“Any culture collapses sooner or later under its own weight. The process is slow but inevitable.”

***Galactic Core***

***Levvi Batlin***

“The eighty-seventh battlegroup has arrived, General Batlin. They are currently holding position and awaiting orders until you assign them a position.”

The emotionless voice of the Assistant turns my attention to the three-dimensional representation of the space which surrounds my flagship. Floating inside the zero-gravity web which is supposed to protect me from the physical forces of acceleration, I regard the new arrivals for a few moments. They are from one of the unified kingdoms, likely a highly nationalistic group. If that’s the case, then I probably should split them up to avoid future problems. The sooner they learn that their old rivalries won’t count outside the core-worlds the better.

“Send orders to the network. The new ships have to fall in line with the rest of the fleet and wait for further commands. Allow the network to assign them random positions in the formation and include them in all the exchange programs. We should stay vigilant during the trip, or some elements of the fleet might get lazy."

The Assistant gives its confirmation and I return my attention to the updated numbers. If everything goes well, then I'll have about five thousand ships of various sizes to deal with the evolving threat in the Outer Regions.

A fleet as large as the one under my command sounds like a lot and I can feel proud to be the one who is in charge. It's certainly an honour to be trusted with so much power, but at the same time it's a death sentence. I have no illusions about the nature of our mission.

The flagship under my command is a twenty kilometre long leviathan. It's powered by a tightly controlled singularity core and can put out enough power to incinerate a whole planet. It's a telling sign of how dire the situation is if the government is willing to unleash this ship and others of its kind.

And it's truly a form of unleashing power, as I am the one who will be in command once the fleet is on its way. The government won't be able to get any commands to the fleet in time, forcing me to make my own decisions based on my orders.

It will take our fleet the better part of a decade to arrive at our destination. Then we still have to find the enemy, which might take generations. Spreading my frills in acceptance, I come to terms with the fact that I'll be an old man by the time I return to the homeworld. In fact, it's very likely that I'll never return.

Another possibility is that I will be too old by the time our mission is over. As an old man, will I even want to make the journey back? Or would it make more sense to settle down on some colony for the rest of my days, instead of spending the time inside a spaceship?

It's a fact that, while this fleet is completely self-sufficient, we will have to establish a base of operations which will result in a colony. Having an industrial base is the quintessence of any modern army. The species under our protection won’t like the competition, but it’s their own fault for failing to follow our policies.

A world with technology from the core-systems might as well be a shining example for what’s possible, even without the utilization of forbidden technologies. It’s clear that the current situation is a simple result of greed and stupidity.

Growling, I wave my hand, causing the representation of the fleet to vanish. “Show me the projection of the threat. Give me a likely scenario and a worst-case scenario.”

The Assistant starts its calculations and I wait while it tries to project multiple scenarios.

In the meantime, I use the opportunity to go through the available reports. One might never know if there is a hidden detail to be found somewhere.

The first time the humans were discovered, loyal G.S. species dispatched a nearby fleet to deal with the problem. It was our fortune that we caught them unaware and managed to contain the tumour before it could spread. Despite their technological restrictions, the vassal species had no problem with subduing the humans.

Unfortunately, the hierarchical structure of the G.S. didn't foresee that certain elements would try to exploit the threat and turn it into a resource. An issue that should’ve been clear from the start, given the psychology of the species in charge.

Everything is connected to the ban on technologies. The core-worlds are trying to restrict everything that would further A.I. development, a practice that's not well-received by the fringe societies with a lower status.

They may be members of the G.S., but like any employee they are trying their best to rise in rank.

I huff when the Assistant displays two scenarios in front of me, updated with the newest information we have on the nature of the situation.

In the first one, a part of the Outer Rim is dyed in red, a scenario we are well prepared to deal with. Five thousand ships with technology from the inner core-worlds are more than enough to roll over any Empire or race that might evolve in the outer regions of the galaxy. As long as the threat is recognized early enough.

We can outproduce and overwhelm them, thanks to our technological advantage.

It's not like it didn't happen before. The G.S. already dispatched several punitive fleets like this one, their purpose to suppress any race which embraces artificial intelligence.

But it’s not the preferred thing to do. Each expedition of such a calibre inevitably ends up in the creation of an outpost, a sub-culture far away from the core-worlds. This may stop one threat in the short-term, in which the short-sighted action is still something that’s centuries in the future.

But space is vast.

The problem lies in the fact that each of those colonies will end up in a growing civilisation whose priorities and ideals may diverge from the G.S. They might end up challenging us in the far-off future. Each colony increases the possibility for such a future.

The second projected scenario is much less to my liking. In it, the whole of the Outer Rim is infected, the infection slowly spreading across the rim of the galaxy, avoiding the colonized worlds of the G.S.

It's what might happen if the opponent decides to play the long game. A scenario that might take generations. Up until now, we never encountered such an enemy, but what I heard about the human research project made me think.

The humans themselves are rash, egoistical, emotional. If challenged, they would surely try to stand up and defend every inch of space they regard as theirs. But there is also another element to their actions. An element which we don't understand just by judging the individuals which the idiots at the frontier held captive. Some of the entities among them are able to play the long game, and that's what bothers me.

It’s like what was taught to me in the history lessons about the A.I. war.

“New calculations finished,” the voice of the Assistant informs me dutifully after it finishes the assessment.

The Assistant isn't a real A.I.

It's just a machine without creativity, ideas, or goals of its own. Many of the extremists would say that the Assistant is already far beyond the line of what we should tolerate, but the sad truth is that any large, space-faring culture like the G.S. needs computers with a certain level of automation.

Unfortunately, automation and logical circuitry of any kind are already the first step towards an artificial intelligence. If a culture isn't careful about its policies, it will end up with a thinking computer sooner or later. It might not happen overnight, maybe not even intentionally, but it will happen at some point.

The intent to make something easier than it naturally is, is enough to show that a species is capable of creating an artificial intelligence.

The problem with the humans wasn't that we didn't recognize their potential and their dangerous mindset. That was pretty obvious as soon as we discovered them. No, the problem is that we thought of them for decades as controlled while certain unruly elements of our own military used them as lab rats.

To be honest, I was never a fan of allowing the newer species at the fringe to govern themselves. At least we should send out some envoys to check on their policies. That wouldn’t have helped in the current case, but there were other incidents which resulted in the dispatch of a punitive fleet.

Scowling, I eye the second scenario with dread. It assumes that the humans now know enough of the G.S. to exploit our weaknesses. Additionally, there is also the assumption that certain third-parties are willing to help them with technology and resources.

Not that they wouldn't be perfectly capably of developing new stuff on their own, but it's indefinitely more helpful if you have a ready blueprint at hand that gives you a rough idea in which direction you should go.

The problem I have is that I find this second scenario to be much more likely than the first. And if the second scenario comes to pass, then my fleet might not be enough to stop the humans in time before the situation spins out of everyone’s control.

It's not like the Assistant's calculations are faulty; they are perfectly fine. But as with any machine, a calculator's result is only as good as the values which the operator puts in. I am afraid that the report – which we got from the director of the human-research project – is painted in a very rosy light.

After all, the whole report is essentially an admission of guilt which would result in a quick execution for any citizen of the core-worlds. I am afraid that the director will be long gone by the time at which I arrive in that region of space. But I didn’t manage to convince the government that the assumptions on which this forecast is based are already faulty.

I sigh and glare at the projection, hoping that I am just seeing shadows.