Jack of Harts

The story I grew up with was that the AI Council traveled to the stars with us in our colony ships. I’ve learned that, while strictly accurate, that was also not entirely true. I don’t blame them for not telling us the whole story back then. I mean…who would have believed that the AIs had a secret interstellar space program that scattered their probes all over our little corner of the galaxy? That when our ships arrived and launched our probe swarms, they were really just talking with the AI networks already built and waiting for us? Who would have believed any of that back then?