Year-20XX.
Humanity has fallen.
The nations of old were no more. Earth was a planet of forgotten memories and broken promises, and the only remaining witness to the downfall of mankind was the captain of the ship: Alex… alone.
He wasn't supposed to be here. He wasn't supposed to feel this way. But here he was—fifty years old, alone in a vast, empty ship orbiting the cold, silent void of space.
Alex sat slumped in a chair at the controls of Noah's Ark, the last surviving vessel carrying the last remnants of human hope. He ran a hand through his white hair—a result of stress and sleepless nights as the pressure of his role weighed on him.
He took a long, bitter sip from a half-empty bottle of beer, staring at the console's blinking lights and the cold, indifferent monitor wall. Outside, the vastness of space stretched endlessly, suffocating him with its emptiness.
The ship, a gargantuan relic of human ambition, was supposed to be a vessel of salvation. It was supposed to carry the hope of humanity to another planet where they could start again. But Alex couldn't even pretend to believe that anymore.
"Just keep it together, Alex," he muttered under his breath. He said it every day, but it was getting harder to believe his own words. He was the last human alive, and his only company was the AI of the ship, Noah.
The AI's voice cracked through the silence.
[Captain, you should not drink. It affects your judgment.]
Alex ignored the advice. It wasn't like he had anyone left to answer to. He was the last one.
"What judgment? What's the point, Noah?" Alex snapped, his voice breaking. "There's no one left to save. It's just me now."
Noah was programmed to maintain calm, to guide Alex, but it was clear there were limits to how much comfort the machine could offer.
[Your mission has not changed, Captain. The cloning process must continue.]
Alex let out a low laugh, but it was devoid of humor. The mission had become a curse, not a goal. The cloning process was supposed to bring humanity back. But the cloning machine was broken, the vital systems had been compromised by an asteroid belt crash months ago, and Alex wasn't sure he had the energy to fix it anymore.
He stood up, his knees creaking with age and exhaustion. The ship felt smaller now, as though the walls were closing in on him. Every day was the same. No change. Just waiting. Waiting for the clone process to begin. Waiting for the ship to carry out its directive.
"Fine," he muttered. "Let's fix it then."
He shuffled towards the cloning bay, the cold steel of the ship's corridor echoing beneath his footsteps. As he moved, the AI spoke again.
[Repairs are 20% complete.]
Alex didn't respond. The numbers on the screen blinked in front of him, but they meant nothing. The process was far behind schedule, and he was running out of time.
It had been two weeks since the asteroid belt incident, two weeks of silence, two weeks of the same mechanical hum of Noah's voice. The cloning machine still didn't work, and Alex was running out of hope.
Three Months Later
The repairs were still slow. Alex had stopped checking the status updates on the control panel long ago. They meant nothing. He had hoped that the work would be done quickly, that Noah would fix everything, but it was always "in progress," "almost there," "soon."
Space was silent. Alex had long stopped looking out the windows. The endless, crushing blackness of space had lost its wonder. It was just emptiness. Cold. Void.
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the blank walls of the control room. His fingers brushed across the smooth surface of the console, and his thoughts drifted back to the family he had lost.
His wife. His son.
Arthur.
He could still hear his son's voice in his head, that child's laugh he had once cherished. Arthur had died in an earthquake, buried under rubble as he tried to help another child escape the wreckage.
Alex's eyes filled with tears. He hadn't shed them in months, but the memories were too strong. The pain too real. And now, in the dead of space, it felt like everything he had ever loved was truly gone.
"I failed you," Alex whispered, his voice cracking. "I couldn't save you. I couldn't save anyone."
Four Months Later
Alex stood in front of the broken mirror in the bathroom. He didn't recognize himself anymore. The man staring back at him was a stranger—a man whose hair had gone completely white from stress, whose eyes were hollow and filled with a dull, weary sadness.
The reflection was distorted by the cracks in the glass from the mirror he'd broken weeks ago in a fit of rage. His own face was mocking him. His own face was telling him how useless he had become.Other faces appeared
"USELESS...!!". His mother's face said.
"YOU ARE A DISSAPOINTMENT!!.". His father's face said.
"A NO-LIFE!". His wife's face said
Finally his son's face.
Alex was ready for the cursing but...
".... Dad,I want to live...". His son's face said.
What was this?
Alex's emotions were in a whirlpool, and his anger came out...
"My son is dead.YOU ARE NOT HIM..!"
He punched the mirror again, this time with his bare hand, causing it to shatter further. His knuckles bled as glass fragments dug into his skin. He didn't care. He just kept hitting the mirror, his breaths shallow, his body trembling. The blood didn't even matter anymore.
"Just... fix it," Alex muttered through gritted teeth.
It had been months. Noah had been working tirelessly to repair the cloning system, but the reality of what had happened was becoming clearer with each passing day. The cloning machine was never going to work the way it was supposed to. No matter how many times Alex tried, no matter how much he forced the system to work, the result was the same.
Alex knew what had to be done.
He had to fix the clone of his son. He had to bring him back. It wasn't about the mission anymore. It was about Arthur. It was about family. He couldn't just let go. He couldn't just fail again.
As he entered the cloning bay, the air felt heavy. The same cold, sterile atmosphere that had once promised salvation now felt like a tomb. The cloning machine was still in disrepair, but Alex was desperate. He walked to the panel and began overriding the safety protocols.
"I can fix this," he muttered under his breath, his fingers dancing over the controls.
[Captain, the cloning process is turning unstable. Please adhere to the protocols.]
Noah's voice was steady, but Alex was beyond reasoning. He turned the dials, manually adjusting the parameters, pushing everything to its limits.
The protocol was to clone the bodies of the world leaders and their families first.
The world leaders wanted their cloned bodies to he strong so they created a compound.
X-15.
This rare compound could break the limits of a human body.
But,there was only a small amount of it.
Alex,not caring emptied it all out.
He wanted his son to be strong so that nothing could kill him.
[Please, Captain. Do not override the system.]
Alex's breathing became shallow, his heart pounding in his chest. He had come this far. He couldn't stop now.
The cloning machine powered up. The process had begun.
Alex stood there, watching the slow progression, his mind racing. He waited. Minutes felt like hours. Every second dragged on. He wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing anymore. Was he fixing the future, or was he just tearing at the fabric of reality?
Then, finally, the machine whirred to a stop. The cloning pod opened. The clone of his son lay there, unmoving.
Alex rushed forward, his hands trembling. His breath caught in his throat as he peered into the pod.
There was no movement.
No life.
His son wasn't there.
Alex's mind spun, his pulse racing. His hand reached for the clone's wrist, desperately checking for any sign of life.
Nothing.
The body was cold. Still. Lifeless.
"No…" Alex whispered, his voice cracking. "No! This is not happening!"
[The manual override has failed. The cloning process is incomplete. The mind was not replicated. The extreme amount of X-15 was also harmful to the mind.]
[He is currently a body with no soul]
"No!" Alex screamed, his voice echoing throughout the empty bay. "This isn't right! This isn't what I wanted!"
[Captain, your actions have damaged the system. The failure is irreversible.]
Alex fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he gazed at the empty body that was supposed to be his son. His mind was unraveling, each moment of grief compounding with the next.
"I just wanted him back…"
He wasn't even sure why he was still alive. There was no mission. There was no hope.
There was only the unbearable weight of his failure.
[Captain, I cannot allow you to harm yourself.]
Alex looked up, his bloodshot eyes filled with rage. He stood, unsteady, his hands shaking. "Kill me, Noah. Do it. I can't live like this. I don't want to be the last one left. I can't do this anymore. Just end it!"
[Captain… I cannot comply.]
"Then I'll make you comply!" Alex screamed, rushing to the control panel, his hands trembling as he activated the self-destruct sequence. The countdown began.
[Captain, you are making a mistake.]
Alex didn't care though.
"What about now?!!.What about now you ti-!". Before Alex could finish his sentence,the self-destruct sequence stopped.
He fell to his knees. His legs clashed against the harf steel surface.
"Ah...I forgot you controlled the entire ship."
[Captain,you have been registered as a threat to humanity]
[You shall be...terminated]
It said with it's usual emotionless tone.
A single small red laser pierced Alex's heart.
He fell on his back,his mouth spitting blood.
"This is the end....". Alex said with a small smile on his face.
"Noah..."
"I give you one last directive...". Alex said.
Live.Like.A.Human.
"I failed at being a human,it would make me feel good if I knew that something good came from my death....fulfill the wish of a dying man if you can.."
With that,The final human died.
Alone,in space, thousands of light years away from Earth.