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

Epilogue

Terrifyingly cold, a rock in space with no liveable atmosphere. A relic from the past. Crumbled structures from thousands of years ago lay scattered, stuck to the ground with ice.

Three people in weighted suits trawled through the rocky expanse, two of them were rather tall, men, the other was noticeably shorter. The men were dragging digging equipment with them on a trolley behind them. Their puffy white suits and thick, airtight helmets did a good job insulating and keeping the atmosphere safe, it'd only be a while until the group reached the excavation site that had been dug for reasons known only to a few.

"Man, how long have we been walking for?" said the tallest man over the comms, a private channel to the man walking beside him.

"Shame we had to stop the buggy so far away. Stil, you can't complain, she hasn't had a problem walking this far at all," he indicated to the shorter person walking in front.

"Yeah but she's... weird, y'know?"

"I get what you mean, feels weird just being near her. I mean, it's her."

"You a little starstruck too huh?"

The shorter man paused briefly, he then continued to walk, "I guess. It's not like I know much about this sort of stuff. But, you know, I've heard about her since I was a kid. Never thought I'd actually be working on a job with her."

The topic of the woman leading the mission had been popping up ever since the mission started. The whole time the two really couldn't keep it out of their minds.

The woman could tell. She'd been around long enough to understand how the minds of others were, and about how people saw her.

The three reached the gates leading to the excavation site. A huge cave leading into a mound of rock, there was a pillar towering up into space from inside of the mound. That's what they were aiming for, the base of the tower, deep underground.

There was something there.

"Third time here right?" said the taller guy,

"Right, well, the last two were four-month stints, been digging here for a while."

"I've been on this project for almost twenty years, twenty years and this is the first time I've met her, and the first time I've ever been to the site."

"A historical moment, this."

"Right."

"Thirty years... so I guess you were a teenager when they revived her."

"Yeah but, at the time I didn't really know how much of a big deal it was. I mean, bringing a prehistoric person back to life? When you think about it, it's wild, don't you think?"

"Crazy how much tech advances."

The woman in front of them. A relic from the past. Someone who had all but died during a time erased from history. That was her. The woman who shook the world.

They'd found her encased in a form of red glass, hidden in the ruins of a city in Mars. An ancient prophetic figure from a religion of a race that was long dead.

Imagine finding out a mythical figure from dead religion happened to be real. It was a big discovery. And while reviving her was a project that took years upon years. They eventually did it. They eventually brought her back.

Thirty years later, this mysterious woman with a human-but-not body had barely aged at all, had countless stories to tell, and offered knowledge of technology that man could only hope but dream of.

This project was her opus. Since her revival, this project was what she had been driving for. She wanted to find this mysterious location hidden in the vast expanse of space. She wanted to find this ruin. Why? Because there were more like her.

The insides of the excavation site were lined with dim lights, it was hard to navigate the mess of tunnels. It was still a long journey. Inside this mound of rock were many ancient structures.

Eventually, breathable air, the inner areas of the excavation site had generators for researchers to breathe in.

More walking, deeper and deeper into the alcoves of rocks that had piled up over many thousands of years. Finally, the three reached a wall,

"Behind this wall," said the woman, "will be the culmination of all my research. The discovery of the century. Could you both break it down?"

The two men nodded and pulled out the heavy drills that they had the displeasure of dragging with them. They revved the heavy pieces of machinery up and proceeded to drill them into marked areas of the wall,

"I'm glad I came here for the final stages of this project. I have to be the first to see them. Me alone." said the woman, although neither of the men was able to hear her despite communications in their helmets being open.

After several hours of heavy drilling, the wall finally collapsed, a tiny cave that led to the base of the tower. The woman stared at the cave and stood still for a moment, she trembled.

"Ma'am?" asked one of the men, "should we proceed?"

She didn't reply,

"Ma'am?"

"No. You both stay here, please. I just need some time with them."

The men stood back and let the woman walk past them. She entered the cave alone and walked into the darkness.

Finally, she reached the bottom of the tower, two figures were sat against it, two very recognisable figures. Both were encased in a black, rock-like substance. Some sort of preservative material had covered their entire bodies, the female had the male in her arms, her head resting on his, somehow. It looked like the material had seeped out of small ducts around her body and crystallised, ancient nano-technology, and she'd used that tech to preserve them both.

The woman who had come into the cave took off her helmet. Her long red hair draped elegantly around her shoulders and back in the low gravity. Her eyes were welling up. The culmination of her life's work, their return after thousands of years. It had finally come down to this. It was overwhelming.

"Ava... Aphrodite. It's good to see you again," Sylvie murmured through her quivering breath, before breaking down in tears.