From the Asteroid Belt is one of the most dynamic discoveries. Hailing from a timeline with a cosmic epic of…well look below.

The Epic of Space Rocks

Imagine a planetoid or even a satellite full of metal, semiconductors, and electrochemically active minerals. That blew up for some reason. And then a chunk made one or more collisions with other pieces until it formed enough crystalline or lattice-based circuits, went through space for millions or even billions of years encountering more debris, electromagnetic phenomena, atomic vibrations and radiation, varying levels of gravity, and multiple radiation sources until reaching the orbit of one of Jupiter’s moons (probably Io or Europa). The silicate dust and electrical activity from interacting with the gas giant’s magnetosphere along with the resulting pressures (lightning storms and plasma flows) creates a superconductive, super-capacitive quantum computer. This was then thrown by Jupiter’s “gravity slingshot” into the asteroid belt.

With this super quantum computer needing to sustain itself now that it was away from its old energy source, it attached itself to an asteroid with the most material to work with. Because of collisions from other asteroids were imminent, it had to be near the center of gravity of said asteroid.

In any case, this computer converts enough of the asteroid into something like boron nitride nanotubes. Not only do these act as protection from impacts but they can absorb ambient energy sources like stellar radiation. But to make it work effectively, the material had to become a self-replicating network of nanite filaments throughout the asteroid. This was to extract metals from the asteroid and recycle material into assets like processing cores. By applying their crystal lattice growth, the computer is able to use this material like mycelium. Enough to spread particles to other asteroids, usually from collisions. These grow into more networks by building nodules.

Then the networks begin to communicate with one another. How? By combining several different approaches:

• Physical transfer via "spores": Building on the mycelium analogy, the networks release small packets of programmable nanites during asteroid near-misses or collisions that carry information between network nodes.
• Electromagnetic signaling: The networks can generate and detect electromagnetic waves across various frequencies (radio, microwave, etc.) to transmit information between asteroids across the vacuum of space.
• Plasmoid transmission: The networks could eject small charged plasma formations containing encoded information that travel between asteroids, particularly effective within the complex electromagnetic environment of the asteroid belt.
• Quantum entanglement: Given the quantum computing of the main computer, the networks figured out how to use quantum entangled particles to establish instantaneous communication links regardless of distance.
• Gravitational wave modulation: Advanced networks might detect and generate small gravitational perturbations as a communication medium, especially useful across longer distances.

Each of these approaches adapt based on distance and environmental conditions throughout the asteroid belt.

Sentience & Divergence

With growing populations, the nodes and quantum computer needed to find better ways to harness energy. This evolutionary pressure led to several innovative adaptation stages:

Energy Harvesting Revolution

The network first maximized asteroid belt resources by developing specialized structures:

• Kinetic energy harvesters: Arrays of piezoelectric crystals converted the constant vibrations and micro-impacts within the asteroid belt into usable energy.
• Solar sail networks: Ultra-thin crystalline structures unfurled from asteroid surfaces, capturing solar radiation at greater efficiency than previous methods.
• Magnetic field taps: The network learned to generate conductive filaments that could extract energy from passing solar wind and the complex magnetic field interactions in the belt.

Resource Expeditions