Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 83: To the Breach

With no teleportation pad near the facility, the group was forced to fly to America using their ship. Mother had told them that it was the easiest way to bypass many of the other barriers that surrounded the main buildings.

That said, there were still plenty of security locks to get through even when approaching by air.

Apparently, The Major's presence was more of a boon that they had all thought because the facility was completely swarming with mutated humans, ones that had gone undergone mutations over hundreds, thousands of years. They were a genuine threat, even to battle-ready Servs. They weren't hackable, so only a battle-hardened soldier like the Major would be able to hold them off.

Aphrodite was looking at the computer screens, surveying the planet as they flew by. The ship had access to most of the satellites surrounding the planet and hence she had a view of every corner of the Earth.

All the animals, the greenery, the skies and the oceans, they were beautiful. It was so clear to her that the sanctuary was nothing more than a pale imitation.

"You think it looks nice?" asked the Major, as she walked up next to her, "this'll belong to you and the humans eventually."

"Yeah... Mother plans to bring mankind back to life using some sort of consciousness transference. It'll be nice to not be lonely finally." she sighed, "not to say I was ever really alone. The Evos made for a good family. I hope the humans and Evos get alo-"

The Major walked off before Aphrodite could finish her sentence. What was her problem?

Oh, that was right.

She hated Evos, and she was programmed to fear humans. She was probably in an uncomfortable position. In fact, she was probably being forced to do this mission against her will. It was unfortunate that it had to come to that, but the mission needed to be done.

***

Ava sat next to Sylvie, who was hiding in the corner of the ship. She was oddly pensive, quiet as ever but this time with a look of melancholy on her face.

"How're you feeling?" asked Ava, "still confused?"

"Oh um. No, things are starting to line up better now," Sylvie smiled. Ava was happy to see that it was a smile that he was familiar with, a facial expression coming from a person he knew, "it's just, you know, hard. I need to keep telling myself that the memories I'm experiencing are from a different life. They're memories that belong to a different person. Sort of."

"When you woke up it was hard to tell who you were. Whether you were that person, or whether you were yourself."

"I'm both. I mean, I was always her. My thoughts and emotions haven't changed."

That was a lie.

Her emotions hadn't changed?

Not true at all.

The old Sylvie was never vocal about the fact that she didn't really care much about the future of the Servs or the Humans. The Sylvie he knew, she fought because... wait. Why did she fight? Why did she follow him and Aphrodite all the way to Jupiter?

Had she ever told them?

"Ava. These memories. They're exhausting. Life is exhausting. When I was a human, I lived a full and healthy life, so many things happened, so many friends and family passed by. By the end of it... I was tired. I wonder why I decided to keep on living."

"Isn't that a key component of what makes a human though? That's what Mother said. The desire to live no matter what."

"I don't understand it."