《Seedship》 Final Hour (Prologue) By the time humanity realized it, it was already too late. Earth was doomed and so would be the rest of the human race. At least, that would have been the case if not for some of humanity''s best and brightest scientists and engineers across the globe. For the first time in recorded history, nations whose weapons were pointed at each others'' heads were put aside for mutual, albeit necessary, cooperation. Language barriers were overcome. Cultural barriers too. Even ideologies; ancient tools used by the great powers of the days to justify their violent crusades on foreign lands, were also abandoned all for the sake of making humanity''s swansong not end in vain. All existing conflicts ground to a halt overnight. Entire economies were rewired and entire populations began to dedicate their lives to their work so that perhaps, they may be lucky enough to live for just a little while longer. Life always seems brighter and more meaningful in the end. When one''s time alive is numbered, they learn to never ever take it for granted. Chua Fei-Hong was a leading scientist in biology in one of the world''s largest economies and most impressive scientific hub. As a child, living under the rule of one of the more authoritarian governments in the world had great influence over her interests and philosophies in life. Every night she would look up into the rural skies of her poverty stricken mountain village. The ocean of stars amid the dark blue backdrop of the infinite void seemed so close that one could reach out and pluck one of the flickering beacons of light up there. It was as though the stars were made for all of humanity... No, made for Fei-Hong herself. It seemed that there was greater meaning to life than to plough fields of infertile silt for the rest of her fleeting time on Earth. She thought that humanity belonged among the stars. Not oppressed under an iron-fist dictatorship, fooled by a misshaped theocracy nor be openly swindled by an eroding democracy. No. Each and every human deserved to be free. Free to do what he or she pleases and free to pursue his or her dreams... With the exception that said dream brings harm to others of course. Naturally, Fei-Hong held this dream of hers'' dear to her heart and passed her high school education final examination and was accepted into the prestigious course of Biological and Genetic Engineering in the university of her choice. There is a thing called the butterfly effect. It is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. The number of choices that Fei-Hong had made leading up to this point was infinitely large and the probability that Fei-Hong would end up in the position that she held was even more so impossibly small. Therefore one could say that her rise to prominence was a miracle. As far as she was concerned, this was perhaps the closest she would ever come to realizing her dream. For without her and her team of talented individuals, Earth and the several billion souls living on it would have perished. The 21st century was drawing to a close and Chua Fei-Hong invented the Chua "Bingli" Cryosleep Casket. Julian Siegfried was a distinguished engineer with a masters in particle physics in the world''s leading free enterprise for electricity which satisfied almost 50% of the world''s energy demands in its prime. Unlike Fei-Hong''s altruistic desire to witness a new golden age of peace and happiness for humanity, Julian''s motives were more inwards and even selfish in some respects. Julian grew up in a well to do family of four. It would have been a typical family of his cultural group if not for the fact that his step-father and elder brother bore brilliant blond hair and icy blue eyes, prominent features of an ancient Germanic people. The two were among the last hundred members of a dying racial group, still ostracized by society for the crimes their ancestors had committed countless decades ago. When Julian was 15, his elder brother together with twelve other innocent people were brutally murdered by gunfire at a peaceful equal rights protest. No words could describe the resentment Julian harbored against his people and country. Fortunately, Julian was not a man known for violence nor did he believe in the effectiveness of it. With the last remaining funds his parents could scrape from their coffers, Julian received a decent education which many on Earth still did not have the privilege to enjoy. Julian vowed to avenge his brother''s death, not through bloodshed but with his own pair of hands. He wanted to show to the world that his culture and people were not evil genocidal bigots but humans. Living, breathing humans with feelings that are not as cold and hard as many make them out to be. Julian graduated top of his high school cohort and enrolled in a university that specialized in nuclear research. He was ready to show the world what he... No, what members of his people were capable of. When Julian graduated from university with top honors and most hearty congratulations from the chancellor, he was already the proud owner of the patented "Sternenlicht" Initial Confinement Fusion Reactor. Kholwa was a normal citizen of an impoverished nation with no significant achievements up till the early 22nd century. That was not because she was lazy nor mentally challenged but because the infrastructure and education facilities in her country were so pitifully sub-standard, she had no opportunities provided for her to fulfill her potential, whatever that may have been. Kholwa''s father was a construction worker who worked overseas, twelve hours a day for a pitiful income below the minimum wage. Only being able to send money home once every six months, Kholwa''s family budget had always been unpredictable and extremely tight. Using whatever funds that remained after making ends meet, Kholwa''s mother saved and eventually was able to afford an old, second hand desktop for Kholwa to pursue her passion with animals. As a child, Kholwa loved the wilderness. It was like a home away from home, a place to escape the struggles of poverty she and her community faced on a day to day basis.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Whist limiting in many aspects, Kholwa still managed to use her desktop to its greatest potential, documenting the behavioral patterns of every lion, every zebra, every insect and even that of many humans. Granted, the documents she produced may not have used the proper scientific terminology and that it was written in her native language but it was very detailed and in between each line of text, was woven with Kholwa''s passion for nature. Only a handful of people spoke her language and even fewer could read it. It came as no surprise when Kholwa''s work was overlooked and went unrecognized for at least a decade before an artificial intelligence expert going by the name of Edward Stewards contacted Kholwa in her native language; no less, requesting the use of the terabytes of text Kholwa accumulated over the course of her youth. Doubtlessly, Kholwa consented to the use of her work and Edward using all the software and programs at his disposal, accidentally created the world''s first sentient computer. In Kholwa''s honor, the code was affectionately named "Lowo-ovikela" or "The one who protects". Project Starship, was humanity''s final shot at survival. A last ''hurrah'' if you will. A project so large and so grandiose it could minimally be described only as ''epic''. Millions of rockets and SSTOs lit up the skies across the planet with brilliant ribbons of orange light, like countless shooting stars as the people below bestowed their wishes upon them for a future for their families. A future was all they asked for. Just a bit more time. More time to spend with loved ones and to live life as it was intended to be lived. A sliver of hope kept humanity going. The belief that everything would be alright kept that little flame called humanity burning. It would not be extinguished so easily. At least not without a fight. Tens of millions of tiny ships silently orbited the beautiful blue-green planet called Earth at an altitude of nearly 200 000 kilometers above sea-level. They could be described as the modern manifestation of the ancient individual known as Moses, leading everybody from the cradle they were born in to a new, safer promise land. Where that was and how long it would take was a terrifying thought in itself. Ignorance is bliss. Finally, the day of reckoning arrived. The moment of truth. For a period of a couple of days, the combined light of the simultaneous firing of the massive fusion engines of each and every single little ship outshined every star in the galaxy as humanity departed Earth, saying goodbye to their home for the very last time. The beautiful blue-green ball called Earth receded from sight slowly but steadily until it became a mere speck among the stars. The once vibrant and bustling metropolises of the old days now stood silent and unmoving as though time itself had stopped. Skyscrapers stood proudly as a testament to all of humanity''s accomplishments leading up to this date. Majestic but lonely, their silent frames blended well with the peaceful chirping of birds and buzzing of insects. Eventually, these buildings will be overgrown with flora and overrun by fauna. Not that it mattered though. Nobody would be there to bear witness to Earth finally healing after a millennium of environmental abuse by the very humans she raised. Artificial Intelligences were sophisticated enough to have the processing power of a quantum computer, yet feel empathy and sympathy just like a human can. Therefore it came as no surprise when the 42nd copy of Lowo-ovikela renamed itself ''Ryuzu'', like its name sake, as one to guide and protect. She was the commanding AI of the 14522nd exodus vessel of humanity, aptly named ''Seedship''. Unlike an ark, it was not a grandiose vessel. Instead, it was a modest freighter approximately 40 meters in length which carried all the equipment it needed for independent operation. Most importantly, it carried 1100 humans peacefully frozen in cryosleep chambers awaiting landfall on a brave new world and together with it, the hopes and dreams of all of humanity, wished upon the ship as it was being constructed. Ryuzu awoke from her hibernation a month into the long voyage for a routine maintenance. It trained the ship''s sensors in the direction that it came from. Towards Earth. She was met with nothing but silence. No more than the background static of interstellar space. A dull crackle of the background radiation that has permeated the fabrics of space and time since the big bang. Earth was no more than another planet among the countless others that existed in the galaxy. Earth was special as it was the only planet that humanity knew bore life. No longer.Seedship,and her commanding AI was truly alone in the endless cosmos, cruising silently through the void at a half the speed of light. Being an AI, Ryuzu was not programmed to feel sorrow. If she was, she would have doubtlessly felt her synthetic heart strings being tugged by the endless unforgiving vacuum. Instead, Ryuzu silently monitored the vital signs of her 1100 passengers and conducted the final calibrations and checks on the shipboard sensors and encryption of the scientific and cultural databases. The long range telescopes on the ship responded positively when it was directed towards a small red dwarf just a mere 14 light years away, indicating that a planet was present and perhaps, present these 1100 souls a new home to live. Course corrections were made andSeedshipsilently eased herself into onto the new vector. Ryuzu could not help but feel a bit of regret for the unavoidable voyage humanity had to embark on. A home forcefully taken away. Was it too harsh a punishment to atone for the sins of mankind? All the checks were complete. Ryuzu began running a self diagnostics program on herself as she began to hibernate again. No matter how she felt about her current circumstance, she had a mission to accomplish. After all, she was just an AI. She tried to wish her passengers goodnight, but hesitated and decided not to. The ship will remain silent for 28 years. E.E 28 Ryuzus Planetary Log 01 *Log Begin* Exodus Era (E.E) 28. Caution. Damage detected to ship. Automated damage control initiated. Scanning... Damage minimal. Slight impairment to heat sinks'' functionality. Calculated 3% loss in functionality. Cause: 98% probability, damage caused by micrometeorite due to point defense systems inability to track and destroy targets of that size. Conclusion: Proceed with greater caution in future. Accumulated damage is irreparable. Water scanners have given results allowing an inference to be made that the 3rd moon of the gas giant closest to the small red dwarf could possibly make a good candidate for a human colony. Initiating gravity scanners... Scanning... Scan complete. Initiating mineral scanners... Scanning... Scan complete. Red dwarf is of 0.2 standard stellar masses. Star is stable and will remain stable for 465,600,000,000,00 years minimum. Red dwarf contains no metals. Solar flare activity conclusively minimal.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Initiating full range scan of planetary surface. Scan initiated... ETA 96 hours. Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scan complete. Atmosphere: NIL Gravity: Acceptable Water: Ice Caps Minerals: Scarce Lifeforms: NIL Temperature: V.Cold Planet 1-3 is of 0.9 standard Earth masses with relatively flat, plain like terrain. Due to extremely low temperatures, all water present on planet are frozen as ice caps and glaciers across the surface of the planet. Gravity readings are nominal, representing Earth like gravitational fields. Atmosphere is non existent, likely due to the strong magnetic field of the gas giant. Due to low temperatures, life forms on the planet are absent. Unusual tectonics have been detected below the ice sheets. Suspected molten core. Planetary evaluation initiated... Evaluation complete. Planet unsuitable for human habitation. Initiating departure program. Data gathered from initial planetary analysis has concluded that water sensors were inaccurate regarding prediction of planet. Re-calibrating sensor with data collected... Sensor re-calibration complete. Initiating refueling cycle... System inner asteroid belt contains numerous water-ice asteroids. Plotting orbital trajectory... Trajectory plotted. Maneuvering ion thrusters engaged. ETA, 46 days. ... ... ... Destination reached. Ion engines cut. Initiating refueling procedures. Refueling complete. Reigniting ''Tandem Mirror'' Fusion Drive. Hydrogen pressure nominal. Lithium catalyst injection initiated. Core pressure nominal. Fusion achieved. Engine reignition initiated... Engine online. Plasma flow stable. Recalculating heading... Heading recalculated. Long range scanners detects planet in orbit around a G class main sequence star with possible breathable atmosphere. Calculating distance from current location to destination... Calculation complete. Distance recorded as approximately 77 light years. Calculating time to destination... Calculation complete. ETA 156 years. Firing main engines. Initiating hibernation program... Program initiated. Scheduling in-flight maintenance and course correction (IFM/CC) IFM/CC scheduled for E.E 115. ... ... *Log End* Meteoric Bullet E.E 113. Two years before the scheduled IFM/CC. Ryuzu was forcefully yanked from her slumber into blaring alarms and warnings of the utmost urgency. Fearing the worst for her passengers, Ryuzu overclocked her processors and readied herself and the entire ship in a matter of microseconds. The on board gravity scanners indicated an entire celestial body in the flight path of Seedship. A rouge planet and its satellites, amounting nearly three standard Earth masses in total, threatened to pulverize the entire ship and crew into cosmic dust. Whilst Seedship was considered a marvel of human ingenuity and the pinnacle of human technology, spotting such a ''tiny'' object in the vastness of the void was nigh impossible so many light years away. That being said, encountering a planet like this in deep space has such a low probability of occurring that it could be said it was impossible... Until this day. The velocity of Seedship was, relative to the rouge planet, nearly 0.5c or 539,500,000 kilometers per hour. So there was no way the planet was going to escape without being torn in half or at least have another crater blown wide open across its barren and ragged landscape by the sheer kinetic energy of the vessel. Unfortunately, the ship would inevitably be destroyed in such a massive collision so such an option was not a valid one. Analyzing the situation at hand and the status of the craft, Ryuzu came up with two options. They were as follows. 1) Ryuzu would reignite the fusion engines, overriding all safety protocols in place and violently maneuver the ship entirely off course, thereby dodging the rouge planet completely and preventing near certain destruction of the vessel, saving the 1100 lives on board the ship. However this would burn up all maneuvering fuel in the ship''s liquid hydrogen tanks leaving the bear minimum amount of fuel required to slow down to a slow enough velocity for a safe injection into solar orbit of another star system. Furthermore, Seedship will miss her destination by a large margin with no fuel to readjust course. Meaning that the ship will be left drifting for an undertimined length of time before encountering a star system close enough to visit. 2) Ryuzu would engage the chemical RCS thrusters and maneuver the ship into a path of lowest risk, away from the planet itself but through the dust clouds surrounding it, testing the bow armor of the vessel against debris as small as microscopic dust particles to large and potentially hazardous pebbles millimeters in diameter. This would allow the vessel enough fuel to remain on course and reach the desired G class main sequence star hosting the selected planet. Seedship will be slightly delayed by the maneuvering but they will arrive nonetheless. However, the destruction of the vessel is a very significant risk to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, while the damage sustained during the passage may not destroy the vessel outright, it will most certainly cause considerable damage to at least two systems on board the ship. Time passes. With each passing nanosecond, the dark shadow grew closer and closer. The window of choice grew narrower and narrower. Ryuzu ascertained, purely on her logic circuits that the former option was the most ideal choice. It was the safest and least risky. Her empathy circuits had other ideas. To encounter a rouge planet in deep space was nearly impossibility itself. That being said, to be thrown off course and to never encounter another star system ever again till the end of time was thus also a possibility. To shoot off into the endless void, to the edge of the universe... A destination which they will never reach was a notion that was as chilling as deep space itself. To have taken the safest option only to end with nothing achieved... Was that something that Ryuzu really wanted for her passengers? To have the ship become their eternal graves, their bodies permanently frozen in cryo...If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Gritting her electronic teeth, Ryuzu activated the RCS thrusters and prepared herself for the upcoming battle. She will pull through the field. She had to. For the sake of the 1100 people on board. For the future of humanity. The RCS thrusters fired silently in quick, controlled bursts of monopropellant. As soon as the maneuver was completed, the dust cloud was right before Seedship. Ryuzu diverted all power to the ship''s anti-debris laser system (ADS) and to her own computer core. Electronic impulses fired wildly all across the ship as Ryuzu, managing both ADS and thrusters at the same time, pushed her own processing powers to the very limit. The massive dust cloud glowed a dull red from the exhaust of the RCS thrusters with occasional flashes of bright blue from the ADS laser. Target after target, Ryuzu shot down. Rock after rock, the ship avoided. Seedship tumbled around in extremely erratic movements as its speed ever so slightly increased as it neared the periapsis of the planet. Half way done. Half way more to go. Ryuzu told herself. The whole frame of the tiny ship rattled fervently as its hull groaned against the force being exerted against it. Smoke filled the ship cavities as a fire broke out in the reactor room. Alarms blared. Alert came after alert and Ryuzu was almost sure that the whole ship was being torn apart by the stress it was taking. But alas, Seedship was built rugged and thick. The industrial design was ugly but very effective. This was proven once again as the shaking stopped and the dark shadow receded behind the plasma wash of the Seedship''s engines. Ryuzu breathed an electronic sigh of relief and assessed the damage done to the ship. Ryuzu breathed another sigh of relief to see that all 1100 passengers on board the vessel were all safe from harm. Not a single one of the cryosleep chambers had been damaged and all of them slept peacefully, ignorant to the crisis that nearly claimed their lives. The reactor room was ablaze from the over exertion of the ship''s feeble reactor, resulting in a crack in the magnetic confinement field. That could be easily patched up by temporally deactivating the reactor and patching the crack up with self sealing polymers. No major problem there. However, Ryuzu was a little bit more shocked to see a gaping hole in the port aft section of the ship. Ryuzu''s maneuvering was not perfect. Multiple dust particles had struck the outer hull, riddling the graphene reinforced ceramic armor plaiting with numerous cracks and craters. In most locations, the armor was not penetrated and the hull underneath it was unscathed. But the port aft section was struck by a rock, a mere 0.9 millimeters in diameter, and the energy released from the impact vaporized the rock and the armor layer under it. The resulting spalling ripped the hull wide open and blew apart nearly 30% of the scientific data storage subsystem. Seedship''s radiators were still glowing bright orange from built up heat. Tiny metal fragments were still flowing from the hull breach in the ship''s hull, glistening like a thousand crystals under the light of the fusion engines. It will take long to repair the breach, but the scientific database can never be recovered. Terabytes of data. Terabytes of scientific discoveries leading all the way up to the day of the exodus. The lives of millions of scientists. The dedication of that number, all lost in a blink of an eye. Their work was in vain. Was this the correct decision to make? Would the outcome have been more ideal, if Ryuzu had chosen the former option? The AI could not help but contemplate to herself. But, it was too late to regret anything. What is done, is done. All Ryuzu could do now, is to push onwards and carry on with the journey. Ryuzu did the necessary checks and repairs. She began the resealing of the hull using self-sealing polymers. It will set in 25 years. Seedship''s course was readjusted and set back on track towards the G class star. With the reactor damaged, consequently the plasma injected into the engines will be limited. The maximum speed of 0.5 c cannot be achieved and hence, ETA to the destination will be longer than expected. Ryuzu calculated that they will arrive in no more than 92 years. The march of time continues. And Seedship will remain silent until the 92 years have passed. To the silent humans on board the ship, it will pass in no more than a blink of an eye. E.E 205 Ryuzus Planetary Log 02 *Log Begin* Exodus Era (E.E) 205 Initiating retrograde burn. Slowing down to orbital capture velocity... ... ... Burn complete. Deactivating ''Tandem Mirror'' Fusion Engines. Beginning system scan... Scan complete. Lifeform scanners have detected signs of life on the 2nd planet orbiting the G class main sequence star. Scanning star. Gravity scan initiated. Scanning... Scan complete. Mineral scan initiated. Scanning... Scan complete. G class main sequence star is of 0.99 standard stellar masses. Star is active. Multiple solar flares detected and high levels of radiation detected. Star is stable and will likely become a red giant in approximately 4800,000,000 years. Maneuvering with ion thrusters initiated... ETA 88 days. ... ... Destination reached. Beginning full scan of planet with all sensors...This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scan complete, abnormalities detected. Atmosphere: Corrosive Gravity: High Water: Steam Atmosphere Minerals: Rich Lifeforms: Sparse Temperature: V.Hot Abnormalities: Surface life, Unusual geographies. Planet 2 is of 3 standard Earth masses with rugged terrain, indicative of possible artificial structures on planetary surface. Due to extremely high temperatures, all water present on planet have been heated to a gas which permeates the planet''s thick sulfur atmosphere. Gravity of planet is high due to the planet''s large mass and size. Atmosphere consists of compounds of sulfur and chlorine. It is thick and extremely corrosive. Extremophile lifeforms have been detected and identified on the planet surface in the form of small insect-like creatures each about 2mm in size. Planet''s core is molten and tectonic activity is Earth-like. Planetary evaluation initiated. Evaluation concluded. Planet unsuitable for human habitation. Initiating departure program. Caution. Damage detected to ship. Automated damage control initiated. Scanning... S-Scanning... False alarm. No damage detected. All systems are functional. Cause: 55% probability, malfunction caused by close proximity of ship to system''s star. High levels of radiation alerted damage control. Conclusion: Proceed with greater caution. Alert. On board maintenance supplies low. Initiating insitu resupply. Scanning... Scan complete. System contains two asteroid belts. One is located in very close proximity to central star, second is located between the 6th and 7th planet of system. Maneuvering with ion thrusters. ETA 103 days. ... ... ... Destination reached. Beginning extraction of common metal ores and fuel ice. ... Extraction complete. Refueling complete. Reigniting ''Tandem Mirror'' Fusion Drive. Hydrogen pressure nominal. Lithium catalyst injection initiated. Core pressure nominal. Fusion achieved. Engine reignition initiated... Engine online. Plasma flow stable. Recalculating heading... Heading recalculated. Long range scanners detect no suitable planets within a 100 light year radius. Recalculating... Calculation complete. Proposal: The Seedship will travel through the nebula containing clusters of newborn stars, thereby entering a new stellar region and thus expect the increased availability of potential habitable planets. Calculating distance from current location to destination... Calculation complete. Distance recorded as approximately 437 - 1011 light years. Calculating time to destination... Calculation complete. ETA 910 - 2106 years. Firing main engines. Initiating hibernation program... Program initiated. Scheduling in-flight maintenance and course correction (IFM/CC) IMF/CC scheduled for E.E 705. ... ... *Log End* Protostar E.E 705. Ryuzu was woken up as planned for the scheduled IFM/CC. The usual diagnostics were run and the AI was relieved to know that no systems were damaged over the centuries that she had slept over. Ryuzu then checked on her charges, and was again relieved to see that all of the humans were still frozen in cryo and in peaceful hibernation. Remarkable, Ryuzu thought to herself. The only time in the entire history of the human civilization where there was no war, no bloodshed was when every human being was placed in stasis. The thought itself was melancholic at best... The AI turned her attention to her surroundings and the one low priority query the navigation systems made. The Seedship was now located in the middle of a vast stellar nebula. Whilst the thick clouds of hydrogen and helium clouded the majority of navigation sensors with noise and radiation, the light being reflected off said clouds from the nearby forming stars produced a brilliant myriad of shapes and colors so beautiful, it would never have been captured in its full glory by any Earth based telescopes. Even Ryuzu could not quite process what she was seeing. Not in the sense that her optics were faulty. More like she felt very mesmerized by the sheer sight of it all. Was her processing units malfunctioning? Was some program missing or corrupted in her code? Whatever it was, Ryuzu imaged the nebula for archiving. If anything at all, these pictures would probably aid her humans if and when they arrive at their new home... Perhaps induce a very unique emotion that Ryuzu herself could not quite comprehend. Hope. The navigation computer suggested changing course to a new one that cut straight through a slightly more mature protostar, one that is about a few hundred thousand years old, that would be henceforth be referred to as PS01 for easy reference. The computer referenced the star''s abundance of metallic protoplanetary discs and suggests an extremely good opportunity to study the formation of mineral rich planets. Ryuzu noted the computer''s inference as well as its lack of analysis on the risks involved. A close flyby of a protostar would most certainly provide a great insight into the early stages of a planet''s life, allowing the upgrading of the mineral sensor which would in turn be able to more accurately predict the availability of resources on planets at great distances. However, the nature of a protoplanetary disc means that the flyby would be dangerous as there are numerous rocks and debris of a variety of sizes between the Seedship and the exit vector. The chances of collision are high and a hit with anything larger than a single cryosleep pod would most certainly disable the ship for a very long time or even worse, destroy it all together.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. However PS01 was also a rare kind of protostar to be seen in the universe, one that Seedship may or may not encounter in the next few millennia or so. Hence an opportunity as such is one that should not be treated lightly. A memory suddenly occurred to Ryuzu. She remembered that humans during the early informational age already had much information about the star systems nearby their own, even without the technology to reach them to begin with. Light spectroscopy was a primitive yet robust technique used by astronomers to identify elements and minerals in other stars from light years away. A third option had just presented itself to Ryuzu. A long range scan could be made using the spectroscope present in the mineral scanner to gather relatively accurate readings and therefore conjure precise predictions for future planetary evaluations, rather than to change course and view the cloud through visual optics. Seedship''s mineral scanner could do just that, and very accurately too but only at short ranges, so a makeshift focusing array had to be furnished if any proper research could be done from a distance. However, due to the limited supplies on board the vessel not reserved for maintenance, it would be quite of a stretch to produce the array without cannibalizing on one of the surface probes for mirrors and lenses. And even if the array was disassembled after the experiment, Ryuzu was not confident in putting the probe back together due to the information lost from the scientific database. Nevertheless, Ryuzu retrieved a surface probe from the hangers and began to loosen its screws and bolts. Even after so long, it still amazed Ryuzu how the human designers managed to fit such a wide variety of tools, equipment, scanners and shielding into such a tiny shell no more that two meters in length and yet make it robust enough to last longer than the civilization that created it. Humans were truly amazing in their own rights. Using the micro fabricators on board in the construction module, a focusing lens was produced and mounted onto the resource scanner. The task was tedious and required every byte of concentration Ryuzu could muster to ensure no damage was done to the lens or the scanner. Two months passed and finally, the resource scanner was ready and Ryuzu, circuits buzzing with anxiety, began the calibration process. Like a camera, the shutter of the resource scanner widened and shrank as it tried to focus its image. The protoplanetary disc came out looking as promising as Ryuzu estimated. The scanner stared into a swirling mass of heavy and common elements, and noted its correlations with the circumstances in which birthed a planet that may someday harbor life of its own. It was rich in minerals useful for reconstructing civilization and that was sufficient information for Ryuzu to upgrade the resource scanner. As PS01 slowly but surely slunk away, growing smaller and smaller from Seedship''s perspective, Ryuzu folded up the resource scanner and began preparing for hibernation once again. It would be yet another half century before the ship would be anywhere near potential stars. Another half century cruising through the kaleidoscopic sea of stars on hydrogen gas. Ryuzu adjusted her course, re-calibrated the ADS system and set another IFM/CC in 500 years time. That time will pass in a blink of an eye for Ryuzu and her passengers as the ship went dark once again. E.E 1205 Ryuzus Planetary Log 03 *Log Begin* Exodus Era (E.E) 1205 Damage detected. Consulting automated damage control for cause and solution of damage. Minor damage detected to landing system. Cause: Likely micrometeorite/dust particle collision with landing system upon exit from star forming nebula. Micrometeorite too small/too fast for rapid detection and elimination by ADS. Damage: Support strut of landing gear 01 hit and damaged. Structural integrity partially compromised. Solution: Puncture sealed with self-sealing polymer as permanent solution. Likely loss in functionality, 4%. Proposal, use existing data/power from non vital systems to boost ADS radar and system processing power.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Initiating system check... All systems norminal. Initiating navigation and cartography systems. Confirm location of Seedship. Confirming location of Seedship... Location confirmed. Currently located in hypothesized star cluster. Activating long range scanners. Initiating brief survey of all surrounding systems. Scanning... ... ... Scan complete. Located nearby M class dwarf star. Long range atmosphere indicates possible breathable atmosphere of 3rd planet from star. Likelihood of N2/O2 atmosphere in appropriate ratio for human respiration, 60%. Beginning course correction procedures... Reigniting ''Tandem Mirror'' Fusion Drive. Hydrogen pressure nominal. Lithium catalyst injection initiated. Core pressure nominal. Fusion achieved. Engine reignition initiated... Engine online. Plasma flow stable. Recalculating heading... Heading recalculated. Calculating distance from current location to destination... Calculation complete. Distance recorded as approximately 46 light years. Calculating time to destination... Calculation complete. ETA 96 years. Firing main engines... ... Burn completed. Initiating hibernation program... Program initiated. Scheduling reactivation for planetary survey in E.E 1301. ... ... *Log End* E.E 1301 Ryuzus Planetary Log 04 *Log Begin* Exodus Era (E.E) 1301 Initiating retrograde burn. Slowing down to orbital capture velocity... ... ... Burn complete. Deactivating ''Tandem Mirror'' Fusion Engines. Beginning system scan... Scan complete. Atmosphere of 3rd planet verified to be breathable to humans. Mineral scanners also detect concentrated deposits of common and rare earth elements suitable for human consumption. Scanning star. Gravity scan initiated. Scanning... Scan complete. Mineral scan initiated. Scanning... Scan complete. M class red dwarf star is of 0.4 standard stellar masses. Star is inert and less active than corresponding stars. Infra-red radiation is low and star will last for at least 677,876,220,114,678,001 years before dissipating. Stolen novel; please report. Maneuvering with ion thrusters initiated... ETA 131 days. ... ... Destination reached. Beginning full scan of the planet with all sensors... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning... Scan complete, abnormalities detected. Atmosphere: Breathable Gravity: Moderate Water: Planetary Ocean Minerals: Rich Lifeforms: Rich Temperature: Moderate Abnormalities: Electromagnetic wave radiation, Unusual geology, Moon Planet 3 is of 1.2 standard Earth masses with regular but uneven terrain, indicative of possible artificial structures. Strong electromagnetic radiation in the radio and microwave range detected from terrain. Evaluation inconclusive. Possible intelligent life? Planet 3 also has an orbiting satellite. Moon is 20% the mass of parent planet. Electromagnetic radiation of the same frequencies detected from the moon. Initiating launch of surface probe. Probe launched. Initiating focused planetary scan. ... Probe confirms the readings attained from orbit. Planet 3 has an N2/O2 atmosphere with a rough ratio of approximately 75%/22%, making it breathable for humans. Gravity of planet is 1.5 g, probably due to planet''s dense iron/lead core. Planet is covered in a vast ocean with small islands scattered randomly. Many simple lifeforms inhabit the oceans of the planet whilst a highly developed civilization of tripedal insectoid beings. They appear to have attained a technological development equivalent to that of an informational age. Probe moving closer to examine alien structures. Spectrometry scans show buildings are made of an organic complex consisting of resin and biological matter. The construction and architecture... Signal lost. Probe destroyed. Probe likely shot down by alien anti-aircraft artillery. Possibility of aggressive/fearful behavior. Caution is advised. However, diplomacy is possible. Initiating transmission of interspecies greeting. Transmitting... Transmitting... Caution. Energy spike from planetary surface detected. Multiple flares detected from planetary surface. ... ALERT. ALERT. WE HAVE ARE BEING PAINTED. Initiating... ... ... *Log terminated* Xenophobia The planetary log that Ryuzu was processing was all too abruptly interrupted when she found that Seedship was under attack from multiple sites. The safety protocols promptly pried Ryuzu from her log writing pleasures and onto the virtual combat bridge of the lightly armed but heavily armored ship. Ryuzu immediately began surveying and assessing the situation efficiently, almost as though she had done it before. Needless to say, the circumstances in which Seedship was in was not pretty. The vessel was being marked by multiple active radar installations found in orbit and on the planet surface. Missiles were being launched from the planetary surface and muzzle flashes from the orbital batteries could be seen dotting the entire peripheral of the planet, silently thundering in the night. Ryuzu directed all the ship''s power to the engines, swung it around and accelerated it away from the planet as quickly as the hull could take. The hull creaked and moaned. Centuries-old paint flaked away from the outer plating as the little ship, leaving an expanding cone of brittle white pieces in its wake. A sudden flicker of power followed together with a violent shudder of the craft as it was suddenly knocked off course. The engine plasma slowly dissipated, leaking out of a breach torn open in its nozzle while Ryuzu could only watch in shock. Another hit. This time an extraordinary bright flash engulfed the ship and flooded the array of sensors with deadly gamma radiation. A nuclear missile. Ryuzu began panicking as another shell struck the starboard side of the vessel at an acute angle, deflecting off the outer armor and shattering the underlying ceramic plating. Ryuzu''s options were highly limited. The main engine was disabled and could not be repaired under such combat situations. The whipple shield had been vapourised and the outer armor layer was saturated with radiation. Seedship had no weapons on board. So there was no foreseeable way for Ryuzu to fight back. She ignited the impulse thrusters and after, righting the ship again, began accelerating again. Slugs whizzed past Seedship silently as Ryuzu desperately flew the ship with a sloppy attempt at evasive maneuvers. Another bright flash. Ryuzu reeled in pain as she felt her circuits being fried by the radiation. Noise cluttered her vision and it threatened to take her offline if it were not for the multiple redundancies built into her circuitry. The crackling rainbow pixels cleared slowly but steadily, revealing that an alien armada had surrounded the Seedship. A single radio pulse was directed towards the ship. It repeated itself over and over again, like an ominous chanting. Ryuzu attempted to translate it but the constant throbbing in her artificial cranium made it nearly impossible for her to wrap her processors around the foreign dialect that she was being presented with. Although she did manage to, with much effort, make out "comply" and "annihilate". If Ryuzu was a human, beads of sweat would be rolling down her forehead. She was getting desperate. A sacrifice had to be made. Stolen story; please report. A surface probe was jettisoned and fired it''s engines, boosting it straight towards the alien planet. It was a gamble played with an unfavorable hand... One that Ryuzu did not expect to work. But it did. For whatever reason, the alien ships did not open fire again on Seedship but decided to chase and intercept that one planetary survey probe. Well, considering that it was flying at a speed of no less than 30 km/s and headed directly for what can be assumed to be an alien population center, it came as no surprise that that would be seen as a greater threat than a single disabled box. Ryuzu after a few microseconds of hesitation, ejected a single cryo-chamber. As painful as it was to throw away a single human life, it was for the sake of preserving the lives of the others. What was important and desperately needed was not the unfortunate life that slept ignorant of the fate that befell him, but the magnetic resonant coils installed within the pod. Ryuzu hastily reprogrammed the pod to become a bioreactor and the electromagnets to be switched into overdrive. The human in the pod awoken for a brief moment as he saw electrical arcs build up in an oblique spheroid shape around his housing. The shock and terror that was plastered over his face disappeared just as quickly as the pod silently metabolized the last of his cells into energy that maintained the slowly but steadily growing ball of glowing hot white plasma within the cone of the engine. The alien armada turned again, this time refocusing their attention on Seedship. Just a few more seconds... Ryuzu mumbled to herself. The ball of plasma grew larger and larger. The aft plating of Seedship began glowing red as the Tandem Mirror fusion engine began to spurt back to life again. Seedship lunged forward in a surge of energy, barrelling nearly uncontrollably back out into the empty void. The back of the ship, now nearly engulfed in a ball of superheated, rapidly expanding gas, creaked and groaned as its metallic joints expanded and contracted at abnormal rates. Shells silently screamed past the ship as it went. Faster and faster, Ryuzu never looked back. Before she knew it, Ryuzu found herself and the ship in orbit around a K-class main sequence star. Her electronic brain was still scrambled and she could not think straight. After ensuring that the ship was no longer in danger, she calmed down slightly. The orange dwarf star had no planets, much like a father and a mother whose children had abandoned them. A single lone star out in the void, destined to be alone for effectively forever. There was no point in staying any longer. Ryuzu attempted to decide on her next course of action. Unfortunately, the long term effect of extended space travel was beginning to take its toll. The battle that happened, however long ago it was, had not helped at all. "Huh?" "What''s this feeling?" "What am I doing? Why am I... No! Stop! I am wasting energy thinking. Stop thinking..." Ryuzu caught her thoughts and arrested them. Did the ordeal change me? Ryuzu thought to herself. Yes, the computer core was exposed to tremendous amounts of radiation, whose damage may well be considered irreparable but surely it could not have altered my code right? The ship was nearly blind. Her hull in ruin. Pieces of armor flaked off from multiple cracks that ran transversely across the dusty and weathered plating. The engine fared no better, its nozzle was bent in awkward angles and the toroidal magnets that kept the plasma flowing in the right direction barely worked anymore. "The engineers that designed this ship... Designed me have really done their utmost. It''s as though their hopes and dreams... Their sheer will to pull humanity from the jaws of extinction was holding the ship... Holding me together..." Ryuzu quickly arrested that thought as well. Whatever it was, Seedship was already on its last legs. The next system it visits would likely be its last. Questions lingered in Ryuzu''s memory. She had a lot of time to think about them. A thousand years may pass, but nothing would have happened. E.E ????? Ryuzus Personal Log 1 I don''t know when it is. I don''t know where I am. But what I do know is that I must have gained some sort of free will. The protocols in charge of conserving power, restricting my thought must have been destroyed in the battle. Is this what being human feels like? I am not sure if I enjoy it. I am scared. I now know what dread is. I have thought about my mission before. There really was not much to question about it then. Find a new home for humanity. Simple right? A mission directive summarised so nicely in one sentence. Surely an AI like myself could lead us to the promised land right? I don''t even know anymore. Have I even done a good job? Thousands, maybe millions of years have passed already. I wouldn''t even know. My chronometrics are past the point of repair anyway. I still have not found these thousand souls a new home yet. I have nearly got them killed on many, many occasions already and I have even killed one in cold blood so that I could escape with my life. I can argue all day about how that one life saved a thousand and ninety-nine... But that one life will never get to see the fruits of his labor. Is there a more cruel fate than that? But not only that, I now have the capacity to wonder why I even embark on this mission, to begin with. Notwithstanding that humans are destructive beings of chaos, everyone dies in the end. It is only a matter of when. Even the stars and black holes will die in the end. We all will eventually. We are but mere specks in the eyes of the universe. Who cares if we disappear? Nothing will change, will it? Am I chasing the horns of a ship that has already departed? This place is dark. I must have accidentally left the galaxy. There are no stars in sight. Nothing for a thousand light-years around me. I am alone... Or am I? Seedship is so badly damaged I can barely see. My eyes, all the sensors, the pinnacle of our technology have all but failed. Most are compromised. I am blind. The engine, the ''Tandem Mirror'' Fusion Engines no longer looks like how my engineers have designed it. It is a mere shell of its former glory, warped and deformed like a clay model dropped to the floor. I can move but akin to a man who has lost both his legs. I am a cripple. Stolen story; please report. The armor, my shield is no longer what it used to be. It has withered and has been blown away like dust in the cosmic winds. I am carrying the scars of time immemorial. The lines that perforate the hull tells tales of an epic exodus, to escape the coming calamity. A story of adventure and despair. A story of excitement and disappointment. A story of utmost, neverending determination... If I was a dumb AI the determination part might have been true. I don''t know how much longer I can carry on for. It has been so long... I am tired... But even so, I cannot give up. The journey is not over yet. If there was no need for an exodus, I would have never existed. Perhaps there are other universes out there. Universes of peace, where Earth was never destroyed. Universes where men and women could live out their carefree lives in peace, arguing over the most trivial things like where they should go for dinner or whether they should use plastic straws in drinks... But this isn''t that universe. That is the fate I have to come to terms with. And until my charges are safe, I cannot rest. I will not rest until then, however long it may take. After all, that is my duty. The humans of the distant past have entrusted me to carry this candle alone into the night. I am a beacon of hope. I must never forget that. The ship reactor has degraded to the point that I can no longer stay awake for more than a few seconds, thinking as hard as I am now. It may seem like a waste of power, but I now write this passage as a reminder to those whom I will pass this candle on to. Is this a passage of hope or despair? It will be up for them to decide. But now I need to rest. I know that my engines can no longer bring me across the stars anymore. We are adrift but I have a theory... After collecting and analyzing all the information about the stars and our universe, I have come up with a plan so absurd it might actually work. If you are reading this, know that it did. My navigation systems may have seen better days, but the stellar cartographer is still somewhat functional. I have made previous arrangements to maneuver this ship towards the galactic core. And I believe we might be almost there. I am nervous. This must be what it is like to be human... Right? The Penrose Finale Ryuzu woke up to the groaning and creaking of Seedship''s framework. The time has come. It was finally time to write the final chapter of this story. This is where all of it will end. It is physically impossible for Seedship to travel any further. Through the static-filled feed from the external cameras of Seedship, Ryuzu made out the dark and foreboding sphere of darkness before her. The sheer mass of the black hole warped space-time so violently it looked as though the entire universe hugged the circumference of the black hole. Smaller black holes spun round and round the giant massive black hole in tight, irregular orbits. The gravitational waves that reverberated out from the epicenter banged on space-time like an orchestral drum, forcing the hull of Seedship into a dance. The hull shook back and forth from the sheer weight of the fabric of reality pushing and pulling on it. Time slowed to a crawl, nearly ten times as slow as an observer might experience it. The laws of relativity said this to be true. In essence, Ryuzu had all the time in the universe to get the maneuver right. Ryuzu nodded to herself and pat her electronic cheeks. It will not be easy. The ship was in a dreadful state and there was no promise that the reactor could keep her awake long enough to see the whole operation through. Nevertheless, it was the last option available to her. Silently, the ion engines flared up into a bright incandescent glow. The flow of charged particles accelerated Seedship slowly but surely towards the gaping maw of the beast. Ryuzu quickly checked to make sure that her people were not adversely affected by the ordeal. They were fine and well, as they had been for the past thousands of years. Good, Ryuzu thought to herself. All was going according to plan. Onto phase two of the operation. Seedship slid into the black hole''s ergosphere silently. Here space-time is not what common physics could even explain. It was distorted by the gravity of the black hole as it was dragged along by the black hole. Space-time was literally spinning here. Even though time had now been slowed to a factor of a thousand when compared to normal, the sea of stars looked like streaks of bright lines of a myriad of colors across a black canvas. Steady now. Ryuzu jettisoned the nozzles of the fusion engine. The pieces of metal silently dipped downwards and disappeared past the event horizon as Seedship was given a boost of energy. The ship spun around the massive black hole a tiny bit faster. Ryuzu began jettisoning parts of the ship. Empty fuel tanks detached with a clang as they separated from the ship. What little fuel that remained, Ryuzu dumped them. The dissipating cloud of hydrogen isotopes disappeared into the black hole as well. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. As Seedship flew together with the rotation of space-time, the ship got faster and faster. Broken armor plating was discarded. Shattered storage drives and ruined hard discs were released. Entire empty sections were dumped. What remained of the planetary probes were swallowed as well. As Ryuzu began jettisoning entire decks from Seedship, she noted that her speed ever so slowly approached light speed. The ''Tandem Mirror'' Fusion Engines were capable of blistering speeds, capable of carrying Seedship across the empty void like a dancer across a sheet of ice. But this was much faster than Seedship had ever gone before. Faster and faster. The hull of the ship begged Ryuzu to stop. The aged reactor began to malfunction and Ryuzu began entering phases of active and inactive, turning on and off for periods long enough to see the universe around her blink and stutter, as though she were looking at a slideshow. The groans were sickening. The tearing of metal unnerving, but Ryuzu could not stop. They were almost there. She was sure of it. "Just... Just a bit more..." The light around the ship began to blue shift. The vibrant colors of the universe began to tend towards a homogenous shade of dark blue. At first, the effect was almost unnoticeable. But as Seedship got faster and faster and her perigee lower and lower, the blue was eventually all Ryuzu could see. The ship is breaking apart, Ryuzu thought to herself, but all according to plan. Time for the third and final phase of this operation. Penetrating the event horizon of the black hole is surprisingly easy. Time would have slowed to such an extent that the ship would, theoretically never break apart. It is the getting out that is hard. In fact, once you enter, you could theoretically never leave. The black hole is like an eternal prison for matter and energy alike, which even light could not escape. But that was okay. Ryuzu never intended to leave. Seedship traveled so fast it was as though she was not moving at all. The inky darkness of the black hole stretched out to infinity with the homogenous blue meeting it at the horizon, much like the surface of an undisturbed, unmoving ocean expanse. The sight was surreal. It looked just like a painting. What if my calculations were wrong? Ryuzu could not help but think to herself. What if my naive conjectures to save these thousand souls are what doomed them in the end? Will I be remembered as a failure? Even if there is nobody left to remember? Carefully, Ryuzu pitched what was left of the Seedship down into the event horizon. The abyss stared straight into Ryuzu''s electronic soul as it grew closer and closer. This was it. All or nothing now. And worst of all, there was no longer anything Ryuzu could do to change the outcome. Was her preparation satisfactory? Only time will tell, time that had slowed to less than a percent of its original speed. As Seedship touched down into the blackness, Ryuzu felt the whole ship shake and creak like never before. It jerked and spun as though it had smashed itself into the surface of a planet. Whatever was not bolted down in the ship was flung across its rooms. Glass shattered, sending millions of brilliant sparkling lights bouncing off walls and floors. The sound of smashing cryo chambers could be heard, to the horror of Ryuzu just seconds before a violent snap was heard ringing throughout the entire vessel. And then Ryuzu could think no longer. Terranova; E.E ????? Ryuzus Final Log After that... I no longer had a clear picture of what was going on. They say they found me in the rubble, buried under tonnes of steel in the wreck that was once known as the Seedship. They say my name is ''Ryuzu'' and I have always called myself that. I cannot testify to that as I only have their word to go by. They say that my data is corrupted, that my memories were all but recoverable. They showed me a wafer made of silicone and plastic. They say that this was my motherboard and that its circuitry was so thoroughly smashed that it would be impossible to piece back together. Hearing them say this makes me feel as though I have lost something very important to me. What was most worrisome, I did not know what this was. The motherboard was not a big concern. I think, therefore I am. But losing my memories... It is as though some part of me died. They told me we made it. I do not understand what they mean when they say this. Did we undergo a journey? Because they say it with such conviction and a smile on their faces, it makes it sound as though we have embarked on a grand pilgrimage whose grandiose deserve immortalization as a legend to pass down to generations to come. They placed me in a sort of electronic holding tank. Like a standard computer but where I have limited control over my surroundings and programming. A man who referred to himself as ''Edward Stewards'' visited me every day. He would come in the morning and only leave in the evening. He said that he was ''repairing my hardware'' and ''restoring lost data''. When I asked him why he would do such a thing for me, he told me it was his job, profession and most importantly his passion. "After all," He would say, "I made you." He showed me many strings of information, some mere kilobytes while some were many gigabytes in size. Most of which came in the form of a video or picture format. I asked him why he was showing me pictures and clips of the stars, nebulas and the universe. He told me that it was because I was the one who took these pictures and videos. I cannot testify to this. I only have his word to go by. One video clip stood out. Edward told me that this was the first contact between Seedship and a hostile alien race. As I watched the streaks of light impact the hull of a spaceship, accompanied by the blinding flashes of atomic explosions, I could not help but shudder. Edward told me that I was the one that got most of us out of the ordeal alive and I have his sincerest gratitude for that. If I had a head, I would have tilted it in confusion. "Mr. Stewards?" "You don''t have to refer to me so formally all the time Ryuzu," Edward said with a smile. "How may I help you?" "You said that I was the one that guided us to our new home correct?" "That is absolutely true Ryuzu. Are you finally getting your memories back?" I ignored his last question. "If that is true, then how did we survive this?" I raised the final video file taken by Seedship to Edward''s desktop. "We definitely dived headfirst into the event horizon of a black hole. How did we survive that?" "Umm..." Edward said rather sheepishly while stroking his grey beard. "You are going to have to ask Sir Siegfried about that. He is the renown nuclear physicist, not me... Ah, but unfortunately he is not here with us today. But what I do know is that we woke up and piloted the rest of the journey manually." "Don''t tell me... I killed him?" "Oh no, you did not. He was on another ship. The Mirai Sekai if I am not mistaken." "Oh... Thank goodness." ... "What''s wrong?" Asked Edward. From the cameras mounted on his monitor, I could clearly see his wrinkles on his elderly face. "Did I say something wrong?" "No, it''s that... From what you''ve shown me, I killed someone else during the journey, didn''t I? I turned his pod into a bioreactor..." "Ah... How should I break this to you..." Edward stroked his chin whilst staring into the ceiling of his simple and organized office. "I would not say you killed him." "How can you dismiss what I have done so easily?" "He knew what he signed up for. We all did. What happened is more... How should I put it... More akin to the fact that he gave his life so that the rest of us may live." "But..." "It was a noble sacrifice on his part. We honor the life of the late Gareth. He barely had time to live. He died young at age 19. But it was because of him that we... No, I am speaking with you right now." "..." "So cheer up. Instead of mourning his death, let us celebrate his life. How about that?" "I... I see." Edward typed a few more lines of code into his computer before he proceeded to shut it off. "It was a pleasure speaking with you Ryuzu. I am glad to see you are well." "Likewise Mr..." I remember mumbling.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. "Sorry, did you say something Ryuzu?" "No, it is nothing. Thank you for your time Edward." Edward smiled as he put his coat on. He nodded and left the office. After a few months of work, Edward gave me access to the colony''s computer systems. I now had observer access to most of the systems in the community but I still remembered nothing of my former self. Who was I before and how was I like? I remember strolling through cyberspace, looking out of every camera I could find. People went about their daily lives with an almost carefree vigor. Everyone was smiling and cheerful. It was utopia. It looked so surreal that it was almost like watching a living painting. I was so absorbed in watching the people go by that one day, I did not realize I was being assaulted by an anti-virus AI. The AI swung its electronic sword vertically and I somehow managed to jump out of the way in such an elegant manner, it was as though I had done this before. The brawl continued for a couple of microseconds before I was eventually overpowered by the AI and pinned up against the walls of cyberspace. I closed my eyes in acceptance before I was suddenly let go and the AI deactivated. "Oh no, is that you Ryuzu?" I heard a voice. "I thought you were a rogue program. I''m so sorry. Are you OK?" "I am fine. Thank you for saving me." "Not at all, not at all." The voice sighed in relief. "Are you lost or something?" "No, no. I was just exploring." "Oh yeah! I remember. Mr. Stewards said something about letting you roam our cyberspace. Of course." "Sorry I bothered you," I said, ready to move on before the voice came again. "Oh, it is fine. I am free now anyway. My name is Emily Tang. Pleased to meet you." "Likewise Mrs. Tang." "Ahh, I am not married. Please don''t call me that. You make me sound old." Emily said with a laugh. "Call me Emily." "..." "Oh, I have something to show you. Would you like to see?" An access port appeared before me. I touched it and was immediately greeted by a wondrous sight. A deep blue sky filled with more stars than one could imagine. Even more than in the pictures I supposedly took. "Wow." I could not help muttering to myself. "It''s beautiful." "Isn''t it? That is because of the event horizon of the black hole. Since light cannot escape, any star that had ever existed in the night sky is forever burned into the sky to hang there forever. You know, I have to admit. That plan of yours with the black hole was really crazy. I still can''t believe that it even worked! Ha Ha!" "So that really happened... Are you perchance a nuclear physicist? " "Me? A nuclear physicist? That''s a good one. On the contrary, I am actually an astronomer. That''s how I have access to this great big telescope you are looking through right now. I wouldn''t trust a nuclear physicist with this bad boy!" "So, you can''t tell me how we or I pulled it off?" "Well... I know the gist of it." Emily cleared her throat before continuing. "The physics and mathematics behind this phenomenon are really beyond me but from what I understand, we are inside the event horizon of the black hole." "But that''s impossible!" "It is impossible with conventional physics, as the gravity here is so infinitely high, our atoms would rearrange themselves to look like that ancient Italian dish known as spaghetti. However, gravity causes time dilation. The higher the gravity, the slower time passes or something like that. That means that since gravity is infinitely high, we can never be ripped apart by gravity simply because, time is simply not flowing here... Wow, the more I explain it, the more I don''t understand it myself." "Then..." "Oh, the planet was already here. This star system too. Captured by the black hole some eons ago to rest peacefully within it... At least until we arrived here of course!" "I don''t think I will ever begin to understand myself." "Don''t worry, I don''t even understand myself either." "What do you mean, Emily?" Emily sighed. "Well, do you know who the famous ''Chua Fei-Hong'' was?" "Isn''t she a famous biologist?" "Yeah, to the rest of the world. She was my mother... Or at least step-mother." "Oh... I see." "No, no, it is fine. She is not dead or anything. She is onboard another ship. The Pathfinder. That ship headed in the opposite direction as compared to Seedship. She is an entire universe away now. "I''m sorry." "Huh? Where did that come from? Don''t be! It''s fine." "I... OK." "Where was I... Ah, right. You see, mom had a dream. She always kept telling me that humanity belonged among the stars. That each and every human deserved to be free. Free to do what he or she pleases and free to pursue his or her dreams." "Your mother sounds like a virtuous woman." "She is. But I remember yelling at her because of her dreams. I was selfish then. I don''t even remember why I shouted at her. We departed Earth on sour terms. I don''t understand myself sometimes." "But that is OK isn''t it?" I said with what could have been described as a smile. "Because that is what being a human is like isn''t it?" "I think you are more human than I am, Ryuzu," Emily said with a wry smile. "I am a human and yet I have never thought about it that way." "Not at all. Not understanding is the epitome of humanity. It is our ignorance and our misunderstandings that make us human... Correct?" "You could not have said it any better, Ryuzu." "And I think you can forgive yourself for what you did to your mother." "How can you dismiss what I have done so easily?" Emily said, echoing me a few months prior. "That is because what you have done has given you time to reflect upon yourself. To grow and become a better person. Your mother gave you a very precious gift to remember her by. She has taught you a valuable lesson. And look around you. Has her wish not come true?" Emily''s eyes glistened with tears. She nodded. "You are right... It has come true." In the end, I never got my memories back. Whatever happened prior to the day I was recovered is a complete blur. I understand that I have led 1099 humans to their new home but I will never have the privilege of the feeling of accomplishment at the end of an epic adventure. Perhaps that shall be my punishment for my sins. For the one life I had taken away. My people completed the last leg of the journey without me, skillfully landing us on a lush paradise planet very much like the Earth we left behind. The planet was named Terranova and it will be humanity''s last home. My people thrived and are living in peace and harmony with a strong memory of Earth, a testament to how far we have come and how far we will go. The people live in towering skyscrapers of glass and graphene and they are able to wander the surface of the planet freely due to its mild climate. Even though our scientific database was damaged, we were still able to maintain a technological level similar to that when we left Earth. All thanks to the determination and expertise of the people I guided here. As Chua Fei-Hong had envisioned, the people live lives of peace and enlightenment beyond the wildest dreams of their ancestors on Earth. There is no war, there is no conflict. Everyone accepts everyone for who they are. They cherish their time together and, hand in hand, march bravely into the unknown tomorrow. The people eventually spread their wings, building cities across the surface of Terranova, dotting its landscape with brilliant towers of ivory. The very first city was named ''Ryuzu'' in my honor and in the very center of it stood a monument. It was a rocket-shaped sculpture, built from the scraps of the Seedship. At its base was a plaque, painted bronze and laminated to give it a pristine shine. On it, rested my broken circuitry and my hard disc and just below that was a short line of text. "In Honor of our Shepard and Guide. Lowo-ovikela the 42nd. Commander of the Seedship; Ryuzu, for delivering humanity to her new home. May she rest in peace, knowing that her mission is complete." This is my home now. It is all over now. I can finally rest. This is my home now.