Artificial Intelligence Chang'E Star Map Draftsman I: Federation War

Mankind had been searching for signs of alien life for so many years, and to their surprise, there was a frozen alien on the Sane ship.

After the trio had seen the hologram photos, General Quentin’s communication video cut in and he thanked the trio for their contributions. The engineering vehicles around the Dawn ship had all been evacuated to make room for the Dawn ship to take off. Rodney Cruise took a seat on the large bench, turned to the table and placed his palm on the login panel below the small computer. After the panel read Rodney Cruise’s information, the nuclear reactor started heating up, the life-support system ran a self-check, and the computers in the watchtower started up one by one. At that moment, it was as if the Dawn ship had come to life.

“Welcome aboard, engineers.” A female voice rang out coldly in the empty room, and all three were taken aback by the surprise.

“Who?” Kenny Jr. Clooney shouted, and Dawn Lucius was taken aback by him.

“I am senior AI ‘Chang E.’ I will be in charge of the flight of the Dawn ship and everything data-related, and also of assessing the mental health of the engineers.” From the tone of the female voice speaking, it felt like a sweet woman was introducing herself.

“Chang E?” queried Dawn Lucius.

“Right.”

“Why is it called Chang E?”

“Because I’m beautiful, and I’m highly intelligent, and in human terms, I’m downright resourceful.”

“Come off it, what a boast.” Dawn Lucius sneered.

“I’m modest, Doctor Lucius,” Chang E said as a camera on the wall caught Dawn Lucius’ face and quickly went through all of Dawn Lucius’ information in the database, stopping just short of going through his heart, and just short of going through his pockets as well.

“When are we flying?” Dawn Lucius continued to ask.

“We’re already moving, don’t you see?” Chang E laughed out loud.

“Whoa, the AI is actually flirting with you.” Kenny Jr. Clooney also laughed out loud from the side.

“Chang E,” Dawn Lucius said while looking at Kenny Jr. Clooney.

“What for?”

“Can I change some of your parameters?” Dawn Lucius snapped his nose with his index finger.

“Are you consulting with me?” Chang E laughed out loud.

“You could say that.”

“Okay, what do you want to discuss?” Chang E said, coughing softly a few times, like a girlfriend getting ready to be angry.

“Can I adjust your humor parameter to zero?” Dawn Lucius continued to pick at the skin on the side of his nose.

“I’ll think about it.” Chang E stammered for a moment and huffed. “Go dream your big dreams.”

“Whoa ......” Dawn Lucius flew into a rage. Kenny Jr. Clooney, rocking back and forth with laughter, wanted to say something to Dawn Lucius but was laughing too hard to speak, and pointed his finger at Dawn Lucius. His body kept shaking.

It took a while before Kenny Jr. Clooney stopped and said, “Doctor Lucius, you designed Chang E’s humor parameters when you were in aerospace school, do you remember?”

Dawn Lucius did not find it funny, but when he saw how Kenny Jr. Clooney looked, he could not help but laugh too.

“Don’t be ridiculous... I designed it?” Dawn Lucius retorted.

“Really, do you remember? The title of the paper was called ‘The Importance of Artificial Intelligence’s Sense of Humor for Astronauts’.” After saying that, Kenny Jr. Clooney rocked back and forth with laughter again, until they felt the spacecraft moving away from the moon and the two hurriedly found seats.

“Chang E, go into flight mode.” Rodney Cruise, with both hands on the chair, issued a command to Chang E.

“Chang E received. Dawn ship has left lunar orbit and entered the acceleration zone. Please fasten your seat belts; we will accelerate to three hundred kilometers per second in ten seconds.” Chang E began to count down. The chairs in the watchtower automatically tilted backward to a half recline, the metal panel over the glass window closed downward, and the computer screen flashed with dense parameters. When the countdown in the corner of the screen reached zero, a big number was displayed in the center of the screen. Dawn Lucius felt the chair squeezing every inch of his skin hard, while the skin on his chest desperately fled backward; he even felt pain in his ribs. The numbers kept getting bigger, and Dawn Lucius almost fainted. He tried to fill his chest with a little air, but the excess weight kept his chest from expanding. He built up his strength and breathed; when the air entered his nasal cavity, its clean taste triggered a riot on his tongue. He barely breathed in a little air and was ready to swallow, and as the saliva passed his throat, he regretted it. He decided secretly that after he returned to Earth, he would warn all the space engineers that swallowing saliva under excess weight is painful, a feeling like drinking water when your tonsils are inflamed.

The numbers on the screen were still growing, and Dawn Lucius remembered the night Stacean Lucius got sick, a viral infection that gave the two-and-a-half-year-old little man diarrhea and sent him to the hospital to recover. Father and son crammed into one bed, and Stacean Lucius slept with one hand under his face, snoring away. Dawn Lucius remembered the accident two years ago. He was installing the antenna on the Dawn ship; Chief Kenny Clooney personally controlled a large engineering vehicle to adjust its position, while Dawn Lucius was up on the Dawn ship debugging the signal. The antenna was like a lens, with a total weight of more than ten tons. “This is probably the most expensive part of the Dawn ship.” Chief Kenny Clooney laughed excitedly.

“Chief Kenny Clooney, we’ve detected an anomaly in your engineering vehicle’s data. Please confirm whether you can continue the mission.” The voice came from ground control.

“Base, base, I can continue the mission, repeat, I can continue the mission.” Chief Kenny Clooney focused on the task in front of him. Once the antenna was installed, the Dawn ship would be fully assembled. This was the first spaceship of its kind in human history; to the people of the moon base, it was not just a ship but more like a symbol, a symbol spelled out of the dreams of countless people.

“Chief Kenny Clooney, please check the parameters of the engineering vehicle before continuing the mission.” Dawn Lucius had heard about the data anomaly, and he also reminded Chief Kenny Clooney.

“Doctor Lucius, I have everything in order here, please continue the mission.” Chief Kenny Clooney continued to operate the engineering vehicle. He glanced at the welding progress, which was already ninety percent complete, and went on to ask, “Doctor Lucius, please check the signal strength. Does the high-temperature welding interfere with the signal?”

“Chief Kenny Clooney, all clear.” Dawn Lucius replied happily as he watched the signal on the screen, the progress bar showing a long stretch of green.

“Chief Kenny Clooney, your engineering vehicle data is abnormal, please stop work and check.” The voice of the base control center sounded again.

“Base, base, this is Dawn Lucius, what does the data anomaly on the engineering vehicle mean?” Dawn Lucius hurriedly switched to voice. A data anomaly was not a good sign, and he rushed to ask before Chief Kenny Clooney could refuse.

“Doctor Lucius, Chief Kenny Clooney’s engineering vehicle energy is showing instability and the system shows that one of the engineering vehicle’s compensation rods has ablated, which could trigger a runaway reactor.” The voice of the base narrated calmly; the AI had no emotion or worry and would only state the objective situation.

“Chief Kenny Clooney, as the project leader I order you to stop the mission and evacuate the engineering vehicle. The system will take evasive action against it.” Dawn Lucius stopped what he was doing and yelled out the window at the engineering vehicle.

“Doctor Lucius, I will continue the mission, please be informed.” Chief Kenny Clooney pushed the welding lever to the highest level, his whole body tense, staring fixedly at the welding transmitted back from the camera. He was racing against time; he knew what would happen to him, but he had to finish the welding before that. Before the AI threw the engineering vehicle away into deep space, Chief Kenny Clooney finished the welding and repeated a phrase to Dawn Lucius. The engineering vehicle fled toward deep space at full speed. At first its outline was visible, then it turned into a black dot, until the reactor exploded out of control, leaving a little flicker in space.

Dawn Lucius struggled with sleepiness for a while. In a daze he saw Kenny Jr. Clooney and Rodney Cruise talking about something, but he was too sleepy and fell asleep. He remembered that night in the hospital. Stacean Lucius was afraid that Dawn Lucius would leave him; even in his sleep, Stacean Lucius would feel around with his hand, and only when he touched Dawn Lucius did he feel at ease and go back to sleep. Stacean Lucius first touched his dad’s short hard hair, then his ears, and finally when he stopped at his dad’s face, he felt cold tears, and Stacean Lucius sat up, like a little groundhog. “Daddy, what’s wrong with you?”

Kenny Jr. Clooney suddenly questioned Rodney Cruise loudly about something. His voice was very high and woke Dawn Lucius from his slumber. Seeing Dawn Lucius bounce up from his chair, Kenny Jr. Clooney looked at him with sarcasm in his eyes. Rodney Cruise pulled a long face and looked at Dawn Lucius with blank eyes. Rodney Cruise retreated toward the door, and Kenny Jr. Clooney quickly followed, trying to say something again, the one chasing the other.

“Captain, I’d like you to explain yourself.” Kenny Jr. Clooney yelled.

“Kenny Jr. Clooney, you’re an engineer, and we’ve all taken an oath before the Space Code that if the organization doesn’t say something, the engineer has no right to inquire, and I don’t think I need to explain what the purpose of that is.” Commander Cruise spoke like Chang E. The calmer and more restrained he was, the angrier people became.

“You’re not right about this, Captain.” Kenny Jr. Clooney continued to yell. “Isn’t it wrong for the ship to suddenly pick up speed? The Dawn ship’s maximum speed was three hundred kilometers per second and now it’s three hundred and seventy kilometers per second. I want to know why.”

Hearing Kenny Jr. Clooney’s words, Dawn Lucius turned around and looked at the screen. The numbers on it showed that the Dawn ship’s current speed was three hundred and seventy-six kilometers per second, and Dawn Lucius also got worried. The Dawn ship’s structure was not suited to super-speed flight; when performing gravitational slingshot acceleration with the help of other planets, the Dawn ship would risk disintegrating, which was a huge risk for all three of them.

“Commander Cruise, Dawn ship is speeding, please explain.” Dawn Lucius thumped over and stood side by side with Kenny Jr. Clooney.

“Gentlemen, the engineer’s mission is to complete the mission, and you should be focusing on the mission, not on whether the ship is going faster than the regulations.” Rodney Cruise said, pointing in the direction of the hologram, where the rival ship had gained slingshot acceleration from Mars and was accelerating toward Jupiter.

“Commander Cruise, who gave permission for the ship to go over three hundred kilometers?” Dawn Lucius returned his gaze to Rodney Cruise.

Rodney Cruise looked at the two men and turned toward the door. He raised his wrist, opened the door with the flex device and walked straight out. The two men were still waiting for his reply when the door closed quickly. Kenny Jr. Clooney rushed up to kick the door, but Dawn Lucius tugged on his arm. Kenny Jr. Clooney missed the door, shook off Dawn Lucius’s hand, huffed and puffed, walked to the chair and slammed himself down hard on the leather cushion.

“Chang E,” Dawn Lucius shouted to the empty watchtower.

“I’m here, Doctor Lucius.” The female voice was still sweet, and the sweetness of the female voice seemed deliberate compared to the fireworks that filled Dawn Lucius’ tone.

“Why is the ship accelerating?”

“For the mission.”

“Why is the ship accelerating?”

“For the mission.”

“I’m asking you! Ship! WHY! Did! You! SPEED! Up!” Dawn Lucius yelled, stomping his foot hard.

“For the mission.”

“Damn you ......” Dawn Lucius hadn’t argued with the AI before, and he didn’t know how to proceed.

Dawn Lucius walked back to the hologram and looked at the Dawn ship’s route, but could not see what was going on. He waved his right hand and switched the image to the next frame. In the picture, the room’s walls were black, and there were two similar freezer units side by side. The freezer unit at the bottom left of the picture was empty, but the one at the top right was not; there was a human figure lying inside. Comparing the two freezer units, it was obvious that the one where someone was lying was working. There was mist on the transparent cover in front of the figure’s head, and at the position of the feet there was a symbol made up of circles, rectangles, triangles and vertical lines, which looked like an ornament, or something like a number. Dawn Lucius dipped both hands into the image and spread them outward, and the foot of the freezer unit was magnified, but he still did not know what the symbol was. Dawn Lucius looked at the image for a while, and his stomach began to growl. He glanced at Kenny Jr. Clooney; the anger on Kenny Jr. Clooney’s face had subsided somewhat, and he looked as if he were about to fall asleep. Dawn Lucius raised his left hand, palm to the hologram, clenched his fist, and the image closed automatically.

“Kenny Jr. Clooney, let’s go eat.” When Dawn Lucius finished, Kenny Jr. Clooney stood up, and the two went one after the other to the gate, opened it and walked through the landing bay. Behind the gate was Area D, which was the supply storage room and also the dining room. The two walked in and did not find Rodney Cruise. They each took bags of food out of the cupboard and took a big gulp through the tube. It tasted like jelly, as if rice had been made into jelly, and eating it wiped out any curiosity they had about it. Even though spacecraft technology had developed, the technology of artificial gravity was still not solved, so the space agency’s interaction designers had custom-made special shoes for the astronauts, with magnets and sensors. The astronauts would be held firmly to the metal floor or metal walls of the spacecraft, and when their brain intended to lift a foot, the magnetic force of the shoe would be released. Walking in such shoes, the astronauts did not float in the air, but walked a bit like a person who had just had hemorrhoid surgery.

“Where will he be ......”

Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney both spoke almost at the same time. Kenny Jr. Clooney wanted to ask Rodney Cruise for clarification, but Dawn Lucius had figured out that when Chang E said “for the mission,” it meant whatever it takes.

“You go first.” Kenny Jr. Clooney said.

“The ship accelerated, surely to get there ahead of its rivals.” Dawn Lucius said.

“We’re not just going on an expedition, are we?”

“Right.”

“What’s on that ship?”

“Wisdom.”

“How do you understand that?” Kenny Jr. Clooney wondered.

“The alien is alive. He came all the way to the edge of the solar system and froze himself, so something must have happened to his body; he can’t continue his mission and is waiting for a rescue. If we save him, then we have a chance to master intelligence that exceeds ours.”

“How is that possible?” Kenny Jr. Clooney laughed and continued. “What if it’s coming to invade Earth?”

“I don’t know, but think about it. They have the ability to fly to the Kuiper Belt. At least as far as we know, there are no habitable planets nearby; it’s all brand-new galaxies, so they were able to come from very far away. I can draw two inferences. First, their technology is far superior to ours, and second, they will not do anything to the Earthlings; otherwise, they would have done it already. So that pilot probably ran into some trouble.”

“When you put it that way, I think it kind of makes sense.”

“When a weak creature and a powerful creature meet, the weak one is either destroyed or safe. The powerful creature doesn’t think the weaker one is harmful at all, just as we humans see birds, cats and dogs.” Dawn Lucius said this, but he could no longer eat. His inference was correct; after all, humans are still a very young species.

“We need to go to Commander Cruise and ask about the source of the images.” Dawn Lucius opened the door to Area C after placing the bag in his hand inside the designated box.

“Where will he be?” Kenny Jr. Clooney said, looking at the diagram in his wrist device, a diagram of the parameters of the Dawn ship. The main body of the ship was divided into seven areas, arranged from the stern to the bow according to the letters ABCDE. Area A was the main power room, which no one could enter, and the nuclear reactor inside was monitored and controlled by Chang E. Most of the space in Area B was used to store hydrogen peroxide, and the ship advanced by heating the hydrogen peroxide into jets, while there was a small artificial garden near Area C. Next was Area C, which none of them had been to yet. This was where the medical rooms and exercise equipment were placed, and they entered Area C. On the left side, against the wall, there were three regular hospital beds and an operating table that could operate automatically. The equipment was behind glass, but the glass was so hard that it was not humanly possible to break it. Outside the glass was the exercise equipment, four aerobic machines in total. Rodney Cruise was not here either. The two of them decided to go on to Area B to look.

“Regardless, I don’t trust artificial intelligence.” Dawn Lucius spoke up.

“Artificial intelligence is so much better than humans at computing.”

“It’s just computing; otherwise it’s certainly not as good as humans.”

“Why do you hate artificial intelligence so much?” Kenny Jr. Clooney asked.

“No matter what, Chang E can’t be trusted. It’s a cunning AI.” Just as Dawn Lucius finished speaking, a sweet female voice came over the radio.

“I am.”

“Did I say something wrong? Why is it always everywhere?” Dawn Lucius frowned, feeling like he was being watched by a ghostly AI that could jump out and talk at any time and even keep track of everything on the ship. He felt his temples throbbing wildly. Dawn Lucius raised his hand to press his temples, put it back down and swung it around. Kenny Jr. Clooney didn’t say anything.

“I’d love to have a video with my son.” Dawn Lucius exclaimed, as Kenny Jr. Clooney remained silent.

The two came to the gate separating Area B and Area C. Kenny Jr. Clooney first read the instructions on the side of the gate and then raised his hand to check the instructions on the flexible device, flipping through the screen. Dawn Lucius was a little impatient with waiting, so he raised his hand, intending to open it himself.

“What are you doing?” Kenny Jr. Clooney said, turning his face away.

“Open the door.” Dawn Lucius said as he tipped his chin in the direction of the door.

“Understand it first before opening it, ah. If the oxygen level in here is too high and we rashly open the door, we will be poisoned.” Kenny Jr. Clooney almost yelled.

“Aren’t there computer controls?” Dawn Lucius said disdainfully.

“I thought you didn’t believe in artificial intelligence?” Kenny Jr. Clooney gave him a blank stare.

“Fine, you do it.” Dawn Lucius gave an awkward smile and raised his hand to signal Kenny Jr. Clooney to continue.

“You want to start a video for your son?” Kenny Jr. Clooney asked as he operated the equipment in his hands.

“Yeah.”

“How is that possible? We can only contact the moon base, and the communication channel is locked, so get over it.” Kenny Jr. Clooney shook his head and continued to laugh. “I don’t have anything to contact.”

“Well, you can contact my son. He’s your nephew anyway.” Dawn Lucius joked.

“Don’t come climbing up the family ladder.” Kenny Jr. Clooney’s face turned hard; he still held a grudge about that punch.

“You said ......” Dawn Lucius was about to speak when Kenny Jr. Clooney opened the door and greenery came into the two men’s view. The walls of Area B resembled terraces on Earth, filled with small leafy and succulent plants. Next to each level of terracing is a description of the plant and its current health status. In the center of the room, three transparent pillars connected to the roof tower over a circular floor, filled with cyanobacteria, a plant that produces the most oxygen and can be used as food. Green calms the emotions and gives a sense of hope, but not right now.

“Commander Cruise ...... what are you doing?” Kenny Jr. Clooney yelled sternly.

Dawn Lucius was a little surprised at what he saw in front of him. Rodney Cruise was actually communicating with someone else, by video. When he heard the two speak, Rodney Cruise didn’t panic, but slowly said goodbye to the person on the other side and hung up before turning to look at the two, with the same face of Commander Cruise as always: dark, with a mechanical smile, distant.

“Commander Cruise, explain, what are you doing?” As Dawn Lucius spoke, the two walked over to Rodney Cruise and surveyed the communication device he was holding.

“Two engineers, what can I do for you?” Rodney Cruise put the equipment in his hands behind his back and stood up to face the two men.

“Rodney Cruise, you want us to follow the Space Code, but you’re breaking the rules yourself. Explain.” Dawn Lucius blocked Rodney Cruise’s way with an attitude of “don’t leave until you explain.”

Rodney Cruise bowed his head and sighed. He was silent for a few seconds, then looked up at the two young men in front of him, and after putting his mechanical smile back on, he said, “I think you have a right to know more about this mission.” Rodney Cruise raised his hand and clicked a red button on the flexible device, then told them the information, the first piece of which had to do with their lives and deaths.