“Bombarding a planet to make an atmosphere is not a crime, it’s called being efficient.”

-Anonymous Poster, 2302, Parallel’s Message Board

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The connection back to Project Tycoon had been still slow, for modern standards that is. The increase in speed was astronomical, from a few minutes to just a handful of seconds. The UI of the program flashed before my eyes alongside the images of space and a very close planet.

“Welcome back to Project Tycoon, Lorem Ipsum.” The high-level Artificial Intelligence of the QEC saluted me.

Thanks, I saluted back as a reflex. Also because I had that idea in my mind that if AI and Vis took over, at least they would remember I had been polite. It was unlikely to happen, but it didn’t cost me anything to be polite. How are the probes fairing?

I had sent two probes to Centrum around four hours ago to have a detailed scan of the planet. Having estimations of possible metal deposits wasn’t enough.

“The probes landed a few minutes ago and have already scanned the planet on a surface level.”

Perfect, I would have smiled if I had lips. Have you found suitable spots for the mother base outpost?

“Affirmative,” A few displays appeared in my vision. “There are three recommended spots following the Tycoon Initiative directives. The first one,” One of the displays expanded, it was mostly white, “is the southern pole of Centrum. It doesn’t receive much sunlight or fast winds, but it has the highest concentration of water on the planet. If you intend to focus on terraforming efforts, this should be your main focus.”

Discarded, I closed the display with my mind. I need to start energy and mining operations as soon as possible. And this planet will need decades before terraforming is even sensible. Pumping a bit of CO2 into the atmosphere with industries may be actually beneficial if I eventually terraform.

“Next one is a spot on the equator.” The image on the display was a canyon-looking formation. Not that I had much detail considering I only had satellite imagery. “This location has the strongest winds of the planet and rich copper and iron deposits.”

Hmm, I like it more than the previous one, but it doesn’t sound too good. I replied. Wind energy can only get me so far unless I get turbines running ASAP. And I will need thousands of them for the miners and foundries. Show me the last one.

“The last spot is in the northern hemisphere of Centrum.” If it weren’t for the canyon of the second spot, I wouldn’t have been able to distinguish the images. “This location is geothermally active, with some common eruptions and shallow magma rivers under the crust. It also has decent metal deposits, none abundant, but more diversified than the previous location. Though it holds no water whatsoever. Not even nearby aquifers.”

Would it be possible to get a geothermal power plant running fast? The problem most tycoons found early on was the lack of energy generation, according to what I had researched. If I had enough energy to sustain any infrastructure, the rest was just a matter of time.

“Affirmative, but the lack of water means common steam turbines will not work.”

If we have no water, what about other liquids? I suggested. No one said steam turbines should only use vaporized H2O, not even gases at all were needed. Have you heard of molten salt reactors?

“Decrypting Tycoon Initiative stored archives, please wait.” The AI responded and she put on hold music on.

That was new.

But that didn’t mean I had to wait long. These computers had to survive space for centuries or millennia, manage the QEF, establish tycoon commerce networks, and plenty more. Decrypting was… more of a binary search than anything.

“Search complete,” the AI announced a few seconds later. “Affirmative, molten salt reactors may be useful on a high-activity geothermal environment lacking water.”

Do you have the blueprints, or do I have to develop them? Whilst outside of my area of expertise, this wouldn’t be my first time making machines or computers from scratch, though working with transistors from scratch was a tedious task. The only positive being that a reactor tended to be more mechanical than anything, and it was just a glorified steam engine. I was building diesel ones as workshop activities when I was 15 already.

“There are molten salt reactors in the database.” And true to the computer’s words, a handful of blueprints flashed in my vision. “It is just a question of choosing the most appropriate one for the environment quirks of Centrum.”

Can I leave that decision to you?

“Affirmative.”

Alright, I chose the third spot for the outpost. Send whatever resources are needed to establish it.

“Question,” the AI interrupted me.

Go on. If any type of intelligence tried to interrupt a human, it was because they had something worthwhile to say.

“You have current absolute control of the Tolaya system and all the resources that had been assigned to it.”

Meaning that I should have resources for two more outpost missions, right?

“Affirmative,” the ship’s inventory appeared in the user interface. “I recommend using one of the outposts reserved for Proxima or Extremus, regardless of their adaptive status, to expedite the process.”

Hmm, the Extremus ship must be adapted to gas giants and moons. I prefer to use Proxima’s one in that case. If the problem was just an acidic atmosphere, then it should basically be identical to Centrum’s outpost.

“Affirmative,” the outpost ships’ capabilities unfurled in my sight. “Centrum and Proxima’s outpost capabilities are mostly similar.”

Okay, I authorize the mission. Launch Proxima and Centrum’s outpost ships on the third potential spot of Centrum. Our priority will be to start mining missions and get the geothermal molten salt reactor running as soon as possible.

“Understood,” Even if there was no sound in space, I could feel the QEC’s mothership rattle as both tycoon ships were thrown down at the massive planet. That raised a question.

Aren’t we a bit close to Centrum?

“The Lagrange point of Centrum is close to the planet as Tolaya’s status as a red dwarf means the habitable zone of the star is closer than others like Sol, therefore affecting the pulling gravities of both bodies.”

Got that. I guess the fact that Centrum doesn’t have a moon also influences that.

Space had a lot of variables, some were trivial, and some were not. And sometimes, it was hard to ascertain which were which.

“Are you going to disconnect now, Lorem?” The AI questioned.

No, why should I?

“The missions are still going to take an hour before they land.” A projected route of the ships flashed in the UI. It was more an artistic interpretation than a real map, probably because it was easier to understand that way.

Only one hour? Damn, we are closer than I thought. But no, I should be sleeping right now, so I will be using this downtime to investigate a bit about tycoons whilst the ships land.

“While it is possible to substitute sleep with virtual simulations, it is not recommended by the Paragon of both Health and Mental Health.” The computer informed. “Having your body constantly active can have repercussions even if it is on a shallow sleep. And the lack of rest of a perpetually stimulated mind can be greater, developing some kind of ADHD being the minor of the afflictions.”

I appreciate the advice, but I’m not going to always do this. Just once or twice. Per week. I left that unsaid. Open me a connection to the QEF whilst I wait for the ships to arrive.

“Understood, connection open.”

I had already gotten a glimpse of instinctive and cognitive web searching through my biological evolution interface but being disembodied completely made it more… instinctual. At this point, there was no difference between me and a program. I commanded a window to open and it opened, simple as that. There was no feedback whatsoever because I myself was the feedback.

There weren’t many guides out there about tycoon – free ones, at least – as people tended to be secretive. The tycoon was many things to many people. A game, an enterprise, a battlefront, a mission. From those who wanted to play a high-stakes game to those who desired for humanity to expand through the stars. Current FTL travel limited us to the Milky Way, but if the wormhole technology continues to develop, perhaps in the future we will be able to not only colonize Andromeda, but the whole universe.

A future we all would live to see.

I still hadn’t grown used to the idea of immortality. I hadn’t been immortal for a day yet, but even if I had been taught since birth that death was an impossibility, it felt weird.

Forever and ever.

I focused on the guides. Water opened a lot of pathways for development. Not only trade and industry but also research. I considered myself more of an engineer than a scientist, but I liked to discover things, and I had eternity in front of me to learn new fields like bioengineering. Human and animal experimentation was forbidden, but the law allowed experimentation with living beings that you created from zero. All within the confines of your tycoon, that is.

If people found intelligent live experimentation on Sol, the capitol would burn again this century.

From UHN-issued guides, I could see that natural gases could form without the presence of organic matter on planets, though it was likely that bacterial life was present in Centrum. I would not have access to petroleum, but yes to things like methane and coal. I preferred to avoid them, even though if I wanted to change the chemical composition of the atmosphere, I would need to push a bit of CO2 upwards.

The best current plan of action was making a geothermal plant, alongside some wind turbine fields for starters. More of a redundancy than an actual necessity. Next, once I was established, I would look for radioactive elements like thorium or plutonium for a fission power plant. Nuclear plants were one of the most efficient and clean forms of energy generation, but that didn’t mean there weren’t better options.

Nuclear fusion is still far away, huh? I mumbled as I looked at the Project Tycoon official guides.

“A lot of technology and materials are needed to develop a stable fusion plant.” The AI explained. “And unlike most power plants, it needs a kickstart based in around a few hundred megawatts.”

Yeah, first I need to get rolling a fission one before starting with fusion energy generation. It was a shame because a fusion plant would allow me to generate heavier elements like the ones in the isle of stability, meaning access to new technologies and uncharted territory.

I continued searching for a while, mostly marking some mental guidelines that I should follow with the Centrum outpost. Most recommend letting the AI do its work as it is difficult to micromanage a whole planet.

I had five.

I decided not to worry about that at the beginning as I would only have an outpost. And talking about the outpost. How long for landing?

“Perfect timing,” A new video feed opened in my vision, it wasn’t from space. “Colonizer 1 and Colonizer 2 have landed in Centrum in this instant.”

I cracked my imaginary knuckles. Alright, time to tycoon this planet.