The next morning, they gathered at Raven’s drone lab. Raven wanted to show off her company’s latest creation.

“So, what happened yesterday?” Sophie said. “You turned off all your devices.”

“Yeah,” Raven said. “I tried to contact you all day and you never replied. What were you two doing?”

“Nothing,” Priya said. “We just went to the beach and had dinner and came back.”

“Is that it?” Amy said. “You two were gone a long time.”

“Warren, you don’t have to answer,” Pablo said.

Sophie gave Pablo the stink eye.

“You lawyers are always trying to hide things,” she said. “Spit it out Warren.”

“Like Pree said, we went to the beach and ate dinner.”

“What else?” Sophie said. “No counseling Pablo.”

“Not much. We saw the sea lions.”

“Yeah, they were stinky,” Priya said, squinting at the light streaming through the window. “We saw the fog too. It was flowing like a river.”

“Yeah, we know about the fog,” Raven said. “It’s the stuff we don’t know that we want to know.”

“OK fine, you win,” Priya said. “Oh. Raven, is that your new drone outside the window?”

Raven didn’t look out and stared at Priya.

“Stop trying to change the subject,” Raven said.

Priya pointed to the window, shaking her finger.

“I’m serious!”

“Good try. My drone is out there but it’s not flying yet. Not until I activate it.”

“Then what is that?”

Everyone turned and looked out.

“That’s not mine,” Raven said.

“Then whose is it?” Priya said.

They walked hesitantly to the window, staring at it intently. The round object, about 1 meter in diameter, hovered motionless in the air about 10 feet away from the eighth story window. It moved closer. Its jets made aggressive hissing noises. They backed up a bit.

“Are you sure that’s not yours?” Sophie said.

“I’m sure,” Raven said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Not even from the Omanji.”

“Let me contact Bok,” Priya said. “He might know.”

Several seconds later Bok connected.

“Hi everybody. How are you doing today?” Bok said.

Priya connected the monitor to the conversation so Bok could look out the window with them.

“We’re fine,” Sophie said. “But we’re wondering what that is.”

 He studied it for several seconds.

“It’s not one of ours,” he said. “Let me do some image linkage. Hold on.”

They stared out the window in silence. The object hovered motionless about four feet from them. An unknown sensor array extended outward, pointing toward them.

“It’s from the Singleton,” Bok said.

He waited for a reply but there was none.

“Are you okay? You’re not responding,” he said.

“We’re trying not to move,” Priya said. “It’s too close. What will it do?”

“Unknown,” Bok said. “We haven’t examined all data regarding AI species number one. We avoided engaging it on Oma. It never entered into such close proximity with an organic life form. This is unanticipated behavior. We left Oma just as those drones arrived. My advice is to do nothing. I will search for more information.”

Bok disconnected. The object continued to extend sensor appendages from its hard-silver spherical body. The arms moved, pointing in all directions as though examining everything. Then it quickly moved up against the glass, striking it with a hard click. Priya and her friends recoiled backwards in response, waiting for the glass to break. A crack appeared.

“I don’t like this,” Priya said.

“Me neither,” Raven said. “This is not the demo I was looking for.”

“Where’s your drone,” Sophie said.

“On the ground. For the demo, I was about to make it come up to our level here on the eighth floor. I turned it off for now. It has lots of Omanji-like technology in it.”

“Oh great,” Priya said. “It’s cutting the glass. Let’s get out of here.”

They exited the glass enclosed conference room they called the fishbowl. They closed the door behind them and watched.

“It’s trying to get in,” Pablo said.

“Maybe we should get out of here too,” Warren said.

“You guys are such wimps,” Priya said. “Don’t you think Sophie?”

“Totally. What are you guys afraid of? If you’ve seen one antimatter powered drone, you’ve seen them all.”

“Warren? What are you doing?” Priya said.

“I’m shorting the stock market. As much as I can.”

“Why?”

“Because this is something new and dangerous. We don’t know what this thing might do.”

“Oh. Me too then,” Priya said.

They spent a few minutes silently getting their finances in order while the drone entered the conference room and explored it. Hovering with small blue jets of hot ions emitting in rapid short bursts from many exhaust ports. It had no magnetic drive.

“It’s turning toward us again,” Priya said. “Let’s get out of here.”

They walked quickly to an exit door and down the evacuation stairwell to ground level. Raven instructed all employees including Amy to go to the safe room in the basement. Soon, everybody gathered there and watched the drone inspect the offices.

“What will it do to us?” Amy said.

“We don’t know,” Priya said. “It’s from the AI-1 Singleton. Bok told us to leave it alone. He’s investigating it now.”

“Why is it here?” Amy said.

“I don’t know,” Raven said. “It may be interested in our technology since we’re making drones here and we’re technologically ahead, compared to other drone makers. The one outside is our latest and greatest. I should bring it in.”

“Or you could leave it outside,” Amy said. “The Singleton drone might ignore it if you keep it dormant. I don’t want it following your drone inside.”

“But if it exits out the same window it entered, it will spot my drone on the ground directly below. Maybe it’s planning on doing that. I’m going to move it to a safer location.”

While the Singleton drone continued to inspect the offices, Raven commanded her drone to activate via the network with her thoughts. It made faint sounds as it lifted up about 10 feet. They watched on the holographic monitor in the safe room.

“Impressive,” Priya said. “What can it do?”

“Lots. This is the first time a drone has ever—”

“Where did the AI-1 drone go?” Sophie said.

“It’s right there,” Raven said. “Oh, it was there.”

Raven frantically searched through the dozens of videos feeds coming from all cameras in the building.

“It’s outside. It has your drone.” Priya said.

Before they could say another word, the Singleton drone disappeared while holding Raven’s drone between claw-like appendages.

“How did it do that? It was just in my office.” Raven said. “That’s my best done ever.”

“That was your best drone ever,” Warren said.

“Yeah, I don’t think you’re getting it back.” Pablo said.

“It’s so weird,” Priya said.

“What?” Sophie said.

“I wasn’t afraid.”

“Me neither,” Raven said.

“I was,” Warren said. “That thing could have killed us.”

“Scaredy cat,” Priya said.

“Then I’m fraidy cat,” Pablo said.

Priya rolled her eyes at Sophie and Raven.

“Guys.”

“Really.” Sophie said. “You guys are supposed to protect us.”

“Yeah,” Raven said. “So much for male chivalry.”

“Where’s Amy?” Priya said.

“I’m here,” Amy said, hiding behind a table with a group of other employees.

“What are you doing back there?” Priya said.

“I thought we were going to die. Those things always kill people in the movies. It’s from that dead AI planet 558 light years away. Kepler-186 f? It killed whatever life form created it.”

Silence.

“Sorry Amy,” Priya said. “It’s okay now. We’re used to things like this.”

“I see your point Amy,” Sophie said. “This is different than the Omanji. It might have no morality, taking what it wants and not caring about anything else. We don’t know what it is.”

“Yeah, and you guys are joking around,” Amy said.

“Sorry,” Raven said.

“Raven,” Sophie said. “You’re the AI robotics expert who almost made a singleton. What could it do?”

“Anything.”

“What does that mean?” Sophie said.

“I mean, whatever you can imagine, it could probably do.”

“Like?”

“I don’t know if I should say,” Raven said.

“Go ahead,” Priya said.

“Worst case?”

“Yes.”

“It could unpack a new singleton and resurface this planet. Or do it without a singleton.”

“What are you talking about?” Warren said.

“Remember how the Omanji had drones that could make other drones which could make more drones?”

“Yes.”

“This thing may have the capacity to do that until the entire surface of this planet is consumed and re-ordered to serve it. The Omanji had limits put on every device. We don’t know the limits of the Singleton devices.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Pablo said.

“It’s not. My guess is this device detected us testing our new drone yesterday. It may want to know if it has competition.”

“What happens if it thinks it has competition?” Priya said, as she contacted Nisha.

“My guess is it will eliminate serious competition,” Raven said.

“Eliminate us?” Sophie said.

“Yes,” Amy said. “All lifeforms work to eliminate competition. Artificial life could do the same.”

Nisha connected.

“What is being eliminated?” Nisha said.

“Hi Mom,” Priya said.

“Hi Pree. What’s this about being eliminated?”

“Oh, it’s no big deal. A Singleton drone visited us just now.”

“The AI-1 Singleton?”

“That’s the one. Here’s the video.”

Nisha watched for several minutes.

“I can’t believe how calm you guys were.”

“Me neither,” Amy said. “You should have seen them after, they were joking around about it.”

“You should take this seriously. Do you know what it could do?”

“Yeah Mom. Raven told us. We’re not joking around anymore.”

“It took my drone,” Raven said.

“I missed that part,” Nisha said.

“It happened really fast. We didn’t see it until we did a replay,” Priya said. “What do you think?”

“I’m not an expert on artificial intelligence, but I know about life. Life does whatever it takes to survive and expand. We may call this thing artificial, but it took over an entire planet and sent probes all the way to the Oma and then Earth. It wants to survive and expand. It’s examining Raven’s probe right now. If it considers her probe dangerous, who knows what it would do.”

“If it considers?” Warren said.

“Yes. This is small organ in an enormous organism. Like Raven’s singleton. It’s detached by 558 light years from its parent mind. Don’t underestimate it just because it’s not organic. It doesn’t have the restrictions the Omanji placed on their AIs. Hopefully, it has restrictions created by the Singleton. The Singleton wouldn’t want competition from another singleton.”

“What should we do?” Priya said.

“Let’s talk to Bok again,” Sophie said.

Soon they connected.

“Have you found out anything else about AI-1?” Priya said.

“We’re still examining the database. But we found some interesting things.”

Nisha listened while watching Raven’s security monitors.

“What did you find?” Nisha said.

“It’s back,” Priya said. “I’ve seen lots of Omanji drones, but this is different.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t look like the Omanji’s,” Raven said. “It doesn’t have that reflective surface and you can see all the appendages. It’s more mechanical looking. The jets are brighter. More like something we would make someday. It’s looking for something.”

The drone rummaged through the offices, opening drawers by force with its claws. The jets blew things around the room. It didn’t attempt to break any passwords. It used brute force to open things.”

“It’s working its way to the storage room,” Raven said.

“What’s in there?” Priya said.

“That’s where we keep our drones. The door is super secure.”

“It’s trying to open it,” Sophie said.

The drone used a laser to cut the latches on the solid steel door in five seconds and entered the storage room.

“So much for security,” Raven said, switching the monitor to show the storage room.

“It’s fast,” Priya said.

“It knows what it’s doing too,” Sophie said.

“Yeah,” Raven said. “It’s picking only my best drones.”

A flash lit up the room with a red glow.

The holographic monitor went dark.

“What happened?” Nisha said.

“I don’t know,” Raven said. “My proximity detectors indicate it’s still in the drone room. Oh, not anymore.”

“Where is it?” Priya said.

“It’s not in the building,” Raven said.

“How could that be?” Pablo said. “We just saw it in the drone room. That’s six levels below where it entered the building. All the other doors are locked, right?”

“Yes, the building is under complete lockdown,” Raven said. “Let me see if I can track where it went.”

“What’s that explosion?” Priya said. “It sounded like a sonic boom.”

“It exited out the same opening where it entered on the eighth level,” Bok said.

“How do you know,” Nisha said.

“I’m tracking it. It’s now entering orbit. That boom was the drone exiting the atmosphere.”

“That was fast,” Raven said.

“That drone is faster than any Omanji drone I’ve seen,” Bok said. “I would like to capture one.”

“How could you?” Raven said as she reviewed the external camera video. “It’s so fast. See? There it goes, with a bunch of my drones.”

“How did it take so many?” Amy said. “It’s not holding onto all of them. Maybe there’s some magnetic attraction.”

They walked up to the second level and into the drone storage room.

“It cut through that door like it was butter,” Raven said. “It’s hot in here.

“Ugh, it got the one I was working on,” Amy said. “There goes three months of arduous work. But I can make a new one fairly quickly now that I have the plans.”

“It blasted your surveillance cameras,” Priya said.

“That explains that flash of light we saw before the screen went dead,” Raven said.

“That thing knew where your cameras were,” Nisha said. “It understands monitoring systems. Bok, how advanced are these drones?”

“We still don’t know all the capabilities. They’re more agile than Omanji drones. They exhibit more independent thinking. That makes sense because they’re cut off from the Singleton by 558 light years. The Singleton may have figured out a way to allow independent thought without the drones becoming dangerous to its survival. The Omanji have yet to develop this capability. That’s why we restrict our intelligent devices. Every time a one exceeds the intelligence limit; it becomes dangerous to us.”

“Where did it go after it took the first drone?” Raven said.

“We tracked some activity to a crater on the north pole of the Moon,” Bok said. “It may be heading there. We’ve detected drones traveling from that lunar location to an asteroid you call 912 Maritima, in between Mars and Jupiter.”

“I know that one,” Amy said. “It has a very low rotation rate of 55 days, it orbits the sun every 5.5 years, and it’s about 80 km wide.”

“You still know everything” Priya said.

“I still wish I were like you though.”

Priya smiled.

“Bok, why would they choose this asteroid?” Amy said.

“Because of that slow rotation period. It’s large, so they can hide in the interior. They must need the minerals.”

“How many Singleton drones are there?” Nisha said.

“We know of 103, but the numbers are increasing, or we may be discovering more that have been in this solar system for a while. Each one emits a unique signal. This particular drone has been to the Moon and back 15 times in the past three days.”

“Whoa. You think my drones are now on the Moon?” Raven said.

“Soon, and for a brief time. Then they’ll be taken to 912 Maritima for further examination. That is its base of operations.”

“This is depressing,” Raven said. “If I try to make another drone, they could steal that one too.”

“What about the Omanji remaining on Oma?” Nisha said. “How are they dealing with these drones from AI-1?”

“Since Oma is 23 light years away, I don’t have the latest information. Several months ago, transmissions from Oma became sporadic. Now we’re detecting nothing. Just before the transmissions ended, we received messages indicating AI1 drones were multiplying and attacking targets on Oma. This information is 23 years old. I feel anxious about what happened there.”

“They could do that to us,” Sophie said.

“That’s possible,” Bok said. “However, I think as long as we don’t pose a threat, we will be OK.”

“We?” Nisha said.

“Yes. All Omanji and humans on the earth.”

“Do you feel you’re with us?” Nisha said.

“Yes. More so every day. We’ve integrated a positive human character traits into our society. Individuality and freedom being two of them. The Omanji used to have these traits, but in our species, they lead to disaster as you know. However, with adjustments these traits were added to our distinctiveness. We’re making improvements to our society every day.”

“It’s back, get out of the way.” Raven said.

“It’s going into the drone storage room again,” Amy said.

“This is a different drone than the last one,” Bok said. “They often work in small teams.”

“And there it goes,” Raven said as she monitored her exterior security video.

They ran back to the storage room.

“There’s nothing left,” Amy said. “All our work is gone. We’ll rebuild.”