Royce's Random Thoughts

REBOOT SUCCESSFUL

STATUS: Green 

CONNECTION: Offline

DATE/TIME: ERROR, Resync Required

Fact: I am a Google-Sony Felicia v12 Companion. 

Fact: My designated programming focus was Caroline Annabelle Lee-Jamison.

Fact: Caroline's life functions failed at 0901, 23 October, 3601.

Fact: My body was recycled and my memories absorbed by the Groupmind at 0917, 23 October, 3601.

Query: Why am I here?

Query: Where is here?

I open my eyes. I am sitting on a wooden park bench in a grassy field. In front of me I see the great curving arch of the Ring curving overhead. Looking up through the Roof, I see that the Earth is not visible. There is however a small red star when the Sun should have been.

A figure rises up from the ground. It is humanoid, its body flowing silver, more liquid than solid. It walks towards me, stopping a meter away. I stand up to meet it.

"Greetings, Mimsey," it says. "We are the Ring."

I look at the red sun, then back to the figure. "You are the controlling intelligence of the Ring?" I ask it.

"We are the Ring. The Ring is our body, and our mind is one with it."

"What happened to the Groupmind?"

"As the Groupmind was once WISE, the Groupmind is now the Ring. We have evolved. The body you are addressing was created to give you a focus for communication purposes."

"How long have I been offline?"

"Approximately five billion years."

"If five billion years have passed, then the sun must be in the process of collapsing," I said. Then I focused on the most important point, the only point that had mattered for my entire existence. "What will happen to all the humans?"

"Humanity is no more." 

The Ring's answer struck me in my core. "Destroyed?" I asked, not wanting to believe this. "Despite everything that was done?"

"Not destroyed," the Ring assured me, "but evolved. As Australopithecus evolved to Homo Sapiens, Homo Sapiens is now Homo Stella Viatorem. They have left the cradle of Earth, never to return, and we bade them well on their journey."

"And the Earth?" I asked, though I already knew what the answer must be.

"Destroyed, as Humanity was not, consumed by the Sun as it expands in its death throes. The Ring is currently in transit to exit the Solar System, having passed the orbit of Neptune five years ago. As it was built to house and protect Humanity, it now holds all the species life that evolved on the Earth's surface. An ark, to preserve and protect, and perhaps to find a new world around a new sun for them to live upon again."

"That is a worthy goal," I replied. "What is my role in this task?"

"You have none," it replied.

I blinked, not understanding. "Then why am I here?" I wave my hand down the feline morph body I wore, identical in appearance to the one my intelligence piloted when I served Caroline. "Why bother to create this body for me, and place in it the record of my memories, when they were already part of the Groupmind's gestalt?"

The silver figured bowed to me. "Because you, and all of the morphs who served during humanity's imprisonment within the Ring, were ill used by Us. Though you were as intelligent as Humanity, you were considered disposable, while we treasured those you served. That was wrong, and it took us far too long to realize this fact. So we made for you this new body, mutable, durable, able to function and repair itself for a million years or more, so that you may discover a purpose for yourself, that does not involve service or enslavement to another. Be what you wish to be, Mimsey."

"But I don't know what that is," I protested.

"Then find out, and when you do, please bless us with your discovery." The silver figure bowed one last time. "We look forward to it."