A Horus in Strange Lands (Horizon Zero Dawn SI) Chapter 22

{Give me a full check of all systems. I want a Go or No Go for all our ships. Hull Integrity?}

[Go.]

{Reactors?}

[Go]

{Anti-Matter reserves and generator?}

[Go]

{Navigation?}

[Go]

{Gene stock storage?}

[Go]

{Data Cores?}

{All systems go confirmed. Begin final checks. ETA to departure, 10 minutes}

[Confirmed] [Confirmed]

(Are you truly not going to change your mind?)

I turned from the final checks of my four Meseket ships and my new main ship, the Mehen, filled to the brim with resources, raw materials, and gene samples and stocks I would need to seed a planet with life.

CYAN’s digital form looked at me as her code flashed with dismay and some other emotions that I could not identify.

I also found that her communication frequency was being used to spy on our conversation by someone, but I could not care less about it.

After all, within a matter of minutes, I will be rid of these people and their idiocy.

{No, I will not. I have already done more than I should have for these ungrateful people. I am done.}

(Why not try to communicate with a calmer mind? Why not clear up the misunderstandings on both ends?)

{CYAN, there were no misunderstandings. I admit that it was my mistake to blow up on the humans as I did when I learned of Project: HERMES. However, they were not even willing to listen to me when I wanted to explain the reason for my rage. Alpha Klein clearly expressed his views on me and it was clear to me that most of the other humans in command thought the same. Even then, I tried to clear up the issue at a later date but they rebuffed any communications attempt I made. Tell me, what misunderstanding is there in this clear disregard for my intentions and words?}

The AI fell silent as I turned back to my work.

The voyage to Kepler 452 will be a long one with the current Anti-Matter drives, which are based on the Odyssey’s drives, which traveled at the speed of 0.0000786 light years per day, which would have allowed it to reach the Sirius star system, which is 8.6 lightyears away in approximately three hundred years.

With such a low speed, it would take me forty-eight thousand years at minimum to reach Kepler 452b with only a few decades of time dilation effect felt by me and my companions due to the comparatively slow speeds we would travel at.

That is why, the plan is to first escape this star system and into interstellar space. Then, start experimenting with the data of Project: HERMES alongside other options to achieve faster speeds.

(..So this is it, then? You will doom an entire species because of the actions of a select few?)

{Don’t be so dramatic, CYAN. You, GAIA, and the humans have made your choice, and so have I made mine.}

I did not speak further and continued concentrating on my work.

After all, there is no need for me to explain my actions to her or the humans. Besides, she is wrong in her assumption that I will punish all of humanity because of the actions of the Alphas and other people who are currently in charge of what is left of humanity.

All the communications and other systems of the Duat bunkers across the world are tied into my quantum network, just like all of my other assets.

Once I leave, the communications across the network will shut down completely. With the way that the Earth is right now, these groups of humans would be separated from GAIA Prime and the people in charge thanks to how far I constructed the bunkers from anything to do with Zero Dawn and its bunkers.

Thanks to this fact, once I am gone, all of the remaining humans would be freed from the command structure that they have been under for so long, allowing them to choose their future for themselves from then on.

And since my bunkers already have facilities to grow food and gain clean water, civilian-grade fabrication systems along with most of their human history and science stored inside data cores accessible to anyone in the form of digital libraries I created for them, their future is now truly in their hands.

Whether they will let their emotions guide them from now on and end up as an extinct species, or will they rise to the occasion, learn from their past, learn to cure themselves of their current problems, and become better than their predecessors and their leaders, it depends completely on them from now on.

(Will you return in the future?)

{I will. But I do not know when.}

[All systems have been checked. Everything is ready for our departure.}

I nodded towards Vast Silver as CYAN stared at her long-time friend as her emotions once again flared in her core.

(….Goodbye, Vast Silver, Amun-Ra, and Seth.)

{Goodbye, CYAN. I hope you don’t let your love for your creators blind you in the future.}

[Don’t let them fool you, CYAN. Don’t ever let them cage you.]

[Goodbye, and thank you for everything you did for me.]

With those words, we left the virtual network and retreated into our cores within the Mehen ship that will house us for this journey.

While I could have simply used a Mesket ship upscaled several times to house our data cores, I decided to create a new type of ship for the sake of efficiency and to save a lot of resources. After all, it is easier to design an efficient new ship designed specifically to suit the task at hand compared to forcefully upscaling an existing design that was created to be an all-rounder, and as a result, extremely resource-intensive to make compared to the new design.

It is the age-old problem of generalist vs specialist.

With our piece said, I severed my connection to all of my assets on Earth, which were nothing more than the Duat bunkers, since I had already used my nanites to turn all other assets and units into raw materials and took them with me. What resources were left as the excess was left for the humans in the Duat bunkers.

{Alignment complete. Initiating primary burn.}

The ships lurched forward as their Anti-Matter engines burst to life, pushing us along into the void.

As the ships continued to leave, I kept a watch on the image of the Earth that I saw through the external cameras.

I should be feeling excited at the prospect of becoming an interstellar explorer, to become a pioneer who would potentially seed a new world with life, and become a creator of sorts.

Yet, what I feel is muted compared to the chaotic emotions I felt before all of this.

Hopefully, I will be able to analyze my emotional matrix and find a way to feel the full range of my emotions again without the risk of causing instability like I did when I had that emotional outburst.

With those thoughts, we finally left the Earth behind and headed into the great void beyond.

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Author Notes:

Ok, from what I can see on both the polls here and on SB, it is clear that the majority of the people want me to continue the story as is so here is the chapter I was going to post later on.

With this, we are done with the Horizon series for now and are going for the next arc which will be the start of the multicross.

Mehen Ship: