[POV Era]

  The Radar Room continued to vibrate with the residual energy of the scan, projecting onto the obsidian walls a map of green points that represented the st scraps of human civilization. The farthest point, Settlement Number Four, blinked insistently at the edge of my peripheral vision. It was our destination, but also the endpoint of an alliance that was crumbling by the minute.

  I stood there, staring at the hologram, trying to mentally calcute the topography of the terrain that separated us from Sora.

  "System, calcute time and trajectory," I requested internally, feeling the neural link with the ship tighten slightly. "How long will it take us to reach Settlement Number Four from our current position?"

  [Calcuting biotic dispcement vectors] the system’s voice resonated in my mind, carrying a precision that now felt more familiar than my own thoughts. [Based on the average speed recorded for Subject Chelsea and considering the devastated terrain’s orography, the estimated arrival time is 48 hours. This calcution includes 6 hour rest periods for biological recovery and 30 minute pauses for nutrient intake.]

  Two days. Two days of walking through a concrete graveyard under the gaze of a sky that no longer belonged to us. Two days of awkward silence with the only person who still saw me, even if with contempt, as something more than a tool.

  "Chelsea," I said, turning toward her. She was leaning against a console, arms crossed, observing a screen she did not understand. "The radar confirmed the route. The settlement is far. It will take us two days on foot. Check your supplies. We need to be sure you have enough food and water for that time. We cannot afford to deviate once we leave."

  Chelsea looked at me. There was no spark of enthusiasm like in the early days, only tired acceptance. She straightened, making the bck mesh of her combat suit emit a subtle organic creak.

  "I have enough for tomorrow. I’ll have to scavenge along the way," she replied, her voice devoid of emotion. "But I’ll be ready in ten minutes. The sooner we start walking, the sooner we finish this."

  She turned away and headed to a corner of the room to reorganize her backpack. Silence settled over us again, heavy as lead.

  "System," I called, searching for distraction in the ship’s cold logic. "I’m worried about this pce. If we leave, the steel whale will be unprotected. It’s the only source of advanced technology and answers we have. Is there any way to seal it or activate defenses against intruders while we’re gone?"

  [Initiating diagnostic of active security protocols] a series of red schematics fshed in my vision. [Negative response. The self protection program that coordinated the psma turrets and interception drones was disabled through a forced code breach by the hostile entity that intercepted the ship in outer space. The weapon controllers are burned at a molecur level. Reactivation is impossible with current resources.]

  I felt a stab of anxiety. "So any group of scavengers or any pack of Ganuts could enter here and destroy the data core?"

  [Highly improbable] the system replied, and this time I sensed a tone of technical superiority in its voice. [You must understand the scale of this structure, Era. The hull material is a carbon silicon alloy doped with biotic energy. Its resistance is absolute against any conventional weapon on this pnet. Rifle fire, pstic explosives, or even human heavy artillery would not cause so much as a scratch on the surface. Only a massive and repeated nuclear discharge could compromise the ship’s structural integrity.]

  "And intruders?" I insisted. "The door opened for us."

  [The door opened for YOU] the system corrected. [The ship possesses an advanced genetic and electromagnetic recognition system. Currently, only the signature of Combat Unit 01 has Administrator rank authorization. For any other being whether Ganut, Armored, or human the ship is simply an impenetrable mountain of bck rock. Unless you are present to authorize access, no one can cross the threshold. The steel whale is the safest pce on Earth.]

  That reassured me somewhat, although the idea of leaving the mutated, agonizing crew members on the lower levels still weighed on my conscience. But the system was right. The ship was a fortress without equal.

  [Suggestion] the system added. [Given Subject Chelsea’s fragility, it is recommended to take reserve equipment. If her combat suit suffers a breach from a Css S impact, it will not self repair at the same speed as your chassis.]

  "You’re right," I murmured.

  I headed back to the armory. Chelsea did not follow me; she was too busy checking her own supplies in silence. Inside the equipment chamber, I took two additional bck combat suits. I folded them, marveling at how the material seemed to shrink and become light when not in contact with biological skin. I stored them in my backpack.

  Then I walked back to the Central Hall. There, on the pedestal where the ship’s memories had assaulted me, rested the red egg. Its scarlet heartbeat was rhythmic, a warm light that seemed to defy the ship’s darkness. I could not leave it here. If it was a gift for humanity or the seed of something new, it had to be with me.

  I took it with both hands. It felt heavy, but the heat it emitted was pleasant against my white gloves. I pced it in the central compartment of my backpack, cushioning it with the spare suits so it would not suffer unnecessary vibrations during the march.

  When I returned to the ship’s entrance, Chelsea was already waiting for me. She stood beside the light ramp, backpack on her shoulder and bangs covering one eye. She looked like a somber warrior, a shadow of the girl I had met on campus.

  "Ready?" I asked, adjusting the straps of my own gear.

  "Ready," she replied curtly.

  We exited the ship. The light ramp retracted behind us and the steel whale’s wall closed with a pneumatic whisper, becoming once again a smooth and impenetrable surface. Stepping back into the smoking crater was brutal. The outside air smelled of sulfur and a burned world.

  We began walking northeast, away from the city’s center. The silence between us was like a third person walking beside us.

  "System, keep the short range radar active," I requested as we navigated the remains of a colpsed bridge. "I don’t want surprises."

  [Radar active. Detection range: 500 meters. No hostile biological signatures detected in the current quadrant. Era, I detect a fluctuation in your processing rhythm. Do you wish me to initiate an emotional state analysis protocol?]

  "No, just... make sure to alert me if something moves," I replied, feeling the system’s voice becoming more human, or perhaps I was becoming more like it.

  [Understood. Continuous scan in progress. 47 hours and 45 minutes remain to the objective. Subject Chelsea’s silence is a typical defensive behavior of the species in response to loss of group cohesion. It is not a logical error on her part.]

  "I know," I thought, watching Chelsea’s back as she walked a few meters ahead of me. "But that doesn’t make the road any shorter."

  The two day walk was only beginning. With every step, we moved deeper into a territory where the ws of the old world no longer applied, following a green point on a map that promised to be the end of a journey and the beginning of a definitive solitude.