#2 - Chapter 2 Origin of the Space Station

After waiting for half an hour, the percentage finally reached 100%.

"Core program loading complete, deploying…"

The prompt changed, and the percentage above became: 27%.

Another 20 minutes passed, and the percentage reached 100%.

"Core program deployment complete, about to start…"

The screen flashed, went black, and then lit up again.

After waiting for about 5 seconds, a complete virtual girl appeared on the screen, wearing a professional secretary outfit with lace stockings and a miniskirt.

"Greetings, Commander! I am your personal AI assistant, Xiaolin. I am very happy to serve you."

"Xiaolin, can you tell me what exactly is going on?" Dongfang Chen asked.

"Commander, you can ask me anything you want to know at any time," Xiaolin replied.

"First, tell me, where did you come from?" Dongfang Chen asked.

"I am an advanced artificial intelligence jointly developed by 153,276 scientists," Xiaolin replied.

Xiaolin didn't understand Dongfang Chen's meaning, so he changed the question:

"Then who sent these devices?"

"The space station's main program randomly selected 100 candidate samples with the necessary information from databases around the world, and sent the same package to each candidate sample via the ground internet," Xiaolin replied.

"So that's how it is," Dongfang Chen understood.

The virtual face had said something similar earlier.

"Yes, Commander," Xiaolin affirmed.

"What are you trying to do by randomly selecting 100 people?" Dongfang Chen continued to ask.

"To find a suitable commander for the space station," Xiaolin explained.

"Space station? Is it the kind of space station I understand, floating in orbit around the Blue Planet?" Dongfang Chen didn't know how to phrase it better, worried that the artificial intelligence wouldn't accurately understand his question.

"Yes, Commander," Xiaolin affirmed.

"Then, since you can be launched into space, why is there no commander? Why do you need to find one this way?" Dongfang Chen continued to ask, there were too many unreasonable things.

"Commander, the creators of the space station no longer exist, so there is no administrator," Xiaolin replied.

"Don't exist? How can they not exist? If they don't exist, how were you launched into space?" Dongfang Chen still didn't understand.

"Yes, they don't exist. The space station was launched by the ancient Nata civilization. The Nata civilization has disappeared from your Blue Planet, so there is no administrator," Xiaolin patiently explained.

"What is the Nata civilization?" Dongfang Chen continued to ask.

"According to the current human classification, the Nata civilization existed in the Triassic period, 230 million years ago. It was a technological civilization earlier than the current human civilization. The space station was developed and launched by 153,276 scientists at that time."

"The Triassic period! 230 million years ago?" Dongfang Chen exclaimed.

He had learned a little about it when he was in school, and some archaeologists speculated that a civilization similar to human civilization might have appeared in the Triassic period, but due to the lack of evidence, it was not recognized by most scientists and scholars.

However, there was indeed a mass extinction event in the Triassic period, which can be proven from the unearthed fossils of ancient organisms.

"Are you saying that you have been floating in space for over 200 million years?" Dongfang Chen asked in shock.

"To be precise, the space station, in a dormant state, has been operating in space for 230 million years. My image and consciousness were just synthesized by the system based on your location, preferences, language, and cultural characteristics after you activated the space station," Xiaolin corrected Dongfang Chen's wording.

It seems that Xiaolin's lace stockings and miniskirt have a reason.

"Male gender, likes females, no problem!"

"Since the space station has been flying in the sky for over 200 million years, why didn't you look for a commander earlier? Why wait until now? And why must you find a commander? Can't you run on your own?" Dongfang Chen continued to ask.

"Commander, it is meaningless for the space station to operate without management, which is also part of the program settings. The core module of the space station stores all the civilization achievements of the Nata civilization. After the civilization disappeared, the main mission of the space station is to continue to monitor the Blue Planet and wait for the opportunity to pass on these achievements. In the long past of 230 million years, either there was no civilization on the Blue Planet, or the civilization level did not have the basic conditions to open the space station."

"But as far as I know, humans landed on the moon decades ago. Why wait until now to find a commander?" Dongfang Chen joked.

"Commander, this is because the space station does not monitor the Blue Planet in real time. To ensure the space station operates longer and avoid accidental damage as much as possible, the space station only started once every 500,000 years in the first 200 million years, and continued to enter a dormant state after completing ground monitoring. It wasn't until 100,000 years ago, after monitoring the birth of intelligent life on the Blue Planet, that the space station adjusted to start once every 10,000 years, and then reduced to once every 1,000 years. With the rise of human civilization and the acceleration of development, the space station adjusted to start once every 100 years. The last time it started, human technology had not yet entered the information age, and did not meet the most basic conditions for starting the space station," Xiaolin continued to explain.