Novu Sol

Prologue

"So its lost then?"

The speaker looked at the young man standing before his desk in a uniform that was still too new to be familiar, even to the man who designed it.

"We jumped into Sol like you said. All those ships, the ones that were controlled by Virtual Intelligence, have overrun everything. We sent queries to everything and everyone we could. All we got back were hostile virus intrusion attempts we barely managed to contain." The young officer, damned he looked so young, weren't they all though at this point, shook his head. "Best we can tell, what we saw on our way out with the colony ship a mass AI uprising. Low level AI at the moment yes, but AI, not VI."

The president sat back with a pained expression. All those lives, billions of them, dead. All that was left were the fledgling colonies. None as populous as Sol and Earth had been.

"You, Commander, are going to be busy over the next few months." He said. "None of those ships had hyper technology correct?"

"The station that sold and outfitted them was gone, we tried to find backup servers but there were none. They were a cocky bunch, remember how hard a time you had buying the drives for our ships?" He said.

"Well just in case, we have to convince the other colonies to not go to Sol, no one has the firepower for this and we cannot risk letting a hyperdrive fall into the hands of the AI. They will wipe all of us out with no mercy and no restraint." The president frowned and scribbled a note onto a piece of paper.

"What else Sir?" The Commander asked. "Is there something else?"

"It will be a hell of a time and resource sink, but we need those worlds to evacuate further from Earth. If, perhaps, the AI somehow manage to get out and visit the colonies they may believe we died off and not go looking further. The colonies can do it, but it will not be easy."

The Commander straightened and saluted. "I should get going Sir. Time is not on out side and I am only one ship. I have at least 5 colonies to visit that are a bit too close to Sol for comfort."

The president nodded. "Go. Take all the fuel, food and things you need with you. I suspect, if we are lucky, at least one other colony will send a ship to Sol for some reason that will see the destruction, escape and lend us support."

The Commander nodded and walked quickly out of the office.
__________________________________________

The murmur in the large room was a buzz of distressed voices, some people dressed in the professional attire that signified ambassadors, others more normal.

50 people, from 50 different colonies, all of them in the process of moving outwards to different worlds that had once been meant for other colonies.

Colonies that would no longer need their worlds as their future colonists were all dead.

The president tapped the microphone and cleared his throat. "Thank you for coming everyone, I know it was not easy assembling you when your resources are tied in evacuation, but now that every representative is here I have a proposition."

He tapped a control and projected on the wall behind him was a star map, showing a region of space that use to be near Sol.

"We believe it is in our best interest to turn this area into a quarantine zone, where no ship, colony or station is allowed to live. It's months travels deep at this point, it would take 7 months for here to Earth straight out and you'd still need to stop for fuel on the return journey. This will keep the threat far away from our people and worlds, and stop anyone accidentally stumbling into the star system." He tapped to add something else, a red bar outside the circle of quarantine. "This here is what we are tentatively thinking of calling a buffer zone, while it's outside quarantine, and only a few habitable worlds are in it, not colonizing this area and keeping it off limits will extend the range to travel just enough from our worlds to So, to stop anyone without the right resources from traveling there."

"Wait who would want to go back?" Some one asked, they sounded terrified.

"I do." The president said grimly. "I want to go back and make those digital bastards pay for what they did, we have neither the warships, time, people or resources to strike back at the moment but one day we will." He straightened, looking grimly determined. "We will make them pay for killing Earth, Mars, Venus. All those people and settlements. We WILL take Sol back."

All the ambassadors and representatives murmured and shuffled around a bit, but all seem to agree, nodding and offering words agreement.

"But, I cannot do it alone. No one planet can." The president paused. "This is why I propose we form a new nation." He saw some of the people begin to anger. They had not fled Sol for another master. "A nation that is free and just, not like the anarchy you saw in Sol, not formed to oppress but to allow all free trade between worlds, free exchange of information and mutual support to each other in times of need."

"And what are we going to call it?" Someone called. "We all had our own names and cultures, why should we submit under a single name and rule?"

The president nodded. "I asked around for ideas while we gathered people, some names were unsuitable or jokes, but one... one stood for something I believe we can all agree to." He paused to allow people to get interested, and draw their gazes solely back to him. "Novu Sol."

"As in "New Sol?" Someone questioned.

"Novu Sol, the new Sol, the place were we will begin again, to unite us all and make new history, new hope, a new future for our children and grandchildren." He said, filled with emotion, "It will represent that not only are we not going to forget Earth and the loss we have all suffered, but that we will make something new that no one can extinguish."

The silence was absolute then someone stood and clapped. Then another, then more until everyone in the room was clapping, a few of the bolder ones cheering "NOVU SOL, NOVU SOL!"

The president grinned fiercely. "We will take back the Sol System! We will defeat the AI menace and we WILL thrive no matter what tries to stop us!"

"WE ARE NOVU SOL!"