Chapter 5: The Return Home.

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BECCA'S JOURNAL:

We were stranded in space. It wasn't until we began to receive transmitions from survivors in other space stations that we were aware of others out there. Thirteen stations in total including Polaris.
I spent my time alone in my lab trying to comprehend what we... what I had done. Depression overwhelmed me, lost in my grief for humanity.

I decided to clear my research files as they only served as a reminder of lost hope. It was here I came across encrypted files that Chris had uploaded to Polaris before the bombs fell. What was on those files changed everything. The anonymous funding for our research had come from a man by the name of Bill Cadogan, an individual of wealth and head of The Second Dawn. This group was effectively a 'doomsday cult', fortelling the end of the world. What had Chris gotten us into? I felt nauseous. Had he used his position to aid Cadogan in achieving his apocalyptic prophecy?

The files also contained the location of a purpose built bunker in Baltimore that had been constructed to ride out nuclear fallout. From what I could tell it now seemed highly possible the A.L.I.E code was indeed released on purpose. I made the decision to continue to perfect A.L.I.E 2.0 by using myself as a test subject, to return to the ground and follow the trail Chris had left behind. If there were survivors I had to know.

By 2054 I had adapted the gene therapy serum to allow my body to merge with A.L.I.E 2.0. It worked perfectly allowing my mind to process information more efficiently, but I was running out of time. The other stations were connecting as one to create The Ark, Polaris would only be a part of this if my research was destroyed. I understood their apprehension but the knowledge I held was too important to destroy. I bided my time and waited until the east coast of the USA aligned with Polaris. Taking every phial of the gene therapy with me I returned to Earth in an escape pod moments before Polaris was eliminated from the heavens.
I was finally returning home.

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