Echoes Across the Stars

Chapter 7

  Today i found a tank in the desert that i have been wondering for days, maybe weeks, in there were rations for months for me which means I will be surviving for now and after searching it I found an on board computer with an AI which greeted me as bob which I was shocked about as I didn't remembered at all after all this time and it helped me navigate it and I found out the tank has a water recycling which will keep me alive for this time, it also has enough battery for 50km of range which I don't know what it means and it has a recon drone which apparently helps exploring the surrounding.

Using the drone I found some ruins I asked the AI to drive to and it did, the AI feels like a human which I haven't saw in months, I don't even remember how I got here until I found the tank, it must be the heat that makes me forget, luckily the is cooling in the tank. I feel like it will help me greatly in my future survival.

In the ruins I found what the AI calls "solar panels" which apparently can recharge the tank and allow it to function virtually forever. I asked what happened and it just answered "war" which I guess it is a tank, it can only know war and preparing for war.

When night has fallen I learned that the tank can see in the dark using something called "thermals" and "radar" which allows to "see" virtually everything including the dangers of the night and now I remembered when the dangers find you, you have only time to scream. I was lucky to survive all this time, tonight I was able to at least see what they look like. They have 2 or 4 legs, I can't understand, both way of moving are used, they also have a pair of arms and those middle limbs remind me of something that i don't quite like but can't get my finger on what it is but the tank said those are what's called "zombie Kontu" whatever that means.

When I went to sleep I was wondering questions, how did it know my name, what happened at all? Where am I? Why I forgot everything?

When I woke up the next day I asked everything that I could to the AI apparently we are Earth I asked what it was and the AI sounded sad I asked why it answered that I knew "her" very well but she didn't say much more.

We traveled for a while with the drone above and it detected fire, that's a sign of intelligence, right ? I asked the AI to analyses what it was with the drone and it was a small group of Kontu, i asked if those weren't the monsters of the night and it said those were zombie Kontu which i apparently already knew both types.

I went to see them and one of them spotted me and it ran towards me, I tried to run away but it was like the danger of the night so I couldn't escape, thankfully it didn't kill me and called me too by the name of Bob, why is everyone calling me that? Anyway he presented me his small survival group and he himself is named Greg and was shocked I didn't recognize him after all did together. Then he remembered and said sorry, remembered what? I asked and he didn't answer.

I ran back to my tank and asked the AI and it said that we are on earth (what it already said) and that the sun has began to increase in size and I asked why it's important and it answered that the human brain isn't made to outlive stars. What does that even mean? I am completely lost.

I asked it to say to me everything it knows without hiding anything and it said it will say when time come, why hide things from me if it knows me so well apparently?

I went back to Greg and asked what happened and he said war for water but it doesn't matter anymore as there is no more left in the open and we need to scavenge the ruins to find some. Why did a war start over something everyone needs? I could understand lesser races doing that, lesser race? What am I talking about?

I went back to my tank and it seems like Greg nd others are suspect something with me going back and forth and I asked the AI if it's life support could support them and it said yes. But it also asked why I would do that and I said if I know them apparently, why not?

So I went back to them and I told them to come with me and Greg said "isn't it the tank you served on based on the drawings on the side" and I said asked what was he talking about and he said "nevermind".

I asked what was this world when everyone was inside and the AI answer a thriving eucumenopolis, what is thriving? What is eucumenopolis?

Today Greg and his group tried to steal my tank but the AI refused any commands and kicked them out then said I shouldn't have trusted him since I knew who hes was, I met him a few days ago how could I know who he was? I said and the AI seemed so sad in it's voice and said we were once close companions, how could I be close companion with an AI? It doesn't make any sense.

I pondered all night about what it said and when it detected that my "vitals" whatever that means doesn't show that I am sleeping it asked why and I asked why would I be companion with an AI and it sound the saddest I have ever heard it and said that it originally wasn't an AI and that I transferred it's consciousnesses into the tank when she died. I asked when did I do that and it said 11million 563 thousand 709 year ago I asked who she was and she said word for word" fine I will spill the tea, I am Khrenta and I was your wife for a billion years and we lived happily for all this time on earth but you forgot some distant things due to your human brain and I guess it happened again, I remember you once disappeared through the ground and I had to make the entire scientific community to work on it, apparently you went back in time so I pulled you out of there back to us, we discovered time travel that way but we hid it and never used it as it can create paradoxes and so when I died in the war for water you transferred me into this tank, the sand you are walking of were buildings..." by that time I ran out out of confusion, that name sounded oddly familiar.

By nighttime I had no choice but to go back inside and Khrenta, (was that her name?) showed me a hologram of what she looked like and it was like Greg and the others but different, it felt personally close. I am starting to regain some memories like the first encounter with her and the soldier cut in half, was it during the war for water or an other one I don't remember?

I remember most big events like the start of the expansion of the sun the first Human-Kontu war, Eondar which Khrenta said we have to find a ship to go there if we want to live fully, and the hacked nanobots, I guess it happened again due to the war or by someone trying to revive it's close ones. But as usual I'm running out of space, so goodbye.