The future of Earth and many other races would be determined by one improbable birth, an event so unlikely that those who believed in destiny might see the hands of fate at work.

Our story begins in the year 2090 on Space Station KMB12, nestled in the outer reaches of the solar system within the Kuiper Belt. A merge pilot was about to embark on her year-long survey mission.

The development of merge pilots, unbeknownst to humanity, was a crucial step in their evolution. Humans had unknowingly set foot on one of the paths to enlightenment. In 2032, they developed the first viable fusion-powered constant acceleration drive (FCAD), a breakthrough that opened the solar system to exploration. Yet, despite this technological leap, human bodies were ill-equipped to withstand the demands of long-term spaceflight.

Attempts to replace humans with artificial intelligence (AI) also failed. No matter how advanced AI programming became, it could not replicate human sentience and intuition. Every effort to make AI a viable alternative failed.

The solution was to merge an AI with a human pilot via a neural connection. However, the strain of such a connection was so immense that it could only be maintained while the pilot remained sedated. This led to the creation of the merge pod—a self-contained life-support system designed to keep the pilot in a protected, sedated state while serving as the ship’s sentience and intuition engine.

Lyn Anderson was a typical merge pilot. She had undergone five years of intensive training and surgical procedures to ensure maximum compatibility with her ship, the KMBS-A05, and its AI. She had signed a ten-mission contract, a commitment that would see her spend more than a decade of her prime years inside a merge pod. The sacrifice was immense, but pilots were well compensated, both financially and through various other rewards.

Like all merge pilots, Lyn indulged in the pleasures of life during her downtime—especially in the days leading up to a mission. Little did she know that her pre-mission tryst would have consequences far beyond her own life.

On the fourth day of Lyn’s mission, the first improbable event occurred. Her contraceptive implant and the pre-mission health scan both failed to prevent the fertilisation and implantation of an egg. Merge pods were never designed for pregnant women, and their conditions were far from optimal for foetal development. However, one of the AI’s prime directives was to maintain the pilot’s optimal health. In response, the AI adjusted the life-support systems, keeping Lyn’s vital signs within ideal ranges. Unknowingly improving the chances of the baby’s survival.

For the next twelve weeks, the mission continued on schedule, with Lyn’s ship flying through the Kuiper Belt, scanning and cataloguing asteroids.

On day fifty of her mission, the second improbable event occurred. The ship was suddenly struck by an intense and unknown form of energy, disrupting the neural connection and severing Lyn from the AI.

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“Connection lost. Attempting to reconnect… Pilot not found. Attempting to reconnect… New pilot detected. Connecting… Connection failed. Connecting… Connection successful. Calibration started. New pilot profile created for Null.”

The underdeveloped brain and dormant consciousness of a baby were ill-suited for connection to a ship AI and unable to interact in any meaningful way. As a result, the AI defaulted to its base pilot profile.

In the distance, in the direction where the unknown energy ray had originated, another life form was monitoring the situation. A member of the Ophanim class of Angels, the Watcher was a being of pure energy, appearing as concentric rings spinning and rotating around a core of solid light. The Watcher and its kind were not celestial beings but highly advanced aliens from another part of the galaxy. When they first made contact with humanity 3,000 years ago, they had been mistaken for divine entities.

It had been one of the Watcher’s experiments that caused the release of a concentrated ray of psychic energy. The blast was too powerful for Lyn’s active consciousness, leaving her in a state of semi-death—physically alive but mentally gone. The baby, however, remained unharmed, protected by the dormancy of its mind.

The Watcher now faced a significant problem. The Council had long since declared humanity a “race of potential,” a designation that protected them from outside interference by higher races. The protocol for accidental interference was clear: remove all evidence.

That left the Watcher with few options. It could destroy the ship, erasing all traces of the incident, but that would mean killing the child. It could send the ship back to KMB12, but there was a risk the station’s scientists might detect residual psychic energy—an energy form humanity had yet to discover. The third option was to take the baby and eliminate the ship, but the Watcher’s vessel was not designed to sustain a human. It had no food, water, oxygen, or space to accommodate an organic life form.

After much deliberation, the Watcher settled on adopting the child as a pet. Yet, despite millennia of observing humanity, it had no real understanding of the needs of a human infant.

Fortunately, the Watcher had access to technology beyond human comprehension, including an instant communication system that had long been integrated into Earth’s various information networks. After scouring both public and restricted data sources, it found a possible solution.

Humanity had developed several systems for raising children in space. Infants were considered a drain on resources and difficult to manage during long space voyages. Most solutions integrated life-support systems with networked virtual environments designed to accelerate physical, social, and cognitive development while minimising resource consumption.

Project NGSS was one such system. Developed in secret by the Martian military, it was designed to create the next generation of super-soldiers, training children from birth to be the ultimate warriors. The system had drawbacks—reduced lifespan and increased mental instability—but the Watcher was confident that its advanced knowledge could correct these flaws. It looked forward to having its own guard human.

Time moved quickly. The Watcher deployed a drone to retrieve KMBS-A05 and transport it to its research base while simultaneously modifying and upgrading the Project NGSS pod for its new occupant.

Before long, the Watcher detected changes in the merge pod’s life signs, indicating that the child was about to be born. It had planned for this moment. With precise coordination, it commanded its specially designed drone to perform a C-section and transfer the newborn into the NGSS pod.

Everything was proceeding as intended. The baby was removed, placed in the pod, and the life-support systems were activated. Calibration began.

Then, multiple warning alarms blared.

The baby’s vitals were crashing. It wasn’t going to make it.