*(mood song: "Awolnation - Sail")

Erik looked at the right wall and saw a dial, so he pointed at a nearby bulky warrior.

Erik: "you soldier, take care of Rose"

The warrior acknowledged: "yes fifth elder" but when Erik dropped Rose in her arms, the warrior's arms almost snapped as she could not hold her, luckily six other warriors quickly helped her, propelling up Rose's heavy armoured body.

Erik came close to the wall and pulled the lever, making the wall fold up and reveal a big brass color ovoid sphere the size of a bus, supported by a base, and with a big hatch.

Erik went inside and noticed a dial in the middle with octopeople symbols, luckily Inky had gone inside with him.

Erik: "what does it say?"

Inky: "urgency selection, six levels, there's also a warning by the side, more than level three could cause decompression bleeding..."

Erik: "an escape pod, great!" he then exited the hatch "Everyone come inside! we are going back to the surface!"

They carried their things inside the huge escape pod, and everyone got inside, the elders, soldiers, mutants, and the inactive bots.

Erik looked around: "everyone hold tight!" and set the dial lever at the highest setting.

The capsule's hatch closed and started to vibrate, then falling for some seconds and then... In an instant, it started accelerating. On the outside of the capsule both a balloon full of steam and rotative tubes with steam coming out of them, worked in unison to accelerate the capsule more and more up a tube.

---

On the city surface, a war between spiderfish and crabs was going on. Giant spiderfish the size of trucks spit sticky fibers to equally enormous black crabs in a multitude of shapes, some even having glowing mushrooms sprouting from them.

The battle was titanic, and while the spiderfish seemed to have a huge advantage in numbers, the crabs were more powerful.

But as all of that happened...

*BOOM!*

A huge steam explosion rocketed the surroundings as a huge object rapidly ascended.

--- Inside the capsule ---

Erik: "aaaaaaaaahhhh fuuuucckkk" Erik's eyes got red, and his nose dripped blood, his ears rung with a loud beep, while his power armor struggled to release pressure.

His sight was red but he saw all the octopeople around him struggling on the floor, only the elders seemed to remain straight, and then there was the perfectly fine Amanda.

Amanda: "commander, we are about to his the surface ice, brace for impact!"

Erik dropped to the floor, as the capsule came to an abrupt stop, with everyone getting launched onto the air, and back to the floor.

Erik stood up slowly and opened the hatch, looking up he saw an inflated leather balloon full of steam on top, it was starting to sink though.

Erik muttered to himself: "very well thought out but... hydrogen is better" climbing to the top and inflating it with hydrogen "that should do it..."

The elders and Amanda came out too and looked around.

Inky: "now what?"

But before Erik could reply, Amanda pointed in a direction: "the base is that way commander"

Erik nodded, and ordered the soldiers that had exited the capsule too: "pull from it, we are taking it back to the city!"

Everyone pushed and did their part except the mutants, they were on the pods floor, feeling bloated and in pain due to the change in pressure.

---

Hours later, they reached the base, but to their surprise, they had to manually open the doors, as the base was out of power too.

Shana: "what do we do now" she pointed at Rose "how do we fix her?"

Erik: "...hmm she said something about power so... I think I know what might work..."

Hours later, Rose woke up in a room full of connected cables.

Rose: "huh? what is this?!"

Erik had been sleeping nearby so he quickly woke up.

Erik: "huh? you finally woke up!"

Rose: "finally? where is this?"

Erik: "calm down, I hooked you to the emergency generators for the antimatter space ship engine's magnetic field generators"

Rose: "what?! save those for an emergency! are you planning to blow the ARK or what?! what if you caused a malfunction?!" she composed herself as she disconnected the cables "

Erik shrugged: "Well... I kinda know what I'm doing, but yeah... maybe I should install some turbines outside as an emergency power source after all.."

Rose facepalmed: "...this base uses way more power than whatever you might have estimated, you would need hundreds of thousands of turbines, as nanobots consume a lot of power as a whole, how would you even do that?"

Erik: "Oh? then... you do it?"

Rose rolled her eyes, and her face then got serious "but... there's something I need to tell you... I know where Sarah is"

Erik: "what?! how?!"

Rose: "well, once she received my message, that sent a gravitational ping to me, so i've been sending her through one portal after another to get her closer and closer".

Erik: : "portals?... why not bring her on one go?"

Rose rolled her eyes: "yeah... I can't do that, not only could that warp her molecular structure without exact coordinates, I just don't have enough energy..."

Erik: "...wait, now that you say all this... did you crash my spaceship here on purpose?!"

Rose: "...I wouldn't say on purpose I just-"

Erik: "Then? how does that technology even work?"

Rose sighed: "well... it's like fishing I guess... I cast some port doors every couple of decades to look around. Imagine launching one of your hands far away tied to a fishing hook, and then touching around as your hand reaches the ground, taking a long time to then reel your hand back, or the line would break, that's more or less how it works..."

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Erik: "but why bring me and Sarah?"

Rose: "well, you 'cause I felt you were from a new race, so... I thought you might have been created after the ancients won the war? I didn't know how the war was going or what was going on anywhere after all, and I still don't. As for Sarah... I felt guilty for her and you, but most importantly... so that you can reproduce, I like humans so far, so... as long as you don't touch what you shouldn't, I don't mind more humans living on my surface"

Erik sighed: "...then what about Antonio, Mónico, and Elena? and the millions of colonists that will lose their to be homes, also... even if Sarah was here, two humans are incapable of creating an entire human population in a short amount of time, also... there wouldn't be enough genetic diversity-"

Rose dismissed it: "pff and? a couple of million years ain't that much, also... genetic diversity wouldn't be that important since in the ARK, any of those future humans could end up mutating into different branches quickly depending on their diet anyway"

Erik nodded: "true..., so... why build a technology like that then? all ARK's developed their own right?"

Rose: "...you wouldn't understand..."

Erik rolled his eyes: "don't know, just try okay?"

Rose: "...fine..., you know how I was created right? well, I wasn't always an ARK"

Erik shrugged: "yeah?"

Rose nodded: "we used to be the last form of terraformed planed model, the best of the best, their ultimate lifeform creation, living planets that could regulate their own environments, but..." her eyes dropped, "they thought of us as bulky and inefficient... they wanted to create something better, creatures similar to them..."

Erik: "well, you are indeed bulky as a planet jaja~"

Rose sent him a chilling stare: "I'm not joking"

Erik: "...just trying to lighten the mood-"

Rose: "you failed, now shut it"

Erik: "yes ma'am..."

Rose: "now as I was saying..., they decided to use us to create new super races through evolution, they installed lots of thing's on us, going from pleasure worlds to enjoy nature, to laboratories..., but we ARKs have a mind of our own, a really big mind at that, some created their own networks, and we talked with each other at a mind level-"

Erik: "like when you talk in my mind?"

Rose: "...similar, but we shared thoughts directly, so we all decided to develop our own unique technologies, mine was the ability to teleport, in the past, I could teleport my entire body... now i get exhausted just teleporting a mere ship..."

Erik: "Oh? what was the most powerful power then?"

Rose: "ARK 1... she was old... reaaally old... she had her own controlled solar system, her own artificial star, I can teleport to other stars, but she... could make a sun that lasted for eternity, resupplying its fuel and taking off all other elements generated, basically a star furnace, she created alloys and metals previously undiscovered and with enormous densities..."

Erik: "Oh? then can't we contact her?"

Rose shook her head: "she was the first to be attacked, they sent huge fleets after her, and we lost communication, I'm... alone Erik, I'm afraid I'm the last sapient ARK, the other's are now just corpses full of disgusting bugs living over their carcasses..." grinding her teeth in hate.

Erik: "well..., I know I can't compare to an almighty solar system ARK but..." he put a hand on her shoulder "I'm here for you, and... thank you for bringing me here..."

Rose: "you aren't mad?"

Erik shrugged: "I would be if I had to survive by myself but... you have helped me a lot, so no I'm not mad Rose, my life that would have been a boring colony habitat technician and now I'm the leader of a mysterious alien race, in a planet full of unknowns, and I can talk to the planet herself. If I have one regret though... that would be not seeing how that planet Gliese - 581C actually looked like..."

Rose rolled her eyes: "you get to see me right? much better than any other random planet"

Erik chuckled: "hehe~ that's true... by the way... what about Antonio, Mónico, and Elena?"

Rose: "according to your memories they should have backup systems enough to barely sustain themselves until the next colonist group arrives"

Erik: "can't you just bring them too? they are kinda essential too you know~"

Rose: "...it's an extremely advanced technology, not a local airline you know? what if it fails? Sarah almost died recently teleported in the middle of a galactic war-"

Erik: "what?!"

Rose: "but I saved her don't worry... I'm pretty tired though, so she will have to wait a month or two for the next teleport"

Erik: "but a war... her ship is fine right?"

Rose: "hmm... yeah sure, it looked fine, just some scratches~, nothing too worrisome"

Erik: "sigh, that's a relief... she can just get into cryo, as long as life support is still working she should be fine..." then he thought of something "by the way, that's the context, but why teleporting?"

Rose: "I hated it, millions of years round and round around the same sun over and over and over... I wanted to explore"

Erik nodded: "I would go crazy"

Rose: "yeah... you probably would haha~"

Erik rolled his eyes: "let's go, the others are worried"

---

Far away in an abandoned solar system with a giant red star, a purple crack opened and a spaceship quickly came out.

Sarah: "Ship! immediately scan! where's the next crack?"

Ship AI: *scanning.... no new crack in space found*

Sarah: "is it... here then?... ship scan the solar system"

Ship AI: "...deploying probes.... probes 1 to 23 damaged.... deploying probes 24 to 40"

Small probes three meter in length were then shot in all directions around the solar system.

Ship AI: *the complete scan will take some hours commander, but I can detect three planets on this solar system, along with unknown metal debris, seemingly of abandoned spaceships*

Sarah: "hmm... alright then, status report"

Ship AI: *atmosphere pressuring compromised, life support systems deactivated, oxygen reserves depleted, 39 serious hull breaches detected, energy systems operative, artificial gravity rings lost *

Sarah: "...reactor condition?"

Ship AI: *....the cooling system is offline, the vacuum of space is cooling it for now, but it's exposed to being hit by debris from space, an emergency repair is recommended*

Sarah: "So where do I even get metal to pluck those holes... wait..., you said spaceships debris earlier?... send all the probes to investigate that debris first"

Ship AI: *yes commander*

Sarah: "doesn't this ship have some emergency repair bots?"

Ship AI: *the repair bot module was jammed by a laser ray commander, it can connect to it, might be destroyed*

Sarah took off the straps and floated above her seat: "well, someone needs to take a look at it, or I'm gonna suffocate soon"

Ship AI: *according to estimates, using all the Co2 filters and O2 cartridges on board you should have enough oxygen for a week commander*

Sarah: "yeah, estimates are always good, but six days at most and that is if none are damaged or poorly manufactured..."

She then grabbed the walls and went to the back of the command module, picking a repair kit from the side, and twisting open a metallic hatch, making the little atmosphere still in the module escape. The once comfy corridor beyond was now cracked and perforated in multiple places.

She exited one of the holes, grabbing onto the exterior of the spaceship, she contemplated the brilliant red star for a moment and kept advancing.

Sarah: "okay, guide me"

A hud appeared on her helmet visor.

Ship AI: *continue twenty meters in that direction commander, it should be a module the size of a car*

Sarah: "understood"

Sarah continued climbing the broken exterior, every crack and melted burnt part made her heart ache, maybe she shouldn't have followed that signal?.

Sarah muttered: "you aren't guiding me to my death... right Erik?..." she saw unconnected cables and peeled some rubber and twisted them with their color, finally covering each with some carbon fiber duck tape "and done, what did I just repair?"

Ship AI: *air temperature regulation online*

Sarah: "... I need air for that first sigh... let's continue" she saw destroyed solar panels on her way, and more holes.

After thirty minutes of gruesome and tiring travel.

Ship AI: *you should see it to your right commander*

Sarah looked to her right and saw a rectangular compartment, the exterior melted and scorched by a laser diagonally.

Sarah: "... hopefully some are still operative..."

She got close to it and saw the drone exit hatch was molten shut "hopefully this is enough..." she took out a rotatory diamond cutter module and after plugging one cable to the batteries of the repair kit, she started cutting the metal, "wish I had a plasma cutter..."

Ship AI: *you would need an air compressor for that commander-*

Sarah: "I know!" but then, soundlessly the disc snapped and flew away "dammit! don't distract me" she quickly replaced the cutting disc and concentrated as she continued cutting.

After ten minutes, she finally cut the hatch open, as it flew away and onto space.

Sarah: "alright, now what?"

Ship AI: *cables to the module should have been burnt, you will need to cut some sections and rejoin the cables, I suggest using a cable from any nearby debris*

Sarah nodded and found the module cables, effectively melted together, so she quickly cut through the insulation and cut away the molten area, the problem was that the cables then were too short "dammit, who designs a spaceship like this..."

Ship AI: *it is unlikely the designers considered the need for the spaceship to survive a battlefield and be easy to repair...*

Sarah: "I know, I'm just cursing in frustration..." she saw a piece of cable floating around, connected to a hull piece "this should work..." she cut it off and used it to restore the original cable.

The module then illuminated.

Ship AI: *repair module operative commander*

Sarah sighed in relief, as small mechanical spiders came out of the module, barely the size of a large dog, and started scanning the spaceship's exterior.

Ship AI: *we will still need lots of additional materials commander*

Sarah: "have you scanned those spaceships yet?"

Ship AI: *not entirely, but the probes have detected organic traces and did a carbon dating, the spaceships seem to be at least a million years old...*

Sarah: "...are the metals workable?"

Ship AI: "yes commander"

Sarah: "then that's all that matters... get us closer, we will cut pieces from them to repair you"

Ship AI: *understood, course set...*