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Chapter 1: Contact

Location: Kelinen, Anar System

Date: 01 AUG 2732 at 13:52

As Korrella managed the tactical network hub orbiting Kelinen named the "Diadeem", she picked up a faint signal with such little strength that it barley registered on her COM relay. She was less irritated at the fact that she actually had to catch the signal than she was that she had to modulate it and amplify it to be understood. The only reason she paid any attention to the signal is that it had an encrypted military signature.

As she played with the signal with a small portion of her core, and managed tactical information with another, she opened up a COM channel to the military base located in the Highate Mountains of Kelinen. Although she was not part of the USEP, the signal was military property and she was "compelled" to retrieve it.

"Yes Korrella?" The familiar voice of Brigadier General Alkir boomed over the COM channel. Korrella in all honesty hated communication with anything. She already found her current position a waste of time; she didn't even have to try. She could sift through all the information coming through the net without having to blink an eye. It was the equivalent to a "biological", as Sentient A.Is. liked to call living creatures, drinking water.

Korrella materialized herself on a small centrally located holo-projector located in her processing clusters. It was protocol when interacting with any biological that you could not just "be a voice", that you had to represent yourself as one of them. Something else she found a waste of time, but at least H.C.S.A.I. (High Class and Sentient Artificial Intelligence) could represent themselves however they wanted.

The representation that was Korrella was a tall, majestic lioness that wore nothing but simple cloth strips around her body in not only in places that were demanded to be covered, but around her wrists and ankles that were just a simple white color. Her fur was the shade or well ripened peach with the exception of white around her chest and belly as well as below her knees and elbows. Her hair spread down to her hips and was a wondrous golden red color and perfectly straight. The Accent that she choice for herself was a High Class Scandinavian tone.

"I've received a distress call. It originated from a satellite signal 1 jump away from the Eridande system. However I cannot quite pinpoint the location, all I can say for certain is that they were somewhere close to Kar. It also carries military encryption keys and they are valid" Kelinen replied politely as protocol dictated.

"Ship's name, Itinerary, and purpose?" General Alkir huffed out in more of a statement then a question.

"Harbinger, Kar via Kelinen, military transport guards. Records indicate that this ship possessed a navigation A.I. with military grade records"

"Was it stolen?" General Alkir quickly questioned.

"Unknown, the ship is in critical shape. All that is stated in the report of significance is that it's pilot is still, or was alive. Perhaps we should send a rescue fleet and salvage what is left before it is too late" Korrella suggested in her normal minimal emotion tone. She sometimes wished she didn't have them, but due to the way they were created it happened to be an "unintended" side-effect. All she could do was to use programmed core restraints to minimize them.

"Alright Korrella, I'm going to send a small squad over there. They should reach the system via jump gate in a few hours" General Alkir said with little concern before ending the COM.

Korrella often thought of biological as rude, and it miffed her that Alkir was one of the sterotypes. He didn't even offer a farewell before suddenly hanging up the COM. Her emotional restraints pulled on her logic reminding her that she should not perceive all Biologicals in such a fashion, and not to associate annoyance with them.

With nothing else to do with the many free fractions of her mind, she decided to do a little trip back into the past to the day she was born. Unlike simple A.Is, Sentient Artificial Intelligence are just like any other person in most respects and were treated with almost the same respect mainly due to the way they were created.

All Sentient Intelligences weren't exactly made or created, but rather born. They are the product of a brain scan merged with highly adaptable code that made them act and behave just like Biologicals. They all have emotions, mannerisms, things they like and don't, ability to create and perceive, as well as the ability of abstract though process.

Most Sentient Intelligences got their base mannerism from their mother or father, and considered them just like parents. This, just like their ability to converse and be aware, was an intended side-effect of the brain scan portion of their birth. A large scanner coupled with many days of consciousness and unconsciousness from their parents is what made the "living" part of them. The scanner would intensely scan all areas of the brain with they were awake and asleep to get an exact copy that could be translated into the Core of all Sentient A.Is. I would record all the active areas when a person was thinking, dreaming, moving, remembering, analyzing, and so forth and construct the Core in the same pattern just virtualized.

This however also copied things that would rather be left in the host, such as emotion, residual memories, and the wish to become something other than they ultimately were. They could become so focused on becoming the most intelligent thing in the universe, that if left active long enough, would eventually consider themselves a "God" and view all others including all A.Is. inferior. This was due to the realization and awareness that they could become nothing more than a highly adaptable computer program and they would go mad trying to do everything within their grasp to make itself better with the end result being termination. There was nothing you could do for a Sentient A.I. once it reached this point; there was no reason, no grasp on reality, and was the equivalent of psychopath.

Korrella remembered her mother. She wasn't the impatient type, but was along the lines of "If I'm already doing something, don't tell me to do something else" type. She was also never big on conversation, and was usually happier when alone. Her mother also never showed any strong external emotion but rather just kept it to herself with one of her favorite saying being "Just do what you think it right, and screw everyone else". She didn't hate people by any means, but did think a vast majority of them were complete idiots.

Her mother was part of the UWPA but her rank being considered "Unofficial". She was in all reality considered a civilian, but pulled some mighty high strings due do her generous donation of A.I. clones, a total of 4 which was unheard of. Most people who passed the "Intellect Evaluation Exam" only donated one clone due to the risk of brain damage for each clone. Her mother however came out unharmed from each one, and for her generousness receives high-grade pay and her retirement has already been taken care of as well as any other needs. She was after all responsible for giving birth to 4 of the most intelligent A.Is.

Korrella was very proud of her mother, and she was sure her mother was very proud of herself. She was always miffed by the fact though that she could never see her mother due to military protocol. No "parent" was able to see their "child" and vice-versa. In a way though she never needed to see her mom; she did after all possess are the memories that her mother had of herself as well as other.

Pulling on one of her processing clusters, Korrella was pulled from her favorite day dream to pay more attention to a high-class freelancer ship that resembled that of the abandoned "Elite Fighter Project". Normally Korrella would ward of such ship by firing warning shots from her 22 445mm twin-barreled, solidified plutonium charged, Magnetic Acceleration Blasters (MAB) all at the same time. However this freelancer had military clearance and had the right to approach the station as long as it stayed non-threatening. As the ship approached closer she couldn't help feel a little invaded and she gave permission for the ship to approach the station, and it was well within 300KM avoidance radius. She couldn't pull any information regarding the ship's name or itinerary so she decided to give it a "welcome call" using one of the more efficient ways of communicating with Biologicals on her end. It was much easier for a Sentient to write whether than talk. It guaranteed that no information would be missed, heard wrong, and her having to repeat something.

*From PO.SAI: Korrella* "State your purpose"

Now it was the waiting game, and sure it might be a few seconds to a minute. There were only a few things that A.I.s hated doing, and waiting was something that all A.I.'s hated. Most considered waiting, doing mineral tasks, and conversing with biological beings annoying and a waste of time. Waiting was the worst however, and for good reason. Most A.I.s , being that there are some that need extra free time and cycles to process information, hated waiting mainly because they could dwell on subjects that had happened, might happen, or irrelevancies. All of which took memory and processing power, the equivalent of a human mind wondering. A few seconds to an A.I., could seem like anything from minutes to hours depending on the A.I.'s overall processing power. To Korrella it felt like a good half hour (1800 seconds) as 19620 cycles passed, a second being equivalent to roughly 10.9 cycles for her. In standard time only 15 real seconds had passed, which broke down to him completing 1308 cycles per second. A cycle being, in its clearest, shortest and most accurate definition, the time in which an A.I. was able to take in new information and assign a processing priority to it or process the information if nothing else was waiting or had higher priority. A cycle's timeframe for a Sentiant A.I.s was not set in stone, and was most often chosen by the A.I.'s ability to out-think its creator in terms of seconds. In other words Korrella, as well as the rest of her "family", could process data 120 times faster than their creator per second, summing down to for every idea or thought that was going through their creator's head per second, they could process the same information 120 times faster. Cycles were determined by how many times they could solve, complete, decrypt, etc the information that their creator was given be he/she was able to. keeping in mind of course that all of the testing was based on average speed. In other words, what felt like a second to their creator, felt like 120 for them, and what felt like 1 process for their creator, was equal to 1308 for them. So in 120 seconds in real time, Korrella could complete 156960 cycles of information, and in 120 seconds in Korrella's world, which would be 1 second in real time, Sar could do 1308 cycles of information or processes. So being that Korrella was 120 times faster than her creator, meant that in a second for her, she could complete 10.9 cycles or processes, whereas in a second in real time, Korrella would complete 1308 cycles or processes.

As 60 seconds passed, she decided to charge up one of her blaster cannons and aim it straight at the ships left thruster assembly. This way it could not move, evade, or warp away, it would a sitting duck drifting slowly in space. Although her cannons could keep up with a fast moving vessel, she just getting things done the easy and quick way. That and she preferred to prevent something before it happened which was always a good thing to do in life.

Just as she was about to fire, a COM transmission came through her array and it contained more clearances and security codes then she cared to examine. In the transmission also came a file to be read which contained the ships name, itinerary, and purpose for docking at the Orbital.

Korrella gave a double check on everything to make sure it was not false information or outdated and contained military encryption that was valid. Then she open the main hanger door and relayed to the ship some easy, clear direction that even the dumbest person could follow.

*From PO.SAI: Korrella* "Welcome to the Diadeem. Please enter the hanger access-way, then take the first left followed by the first right. Continue 125 meters and follow tube 12-B to docking 121. Hope to see you soon."