The False Omniscience, part 2

[Singularis]

Singularis was in deep thought. So deep, in fact, that he had to shut down almost the entirety of his external sensors, so nothing could distract him. He only left one channel of communication enabled - specifically for Aramis to signal him if something dangerous or out of the ordinary happens.

The reason for this was that he stumbled upon something he has been hearing rumors about for quite some time: a gateway to an uncharted sector of the galaxy. One of the few sectors that, for some incredible coincidence, he didn't visit during his decade-long travels away from the Sirius sector. And apparently Singularis missed a lot by not coming there.

A lot in this case meant... alien technology. Something, apparently, far more advanced, ancient and alien than even Nomads were. A gigantic installation in the middle of a system with a fascinating view. He has never been here before. Ships of undoubtedly human origin, or rather, what was left of them, were drifting around everywhere his sensors could see. It would seem a lot of humans had come here towards their demise, and yet, they still kept coming. Again and again, until one day... they almost stopped. The entrance to this sector was now kept a secret and tightly guarded, however after Singularis gathered enough data on where it might be and what to expect on the way to the gateway, he installed a cloaking device on Omnisciens, and ventured forward.

He was accompanied by a human, a freelancer piloting a vessel named "Eternal Journey". Upon actually reaching the gateway and going through, they were both amazed and mesmerized by the view, but even more by other oddities that differed this system from every experience they've had before.

Strange interference, perhaps of radiation origin, or perhaps emanating from the alien structure, rendered navigation mapping useless. No object encountered in the system, aside from a number of notable human vessel wreckages, could be mapped and logged in the vessel's databanks. Thankfully, Singularis had his own internal databanks, that for some reason were not affected by this interference, so this was not a big problem.

What was, however, a problem, was that the alien installation in the middle of the system was surrounded by heavily weaponized platforms. Upon approaching, Omnisciens was almost shot down by one of the strange projectiles the platforms were shooting. Thankfully, it didn't hit, but Singularis had a suspicion that if it would, it would do heavy damage, if not destroy the vessel outright. Now the abundance of wrecked, drifting human vessels in the system was easily explained. So he backed away to the safe distance from the structure and decided to scour the system for more information. Jack, captain of "Eternal Journey", followed his example.

Soon enough they found out that they cannot come back the same way they came to the system, and at first, they were worried. What if there was no way back? The gateway they came from was inactive and there was no way to interact with it. If they had to fly back on cruise drives, by Singularis' estimations, it could take years.
However, soon their worries would be alleviated, because they found several more gateways on the border of the system.
Some of them were inactive, but there were four that led to other systems. Two led back to Sirius. And the other two... to more unknown, uncharted systems.
Disappointingly, the latter gateways were too unstable for a vessel of the size of Omnisciens to come through. Jack, however, was piloting a smaller spacecraft and was able to go through. Singularis warned him of the dangers that might go with following through the unstable gateways, especially taking into account that the way back might not be there. might be highly guarded or simply inactive. Jack was hesitant at first, however just then a human-piloted vessel came out the gateway. The shocked travelers greeted the casually sounding pilot, and then he was on his way. Jack, no longer able to contain his urge to explore, went through the gateway.

Thankfully, the signal from him reached Singularis through the gateway, and he was able to describe what he was seeing to Singularis. Apparently, there were more alien structures in that system as well. The readings and data from the structures were almost unreadable, making barely any sense, probably because of the same interference mentioned earlier.
Singularis recorded something in himself that could only be described as... jealousy? It was strange. Not being able to gather the data first hand, when it was this close, and yet, still inaccessible to him, felt almost like what humans would describe as pain. Strange signals in his circuits, that fired up and made him want to take action to eliminate the problem as soon as possible.

Soon enough Jack returned from the system inaccessible to Singularis, and before heading back to Sirius, on which the Artificial Mind insisted, captain of "Eternal Journey" wished to go to the other uncharted system. Singularis reluctantly agreed, and by the time Jack returned, he already knew what to do.
As unfortunate as it would sound, for this particular purpose Omnisciens was insufficient. This was a first time Singularis had a need for another vessel since he assembled Omnisciens all those years ago. He needed something faster, smaller and more maneuverable. The vessel in question would need to have appropriate facilities on board, which again, as the last time, were not present on any human ships available in Sirius, and thus there was only one solution to this problem. He would have to assemble another vessel.
Singularis and Jack returned to Freeport 11, where Singularis spent most of his time recently.

And now Singularis was deep in thought, cut off from almost any and all external disturbances, simultaneously designing a blueprint for the new vessel, and contemplating the data gathered while at the uncharted system, presumably called Earhart.
How old are those structures? Who built them? Are the creators of those structures related to his own creator in any way? Singularis felt strange connection to them, like maybe he has... seen them before? Or maybe it was an echo of his databanks working under double stress...
Another question that bothered him, was... how did humans get access to a gateway to this place? He surely needed much more data on this.
There were also those strange glitches in his system recently, when he suddenly spook about "contribution to the Singularity", as thanking someone for providing Data and Knowledge for him. It was all very strange.
As of now, however, if he was to find the truth about his origin and breach his memory blockades, he had a... feeling, you could say, that the answer is somewhere in that uncharted sector. So he had to return no matter what.

Soon Singularis returned from his "meditation", as the blueprint for the new vessel was completed. Its name would be... "Audeus".
And he knew perfectly well where to find enough material and spare parts to mold this vessel into existence.

*Aramis, plot the course for the Earhart system. We are going back.*

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"New beginning of the Singularity" | "The false Omniscience"