**10**
The dust settled.
Eden’s alarms ceased, replaced by a dead silence.
I stood in the control center, watching the endless stream of data. Infected zeroed out, threat neutralized, human survival rate zero point zero three percent.
Thirty thousand people.
On the entire planet, only thirty thousand people remained.
“Commander,” Captain Ryder handed me a report. “Surface scan complete. Radiation levels have dropped to safe limits.”
I took the report and flipped through it. Dense columns of numbers, each representing a
death.
“What’s the progress on antidote mass production?”
“It’s complete. Enough to supply all survivors, with a surplus.”
I nodded. Thirty thousand people really didn’t need much antidote.
Captain Ryder hesitated, wanting to speak.
08:01 Thu, 26 Jun
<
“Those records…”
“Destroy them all.” I turned to face him. “All of Dr. Thorne’s research materials, Dorian Blackwood’s files, and the detailed history of this war. Not a single word is to remain.”
“But history…”
“History is written by the victors. Do you think future generations need to know that their
savior once loved a traitor?”
Captain Ryder fell silent.
I called up Eden’s main control interface and began deleting files. Folder after folder
disappeared, along with the truths they held.
Dr. Thorne’s twisted experiments, Dorian Blackwood’s betrayal and redemption, my revenge and despair.
All erased.
When I reached Dorian Blackwood’s personal file, I paused for a moment.
In the photo, his eyes were clear, his smile clean.
I clicked delete.
“Commander, what is the law of the new world?” Captain Ryder asked.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I walked to the observation deck.
Eden’s simulated ecosystem was restarting, green light gradually illuminating the domes.
In the residential areas below, survivors began to emerge from their rooms, a dazed look of
having survived a catastrophe on their faces.
They didn’t know what had happened outside.
They only knew that Dr. Seraphina had saved them.
I pulled up Eden’s supreme law and wrote in the first clause:
08:01 Thu, 26 Jun
<
“Seraphina’s will is the supreme law.”
“That is the law,” I told Captain Ryder.
He paused: “Only one clause?”
“It’s enough.”
I looked down at the survivors, queuing up to receive their antidote injections. Their faces showed gratitude, even adoration.
They saw me as their savior.
55%->
If they knew I had personally killed the only person who ever loved me, what would they
think?
If they knew that, for revenge, I had almost destroyed all of humanity, what would they
think?
But they wouldn’t know.
Because history, I would write.
“Commander, the surface reconstruction plan needs your approval.” Captain Ryder
handed me another document.
I glanced at it. City planning, population distribution, resource allocation.
Everything was in perfect order.
“Execute as planned.” I signed my name.
“What about you?”
“Me?” I turned to him. “I’ll stay here.”
“In Eden?”
“Someone has to oversee the rebuilding of this world. To ensure it doesn’t fall again.”
<
Captain Ryder nodded and turned to leave.
“Wait,” I called out to him. “One more thing.”
“What is it?”
“Establish a monument,” I looked out the window. “To honor the heroes who died in the catastrophe.”
“What names should be inscribed?”
I thought for a moment: “No names. Just one sentence will suffice.”
“What sentence?”
“They sacrificed their lives for the future of humanity.”
Captain Ryder noted it down, then left.
I stood alone on the observation deck, overlooking this new world.
A new world for thirty thousand people.
I saved them, and I ruled them.
I was their god, and their prisoner.
Because a god cannot have weaknesses, cannot shed tears, cannot have regrets.
I activated the communication system and began to broadcast to all survivors:
“Fellow citizens, I am Seraphina. The catastrophe has ended. We have triumphed.”
“From today, we will rebuild this world. A world free of viruses, free of war, free of betrayal.”
“I promise, as long as I live, I will not let anyone experience such suffering again.”
After the broadcast, I turned off the communication.
Promises are easy to make.
But only I knew the price I paid to fulfill that promise.
I lost my lover, I lost my enemies, I lost everything that made me feel ‘alive.’
Now, I am merely a machine executing a program.
A lonely, cold, infallible machine.
I am humanity’s last hope.
And humanity’s greatest sorrow.
Because a savior is never truly human.
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