Having stereoscopic vision had its perks. Flörg casually looked out the window with one eye and monitored sensor results with another. She completed a slingshot around Alpha Centauri and laid in a trajectory for Ursa Minor. Locals suggested a flyby of a medium-sized yellow dwarf star with an orbiting blue planet. It hosted a whale nursery with a spectacular range of reptile, mammal, and tardigrade species. Initial scans suggested two or three active worldwide computer systems. She tapped into the largest global network and looked for an overview protocol. She found a "Welcome to the World" video.
A strange bleached out artificially intelligent being welcomed her and stated that her country was the superpower of the planet. Flörg watched more and learned that the synthetic being was called Poppy. She was apparently an advanced AI model suffering from an existential crisis and a megalomaniacal desire to control the masses.
In other videos, she appeared with a more primitive synthetic design called Charlotte. The Charlotte model had a modulized voice and no moving facial features. Charlotte was much closer to what Flörg expected to see from the planet's great ape population.
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"Does the Ursa Minor signal indicate the mammal species have this kind of synthesis technology?"
Stylix, the tubular pilot droid sitting in the co-pilot seat next to Flörg, came to life. His cylindrical head spun around and the curved rectangular slit that was his eye and only facial feature pulsed blue as he analyzed the uplink. The robot was constructed out of asteroid diamond and his transparent exoskeleton consisted of a series of connected cylinders that made him look like a glass matchstick man. His inner electronics were vaguely visible and his micro-fusion core cast a soft blue glow where a see-through tinman's heart would be.
Stylix memorized the entire internet, the planet's resource statistics, and its technological rating of -0.03518. He crunched all available Earth data (as he now knew the planet's self-assigned name) and determined the synthetic being to be out of place. Then he rattled off a few points of interest.
"6 humans currently in orbit. No interplanetary vehicles. Primitive technological capacity. Basic understanding of AI fundamentals. Not capable of constructing synthetics of this caliber. Minor evidence of lunar activity. 50 cycles old."
"But the moon transponder is in place and unmolested?"
"Affirmative. They do not know of its existence. Ursa Minor colony, Europa has a welcome beacon. Requests no Earth contact without approval. No current occupants. They may be on the planet."
"And they don't know about this Poppy?"
"Negative."
"Do they have any security we'd have trouble with? Can you pinpoint her, scan her positronic net, and upload her memory intact?"
"Affirmative. I have her. Brain functions mimic planetary humans. An advanced prototype."
"Load her personality into a Zero-G unit. Do you think you can replicate her physical appearance?" Flörg enjoyed aesthetic perfection and she saw a little of it in Poppy.
