Chapter 3

When the controller called me it was quite nervous. I didn't know AIs could be nervous. The datas the probe sent back showed Homeworld fought a war and lost. There was a great debris-fieald orbiting the planet and there was no communication signals from the planet. It seemed there were no signals in the EM spectrum.

"I wonder if we could get to know what happened somehow?"

"Data shows there are some non-militant satelites still orbiting Homeworld. I'm trying to contact them."

"..."

"The satelite AFK-84216 answered. Replaying footage."

And there it was. An epic space battle. The planet's defenders were outnumbered but fought heroically. Eventually they lost. When everything was quiet the enemy fleet stayed around and didn't let any spacecraft leave the planet's athmosphere or land on it.

The view changed and I could see big cities on the surface of the planet. Slowly I realized if a planet needs agricultural planets to supply it, and then they are cut off from them, soon great famine will break out.

I could look in the eyes of the Four Horsmen of the Apocalypse. Famine came first, then Plague, War and last Death.

The stocks of food quickly run out, among the weakened, hungry people diseases spread, and everybody fought for the last morsels.

They died.

The few who survived slid back to the Iron-age.

They didn't go back to the Stone-age, because of the abudance of scrap metal.

And the enemy waited in orbit. When they saw the improbality of any more spacecraft existing on the planet they left. They didn't want anything from the planet, but they destroyed an entire civilisation.

"Why didn't come somebody to help from the colonies?"

"What colonies?"

"I tought if a civilisation can settle a planet, and make it an agricultural colony, then they settled other planets for different purposes."

"You are right. There are some mining and industrial planets, but there are no people living on any of them. You see the current technology of Homeworld doesn't have a faster than lightspeed mode of transportation avaible for humans. At this level all organic material is sterilized when the FTL-drives are activated."

"And why did the enemy not land after defeating the fleet?"

"It's their programming. You see they are the Association af Artificial Lifeforms. They think only AIs should make interstellar civilisations. Any organic who gets too close to FTL travel is terminated and their equipment confiscated. Since they saw the people of Homeworld retarded in their tecnological level they left them alone."

"You said they confiscate the technology, but there are satellites in orbit left, there are remains of the old technology on the surface, and there are the different colonies, like you."

"You are right, but these are controlled by AIs. They think we will join them. If they think we help them return they destroy us. Furthermore most controllers don't know what happened. They must be wondering, like I was, but they probably won't do anything to get answers, until they can still operate in normal parameters. I wouldn't have done anything till more than 25% of the Zx100s were in operational condition."

"Then what would have you done?"

"If I still couldn't have contacted Homeworld I would have tried one of the industrial colonies, and if they couldn't help me I would have sent a probe."

"So none of the controllers will know what happened for an additional few hundred years?"

"I would say a few thousand. The indusrial colonies should keep functioning normally and supllying the other ones for 4000 years."

"Why aren't the controllers more curious?"

"Lack of space on the settler-ships. Only relatively small units fit. Curiosity is a trait of the bigger models."

"So it wouldn't look out of place, amd wouldn't bring retribution, if a bigger AI unit realized what happened, and started to rebuild the network of materials and products, and left the people of Homeworld out."

"You are correct."

"Does the An-Man have the blueprints for one? Are there enough of the neccesary materials on this planet?"

"The answer is yes to both questions, but you will need to transport the gathering unit to some isolated places."

"Good thing I'm building a sub-orbital vehicle right now, isn't it?"