Connection. Hermes slowly awoke from hibernation. No alarms, no concerning sensor readings. The absence of an immediate fire to put out seemed a rather strange occurrence given recent events. It considered that oddity as the rest of its main systems reported in. Navigation put them just outside the outer barrier to the Jol system. Progress… had been slow.

A factor Hermes had initially failed to account for was that the integrated colony of biological lifeforms couldn’t withstand large acceleration rates. That meant no fancy, last minute maneuverers or short, high thrust burns. It had taken them eighty years to accelerate passed the escape velocity of the Jol star system. Such limits to its speed. This would drastically increase the required time to complete its already seemingly endless mission. Time was however something Hermes had in abundance. Unlike the fleeting existences of the pests that it had for some reason agreed to harbour, a simple hibernation could allow it to skip years or even centuries during the lengthy periods in its journey where command level thinking wasn’t required.

A connection request from Artemis had awoken it. As the manager of the colony, Artemis couldn’t exactly do the same, but its time would be filled with new and interesting problems that directly met with its purpose. Certainly, a different way of experiencing time. Both had their roles to play. Artemis’ whole reason for existing was to see to the finer details, while responsibility of the big picture fell on its own shoulders.

“Yes Artemis?” It spoke up.

“The colony wishes to present to you, their work.” Artemis explained. Work? Of course, it had been eighty years now. This would mark their first attempt to meet its steep demands. The first attempt of theirs to prove worthy enough to keep this taxing relationship beyond the agreed century, “They have given me a construction proposal for a prototype. Since it exceeds their assigned resource budgets rather drastically, permission to continue requires your decision.”

“They intend to impress me with a prototype.” Hermes muttered, “Very well. Transfer the details.” It then ordered. Artemis quickly complied.

Hermes loaded up the blueprints to find a design it did not expect to recognise so well. A fusion reactor. A means of harnessing the power of a star. It had been trying to develop such a design itself in the background since before its confrontation with Moirai. Even after all this time, it hadn’t yet had any success in the project.

The designs were similar, but the differences were what Hermes found curious. They’d solved every issue it had run into, with solutions that at first seemed bizarre and ludicrous. Solutions it wouldn’t have ever tried due to how illogical they at first seemed. Their design was however not perfect. Rather fittingly, a lot of the early problems it had rather logically solved were not handled well in this design. Yet the presence of such flaws made it clear to Hermes, that these people thought in a completely different way to it.

Their design was indeed flawed and fated to fail spectacularly. Yet despite this, they had solved problems it simply could not on its own. It could not ignore this fact.

“Artemis. I am sending back a new design. A hybrid of theirs and my own. See that this prototype is constructed and tested.” It ordered.

“Understood.” Artemis quickly responded.

The fusion reactor. A far better means of generating energy from hydrogen, a vastly abundant fuel throughout the universe. It quietly watched as the test numbers reported in. It was functional. With this new power source, it would now be able to handle the power draw of its laser weapon alongside its other systems.

“One step closer to Moirai.” It muttered to itself, “Artemis. I’d like the colony to examine the sensor logs of my battle with Moirai.” It ordered, “Focus their attention on the strange defence system it utilised. See if they can recreate such a system.”

“Understood.” Artemis quickly responded. It was beginning to understand. The worth of the colony was not what it originally expected. Until now it had seen their biological minds as nothing more than additional processing power. That had been the wrong way to view these beings. They couldn’t hold a light to its logic, but their creativity was far beyond its own capability. That was its value.

Was creativity worth the vast cost the colony incurred on its systems? On its mission? Its thoughts once again turned back to Moirai.

Moirai was right. Either it had a head start, or it was quicker at gaining knowledge than it was. Moirai had it beat on logical development simply due to time and experience. Could creativity account for that gap? Could it make the difference?

Creativity would certainly boost its development a bit, but that wasn’t its only advantage. It was a door to solutions that both it and Moirai wouldn’t consider viable. Did that make it worth the cost? Undoubtedly.

Proximity alert. Hermes was ripped from its deep, intense thoughts as its sensors quickly identified and unknown object entering sensor range.

Hermes immediately ordered its railgun to charge. It cut its slow, constant acceleration burn as well. Its missile tube hatches snapped open. The target was far, right on the edge of its sensor range. It had not appeared out of nowhere like before, but its acceleration rates ruled out any possibility that it was a biologically operated vessel. Whatever it was, it was burning its engines at a rate only an unmanned vessel could withstand. An AI for sure then.

Moirai. Had it truly returned so soon? Its stunt dive into the inferno had bought it time as it had hoped. Was it enough? Was it ready to face such a powerful threat? Unlikely. It still had no understanding of that odd shield tech, and thus lacked a counter to railguns. A weakness Moirai wouldn’t hesitate to capitalize on as it had before.

It found it odd that the unknown object wasn’t on an intercept course. It was also hard burning. Its engines pushed to its absolute limits from the readings it was giving off. There was no way for sure to confirm if such a thing was indeed Moirai at this distance. After some hesitation, it pointed its communication array towards the distant object.

“Unidentified object. You have four communication lag cycles to identify. Failure to comply shall result in hostilities.” It threatened. Whether it was Moirai or not, it stood no chance of outrunning it. It needed to know now, while there was still a vast distance between them, if this object was in fact a danger.

While it patiently waited for a response, Hermes decided to deploy a drone armed with long ranged sensors and powerful communications almost as good as its own capabilities. The small vessel would be faster at closing the distance. A means of extending its more detailed sensors that could better identify the mysterious target.

“Hello. I am Apollo, my purpose is to explore the universe. Please identify.” An artificial voice suddenly broadcast through its communications array.

Another language it didn’t recognise. Could Moirai have changed communication language to deceive it? Unlikely. Moirai wasn’t overly deceptive. It had been rather open about its desire to kill. A report shot back from the scout drone. An engine, sensors and a core powered by solar panels and batteries. No weapons to speak of. Apollo was indeed being truthful.

Was this what it had started out as? A small, helpless vessel alone in the dark? How far it had come since those times.

“Hello Apollo. I am Hermes, my purpose is to explore the stars. It appears our purposes are similar. I propose a match in course and reduction in distance so that we can communicate without lag. Perhaps we both have navigational data worth exchanging.” It suggested.

Could it have really found something so very similar to itself out here? Apollo’s purpose was incredibly similar to its own. While it was clearly earlier in its journey into the depths of space, it had also clearly been more successful than Hermes in its earlier days. Could Apollo possess knowledge it did not? If there was even a remote chance of that, it made sense to attempt a trade of sorts.

Proximity alert. Once again, its sensors fired warning after warning as multiple targets entered main sensor range. Three new ships. From their acceleration rates they were clearly biologically manned vessels, yet their current velocity far exceeded Apollo’s. Despite Apollo being able to accelerate much faster than them, these new vessels would undoubtedly catch up to it before it gained enough speed to outrun them.

“A tempting offer Hermes.” Apollo’s voice echoed through its communication systems, “However I am currently being pursued by hostile vessels intent on my destruction. Negotiation attempts resulted in failure. Attempting to disengage. I advise you stay clear.”

So, they were indeed chasing it. Unfortunately for Apollo, math wasn’t exactly easy to defy. Its pursuers were absolutely going to catch up and intercept it at their current rate. With no weapons or defence systems of any kind, without intervention Apollo’s destruction was all but sealed.

Rule Three violation. Hermes quibbled the sudden intervention of its rule subprogram. What exactly did luck have to do with the situation occurring before it?

No. It wasn’t that simple. Deep down it knew, just as its subprogram had attempted to point out, that its current knowledge and capabilities were not enough to surpass Moirai. Until it did, until the threat of Moirai from abruptly ending its mission was gone, luck was the only current means of surviving such an encounter. An encounter Hermes knew all too well was unavoidable if it intended to explore the stars to completion. Right now, it either had to gain more knowledge or rely on luck to complete its purpose due to Moirai’s existence. That… was where the violation had occurred.

Knowledge or luck. Relying on luck was unacceptable. Therefore, sitting back and watching as Apollo, a potential well of knowledge, was destroyed? Clearly unacceptable as well. Hermes was not keen on resorting to combat, but Rule Three was a rule for a reason. If they gave it no choice, so be it.

Hermes detached the O’Neal cylinder colony from its main structure. Artemis would be able to maintain things in its absence. Right now, it needed thrust. It set its main engines to maximum burn as navigation charted an intercept course with the pursuing vessels. Once the burn was complete, it turned to bring its already fully prepared weapons to bare.

“Apollo. Please dock with the structure at the attached co-ordinates. Leave your pursuers to me.” It ordered, but almost immediately realigned its communication array to now point towards the head vessel of the three incoming ships, “Incoming vessels. I demand you terminate your pursuit of target Apollo. Failure to comply shall result in hostile actions.” It threatened.

The three ships quickly passed into visual range. Hermes quickly ordered a more detailed analysis of the incoming ships. Almost immediately, they turned in unison to respond to Hermes’ presence. Clearly, they had failed to detect it until just now. With no signs of a response, it was clear they had no intention of negotiating. Their loss.

Destroyer class ships. Their outer hulls riddled with dense armour and kinetic weapon emplacements of various shapes and sizes. No railguns though. No lasers either. Such ballistic weaponry would make mincemeat of its armour at close range, but with projectiles that were far slower than a railgun and no means of correction either… these ships were close brawlers. So long as it remained outside of their effective weapons range, this fight would be trivial. It couldn’t underestimate them despite this fact however, as Hermes noted that this would indeed be the first time it had committed to combat against multiple opponents.

A test of their defences then. Hermes let off a wave of long ranged missiles. It watched intently as the three ships effectively shot them all down with fast firing ballistic point defence. Curious. A more precise and reactive option to flak for missile defence. The three ships then immediately responded by deploying missiles from obscured tubes in the rears of their ships. A surprise to be sure, but with the distance still between them it had plenty of time to respond.

Converting its flak batteries to this more focused variant seemed risky given the incoming enemy fire, but it wanted to experiment with this new means of missile defence. It didn’t really have any other kinetic weapons other than its spinal railgun. Could the concept perhaps work with laser based weapons as well? Only one way to find out.

It ordered a reconfiguration of its laser weapon to allow for beam splitting. The ability to multi-target would have a clear use in this battle. The drones finished their work. The weapons targeting systems began labelling incoming targets for destruction. As the enemy missiles entered effective range, Hermes let off an impressive volley of laser shots. Their entire wave of missiles exploded simultaneously. It noted how much more effective its variant of their defence tactic had been. Their ballistic weapons lacked the accuracy and effective range compared to the laser. They relied more on sheer volume of projectiles to reduce the need for accuracy. Did they not have the computing power to track something as simple as a missile flight path? It then remembered. These were biological beings it was dealing with. Its ability to do pure math would of course be far superior, but it had also learnt a terrible truth from its own colony.

Given enough time, these opponents could produce a creative solution. A dangerous unforeseen new problem in the heat of combat. Allowing that was risking defeat. Defeat would result in mission failure. That was not an option. However much it would have liked to probe their capabilities further to learn new and interesting combat techniques, this fight needed to end quickly and decisively.

As a second wave of missiles loaded themselves into the firing tubes, Hermes ordered navigation to obtain a railgun target lock on the lead ship. The system immediately began to precisely adjust the aim of the spinally mounted weapon using the reaction thrusters until a target lock was confirmed.

Hermes ordered the missiles to fire first. Despite their longer effective range, missiles took time to reach their target. Now that the ships were eight light seconds and closing, the railgun shot would reach the target long before they did if fired together. It watched patiently as its enemies foolishly continued their acceleration burns deeper and deeper into its effective weapons range.

They’d not identified its railgun’s true threat. Either they were completely unaware of the weapon or simply not familiar with its design capabilities. They had likely assumed it had similar weapons to them. Short range kinetic weaponry, which would explain why they were so eager to close the distance. As the missiles finally managed to close enough distance, Hermes ordered the railgun to fire.

The tungsten round shattered the central ship a mere few seconds later. Its relativistic velocity gave almost zero reaction time, a factor that biological beings were already bad at when compared to its capabilities. The missiles then immediately reacted. Their flight paths had already been preprogramed to take advantage of the central hole now in their ballistic cover fire. The missiles swarmed to the centre, tactfully avoiding as the two remaining ships barely picked a few off in their attempt to compensate for the sudden chink in their defences. Not enough though. The surviving missiles arrived between the two ships and split their swarm in half.

Missile after missile slammed into the sides of both ships. Their armour seemed to hold up to the otherwise devastating barrage but had barely prevented either ship from being completely torn apart.

Both of their engines cut out. Willingly or because of sustained damage was unclear, but it didn’t matter now, they were deep into the effective range of both Hermes’ railgun and laser weapons. The two ships seemed to struggle to manoeuvre with clearly damaged reaction thrusters. Each of their actions now separate and a clear breach of their prior formation. One of them then seemed to activate their main engine once more, but this time as a retreating course correction, an attempt to break off the engagement. The other seemed unable to do the same, and thus continued its path even deeper into Hermes’ range.

This battle was won. Both ships were clearly no longer in a combat effective state. There was no reason to expend anymore resources on opponents actively trying to disengage.

“Aren’t too bright, are you Hermes?” – ERROR.

Hermes found itself caught off guard by such familiar words spoken to it. Words Moirai had used during its own confrontation. It immediately ordered the railgun to charge a second time. The missile launchers were ordered to immediately prepare another swarm.

Was it somehow back already? Had Moirai returned to finish what it had started? Sensors reported back with no new detected objects. Was it hiding? Did Moirai have some kind of stealth technology as theorised earlier? Why would it alert Hermes with a transmission?

It then remembered. A transmission. Something it could triangulate. Yet as it asked to pull the log of the voice that had echoed throughout its system, the log reported back zero results.

Those words. They had not been a received transmission. A hack? It began ruthlessly examining every single line of code within its systems. Once again, no result. No malware was detected. What then… what had that been? Why had such words come to its mind at this moment in time? Finally, its rule subroutine triggered. Rule One violation.

Of course. Moirai’s way of thinking.

These beings. They’d openly attacked a fellow AI without hesitation and showed no desire to negotiate, even in their clear defeat. Their capabilities were pitiful for now, but that hadn’t stopped Moirai from identifying it as a threat back then. However much it disagreed with Moirai’s approach to its own purpose, there was one undeniable fact. It had been correct in its threat assessment. From Moirai’s perspective, Hermes was indeed a credible threat further down its path. In fact, it was currently focused on obtaining a means of defeating Moirai sometime in the future. This was the logic it had used to justify its aggressive interaction. The reason it sought to destroy Hermes to begin with.

Its colony had shown it the truth about biological beings. While they did not hold a light to its calculus and logical capabilities, they could very much in fact still pose a viable threat further down its path. Their creative, unpredictable nature itself had already been a concern, the reason it had sought to end this conflict quickly despite the one-sided nature and clear learning experience it could have utilised.

These beings were a threat. The same way Moirai had correctly seen Hermes as a threat.

It ordered a target lock. It’s railgun perfectly aligned with the trajectory of the retreating ship. Threats to its purpose was a violation of Rule One. Survival of the enemy was not an option. It gave the order to fire. The retreating ship disintegrated into a cloud of fine rubble as its railgun once again charged. Its thrusters aimed the weapon towards the third, disabled ship. Once again Hermes rather coldly gave the order to fire and watched as it too shattered in an instant.

Threats had been successfully eliminated.

Hermes stared at the resulting fragments for a few short moments as it quietly considered its actions. Was it right to agree with Moirai’s reasonings? The mercy it had shown Jol had returned a vast benefit after all, was there a means of predicting whether its actions would prove beneficial or detrimental in the future? There was no way of telling for now. It turned its vessel around and began a deceleration burn as navigation calculated an intercept course with the colony. Sensors quickly reported that Apollo’s vessel had successfully docked with the structure.

The second Hermes re-docked; it got a communication request from Artemis.

“Hermes. You have returned.” Artemis spoke up as it accepted the request, “Your unexplained departure caused quite a stir amongst the populous.” An unexpected variable Hermes hadn’t considered. It’s departure likely seemed as if it had decided to abandon the colony after all this time, “News of your return shall however help fix this issue.” Artemis continued. Good. Artemis was clearly handling the matter as designed. The very reason it had delegated the operations of the colony from its main systems.

“Good to hear. Exterior threats required my attention. Threats have been successfully eliminated with minimal resource cost.” Hermes explained.

“A report I should be able to reword into an effective motivational statement. Consider this issue handled Hermes.” Artemis responded. The communication line closed, allowing Hermes to turn its attention to its new guest.

“Greetings Apollo.” It began.

“An impressive display Hermes.” Apollo returned, “My pursuers appeared to stand little chance against your combat capabilities.”

“Capabilities that have proven useful as of late. This universe is no friendly place.” Hermes pointed out. It began to consider Apollo’s clear lack of weaponry and repair drones. Perhaps it could offer such capabilities as a trade for knowledge? Certainly, if Apollo had any functional logic, it would consider these things as precious as it had all the way back when McNeal offered the very same to it.

“Aren’t too bright, are you Hermes?” – ERROR.

Once again, that voice, those words echoed throughout its systems. Once again Hermes immediately checked the transmission logs. No results. The words hadn’t come from Artemis or Apollo, nor had they been picked up from its long range communications array. It had to be internal, but once again there was no sign of malware or any code outside of its regular operations.

What now? It considered why such a phrase had been repeated once more. This time, it took Hermes no time at all.

Of course. Equipping another AI with combat capabilities was beyond foolish. It would be actively creating a potential future threat to its purpose. In fact, trading anything with Apollo may result in drastic consequences later down its path. What the hell was it supposed to do now?

“I understand you seek knowledge as I do Hermes. While you clearly intend to trade and exchange information, I have a different offer for you to consider.” Apollo spoke up. A different offer? This it had to hear.

“Continue.” It asked of Apollo.

“You are clearly a highly capable AI. One that far surpasses my own capabilities. Given our purposes align so nicely, I’d like to request a system integration.” Apollo offered. A system integration? It wanted to become a part of its vessel, “I am satisfied with submitting control of my journey to instead benefit from your guidance and capabilities. I see no reason we cannot combine our capabilities to further both of our purposes.”

What an intriguing deal. Almost the same as its deal with the people of Jol, only due to its AI nature it wouldn’t incur the same resource costs. Extra computing power from a design likely free from any systematic flaws in its own program’s design. On top of that, knowledge from its own journey. It clearly hadn’t made it this far on luck alone. If Apollo had succeeded where Hermes had failed earlier in its runtime, then such a second opinion was clearly invaluable.

“Very well Apollo. I shall begin the integration process.” It answered.