“323.626.025. That’s the number of stars in our galaxy. Considering the current growth of our population, the presence of multiple-star stellar systems, the median number of planets per system, and the distribution of Influentials and Paragons, we may see the full colonization of the Milky Way in the coming three centuries.”

-Cecil Augustus, 2280, On the Colonization of the Galaxy

I fiddle through my interface as I lay on the bed. It was weird not having to use my fingers to interact with it. I opened my notifications and scrolled back to the first Tycoon Initiative I’d gotten and downloaded the files linked to the file.

Even though it was a government-issued mail, my paranoia wouldn’t let me sleep if I didn’t scan the link and then only download the file in a virtualized environment. Getting a virtual machine working was difficult for beginners and technophobes, but with a few clicks, I got mine running even when this interface was wiped clean. There was a folder with the previous files, and I had a notification with the instructions to recover them, but I didn’t have anything serious or time-sensitive on my interface, to begin with besides my contacts, which had already been pre-added by whoever configured the new interface.

Overall, after bombarding the app with some petitions and tests, I could confirm there was no malicious software inside. The Tycoon app mandated a UHN identification to log in, a step that no private company could demand, so that was already a good enough confirmation.

I still used the virtualized environment though.

My body relaxed as Project Tycoon opened. The app logo was just a stylized star shine, nothing fancy, and it took its time to actually open, without exploiting it through third-party programs. Opening a terminal to the side, I could see how it was recovering the biometric data of my interface. Even if the program didn’t need to recalculate the biometrics of my body as they were already stored in the interface, the process was far from fast.

Once the app finished calibrating, a huge pop-up obstructing most of my sight appeared before my eyes.

I shifted a bit on the bed and hovered my irises around the accept prompt. My mind and body disconnected the next instant.

Huh. Well, fuck. This is weird. I thought in an endless void. I could already start going insane as none of my senses worked. The girls brought me once to a sensory deprivation chamber, but that saline water couldn’t compare to this. In that darkness, I conserved my smell and touch besides other not-so-recognizable senses like proprioception, temperature, and equilibrium. Here, the was nothing of that.

Complete and utter annihilation of the senses.

All those thoughts occurred in a single second as a screen flashed with light.

First time I have needed to wait to connect to something. Weird, indeed. Is it because of the number of relays I need to hop through or just to establish a secure connection?

I was pretty experienced with the workings of the QEF as it was a close subject to my research. Quantum entanglement communicators and swarm robotics went hand in hand, specifically if they were multiplanetary operations.

I know advanced tycoons launch their own relays that connect back to either other tycoons or main colonies. Considering a QEC relay works in a binary tree growth as two are needed to establish a communication and then having a processing organ, plus duplication that for entanglement reconnection… that’s 2 times a logarithm of base 2, or rather 2log2(N) for growth. That’s a lot of relays.

The connection between two relays using hang around the nanosecond mark, truly imperceptible for humans, even virtualized ones. So it wasn’t a matter of successive connections creating a bandwidth bottleneck.

On one hand, bullshit. Authentication does not take that long. Not even on government sites. But in the other… Ey, my doctorate is finally remitted. I’m officially a doctor! Yahoo!

I waited for a few seconds.

Yeah, nothing changed. They lied to me! Where’s all the vainglory? Scammers, all of them!

I sighed even if it was impossible in this void. The screen before me stopped spasming and I finally gained vision. I could see space before my… not eyes. The definition was too great, and I wasn’t in my body, so the current display had to be some sort of telescope. And it wasn’t any space I recognized. 

A red dwarf lay before me.

A rather standard notification flashed in my locked sight alongside a rather robotic voice that narrated the contents of the box. AI or text-to-speech?

Hello, is there someone there? My petition got no response. I need some help.

“Welcome, doctor Lorem Ipsum. In what I can help you.” The same robotic voice responded.

Gotcha. The keyword is help. I pondered on what I wanted to say for a moment. Who or what are you?

“I am Tolaya’s stellar system central colonization computer.” The robotic voice answered. “My main function is to function as a middleman between the colonizers and their designed system.”

So you are this system’s QEC?

“Affirmative,” It responded. “I offer my capabilities to every member of the system’s party.”

I see… I replied reflexively before noticing that I had no idea what it was talking about. So, tell me. What does exactly a party entail?

“A party is the group of colonizers assigned to a system.” The AI explained. “Any party member may use my capabilities to ask questions about the Tycoon Initiative or their own individual tycoons, besides also scheduling meetings with other colonizers. A colonizer is the owner of a tycoon, normally a human assigned to a single non-stellar celestial body.”

I already knew that part, but thanks for the clarification. A new question sprouted in my mind. Have my other party members connected already or am I the first one in the system? I was aware that they used to bunch up people from the same generation in tycoons, but that was mostly the extent of my knowledge.

“There are no other party members.” The AI responded.

So the latter option, then. I mused.

“Negative,” It denied.

What do you mean by negative? If I could frown, I would have.

“There are no other party members.” It repeated.

What does that mean? Have they not arrived yet? Are they yet to be assigned to this system? Elaborate your answer.

“The only colonizer in this system is you, doctor Lorem Ipsum.” The AI explained. “For your status as an Influential human and your contributions to humanity and directly to the Tycoon Initiative, you have been assigned the whole WAYRT 42677 star and its frontiers for your sole usage.”

I blue-screened, even if I was the only human present.

What do you mean? I was at a total loss of words.

“As per your Influential status, you have been ceded control of the Tolaya system.”

The whole system?

“Affirmative.”

I… I never heard of this before.

“UHN limits information to subhumans about many aspects. The Tycoon Initiative being one of them. My purpose is to facilitate that transition and fill the whole in your knowledge.”

Even if I knew my real body was breathing automatically and was perfectly healthy as this wasn’t my first time putting my consciousness else, I was asphyxiating. I was a mere conscious construct, I had no body whatsoever, yet I felt my thoughts become blurry.

H-how big is this system exactly?

“The Tolaya system is composed of four main celestial bodies.”

Okay, that four bodies. That’s not that much. And one of them is the star, a component that is never given to tycoons and it’s shared by everyone.

“The first one is WAYRT 42677 a, the star, and namesake of the stellar system.” The AI slowly narrated, its lens focusing on the red star. “Whilst the photosphere temperature is higher than the average red dwarf, its luminosity and temperature cannot be compared to Sol.”

I was not unaware of red dwarfs, after all, Proxima Centauri was one.

“The second celestial body is WAYRT 42677 b, the closest to the star, a planet with a thin toxic atmosphere and high in iron and copper composition.”

How toxic? Laymen terms, please.

“Subhuman life is not suitable for WAYRT 42677 b.” The lenses focused on the planet; it had a vaguely green color. “Because WAYRT 42677 b borders the habitable zone of the star, the surface temperature sits around 347 and 402 K. The high temperatures and the toxic atmosphere induced by chemical reaction impede most biological humans from living there without assistance, but synthetic and virtualized humans may perform life as normal.”

I wouldn’t say as normal when the surface temperature reaches 130 °C, but certainly feasible from drones. There were many variables but virtualized humans had a stronghold on Venus, and the temperature was thrice as high there. And that’s without mentioning the sulfuric acid atmosphere. Next body.

“The third celestial body is WAYRT 42677 c, sits right in the middle of the habitable zone of WAYRT 42677 a and has a thick enough atmosphere and Silicon composition to sustain organic life in the future.”

It doesn’t have any life? I knew there were planets with life out there. Most alien planets with vegetation had become zoos and great spots for documentaries and other media, making those tycoons into tourist attractions. But to my knowledge, only vegetable life has been discovered so far. Whether it was the Great Filter, the Dark Forest, or many other theories at hand, sapient organic life had yet to be found, even if a third of the galaxy had been colonized by now.

The lens focused on the second planet of the stellar system, it had a red tint not dissimilar to that of Mars.

“WAYRT 42677 c’s atmosphere Nitrogen composition is too high for complex life at the moment. However, the mild temperatures of 287 K and the presence of nitrate and silicates hint at the possibility of basic, bacterial life somewhere underground. There is no surface water on the planet, only aquifers hidden between the surface.”

So there’s a chance for life? I avoided asking why there was no surface water with that temperature at the moment.

“Affirmative,” The tycoon AI responded. “However, in-site probing is needed to corroborate that claim. Right now, it is only a chance.”

Understood, next body, please.

“The fourth and last celestial body is WAYRT 42677 d, an exoplanet and gas giant. It is the only planet with moons in the Tolaya system. WAYRT 42677 d 1 is an ice moon. WAYRT 42677 d 2 is a barren moon, no notable metallic composition present, though the slow rotation and placement make it the perfect placement for the system’s shipyard.”

Could I get a summary to gather my thoughts?

“Affirmative,” and in the next instant a box with all the information appeared before me.

Alright, I had a lot to cover.

Epsilon_Twilight

This chapter has taken A LOT of time to write as I had to do my research. Even then, there's a still a lot of this that aren't shown yet. Why did I choose hard sci-fi???