premise

As humans sought to spread throughout the universe, the arduous process of terraforming needed to be addressed. The compromise humans reached was that exploratory scout ships would be sent first, then larger ships consisting of miniature cities, housing enough citizens to keep a genetically diverse population until the terraforming operation was complete.

Each of these ships was equipped with a navigation and general AI for management of the ship and a terraforming AI to handle processes after touchdown upon the planet.

One such ship, The Hierophant, was headed to a mid-sized planet code-named SR-091. Three-quarters of the way through the journey, Earth lost contact with The Hierophant. It became unclear if the general AI had been damaged in some way or if it simply wasn't responding to transmissions. The ship still made touchdown on the planet but the exact situation was unknown.

And it remained unknown.

No scouting vessels sent out to confirm the fate of The Hierophant ever returned. Photographs from before scout touchdown showed an increasing number of abandoned ships on the still, lifeless planet. Enough time had elapsed that engineers began to lose hope of any humans remaining from the operation. Confirming the activation or deactivation of an AI was a low priority.

But, he's still there.

general world information | about lambda | the truth