Aloy had never thought of herself as a great conversationalist but she, Beta and Zo talked all afternoon. There were many things to cover and even when Jay started looking droopy eyed, they still hadn’t talked about everything. Aloy picked him up and followed Beta to their room.
“Tomas and I share your own room,” Beta said apologetically which Aloy assured her was fine, “but when we renovated the base, we were able to make some larger, family rooms with space for children.” She opened the door and led Aloy into a bedroom which had enough space for two smaller beds, a large bed with a retractable room divider and even a low table and chairs.
Aloy carried Jay to one of the beds and lay him on it, using the quilt to cover him up. She tucked him in and brushed his black hair away from his face.
“I couldn’t imagine you as a mother,” Beta said softly from behind her, “now…it just seems right.”
“I still feel like I’m doing it all wrong.” Aloy admitted, standing up and moving away. “Kotallo took to being a parent like…like it was the most natural thing in the world. Me? I just don’t…know how to talk to them like others do.”
“I think you’re better than you think you are.” Beta folded her arms. “Besides, you can’t be brilliant at everything.”
Aloy turned and smiled at her. “So, are you and Tomas thinking about having children?” She swallowed. “I mean, I’m guessing you’re…” She nodded pointedly. “You know…cause you’ve got a room together…”
“We are,” Beta nodded, “but we’re not.”
“You’re not…”
“We made the decision not to have children.” Beta waved Aloy out of the room and she followed.
“Not that I think every couple should…but why…” Aloy paused. “Tomas’ health?” Beta’s freckles were stark against the pallor of her skin. “It’s worse than you’re making out, isn’t it?”
“Accelerated maturation,” Beta sighed, “Gerard and Walter screwed him up on a genetic level that the rejuvenation capsule can’t fix…it can only keep him from deteriorating…but as he gets older, the more time he’ll need to spend in it.” She glanced towards the stairs which, Aloy guessed, was still the way to access the room where the rejuvenation capsule was installed. “Eventually we’ll have to make some hard decisions about the kinds of disabilities he can live with so that he doesn’t have to spend his whole l life in the capsule.”
Aloy followed Beta into the common room.
“What kinds of disabilities?”
“Oh…the use of his legs possibly…needing artificial legs to help him be mobile.”
Aloy’s heart splintered and bled. “Beta,” she put her hand on her shoulder, “I’m so sorry.” She swallowed. “But even with his health issues, surely you could have children…or is that another problem?”
“What do Tomas and myself know about children?” Beta asked dryly. “We were born in isolation, raised in isolation, Tomas is chronologically only seventeen years old…we’re hardly candidates for parenthood.”
“If I can do it, anyone can.” Aloy laughed.
“We just wanted to experience life…maybe even have our own adolescence,” Beta picked up the cups from the table and took them to the sink, “children…they’re a blessing but a big responsibility. I mean, you can’t just drop them and go whenever you feel like it.”
“No…”
“Aloy!” Aloy turned and was nearly knocked over by arms that wrapped around her in a warm hug. “Oh my goodness I’m so sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived! I was preparing for the trip and a few days later and we might have missed you altogether…”
“Alva?” Aloy disentangled herself from the Quen Diviner and pushed her back. “It is you!”
Alva’s sweet face greeted her, her cheery disposition as bright as a gerbera.
“It is so good to see you, Aloy! Oh and you’re wearing your new FOCUS? How is it? Or am I talking to Ally?”
“I’m Aloy.” She laughed. “Alva it’s so…who…”
A young woman with dark hair and timid eyes greeted Aloy, standing a few steps away.
“I know you…” Aloy murmured, searching her memories but unable to place her.
“It’s been seven years.” She nodded. “I know you too, Aloy.”
Aloy’s eyes widened at the sound of her voice. “Kina?”
The young Quen with a gift for navigating the stars, nodded.
“What…what are you doing here?” Aloy’s spine trembled. “Is Seyka here?”
“No, she’s not.” Kina swallowed. “It’s…a long story…” She glanced at Alva. “One that needs to be told.”
“Let’s go to my room.” Alva led them into her space and they sat around a coffee table. “So, where should we start…”
“To when I messed everything up at Fleet’s End.” Aloy said firmly.
“Aloy…”
“Well I did…big time.” Aloy argued.
“You were a catalyst,” Kina admitted then shook her head, “but it wasn’t your fault.” She cleared her throat. “So, there we were at Fleet’s End, after the violent revolution that killed more than half of the Quen.” She looked at Alva. “The Quen at Landfall were coming to pick us up, those that survived.”
Aloy could still remember the blood in the sand, the smell of smoke…the many deaths…
“The voyage home took three weeks,” Kina explained, leaning forward, “and when we arrived, we were met at the docks by officers of Compliance. Apparently Diviner Bohai had been in contact with them before we even sighted land.”
“I’ll would have been for his own benefit.” Aloy said dryly, recalling the man whose number one priority was himself.
“You can bet on it.” Alva nodded, having served with Bohai.
“We were all escorted from the docks to Compliance headquarters where we spent days and days being interrogated.” Kina shook her head. “I don’t even know how long I was there. I was taken out of my cell and questioned over the journey, the Admiral’s conduct, my own, Seyka’s…then I was put back in my cell and left…I honestly thought they’d forgotten about me.”
Aloy swallowed. “What happened?”
“Eventually I was brought before the Imperial Family,” Kina breathed in deeply and blew out, “me in my stinky, sweaty, filthy clothing shaking before their royal robes, their opulence and grandeur.”
“I think that was on purpose.” Alva looked at Aloy pointedly. “The Imperial Family liked having their distinction of rank preserved.”
“What did they say?”
“I was asked, specifically, about you. About your motives, your interactions with the Quen…”
“Had they seen the ember with the message I recorded?” Kina nodded. “I take it, it wasn’t well received.” Aloy sighed. “I tried to be so tactful in my wording…I knew the Quen wouldn’t readily accept that many of their foundational truths were based on outdated information.”
“It didn’t help that Diviner Bohai did his best to distance himself from you and your message,” Kina explained, “he gave them the ember then washed his hands of you.”
“Charming.” Aloy rolled her eyes.
“He’s not the only one.” Kina swallowed. “Admiral Gerrit did the same…and Seyka.”
Aloy tried to smile reassuringly at Kina though her words hurt. “That doesn’t surprise me. I hurt her. I betrayed her.”
“You weren’t the first.” Kina said pointedly, tapping her chest. “On the journey home, Seyka spent so much time with me…”
“Trying to rebuild your relationship?” Aloy asked.
“No…making me recite over and over what happened, how I was fooled by an ‘ancestor’ replica…and how it was all your fault.” Kina’s cheeks filled with colour. “When I stood before the Imperial Family, I recited her damning account of you, word for word.”
“If you hadn’t, you would have been executed,” Aloy’s throat was tight as she tried to speak, “Seyka was trying to save your life.”
“I don’t know…not anymore.” Kina licked her lips. “Admiral Gerrit retired with honours, the way he wanted to. Diviner Bohai received all the accolades he wanted, claiming the change in violent weather patterns and the recession of the floods were his doing.”
“Oh he really was a piece of work…” Aloy groaned then looked at Kina. “You?”
“Still the Imperial Family favourite.” Kina shrugged. “Seyka said I was a brilliant astrologer…but too young and naïve to recognise when someone was lying to me. Her testimony of my innocence led to my being controlled by the Imperial Family even more so than before. All my movements were recorded and I had to justify any outing…” Aloy swore softly. “Seyka cut her ties with the ocean and became an Imperial Bodyguard.” Kina looked at Alva. “All knowledge about the venture was strictly limited to those who went…and most of those sailors and guards I never saw again.”
“Even after Nemesis was defeated, we couldn’t raise the Quen on any frequency.” Alva explained. “They refused to have anything to do with us.”
“What about the change in the machines? When they stopped being aggressive?” Aloy looked between them. “Surely that should have shown there was some greater plan at work.”
“The Imperial Family’s palace was built over a cauldron,” Alva explained, “they didn’t stop what they were doing, killing machines to demonstrate their absolute power.”
Aloy swallowed. “I bet Hephaestus didn’t like that.”
“No, he did not.” Alva cringed. “It was one of the worst moments, when we thought we were going to lose his cooperation. The Quen refused to change their ways and Hephaestus sent wave after wave of machine against the city, trying to free the passage of the machines from its core.” She looked at Kina. “Thankfully Gaia was able to find a solution that didn’t involve the destruction of the Quen’s city. Hephaestus shut down the cauldron.”
“And much of the city’s power supply disappeared.” Kina shivered. “It was the start of the end.”
Though they were inside, Aloy would have sworn the room darkened, becoming sad and gloomy.
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“What happened?” She asked, sure she wasn’t going to like the answer.
“The people began to question the ‘sovereignty’ of the Quen’s Imperial Family,” Kina said softly, “and despite Compliance’s best efforts, rumours about what happened at Landfall and Fleet’s End were circulating. The Ceo’s death, the ember’s message…you,” she looked at Aloy, “cells of resistance began to form, riots when food became scarce…ships were burned at the docks. The Imperial Family, instead of speaking to the people, tightened their grip and gave Compliance more and more power. Hundreds were arrested and held without trial and accusations flooded the city. But the people had had enough.” She shuddered. “In the end, people were being executed in the streets by Compliance…”
Aloy swore. Alva’s face was pale and bleak.
Kina sniffed and lifted her head. “I was in the palace and didn’t know much but Seyka, because she was a guard, knew a breaking point was coming. There was a mighty riot, the gates of the palace sieged by the people who were starving and freezing to death. Many inside the palace, servants and even some guards, turned on the Imperial Family and opened the doors.”
Aloy could almost hear the screams of terror and the angry war cries of a people suffering in ignorance and neglect. She could smell the smoke and taste the blood.
“How did you survive?” She whispered.
“Seyka got me to a secret exit with the Imperial Family’s children. She instructed a guard to help me get them to safety…then she went back to protect the Imperial Family.”
Aloy gazed at Kina, the truth unable to be avoided.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?”
Kina nodded.
“They all are.” Alva added. “Anyone sympathetic to the Imperial Family was cut down. If not for Kina, the children would have perished.”
“How,” Aloy blinked, trying to regain focus, her mind whirling with grief and knowledge, “how did you come to be here?”
“I used a FOCUS to contact Gaia.” Kina explained. “Once outside I found the highest point I could reach and sent out an SOS. First Gaia spoke to me then Alva.”
“Where did you get a FOCUS?”
“I stole the one the guard was wearing,” Kina shrugged, “he was killed in a cave in. The FOCUS was meant to open the final exit point.”
“When Kina told me about her situation, I knew the most important thing was to save the children.” Alva explained, taking over the narrative. “Kina had to get the children down to the coastline and then Hephaestus brought a Tideripper, modified into a machine barge, right up to the shore.”
“He did that, after all the Quen had done?”
“I think Gaia had to convince him but yes.” Alva laughed.
“I was so grateful,” Kina smiled, “I mean, there I was, not more than a child myself, suddenly encumbered with Imperial Family children who believed they were the superior race, superior to me…to everyone…”
“They sound delightful.”
“By the end of the journey, most of them had changed their tune.” Kina admitted. “I mean, it’s hard to deny their assumptions are flawed when Tiderippers carry them across the ocean and Waterwings drop food parcels onto the barge…then we’re met by a herd of Striders and brought to the base…”
“Wait…where are all these children?” Aloy sat up.
“We found homes for them, mostly with the Utaru.” Alva explained. “Kina has been spending time with them, letting them know they’re not forgotten. For the most part, they’re settling in…after some initial attitudes about ‘primitive lower class tribes’ were scrubbed away.”
Aloy sank into her chair, shaking her head. “You’re both extraordinary, you know that?” Alva and Kina both laughed. “What?”
“That’s rich coming from you.” Alva said pointedly.
“You did so much for us, amidst persecution and condemnation.”
“I screwed up a lot too.” Aloy was surprised at Kina’s hand on hers, her dark eyes locking onto her pale green ones.
“What happened was not your fault. Yes, you had a hand in it…but the culture of my people and its subjugation…that took generations to develop.” Kina sat back. “Stop trying to take the credit for their arrogance.”
Aloy couldn’t help but smile. She shook her head. “You remind me of Seyka, you know that?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry she isn’t here to see the future.”
“She didn’t want it,” Kina sighed, “she nurtured her hate until it burned in her veins. But that was her choice,” Kina glanced at Alva and nodded, “that’s something I’ve had to come to terms with as well.”
Aloy frowned. “What about Tomas? He’s here, you’re here…that’s got to be awkward.”
“Do you know something?” Kina stood up with a smile. “Despite the deception and arrogance…if not for Tomas, all the Quen that he enthralled would have been at Fleet’s End and many, if not all, would have been killed.”
“Some did die…”
“And when I found out he was only ten years old,” Kina added, “I guess…as I got older…I understood him more. I’m not saying we like being together…but he said he was sorry…and I refuse to be so like my sister that I can’t let go of my hate. We’re…okay.”
They dined together, Aloy, Kotallo and their two children, Zo, Erend and Aran, Kina, Alva, Beta and Tomas. There were stories told and many laughs to be had. Aloy was a little distracted, able to see the stairs to the control room from her position. She distracted herself with eating and asking questions, more social than she had ever been before. And after dinner, she offered to clean up, picking up the plates but Beta took them from her and gave her a pointed look.
“You’ll feel better once you do.” She said and Aloy swallowed.
She suspected all eyes were on her as she walked to the stairs but when she glanced over her shoulder, everyone was cleaning up and the children were playing.
Aloy sighed deeply, looked at the door control, her FOCUS allowing her to activate the release and walked into the circular room with the domed ceiling where Gaia resided.
It, too, had undergone renovations. All holes and damage had been repaired or patched up and new panels lined the walls and floor. There were stadium styled seating around the outer rim of the room, facing inwards and striding across the floor, gazing at the display, was the golden, glittering, luminous form of Gaia.
Aloy stood on the threshold, staring at her back, biting her bottom lip.
“Hi, Gaia.” She eventually managed to muster.
Gaia turned and looked at her, her eyes managing to convey the depth of a soul and her face, as kindly and warm as it ever was.
“Hello Aloy,” she said with a nod, “welcome back.”
“Thanks.” Aloy swallowed. “Listen…Gaia…I…I was wrong to order you to betray your foundational programming.” She licked her lips, trembling internally. “I just…I didn’t think there was any other option and thought you might protect me to the point of sacrificing the earth…”
“Aloy…”
“Yeah?” She stopped speaking and looked up.
“I forgive you.”
Aloy’s lips trembled and tears stung her eyes. “But…I violated our trust…and abused Elisabet’s authority as an Alpha.”
“I know why you did what you did,” Gaia nodded, “I only wish you had trusted me to come to the same conclusion as you had.”
Aloy gazed at her. “So…there was no other way?”
“No.”
“You would have let me go?”
Gaia nodded. “Reluctantly but with resolve. However, your companions would have protested, possibly to the detriment of the earth. I am not angry with you, Aloy. I was disappointed, but I understand that, at the time and based on your knowledge, it was our only option.”
Aloy felt a tear trickle out of her eye. “I’ve missed you, Gaia.”
“And I, you.” Gaia waved her hand to the common room. “I know the others have been filling you in on the news worldwide. Was there anything else you wanted to know?”
“Yeah,” Aloy sank onto a chair, relieved of her nervous burden, “how are you doing?”
“I suspect your question is not related to my functionality but rather, my state of being.”
“Yes.”
“I am well,” Gaia smiled, “I am whole, with the exception of Hephaestus and HADES and I am seeing Horizon Zero Dawn outworking across the world, reaching, connecting and enlightening people. It is a very fulfilling and challenging time.”
“Especially with two children,” Aloy winked, “Cyan and Hephaestus.”
“While they started out as subordinates, they are becoming more like peers as they grow, develop and mature.”
“Even Hephaestus?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “You are also a mother, Aloy.”
“I am.”
“And a wife.”
“Yes,” Aloy smiled, “I suppose you knew that was going to happen?”
“I have predictive capabilities but the capacity that humans have to surprise and act spontaneously, recklessly…even foolishly, often confounds the best projections.” Gaia explained, able to walk across the room and sit on a chair made of light. Though she was a holographic representation of the core program that managed the terraforming AI, Gaia had a grace and a presence like no other. “It is a challenge not to act in a manner that causes humans to rely on my abilities.”
“I bet,” Aloy nodded, “the old ones came to rely on robots and artificial intelligence so heavily that they endangered their own livelihood.”
“And while I have safeguards to keep me from ever operating without human intervention and government, that does not mean I am infallible,” Gaia tilted her head, “this is a notion that has been particularly hard for several tribes to accept.”
“The Banuk, for one, I imagine.”
“Yes, although it is Cyan who must navigate those waters. She asks my advice about the Banuk and the best way to deal with their ‘worship’ as she appears to embody the Blue Spirit of their belief system.”
Aloy swallowed and licked her lips. “What about the Nora? Do they refer to you as All Mother?”
“In the formative steps, encouraging the Nora into the Cradle facility, some blending of fact and fiction was used,” Gaia admitted, “which was uncomfortable but necessary.”
“Even though it was essentially a lie?” Aloy cringed.
“The Cradle facility was referred to as the womb, from which the first humans that made the Nora tribe were ‘birthed’,” Gaia narrated and Aloy listened, “it is something to their credit that they recalled that they came from the mountain at all and did not attribute their existence to something like the sun.”
“You’re saying, in a way, you are All Mother?”
“Not to the extreme that the Nora believe,” Gaia explained firmly, “however, I can hardly deny that my presence, utilising the subfunction of ELUTHIA, was not responsible for their life. Obviously, I was not the ‘All Mother’ presence they wished me to be or else I could have educated them with APOLLO…but perhaps, rather than ‘All Mother’, their honouring of my role in their life could be titled…mother.”
Aloy smiled at Gaia’s almost timid claim. “I think that’s appropriate.” She breathed out. “At least they seem to be moving away from stupid titles and ‘life giving’ religions that have no basis in reality.” She caught sight of Gaia’s eyes studying her and marvelled again at how lifelike Gaia was.
“I see you are still as resistant to any idea of religion as you ever were.”
“All the religiosity in the world did no one any good.” Aloy stood up and shrugged. “It certainly didn’t save anyone that prayed.”
Gaia stood with her and paced slightly. “Aloy…upon my reintegration of APOLLO and all the literature it contains, I have been exposed to multiple religions, their origins, theologies and their outworking in the lives of the old ones, as they have been titled. After studying them in my downtime, it has come to my attention that, life itself, is so complex…so extraordinary in its scientific composition yet beautiful in its presence…that I believe there is a greater knowledge and being at work.”
“Tell me you’re talking about another AI…” Aloy said sternly and Gaia shook her head. “Are you serious? You’re telling me you’ve stopped believing in logic and reason to follow some…ridiculous notion of a deity?”
“I could never abandon reason and logic,” Gaia refuted, “in fact, reason and logic have brought me to the contemplation of something more than the sum of what I know.” Aloy snorted. “Aloy, could life have existed without Zero Dawn after the FARO plague?”
“No and that’s the point! It took humans to create it!”
“No,” Aloy blinked, stunned at Gaia’s quiet protest, “it took humans to salvage it, to preserve what they could. Even Elisabet, in all her knowledge, could not make something from nothing.” Gaia gestured to herself. “Even I am based on Cyan who is based on other AIs who were based on dozens of years of programming and experience. I was created.”
“One might argue that you evolved.”
“No,” Gaia replied, “for I am as I was when I was created. I have not changed in essence of what I am. I have developed in areas and expanded my experience…but my core programming, what makes me, me, is unchanged.”
Aloy shook her head. “You think there’s some kind of grand entity in the universe that orchestrates our lives?”
“I am open to the possibility.” Gaia admitted.
“Then how could it let the earth nearly perish!” Aloy exclaimed. “How could it let the old ones die! How could it abandon us?!”
Her hands were closed into fists and she was shaking. Gaia gazed at her calmly.
“You are here, are you not?”
Aloy’s jaw dropped open and she was stunned into stillness. Gaia held her stare.
“I…I’m here because you, or rather your predecessor, triggered my gestation in the Cradle facility.” Aloy’s jaw was tight. “I am not, nor have I ever been, anyone’s puppet.”
“Indeed, for you could have chosen many paths for your life…and yet…”
Aloy closed her eyes. “And yet, what?”
“When my predecessor triggered your gestation…if I set aside all my knowledge about how you came to be standing here, I calculate your chance of succeeding against HADES, the Zeniths and Nemesis at point three percent.”
Aloy swallowed, her throat as strained as if someone was strangling her. “Your predecessor believed I would succeed.” She argued softly.
“Indeed…she believed.” Gaia repeated and Aloy’s skin prickled. “Have you stopped to consider the circumstances that led to your standing here.”
“Many times.”
“And now, remove just one.” Gaia waved her hand and images of Aloy growing up, fighting machines, using her FOCUS, travelling across the country, infiltrating ruins and making allies made up a complicated and extraordinary mural. “There are too many unexplained and extraordinary moments in your life to put down to coincidence. Even your exile as a baby was critical.”
“How?” Aloy asked weakly, sinking onto a chair.
“If you had been adopted into the tribe, you would never have been shunned as a child, run from the confrontation with Bast and fallen into the old world bunker where you obtained your FOCUS.” Gaia showed the image of Aloy reaching for the FOCUS that rested on the skull of the dead man she’d retrieved it from.
“I…I might have been stubborn and found one another way.” Aloy argued.
“With the Alpha registry corrupted at the cradle facility, you would not have been able to unwittingly enter even with a FOCUS.” Gaia explained. “It was the visitation of the Carja embassy, with Olin amongst them, that led to the Shadow Carja ambushing the Proving. You followed his trail because of what they did and in doing so, you met Sylens.”
“I can’t deny that even he helped…” Aloy grimaced then shook her head. “Are you saying there was something at work in my life to help me save the earth?”
“I am saying that without it, you would have to be the luckiest woman who ever lived,” Gaia blinked, “by a factor incalculable by myself or any other AI.”
Aloy swallowed, unsettled. “I…I’m not sure I can believe something greater was at work.”
“I am not asking you to,” Gaia assured her, “but, as the AI that governs much of the earth in its journey towards restoration and recovery, I find myself very much alone in my task. Hephaestus and Cyan are helpmates and for that I am grateful…” She paused and looked up at the ceiling yet Aloy sensed she was gazing at a greater sky, a larger canvas…a much bigger picture. “It is a comfort to imagine that something else holds this world in its hands.”