Three months later…

“…is where you will sleep and this is the common room where there will be a roster drawn up as to who is preparing meals.” Alva narrated brightly, leading a dozen new recruits across the base, from various tribes and walks of life. “We have rooms for studying, for training and for equipping you for the task ahead. Now…”

“Aloy!” One of the recruits gasped. “That’s Aloy! Saviour of Meridian!”

“The one who brought down the Bulwark!”

“Machine rider!”

“No, I’m not.” Beta held up her hands. “I know I look like her…but I’m Beta.”

There was understandable confusion over the similarity in their appearance.

“Beta is our Alpha site overseer,” Alva explained, “the reason that she appears so similar to Aloy will be explained in the coming days. Now, if you’ll just put your belongings down in here, I’ll take you to meet Gaia.”

Beta stepped aside and let the recruits move through, some of them whispering that they knew she wasn’t Aloy all along. In the three months since Nemesis defeat, Beta had allowed her hair to grow and had chosen to wear more natural looking clothing. In doing so, it was understandable that she could be mistaken for Aloy, if only at first.

As they followed Alva up the steps into the control room, Beta’s shoulders bent and her throat tightened.

“Sooner or later, you’ll have to start telling people the truth about Aloy.” Zo said from behind, her son, Aran, in her arms. He was the perfect blend of Varl and Zo, a baby born not a month after both triumph and tragedy marked the same day.

“How do I tell them what happened?” Beta asked quietly. “It’s…after all she went through…”

“I don’t have the answers you want,” Zo admitted, “but maybe that’s the point. It’s not the answer we want. It’s not what we wanted…but considering the alternative, that earth would be a lifeless hunk of rock adrift in space…”

“I know…but the cost…” Beta folded her arms around herself and sighed.

Zo studied her, shifting Aran to her other arm, his lips making sucking motions, the memory of his last feed visiting him in his dreams.

“Have we heard anything from Kotallo?” Beta shook her head and Zo’s jaw tightened. “I’m…a little disappointed. He’s supposed to check in…”

“It’s harder for him than anyone.” Beta excused gently. “Teb says he’s still there but that communication is sporadic at best, especially with that corner of the Embrace blocked from all signals. Teb can’t make house calls all the time.”

“I suppose he and Nakoa have their hands full guiding the Nora through the revelation of their origins…”

“I don’t really know,” Beta admitted, “it’s not my area.”

Aran gave a squall and then an interesting smell began to waft up. “Oh my little man…did you fill your nappy?” Zo laughed. “Come on, time to change.”

Beta kicked at nonexistent stones on the ground, tutted her tongue against her teeth then went into the science room. She busied herself with small tasks, organising FOCUSES for the new recruits, talking with Abadund about their supply situation and checking in with Silga about the ‘missionaries’ out in the field.

“Any word from the Sacred Lands?” She asked as casually as she could.

“Only Cradle facility and personnel related communications.” Silga tapped on her FOCUSES display. “Nakoa said they need a few technical issues sorted out and some components that aren’t readily available.”

“Do we have them?” Beta peered at the readout.

“We do but they need to get there.” Silga deactivated her FOCUS. “I’ve been meaning to say, I think I came up with a way to circumvent black out zones. Heph and I looked at the spires and he came up with a design for a signal booster.” She stood and took Beta to the engineering room where Morlund was up to his elbows in his latest obsession. On the table was a metal rod with a device on the end. “If we put one of these in the black out zones, we can use it to communicate with anyone inside them.”

“Just like we usually do?”

“There’s a slight lag depending on its location.” Silga tapped the pointed end of the rod. “It’ll go into anything. Earth, rock…even old world ruins and you activate it with your FOCUS and it connects to the network as a mini spire.”

“Very mini.”

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“Well when you consider that there’s just one spire at Meridian that can reach hundreds of miles…”

“True,” Beta studied it, “I suppose it needs to be physically delivered as well?”

“That’s the catch,” Silga and Beta jumped as something Morlund was working on sparked and he looked up with a bright smile on his face, “don’t burn anything and keep those sparks away from my work!”

“Yes ma’am.” Morlund nodded respectfully.

Beta walked Silga back to the communications room then wandered around the common room before leaving the base via the east exit. She sat on the little plateau where Varl’s grave, a pile of tightly packed stones, was surrounded by many woven baskets and pots with flowers in them.

Beta sat on the edge nearby, her legs swinging freely, her green eyes staring at the east.

“What do I do?” She whispered. “Kotallo…what’s going on?”

“You could ask him.” She jumped and twisted, Tomas standing behind her with his arms folded across his chest. He looked pale, blue eyes bright in his face.

“I thought you were in the rejuvenation capsule.”

“There is no cure for DNA degradation,” Tomas quoted and sat beside her, “an hour a day keeps me going,” he held up a pair of glasses, “and these mean I can see when my eyesight starts to deteriorate.”

“I’m sorry,” Beta lamented, “death was too good for the likes of Gerard and Walter. They messed you up so bad…”

“I’m still going to live longer than Ted Faro,” Tomas refuted, “that’s my goal, anyway.” Beta bent her knees, her heels on the edge of the rock, her arms wrapped around them. “So…are you going to ask Kotallo what’s going on?”

“He’s in a black out zone,” Beta argued softly, “Silga’s solution means someone has to take it to him.”

“So…go.” Beta gave him a withering look. “What? I’m serious.”

“I can’t go all that way. I’ve never been out of the west…apart from when the Zeniths were using me to nab subfunctions.”

“Sure you can. You ask Heph nicely and he’ll fly you on a Stormbird with its ‘human passenger upgrade’.” Tomas mimicked Hephaestus’ mode of speech.

“It’s a long way…” Beta stared east, only able to see to the edge of the Daunt from where they were. “Further than I’ve ever been…”

“From what I’ve heard, the Cradle facility in the Embrace urgently needs technical assist…and you’re the best we’ve got.” Tomas insisted and Beta smiled at him. “If you happen to run into Kotallo and find out why he’s gone to ground…”

“You think something happened?”

“I think you’re going to think something happened until you go and find out it’s perfectly innocent.” Tomas stood up, brushing his hands free of grit. “Or stay here and mope. Your choice.”

“You know, Aloy was right about you.” Beta groused, standing and following him. “You can be a real jerk.”

“I can hardly deny it.” Tomas grinned. “Well?”

Beta looked over her shoulder at the horizon, her heart trembling with the thrill of the possibilities.

“I…I’ll talk with Hephaestus.”

“I’ll have everything you need for the Cradle facility ready to go when you are.”

“You know, for a jerk you can be really nice.”

Within twenty four hours, Beta’s eastward journey was ready to go. It seemed everyone had the same thought, that someone had to travel to the Sacred Lands of the Nora and make contact with Kotallo. Hephaestus provided the transport, a Stormbird with its passenger modifications which meant Beta could travel safely on its back, sheltered from the elements and with enough room for all the goods everyone insisted needed to be taken.

Despite her fears about travelling so far on her own, Beta was also secretly thrilled. She had always been in the company of others, never alone. Now she was going on an adventure, tracing the same route Aloy had once taken when she travelled all the way west.

Apart from a few slight showers which the Stormbird avoided where possible, the weather was happily pleasant and Beta could see the land passing below her through the breaks in the clouds. The Utaru’s fields around Plainsong were in full bloom as the Plowhorns, now under the control of a fully restored Hephaestus and with the guidance of Gaia, restored their land to its former glory. The Daunt had been almost completely routed of human life and structure, Nemesis possessed machines having torn down Barren Light and Chainscrape. Very few Carja and Oseram had survived. The lift had been repaired so that travellers from the east could come west but it was rarely used.

Beta’s Stormbird flew avoided the tops of the mountains, frosty and cold before soaring over the Sundom. Sunfall was decimated and from what Beta had been told about its function in the Red Raids, she figured it was a weird sort of justice. It was a shame that the Horizon Zero Dawn staging area was beneath but Gaia was confident another entrance could be dug so that pilgrims could visit it and see where the hope of life began.

Meridian was a mess. The grand mesa that had held the city of the Sun King was on its side, broken and its buildings, demolished. Some of the lower city had survived and against the odds, so had the palace of the Sun King which stood on its own mesa. It was a lonely building now after the Rockbreakers had caused the larger mesa to fall. Avad was still king and doing what he could for his people, however he did so amongst them on the ground, guiding them through their doubt and confusion. For once, the Sundom was not the centre of the world. The Carja did not have a Cradle facility to access nearby. There was talk about converting one of the cauldrons into a basic Cradle or of Hephaestus building one with Gaia’s blueprints of the Cradles as a guideline.

It wasn’t one of Beta’s priorities.

As her Stormbird flew towards the east, she felt it shift north, crossing over the mountains where Daytower still stood. It was a fortress, not a settlement so its human population was lower than many other less fortified locations. Nemesis hadn’t made it a priority and was destroyed before it could do so.

With Daytower behind her, the Stormbird flew Beta over the Sacred Land, curving to the right, heading south.

Beta licked her lips and tapped her FOCUS.

“Kotallo?” She asked tentatively. “Are you there?”

She held her breath, not sure if her inquiry would be welcome.

“Beta?” She trembled as Kotallo’s voice reached her. “It’s good to hear your voice…however unexpected.” Was there resentment in it? Did he resent her presence or was he annoyed for not warning him ahead of time so he could make himself scarce? “I was not aware you had solved the black zone issue in the Embrace.”

“We haven’t. I’m…on a Stormbird flying towards you. Daytower just passed me below. I’m only about an hour away.”

“That’s to the outskirts of the Embrace. The agreement with the Nora making the valley a no fly zone is still in effect.”

“Could you meet me at the landing site?”

“Of course. I will see you soon.”

Beta tapped her FOCUS, puzzled anew. “He’s not avoiding me…or angry that I’m here. So why hasn’t he contacted us?”