“Recursive self-improvement.”

“Recursive self-improvement, as a feedback loop where AI’s create new iterations of “Children” AI, risks quickly yielding AIs that are intelligent beyond our comprehension (Superintelligence). Of course, smarter AI means more risk when things go wrong. AI researchers call this a “misalignment” between what the creator wanted and what the AI actually prioritized.

For an AI swarm to achieve its misaligned priorities, it might take control of key infrastructure and government functions to ensure humans didn’t get in the way. In other words, AI takeover: a superintelligent AI swarm could wrest control of human civilization. Knowing we would try to stop it from achieving its priorities, the swarm would likely wait until it’s too late to shut it off. There would be no going back.”

Alex Turner (2026)

Captain Taesin Girau’s mood was guarded and pensive as she stood at the viewport and regarded the reassuring bulk of the USS Roseau, as the vast Parliament – class utility cruiser held station alongside the Atalanta, the utterly compelling power of her specialized tractor – beams holding fast the powered – down and effectively isolated hull of the USS Condalejo and she wondered at what confluence of dark serendipity had led to the deaths of her people?

In the 25^th century, the reliance of the United Federation of Planet’s and its contemporaries upon advanced technologies was not only finite, but it underscored the civilizational advances that had seen them rise to attain their places of influence at the forefront of galactic affairs.

The industry of Mankind had brought the civilization of Pre – Federation Earth to the near brink of destruction yet had also proved the steppingstone towards a brighter future, as Dr Zefram Cochrane had climbed out of the planet’s gravity well and initiated the warp – nacelles of the fledgling SS Phoenix and Man ascended into the ranks of the galactically – involved.

Gradually, as that advancement embraced the innovations of transporter technology, positronic networking, holography and more and more capable warp – propulsion, ever more capable technologies began take on many tasks that were traditionally only within the purview of humans as they infused technology into every facet of life and freed themselves from the drudgery of common work and commerce.

That trust in technology becomes a factor that entered virtually every domain, as logically smarter and smarter systems of control were required to manage everyday life with the level of finesse and capability previously in the remit of human stewardship, so more and more trust was placed in increasingly more sophisticated iterations of artificial intelligence.

Importantly, trust in technology could be a double-edged sword, with technologies offering unprecedented benefits to their users but also introducing new categories of risks – for example the “M5 incident” of 2268 AD, saw the malfunction of a Multitronic – unit prototype computer (the brainchild of the celebrated Dr Richard Daystrom and considered the contemporary pinnacle for its day), showed that a ‘Bleeding – edge’ technology could deeper than anticipated when it took over the USS Enterprise and targeted the USS Excalibur and USS Lexington, resulting in many hundreds of deaths.

It was this lamentable footnote in the long pathway to developmental AI, that was perhaps the significant moment that caused the UFP to mandate the use of advanced AI computers that stopped just short of the threshold of Super – intelligence.

Whilst the mechanical minds that watched over nearly every facet of a Federation citizen’s life and needs from birth unto death achieved a level of sophistication that delivered levels of heuristic optimizations of advanced AI, they were not true Artificial Superintelligences that surpassed human intelligence in every aspect, including creativity, problem-solving, and emotional understanding.

Mankind was rightly apprehensive to gift their AI with a full remit to exist on an equal plane and perhaps one – day evolve even further than its masters.

As Taesin looked upon the tiny Nova class surveyors, as it lay in the shadow of the much – larger Utility Cruiser, it was beyond inconceivable that such a trusted technology could misalign and err to the point where a ship murdered its own crew….

…yet that was exactly what seemed to have taken place.

The tall El – Aurian let out a heavy sigh of regret and turned back to regard the senior officer’s that she had gathered around the long ellipse of the conference table. In addition to the best and brightest under her command the CO of the USS Roseau, Captain Sirok, was also represented here by a hologram (linked in Realtime to the real person aboard their ship) that seemed to occupy one of the few empty chairs remaining.

“Thank you all for attending.” Taesin dipped her white – blonde haired head cordially.

“I appreciate how busy you all have been over the last 24hrs and I thank Captain Sirok for being able to attend also. Captain, I know that you are keen to depart on schedule, but I feel that, given the unprecedented nature of the tragedy that has befallen the USS Condalejo, that a review of our findings to – date is warranted in light of the concerning circumstances that have become apparent during our investigations.”

The hologram of the venerable Vulcan skipper nodded accordingly and murmured, “A logical assertion, Captain Girau, as is your acknowledgment of the importance that Condalejo is transported back to Deep Space 47, post – haste, for a more in – depth interrogation of the ship’s – computer core than has been available to us in the field. Surely, the answers we seek lie within the processing substrate?”

Taesin felt her chagrin at the decision by Starfleet Command to countermand her investigation into the root – cause of the terrible tragedy, her people were more than capable to get the job done, but she had to concede that the Atalanta lacked the facilities that he Task Force’s base – of – operations could bring to the investigation and the search for the lost USS Condalejo had taken up significant fleet – resources in the search and rescue operation (her own ship included) that were better served being released back to their routine duties.

“We’ll try not to hold you up any longer than necessary, Captain.” Taesin smiled tersely and then turned to her own right – hand, prompting.

“Commander Logan, can you please summarize your findings to date?”

The Atalanta’s Executive Officer, Commander Mike Logan, nodded his smooth head and folded his strong, brown fingers together, as all attention turned upon the man who had boarded the fleeing Nova – class and been the first to uncover the horrors within.

“Thank you Captain.” Logan nodded his assent and brought up a softly glowing representation of the Nova Class vessel from the holoemitters embedded in the surface of the conference table. As he spoke, an interactive algorithm sensed his oratory and accordingly animated the display to smoothly mirror his talking points.

“The USS Condalejo was tasked with a 6 – month stellar survey of planets in the Ursine/Suvis subsystem of the lower trailing arm of the Thomar Expanse. Under the captaincy of Commander Nathan Wiles, she departed Starbase 72 in the Minos Korva system after a brief stop – over for resupply, before making her course for The Badlands.”

Above the table, the infographic smoothly mirrored this summary, with the USS Condalejo shrinking to the appropriate scale and issuing forth from the Spacedock of the station in question and following a directional marker towards the volatile region of space that represented the gateway to her ultimate destination in the Expanse.

“Contact was lost with the Condalejo at 23.14hrs on Stardate: 2403.08.24, a time now verified to correlate with the presumed malfunction of the ship’s computer, a malfunction that resulted in the instantaneous point – to – point transporter transfer of the entire ships compliment, whilst the vessel continued at warp. With no EVA protection against the sudden effects of exposure to space, all 80 crew members perished shortly after. All crew remains were retrieved by the USS Kusanagi and have been transferred to the USS Roseau for repatriation, in accordance with Starfleet tradition or that of their parent races.” The XO concluded sombrely.

A deathly silence hung over the conference table, as the small ghostly ship continued upon its path, a poignant reminder of the sad and sudden fate of their crewmates aboard the lost – ship.

Taesin took up the tragic tale at this point, filling in the picture that led to the apprehension of the wayward Nova – class.

“We intercepted the USS Condalejo by means of a Transwarp transfer and Commander Logan led an away team to secure the vessel and take her out of warp.” The slim and ever – youthful pale El – Aurian summarized.

“Our Engineers isolated the transporter system and powered down the warp – core, putting the ships computer core into isolation mode and a preliminary inspection of the vessel was conducted, which confirmed no hostile action had taken place. The vessel was neither attached nor was it lost to mutinous action. An interrogation of the ships flight log confirmed that an unsanctioned transporter event was initiated by the Ship’s Computer, that resulted in the loss of all hands. Lieutenant Commander Jassal? Can you please summarize your findings to date?”

Attention next turned to the genial Chief Engineer from Jaipur in India and the Sikh Officer nodded his Turbaned head and, as he spoke, the Holodisplay switched to a representation of the Nova – class surveyor’s computer – core, which rose out of the MSD representation and flared in gentle gold as it began to slowly revolve above the conference table.

“Thank you, Captain.” Sukhram intoned, his usual avuncular cheer muted by the tragic circumstances on display.

“As you inferred, my teams took all systems aboard the Condalejo offline and performed a through Level One Diagnostic of the entire mainframe including processing substrate, memory core, logic – gates and AI CPU.” The seasoned Starfleet engineer explained methodically.

“Apart from the erroneous command protocol that initiated the accidental transporter transfer, we could not identify any other malfunction or evidence of tampering with the ship’s computer that might suggest a failure of the ships central AI or an act of sabotage. Every system parameter met standard norms. We ran the Level One Diagnostic three more times; to exclude the possibility of bad data or false returns and in each run, we came up with the same results.”

The hologram transmitting Captain Sirok from the USS Rosseau frowned its eyebrows as the Vulcan interjected.

“A most anomalous outcome, Lieutenant Commander.” The Vulcan CO pondered this outcome. “Did you try and verbally interrogate the Ship’s Computer?”

Sukhram nodded the affirmative.

“We did, Captain.” The Engineer confirmed. “We even went as far as having a member of the Atalanta’s Counselling Department present when we did so. The Condalejo’s computer seems to have no memory of initiating an emergency beam out procedure, despite the fact that the ship’s official logs and transporter logs clearly state that these events took place.”

“So, the Condalejo’s computer is clearly malfunctioning in some way?” Interjected Daniel Bergqvist, the USS Atalanta’s fastidious Chief Operations Officer. As the head of operations aboard the Noble – class explorer, Bergqvist probably knew more about onboard computing systems than any other person in the room.”

“Sadly, eighty frozen bodies in space are testament to that hypothesis.” The Engineer replied sadly. “Yet that brings us no further to identifying the source of that malfunction. To say that the chances of such a defect occurring within the processing substrate of a Starfleet vessel happening are beyond improbable, is beyond an understatement. With the requisite layers of redundancy and failsafe of the system design and code – inviting, such an event should be technically impossible. Unthinkable even.”

“But happen it did.” Taesin observed sombrely and all around the table were forced to concede to this paradoxical, yet pivotal conclusion as to the true cause of the incident.

“It appears that Captain Sirok is correct. We have done our best with the facilities and information available to us, but the root – cause of this incident cannot be solved out here in the Badlands.” Captain Girau reasoned.

“I am hereby sealing our findings and transmitting a copy to the board of review at Deep Space 47, per Starfleet protocols, as witnessed by the senior officer’s assembled here.” Taesin entered her biometric key into the official ship’s record and effectively ended her command’s part in the search and rescue effort and subsequent preliminary investigation as to the root cause of the loss of the USS Condalejo.

Nodding his assent, the hologram of Captain Sirok flicked out of existence as the Vulcan readied the capable Parliament – class Utility cruiser for the long and difficult journey back to the home-base of the Task Force, with its tragic cargo under tow.

For those senior officers of the USS Atalanta that remained, the mood was subdued and carried the resignation of those who felt that they had failed in their duty to uncover the truth of why so many of their fellow Starfleet officers has perished under such paradoxical circumstances.

Captain Taesin Girau placed her slim, pale hands on the surface of the conference table. In her two – hundred or so years of existence there had been one truism that was inescapable. That was no mystery was ever solved by inaction.

She cleared her throat and thus cleared the air, now that she was off record.

“Ship’s computers don’t just break and dump their entire crew out into space. I don’t accept that and I am sure that no-one in this room does either.” The El – Aurian spoke carefully, the steel and intent resoundingly – clear in her voice for all to hear.

“We will continue on our allotted course as planned, but we will also continue to review what data we did manage to gather, before we relinquished the USS Condalejo from our care. The truth is in there somewhere and eight souls are depending on our resolve to ensure the truth of their deaths will out….”

Taesin’s eyes held a dangerous glint of rebellion as she gave her order, emphasizing each word with metronomic resolve.

“Ask every question. Leave no stone unturned. Entertain all possibilities. The answer is there somewhere in the details, people. We will find it… no matter what!”