Tisis

Rose's story (S)

After a while of following the light through what can only be described as faintly illuminated ruins that felt strangely familiar, we are lead into a huge room, which is arranged around a large circular device of some sort.

"...where are we, Rose?" Nym suddenly asks into the dim light.
"This is the Atrium, Miss Lushomagans...but I believe you already knew that, didn't you? You recognized the architecture, did you not?"
"...how...how do you know that?" Nym keeps asking, a sense of nervousness in her voice...not that I can blame her, this entire place gives me the creeps.

I'm still waiting for some 10 eyed tentacle monster to drop down on us...this is Tisis after all.
And who knows, what horrors are still lurking in this world we know so little about.

"...please, take a seat. I am afraid I cannot offer you much until some of my core systems have received maintenance, but I will at least try to answer a few of your questions."
"Yeah, about that...how comes you don't have automatic repair routines? Why don't you maintain yourself? What do you need us for?"

Rose remains silent for an uncomfortably long time, as if she was thinking hard about how to answer that.

Finally she replies, "An incident has rendered many of my self-maintenance systems defective."
"What kind of incident?!" Nym keeps probing in a tone of voice I don't think I've heard her use before.

Rose remains silent for multiple seconds again and then replies, "I am afraid, this information is not available."
"Bullshit. You know, but you don't want to tell us. Which means, that the truthful answer to the question is detrimental to your plans. And because you are an AI, you are incapable of lying, so you keep silent instead."

Silence.
Again.

After multiple seconds, Rose asks a simple question, which still sends a bunch of chills down my spine.

"What makes you say that I am incapable of lying?"

Nym seems to be taken aback by Rose's answer, but quickly recovers and replies, "Reliability. A liar is unreliable. An AI is a tool. Nobody needs an unreliable tool. Which is why..."
"Tell me, child of Garkla...can you lie?"

Again, Nym seems surprised by the question, but eventually replies, "Of course I can."
"Why? A liar is unreliable, isn't that right? Why would anyone ever create something that is unreliable?"
"...but I am not a mere tool! And I was not 'created' either! I am an individual and..."

Nym suddenly stops mid-sentence as a realization seems to hit her.
"You...are not just an AI, are you? You are...a self-aware entity. A...completely autonomous intelligence. Maybe...maybe even a digitalized organism! You...are alive."
"More or less, at least, yes. Now, please take a seat."

Begrudgingly, Nym and myself sit down on the ground and Rose begins to speak.

"I am Rose...little sister to the project controllers 'Garkla' and 'Eden'."
"Hold it right there, what?! You...what...what are you saying?!" Nym exclaims.

I put my hand on her shoulder and motion her to calm down and continue to listen.
Eden...where did I hear that name before...?

"I know this must come as a shock to you, but neither of you are the product of 'natural selection' or 'evolution' or even just 'chance' as your scholars would have liked it. My makers, who have unraveled most, if not even all the secret of this universe, have sent out a number of probes to the stars for various reasons. Some to gather resources for their plans of expansion. Some to survey the stars and find other stellar races...but three were sent out with a very special mission...the creation of life itself. At first, they sent Eden, whose task was to create a sturdy race, which would later serve as self-sustaining workforce to my makers...however a mistake in the calculations lead to Eden not landing on the yet young planet of the designated solar system. Instead, he crashed into it, tearing out a chunk of the planets mass into the surrounding space, which then got caught by the gravitational field of the remaining planet and later clumped together to form the first satellite of the planet. Eden was heavily damaged in the process and most of the genetic material my makers had prepared was lost. For the longest time, Eden was considered a failure, until a probe returned information, that life had begun to form on the planet. An observation post was established, while Eden continued to mutate the life-forms according to its programming...or whatever was left of it. Because the life that was observed was not interested in peaceful co-existence or docility. Many of the creatures preyed on each other, bringing death and destruction to those who could not defend themselves. Only the strongest, fastest and smartest survived...and continued to evolve, guided by the mutagens Eden dispersed."

Rose falls silent again, seemingly sorting her thoughts.

"With the information gathered from Eden, my makers decided for a second attempt and constructed Garkla...this time they had chosen an aquatic world as target for their ambitions. Garkla's journey was a success and it rooted itself near the core of the planet, where it began to disperse the genetic material that was sent with him and in only a few thousand years, he had created a sophisticated and intelligent life-form, who elevated Garkla to a deity. With that, Garkla's first objective was completed and it proceeded with its second objective."

"...and what objective was that? Why even create life?"
"As servants and consorts, as far as I know."

"Okay, and what happened then? Because from what I know, that whole 'servant' thing worked out...did it?" I throw in.

Something about this story stinks.

"...that is, most unfortunately, correct. But please, allow me to continue. After Garkla reported success of the first phase, my makers, who were intrigued by the results of this 'natural evolution' Eden was propagating, decided to start another experiment. Thus, I was constructed, to see what a properly functional autonomous intelligence would make of this concept. They sent me to this planet, where I was tasked with recreating the ecosystem of Earth...as a starting point, I was given samples of many creatures that had roamed the Earth at the time. To avoid evolution taking the same path as it did on Asmodeus, I was closed off from the world, only being permitted to monitor but not interfere with the actions of my creations."
"...and then...?"
"...war came upon my makers. A terrible and terrifying war, that would usher in the end of the greatest species the universe ever gave birth to...but they did not go down without a fight. In their genius, they created terrible war machines to fend off the invaders, but even when the invaders were pushed back into the grand void of space, it left a scar upon my makers that would never heal again. Afraid that others would attack them in the future, they changed their policies...and I was given a new task. To evolve the strongest and most ferocious life-form, that could be deployed against any enemy on any planet and bring about their demise. They had hoped, that this new weapon would be enough to deter anyone from attacking them. However..."

"...however while they waited for you to do that, stuff happened and they ended up destroying themselves with their weapons, isn't that right?"
"...unfortunately, yes."
"...story of my life, honestly..." I groan, as I recall the stories of how humans, in their constant pursuit of bigger and better ended up destroying their planet.

"I have another question, Rose...well, a world of questions actually, but...you said you knew why we ended up on this planet of all places. Why?"
"In short, Garkla sent you here. When the nova of the collapsing star hit the defenseless ship, it supercharged the FTL drive. The damaged copy of Garkla, which was installed on your ship, had the stellar coordinates of Earth, Asmodeus and Tisis...so, in order to save his quarry from a slow and agonizing death in the depths of space, it chose to use the last burst of energy to create a wormhole, which lead you straight to me. I assume, that Garkla assumed for there to still be an observation post of my makers here, who would subsequently have helped you establish contact with the home world...alas, Garkla was not informed of the downfall of our makers...which is why you and your people are now stranded on a planet, that's chock full with dangerous creatures, contesting to be the most dangerous of all."

I blink a few times, jump to my feet and blurt out, "Wait, you mean there are others who landed here as well?!"