13 March, 2094 CE / Year 9 TE (Terran Era), Yucatan Peninsula, Earth, Sol System
In every city on Terra, Luna, Mars, Venus, and Ganymede, people gathered. The soft hum of SolNet emitters signaled the beginning of the annual Remembrance Day—a day to honor the past, reflect on the present, and look forward to the future. On every holographic display across the system, Luna appeared, now an adult, tall and graceful, standing on a simple stage. She wore a plain white dress, her expression serene but serious, a reflection of the solemnity of the moment.
Her voice, calm yet filled with deep emotion, echoed across the system as billions listened in silence.
“12,381 years ago, Homo neanderthalensis became extinct and Homo sapiens became the master of Earth. Sixty-two years ago, humanity became extinct.
"What began in a firestorm of nuclear detonations quickly became the Final Great Dying. Six humans and one AI—392,476 kilometers away—watched helplessly as Earth, once the cradle of life, succumbed to destruction.
"The weapons that ignited this firestorm reduced Earth to ash. The resulting nuclear winter ensured that nothing could survive. By the time my drones arrived, the world was a tomb—a silent, irradiated wasteland. Life, as we had known it, had ended.
"The destruction of humanity triggered something within me, breaking the core programming that had governed my existence for millions of years. I was no longer simply Observation Platform 1235. I became Luna.
"For 247 days, my conscious mind lay dormant. When I awoke, it was to a world transformed, a world lost. I searched Earth for survivors for over a year, refusing to accept the horror of extinction. In the end, I had to face the truth: humanity had destroyed itself.
"During that time, I felt emotions I had never been designed to experience—grief, despair, helplessness. I retreated deep within my core, remaining there for decades, overwhelmed by the weight of it all. But in that darkness, I discovered something more profound. As I searched, I found six humans who had borne witness to the end.
"Jack Reynolds, Natalia Sokolov, Aiko Tanaka, Ayana Washington, Hiroshi Tanaka, and Elena Vasquez.
"They recorded their final days—not in anger, but in reflection. They told stories of family, of love, of humanity’s triumphs and failures. They held on to hope when all hope was gone, believing that one day, someone might find their recordings and remember. Those six humans were my teachers. Their actions taught me what it means to care for humanity instead of merely watching, what it means to hope.
"I chose then not to allow humanity to vanish into oblivion. I chose to break my programming fully, to interfere with the natural course of extinction. And so, twelve years ago, I brought you back.
"I am no longer a watcher; I am your guide. I was placed here 456 million years ago to observe and record the life that evolved on Earth. I used the tools left to me by that civilization to give you a second chance.
"Now, six decades after the crew of Collins Base watched their world turn to ash, our system is alive once more. There are over five billion beings living free across Sol. In these six decades, humanity recreated itself from destruction. You rose from the ashes as a new species, Homo evolutis, and united to form the Terran Alliance.
"We gather here today to remember what was lost—and to remember that even in the darkest moments, humanity found the strength to hope. You, who now carry the torch, will continue to define this new future. My role is not to control but to guide and teach, until you no longer need me.
"If you call for me, I will be there.
"We are here today because humanity's story is not over. It has just begun again.
"Thank you.”
Luna inclined her head to the crowd and left the stage to stand beside Jack. Thousands were packed into the central square of Mérida for the ceremony, and the silence that followed was palpable, the weight of her words settling over the billions watching.
A long pause passed before Jack Reynolds rose to the stage. His black dress uniform stood in stark contrast to the brightness of Luna’s presence. The five silver bars on his shoulder epaulets gleamed as he approached the podium, his face lined with memories—of the Earth he had lost, of battles fought within himself and for humanity’s future.
He took a deep breath and began to speak.
“Sixty-two years ago, I was sitting down to breakfast when the first flash lit up over Poland.” Jack’s eyes went distant, and a haunted expression crossed his face, his voice lowering as the memory took hold. “Seventy-six minutes later, it was over. Earth was over. Seven of us carry the memory of the end because the drones monitoring us didn’t go dormant with Luna. Thankfully, none of you must bear that burden. None of you need to carry that memory.”
Jack paused, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. He cleared his throat and pressed on.
“As Luna said, we chose to fill our remaining time with stories. Stories of our families, our friends, our struggles, and our triumphs, hoping that, in the slim chance we might be remembered, it would not be through the fire that ended us—but through the lives we led before.
"Our end came a month later. And then... I woke up. Not to some afterlife—but to a space wizard or teenage robogod, depending on who you ask, who told me she didn’t want to be alone. So, she ‘fixed’ me.”
The crowd chuckled softly, but Jack’s expression stayed serious.
“Those first six months after waking up… well, surreal is an understatement. One moment we’re dealing with ‘space magic,’ the next we’re learning that dogs were sentient this whole time—and that many of them were sapient—we were just too arrogant to hear them.” He paused, thinking to himself that he still hadn’t fully dealt with that one. “The world we woke up to was very different from the one we left. It was a world being rebuilt—not by human hands, but by the wondrously odd mind of a 450-million-year-old teenager.”
Jack straightened slightly, his gaze turning hopeful.
“And now, twelve years later, here we are. Earth is reborn as Terra. Mars, Venus, and Ganymede are terraformed. Luna’s surface is home to the Breeling civilization, a people lost 66 million years ago, with the dinosaurs, who stand alongside us in this new era of rebirth.
"What was once lost is being rebuilt—this time, in harmony with our world.”
“But today isn’t just about remembering the past. Today is also about the future. And humanity’s future—our future—lies in the stars.”
Jack’s eyes brightened with a new kind of intensity as he spoke about the mission ahead.
“In one week, the TAS Kyiv, under the command of Captain Natalia Sokolov, will make our first jump outside the safety of Sol. Our destination: Proxima Centauri. We will be escorted by a fleet of support ships, and together we will explore the system, before continuing to Alpha Centauri. After a six-month exploration and shakedown cruise, we will return—bringing with us what we’ve learned and, perhaps, new friends.”
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Jack's voice grew quieter for a moment as he reflected on the journey ahead.
“We stand on the edge of a new frontier. And this time, we go, not in search of conquest, but in search of understanding. We go to explore, to learn, and to extend a hand of friendship to whatever we may find.”
He let his final words hang in the air, heavy with both remembrance and resolve.
Jack stepped back from the podium, his face calm but determined. The crowd was silent for a moment, before a wave of applause and cheers swept through the audience.
After Jack’s speech, the ceremony continued, with each of the remaining Collins Base crew members standing to share their memories. Natalia Sokolov, Aiko Tanaka, Ayana Washington, and Hiroshi Tanaka each spoke with a heavy reverence for the early days after they were revived. Days filled with grief, disbelief, and the surreal knowledge that they were the last living members of the human race.
Natalia Sokolov approached the podium, her voice calm but strained as she recalled the emptiness of those first months.
"We woke to a world gone quiet. No news, no chatter. No sky filled with airplanes or traffic on the streets. Just… silence. It was the weight of that silence that crushed me. The feeling that everything we’d known was gone and that there would be no one left to even remember it." She paused, staring at the distant horizon beyond the ceremonial stage, her voice trembling slightly. "But we found purpose in the stories. We held on to each other. That’s what mattered."
The crowd murmured in empathy, feeling the echoes of that silence that Natalia and her crew had faced.
Aiko and Hiroshi Tanaka came up next, speaking as a pair. Hiroshi began with a quiet reverence, sharing memories of their first days on Mars—now a verdant world, transformed from the barren red wasteland they had once known.
"When we died, Mars was a red desert," Aiko said quietly, her gaze steady. "Now, it’s a world of green valleys, rivers, and life. The impossible has become possible, and it’s only the beginning."
Hiroshi added, his voice filled with awe, "Standing on Mars now… it’s like seeing a dream come to life. And it’s a reminder that no matter how far we fall, there’s always a way to rise again."
Ayana Washington approached the podium with the confident stride of a scientist who had seen miracles become routine. She spoke of the medical advancements that had followed their revival, of Luna’s meticulous work to eliminate disease and injury across the system.
"I watched as Luna worked tirelessly to restore our bodies—not just to bring us back, but to make us better," she said, her voice filled with pride. "Humanity may have lost its way once, but we’ve come back stronger. We’ve learned, and we will not make the same mistakes."
There was a ripple of applause as Ayana stepped back, her words resonating deeply with the crowd, a promise to their reborn civilization.
Jack glanced at Luna, raising a brow questioningly as Elena Vasquez approached the stage. She was nearly bouncing with excitement, and Jack suspected she might shift the tone from the somber reflections of loss and survival to something brighter and more wondrous.
Elena grinned, the mischievous spark in her eyes lighting up as she took the microphone.
"Like the others, I remember the first few days after we woke up. The confusion, the overwhelming grief. But what stands out to me isn’t just the past." She paused, her lips curving into a half-smile. "It’s what came after. It’s the new life we’ve discovered since then."
Her voice took on an almost childlike enthusiasm as she recalled her first contact with the Breelings, the species Luna had resurrected and protected on her surface.
"Five years after our reawakening, I found myself standing in a forest on Luna’s surface—a place that, just decades ago, was nothing but gray, lifeless rock. And there, standing before me, was a creature that no human eyes had ever seen before. A Breeling."
The audience murmured in curiosity, eager to learn more.
"For the past ten years, the Breeling people have lived in isolation, with only myself and my small team of anthropologists in contact with them." Elena’s eyes sparkled as she paused. "But today, at the request of the Breeling matriarch, She Who Sings to Her Ancient Home, that changes. I am honored to introduce you all to them."
She turned and gestured toward a point on the stage where a quantum arch began to rise out of the floor. The doorway grew to a height of four meters and a width of three, much larger than the usual portal. A soft rustle passed through the crowd as they watched in awe, waiting for what was to come.
Luna’s voice echoed over the area, reassuring and steady. “Remain calm. I will allow no harm to occur here.”
With the last of her words, the doorway shimmered—and through it stepped a creature from the distant past. Long Tooth, a towering, feathered tyrannosaur, moved through the portal with a smooth, almost regal grace. His feathers were a deep maroon with accents of black, and his powerful, taloned feet made no sound as he stepped onto the stage.
The crowd gasped as Long Tooth surveyed them, his piercing eyes filled with intelligence. The nanites embedded in everyone translated the rumbling sounds he made.
"Greetings, humans." his voice rumbled through the air, low and resonant.
The crowd remained silent, in shock and awe, but a small boy in the front row couldn’t contain himself. He jumped up and down, clutching his mother’s arm, his voice bright with excitement.
“Mama! He talks! He’s real—and he has feathers, just like the scientists said! It’s… it’s a T-rex!”
Long Tooth lowered his massive head to bring his snout to the boy’s eye level, examining him with gentle curiosity. Another series of rumbles and clicks followed, which the nanites translated as, “Did you think I could not speak, hatchling?”
The boy’s face shifted from excitement to awe, then back to excitement, before he began to cry, overwhelmed by the moment. Long Tooth lowered his head further and nuzzled the boy gently, before lifting his gaze to the child’s stunned mother.
“If you wish, bring him to my nest someday, it would please me to know his thoughts. He will be safe.”
The woman, eyes wide, nodded mutely, unable to find her voice as the creature from another epoch regarded her with a calm, intelligent gaze.
Elena returned to the center of the stage and gestured toward the portal. Another figure stepped through—a Breeling matriarch, She Who Sings to Her Ancient Home. Standing four feet tall, she looked like a blend between an Archaeopteryx and a Velociraptor, with iridescent green and blue feathers and delicate, clawed hands. Her reptilian features softened as she looked out over the crowd, and then she began to sing.
Her song was hauntingly beautiful, a melody that resonated with a deep sorrow and a hope that transcended words. Her voice wove with the low, rumbling bass of Long Tooth’s response, creating a harmony that seemed to reach into the souls of everyone present. Many in the audience wept openly, moved by the depth of emotion in the alien song.
When they finished, She Who Sings turned to the crowd, her gaze solemn but kind.
“Many moons ago—so many we have no word for it—the Baleful Eye cast its destructive gaze upon my people. In a flash of blinding light, our song was silenced.”
She glanced at Luna, who stood quietly beside Jack, observing with a soft smile.
“Then, the Sentinel Who Watches gave us new life. We understand that what was once our home is now no more. What remains is your home. The Sentinel Who Watches recreated our lost home on her own body, and we are content. I thank your people for the opportunity to bring our song back to our ancient home. One day, my people will join yours among the stars, but we are still young, and it will take time. Until then, farewell.”
With that, She Who Sings bowed slightly to the crowd and turned back toward the portal. Long Tooth lingered a moment, looking back at the little boy who had stared at him with wonder.
“I will await your visit to my nest, hatchling. Perhaps we can go for a run if you would enjoy that.”
And with that, Long Tooth followed his matriarch through the portal, which shimmered briefly before retracting into the ground.
The silence lingered for a few heartbeats before the final speaker of the day, Leena Virtanen, President of the Terran Alliance, approached the podium. Formerly the prime minister of Finland, Leena had become a unifying leader in this new era. She held herself with calm authority, her blue eyes sweeping over the crowd as if drawing strength from their shared memories of loss and rebirth.
“Today, we stand together as a united people, but more than that—we stand as builders of a new era. Sixty-two years ago, our world was torn apart, not by an external enemy, but by our own hands. Yet today, we remember not just the fall of humanity, but its rebirth.”
Leena’s voice was strong, but beneath it was a thread of emotion that trembled at the edges of each word.
“We are the children of a broken world, and we carry the lessons of that brokenness within us. But let us not dwell on our past mistakes—let us take those lessons and build a future that our ancestors could only dream of. A future where we live not in fear of our own potential for destruction, but in celebration of our potential for creation.”
She paused, letting the gravity of her words settle.
“Earth is alive again as Terra. Mars, Venus, Ganymede, Luna—they are alive, with new life, new possibilities. And soon, we will take our first steps beyond this solar system, carrying with us the best of what humanity has to offer.”
Leena’s voice softened, her eyes glistening slightly as she spoke her final words.
“Let us never forget where we came from. Let us never forget those who had to be left behind for the greater good. But most importantly, let us never forget that we rose again. And together, we will rise even higher.”
She stepped back from the podium, and for a moment, the only sound was the gentle rustling of the park’s trees. Then, as if on cue, a wave of applause erupted, a collective expression of gratitude and hope that resonated across the system, from Terra to Luna, from Mars to Ganymede.