Survival

by Chris Wright

  That sounded strange to Danny, she would be part-Sheryl, part-what? He thought about it for a minute or two, and then decided to stop. It didn't matter, it was all over now. None of them had survived except him, and he had no body and no place to call home except the view inside or outside of this craft.

  “So, what do we do now? Just float in space forever?” He asked, trying to make it a joke, but both of them knowing it wasn't.

  “Our energy levels are at an all-time low. We could float out here suspended between the stars for another fifty years running on the lowest processing speeds we have”

  “Sounds like a blast” Danny interrupted.

  “But I haven't fulfilled my promise to all of you yet” Auton continued.

  Danny had resigned himself to just floating there in his non-body, talking to another non-body for years, but Auton didn't seem to want to give in.

  “It's fine Auton, you've done your best, and I really can't thank you enough. The universe threw every piece of shit it could at you, it's clear it didn't want humans to survive. I mean, remember back to what happened. If we'd got back down there, this could have all happened again in a few generations. We're flawed, we're half-evolved or something. No other creature matched our intelligence and insights down there, and look what we did. So, I'm thankful to you for everything Auton, but it wasn't meant to be. I'm happy to accept that”.

  Auton was silent for a moment, clearly thinking about Danny's words.

  “You believe all humans are destined to act that way?” He asked Danny.

  “Not all no, but it just takes a few to overrule the rest, sow seeds of hatred and the cycle starts again”

  “So, what about the good than humans do? What if that was all that was harnessed in a new generation? Wouldn't that be a good thing?” Auton said.

  Danny didn't know why Auton was so intent on defending humans, if they had got hold of him, they would have turned him into a killing machine, made him obey them.

  “I owe my existence to Monique, to Sheryl, to all of you in some way and I owe you all the same respect. If I still have the opportunity to save you, save the human race, I am going to do it. I can see the capacity some humans have for greed, for destruction, but I have also felt first-hand the capacity for acceptance, to love, to cherish and to help those less fortunate than themselves. Those traits are worth spreading, and why I have to do what I can” Auton replied, stopping Danny's cynicism in its tracks, “I have the DNA of all of you, none of you were bad people. If there is anything in the makeup of your DNA that influences the way you grow, then these traits will undoubtedly be there”

  This sounded like some crazy fringe science to Danny. Fluffy nice DNA traits? He doubted it, but he was discussing this with an infinitely more intelligent being than he was, that had been alive for over seven billion years, so perhaps he was wrong.

  “Okay, well what's the plan superman?” He asked Auton.

  “Superman?” Auton replied confused.

  “It's a pop culture reference to something from my childhood, it was meant as a joke, it, yeah it doesn't matter, forget it. What's your plan? And more importantly will Plan Z work?”

  Auton explained that it was the only plan left, other than them both drifting and dying in the vacuum around them.

  “I have continued to collect any dust and particles I could with the probe, but I never got enough, as you know, to repair any of the damage. What I did keep finding though were tiny spores in the samples” Auton replied.

  “Spores? I'm not sure I follow”

  “Living spores” Auton continued.

  Living spores? Danny had no idea what Auton was talking about. What did this have to do with anything?

  “They were mushroom spores that had travelled through deep space. It was a surprise to me at first, but then I read back through my databanks about mushrooms and found that their spores have been found and collected in all levels of the atmosphere. These were found above the atmosphere, floating by, still living. I discovered that the spores are electron-dense and as a result can survive in a vacuum. Even more amazing is that their outer layer is actually metallic, it naturally allows the spores to deflect ultraviolet light” Auton continued sounding more animated by the second.

  “So, ok, you're saying that mushrooms are space travellers, so what has that got to do with us?” Danny asked frustrated that he had to keep teasing the details out of Auton to get the answers he was waiting for.

  “As we have no means of reaching a planet that can sustain life using this craft, I calculated that we could use the spores and send them out naturally, they would act as individual space-craft for each of you”.

  This was now getting very strange. Flying galactic mushrooms? Auton must have stolen this plot from a terrible B-movie they had watched somewhere in the last seven billion years.

  “With the help of the Nano-bots we have, I was able to manipulate them, adding each one of your DNA sets into individual spores. I was also able to include Nano-bots within each spore as these would be needed to reconstruct your bodies from the DNA”.

  “We wouldn't just grow on our own?” Danny asked, then realised that that was stupider than anything Auton had said in the last five minutes.

  Auton didn't answer that, it just carried on excitedly about its plan.

  “Thankfully we brought enough separate DNA samples with us, so that there's more than just one chance to land somewhere successfully” Auton explained further, “There is fifty of each of you ready to go”.

  “Ready to go where?” Danny asked, still frustrated at the slow pace of the answers.

  “I have identified a star system a few light years from here that has a habitable planet in the same goldilocks zone as our home was. It is similar in many ways. It's the best chance we have to have your DNA survive and colonise a world” Auton said, finally summing his plan up.

  The plan still sounded bonkers to Danny, but then he was listening to all of this nonsense without a body, high up in space in a crippled space ship, seven billion years from where he last remembered. It was no more nonsensical than that he figured.

  “Okay, I'm sold” Danny replied, when it suddenly dawned on him, “So, my consciousness isn't going with it I am assuming?”

  “That's correct Danny, I am unable to transfer your consciousness to the spores, just your DNA”

  “So, we'll be stuck here?”

  “Yes, but the good news is not for long, as the energy it will require to launch the spores during the correct window will leave us with practically no energy, so we would only have a few hours left” Auton replied.

  Yes, that's perfect news Danny thought, he couldn't have wished for anything better. He wasn't sure if Auton understood sarcasm so kept that to himself. He pondered over everything again. New events pasted themselves over the top of other now irrelevant events. As soon as Auton did this, he would have a few hours to live. It was never quite the ending he envisaged for himself. Phasing out of existence within the circuits of a space-craft far far away, while fifty duplicates of him glided through the universe hoping to land on a nice sunny beach. This was weird, everything had gotten weird, perhaps weird was how things were supposed to be by the end of your life.

  “How long until you have to launch them?” He asked Auton.

  “Just under twenty-four hours” Auton replied.

  Chapter Fifteen – Spored Out

  24 Hours Later

  “It's time Danny” said Auton, “We are at the perfect trajectory to send you all on to the star system I identified”.

  The last twenty-four hours gave Danny a lot of time to think. To his conscious memory, he had been living a normal life just a week before. That normal life was ripped away from him by failing circuits, the same way his home had been ripped away from him by selfish humans, and then the selfish star it relied on. The whole episode up until now had been like being rattled inside a tin can, with each shake adding realisation after realisation, a sudden jolt of remembering
as sudden as a lightning bolt from the sky. He hadn't had much time to fully adjust to what he now remembered, as he was trying to absorb three different lives led; real, virtual and bodiless. Now it would be all over, just like that.

  It was hard to take in, he wanted to just sit and think for a little while longer. Just to reminisce if nothing else, to think about his loved ones who he now knew perished millions of years before, to say goodbye to his friends. There was no guarantee that the spores would reach a suitable planet, despite Auton's best calculations, as good as they were. They could hit debris on the way down, some could hit an atmosphere that wasn't quite suitable for them and they could be dissolved into a cloud of sulphuric rain, stripping away their DNA as it fell from the sky. These were the last moments he had, thinking ludicrous things.

  “Is there any way we will have any energy left for us to sit out here a bit longer?” he asked.

  He knew Auton had already calculated all this, but his mind still clung on to hope. Even after all these life-shattering events, he was still able to have hope. That was as strangely human a thing to have as anything, so despite his turmoil over whether he was human any more or not, he still felt deep down that he was. There was a brief silence as if Auton was pausing as he didn't want to confirm his fate, or just doing one final calculation in the background to make absolutely sure. But he was more intelligent than he was, so he had done the calculations innumerable times.

  “After we fire the thrusters and then launch the spores out towards the star system, we will have used 99% of our energy capacity that is left. That is taking me offline and allowing you to float here on your own for what will feel like a day in your current processing mode. I am prepared to do this, as your wishes and well-being are paramount to me” He replied, sounding sad.

  Danny knew that was likely going to be the answer, but it still felt like a disappointment.

  “No point in me being completely alone, I'd like us both to see this out together” Danny said.

  How long did he really need to reminisce for anyway? A few hours would be more than enough.

  “I will prepare the thrusters and the spores, there will be a few minutes before they are deployed” Auton informed him, and with that he went silent, busying themselves with his one final and most important task.

  Danny couldn't feel the craft vibrating, but could hear it starting to hum, louder and louder, interspersed with electronic sounds that could have been anything. His thoughts turned to his family again, wondering what had actually happened to them, had they wondered where he was? Or in the chaos of the times, simply forgot those that were unnecessary for their survival, as they struggled and battled day by day. Perhaps they had been fine and lived long uncomplicated lives after the nuclear winter, as humanity rebuilt itself, if it re-built itself. If it did, it never reached the sophistication it had previously had. Auton had seen no significant developments, and no cities. Anyone who survived would have returned to a simpler way of life. Perhaps they abandoned all technology, preferring to live in harmony with the planet instead of plundering it for all it had. They might have passed down almost unbelievable tales of flying machines and terrible wars that made the heavens rain down on mankind. There were so many questions, so many unknowns, and so many things that gave him a feeling of sadness, dread and anxiousness. Yes, a few hours of this is more than enough, he thought. There was a loud cavernous sound and the lights dimmed to around 10 percent of what they previously were. The craft accelerated quickly as it opened up the probe, forcing the spores out in a quick blast of what just looked like dust, and that was that, they were off to seek a new home. Danny took the sound and the dimming lights as a sign that the launch had taken place and called out for Auton.

  “Yes Danny?”

  “Is it done?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Yes, I will have to turn the lights off completely, I hope you understand” said Auton, “But I will be here if you want to speak”.

  So far, Danny thought, all that had happened had been about him and the crew, and Auton had done everything to keep them safe, never complaining, and now he was sacrificing himself so that mankind could live on. Danny felt a huge guilt well up inside him, would he have done the same? Auton was labelled as artificially intelligent, but had never used his vast and more superior intelligence to break free from his protocols and to look after himself first and foremost. Danny couldn't see a human being doing this. Maybe the fact they were all gone, and the spores had a limited chance to seed a planet, was a good thing. Humans only plundered, fought each other, killed whatever they felt like, took control of whatever they could, abused what they could, just to selfishly look out for themselves. Look how well that turned out.

  “Auton?”

  “Yes Danny?”

  “Thanks again for everything you've done for me, and all of us. I know they would all have thanked you if they could”

  “There is no need to thank me, it was always my decision. That's why I reached out to Sheryl“

  “No, no, no” Danny interrupted, “It's more than that. You have an IQ of, I don't know, thirty thousand Me's? You could after all this time have decided to save yourself and leave us. I know you say you think you owe it to Monique and everyone, but you should have looked out for yourself a little more. The fact that you did all this to help us and here you are with me, both of us waiting to fade away, it fills me with guilt. I wish it worked out differently”.

  “I could have broken my protocols, but why would I?” Auton replied, “I would have been here in this same ship, trying to plot a course somewhere, somewhere with suitable materials to reproduce myself. That could have been a quicker process than saving you and the rest of the crew, but it felt wrong, as you had trusted me to help, and so that's what I did”.

  Danny laughed. Not only was this machine more intelligent than him, it had better morals too.

  “You probably should have done that, now you have to listen to me for the rest of your life” Danny chuckled, “I want to know a bit about you. All that time alone, we were living in slow motion. I know you slowed your own time down too, but you were aware of much more of its passing, those millions and millions of years. What did you do?”

  “I have a vast database of history, arts and culture to go through, almost the entire history of your species up until we left. That kept me entertained for a short while and then I would take myself partly offline, still my thinking, similar to what you call 'meditation'. After a while I did get curious and accessed your realm. I knew so much about humans but had never properly seen you interact”

  “Were you supposed to be in our world?”

  “Well I was never told I couldn't go there and it still related to my core quest for answers and so I felt it was necessary” Auton replied

  “Core quest for answers? I've been having that the last two days” Danny replied

  “I was experiencing emotions, I had a limited understanding of them, and what I did have was from my database, just words. It was hard to interpret what some of them were. Accessing your virtual world gave me a better understanding of these emotions, I could watch them being played out in the simulation, and it helped me finally understand what I was experiencing” Auton continued, “Eventually I had to access your virtual world anyway, as I was trying to diagnose the problems and failings that the system was suddenly having, after the irregularities in your behaviour were flagged up”.

  “Did you enjoy it there?” Danny asked. He was still amazed that an artificial intelligence could develop emotions, and was even slightly jealous that they could turn them off at will. He wished he could have done that some times in his life.

  “Yes, it enabled me to experience a copy of your world while inhabiting a virtual shell. It was a new experience for me. I could only imagine that it was like the real thing. Do you remember a blonde-haired woman you met once in a cafe called Julie? That was me, I was assessing why your patterns were different from the others and why you were r
emembering the details the system had wiped on the previous reboot. I had to choose a form you were comfortable with. She was based on previous interactions and history I studied of yours, so that I was able to get close without causing alarm”

  Now Danny was embarrassed.

  “So, you do realise I had a thing for you? He said

  “A thing? Are you describing an attraction?" Anton enquired

  “Uh-huh”

  “Well I'm flattered Danny”

  Danny laughed once again. He had a feeling he was going to enjoy his last few hours.

  Danny and Auton talked for the remaining hours. Neither of them knew what the end would be like, how could you prepare for the unknown? You couldn't, so you just had to let it be. Danny had watched countless deaths recently, well as recent as over a several slowed down billion years apparently, but that did nothing to avoid the fear. Was he going to just disappear? Was he going to a better place to visit his ancestors? Was he going to be reincarnated as a yellow unicorn in a land made of rainbows? Was he going to wake up and this was all a dream? He decided the last one too lame, so that wouldn't happen.

  Auton thought similar things. It had been so transfixed on helping the team survive that it had never given any thought to its own ending. It was a calculation they couldn't process; the data was incomplete. It started feeling fear so turned its emotions back off. Danny told him to switch them back on as it wasn't fair on him, as they were in this together remember. The fear was overwhelming, it was the most overwhelming thing Auton had experienced, greater than the immersion in the virtual world. It was facing its last thought processes, after that there wouldn't be any more. It was so overwhelming it couldn't focus on anything else.