Chapter 3C: Coming of Age
The USB the old man gave the girl contained enormous amounts of information. Within it was details of every single experiment he has done in his lifetime. It was both a memory piece as well as a treasure trove of information. The girl knew she had to keep it safe. She shoved the necklace back into her shirt and wandered around while waiting for the examiners.
______
On the way to the help desk, the man finally relaxed.
“Hey, Ma’am. Why are you rushing this girl through the process? Don’t we normally take at least a month to go through everything?” The man asked.
“Nothing personal to you, but I want to help her skip through all the bullshit paperwork,” The android smiled, “After all, I made a bet with a very irksome old man.”
“Who?”
“Just a pupil of my master,” The android replied.
“Y-your master?”
The man knew a few things about the upper world of Gaia. That most of the AIs are created by Mother but call their owner master.
“I watched the boy grow into an old man. I wanted to tease him one last time,” The android said with an emotional sigh.
The man gulped. He knew the AIs are immortal, but it’s not often they talk about their age. His superior officer warned him about asking the age of any of the androids.
The Android was lost in memories as she began talking about her life.
“I was born in the ARK program, raised there, and left with my master to a seed ship after he decided to retire.”
“R-retire?”
“Those who are tired of living no longer wish to live any further. After all, my Master was an original generation passenger. He has been alive for as long as the ships have existed.”
“T-they can retire?”
“Yes, they can retire. But first, you must surrender all the knowledge that will aid humanity to Mother.”
“H-how?”
“It’s an excruciating process. Imagine having to think through several million things at the same time as the computer copy the signaling pathway of each train of thought.”
“T-that’s…”
“Not survivable? Well, after you have lived for that long, your mind becomes something far stronger than you can imagine right now.”
“I see…”
It would seem the man learned something new about the secrets of Gaia today.
“Anyways, don’t speak about what I have said here today. You may be terminated for revealing such things.”
“Y-yes Ma’am.”
The android looked back at the curious girl.
“The third generation will begin with her…I hope you are watching Master.”
______
Registration didn’t take too long, the android had her ways of bypassing certain command orders with her high rank.
Soon a small shuttle was prepared. The back still held vital supplies for Gaia, but the front was a comfortable four-seat cabin.
The two led the girl in and helped introduce her to all the safety commands within the shuttle.
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“You won’t be the only passenger today, but you are the first. The rest will arrive eventually,” The android said.
“Yes!” The girl was excited about meeting other people who had the right to enter Gaia.
The android smiled while the man scoffed.
“This is where we part ways C5731A. Good luck on your journey and I wish you the best of luck in Gaia,” The android said with a thumbs up.
C5731A replied with a thumbs up as well as the two examiners left the shuttle.
“Finally alone,” The girl sighed with relief. She wasn’t used to dealing with people, let alone two people significantly higher rank than her.
So many things happened today. Almost too much for her to handle. It all happened so fast. Years and months of planning to all take into effect in a single day; she couldn’t help but feel mentally tired.
“I will just close my eyes for a moment and rest my mind,” The girl said with a yawn as she dozed off sitting in the passenger chair.
About an hour later, an excited looking girl walked into the shuttle as well. With an outfit that made her look like your typical tourist, she looked at the sleeping girl with curiosity.
“So I’m not the first to arrive huh?” She laughed.
Noticing the girl was still asleep, she quietly stored her luggage in the back and took a seat. Pressing a button behind her ear, a visor unfolded in front of her eyes like a mask.
“Enter Virtual Space,” She proclaimed as the visor came to life. She began writing on a holographic keyboard that manifested in front of her.
Around twenty minutes later, another person arrived. It was a bashful boy who looked very short for his age. The only thing that depicted his age was the beginnings of facial hairs stuck under his nose and chin. Without those, he would look like your average thirteen-year-old kid.
He looked at the sleeping girl and the hyperactive girl whose now working at full speed. Reluctant to start a conversation, he put down his luggage and took a seat as well.
The last one to arrive came about an hour after the shy boy. It was a very bold looking young man. His sharp eyes just screamed ‘fight me.' With a body was built like one who handles himself well in battle, he looked at the other passengers and just silently took a seat as well.
With all four passengers present and the supplied already loaded. The AI captain of the shuttle confirmed with the flight room of its departure schedule and closed the cabin door.
A loamy voice woke the girl up and caught all the passengers’ attention.
“Good afternoon passengers, the Express Shuttle to Gaia will depart in thirty minutes. The journey will take around twenty hours as we will travel along the tether. If nothing hinders our journey, we will be arriving at 1600 hours tomorrow.”
The girl rubbed her eyes and looked at the other passengers who have already gotten comfortable.
The hyperactive girl saw her staring and started a conversation.
“Hey everyone, let's introduce ourselves!” She said excitedly.
The shy boy wanted to back away while the strong boy looked like he wanted to brag about himself some more to these strangers.
“I’ll start!” Before the strong boy would start, the hyper girl began.
“My ID is U8822H; name’s Nell.” The excited girl said.
The girl was shocked. Names? She didn’t have a name.
The energetic boy then took his turn.
“My ID is S0912K, name’s Kurt.”
Then the shy boy.
“M-my ID is L4242N, n-name’s R-Ruri.”
Then all three passengers turned their eyes toward the last one.
“I-I…” The girl panicked. A name quickly came to her mind. It was a name she saw while browsing the files inside the USB. She decided it will be her name from now on.
“My ID is C5731A, name’s Alex,” She finally replied with confidence. This will be her name from now on, a label that’s different from just a code.
“Good, now that we all know each other let’s mingle!” Nell said.
Alex was slightly stunned by how social the excited girl was. But it was an excellent chance to break the ice.
“What was your ticket to Gaia?” Nell asked her.
“Inventions.”
“What did you invent?”
“Electric trees.”
“Woah, sounds complicated,” Nell said. She sounded like she wanted her turn to brag, so the girl just gave a small summary of her work before moving on.
“What about you?”
“I created a social network,” Nell bragged.
“Oh, what is it called?”
“Déjà vu.”
The two boys gasped.
“You created Déjà vu?” They yelled in reply, “Really? All my friends use it!”
Alex was clueless as she doesn’t socialize often. She was shunned due to her terminal illness and never really got along with other students. Her only friend was the old man. But to fit in, she just stayed silent and nodded.
“My turn!” Kurt, who didn’t want to be outdone, stood up.
“I didn’t create or invent anything, but I have passed the B rank combat trials and have gained the rank of Lieutenant,” Kurt said with a proud, boastful tone.
“A-amazing.” Ruri replied, “To actually pass the B rank combat trials means you would have to be able to survive an hour fighting over a hundred combat droids by yourself with no weaponry!”
Kurt smiled brilliantly as he flexed his muscles. Nell clapped and laughed while Ruri was still in shock. Alex didn’t know how to reply. It was another entirely foreign thing to her.
Lastly, it was the Ruri’s turn.
“I…” Ruri squirmed in his seat as the gaze of three colleagues of his age stared at him.
“I passed the memorization exam,” He finally said.
“Wow, really? Does this mean you have a photographic memory? The memorization exam requires the examinee to memorize over a thousand images in five minutes and repeat it back perfectly. It’s an insanely difficult exam as it usually leads to hard jobs like field recon or database manager.” Nell said with a single breath.
It was amazing she didn’t pass out from the lack of oxygen. Alex pondered how she get stuck with these three geniuses.
“Looks like this twenty-hour trip will be interesting,” Alex thought to herself.