The initial blast from the engine pushed Aloy so hard into her seat in the rocket that she thought she’d wind up as flat as a leaf. She couldn’t breathe or move until the main engine cut out and the four wings opened on the rocket, each one with jets that could manoeuvre the rocket as needed. The cockpit had a large clear window which started out filled with the bright blue sky then, as the rocket flew higher and higher, it paled as if Aloy was tearing through the veil between earth and the rest of the universe until the blue just winked out of existence and in its place was a tapestry of black adorned with millions of stars, sewn into its endless breadth.

Aloy was so overcome by the sight she didn’t realise she could breathe. The inertial force that had tried to crush her vanished at the same time as the rocket entering high orbit. If not for the straps holding her to the chair, Aloy would be floating.

“You’re in space…you’re actually in space…” She felt a degree of panic and found the little token Rost had given her, clutching it tightly. “Not even a year ago…who would have thought I’d be here, Rost. You told me I could achieve anything I wanted…”

Her face was cold. Her bodysuit kept the rest of her warm but she could sense the drop in temperature in the cockpit on her cheeks, nose and lips…

She touched her lips, the memory of Kotallo’s kiss lingering with her.

“I hope…he understands…” She closed her eyes. “Kotallo…”

The rocket’s wings gave little squirts of energy. Aloy felt the course change and opened her eyes, spying the Odyssey adrift in space. Tomas told her it was ‘anchored’ to the space above the rocket. Automatic engine bursts, not unlike the ones on the rocket, kept it where it was meant to be, even as the earth turned. The Odyssey, like a spear in space with rings around it, almost like the circles of light when Aloy used the override module, came closer and closer.

The rocket headed for the wider end where automatic docking procedures and magnetic locks secured the rocket in place.

“Docking complete. Normalising rocket atmosphere.” Aloy felt a slight jolt. “Pressurisation complete. Welcome back to the Odyssey asset!”

“I know your voice,” Aloy shuddered, “you’re Julius, the AI the Zeniths used in their lures to bring machines in to guard the coast and kill Tenakth.”

“Indeed I am!” The wretched voice was extremely happy and jovial.

“And I’m the asset?” Aloy asked cautiously.

“Indeed you are!”

“It thinks I’m Beta.” Aloy mused. “I don’t think this is a very bright AI. Does what it’s told and maintains ship functions.” She unclipped her harness and clambered out of the chair. When she’d sat in it, Aloy had to lie on her back. Now that they’d docked, she had been seated upright. She picked up her gear and tapped her FOCUS, locating the main power cell for the rocket. She took out a single mine and fixed it against the bulkhead right up against the cell. “One down,” she checked her swag, “about a dozen more to go.” She slung it over her shoulder and approached the hatch. “Julius, open the hatch.”

“I’m on it, asset!”

The hatch hissed and opened. Aloy stepped across the seal threshold into the Odyssey’s docking port. On the other side she could see another hatch where a second rocket could dock though there wasn’t one.

”Julius,” Aloy looked around, “there are two docking ports…but only one rocket?”

“On our trip from Sirius to Earth, the secondary rocket’s fuel cells were removed to power the Odyssey and the rocket itself was ejected into space as it was just dead weight.”

“I think you’ve got more personality than brains.” Aloy muttered, heading into the engine room. She used her FOCUS to attach more mines then started to move up the length of the ship.

As she went from the docking port into the corridor beyond, lights flickered into life. There were Zenith quarters littered along the Odyssey’s length as well as common rooms, kitchens, gyms and an arboretum. Aloy was surprised how much was inside the Odyssey.

“Didn’t look this big on the outside.” She knelt and locked a mine onto an exposed energy cell.

Most of the living quarters were closed off and unable to be entered. This wasn’t a major problem as most of the energy cells weren’t in their quarters. The lights in the Odyssey seemed to be getting brighter and brighter.

“Julius,” Aloy winced, “are the lights supposed to be this bright?”

“Well why don’t I just check that for you?”

Aloy rolled her eyes then paused as she passed a window. From it she could see the earth, its curve backdropped by infinite space. Her breath stalled in her breast and her fingers pressed against the glass, the pretty pendant she’d given Beta a faded attempt at capturing the beauty of the little blue and green ball.

“It looks so small from up here,” she whispered, “I thought…it was so big…” She looked around at the Odyssey’s crisp white interior with its gold finishings and shook her head. “No wonder the Zeniths thought themselves better than everyone on earth. From this perspective, it seems so insignificant. You can forget there are thousands of people on it, countless species of animal, teeming with plant life…”

She felt disquieted by the sight and swallowed.

“Hey asset! Remember that question you asked?”

“About the lights?” Aloy moved away from the window.

“That’s the one!” She was really over his excessive personality. “Well, as it turns out, they are set on a higher setting than normal!”

“The Zeniths liked to be blinded?” There was so much white in the Odyssey that it reflected the lights tenfold and Aloy was struggling to see, her eyes tearing up. “Who would do this?”

“Settings were changed when manual override was…”

Aloy stopped walking, Julius’ voice simply blinking out of existence.

“Was what? Julius? Julius?” Aloy turned around on the spot. “Who activated the manual override?”

Instead of an answer, all the light suddenly switched off and after the blinding white light of mere seconds before, Aloy was plunged into complete darkness, so opaque she couldn’t see her hand waving in front of her face.

“Damn it,” she activated her FOCUS and looked around, “Julius, turn on the lights! Julius!” There was no answer. Aloy found a window and peered out. “The rings are still turning around the Odyssey,” she observed, “and they’re still glowing with power. Why is it out in the body of the Odyssey? And do I really want to know the answer to that?”

She shuddered and started to move forwards again, her FOCUS able to tell her where she was headed. Without it, Aloy knew she could get turned around and completely lost down the three separated corridors that ran the length of the ship as well as all the connecting corridors.

“Manual override…who could override anything?” She whispered to herself then checked the time. “I’ve got to keep moving. There’s not much time left before the coordinated attacks begin.”

She set another two mines then crossed over to the other side of the Odyssey. A glow caught her attention and she crept towards the doorway where light was still on. She glanced above the doorway.

“Tilda van der Meer…that’s ominous.” Aloy muttered and glanced inside. It was a surprisingly small room but then, space was limited on board a space ship. They couldn’t exactly do renovations and expand their territory. Though the light was on in the room, it was flickering. Aloy passed the bed, the computer terminal and the rather bland furniture.

“It doesn’t look like anyone lived here at all.” She said softly. “It could have been anyone’s room.”

There were some dashes of colour on the wall. Holoimages captured in frames. Aloy leaned close, seeing two familiar figures. One was Elisabet speaking on stage, her hands gesturing strongly. Aloy touched it and the image came to life.

“We need to ensure today that tomorrow has a future! Not with subjugation but with tolerance! We mightn’t agree but we all share this one world and without it, we are lost!”

Aloy’s smile was small. Yes, that sounded like Elisabet.

Another image was of Elisabet and Tilda reclining on two chairs on a beach. Tilda’s arm was around Elisabet, drawing her close for the photo. Her expression was masked by her sunglasses but Aloy could almost feel Elisabet’s resistance.

“You either made up the relationship in your head…or you were telling the truth about Elisabet withdrawing from you, Tilda.” Aloy shook her head then spied an audio recording. She scanned it and it started playing.

“You’re acting like you don’t trust me, Gerard.” Tilda’s voice was hard.

“I’m just voicing concerns held by the rest of the think tank.” Gerard replied.

“Concerns that I won’t capitulate or cower down?”

“Look, we all know the likelihood of earth’s survival and even if Sobeck’s Horizon master plan pulls off, it’ll be centuries before earth is a viable planet for habitation.”

“Exactly why we’re going to Sirius! We don’t need the Gaia AI.”

“And if Sirius doesn’t work out and we go elsewhere? Do you know the likelihood of our finding another habitable planet? It’s less than Sobeck’s Horizon plan pulling through. We need Gaia as a backup.”

“Elisabet won’t do it. She won’t give us a copy.”

“Who said she’s going to give it to us.” There was a long, tense silence.

“You’re going to steal Gaia…”

“Correction, we’re stealing Gaia.”

“Gerard…”

“We have a reliable insider who will copy Gaia’s entire AI, including her subfunctions and beam cast it to Zenith HQ.”

“Then what do you need me for?”

“We need Elisabet. We need a copy of her genome.”

“What makes you think…” Tilda was tutted into silence.

“You think we don’t know?” More silence. “You’ve got forty eight hours to engineer a reason for a reunion with Sobeck and obtain a viable sample of her DNA. You can do that, can’t you? Scrape it off yourself and slap it in a test tube?”

“You bastard, Gerard…”

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Look at it this way Tilda…you can make yourself your very own Elisabet Sobeck to play with.”

“You’re despicable.”

“We need Alpha Prime authority over Gaia and Sobeck is the one.”

“What about Ted Faro?”

“Please, as if Sobeck trusts him with Alpha clearance. Besides, that man can’t control his urges. We’ve had his sample for weeks but Sobeck…we know you’re the only one who can get to her.” Aloy felt sick at Gerard’s venomous tone. “…I need to know you’re on board, Tilda. Literally. You can stay here and rot…or you can start a new life with your old lover.”

The tone of the message changed as if Tilda was recording her voice after the conversation between herself and Gerard was disconnected.

“So I did as he asked. I knew where she was and travelled there. I didn’t give her a chance to refuse by turning up at Horizon Zero Dawn’s staging area. I knew she couldn’t turn me away then and there so we went for a coffee nearby. It was strange, sitting drinking cappuccinos as the FARO plague consumed the earth, knowing the human race would be extinct in a matter of months…but I had other things on my mind. I asked her, begged Elisabet to come with me on board the Odyssey. Of course I knew she wouldn’t. In a way, my choosing the Odyssey was the final nail in the coffin of our relationship. I killed it by siding with the Zeniths. Elisabet couldn’t understand why we didn’t use our Think Tank to help save the earth. I didn’t want to save it. I wanted to survive it.

Elisabet was unmoving, like speaking to a stranger. She didn’t condemn me outright for my decision…but she had an air of self righteous superiority about her…and for the first time since she’d ended it with me, I was not just hurt…I was angry.

Up until that moment, I wasn’t sure I could give Gerard what he wanted.

Yet in a heartbeat, I was eager to steal the essence of Elisabet from her.

She was careful and I noticed. She drank from her coffee cup then gave it back to the waiter and she avoided touching anything at the table, leaning back in her chair with her arms folded.

She couldn’t possibly know about Gerard’s demand for a sample of her genome and yet, as always, Elisabet was one step ahead at all times.

Except this time.

You see, I didn’t need to snatch a piece of hair or pocket her coffee cup, possibly tipping her off as to what was planned.

I’d already taken my sample months earlier and had it tested in an independent lab.

A viable genome.

Elisabet in a petri dish.

She was mine.

Part of me wanted to gloat but I kept my secret hidden.

If she knew, Elisabet would find a way to remove even this piece of her that I’d stolen.

We said goodbye and parted almost amicably. I knew she doubted that she would ever hear from me again. I walked away, anger building with every step. The moment I could, I handed her over to Gerard for containment in the Odyssey’s biolab. One day I would find a way for us to be together again…”

The lights in the room cut out at the end of Tilda’s narrative and Aloy was blanketed in darkness once more. But before she could activate her FOCUS, the lights began to flicker, on and off as though the Odyssey was experiencing a brown out in power. Aloy edged to the door and peered out, seeing the power flicker all over the ship.

“Okay,” she said quietly, unhooking her bow, “not creepy at all…”

She walked slowly down the corridor, checking down every adjoining passage, an arrow in the cradle of her bow, her fingers tense, lightly feeling the shaft of the arrow, ready to pull it taut against the string at a moment’s notice.

“Hey asset! Just wanted you to know, there’s a containment breach! Better hold your breath!”

“A what!” Aloy cried, lunging for a wall edge just before the air was sucked past her, dragging her towards the back of the Odyssey. It was only for a few seconds but the pull was so strong it nearly dislocated her shoulders. She gasped for air, the little she’d had in her lungs dragged out of her as she drew back on her bow and spun around, looking for the cause of the breach. “Julius, what caused the breach!” She paused, holding her breath. “Julius?”

“I’m sorry,” a voice replied that wasn’t the upbeat tone of Julius but rather, deeper with a serious edge to it, “Julius is no longer available…”

“Who are you?” Aloy whispered. “What the hell is on this ship with me?”

The lighting continued to flicker. Aloy forced herself forwards, planting mines, sometimes just dropping them near the energy cells and kicking them close with her foot. She wasn’t willing to let go of her bow. She heard a strange snapping sound and looked up, the lighting pulsing so that, for a moment, she saw a figure standing at the next corridor junction.

She unleashed an arrow at where it had been but heard the arrow skittering across the ground, its mark unmet.

“Who’s there?” Aloy tapped her FOCUS but couldn’t find anyone.

“Aloy…”

She spun around, a figure six foot tall with smooth head and an even smoother voice standing behind her. She nearly let go of another arrow when she caught sight of blue rods in his skin.

“Sylens!” She exclaimed, half staggering to the side. “I nearly killed you! What the hell are you doing on the Odyssey?” She put the arrow away and looped her bow over her head. “How did you even get up here?”

The only features she could see of him were cast in the blue light of the cords of his skin.

“I came…in the rocket…”

“But it was empty when we scanned it. How did you mask your life signs?” Aloy edged forward a step. “Sylens?”

He was swaying on his feet, his body on a slight lean. This wasn’t the man she knew that was superior and always in control.

“Sylens? You okay?” She asked, her fingers curling around her spear as subtly as she could while her other hand reached up to tap her FOCUS. “Sylens?”

Sylens’ hand clamped down on her arm, the rods in his skin no longer glowing blue…but purple.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you go, Aloy,” he said, plucking her FOCUS from her temple, “not again.”

The lighting fritzed again, sparks coming down from the lights above their heads.

“Who are you?” Aloy asked, her skin crawling.

Sylens smiled. “Yes, I admit, it’s hard to see who I really am in this…primitive male form…” His smile dropped and his eyes sparked with deadly intent. “But what Elisabet and I had transcended physical forms…”

Aloy’s spine shrivelled up and her heart leapt backwards. “Tilda…”

Sylens tilted his head and let go of her hand. “When Nemesis reached earth, the longing I felt to visit my home, my sanctuary of art, pulled me from its core consciousness. I suddenly remembered who I was…and who I’d left behind. When I arrived, I found this man who seemed to think he had the right to my world!”

Aloy stepped back, a purple trickle oozing out of Sylens’ nose.

“So I took his body…and learned so much…” He tapped the side of his head where the FOCUS was. “Where my physical self had failed to save you, I would not.”

Aloy moved further back. “Sylens, if you’re in there…”

“He’s gone,” Sylens rolled his eyes, “and I’m here instead.”

Aloy licked her lips and tried to edge around him. “Sylens, listen to me. You can’t let Tilda control you. Get a hold of yourself!”

“Oh Elisabet…” Sylens moaned. “How I’ve longed to hear your decisive voice!”

Aloy shrieked as Sylens lunged for her. She dashed out of the way, sprinting down a passage, her boots skidding on the smooth floor. She couldn’t get traction! She banged into a wall and pushed herself off, running towards the bridge.

“Maybe I can lock myself in!” She gasped. “No…I can’t! I need my FOCUS to activate the mines!” She spun around, bow in hand, her eyes darting down every passage, hunting for Sylens’ silhouette but the Odyssey was dark once more with puddles of sunlight on the side that faced the sun. Her fingers shook but she forced herself to control her breathing. “It’s not Sylens. It’s not him anymore. It’s Tilda. You killed her once…you can do it again.”

“Aloy!” A thrill of terror ran through her body as Beta’s voice cried out to her. “Aloy! Are you there?”

“Beta?” Aloy took a step then stopped herself. “Nice try, Tilda,” she called, “but Beta is on the earth and there’s no way to reach the Odyssey.”

“Aloy!”

“Not listening,” Aloy said over and over, “I’m not listening to you…it’s not real…”

“Aloy,” her mouth dried out as she heard a warm, textured tone that could stroke her soul like no other, “I love you.”

“Kotallo,” she shook her head, “no, no, no…it’s not real…it’s not real…”

“That’s right,” Tilda’s voice spoke instead of Sylens’, coming through the Odyssey’s systems, “it wasn’t real. What you had with that primitive, mindless hulk wasn’t love. He could never understand you like I could, Elisabet. No matter what you felt, it could never be real.”

Aloy closed her eyes. “Shut up. Shut up. Shut up…”

“I’m real…”

She gasped and darted from the voice that was right beside her. Aloy bolted down a passage but she could hear Sylens running after her. At a junction where there were lounges to recline at, Sylens longer strides caught up with Aloy. He tackled her to one of the lounges, her bow snapping in half, her arrows scattered and her spear lost in the struggle. Aloy twisted on the lounge, kicking out to throw him off but he dodged her blows.

“There are…some advantages…to this form…” Sylens heaved himself on top of her, Aloy struggling beneath his heavier body weight and his strong arms.

She screamed as he pressed his lips to her neck, her arms pinned down with one of his hands as the other groped at her body, tearing at her tunic, grinding against her.

“Get off me!”

“I thought I could wait…but this body is even more…demanding than I anticipated.” He said close to her ear, his breath hot and heavy as he stripped her of more clothing, her Zenith bodysuit the only thing she was left wearing even as she struggled and squirmed. “If you preferred the anatomy of that Tenakth…perhaps you’ll appreciate this…”

Aloy was able to shift his weight ever so slightly and brought her knee up. Sylens groaned and doubled over as she dragged herself out from beneath him and began to run.

“Aloy…”

His voice sounded strange. Aloy stopped at the corner of the passage and looked at Sylens who was staring at her, sweat beading up on his skin, his eyes bulging, the rods in his skin glowing blue.

“Sylens?”

“Kill…me…”

Aloy’s skin went cold. “I…”

Sylens took her FOCUS out of his pocket and threw it at her. Aloy scraped it up, not taking her eyes off him.

“Kill…me…” He squeezed out of a throat that sounded as though he was being strangled. “Quickly!”

Aloy looked around and saw her spear. She picked it up as Sylens wheezed on the ground, every vein protruding, his nails drawing blood from his palms. She stood over him, spear in hand, suddenly confronted with the notion that she was about to kill someone she knew in cold blood.

“I can’t…” Aloy whimpered.

“Please…” Sylens grabbed the spear and yanked it forward, driving the tip into his chest, Aloy’s weighed pulled along with it. She let go and stumbled backwards as Sylens toppled forwards, blood pouring from his wound, staining the pristine white of the Odyssey.

She put her hand over her mouth and stepped back, shaking.

Then Sylens lifted his head, the rods in his body changing to purple, a sinister grin on his face.

“You’re going to have to do better than that, Elisabet…”

She swore, spun and started running for the bridge. She had no more mines, no more weapons…nothing except her FOCUS which hummed.

“The countdown…it’s begun.” She swiped at the tears on her face. “The bridge. I’ve got to get to the bridge and set the auto destruct! It’s the best chance at destroying the entire ship!”

“Elisabet!” Her name was shouted down the passage of the Odyssey. “Elisabet! I won’t let you get away again! You’re mine, you hear me? Mine!”

She sprinted for the bridge, slapping the access panel which unlocked the doors. “Come on,” she looked over her shoulder to see Sylens’ hulking, damaged form stumbling towards her in the flickering darkness, “come on!”

The seal let go and the doors pulled apart, Aloy grazing herself as she darted through, hitting the access panel so that the doors closed behind her. A small window looked into the bridge from the outside. She backed away from it as it filled with Sylens’ maniacal expression. She couldn’t hear him but she knew what he was doing, trying to open the hatch.

“It doesn’t know you, Tilda, not in that body.” Aloy gasped. “You have no authority here.”

Weak with relief she turned and looked at the bridge, her mind racing with options.

“If I start a timer on the mines, Sylens, or Tilda, could use any of the mines to deactivate all of them,” she closed her eyes, “I have to use the self destruct…because while Tilda is infesting Sylens, she can’t infest the Odyssey…and she can’t shut it off.”

Her FOCUS had directions on it so that she could access the self destruct. A large semi circle desk, smooth and white with holographic displays and a view out the front of the Odyssey, filled most of the bridge. Aloy put her hand on the panel, her fingers shaking hard.

“Asset requesting access.” She said, her heart hammering, putting a waver into her voice.

“Access granted.” This was a different voice to Julius’ personality plus one. It was a silky smooth female voice and rather than it being an AI, it was just the vocal response voice of the Odyssey’s computer.

“Accessing self destruct,” Aloy found the right panel, ignoring the beating on the outside of the door, “acknowledge asset clearance.”

“Clearance disallowed.”

“I thought you’d say that.” Aloy tapped on her FOCUS and sent through data to the computer. “All Zeniths are dead. Asset is alone. Authority transfers to asset upon Zenith extinction.”

“Data verified. Clearance granted.”

“I thought you’d see it my way.” Aloy closed her eyes, the banging intensifying. “Self destruct sequence to be initiated on my mark.”

“Countdown time frame?”

“Ten seconds is too short and a minute might give Nemesis enough time to disarm it…” Aloy licked her lips. “Thirty seconds it is.” She looked around and found the two transport pods that were allocated to the bridge. She tried not to liken them to little coffins. “Nemesis will be here shortly.” Sylens continued to bash against the door, blood smearing on the glass. Aloy sank onto the floor, her hands over her ears. “Not much longer…not much…not much longer…”

It took nearly forty five minutes for the Odyssey’s bridge controls to start whining madly, the pretty pale blue and gold lights turning a shade of purple Aloy knew she’d never be comfortable with again. The Odyssey creaked and groaned, as though feeling the weight of the entity of Nemesis like it was a physical burden. Aloy darted for the escape pod, opening the clear bubble hatch.

“Odyssey, start self destruct countdown now!”

“Countdown begun. Thirty, twenty nine, twenty eight, twenty seven…”

Aloy stepped into the hatch and closed it over the top of her, hearing it suction shut. The countdown was silenced upon entering the pod. All she could hear was her rapid breathing and the thunderous pulse of blood in her head. Aloy hastily strapped herself in, the bridge starting to become a haze of purple.

“Fifteen seconds,” she breathed, “here we…”

Suddenly Sylens appeared before her, blood trickling out of his nose, ears and mouth. Before Aloy could grab the release mechanism, Sylens lifted her spear, still slick with his blood and stabbed it into the hatch. The tip pierced the clear dome, sending cracks along its surface.

“Warning, transport pod integrity compromised. Release mechanism disabled.”

“Shit!” Aloy cried.

“Ten, nine, eight…” The computer’s voice began to warble as Sylens turned and looked at it then the countdown simply stopped.

“No!”

“Out of options, Sobeck.” Sylens said. No longer could Aloy hear the former Banuk shaman or even Tilda in his tone. “Time to die.”

No, this was Nemesis.

“You first.” Aloy hit her FOCUS as Sylens tore the cover off the hatch. She lunged for the mine activation trigger and Sylens thrust the spear at Aloy…

…

…

…

…