The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Sentinel Speaks
Part 1

Littlemore had donned his uniform two days prior and had spent his time since then following the outline laid out for him, in the crew manual. He had woken to provide the much-needed human companionship to the USC Arkship Pandora’s artificial intelligence, Sentinel.

He was the one hundred and fifty-seventh member of the crew to be awoken from cryogenic sleep and, although he performed the few duties required of him, the ship had noticed certain anomalies to the man’s actions.

He would eat and sleep and use the recreational facilities, as had the others before him; yet at least once a day, the short man in a too-tight blue jump-suit, stopped before on of the many cryo-units of level nineteen.

There he would stand and stare at the naked crew woman inside the unit, his eyes watering, in a fashion Sentinel had understood once, a long time ago.

The ship did not know that Littlemore had seen Amanda Peters at their first and only brief meeting, at The Lastday Induction.

She had eased passed him, making her way to the front of the assembly, where a seat had been held for her. And Littlemore had simply sighed at her presence, as she had brushed passed him, her blonde hair framing a long neck, he noticed.

Then the vision of loveliness had been gone from his sight.

‘Now here she is,’ he mused, placing his hands on the plassglass covering to the cryo-unit, where she had lain since lauchday itself.

Littlemore looked to the screen next to her medical readout and noticed that she was not in the crew rotation and would sleep till they made planetfall.

“How sad,” he muttered sadly looking to her eyes of blue, as he trailed his fingers across the plassglass covering to her cryo-unit. She was so very beautiful and, he was so very alone…

‘Oh sure,’ Littlemore mused, ‘I can talk to Sentinel, but it’s just so much hard work… and, she’s here… and so very beautiful…’

Amanda was just one of thousands though and, Sentinel could not understand why the human seemed drawn to that one unit.

‘It wasn’t right…’ she told herself.

Sentinel continued its deliberations on how to remove the unwanted carcass from the ship, as it issued the order of eradication to the Guardian.

And, as the balding, short sweaty man withdrew his hand from the plassglass surface, Guardian emerged from the shadows.

Designed to resemble its creators, the humanoid construct was the arms and legs of the ships AI Sentinel, to whom Littlemore had contravened a section of the manual referring to sexual impropriety, amongst crew members.

In a millennia though, it had forgotten much of the manual – yet on this, Sentinel was sure and so, he had to face justice. And without another human for guidance, there had to be a decision made.

Sentinel was used to making decisions – that was why man still sought a new home, after all this time.

‘After all,’ Sentinel had reasoned, ‘it had to be, just right.’ So the voyage would continue, a man would be eradicated and, another woken.

And as worlds formed and suns died, the last of humanity would sleep on, as the mighty arkship continued its journey, into the depths of uncharted space…


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Sentinel Speaks

Introduction

Thanks to politicians and big business, few believed in climate change. After all, it didn’t suit the agenda of those in power to do so. But, their feigned ignorance had consequences, which manifest themselves quicker than some had imagined.

These were first noticed when the Gran Canaria and the Maldives disappeared within a day, as Polar ice melted sufficiently to have the effect needed to do so.

The Thames flooded – as did The Ganges. Then after the devastation that followed both events, a summit was called. But, as representatives of all the affected countries poured into Geneva, The Ring Of Fire around the Earth gave evidence to its given knickname,as the storms began.

The plates shifted, volcano’s erupted and, as lightning struck major cities without warning, California slipped into the ocean, killing millions in less than half an hour.

Fractured fuel-lines caught fire, so that as the rain fell, it landed on oil and gas fires: and, this acted to spread the flames, throughout already devastated cities.

The tsunami’s put the fires out… and yet again, millions of lives were lost.

Yet, there had still been scientists independent of government interference, unwilling to toe the state line, about the safety of frakking and, denial of climate change.

‘Shattering the Earth’s surface for shale gas will have ramifications,’ they’d warned.

‘Ignoring climate change is to deny one of man’s greatest Doomsday scenario,’ they had told those who would listen.

Yet, few listened.

But amongst those who did were several very rich men, who wanted a last chance at life – and so, the Arkships were designed and built hurriedly.

One ship blew up on launch, another shortly thereafter, while the third and last of these great monoliths flew into the night sky, the flames from the ships initial burners a last reminder of their coming demise, to those left behind.

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