TCS: Survivors of the ARKs

ARK: Familiar

Aurora worried herself the day her husband set out to visit the City of Nova for the first time, a newly rebuilt utopia east of the Great Settlement. She knew of his fascination with the futuristic technology that came after their own time, a technology he had once sparked the birth of, in a past life. It was one of his greatest prides, one of his main interests, one that had previously spiraled him into uncontrollable fanaticism, driving him to become a distant and unresponsive piece of the family. Although not physical, the pain it would cause over the years would come to hurt Aurora deeply in her soul.

It didn't help her concerns any further when he began spending days away in Nova, far from his family with little to no contact with them whatsoever. This felt all too familiar to her, and it stung. It was just like in their past life when he would spend days away from home to present his grand invention all across the world, or when he was informed of the Genesis mission and would disconnect from her and everyone to focus on preparations. Her husband's fanaticism was something that had always challenged her and their young for so long, and with the end of his burden as the earth's savior, she thought he had finally gone through a change of heart, but then she was given a reason to doubt him once more.

However to her surprise, after nearly a month of this happening, she would be greeted on her own doorstep in the Great settlement, by a woman and a man clad in armor she knew too well by now. Akin to the new suit of armor her husband had dragged home from space, the two greeted her in the name of her very husband, and soon enough, she would find herself sitting in seats of luxury in the back of a TEK chopper accompanied by her daughter and her son.

They were all bewildered, the woman, who was the pilot of the aircraft claimed that they had been sent by Aurora's husband to pick her and their kids up and bring them to Nova as he had something he wished to show them. When asked about it, the woman and her co-pilot answered that they knew nothing of what had gone down and that they were only paid to escort them safely to the city. By their exchanges of glances, however, the blonde-haired lady could tell that they knew. "Oh Locke, what could you possibly have done now?" Aurora thought to herself, as they ascended beyond the clouds.

All three of them were taken aback when they made landfall within the city, their gazes all captivated by the shiny, sleek, and highly advanced environment around them. It was as if the boundaries between the biological and technological had been erased! The TEK society had found a way to dynamically rebuild their city, so as to not erase nature from its vicinity as it had been done countless times over in the past. Wildlife roamed beyond the city walls, in the same plains and fields where machines graced the environment, peacefully co-existing in one environment.

Greeted by the family man at their arrival, he would repeat exactly their thoughts, all giddy and clearly very excited to be in the presence of these technological marvels. He had always been like this, and despite her concerns and worry, Aurora smiled and giggled at her husband's rambling and reactions to all that way around him. Despite having been here on and off for a month, he had clearly not talked himself done about its wonders. He was still the nerd she had met in college.

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The rest of the family was able to experience quite the sightseeing as he led them through the city streets that were densely populated with the Federation's civilian life. People in clothing and attire they had never seen before, using tools and accessories that were so beyond them it felt as if they were walking amidst an alien civilization. Their walk would end by an open field between the city's large buildings, and that is where they were shown what the man of the house had been doing for the past few weeks.

In the middle of the grassy field, rested a sizeable aircraft with an immense wingspan, a streamlined design that somewhat resembled that of commercial planes from their time in the twenty-first century. With immense pride, he introduced 'Athena', their sky-soaring mobile home. For a moment, confusion hit the woman, and it took her a short second before she was able to recall conversations they had had a couple of months ago.