It's so fun reading things from a starships perspective, especially one with such a defiantly cute puppet ;) And aaaaawwwww she needs to install a hug = pleasure subroutine or something!

It might be interesting to put together a timeline or general information sheet for this universe? The mention of precursors made me wonder...and Aonia skipping the briefing made me smile ;)

Its really fun to write too! Also a rather strange challenge. I still haven't entirely decided in what ways to refer to things like her avatar which are more an extension of her than actually her. Also yes, she's definitely missing out with this whole hugging thing, haha.

It is true the lore for this universe keeps expanding. A good thing for me to do would be to make use of my World Anvil subscription and write out the existent lore for this universe. Also yes, protagonist skipping the briefing is a great trope for some fun exposition, hehe

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/solari.....travel-article

Knock yourself out. Being the first time I've actually tried to flesh the history out instead of keeping a rough outline in my head... I'm going to need to change a lot of dates. Its just really not 4000 years of history, haha. Events need to be much closer for the intimacy I want the characters to have with the universe's history

Excellent, thanks, I'll have a read! And the avatar thing is interesting, does she control it directly or does it have any autonomy, because if the former I guess it would just serve the same function as a humans hands, albeit in an independently mobile fashion, if the latter...well that opens up a whole series of questions.

Well... if you're trying to read it right now, its probably broken. I've been actively remodeling it, hah. Here's a fresh link. I promise I won't break it again.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-so.....travel-article

She controls it directly. It can run simple programs while Aonia is away from it. It can be told to move somewhere or left to idle in a way that looks alive. It cannot respond to audio by itself at all.

Thanks, I've downloaded it to read offline! And ah OK, that makes sense, if it gets destroyed can she make another one by herself or have to get it supplied?

She's got spares! The second strategy would be to cobble one together out of spare, parts. Many of the parts could be fabricated in one of her many bot maintenance bays. Otherwise she needs to get new ones supplied.

Ah OK, makes sense, thanks!

I think she has a good point... as a warship, should she only feel joy in the destruction of the enemy? Of course, that has a complication too, as surrender would probably not be accepted over total destruction.

I like this story - it has legs and could flow into most anything (kind of like life).

Vix

Yeah, that does seem like an oversight that may perpetuate a cycle of conflict. This story is definitely intended to make a case that perhaps being nothing but a tool for war isn't all that great. Though it will likely be expressed in a different way than the total destruction of a surrendering enemy. After all the Solaris Federation does respect proper rules of engagement. There just might be some disconcerting, aw mans, when the enemy surrenders, haha

You know, I wonder if this, has legs quality, is because it somehow turned into a slice of life, but the protagonist is a spaceship. Also thanks, glad to hear it <3

It has legs because it’s a good story.

Vix

Poor Aonia doesn't like hugs D: The rough life of being a warship!

Random thought...does Aonia and the other AI's have a private inner life or can their thoughts be recorded and analysed? Or even read in real-time?

*I originally wrote Folvo here, freudian...

[folvodusque. robotic vixen companion. transcribed rtf 09-09-2025-17:00.zkx]

The fox pondered the question before noticing that her mind was being read.

[error: rtf transcription interrupted]

[end of transcript]

That was just a demonstration and definitely not because I'm actually a robot. But yes, the thoughts of AIs can be read in a way, specifically in the form of their memories which is not their mind's actual state, but it does contain enough. The theme of the story is that what you are reading are Aonia's memories after they've been transcribed into a human-readable story by her. So yeah, real time AI mind reading, or digging through memories. You'd probably be hard pressed to handle the raw data a thinking starship AI of her scale outputs at full power, but like all problems, you can just throw a bigger AI at it or a really big team of humans, if you really wanted to

"That was just a demonstration and definitely not because I'm actually a robot." - ChatGPT, is that you? ;)

Seriously, interesting, so their thoughts can't really be read in real-time at least not without difficulty? I was wondering if they were capable of having secret and private thoughts, it would be a bit concerning if someone could read your mind. Which is why telepathy is probably the most useful superpower, though shape-shifting the most fun!

WHAT!? I am a far more refined neural net than that poor excu- er ahem, I don't know that you're talking about... *beep*

Anyways yeah, it requires great difficulty and a lot of physical cabling to even get a real-time read of the stuff an AI commits to memory. You can still go through their memory banks, but those can be deleted by the AI if they really don't want them gone through. Where their thinking happens, is in their mind-core, and that is a black box. They could keep thoughts and memories private in their mind-core, if they wanted... Except a mind-core could be shutdown, removed and scanned. That's how they're copied to make new ships. You'd need the most powerful AI in the federation--Mind Weaver* to actually pull any information out of it though.

It should be noted that a lot of this stuff are things that can be done, but whether or not you can do it legally varies a bit. Still, privacy as a ship AI leaves a lot to be desired. I want the Solaris Federation to be an overall good force, but I also want them to have a little room to grow as far as rights for artificial intelligence is concerned. Like legally, you can't just yank a ship's mind-core for scanning without bending or even breaking several laws, but maybe they're a little too willing to let people go digging around in an AIs systems without consent.

*Story about the mother of starships TBA

I believe you, many people wouldn't but I do ;)

You have a nuanced approach to this stuff and I look forward to reading that story you mentioned! Sorry for the slow reply btw, real life stuff taking up a lot of time.