Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 71: The Blue Planet

Through the clouds.

Deeper and deeper.

Eventually, in the vast expanse of infinite shades of pinks and purples, a celestial object appeared in the distance. Like an ancient artifact hidden in another dimension, the lonely and lost planet was slightly chilling to behold.

For some reason, it felt isolated, like it was in another reality altogether, Ava could feel a chill go all the way down his shell as he saw the mysterious planet on the computer screen. He sat at the pilot's seat and stared at it as it approached ever closer. The mysterious planet lost in the depths of Artificial Jupiter.

Aphrodite leaned over and looked at the screen with him, it made him jump a little as he didn't know she was there.

"So that's it huh? Where Mother lives?" she asked,

"Yeah. Damn, it was pretty far in. I knew Jupiter was big but we've been traveling here for so long it almost feels like we're in another world." Ava replied,

"...This planet, whatever it's called, doesn't it look beautiful though?"

Ava paid closer attention to what Mother's planet looked like.

The first thing he noticed was a huge lamp hovering, no, slowly rotating around the planet, aside from that it seemed to be encased in some sort of translucent material, a see-through barrier that most likely kept the gases of Jupiter out.

The planet itself was a beautiful mix of greens and blues.

It looked like a perfectly polished marble hovering in a cloud of cotton candy.

"You know, I've never seen a planet like this before," Ava muttered,

"Doesn't it look like it's been terraformed? And I mean, heavily terraformed, even more so than other human settlements." Aphrodite crossed her arms and frowned, "I know that this is a man-made structure, so it needed to be terraformed to be habitable, but... this looks like something that would've taken thousands and thousands of years to achieve."

"Well, I guess maybe Mother will give us the answers to what that planet is when we see her."

Aphrodite didn't reply.

"You ok?"

"For a moment I forgot why we were here. You reminded me." a waver in her voice, "I'm gonna meet her."

"Right. Although that planet looked to be around the same size as Mars, and we don't even know what she looked like. So we might be searching for quite some time." Ava pondered for a while, "my hunch is that she's probably a supercomputer, seeing as she's a Block-0. In which case finding her won't be impossible, I recall hearing that to generate an intelligence of Block-0 level you'd need a computer that was made up of a network of billions of other AIs, and the amount of space it would take up would be miles upon miles. She'll probably stick out like a sore thumb."

"So we're looking for a supercomputer, you think?"

"That's the Serv theory on what she is. The Evos know jack about what she looks like don't they?"

"I'm afraid even Locke or my father didn't know."

"Well then. This is going to be interesting." The Major's voice rung from the back of the ship, Ava and Aphrodite turned to face her, "I'd prefer if we didn't waste any time though. So Ava, find a way through that barrier so we can get in through the planet's atmosphere."

"Scanning the planet revealed there were several hatches that opened up periodically to depressurise the atmosphere or the planet. It's simply a matter of popping through when one of them opens up." Ava replied,

"Well, let's go then."

***

The ship passed through the hatch, facing extreme turbulence as clear air streamed through at an incredible speed, and as it swam further into the planet's atmosphere it became clearer and clearer how beautiful it really was.

A clear blue sky, lush green land and sparkling blue oceans. A veritable utopia.

This was where Mother lived? Ava was expecting a metallic nightmare, not this. Nothing like this.

As the ship approached the land further, buildings and structures became visible. Tall skyscrapers, roads, bridges, vehicles.

But they were all decrepit, they were all covered in lush greenery. Many of the buildings had collapsed and were engulfed by trees and wildlife, the vehicles had sunk into the ground, and, as the ship sailed further across the skies, it seemed like some of the towns had even sunk into the landmass and became flooded from the ocean.

Whoever used to live here, left a long long time ago.

Thousands of years.

Ava couldn't keep his eyes off the screen, the ship's onboard camera was capturing images he'd never even imaged he'd see before.

"Oh wow!" said Sylvie, who was now also leaning over him, "this is beautiful!"

"It looks like the sanctuary," said Aphrodite, "but... more. As if the sanctuary was just a pale imitation of this."

The Major was still sitting on her seat in the back, there were other screens lining the ship showing the view, so she didn't see the need to get up. Cold as always. It was clear, however, that even she was taken aback by how magnificent the planet looked.

Eventually, the ship was close enough to the ground to view the wildlife below. Birds dancing around the sky, furry mammals of all shapes and sizes that the four had never seen before were nesting among the green.

"We should decide where to land," said the Major, she stood up, her standard confident tone and body language drew everyone to her and they looked away from the screen "we're not here to enjoy the view." Spoilsport.

"Do we have any idea where to look? This planet is ten times the size of Mars! And its way bigger than Europa too. Even one region would take months to explore!" stated Sylvie,

"Yeah. I had no idea it'd be this big. And we don't even know what Mother looks like."

There was a concerned silence among the group, however, Aphrodite had a curious look on her face.

"Ava, you scanned map data of the planet before we entered right? To find the entry point," she asked,

"Yeah, why?" Ava replied,

"Can you put the world map up on the screen?"

Ava complied,

Aphrodite examined it, it didn't even take her a moment to realise that something iffy was going on,

"No... this doesn't make sense. It can't be." she murmured,

"What is it?" asked Sylvie, "Are you ok Aphrodite!?"

Aphrodite stepped back, her eyes wide open,

"This doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't?" The Major walked closer, curious as the others,

"This planet." Aphrodite couldn't control the look of confusion on her face, "I've seen it before. In books. In historical records."

"Well?" Ava was getting tired of her beating around the bush.

Aphrodite glanced at everyone and then looked at the floor.

"I'm fairly sure this is- I mean- at least it looks like." she gulped, "Earth."