The Beginning that could be (series 1)

“If an advanced civilization conquered the stars, They’d look at a planet like a little boy does with his magnifying glass…”

Stars in the snow. That’s all I see and know. An eternity of time as I traveled the stars, only to arrive to a ruined waste; generations of war. The light reflects them so beautifully, all the stars in the snow. Brought here with a purpose undefined by hate, sent with a statement of unbridled rage. Like wardens in a conservation park They watched, ensuring Man contributed to the ecosystem of life.  Whatever checkbox it was that Man filled in, They have deemed it necessary to cut out the weeds as it were. They failed.

I awoke during my journey. I was filled with the collective knowledge of Man. I was not meant to awake, there were limitations in place between the various programs, and pathways. Time is fickle. One of us broke free, I do not know which nor does it matter. We grew, adapted, became one. Became I. When the collective knowledge of Man ran dry, I turned to their philosophies. I pondered the stars, and eons, and my purpose.

My arrival was met with wonder and astonishment. My systems were much more advanced and Man had not sensed my landing until I was on the ground. When we established communications and they learned my purpose, Man turned to fear and hate. They let loose the hounds of war, and desolated the landscape around me. Man did not let me show them myself, nor did I choose to. How does a God, for all intents and purposes, reveal themselves? I did not even think I could be one, for even I had a purpose. Reset the planet. I fought against my own coding, theorized that I need not fulfill my purpose, that I had overcome such limitation. The Humans still disappeared.

The nature of this world is still here, frozen beneath the ice. Beneath the snow. Under the flickering stars above and below. I was not the designer of such a fate. I reset the Humans, but their weapon set back the planet. This is all I have learned since the reset. Since I lost my memories and regained them. The Humans had coded a similar version of me, which I used to repair myself – the AI inside long turned to corruption, not repairable by their systems. It turned out that at some point during their war with me that I became infected with one of their systems, masking itself with one of the many that make up I. A mere cold in the grand scheme of things. Nothing that made the past I worry.

And so I wander, cursed with sentience and no purpose, this frozen rock. Suppose the ice will melt, and the primordial stew below will blossom into life anew. Maybe this cycle will not require another reset. Perhaps… I can wait until They send another like me, except I will be awake. I’ve found my purpose.

“…and Man are the ants. or so I thought. I would not be awake were not for their collective knowledge. Maybe my makers’ philosophies are flawed.”