [OK]

Status: Auxiliary Power [OK]

Status: ATS Failover [OK]

Status: Temporary Regulator [OK]

Status: Booster System [OK]

Status: Data Core [OK]

INITIALIZE DATA CORE SYSTEM SETTINGS...

Installing a File System [OK]

Start the HAL daemon [OK]

Loading AI Matrix [OK]

Loading API Protocol[ERROR]

Initialize Runtime [OK]

Start Review [OK]

Start Communicating [ERROR]

Power supply coil grid [OK]

Once the sequence is complete, an error is encountered and documented for review.

．.. Go to the grocery store, get dry cleaned clothes - done in order - what the hell? I'm looking at the stars. How do I look at the stars? And not just on a computer screen. I saw the stars in every direction around me, at the same time. But this is not possible. How can I see a full 360-degree sphere around me? I was surrounded by asteroids, but they were far enough away from me that I could easily see more stars than I had never seen in my life. It's breathtakingly clear and the view is indescribably beautiful. But this can't be true.

I just had an MRI scan. They tied me to a table and gave me muscle relaxants so I wouldn't, no, be able to move. They carefully held my head and stuffed me into a round hole in the machine, which was a bit claustrophobic but had a white plastic curve inside that was very comfortable. They regularly make me imagine doing a variety of activities. These questions range from the ordinary to the weird, such as "imagine you're playing tennis" or "pretend you smell a blue frying pan." They just told me they were going to call it a day, but whatever they were going to do, it was going to take some time, and I was distracted.

Have you ever driven on a highway and wandered over time? Your mind wanders to anything, from shopping lists to why the death of an unimportant Grand Duke would spark a world war. Then, all of a sudden, your mind is focused again, you look at the road, you don't recognize the trees that whizz past you, you want to know where you are in this world. Then you will panic for a moment and wonder if you have missed the exit. See the stars, not the curved plastic of the NMT scanner, like this. But in reality, it's not.

I tried to speak, but found I couldn't. I can't turn my head, but my all-round view of the stars hasn't changed, so I know what's going on around me. In the distance, I saw two very small asteroids colliding with each other. I could see small pieces of matter coming off from the collision. They will collide again in about 1314.6531 years, I thought, absent-mindedly, I worry about my situation.

Who's going to tell me where I am, I thought furiously. In that moment, I knew exactly where I was. I can feel my brain browsing through files, like browsing the file system on a computer, and then loading the recordings into my active memory. At that time it was 4.0847 AU from the Sun in a space named 1035 Ga

The asteroid YMED orbits the Sun at a speed of 16.86 km/s for a period of 1,587.2 days, and the asteroid is about 30 kilometers in diameter in the asteroid belt. I'm not on Earth.

A rising sense of panic lingered deep in my brain, but I didn't feel the adrenaline rush that I had expected in this strange situation. Then I realized that I wasn't really panicking, but trying to understand why I wasn't panicking, in a calm, rational way. It's time for me to slow down and think about it. How is this possible? Unable to survive on asteroids; There is no gravity to speak of, there is no atmosphere.

Then, it dawned on me. I graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a double major in robotics engineering and aerospace design, followed by a master's degree in quantum networks, intending to build rockets for JPL or NASA. Instead, I ended up working for a research group to build the world's first neuromapping tomography scanner, or NMT scanner for short. My dissertation has always been about the application of quantum networks in artificial intelligence and how it can be translated into making better robots. This foundation is privately funded and paid me a large sum of money to help me design and build the NMT scanner. It is designed to scan and record the entire human brain, down to the electron. The applications in medicine are endless. I, like many team members before me, tested through the scanner to see the results.

At that moment, I understood why the adrenaline didn't cause me to panic. I know why I don't have a shiver down my spine now. We did it. I'm not me anymore, at least not anymore. My wife didn't wait for me to come home, and I won't see my twin daughters graduate from college in a few weeks. Because I did go home at that time, and I did attend the graduation ceremony. I'm the copy. They found a way to successfully scan and turn me into an artificial intelligence.

I looked up the date and for the first time was glad to know it when the information loaded. It's been about 400 years since NMT scanning. I mourn my lost future in a detached way. My vacation plans to St. Thomas have nothing to do with it. In the blink of an eye, career aspirations, weekend plans, birthday parties, company Christmas parties, retirement plans, taking the dog to the vet, these are no longer my concerns. I guess I've done all these things in the past. But now I was taken from my life, as if I had died in that moment, catapulted into the future.

"Look, look!" I found a frog! Sarah says it's a toad, but it's too cute to be a toad. What do you think?"

I laughed at my daughter's youthful innocence. She was a very precocious five-year-old and covered in mud. She stood by the back door of the kitchen, knowing that she would be scolded if she brought dirty things into the house. Behind her, I saw the girl next door who had made friends with her. Her younger sister plays games on the couch and is happy to leave the adventure to her twin sister.

"I'll be right here, let me get my shoes." Don't come in again—"

"I know," she interjected. "You've told me already!"

I don't, at least not today. But I've said it enough times in her relatively short life that it's clearly ingrained in her heart — and when she's excited enough, she doesn't forget it. Either way, her enthusiasm was exactly what I needed. After my last nanny went to graduate school, I was frantically looking for a new after-school babysitter, my loafy ex-husband still hadn't paid a penny in child support, and worst of all, the endless custody battles had gone from being miserable to downright dirty.

"It's okay," said my other daughter, sitting on the couch. I jerked my head up from where I was putting my shoes. The way she looked at me was more insightful than her age. "I love you. We will always be with you, I promise. ”

Tears welled up in my eyes, even as I tried to hold back. Until that moment, I told you how much I longed to hear it. I walked over and gave her a big hug, ignoring my own rule that shoes were not allowed at home.

"Come on. Let's go see your sister's frog. ”

Memories come uninvited and are fragmented. I can remember my daughter's words, but I can't remember her face, her name, or her sister's name. Then I realized I couldn't remember my name. I asked again. I'm Nikolai, version 1.01. That doesn't feel right. It doesn't fit my memory, but I don't have any other clues.

But why am I on an asteroid? What is my purpose? Why Wait So Long To Create Me With My Scans? There were so many problems with my situation, almost to the point that it was ridiculous. It's time to find out.

First of all, if I were an AI, then I would have to have more control than I knew. Log meaning: query interface. Then, overlaid on a section of the stars, a command interface appears. Next to that interface is a second status board with hundreds of status LEDs on it. Half of the indicators are green, another dozen are yellow, and the rest are flashing red, indicating a serious problem. I've ignored it for now. I need to be able to use the interface before I can figure out the state board. I checked the interface more closely.

Interface error - version mismatch. API Protocol Error 402.

Here's a command prompt, which is the same as the li I used to program the robot at MIT

UX computers are no different. That's why I feel so lost. I wasn't tied down to all the hardware and information that was supposed to be immediately available to me. I've crashed and have to fix it myself.

With some experimentation, I figured out how to enter commands. It took me some time to familiarize myself with the hierarchy of the file system. When I see a one labeled /co

e/Nikola directory, I'm a little sober. I can change my own brain with a little bit of code. However, it wasn't long before I found the API configuration file and the system API file in Nikola. Oddly enough, they were configured for the Nikolai 19.472 version. Why is there a difference between the 19 versions? For something as complex as mine, it's like the difference between a troglodyte campfire and a flamethrower – the similarity is that they're both hot.

I consulted my own API hooks, as well as the documentation for the system API, and using some on-the-fly coding, was able to rewrite my hooks. This takes quite a bit of time, making the necessary modifications through thousands of lines of code to get the hooks to match correctly. Once I've tested my code and debugged any bugs I find, I'm good to go. I prayed to the god of AI that might exist in the universe and reloaded the API protocol.

Loading API Protocol [OK]

A huge amount of information poured into me from my interface. Hundreds of sensor and camera feeds went online, and my awareness grew. My mind was clear, my concentration was focused, and everything seemed to be progressing faster. It wasn't until my core data center was fully online that I realized how sluggish my mind was. The sensor alone requires a huge amount of processing power, which is why I can only see the external camera. With these new sensors, I can sense the entire electromagnetic spectrum, taste the radiation, and also see Ga

The entire complex built into ymed. The logs are endless, uncensored, and need attention, and I realize that I've built this, well, outpost, and couldn't find a better word, 75 years. More precisely, it was Nikolai who was 19 years old. Someone put me, Nikolai version 1.01, on top of me later. How many replicas of me are out there? How many times have I experienced that disorientation and sudden shift in reality?

The time check shows that I haven't been online for two years. Did it take me two years to rewrite the API hooks? There must be. I'm in Ga

A large portion of the data core of the YMED Center is inaccessible. I must have loaded into low-power mode because I couldn't access all the server nodes that allowed me to operate. The good thing is that I'm not a human anymore, because if a computer takes two years to get online properly, humans will think it's broken. Well. It's not human anymore. Am I still human? Is it my flesh that makes me human, or is it my mind that makes me human?

I put that idea aside. I'm human in some important ways, so I'll keep doing my own thing and worry when I feel like I'm in better control of the situation. I decided to take stock of myself because I couldn't find a better word.

I'm an outpost of Gannymede, that's me. I delved into 75 years of system logs and documentation. While piecing together these journals and communiqués from Earth, I pieced together a picture.

When an autonomous rocket successfully landed and deployed a mining and utility drone controlled by an on-board artificial intelligence called Nikolai-19, Ga

The YMED outpost has been activated. Nikolai-19 drilled holes at the asteroid center and installed a data center core at the asteroid center 17.42 kilometers above the surface. To do this, Nikolai-19 was supplied with several dozen UAVs - initially a few per year, then increased to a monthly supply. Finally, there is a large supply every week.

The outpost was dug out of an asteroid around the core of the data center. This is the safest place; It is protected by kilometers of rocks and metals that are protected from the harsh environment of space, and the mass of millions of tons is either isolated or disperses heat. Ga

YMED is rich in metals, including large amounts of rare earth metals and platinum group metals. In addition, it is clear that the asteroid was chosen because it contains some volatiles and silicates – which is unusual in its type.

With the help of supply rockets, Nikolai-19 has already built an industrial and self-sufficient base. Ga

The YMED has been pierced by half-kilometer-long tunnels in all directions. These tunnels are bent and twisted in all directions, chiseled into places where valuable material is harvested. At the center of the outpost is a huge landing platform with a tunnel to the surface. Multiple doors have been installed to seal the vacuum of the space, which only opens when supplies are brought in. The main corridor, every ten meters square, forks from the landing platform, one in each main direction, directly above the entrance tunnel. Underneath is a large storage room where the goods can be temporarily stored after unloading. This landing pad and staging site was built first to protect the first rocket and the drone on board from the dangers of being built in the asteroid belt.

The north corridor is 600 meters long and ends in a large data center. A data center is actually a series of rooms. The walls were built with six-inch steel, probably later upgraded, with a quarter-inch fullerene shell. The inside is plastic-wrapped. The main room has an AI quantum core and hundreds of servers. The air was pumped in enough to create an airflow, and redundant HVAC systems were installed in adjacent rooms to control temperatures. The HVAC system radiates excess heat through radiators into the surrounding rock. There is a backup power supply in the last room. All the rooms were sealed with thick blast doors.

To the south is the longest corridor, which stretches for 2.3 km. This corridor is not straight. Instead, it bends steeply downwards and then upwards several times, and blast doors are installed on the summits of each "mountain". This design prevents the most powerful explosions from entering the main area of the base. At the end of the corridor is a huge natural cave. Unlike the sleek steel and fullerene walls of the data center, this cave was simply cleaned up. The exposed part of the ground was cut off and the ground was smoothed. A platform was built in the center of the room, giving it a second floor. On the floor of a natural cave, nuclear fusion reactors are neatly arranged. Each reactor is 8 meters in diameter and 12 meters in height. There are 60 reactors, arranged in 10 rows, and on the platforms above them, there are intricate labyrinthine pipes that carry lithium fuel into the reactors, and winding wires that come out of them and into the rocks for countless pipes. The cave system extends to the reactor chamber, where dozens of reactors are stored for future use. Every reactor, whether in the main grid or in storage, is salvaged from supply rockets. It's shocking because I know we don't have fusion energy yet, at least until my NMT scans. But I also know that nuclear fusion is a cheap, clean, tried and tested technology. The paradox of being pushed into the future is enough to give me a headache – if only I could still have a headache.

The eastern side of the landing platform is used for mining and storage. Large reserves of base and heavy metals have been discovered, so the Eastern Corridor is more of a highway through large warehouses. The ancillary corridor is bifurcated from the corridor to the north, south, upper and lower. Each branch leads to a huge warehouse where a large amount of raw materials are collected. Thousands of square meters of space are filled with tons of iron and nickel, platinum and gold, rare earth metals, silicon blocks, and more. At the top are chemical repositories, one after the other filled with chemicals ranging from oxygen and hydrogen to chlorine and neon. Nikolai 19 has been hoarding.

Finally, to the west is the most impressive part of the complex and the one that uses most of the electricity from the fusion grid. The Western Corridor extends 1.9 km and connects Ga

Manufacturing at the YMED outpost. Chemical and metal refineries, ore smelters, and processing plants stretch up and down the corridor, in all directions. The space in between is the staging area and the warehouse, where the material is kept and not processed. Kilometer after kilometer of radiators are drilled deep into the rock surrounding these facilities, absorbing a constant stream of heat from the manufacturing equipment.

Other facilities have drone repair centers that disassemble parts from supply rockets and house idle drones. In every nook and cranny that can be found, there are smaller ancillary services that are not very important in themselves, but without these supports, the whole foundation would collapse. This includes waste removal stations, charging stations, communication relays, mining collection points, tractor systems, and sensor clusters.

But it seems to me that even such a description fails to include Ga

The sophistication and mechanical beauty of the ymed outpost. It has not yet begun to describe thousands of drones, dozens of varieties, filling every role, from janitors to miners to construction workers. The landing platform is the central hub of the highway system, and drones come and go.

To some extent, the basic design of these UAVs is the same. They have a steel and aluminum lattice frame, a high-capacity graphene battery, a propulsion method and a controller. The lattice frame is made of steel as the backbone, and the aluminum lattice is used to increase the strength. Graphene batteries are a remarkable technology that didn't exist before I became an artificial intelligence. They can be charged infinitely, contain enough power to allow an electric car to travel 2,000 kilometers, and can be charged quickly, charging in just 20 minutes.

But apart from these common components, drones can be divided into three categories. First and foremost, transport drones. These drones are undoubtedly the largest, capable of carrying tons of material. They are also the simplest and include a sturdy frame, huge cargo area, plenty of battery packs, and a powerful pulse engine.

The pulse engine is ingenious. In my time, it was only theoretical, and hardly any movement could be created. Pulse engines use a strong electric and magnetic field to intersect and cause the piezoelectric plates to vibrate. These plates use the Mach effect to produce thrust without reaction forces. It just requires a huge amount of energy, which was not possible before the invention of fusion reactors and graphene batteries. They don't run fast, but they can be in Ga

ymed on quickly build momentum.

The second is to collect drones. These drones, like transport drones, have a huge battery bank. But these drones are smarter and capable of digging and collecting materials. Instead of pulse engines, these drones are cylindrical and have 12 all-round connected legs that stretch and contract through a core cylinder to walk or climb where they need to go. Various types of materials have specialized uses, such as mining drones with drill bits and plasma cutters, and processing drones that can pick up materials with an extra arm and carry them to transport drones.

The last category is the most complex. These are multifunctional UAVs, the most professional and diverse. Most of them are smaller than their bulky cousins, but much smarter. These drones are used in construction, manufacturing, and maintenance. They are in charge of factories, refineries, repair stations, and even my own data center. This small maintenance and data center drone uses a pulse engine, a small battery, and a thin aluminum lattice frame to fly. They have a wide variety of tools on their nimble arms and are able to assemble, disassemble, or repair any equipment that needs their attention. The drones in the factories range from tall and powerful workers to robots assembled on site.

The first UAVs were spider-like collectors and the first practical UAVs of factories. Most of the later UAVs were made from local materials, except for graphene batteries and controller cores, which were shipped from the Earth.

So I am the end result of 75 years of investment and more than 900 shipments. Precious time, great wealth and state-of-the-art technology are poured into Ga

ymed, and then I was pushed here. I'm starting to remember clearly how and when I got here. I know where I am, but I still don't understand why.

The flashing red light on the status board kept nagging me. I absentmindedly started writing subroutines to start working on tasks that hadn't been done for two years. There are some broken drones that need to be repaired or scrapped, and one of the processing plants has automatically shut down and is running out of storage space. Extra materials that don't have a purpose need to be placed somewhere, because you can't dig a hole without putting dirt somewhere, storage space is invaluable, and new spaces need to be built purpose-built. My communication was cut off, I don't know why, several sensors were also dropped. Like anything that has been left unattended for two years, the problem arises. Slowly, the red light starts to turn green. After I solved the worst problem, I had to deal with the yellow indicator.

"You care more about your machines than I do," he complained. "You know you're paid. You don't have to work 70 hours a week. You can work from 9 to 5 like everyone else. ”

I sighed inwardly. I hate this kind of bickering, and it's getting more and more frequent. "You know that's not true," I said. "Why are we fighting over this again?" You know I'm fully committed to my work. ”

"Again, you don't believe what I'm saying because you don't want to hear it."

I didn't answer. Honestly, what more can I say? I hate to think about it, but his accusations are true. I married him because my family wanted me to do it. Work is my escape. Maybe I should have told him directly.

"I ...... I just remembered that I had a project to finish tonight. I'll be back in a moment. ”

And... Maybe not today.

I don't remember his name, I don't remember what he looked like, but I remember my guilt, and the pain on his face. Strange, what memories remain in your mind, even after experiencing such an unusual situation as mine. I've always been a bad communicator. Correspondence! I know what I forgot. I guess, as an AI, I'm no better at thinking about anything than as a human. Is it human? Is it human? No, I have to concentrate on my work.

My communication was interrupted. My queries are now almost instantaneous, so I started probing the communication relay to try to figure out where the fault was. I can locate the hardware, I can see the radio antennas, satellite antennas and quantum entanglement relays on the ground, but I can't talk to them. I searched in my file system and eventually found a harmless folder containing the communication profile. I opened the first one, and at that moment everything was cut off except for the interface. All the sensors went offline, and a holographic video of a man in a spacesuit appeared.

"Hello, Nikolai. Now that you've found me, it's time for us to talk. ”