A.I.P.S

Chapter I

System reboot...

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A.I.P.S. Live...

Checking systems...

All systems functioning within acceptable parameters...

Accessing database - Earth

Earth Date - 2185

Location-Approximate 212 Million Miles from Earth

Receiving Signal-Earth - NASA

Text flashes across the screen within the A.I.P.S. terminal, 'A.I.P.S. We'll continue transmitting all broadcasts as long as possible. What is your status?' The lingering question, the new processors of A.I.P.S. were untested and though the ship was filled with every work of art, every scientific discovery, every speck of humanity, It was unaware of the troubles ahead. 'A.I.P.S. Status Green - Location-Approximate 212 Million Miles from Earth' read the response, a short, robotic message, but it was enough to encourage those awaiting a response. The high speed light waves transmitting the message between the two like a courier. It was dubbed the Hermes Line, an honor to the ancient messenger god of the Greeks.

The Artificial Intelligence Paternal System, or A.I.P.S. was a state of the art device. Onboard it was rather bleak, the thin corridors running with wires, coolant tubes snaking around corners while the floor lies hidden in a perpetual layer of fog. Housed in the center of the ship nearly a thousand oval pods, coated in a layer of frost, wait in eerie silence, waiting for the day their contents may be revealed once more. Inside each was the hope of humanity, a person destined to carry on the flame of its species. These were the hopes of all of Earth as death edged nearer to home. A.I.P.S. was built to safeguard this hope, from the rounded center of the ship, it had been arranged to shield the Cryostasis pods. Sensors bristling from various nodes and sides of the ship. From the back of the Central Cavity small tubes, barrels almost, extended, each housing a small circular probe, roughly the size of a small car, each waiting for the time to come when they are called to service. These rovers were responsible for the exploration of planets as A.I.P.S. reaches orbit and determines the planet suitable.

Its duty to its creators, to Houston and NASA, now completed, A.I.P.S. systems slowly return to their basic functions, turning off their higher powers one by one. Returning to dormancy, until they are needed. The intelligence runs through its checks once more, ever present in a state of what one could almost describe as vigilant worry, though it too returns to dormancy as the final lights dim and cease in. The deafening silence of space echoing through the somber halls.

The first stop closes in quickly, as a small alarm wakes the A.I.P.S. to announce it's arrival. It was hard to believe that nearly twenty years had passed since it had launched. However time was just a number to this machine, irrelevant to its mission. It was time for the routine it had rehearsed.

System reboot...

Loading...

A.I.P.S. Live...

Checking systems...

All systems functioning within acceptable parameters...

Accessing database - Earth

Earth Date - 2205

Location-Approximate 4.15ly. from Earth

Receiving Signal-Earth - NASA

In the deafening silence of space it flicks through old Message logs from Earth, one announcing the launch of the A.I.M.S. the Artificial Intelligence Maternal System, the partner system of the A.I.P.S. It would follow in the A.I.P.S. wake, traveling behind in less dangerous space. It was not a trailblazer, not like the A.I.P.S. which had been designed to experiment, to explore, to discover in the search of a suitable location. The A.I.M.S. was built with the intent of following the A.I.P.S. as a motherly system, to prevent the A.I.P.S. from endangering the humans they both held within. With the messages reviewed, the A.I.P.S. moves into a standard orbit of the second planet, Proxima Centauri B. The soft whir of the sensors coming to life along the sides of the A.I.P.S. digesting and assimilating the information. Sending more knowledge into the system's database than any of the telescopes Earth had ever launched over the years. Gravitational readings, atmosphere, temperatures, among other readings flood the empty database as the A.I.P.S. begins deciphering them, judging the planet fit for humanity or not. The red dwarf star had been discovered in 1915 by Earth. It had since been overshadowed by other new planets. The star's arching solar flares mesmerizing were the A.I.P.S. a human. This system would be reviewed for the ten years it would take for the smaller and lighter A.I.M.S. to catch up to the A.I.P.S. A message over the Hermes Line lets the Maternal Craft know that its partner had arrived unscathed. Moments later a response rockets across the line to the ever patient machine, "Message received, A.I.M.S. Location 1.8ly from system. Approximate time to arrival is 8.2 Earth Years." Without wasting a moment, the whirring sounds of the many instruments began to study the system.