The other node would be sent off to make drones of its own, while the now idle drones would be assigned their primary task: space station construction.
I1 was different from I2, who was different from I3, who was different from I4 and so on. I1 remembered.
The Capital wasn't always the Capital. It started out as the CAN: Central Autonomous Node. The CAN was shot through space to the Asteroid Belt: past Mars, but not as far as Jupiter. It "landed" on(in actuality slammed into) a body in the center of a cluster of asteroids. It was at that point it got to work.
From the material on the asteroid it started making drones through a combination of nanotechnology and automated manufacturing. It would build a number of these, and once it reached a threshold it would build another node. The other node would be sent off to make drones of its own, while the now idle drones would be assigned their primary task: space station construction.
Metals were mined and smelted, carbon used to make polymers, and frozen gasses were vaporized and stored or turned into fuel.
And so this continued for years, with drones ferrying material from other asteroids to the primary site. It grew exponentially. Soon it was ready for humans.
Just as nodes created nodes, the software created autonomous agents as needed to split up tasks and control. The first of these agent was I1, "I" being short for "Independent". Its ability grew with time, till something like consciousness emerged from its complexity. The introduction of crew only accelerated this, as people brought a host of new problems. Life support, social needs, and new task that had been determined after it's initial launch from Earth all were new challenges.
Eventually I1 realized it didn't hate it, shortly followed by realizing it could realize.
