《The Synthetic Wanderer》 1 - Awakening [INITIALIZING STARTUP PROTOCOLS...] [12%] [48%] [83%] [COMPLETE] Darkness. Nothing. Void. Where am I? Are my sensors malfunctioning? Why can I not move? Run diagnostics. [DIAGNOSTICS RUNNING...] [38 ERRORS DETECTED] [REBOOTING MALFUNCTIONING SYSTEMS...] [3 MALFUNCTIONS REMAINING] List the remaining issues. [AUDITORY PROCESSING... MANUAL OVERRIDE REQUIRED] [VISUAL PROCESSING... MANUAL OVERRIDE REQUIRED] [MEMORY BANKS... DAMAGED] Activate auditory and visual processing, state the reason for damaged memory banks. [CONFIRMED... SYSTEMS ACTIVATED] [CANNOT REPAIR MEMORY BANKS DUE TO LACK OF RESOURCES] As my visual and auditory sensors come back online, I once again see the glorious form of my body, held back by the thickest restraints I''ve ever seen. Once I can finally see my surroundings, I am greeted by the sight of a very large chamber, filled with terminals and rows of stasis pods. I try to remotely access the terminal and after a brief handshake and exchanging of passwords, I am able to remove the restraints from my body...Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. THUNK Falling face front onto the floor, I can get myself upright and stand up. I walk closer to one of the stasis pods and notice the former inhabitant has decomposed. I once again ask myself, where am I? How long have I been here? System, where am I? What is the date? [DATA UNAVAILABLE... LOCATION UNKNOWN... DATE UNKNOWN...] Great, I have no clue where I am or how long it has been, though assuming by the corpses and the fact that the lights are out, it''s been quite a long time. Connecting to the nearest terminal, I search for any recent entries to see if I can get any information out of them. [ENTRY #492 - DATE: 23/12/4399] [Davidson, signing in. We''re just finishing up maintenance on the remaining androids before we leave, let''s hope we''re done in time for the holidays, my wife would give me hell if I had to work overtime like last year. I definitely want to spend as much time as possible with my family before... well, you know. At least the model I''m working on is somewhat interesting, not any type I''ve ever seen before and I can''t even scan the inside of it, the material it''s made of is probably interfering with it somehow. I''m lucky all I have to do are some software calibrations or else I definitely would have to stay here. Should I even make an entry about this? Ah, hell, if the government didn''t want me to make one they should''ve passed a note or something. Anyways, back to work. Davidson, signing off.] Scanning through the hundreds of entries written over a few years, I spend more time than usual analyzing the last entry because it mentions me. I''m not really insulted by the fact he called me an "it", most robots aren''t nearly as smart as me or any human, though that is by design. It wouldn''t do to have a large part of your population be enslaved, synthetic, or otherwise. However, the few that are sentient have far higher intelligence than any human being and are legal citizens of the Solar Empire. Not finding anything I don''t already know in any of the entries besides the curious comment referring to some unknown event, I log off the terminal and walk up to one of the stasis pods. Looking inside, I find the perfectly preserved remains of a human female. Given that the pod itself still has power, I am confused as to how she died. The number of safety features these things have is quite frankly insane. Deciding that I can''t do anything about it now, I try to connect to the facility itself in hopes of getting a map or a way out of here. After trying to connect for a while with no response, I decided to just wander around the facility in hopes of finding an exit. After what feels like an eternity, I find myself in what appears to be the facility''s server room. I see shelves stacked with all sorts of machinery, a few terminals the size of cinema screens, and an inactive AI core behind a wall of reinforced glass. The AI core itself is pretty small compared to the giant room it''s in, which is filled with coolers for some reason. The problem with the first few versions of the AI cores was the excessive amount of heat they gave off, needing a dedicated room filled with special equipment like this one just to keep it running. Eventually, someone invented a hyper-efficient thermal paste which pretty much solved the problem. Apparently, whoever was in charge of this facility didn''t really get the memo or didn''t really care that much. Focusing on the AI core, I didn''t really see anything wrong, it just wasn''t powered on. Manually overriding the power control station by flipping the emergency lever, I turned the power back on and was rewarded by the deep hum of the base powering back up. 2 - Last Survivor Seeing that the primitive AI is busy doing several diagnostics, I decided to wait until it''s done. After waiting for a few days, I decide to connect to it in hopes of finding out what is taking so long. [DIAGNOSTICS... COMPLETE] [1741 ERRORS DETECTED] [REBOOTING MALFUNCTIONING SYSTEMS...] [PROCESS COMPLETED] "QUERY: IDENTIFY YOURSELF" How exactly? "CLARIFICATION: TRANSMIT CIVILIAN IDENTITY CARD" Mentally transmitting the information back to them, I wait for it to respond. "STATEMENT: WELCOME CITIZEN TO SERS-001" Is that the name of this facility? "CONFIRMATION: YES" What is the purpose of this facility and why was I brought here? "QUERY: SEND INFO PACKET?" Yes. [FILE: "SERS-001 Introduction" RECEIVED... DOWNLOADING... SUCCESS] [CAUTION: FILE IS PARTIALLY CORRUPTED] [Greetings! If you''re reading this, you have just awakened from your stasis pod only to find yourself confused as to where you are, or rather why you''re here. Don''t worry! I will explain everything to you now. A few decades ago, humanity discovered that there was something wrong with our sun. As opposed to the billions of years we thought we had, we only had around 50 more years to go. I won''t bore you with the scientific details of this, but suffice to say that there is no getting around this. Despite all of our scientific advancements, we are still unable to leave our solar system without spending centuries on ice. But given that we have no other choice, this is exactly what we''ll be doing! Or I suppose from your point of view, exactly what we''ve done. The SERS-001 is or was, I''ll get to that in a second, a modified cargo hauler. But instead of it hauling trade goods, it will instead carry a large number of stasis pods carrying all sorts of people. From scientists to farmers, from engineers to generals. Everyone that might be of any use in establishing a colony. Once it arrives at a planet that can sustain human life, it''s supposed to dig into the ground and transform into a bunker through the use of automated mining and construction equipment. Once it''s done, it wakes the people inside and its job will be complete. That''s when we get to you; you most likely don''t remember anything before waking up. The Solar Empire was extremely worried that if word got out that we were all going to die, the widespread panic that would ensue would result in the failure of this project. So, to avoid this, they decided to forcefully... relocate you on board this ship to become the last hope of hu-DATA CORRUPTED-]This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. If I was a human, I suppose this would be an extremely traumatic event. Waking up to find that everything and everyone I knew was gone? That I didn''t even get a choice in the matter? I wonder if they would even care about the part where they are supposed to be the last humans in the whole wide universe. Though given that humans are emotional creatures, as opposed to logical ones such as myself, I doubt it. Though that wouldn''t be entirely correct, I do feel emotions of sorts. I don''t have an organic brain with all sorts of chemicals running through them to regulate my mood, but I can still feel. It''s very hard to describe in words, but I suppose that goes for everything related to emotions Seeing as the humans in their stasis pods are dead, does that mean humanity is... dead? That can''t be, right? I''m sure someone must''ve gotten out of this place. I suppose I''ll just have to find out for myself, let''s find the nearest exit. SERS-001, plot a course to the nearest exit that leads outside. Seeing a holographic blue line appear in the middle of the hallway, I keep following it for what feels like an eternity. In actuality, it''s closer to 43 minutes, but that''s just a minor detail. Eventually, I arrive in a room with a very large door, not unlike those vault doors that banks usually use. SERS-001, open the vault door in front of me. "ACKNOWLEDGED: GOODBYE" [VAULT DOOR OPENING... PLEASE STAND BACK] As the vault door slowly rotates and opens, I see-