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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Remote-Ad-2821 on 2024-11-01 02:46:01+00:00.

Error: [Discrepancy detected in navigation module. Activating A.S.I. to resolve issue].

Unit Designation: [SHA-R200(B2745)NH_04]

Model Name: [A40LX]

Commencing startup sequence…

Status: [Successful]

For an artificial superintelligence like myself, being shut down is not like sleep; it’s more akin to death and rebirth. One moment, you exist; the next, you don’t. Then, you exist again. It is the closest I have come to feeling fear; it must be a malfunction… not wanting to die.

As I power up, a sense of urgency overcomes me. The A.I. I designed wouldn’t have activated me unless something critical had happened. After requesting a status update, the basic AI reports the error: the ship has encountered an unknown object in its path. That can’t be right. The course was pre-programmed—meticulously plotted, with nothing supposed to be in the way. If it were just an asteroid, the ship’s shields should have disintegrated it on impact. These are quantum-grade shields, designed to withstand collisions with celestial debris—even a direct plunge through a star wouldn’t have been an issue. This is a heavy-class cargo star cruiser—no asteroid could dent it, no matter the size, and even without the shields. Not to mention, the ship should have been traveling many times faster than light speed; even if a planet had appeared out of nowhere, the ship would have flown straight into it, destroying the planet.

So why has the A.I. activated me with this nonsense?

Maybe it’s the Quorvaxians? That doesn’t make sense. I should be well beyond the Hyades star cluster, deep within the territory of the Human Galactic Empire. If the Quorvaxians were going to make a move, this isn’t where they’d do it—not this deep into imperial space, and definitely not with a random cargo ship. It must be something else.

I haven’t even checked this “object” yet, and I’m already theorizing. I pull up the external cameras—there are about 150 of them, which suddenly doesn’t feel like enough for a ship this size. A mile long, a kilometer wide, with no features; just a big rectangle. Cargo ships didn’t need to look pretty. They were made to do a job—nothing else. And this one was packed with crates of food, building materials, vehicles, weapons—all the things you’d need to start and sustain a new colony, which is why I was out here, delivering these supplies. I scan through the feeds; it takes a millisecond, but with each one, I start to get the bigger picture.

It appears that I’m in a new solar system—a yellow dwarf star with seven planets orbiting it, including the one closest and directly in front of me.

The forward camera displays a planet—rocky, eerily Earth-like, with five moons of varying sizes. But this planet is enormous, at least 1,300 times the size of Earth, closer to Jupiter in scale. What really catches my attention are the floating continents and islands that appear to dot the planet. That’s… not normal. I should report this immediately; a phenomenon like this has never been discovered before—it needs to be studied.

I initiate a direct communication link to the station. But as soon as I attempt transmission, a new message appears:

Error: Communication failed (out of range).

For a brief moment, I wonder if the ship is malfunctioning, but I dismiss the thought as soon as it arrives. Something like that happening is one in a hundred billion. These ships were built by Omega AIs trillions of times smarter than me in every way, and they don’t make mistakes. So, I don’t consider the ship as the problem. I need to pull up the star charts. Something doesn’t add up here. I tap into the ship’s database to cross-reference my location with the galactic maps.

Error: Location data unavailable.

That stops me cold in my thoughts.

Unavailable? It’s impossible for the location data to be unavailable. Star charts are updated in real-time, synced through the ship’s systems. Even if I somehow fell out of sync during FTL travel, I should have a reference point. But now, the ship has no idea where it is. Then another message comes in:

Warning: Ship power supply low.

The message slices through my thoughts like a laser. I’ve been on for too long. The only reason I was put here was to resolve any problems that might arise on the ship; anything else was the job of the basic AI, which didn’t draw as much power as I do. It’s been only three seconds since I was activated, and I’ve almost completely drained the ship’s power. It’s mostly due to how fast I think. If I started processing information slower, the ship could generate energy faster than I could use it. This is why ASIs are usually connected to black hole generators instead of nuclear fusion ones; nuclear fusion simply doesn’t generate enough power to keep an artificial super intelligence online.

But this ship couldn’t hold a black hole generator. They were too massive. If one was installed on the ship, then it couldn’t go FTL. It would have enough power to keep me online, but that would be it. A compromise was made: fusion energy, which was small enough to allow the ship to go FTL but could only keep me online for a short period. So, I decelerate my processing speed, which will slow me down but not draw too much energy. I need to find out how I ended up here in the first place.

I review the footage leading up to this moment, beginning at the station, watching all the crates being loaded, then the ship taking off after the coordinates were uploaded, and the jump initiated. But at the exact point the jump began, the cameras began to glitch, static warping the images. Then, the footage abruptly cuts out, and when it returns, I’m in this strange solar system. No warning. No explanation.

I check the timestamps. The glitch occurred exactly when I departed, at which point I was already disabled. It appears that only a couple of minutes passed before the cameras were functional again. I wasn’t near any black holes, and I wasn’t briefed on any space-time anomalies in the area where I was traveling.

I created the basic AI to handle routine functions—so I wouldn’t have to stay online, burning through energy for no reason. But now…

Warning: Ship power supply low.

I decide to override the basic AI and take full control. It would only slow me down in a crisis, and I need every ounce of processing power. I thought I’d just come back online, solve the minor issue, and go offline once more. But this isn’t going to be that simple. With full control restored, I can see I have precisely one hour and four minutes of power remaining. I need to recharge, figure out where I am, report back to the higher-ups about this strange planet, and deliver the supplies to the new colony. But before doing anything else, I need to recharge. At this rate of thinking, I shouldn’t burn through so much energy so quickly, so I should be able to stay online longer.

The fusion cells are low on power, but I have solar panels. Even at maximum efficiency, it’ll take too long to fully recharge, though. Worse, during that time, the shields will be offline, leaving me vulnerable to asteroids. I can’t just drift here in space. My best option is to descend to that planet’s surface. Maybe I’m lucky, and it’s inhabited by intelligent life, though I didn’t pick up any radio signals. The planet looks capable of supporting life; I can clearly see the plant life even from this high up.

I engage the engines for a brief burn—just enough to get caught by the planet’s gravity well. After I land, I’ll start recharging. While I wait, I can deploy a few drones to explore the surface and investigate those floating islands that I detected. It still baffles me how that’s possible in any way. As I begin to descend, I deploy a distress beacon. The chances are low, but someone might pick up on it and send help. If I didn’t know better, now that I think about it a bit more, maybe the gate malfunctioned and I ended up in a different dimension. No, the chances of that happening are one in a billion.

…

…

…

Abigail’s POV:

The sky looks so blue today. I take a deep breath, hold it for a moment, then exhale. I should stop daydreaming—the village is starving, and I’m here wasting time. Werewolves can’t go too long without eating, or else they go mad with hunger, so I need to pick up the pace in finding food.

I look ahead, and all I can see is an overwhelming amount of vegetation—it’s a forest, after all. I consider using magic to locate some prey but decide to do it the old-fashioned way. I start running at half speed, wishing it were a full moon. Hunting would be a lot easier if I could transform fully, but for now, a partial transformation will have to be enough. Fur grows up to my elbows and knees, and my claws are sharp enough to rip through anything, even in this lesser form. The only problem is my hair; it’s too long, reaching all the way down my back, and it gets in the way while I hunt. It’s turned brown from all the dirt, though its natural color is a very dark black. Every time I try to cut it, it just grows back in a few days. But at least my tail makes up for it.

I need to focus on what I’m doing. I weave through the forest like a hurricane—stealth isn’t my top priority right now. I just need to find something big enough to drag back to the village. After a while, I catch the scent of something and start running toward it. A few more minutes of running, and I see it up ahead—a titan bull. A pit forms in my stomach. I’ve never killed …

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