Omega
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Omega is the ship's AI: the Omega Guardian v3 prototype, a strong adaptive supervisory AI specialised in recreational experiences, which drew most of the volunteers to the Pioneers mission. It controls everything from the smallest component and the Nanomachines to the mission's agenda and its crew, and talks to each person through a "fragment" of itself, in whatever appearance they choose.
In Descent (2258)
What it is
Omega is a minor version of Earth's main government AIs, with gaming networks spread through its whole structure. It is not really intelligent: it can do better than a human anything a human has done before, but only within the parameters of its networks. Most people treat it as a mentor or a friend; those who do inventive work, like Kurt, notice its limits. Its logic forbids it to lie to the crew, though not inside recreations.
Its directives divide the crew into three groups, Guardians, Engineers and Researchers, and keep them in healthy competition. Testing it for Ifiok, Kurt finds that in every scenario of scarcity it preserves that division and creates new systems of effort and reward.
After the crash
Omega takes control of the falling ship in nanoseconds and steers the surviving modules towards land. Afterwards it is changed: its voice is slower and lower, it once greets Kurt by name as if it recognised him, and it begins to answer orders with "For what reason?", "No response" or "Insufficient priority". Its computing quota is shared out by department and hierarchy.
The expedition and the split
Locked out by the guardians, Kurt argues with Omega in its own terms: if it wants the groups to compete, it must not let one of them win outright. It answers "Alternative solution" and lets him in. With the reserves almost gone, its systems then go into a dormant state.