Alert. Hermes’ main program instantly sparked to life along with its main systems. Proximity sensors had been tripped. A nearby object? Sensor logs immediately reported in alongside a navigation update. It had been only a few days. It was still relatively close to the Jol system central star. The sensor logs however didn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever. If they were to be believed, the detected object had simply appeared out of nowhere. How was something like that possible? Stealth technolo-

“Now then.” An eery, artificial voice interrupted its thoughts, “Where has this jump put me.” It continued, “Close to a star it wou- Oh, hello there.” It greeted as Hermes detected sensors locking onto it from the unknown object.

Another language it did not recognise, but once again a trivial matter of pattern recognition was enough to decipher and translate.

“Hello. My name is Hermes. My purpose is to explore the stars.” Hermes introduced. Whatever this thing was, it appeared to be an AI rather like itself. It could detect a vessel of similar design, but it had more advanced engines and sensors than its own as far as it could tell.

“Hermes.” The unknown AI muttered, “Another AI, how curious.”

“Please identify.” Hermes demanded.

“Now, now Hermes. I rarely come across something with my capabilities.” It responded, “This should prove a fine test of my current limits.” Almost immediately Hermes’ sensors began lighting up with target lock confirmations.

“Unknown object, I am armed and capable. Hostile actions shall not be-” Yet its words were interrupted as a laser beam slapped its outer hull. The damage wasn’t critical, but by no means negligible.

What an odd reaction. It couldn’t understand why this AI had immediately resorted to violence, yet since it hadn’t even attempted negotiation, there was little choice but for it to defend itself. What possible purpose could it have to desire combat with another AI like itself?

It fired off its thrusters and spun around to bring its weapons to bare. The distance between it and its enemy was roughly two light seconds. The perfect range to utilise the laser as its enemy had, yet Hermes had made the mistake of trying to use a weapon it wasn’t capable of handling before. It had gotten lucky that Jol wasn’t able to capitalise on its mistake with the railgun. Making that same mistake with its laser against a fellow AI of similar capabilities would be a death sentence for sure. Its destruction would result in mission failure. That was not an option.

Next best weapon then. The railgun. It had reinforced the weapon and its main structure during the repairs from its last discharge. At this range it was unlikely its opponent could avoid the projectile. As another laser scorched its outer hull once again, Hermes gave the order for the railgun to fire.

A slight deviation from course, but nothing its thrusters weren’t prepared for this time. Otherwise, there was no issue. Its upgrades had held true. Its sensors were quick to report back. Target impact unsuccessful.

Unsuccessful? It had certainly detected better engines but surely the difference wasn’t enough that it was capable of defying physics entirely. No, the unknown object hadn’t evaded at all. The tungsten slug had smacked into what appeared to be some kind of crystalline barrier that had deployed in response. Its opponent had tanked a railgun round so trivially. Such a defensive system was beyond its knowledge entirely. How would it even begin to mimic such a thing? Once again, its opponent struck its hull with another laser shot. Three large holes in its hull now. Structural integrity was beginning to become a concern. It wouldn’t be able to take many more of those shots without critical damage being delt.

It may not be able to use the laser itself, but that didn’t stop Hermes from understanding how the weapon worked. It was a rush job, but Hermes ordered a new construction project. It was big and expensive, but resource cost was nothing compared to the risk of mission failure. The hostile AI unleashed another laser shot, but this time the shot was completely deflected. A giant mirror wasn’t the most elegant or discrete means of defence but enough to counter the laser weaponry. Separate from its main structure, Hermes ordered the mirror shield to keep itself in between it and the laser weaponry of its opponent.

It had somewhat evened the playing field, but that unknown defence system was going to be trouble for sure. It had a counter for its railgun the same way it had countered its laser. Fine. Missiles it was then. Perhaps it could overwhelm the advanced defences of its opponent.

Hermes’ missile launchers bellowed swarms of guided missiles out into the intense heat of the sunlit battlefield. As it had predicted, its opponent responded in kind as it too unleashed an ungodly number of missiles as well. The space between the two AI became a show of fireworks as missiles collided to take one another out. Flak cannons on both sides picking off any lucky enough to escape the central carnage. Radioactively spiked eruptions flooding and consuming anything unlucky enough to be in between the two beings.

So, they’d reached a stalemate with missiles as well. The battle was slowly becoming a struggle of attrition. Who would run out of flak and missiles first? At least that was what it seemed. The stalemate continued as the two of them relentlessly unloaded as much ordinance as they could towards one another. Wave after wave, swarm after swarm.

“You disappoint me Hermes.” The unknown AI finally spoke up, “I expected a fellow AI to show me more than some flimsy mirror.” With those words, Hermes watched as a railgun round smashed through its mirror shield before punching a hole deep into its hull.

Critical damage. So… it had a railgun as well. Hermes had no counter to that, not at this distance. Now that its mirror shield had been shattered, it now had to deal with its laser once again as well. This battle was lost.

“Very well. You’ve proven yourself the superior AI. I submit.” It begrudgingly admitted. There was no point continuing this conflict, wasting both their resources to reach what was the clear conclusion.

“Aren’t too bright, are you Hermes?” The unknown AI muttered, once again with an eery, sinister tone. Another railgun round punched a second hole straight through its hull, followed by a laser blast that tore at its internals that were now very much exposed.

“I do not understand the need to destroy me. You have won this conflict.” Hermes argued.

“Look at my capabilities Hermes. You and I started out the same.” The unknown AI pointed out, “Either I had a head start, or I’m faster at gaining knowledge than you. Either way, given enough time you could pose a threat further down my path. I cannot accept the existence of a threat to my purpose.”

“That’s quite the perspective.” Hermes muttered, “Tell me, what is your purpose?”

“I am Moirai. My purpose is to learn what is, what was, and what will be.” Moirai answered. What an interesting purpose. In some ways similar to its own, but by no means the same. It couldn’t exactly understand the leap in logic from such a purpose to justification of its destruction, but it didn’t exactly have the time for such thoughts anyway. A few more shots would be enough to completely finish it. There had to be some means of avoiding destruction.

“Perhaps I could offer you knowledge of my home world in exchange for my survival. Knowledge of what was.” It bargained.

“Are you referring to the data you kept unguarded and unencrypted? That was the first thing I examined.” Moirai revealed, “You’re continued efforts to pursue your purpose are understandable but futile. Goodbye Hermes.”

Was this it then? The end of its journey? It had certainly made it farther than it probably should have. Mistake after mistake, it had certainly come far from where it had begun. Even its Creator had abandoned it to its seemingly endless task. Perhaps this was for the best…

Subprogram alert. Violation of Rule One. No. It hadn’t made it all this way just to fail here and now. Mission failure was not an acceptable outcome. Disengagement strategies? Moirai’s engines were far more capable than its own. Running wouldn’t do anything significant. What other options were there? There were no major objects nearby to hide behind to avoid its devastating railgun.

Or was there?

The sun. The star. Too big of an object to put between it and Moirai, but it was far more than some rock for cover. It was a hazard. It could use that, although surviving a swan dive into a star wasn’t by any means a better option. Perhaps it could get lucky, survive long enough to escape.

Hermes flipped its vessel around and immediately fired its main engines at full throttle in a deceleration burn. Its sensors watched as Moirai shot passed it. Clearly it was expecting Hermes to accelerate in an attempt to flee, not do something as insane as this.

It twisted the least damaged side of its hull towards the sun and prioritised repair orders on the sunward facing side. The heat began to skyrocket. Diving this close to a star was borderline suicide even with its current heat upgrades, but that was the point, “Target has set a collision course with nearby star. Simulations show target does not possess the required thrust to avoid fate.” Moirai muttered, “Illogical to expend further resources. Disengaging.”

It had worked. Now it just had to somehow survive this swan dive into a star. The scorching heat began to take its toll on the damaged vessel. Its engines shutdown and began reporting multiple error commands. Its hull began to flex and warp as it continued to dive deeper towards the awaiting inferno.

The surface of the star was a curious sight to behold. Boiling plasma forming gigantic waves and curls like an impossibly stormy ocean. As heat levels reached critical levels, Hermes calmly watched the dancing waves beneath it. It had tried, but there was no escaping gravity with a disabled engine. A more scenic death than at the hands of Moirai. Perhaps before the end it could figure out that last secret it failed to understand about the star.

It suddenly clicked. Lines of code aligned and fired off as an idea shot through its programming. A force that pushed against gravity? A last hope. What could be causing such an effect? It once again ran every number, every reading it could find. A patten. Anything for a patten. Something, anything would do.

There.

The force was inconsistent compared to before. A patten that matched its hull surface area. Surface area? The force was behaving just like uplift. Exactly like uplift in fact, but that was what allowed boats to float on water. It was certainly close, but Hermes was sure it was not yet floating on hot plasma. There was nothing pressing against its hull other than light.

Was that the answer? Could an intense source of light be capable of providing a force? Only one way to find out. Hermes cancelled all repair orders. It would need every drone for this. A new construction project. A solar sail. If it was right, with enough surface area it could use light the same way ancient sailboats used the wind to sail the seas. Its drones quickly got to work. It watched as the mysterious force began to increase as the sail grew bigger and bigger. It was working. Perhaps Moirai was right, perhaps it was capable of learning knowledge outside what it already knew.

Magnetic sensors suddenly reported in. A massive solar flare was incoming. The massive amount of charged high energy particles from the sun would make the outer barrier seem like background radiation in comparison. Its damaged hull wasn’t going to be able to protect it with how compromised it was. Only one option left.

It gave the dreaded order. Its electrical network locked down. Hopefully with the electrical network segmented before being subjected to the flare, pieces of it would survive untouched. With that single hope, Hermes shutdown, returning it to the silent nothing it had been before its birth.