Living Antiquity

~1~

"I know you can hear me and I know you are probably scared. But don't worry, Ms. L/n. You will not be awoken until a cure has been successfully processed in your nervous system. Minerva and Eleuthia's combined efforts will more than make up for the absence of Apollo. And perhaps... You can help too," the woman said, "You'll remain asleep here until someone can safely awaken you. I will do so myself if I must." The gentle voice said as the cold began to set back in, "But someone of this era will be needed, I fear. Sleep well and heal."
The cold was all-encompassing. It eventually fought off the pain and became all I felt. I slept.
Forever, it seems.
"Varl, I found it. A secondary chamber, right where Gaia said the unknown draw was coming from.... This data here... This was left by the first Gaia." A female voice said before a digital voice recording began to play.

"Greetings. If you are seeing this, you are a person I trust. If you were sent by a second installation of me, you do not know what is here, but are trustworthy. In this room sleeps a young woman from the year 2066. Y/n L/n, age 25. She was diagnosed with a severe neurological infection that ate away her nervous system and made her waking life immensely painful. My Minerva and Eleuthia functions have been tasked with fabricating a cure and administering it to her over time. She was the adopted younger sister to a close friend of Elisabet Sobeck, Travis Tate. He joined the project partially under the condition that Y/n be spared... Her existence was carefully hidden from all but Elisabet and myself. Travis wanted her to see the world that Elisabet desired to leave behind for future humans. Because of the level of damage and the unique nature of the infection, she has lost access to most of her senses save for feel and a slight bit of her hearing. Likely, when you are viewing this, her wakeup procedures will already have begun. Whoever views this... Please let her see this world."

"Y/n, huh? That explains why there is no further data on her, and I never found anything out in the wilds... There is another message as well. It's dated the day that the first Gaia had to destroy herself."
"Let us know what you find, Aloy."
"Yeah, I will." The woman responded, her voice followed by the chirp of a console being activated.

"Elisabet, or whoever you grow to be, if you come to this region and find this place, Y/n has been cured for fifty years. Eleuthia and Minerva's work led to a careful gene therapy that would regenerate and renew her nervous system to a healthy state. After that the therapy would process itself away inside her body, but enough traces were to be left that her body would keep itself stable even if she awoke. I had her transferred here, along with all of her personal data storage and personal affects, by machines not long ago to ensure her prolonged safety, however that is beside the point. Y/n will need a guide and a friend. You will undoubtedly have questions about the old world, and how things were. Y/n had 23 years of life in the old world before her body began to degrade- I'm sure she would enjoy telling stories to you and anyone else you have her meet. She will need to be taught to survive this tribal world, but I feel that if you make it here... She will need a friend and a teacher. I hope that you will be willing to be both. I have keyed the pod to your voice and sequence so that no one but you may wake her, for fear of her being harmed... Good luck, Elisabet."

Silence followed, a soft beeping soon ensuing, followed by a soft sigh.
"One of the Old Ones. This should be interesting," whirring endued, followed by a digital key-phrase request, "Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime."
"Do you wish to bring the patient to full consciousness and range of motion?"
"Yes. Wake her up."
Hissing sounded, warmth flooding my body and shocking me into taking a gasping breath as I bolt upright and smack my face against the inside of the glass.
"Ow!! Ugh..." I groan and rub my head, leaning back and huffing in annoyance, "Not the lost dignified way to wake up..." I sigh as the glass opens and reveals...
A much younger looking Elisabet, with long hair, dressed in a grey dyed leather armor with blue and red embroidery, her hair braided and dreaded back from her face. God, she really did look just like her. Carried herself somewhat the same too.
"Guess not. Y/n, right? My name is Aloy. I'm... uh..."
"A clone of Elisabet." I say bluntly and swing my legs up out of the pod.
"Yeah..."
"Cloning was illegal back then, but ignore that because clearly you're awesome. I heard something about Gaia having to destroy herself?" I say, rubbing my arms, trying to warm up some and let the feeling all come back. If I try to stand up, I'm gonna fall face first into either her or the floor.
"I... Yeah. Twenty years ago, when I was born. I found a copy of her root kernel and restored her to what little functionality she currently has. She only has Minerva, all she could do was turn on some lights and activate a few doors."
"What happened to the Hades protocol? My brother's... uh... gruesome favorite pet?" I asked, earning a shiver, "Ok, that tells me something went wrong that Trav didn't intend."
"Someone sent an extinction signal twenty years ago that made Hades sentient. That infection spread to the other subordinate functions, and they all scattered. Hades tried to destroy the current biosphere. Apparently this is.. I forget what he said, the fifth or the sixth attempt at a stable world... But I destroyed him." Aloy explained as I began to sequentially pop all of my joints, "Uh... doesn't that hurt?"
"Not nearly as much as it would have a thousand years ago. Although..." I sigh and look at myself, then her, "I must look like a talking ball of fat to you. I had trouble staying out of the snack stash back then.."
"You'll thin out, trust me. The lifestyle now versus then... You'll be more active. But for right now, you need food. My friends upstairs are arguing over what to give you. Any suggestions?"
"Is there any kind of... I dunno, chicken noodle soup?" i ask tentatively.
"We have stewed turkey and vegetables, just made this morning," Aloy pondered out loud.
"Close enough. If I can get my hands on flour and eggs at some point I'll play around with ideas I got from cooking videos back then."
"Zo, how about heating up some of the stew from lunch?" Aloy asked into her Focus before turning back to me, "Since you'll probably be staying here... Here you go." Aloy said, handing me a Focus.
"Yooo...!" I breathed, "These were the latest model back then. Awesome. They were supposed to be able to read and store data faster, longer and more efficiently than all the odler models combined! Trav always promised to get me one if he could get the money. Guess in a way he did, since he bargained for my life."
"Y/n... you're not going to like what happened to him." Aloy said as she helped me to my feet.
I sighed and rubbed my face. "I already know. Three syllables, starts with T and ends in a little o?"
"Uh... what?" She asked.
"Ted Faro?" I spat, "Never trusted him and I am shocked Trav did. He reeked of megalomaniacal jaggoff the moment he ever stepped in the spotlight. Trav used to come talk to my pod when I was kept in the hidden medbay at the Hades Testing facility. Would talk all about his work, coworkers. Had a huge crush on Elisabet. He said he also told Gaia that I could still hear her. She used to keep me up to date on current affairs. She told me what he did. If I had been okay back then, I would have gone and ripped him apart. I hope he died miserable, I really hope he did."
"I... wow, okay then." Aloy rubbed her head as she walked me along, up stairways and halls until we reached an open area where three other people were talking."
A dark skinned woman painted with blots of white paint looked over as me and smiled, "Hi! My name is Zo."
"Hi." I said, sitting down on a stool when Aloy walked me over to the countertop where a steaming bowl sat, "I'm Y/n."
"Aloy sent us the data files about you from the first Gaia." A dark skinned man with blue pain on one side of his face explained, "My name is Varl. The one with his face buried in his ale mug is Erend."
"Oi! I was getting to it!" The man scoffed as he set the mug down.
Holy happy mutton chops, Gaia.
"Hi." I said simply, keeping my face straight.
Calm. Serenity. Nothing funny here.
Nope.
No.
Not at all.
It isn't funny, Y/n!!!
To distract myself, I tried a bite of the stew in the bowl, but promptly began to wolf it down as my stomach generated a sound so loud and unholy that everyone in the room was now watching me.
"Uh... hungry..." I muttered in embarrassment, before activating my focus and scanning until I could a link to my data drives below and began downloading.... everything. My music, my books, my writing, all of it.
"What are you doing?" Aloy asked, frowning.
"When the old Gaia said in her message 'personal affects', that included a ton- and I mean a ton- of music, books, videos, movies, documentaries and more. I spent a ton of time collecting ways to learn about the world outside once I became physically unable to go see it. I'm transferring full copies to everybody, you might all find something you enjoy. I have an eclectic music taste, so its a bit of everything. With books, I was a bit more niche, but still." I said as I began playing Cibo Matto's Viva! La Woman album over my own Focus.
"What are documentaries?" Erend asked blankly.
"Videos loaded with information. I saved everything I could get my mitts on. Magic School Bus, Cosmos, the newer Cosmos, Life, Mythbusters, historical documentaries, crime documentaries, LITERALLY ANYTHING that had interesting information. Plus a ton of cartoons and movies and other stuff as well."
"You have your own cultural data store!!" Zo said excitedly, clearly already scrolling through some of it.
"Not on the level of Apollo. But I did make contributions through my brother and Elisabet while I could still talk. Gave suggestions. I told them to save everything David Attenborough that they could," I pointed out, "And I saved a lot copies of his work myself."
"Is that the man narrating these documentaries with the calming voice?" Zo asked.
"Yes! He was old when many of those were recorded, but they're so wonderful!" I said excitedly, talking back and forth with Zo and all of the others as I ate, before realizing something, "Do the toilets work?..." I asked.
"The what?" Varl asked
"Those toilets over there. Oh. You don't know what they are. Crap. Uhhh, Latrines?"
"The plumbing is in disrepair. However if we could load directional code to a couple of specialty machines they could fix it, or I can cross reference how to get them working from your own stores, Y/n. Your eclectic interests may yet some in handy." A gentle voice spoke over the speakers.
"Hello, Gaia. I suppose you don't remember me." I said softly.
"Through Minerva's code, I can see how far she was pushed in finding a way with Eleuthia to cure you. You will be stable well into old age."
"Provided I don't die in this exciting new world." I fume.
"You'll need to know how to fight. How to climb. And how to hunt." Aloy said bluntly.
"Oh. Lovely..." I mutter.
All the things I have no earthly clue about.