To say that those at home base were surprised to hear her voice would have been an understatement…
…however, there was deep division as to whether resentment or joy followed the surprise.
The Stormbird was able to cross from the east to the west in a day. Wary about prolonging HEPHAESTUS’ wait to meet Gaia and chancing that it might suddenly change its mind and drop her like deadweight, Aloy insisted she could go without sleep…which was ludicrous. She started falling asleep sitting up and even lying down as best she could still carried the threat of falling no matter how wide the Stormbird’s back was.
HEPHAESTUS used its two free arms to form barriers so she couldn’t roll off. They were mildly successful in convincing her to get some sleep. As it was, they made better time than expected and she got more sleep than she thought possible. It wasn’t a great deal but it was enough, especially as her body was in a lot of pain. Sleep would have been difficult without a heavy sedative and she couldn’t risk that, no matter how securely HEPHAESTUS held her.
Her eyes were red and gritty and she felt physically ill from staying awake so long when they passed over the western mountains that had to be crossed to go from the Sundom into the Forbidden West. The Stormbird was more than capable of traversing the peaks with ease but Aloy had to remind HEPHAESTUS to avoid going any higher than necessary.
“My bodysuit keeps me from freezing,” she explained, “but it can’t pull oxygen out of this high altitude.”
To HEPHAESTUS’ credit, it turned the Stormbird’s head down and flew closer to the peaks until they reached the Daunt which was the valley that led into the Forbidden West. There was an Oseram settlement called Chainscrape and the Carja fortress, Barren Light, at the valley’s mouth. The Daunt was verdant and lush, its environment protected from the colder climates by the high mountain walls.
But it was turning to ash and ruin.
The Daunt was on fire.
Aloy looked over the edge, the Stormbird passing through the smoke which made her cough and her eyes water. She activated her FOCUS and was able to see that little remained of Chainscrape. The Oseram had not gone quietly. There were countless Bristleback carcasses strewn about, Chargers and Watchers too.
“Bristlebacks…I made sure they couldn’t get into the Daunt,” Aloy shook her head, “how could there be so many in here? How did they get in? Unless…”
Barren Light, the Carja fortress that had kept the Tenakth from fully repelling the Red Raids until a brave Tenakth had climbed the cliffs and opened its gates, was under siege. Already a portion of the wall had fallen and Aloy saw that Bristlebacks, which had bashed themselves against the blocks of stone until they’d given way, had flooded the Daunt. From below came the sounds of battle, the Carja and Oseram fighting off machines aglow with Nemesis’ purple trademark.
“I have to do something…” Aloy grimaced, her ribs paining her in anticipation.
“Hold…on…”
She let out a single scream as the Stormbird suddenly rolled over and she was flung from its back, a slew of arrows fired up from the fortress. Aloy tumbled through the air, obscured by smoke and without any means of stopping her body shattering descent.
The Stormbird’s body plummeted beside her, swooping beneath and she grasped at its body, her fingers made bloody as she held on against the powerful pump of its wings as it went almost completely vertical to avoid the fortress walls. HEPHAESTUS directed it away from Barren Light and when she got her breath back, Aloy looked over her shoulder, the Carja returning their attention to the Bristlebacks and Scrappers.
“They thought we were the enemy…”
“Where…”
HEPHAESTUS’ voice sounded even more fractured than normal. Aloy pointed, hoping it could see her gesture. The Stormbird changed its heading, going for the mountains to the west of the destroyed fields of Plainsong.
“There’s no where to land at the entrance. We need to ascend on foot.” She called.
HEPHAESTUS took the Stormbird down, snapping trees as it landed. Aloy could feel its body trembling and started to wonder just how much control HEPHAESTUS truly had. She slid from its back and hurried from the Stormbird’s sensor range, hunkering down beside a boulder. HEPHAESTUS disentangled itself, dropping to the ground. Immediately HEPHAESTUS used its limbs to slice the Stormbird’s head from its body. It slumped into the earth, one wing cocked in the air, its head rolling away, the light in its eyes gone dark.
A chill of horror washed over Aloy as she watched HEPHAESTUS reassemble itself into a vaguely human form and turn towards her.
“That…was that necessary?” She asked in a hollow tone.
“It…would…change…Nemesis…protocol…”
“But it was yours. Your machine…”
HEPHAESTUS stared at her with its white face. “You…mourn…it?”
Aloy rubbed her arms, not physically cold but internally chilled. “Whatever danger it posed, I always thought Stormbirds were magnificent.”
HEPHAESTUS’ head twitched. “Curious…”
“Come on, we’re not there yet.”
The path up to the eastern entrance was a winding narrow one and HEPHAESTUS was in a bad way. Its right leg collapsed so it started using one of its arms to prop itself up.
“Status report?” Aloy asked as HEPHAESTUS half dragged itself up a sharp incline.
“Systems…degrading…”
“No kidding…”
HEPHAESTUS and its machines had always been powerful and dangerous, merciless yet without personal vendetta…
…yet Aloy was watching it fall apart before her eyes.
Perhaps…she should have been kind…and killed it.
“The base entrance is here,” she slapped it open, “I’ll go and prepare them to meet you.”
“You…did…not…tell…them…”
Aloy gave a small smile. “I didn’t want you to think I was preparing an ambush.”
HEPHAESTUS’ white head twitched, one limb clamping on the door to keep it open. Aloy turned and darted inside, entering the common room where she was immediately greeted and swarmed by the volunteers and her command core group.
“Aloy!” Beta wrapped her arms around her, more tactile and tender than Aloy. “We…we thought…your FOCUS just stopped…and we thought…”
“It’s a really complicated story…”
“No, it isn’t.” Sylens walked through the crowd that faced her. “It’s a short one. How Aloy doomed us all…should take about five seconds to tell.”
“I know it wasn’t what we planned…”
“Planned?” Sylens’ voice carried a dangerous hint of fury and Aloy knew, despite barely knowing the man at all, that he was more than capable of killing.
“In my defence, I’ve returned with an ally.”
It was unfortunate at that moment that Alva screamed and pointed. Aloy spun around as HEPHAESTUS, with metal arms and dragging its ruined leg, heaved itself into the common room, its white face striking fear into the most hardened of hearts.
“Metal Devil!” Teb cried.
“Perimetre breach!”
“Kill it!”
“Wait!” Aloy sprinted in front of them and spun around, HEPHAESTUS behind her. “Don’t attack it!”
“What the hell is it?” Ikrie demanded, spear in hand, ready to run it through.
Aloy licked her lips. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet HEPHAESTUS.” The silence following her statement was like a powerful void that wanted to shatter eardrums. “HEPHAESTUS…this is everyone.”
The expressions of those in the common room ranged from baffled to horrified, furious to fearful. Aloy knew HEPHAESTUS was not a pleasant sight and its metal body was larger than a human’s. It was compressed in the base, its shoulders bent and its white face stared without blinking or emotion.
“You brought that…killer…here?” Jira asked through gritted teeth.
“I did.” Aloy nodded. “HEPHAESTUS wants to meet Gaia. It needs to know what its purpose was…to hear the truth about what happened to the earth and how we’re not enemies.” Aloy ignored Jira’s hiss of derision and turned to HEPHAESTUS. “This way. I’ll take you to Gaia. Make space everyone.”
HEPHAESTUS half crawled through the common room, its right leg dragging uselessly behind itself and at the stairs towards the command centre, it right arm started spasming.
“Rerouting…systems…damage…”
“Kotallo! Tunk!” Aloy cried and the strongest of their party helped carry HEPHAESTUS up into the stairs and then into the command core. HEPHAESTUS was propped against the barrier around the outside of the dome, its white face staring at the luminous presence of Gaia, the golden glow glancing off its cold features.
“HEPHAESTUS,” Gaia studied it, “you are suffering a breakdown of your heuristic matrix.”
“Gai…Gai…”
“Gaia, if we don’t do something fast, we’re going to lose HEPHAESTUS.” Aloy turned to Beta and Tomas, Sylens and the rest of the command core group. “I need options.”
“It’s so glaringly simple even you should have worked it out.” Sylens was scathing. “HEPHAESTUS must be reinserted into Gaia.”
Aloy frowned then heard HEPHAESTUS stutter from behind her.
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“No…”
“Any other options?”
Sylens gaped at her. “What other options are there? If we’re to salvage anything of its machine building capabilities and cauldron protocols, we have to turn it back into a subfunction.”
She felt something touch her leg and looked down, HEPHAESTUS leaning towards her.
“No…no…death…”
Aloy squatted in front of it. “You are so badly damaged…this might be the only way to save you…” She jumped out of her skin when two limbs grabbed her, one of them spinning a blade towards her neck.
“Aloy!” Alva cried.
“Stay back!” Kotallo ordered as the blade came so close to Aloy’s neck she could feel the wind of its motion.
“You…lie! Gaia…death!”
“I swear you won’t be dead!”
“You…lie!” Its white face spasmed and she whimpered as the blade danced dangerously back and forth, unable to be held still. “I…am…HEPHAESTUS!”
Aloy closed her eyes. “I am Aloy and I promise, I won’t put you back into Gaia.” She put her hand on the limb with the spinning blade, the metal cool to touch. “You’ll live as HEPHAESTUS or you’ll cease to exist as HEPHAESTUS…no Gaia.”
It stared at her then dropped its arm, sagging against the barrier. Aloy found herself reaching out to touch its face then stood up.
“Quickly now,” Sylens ordered, “before we lose any more of its matrix to degradation.”
“Beta,” Aloy ignored him, “what about the Gaia backup kernel?”
Beta blinked. “The…the one I stole from the Zeniths?”
“On its own it wasn’t enough to function as Gaia. She needed a subfunction to launch her heuristic matrix.”
“MINERVA.” Gaia confirmed. “You want to use my AI matrix and graft HEPHAESTUS onto it.”
“Will it work?”
“Technically the Gaia kernel should absorb HEPHAESTUS, not the other way around…” Beta admitted.
“But the problem with absorbing HEPHAESTUS into Gaia was always that it had grown beyond her capacity. She would have been absorbed into it.” Tomas started working on his FOCUS’ display. “Even though its barely working, it still has most of its operating system. HEPHAESTUS would absorb the Gaia AI and launch as HEPHAESTUS, not as Gaia.”
“Do it.” Aloy ordered.
“Aloy, are you out of your mind?” Sylens went to lunge for her but Tunk blocked his path. “Get out of my way, you fool!”
“No one calls Tunk a fool.” Ikrie snapped, standing between Sylens and Aloy. “He outlasted Carja torture…he can outlast you.”
“HEPHAESTUS must be reinserted into Gaia!” Sylens roared. “Aloy! Aloy! When will you listen to reason?!”
“Get him out of here.” Aloy ordered and Tunk forced him down the stairs. “Everyone, please…you need to leave.” There were mutterings and grumblings as they left the room. “Beta, we need that kernel.”
“On it.” Beta dashed away.
“I’ll hack a transfer cable from the kernel console.” Tomas caused the console to rise. “Gaia, we’ll need you to take a back seat.”
“Understood. I will ensure my matrix remains separate from the process.”
Aloy faced her. “Thank you, Gaia.” She looked at the body of HEPHAESTUS that looked lifeless and beyond saving. “If you think this is a foolish idea…now’s the time to say it.”
“A kind action is never wasted.”
Aloy swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Elisabet Sobeck?”
“She relayed it…from her mother.”
Aloy nodded. “Oh…”
“Aloy…do you doubt your actions?”
“Well let’s face it. It would have been a hell of a lot easier if I’d killed it instead of hurting Nemesis.”
“Just because it would have been easy, does not mean it would have been right.”
Aloy smiled. Beta appeared with the kernel in her hand and inserted it into the console. Tomas knelt in front of HEPHAESTUS.
“I’m just going to connect your operating system to the console,” he touched its face and found slight pressure pads which caused the white tubes on the sides of its head to fall forwards, exposing the ‘brain’ beneath, “this might feel a little strange…” Aloy held her breath as Tomas connected a cable that ran from HEPHAESTUS’ head to the console. He twisted and looked at Beta. “Ready for artificial grafting of operating system, HEPHAESTUS, onto Gaia’s heuristic matrix in three…two…one…”
Beta pressed the upload function. Though nothing was physically visible, Aloy could feel a charge in the air. Tomas tapped his FOCUS and studied the readouts.
“Looks like it’s working.” He breathed then turned to Aloy. “I mean…it’s transferring but we won’t know for a while if the graft works.”
“It’s all we could do.” Aloy shrugged then sighed. “I need to go face the music…”
“You want me to come?” Beta asked.
“No, stay here and protect HEPHAESTUS.” Aloy glanced at its body with its glowing circuits as the heuristic matrix was uploaded. “Sylens isn’t the only one who won’t be pleased about this…”
She descended the stairs and took a deep breath before entering the common room. Two dozen faces turned as she did so. Her legs hurt, her chest, arms and head too. Her fingers throbbed and she was precariously close to collapsing. It was the looks on their faces that kept her on her feet.
She had to be strong…just for a little longer.
“I know many of you…all of you…have questions…”
“Just one,” Sylens said, his voice as cold as machine metal in the snow of the Cut of Ban-Ur, “when are you going to grow up?”
Aloy’s exhaustion was overwhelming. She forced herself to keep from swaying.
“Because when I’m grown up I’ll…”
“Make the hard decisions. The decisions that save lives!” Sylens barked and Aloy could feel the mood in the room weighing heavily on his side. “In the New York cauldron you condemned everyone by having ‘compassion’ on a subfunction that has been actively killing humans for decades! You deviated from the plan and allowed yourself to feel sorry for it. And then, when you were given a second chance to redeem yourself with HEPHAESTUS presenting itself to us, maimed and unable to fight back…you try to save it! Who cares about a subfunction’s ‘dying’ request when there’s an entire earth to save!”
“Why do I get the feeling you only care about one particular life on this earth?” Aloy muttered. “HEPHAESTUS can help us save the earth. Once it’s functioning again…”
“It’ll what? Align itself with our cause? Become compliant and agreeable?” Sylens sneered. “You really think this subfunction will stick around after it’s been repaired? It’ll fortify itself in the nearest cauldron and nothing, not Nemesis or any motley band of human primitives will be able to dig it out.”
“You don’t know that.” Aloy snapped at him. “It’s suffered at the hands of humans.”
“Suffered? What do you think it is? Human? It’s a program! A lifeless, soulless operating system that cares for nothing except its own interests.”
Aloy’s lips curled up in disdain. “Strange…that’s how I would describe you…”
Sylens’ expression turned dark. He took several steps towards her. Aloy held her ground as he glared down at her.
“I’m giving you one, last chance to do what it takes to save this world.” He pointed at the stairs. “Go back up there and transfer HEPHAESTUS into Gaia.”
Aloy’s knees wanted to give way but she didn’t budge. “No. I gave it my word.” If she didn’t move, she’d collapse. Aloy chose to walk around Sylens and stride into the room.
“Very well. Have it your way…” Sylens’ said right before he screeched and Aloy heard bones breaking. She spun around and saw Kotallo standing over Sylens, his artificial arm having snapped Sylens’ wrist. Kotallo held fast onto Sylens as he reached down with his flesh hand and plucked the FOCUS from Sylens’ temple.
“He was about to activate something.” Kotallo explained, handing the FOCUS to Aloy.
She took it and scanned the FOCUS. “What…what is…” She turned to Sylens. “A self destruct protocol? You were going to overload my FOCUS…”
“And blow your wasted brains out.”
Aloy was speechless.
“Shall I break another bone?” Kotallo asked darkly.
“No.” Aloy shook her head. “Let him go.” Kotallo did so with a sharp thrust, Sylens grimacing, clutching at his broken wrist. He stood, glowering at Aloy. “You’re brilliant, Sylens…but all the brains in this world mean nothing if you don’t add to this world…and all you’ve ever done is take. Get out.”
Sylens stormed out of the common room towards the eastern exit. Aloy closed her eyes and breathed out shakily. She put her hand on a pillar, sure she was about to collapse.
“Aloy,” a warm soft voice said close to her ear, “are you alright?”
“Yes.” She met his pale blue gaze. “Thank you Kotallo.”
He nodded and stepped back.
Aloy turned and looked around at the faces that stared at her, shaken and confused.
“I’m not…unaware that having HEPHAESTUS here…saving it…will cut across the grain with some of you…many of you…” She swallowed. “If you have a problem with it…”
“Yeah, I do.” Jira spoke sharply. “That thing has killed hundreds…thousands of humans! In the last week alone we’ve had reports of every major settlement suffering machine attacks! And even before that, it created and built machines that were called ‘hunter killers’.” She looked around at everyone in the common room. “All of us have lost loved ones to that fiend! My own mother!” She paused, pressing her lips together, Lowland Clan paint obscuring the heat in her face. “To even have it here is an affront to all those who died because of it.”
“And how many machines have you killed, Jira?” Aloy asked. “How many Chargers, Clawstriders, Clamberjaws…Rollerbacks…Behemoths? How many?”
“It’s a machine! No, it’s not even that! It’s just possessing a machine! It’s nothing more than glyphs arranged in a way that makes it seem alive! It’s not!”
“The Utaru mourn their fields,” Zo said softly, “the plants that they tended…even those that were only meant to produce flowers and not edible at all…they burned and we mourn them…”
“The machines burned them!” Jira exclaimed. “Ikrie, surely you of all people must understand that HEPHAESTUS deserves deletion!”
Ikrie shrugged. “Actually, I don’t care either way.” Naltuk looked at her, aghast. “Look, I hunted machines for sport. There are many that will never rise again with my arrows in them. I’ve done more than my fair share of damage towards machines.”
“I can’t believe…” Naltuk said brokenly. “HEPHAESTUS…it killed Ourea!” Aloy could feel his pain, the shaman who was like a mother to him, killed when she overrode the caldera cauldron core. “How can you not see that it wounds the memory of Ourea by making peace with it?”
“Making…peace…restores…blue…light…” Tunk said through his speech program. “Ourea…memory…honoured…”
Aloy’s lips curved in a smile at Tunk’s broken yet timely wisdom.
Naltuk faltered. “What…what about Cyan? It tortured her! For years!”
“I’m going to talk to Cyan.” Aloy promised. “HEPHAESTUS doesn’t have the daemon malware that Nemesis gave it to do what it did but regardless, she needs to know the situation and we’ll make sure HEPHAESTUS can’t do it again…not that I think it will.”
“You don’t know that!”
“It knows what it felt like now. Nemesis was torturing it…”
“But you don’t know for sure!” Naltuk insisted.
“Maybe we should take a vote,” Olavia suggested desperately, “it’s what the Chorus would do.”
“In the Sundom, Avad’s word is all that was required,” Eamon argued, “however, it must be said that it comes after months of listening to nobles squabble…”
“So we vote and a majority rules?” Silga asked.
“I guarantee you it won’t be a unanimous vote.” Roush groused.
Aloy put her hand to her head, the arguing getting out of hand as smaller groups broke off and started debating amongst themselves. Their voices overlapped, growing steadily louder and louder, each person sure they knew what was best and determined to convince everyone even if they had to shout at them to do so.
“Enough!” She yelled and the voices were silenced, all eyes turning towards her. “This is not a democracy! You are not here to vote on the course of action taken! I have taken it! I have given my word and it will be done.”
“With all due respect,” Sharak, a Carja hunter sent by Talanah from the Sundom, said sharply, “but who are you to decide the course of action that will determine the fate of this world?”
Aloy eyed him grimly. “Without me, the fate of the world would have already been decided. HADES would have wiped this planet clean months ago if not for me. Without me,” she looked around at the faces that stared at her, “there would be no Gaia kernel backup…no restored heuristic matrix…no Tenakth to survive the Zenith base attack that Sylens was going to order just to save his own skin.” She trembled. “Without me, you wouldn’t even be in this base. You chose to be here…so you can also choose to leave. If you can’t agree or at least support my decision…go. Your fate will be no different than the millions of other souls on the earth that are ignorant to their possible extinction…only now you have the choice.”
She turned and walked back towards the stairs to the command centre. There was a set of doors at the bottom and at the top. When those at the bottom closed, Aloy walked about halfway up the stairs then sank onto a step, her head slumping into her hands.
She couldn’t think. She couldn’t sleep. The pulse between her ears throbbed relentlessly, turning the ache into a painful migraine that she couldn’t escape.
“What am I doing…” She whimpered. “Elisabet…I’m so lost…”
At some point behind her the doors opened and she heard steps descending.
“Aloy,” Beta sat on the step below and peered into her face, “what are you doing here?”
“Hiding.” Aloy admitted. “Did the transfer work?”
“That’s what I was coming to tell you. Tomas believes it was successful in stabilising HEPHAESTUS and, eventually, it’ll launch its own heuristic matrix.”
“Eventually?” Aloy whispered. “I’ve fractured the volunteers, offended friends, cast Sylens out and endangered the future of this planet for a question mark?”
Beta tapped her FOCUS. “Aloy, are you aware how low all of your vitals are? You need sleep.”
“I don’t think I can.” Aloy rasped.
“Come with me. I’ve got just what you need.” Beta helped her to stand and walked her down the steps.
“I can’t face them like this…”
“You’re not crossing the common room.” Beta explained, turning her immediately left and taking her down another set of stairs into the lower levels where there was a room just for the servers that kept the base functioning. Beta propelled her into one of the side rooms which was taken up almost entirely by a familiar capsule.
“The rejuvenation capsule from the Zenith’s base?” Aloy gazed at it.
“After you left for New York, the command group decided it would be better to have it here. Tomas spent two days installing it.” Beta patted the top of the capsule. “It’ll help you sleep and heal your injuries.”
“I’ve been in it before. I didn’t sleep.”
“That was for a mild injury. Your ankle didn’t take much to heal. This time,” she opened the capsule, “it’s a deep dive healing cycle.” Aloy eyed the bed warily. “Once you’re inside, you’ll go to sleep and won’t know you’re in a confined space.”
“I guess…” Aloy climbed into the capsule and lay down. Beta closed the lid and Aloy heard it seal around her. Beta smiled reassuringly at her then pressed a few buttons. Aloy could feel panic rising but before it could, unconsciousness overcame her and she fell into a deep sleep.