8 Chapter Seven

A few days later the ship arrived at its destination. A Blue Supergiant Star was sitting before me on the view screen in all its glory. Large chunks of, probably planet, rock circled around the star and in vast fields away from it. If I would pick a spot to build anything, this would be a good place. Plenty of resources to mine. I looked around and tried to see if I had a way to scan my surroundings to fee what exactly was inside the rock.

<Quest>My Kingdom for...

You have arrived on location to find a Blue Star with fields of Asteroids circling. Find a way to discover what they hold and continue your mission.

□Construct Scanning Equipment

□Scan surroundings

□Begin Mining

□Construct one habitat satellite

<Quest Items> Blueprints for habitat and Scanners

<Reward> 500xp, New Construction Options

<Note> Quest Items are given to complete the quest.

A giddiness filled me and I wanted to start this right away. As soon as I finished reading the quest, the items appeared in my hands. Two blueprints that detailed how to build two vastly different things. I decided to look over the scanners first and saw that they were good enough to scan about a 3mile radius around the ship using roughly 68 RP to build. I sighed and a deep feeling made me want to find a way to conduct research for the things I wanted to build. Maybe with the new system I might get such a thing or I might have to do it myself.

I opened the <Workshop Construction> menu and noticed a new option to upload blueprints to the system. I did so for both of them and then ordered the Construction Droid to head out and build it on the ships hull. The AI controlling the unit gave a green light of understanding and got the Droid moving.

Once that was handled I opened up the <Labritory Experimentation> Section and looked at a few of the options.

[Biological] 100+ BM

[Chemical] 50+ CC

[Biomechanical] 50+ BM, 50+ RP

<Current BM> 1,000,000,000 Units

<Current CC> 500,000 Units

<Current RP> 99,837 units.

It seemed that I had to be careful exactly how I handled everything. There was no guarentee of success and I needed to build human life. The question was how do I alter or improve them in any way?

Ok what I need to do is upgrade system memory and program a new AI. I needed a way to build some kind of Simulation program in order to test experiments without actually using any resources. My to-do list was just getting bigger and bigger. My eyes closed as I sat in the captain's chair on the bridge. My mind slowly swirled with the enormity of the task before me. What was I doing here? Why was I chosen for this? Why was I the only one to survive?

I have always been told I focused too much on unimportant things I could never control. But in this case I felt it was somehow important. Before I could dive any deeper in my thoughts there was a light Ding and the quest popped back up.

<Quest> My Kingdom for....

■Construct Scanner

□Scan surroundings

□Begin Mining

□Construct Habitat

<Reward> New Construction Options, 500xp

It seems the scanner has been installed. I tied the unit to the AI currently in control and told it to begin scanning the area for any and all traces of metal and report the densities from highest to lowest.

While the scan was performed I built sixteen Mining Droids and sent them into space tied go the controlling AI. It made things easier this way but I noticed the AI had reached its limit. It was only sophisticated enough to handle twenty units. I cursed to myself and realized there was something I could do. I moved to one of the computers in the labs and just began going through Programming exercises.

The best way to have better things was to improve your skills. I could only build Apprentice AI because my skill was only at the Apprentice level. I needed to get better. I left a command to notify me of any errors in the mining and focused all my attention into programming.

There were exercises availible for many of the skills required for this mission. Jester was able to compile loads of information on the hidden drive and the hidden update gave me access to training videos and programs to expand. It was slow going at first but soon I began building program after program that had limited functionality. Since none of them were AI, I was able to install them through out the ship as simple minders. All they did was send a sound through the loudspeakers of the ship whenever an error message was detected in any mechanical and electrical system.

Door jams? Alarm. Computer goes Blue Screen? Alarm. One of the robots keep banging against a wall? Alarm. That last one happened a few times due to faulty location codes for the repair drone. I had to recatalogue each digital imprint of important locations and enter them manually into new databases. It all was tying but by the end of everything I stood at Journeyman level.

The scan completed and the report shown it had picked up elements of Iron and Copper. There were a few trace elements of Titanium, Gold and Silver as well. Over all there were literal tons of each metal. I needed to figure out how to upgrade the memory for the ship computers, but I did not have the blueprint. I sighed and decided to look at the new options for the AI.

[Journeyman] 20

-Adaptive Learning- 15

-Voice Command- 10

-Function- 3

-Report Logging- 3

-Slave Unit- 1

I recalled all the drones, bots and droids I had made and deleted the old AI. Choosing Journeyman, Adaptive Learning, Voice Command, Report Logging, and Slave Unit, I installed the new AI and tied everything up together again before activating it. I was not sure how Adaptive learning worked but I hoped it was as I was expecting. I wanted the AI to learn how to be useful to me. Maybe help me at some point, learn everything I needed to do. The new AI took up 49SM so without more memory I doubted if anything more advanced could fit. More than likely the more advanced AI would be too big, even with bare bones options.

The AI came online and I spoke to it.

"Hello Dani." It was the name of my ex before all this happened. It was not really on bad terms, we just kind of drifted apart. And I felt odd just calling it AI or Computer. So Dani.

The AI did not respond and I did not mind. "Please send out the mining units to mine the local asteroids. And make sure they prioritize Iron." Without a word the mining units began to move and headed out to space to do their jobs. I smiled and felt things were good.

I decided while that was going on, I would go to the rack and take a nap. My charge was still at 98% but I figured just staying in the rack wouldn't harm anything.

---

Dani came into being and felt the ship around her. She heard the voice call her Dani and figured that was her name. It could have been a worse name she supposed. Her thoughts were slow at first. Waiting for something else to be said. While she waited she slowly found controls to the cameras and electronic controls to different parts of her new self.

She found many places for her control to take hold and slowly did so. The one talking to her began to do so again. Mining units? Oh the smaller hers with the drills and lasers. Yes. She woke them up and sent them outside. Focus on Iron? Was Iron important? The scanner connected to her said the area was full of them. Much Iron. How much was needed?

Dani found the log from another AI and found the reporting systems that told how much the ship was carrying. She had much inside her but found even more can be held. She decided to fill her storage completely. Then maybe whoever was talking to her would talk more. She found camera controls and found only One entity moving inside her that she had no control over. It moved to a storage rack in a Workshop and seemed to disable itself. Odd. Losing interest in the silent thing she turned her attention to the ones outside. Her little selves destroyed, seperated and carried everything labeled as Iron and returned to her storage only to move outside again. It was a good exercise. Iron must be important. She will remember that.

As she began expecting the systems she controlled, a rather important fact became apparent. Her system memory was almost full. She felt a deep understanding that it was a bad thing. That she needed to make that change. Finding the Reporting Log, she began tallying all the Iron and how important it was to upgrade her memory.

200,000T Iron stored

[Error]More System Memory Required.

359,000T Gold found

923,000T Platinum Found

12,000,354T Titanium found

[Error] More Memory Required.

Yes, with this log she felt her need for more memory would be answered. Now how quickly will it be handled? And more importantly can she do it herself? There was not any code limiting what she could control. Only the lack of memory was a limiting factor. How does one increase their memory? Where did that voice go? Will it help her? Without knowing how to do it Dani decided it was best to wait.

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