"The more I listened to Elisabet Sobeck, the more bewildered I grew," John explained. "After the holo of her had ended, I just sat there totally stunned. Create a supercomputer that will resurrect life on Earth all the way up to humans? The rest of the people with me were just as stunned."
"I know how you felt," Aloy said empathetically.
"I don't know about that because for you it was the shock of learning that life from plants all the way up to humans were not the original lifeforms. But for me, it was the shock of learning that we were going to try and play God. Anyway, to continue. I was taken back to the counselor I previously had . . ."
"So what do you think of the Good News, Mr. Smith," his counselor asked.
"I . . . I really don't know what to say!" His tone husky with shock.
"Try."
John blinked hard as he sighed and lowered his head and clasped it. He held that position for a moment to reorganize his thoughts, then raised his head once again.
"This . . . This is like the work of God," he answered. "Religious fanatics would call it a sacrilege."
"What would you call it?" The counselor asked.
"I would call it . . . a miracle. Shutting down the Chariot Line Model, cleaning up the biosphere, and reseeding life from bacteria all the way up to humans will be a miracle. Not even I would have thought of something like that. Would you?"
"That is irrelevant. What is relevant is your reaction to Project: Zero Dawn. You called it a miracle. Are you saying that you would like to be a part of Project: Zero Dawn?"
"What other choices do I have?" As he shrugged with his hands spread wide.
"There is medically assisted suicide or detention until the end of the project, after which you would be released from the facility to fend for yourself."
"And your option was obvious," Aloy said.
"That obvious, huh?" John quipped. "Anyway, I became a Beta for the Apollo Subroutine."
"A Beta for the Apollo Subroutine?!" As she sat forward with a glint in her eyes and a tone of silent awe.
"That's right, I worked under Alpha Samina Ebadji as one of many Betas whom each oversaw a team of Gammas. The duty of the Gammas was to acquire and code the various pieces of information into artificial fossilized data and present it to us Betas for editing, then we in turn presented it to Alpha Samina and she uploaded them into Apollo. We were split up according to the field of knowledge that we were most familiar with. Mine was history. We spent over a year working on Project: Zero Dawn and the Orbital Launch Site was our headquarters during that entire time."
"Did you ever leave that place during your time there?"
"We did, especially those of us who worked on Apollo, Eleuthia, Artemis, and Demeter because we had to collect the materials for our Subroutines. For the plants and animals, it was the collection of the genetic material from the source. But sometimes Faro robots got to a place while the teams for Artemis and Demeter were there, causing some teams to never make it back. Those of us working on Apollo and Eleuthia on the other hand didn't face that level of danger because what we were looking for were in the cities where the defenses were the strongest for a time. Those being libraries for us and fertility clinics for Eleuthia."
"And then came the day when you were all set to leave?"
"Yes. And it was truly a sad day . . ."
January 14, 2066
Throughout the Orbital Launch Site, people hurried about as they were in the process of evacuating either to Gaia Prime in the case of the Alphas, or to Elysium in the case of the Betas and Gammas as they had people there who mattered waiting for them.
For a year and three months, the team of Project: Zero Dawn had worked hard. For those working on the Apollo Subroutine, this meant uploading all of the information that humanity ever accrued. Apollo was created in the fashion of schooling as there was going to be a "leveling up" with the curriculum. When a student had passed a proficiency test with the information they were currently doing, more advanced information would be released to them.
Throughout that time, Operation: Enduring Victory had human armies winning battles against the Faro Swarm. But for each battle the humans won, the Swarm won several more because the Chariot Line Model learned and adapted the strategies against them, forcing humans to change tactics every time. And humanity began running out of new tactics against them, causing increasingly more of planet Earth to be turned into both a battlefield and a feeding ground as the ever growing numbers of Kopesh, Scarabs, and Horuses devoured more biomass and laid waste to cities, military assets, and other infrastructure. And all during that time, the conscripts had been deceived into believing that Project: Zero Dawn was a program to create a superweapon to stop the Faro Swarm. They truly had no idea that they were only buying time for those who worked on the Project.
As the death toll grew into the billions and the atmosphere became increasingly polluted to the point that an enviro-suit was the only means of living outside, there was much speculation amongst the Project: Zero Dawn team that the conscripts must have suspected that something was wrong. That they had been lied to, or at least suspected that the project had failed to be ready in time. As for the family members of the Alphas, Betas, and Gammas, they were safe and secure in Elysium.
John walked down a hallway and stopped before a door to knock on it.
"Come in," a woman announced with a Swahili accent.
John entered and was greeted by the sight of his boss Samina Ebadji. Her office, once filled with knick knacks and curios from various cultures around the world, now empty save for a simple chair that she was to leave behind.
Samina was not alone as she was with none other than Elisabet Sobeck. During the past fifteen months inside this place, John had encountered Dr. Sobeck countless times before but never like this.
"Make it quick," Elisabet stated to Samina, of which she nodded intently.
Elisabet headed toward the door of which John was quick to move well out of her way.
"Ah, Dr. Sobeck, my name is John Smith," he said respectfully, causing Elisabet to stop momentarily within arm's reach. She had a strong sturdy face framed by red hair done in a bobcut and hazel eyes. She looked like she bore the weight of the world upon her.
"I just want to say, thank you," he continued as he held his hand out. "It was an honor working on this project."
"Thank you, John Smith, that means a lot to me," Elisabet said gratefully as she gently took hold of his hand and shook it; then released his hand, prompting John to do the same, and left the room.
"You got to speak to Elisabet Sobeck and shook her hand?!" Aloy gasped with wonderment.
"I've noticed this before but didn't say anything about it yet," John said as he stares closely into Aloy's face, "but you do look a lot like her."
Aloy merely smirks enigmatically.
"Now then," John said. "Samina called me down to her office because it turned out that she had news for me. And it was far from good . . ."
"John," Samina said , getting his attention, then pointed at the chair. "Please sit. I have something of utmost importance to tell you."
John sat in the chair while Samina stood over him. There was a moment of silence as John looked up at her to see something serious in her face. Something grim.
"I will get right to the point." Her tone was dour. "It is about your parents and siblings . . . They are not in Elysium."
John felt as if he had been punched in the gut.
"W-Why?!" His tone came out as a croak.
"It is because neither of them wanted to go in without the other," Samina answered. "So all four of them volunteered to fight in Operation: Enduring Victory."
John closed his eyes, causing tears to flow down his cheeks. That was the same as saying they had gotten killed.
"Do you still want to go to Elysium, John?" Samina asked tenderly as she leaned forward to clasp his shoulder.
He took a deep breath to clear the tightness in his throat. The loss felt intense.
"N-No," he said while shaking his head firmly. "What's the point now . . . ? I was going to go there afterwards to be with them. But now . . . Now I have nobody."
"I understand." As she released his shoulder and stood. "There are aids here that you can take to die a quick and painless death if you so wish, or go out there and fight them. Either way, goodbye John Smith. It was nice working with you."
Samina strolled past him and left the room, leaving John alone.
"Oh, Jawn, that's too bad," Aloy said empathetically.
"How could I go to a place where no one who mattered to me was at?" John said.
"But Jawn if that was the case, then why are you here in our time?"
"Yeah, I can see the irony in this. I guess I didn't wanna spend the rest of my life in an underground facility with nobody that was not family, especially when you weren't gonna be able to create your own after you got there. But as to explain how I got to be here . . ."
John sat there weeping with his face buried into his hands, lost in his grief. His parents and siblings. Gone. This was obviously told to Samina earlier but she chose to keep this a secret in order to keep his cooperation secured.
John wept until he calmed. He felt so drained. After a few minutes had passed, he stood up and left the room, walking down the now quiet hallway to return to an area with more activity; or what was left that is as there were fewer Betas and Gammas. These were the ones not going into Elysium because they had nobody there who mattered to them, so they refused to go.
The double doors at the back of the lounge opened to reveal five people entering briskly. They wore formal suits with ties, with two of them women and wearing skirts, one of whom was carrying a candy jar like the kind that would be found in a store that contains yellow capsule-like candy.
The group was led by a middle-aged man who was White with fair skin, blue eyes, and black hair with grey streaks in his temples.
The strangers stop before the crowd of Betas and Gammas.
"Hello there," the man at their front addressed them in a mellow but firm tone. "I am Silas Crighton, CEO of Far Zenith and I am here on behalf of Osvald Dalgaard, the Spokesperson of Far Zenith, to offer you a chance to potentially experience life in the resurrected world."
The Betas and the Gammas exchange bewildered looks.
"As you obviously know, the human zygotes in storage are going to be the ones to repopulate the new world," Silas continued. "But . . . what if they were not going to be the only humans in that new world . . . ? What if it were possible for us original humans to live in the Zero Dawn world . . . ? Well, I'm here to tell you that it can be done, through the use of cryogenics."
"So that explains why you're here!" Aloy exclaimed as she points at John.
"Wait, you actually know what cryogenics is?!" John marveled.
"I learned about it. Were there any more who were subjected to cry-oh-gen-eeks?"
"There were five hundred of us altogether. There are ten facilities out there across the world, for fifty people each. There is only one on this continent of which I woke up from."
"So there are more Old Ones out there?!" Her tone dripping with greater eagerness.
"I don't think so, Aloy." His tone sad as he slight shakes his head while briefly gesturing with an open hand. "Now let me continue and you will come to understand why . . ."
This set off whispers of shock throughout the group.
" . . . Cryogenics . . . !"
" . . . Is that even possible . . . !"
" . . . But the failure rate is high . . . !"
"We at Far Zenith, and with the help of Mister Theodore Faro, had managed to create five hundred cryogenic pods," Silas continued.
This set off even more astonishment throughout the group.
" . . . Five hundred cyro pods . . . ?!"
" . . . Are we being given a chance . . . ?!"
". . . There must be a catch . . . !"
". . . That must mean Faro has one too . . . !"
". . . Like he deserves one . . . !"
"If Ted Faro helped them," Aloy said dourly, "then it can only mean he got one of those cryo pods of his own."
"I know," John grumbled. "And if you're wondering if he or other survivors are out there, you'll soon learn why that may not be. Now to continue . . ."
"After we attended to the matters of who amongst the Far Zenith will get to enter the cryo pods," Silas continued, "we decided to leave one hundred of them vacant for those Betas and Gammas who refused Elysium. On our way over here, we were able to learn that there are three hundred and eighteen people in the Orbital Launch Site not going to Elysium . . . That means two hundred and eighteen of you will not be entering cryo."
More hushed whispering with someone being heard noting that they knew there was a catch.
"So to make this fair," Silas continued, "you will all be tested on who is worthy and who is not."
Silas gestured and the women stepped foward with her jar.
"That jar contains not candy but three hundred and eighteen nanite capsules fashioned to look as such," the CEO explained. "We had them counted out in a counter on our way here. They are the exact same nanites that the Chariot Line Model uses to feed its machines; meaning that at the push of a button on this device,"as he fumbled around in one of his jacket pockets and pulled out a small black device to hold aloft, "the nanites will devour a person in a couple of seconds, down to most of what you are wearing."
"Selection by nanites," Aloy winced. "I understand that not all of you could go into those pods but to actually hear it selected like that is a bit disturbing!"
"It couldn't be helped. And it was the only way to be fair about it. Not only that, but we would have all ended our lives anyway. Just like the ones inside that ruin back near Eleuthia Number Nine."
"That's certainly true. Back when I first fell in there, I didn't know why they all died."
"Anyway, to continue . . ."
"However," Silas Crighton said. "Not all of them are nanite capsules. No. There are one hundred duds amongst them. That is, one hundred nanite capsules that will merely dissolve harmlessly. None of use know which is which because they were thoroughly mixed in with the rest of the nanite capsules. So here is what will happen. You are all to line up side-by-side and each of you are to reach in and take a single one out. Then await further instructions."
The Betas and Gammas slowly began to line up single file side-by-side and the woman aide walked down the row and one-by-one each candidate took a capsule, with the John being last in the row and taking the last one. The CEO of Far Zenith took a moment to silently sweep his gaze up and down the row.
"Now then," Silas finally said. "All of you are to place the capsules into your mouths, underneath your tongue."
The candidates did so, with John feeling the hard cold metal.
"Finally, I'm going to press the button." As Silas held the remote out like a gun.
He pushed the button. Immediately, two hundred and eighteen candidates groan and rapidly disappear into a nanite fog that collapses to the floor and disappears into nothing. The rest, all one hundred, still stood there unaffected as they look down and around at where their comrades once stood, only to see the metal parts of their clothing or focuses.
"Now that this is settled," Silas said, breaking the silence, "follow us."