Steward's Stand.

After a lengthy delay, I finally present to you my new work, set in my own universe. Please be aware I haven't had time to proof-read this yet, and I will probably edit this rough version when I can, so please enjoy.

Steward’s Stand.

Chapter 1

Earth was dead. Its cities lay empty. There were no signs of life, only the skyscrapers and machines left abandoned and rusty; the toll of decades of wear and tear from the elements was clearly visible.

Nothing remained but a single bright spark. But it was not a spark of human life, it was artificial. This artificial construct had been called Icarus and he was a caretaker AI. His maker had left him behind to guard the planet and prepare it for their return of humanity, a duty he obediently obeyed all these long years since they were first uttered.

Icarus watched the recording for the 200643 time that day. It was all he had left on record about his creator, and he had come to watch it regularly, as it always helped him focus on his duties, especially when the loneliness hit him. The recording started, and a middle aged man steadied the camera as he spoke into the lens. He was tall, with greying hair and deep wrinkles. His green eyes were holding back barely contained fear as he explained to the camera,

‘This is Professor Harold Joplin. Today is the 29th of April 2186. The Variola pandemic has spread over the last two weeks, killing millions within days. Only about 10,000 of us remain uninfected, and every day that number drops more. The President of the United Sates final order before he died was for all remaining survivors; be they American or any other Nationality to get of the planet before it is too late. I am leaving on the last transport now, the U.N.S. Helios, which is headed for Alpha Centuri. This is my final message to you. Icarus, I wish I could have stayed longer to help you, but my hands are tied. Earth is your responsibility now. My last command for you is to guard the planet to the best of your ability and prepare for when we return. I wish you good luck and good speed.’

The Doctor almost had tears in his eyes and he flipped a switch on the camera and the feed went dead. Icarus pondered the message, as he had done most days. He had obeyed his creator’s wishes down to the letter. He had been given access and control over all electronic hardware left on the planet; security cameras, geothermal and environmental sensors, as well as bioscanners. He also had access to automated service vehicles and defence drones, as well as a satellite linkup to know when and where the human ships would arrive. With his exceptional processing power, being able to perform tens of thousands if not millions of operations per second, Icarus was well suited to monitoring and maintaining an entire planet.

Icarus thought back to when he was first created, and how his ‘birth’ was the dawning of a new age in artificial intelligence. Icarus was the first sentient AI ever constructed, and his designers took their inspiration from the human brain itself, using it as a template when creating his central processor. He was powered by a self-sustaining fusion reactor, which was buried three miles underground, as were most of his primary systems. Unfortunately the celebration of his creation was short lived as two months later the variola pandemic struck.

Variola Major, also better known as smallpox had been a viral strain that was one of the first diseases to be wiped out by vaccination and scientific advances. By the 1980’s the virus was virtually extinct, with only a few vials left in storage in laboratories in the U.S. and Russia. As time went by, they stayed in storage, left and forgotten. On the 27th March 2186 20.15 EST, the Rakarov research facility was broken into and a vial of the smallpox virus was stolen by an unknown group of terrorists. On the 6th April, the virus was released in a coordinated strike in Washington DC, London, Sydney, Moscow and Berlin. By the 15th April the virus had infected every continent and mortality rates were rising with an average of 100,000 deaths per day. It was discovered that during storage, the virus had been in contact with other airborne viruses and it had mutated into a new strain, which the previous treatments for smallpox were ineffective. As the virus had been believed to be dead, no one had protection from the virus, so no one had immunity. Icarus found the whole pandemic ironic; humanity had nearly been destroyed by a threat they thought they themselves destroyed. Within two weeks, only 10,000 remained, who then left via all remaining transports at the international space station.

Two hundred years had passed since the Helios left Earth orbit and left him alone. The virus levels had dropped significantly, as without a suitable host, they had slowly died off, until now the virus strain was gone. Most animal species were doing well, as they had no longer affected by man’s actions and they were much more successful. Icarus had only stopped them from entering former human population centres, using some of the defence drones to keep them away, but they were much more tenacious than he had originally predicted, and he had been forced to use drastic measures, even having to kill some larger predators when they made some of the cities their hunting grounds.

On reflection, Icarus felt very lonely. He had been alone with only a recording of his creator for company for the best part of 200 years. For all his intelligence, his task was a thankless one, but he still did it, because it was he duty, and he wouldn’t disobey his final order. It ran across his mind that humanity could be extinct, that they failed to reach Alpha Centuri and the last remnants of the species were gone, leaving him to steward a planet for the rest of his operational life. Maybe they would one day return to the planet, maybe they wouldn’t, despite all his knowledge and analysis, he couldn’t be certain on the outcome. All he could do is have faith that Professor Joplin and the rest of the survivors had made it, and had started again, and their ancestors would one day return to their home world.

After his musing he began his routine scans of virus levels and environmental sensors. It was an average day across the world, with a very humid 45 degrees Celsius in South Africa. It seemed like it was going to be just another normal day. He then accessed the satellites sensors and looked out into the vacuum of space in his daily vigil for a ship. As every single other day there was no sign of a ship, no transmission from afar. He was about to run a diagnostic routine when an odd blip caught his attention. He realigned the satellite and aligned its signal to bounce off an old relay station to bend behind the moon, where the signal was coming from. The signal only took seven seconds to complete, but to Icarus, it felt like seven years. He prayed it wasn’t a random glitch, he knew the technology he controlled was become less and less reliable as they slowly broke down, but he still knew they were efficient enough. As the image came in, Icarus got to work sharpening and clearing up the image, as well as running several checks on the satellites visual cameras. As the image finally became clear, Icarus looked in awe. It was a ship, it was a dull green colour, and was roughly cubical in shape. Icarus ran the unidentified ship against the known transports that left Earth during the pandemic to see if there was a match. A split second later it was confirmed to be the U.N.S. Nautilus, a ship that left two years before the pandemic occurred. While Icarus found this curious he could barely hold back his anticipation, as the ship slowly soared into towards the planet and entered the atmosphere.

They were finally home.

End of Chapter 1.

Thanks for all the support, I've cleaned up the first chapter a little and I'm starting work on the next chapter.

i have a bad feeling about the ship

Finally got around to reading this.

Great work Vigil. I can't help but get the feeling that their is a little influence of the Halo novels in there. Nylund perhaps?
No, I'm sure there's other pieces of work that infuenced your writing.

So far though, I like it.

Thanks, it's a little inspired by Halo, as well as other things.

Funny you should bring this back up, the next is about halfway done, and If I have time I'll try and get it done this weekend.