The Ark

Part 7 - The End

There was a loud 'whooshing' sound and then a voice. A voice far off in the distance.

He wasn't sure if he really heard it or not until finally there it was again. Or was it? He wasn't sure and almost didn't care.

"Wake up Jack," she said.

There was her voice. It was Michelle! It seemed as though he hadn't heard her voice in so long. His mind was out of focus and hazy, swimming in that warm, comfortable darkness. For a moment he thought he heard her call his name. The words seemed to ripple through the blackness that engulfed him then he faded back into nothingness.

Michelle said, "Come on Jack," as she gently slapped his cheek. "You've been asleep a long time so it will take a minute for your mind to clear."

Jack said, "Ok, ok, I'm awake." He groaned as he sat up. He wasn't on a cot but in some kind of sleep chamber device. He hardy noticed because every single muscle in his body ached and was stiff. He rubbed his eyes, stretched, yawned and asked, "How long has it been?"

As she opened the side of the chamber and helped him out she said, "Eleven thousand years since the last time I woke you, over thirteen thousand since Earth was lost."

The room was large and open with a lot of computer equipment along one wall, a recovery area with a couch and several large chairs in the center of the room and about a dozen sleep chambers lining the other wall. She walked him to the couch and sat him down.

Jack said, "An eleven thousand year nap? That has to be some kind of record." He looked around the room and through his foggy mind he realized something was different. He looked at his hands and touched his face. "I'm in a real body?"

"Yes. We both are."

He looked at her for several long seconds. Every time he had seen her before she was dressed smart, like a business woman, but now she was wearing a robe and looked like she had just crawled out of bed. He reached out and poked her cheek with his index finger and said, "But you're an Artificial Intelligence. You never had a real body."

"Sarah Carter didn't want it so I took it."

"What do you mean Sarah Carter didn't want it?"

"Jack, not everyone has been asleep like you. This isn't a ship full of sleeping people, it houses a giant computer generated world where billions people live out their lives doing whatever they can dream of. For the past thirteen thousand years while you were asleep the rest of humanity has been living out their lives in the paradise that is the Ark and now they don't want to leave. People whose minds are literally addicted a virtual paradise."

"How could this happen?"

"Marcus Carter anticipated it might happen. It was his choice as to whether people got to live out their lives in the Ark or just sleep through the trip like you did. It was a tough choice but he realized there was a chance the Ark might not succeed in reaching a habitable world before it was destroyed so he wanted to give people the chance to have a life. That's why I couldn't put you in the Ark. If I put you in the Ark there would be no one to help me if I needed it."

"Where does that leave us? The two of us aren't enough to rebuild the species."

"No, but we have billions of DNA samples."

Jack narrowed his eyes at Michelle. "I have no intention of raising billions of babies."

Michelle laughed and said, "Just about thirty individuals to start. Then they'll help with the rest."

"Thirty children, eh? That's going to play hell on your figure."

She elbowed him and said, "We grow them in tanks, Jack."

"Lucky you."

She leaned her head on his shoulder and said, "We've reached a system with a habitable planet. The ship is going to offload everything we need to start rebuilding the human race and then the Ark is going to leave and travel the stars."

Jack was a little surprised by her sudden show of affection but he certainly wasn't going to make her stop. She was soft and warm and smelled good and it had been quite a while since he'd been able to enjoy such things. He put his arm around her and rested his cheek on the top of her head.

Finally she got up from the couch and started for the door. "Come on," she said. "We've got a lot of work to do."