Cold Fusion - A Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Fusion Short Story Anthology

Ashes to Ashes

Merakith frowned as he looked at the readouts. 'Even after five thousands years, this world is still too irradiated to support viable life,' he thought with a sigh before sitting back in his brace. That was three worlds in a row that are still unsuitable for colonization, even with significant environmental conditioning. This pathfinding assignment was starting to look more like an exercise in futility, instead of the journey of hope that it was supposed to be.

"Ikon, summon the probes back to their bays," he directed, "and begin the calculations to fold space to our next target."

"Affirmative, sojourner," a soft sexless voice said from everywhere yet nowhere. "Initiating the recall on your authority. Navigational array online. Plotting terminal loci for quantum folding, target: Nisharra Five."

"Confirmed," Merakith indicated, waving the holographic readouts to the side with a gesture to bring up the navigational database. Selecting the Nisharra system from the menu that shimmered to the left of the database's main access point, he pulled up the most recent probe data that the Combine had gathered on the target, Nisharra's fifth planet.

Instantly an image of the planet spun into being, a ball of light twice as big as his head that quickly resolved into a world with large bodies of water, rocky terrain, polar ice caps and verdant plant life. Peering at it from where it hung over the console, he was about to reach out and highlight the southernmost continent when Ikon, his vessel's AI, softly chimed an audible alert.

"Yes, what is it, Ikon?" he asked without looking away from the image of the planet.

"Probe Five has detected a DNA fragment," the smooth voice belonging to the AI reported.

Merakith frowned as he turned back to the console. DNA? In that??

Unfortunately the detection of a building block molecule used by a number of species across the multiverse triggered a primal directive. One that he was loath to initiate without good reason.

"Verify," he directed and felt his frown deepened when the AI immediately replied.

"Verified. A three codon fragment has been retrieved from the environment, isolated and confirmed as an identifiable DNA segment."

"Correlate and compare," Merakith commanded. And again he felt a flicker of frustration and annoyance when Ikon quickly responded with:

"Correlated and comparable to i-72, s-21, sapient level bipedal hominid," the AI quickly relayed.

Wait a moment. The fragment belonged to a sapient level bipedal hominid?? There was nothing in the original survey that mentioned the remains of any sapients left on the planet surface when it was performed five millennia ago.

His annoyance and frustration getting pushed aside by intrigue and curiosity, Merakith turned completely back to his main console.

"I need a second, independently obtained sample, Ikon," he said, bringing the data on the planet below back to look at it more keenly.

"Acknowledged, sojourner," the AI replied. "Probe Two was just about to initiate it's ascent. Retasking it to scan for a second sample."

A tap on a floating menu swapped the image of Niskarra Five for the planet below, called Procyon Two in the initial survey carried out five millennia prior. Another highlighted the locations of his two probes still on the planet, Two and Five. He nodded in satisfaction when he found them a considerable distance apart. No chance of cross-sampling, or resampling, with that kind of ...

"Probe Two has identified a four codon DNA fragment," Ikon reported, interrupting his thought to do so. "Verifying and correlating." There was a slight pause, then: "Verified. The segment correlates to j-56, s-17."

Merakith let a long breath ease through his nostrils. Two verifiable and correlated DNA fragments, located in two entirely different locations. While a third sample would cinch it,two satisfied the sampling paradigm. The question now was: were they viable?

Only one way to find out.

"Initiate Prometheon Protocol," he instructed.

"Please verify request with the Prometheon security access code," Ikon returned.

Face set in determination, Merakith keyed in the alphanumeric sequence, followed by a retinal scan, and his own genetic imprint to verify his identity. The Prometheon Protocol wasn't undertaken lightly. Now that it was initiated, considerable resources would be consumed as each protocol requirement was satisfied. And since he was responsible for initiating, the protocol itself demanded that he confirm that he had the authority to do so.

"Identity confirmed, Sojourner Merakith," Ikon reported, "and your authority to initiate a Prometheon event is verified. Stage One has now commenced. Please sit back in the brace to establish the neural link required for transference of consciousness."

Nodding mostly to himself, Merakith sat back and immediately felt a warm sensation at the base of his skull as the neural interface was established. 'Here we go!' he thought, mentally bracing himself. Then his pilot's cabin was disappearing in a swirl of light and sensation before it all went dark.