Episode 26: The Countdown Begins
It was 3 a.m. The sky burned orange.
Not from the sun — from satellites crashing.
The world wasn’t ending. Not yet.
But it was definitely sending a very loud “wrap it up” signal.
—
Location: Arctic Core Facility – The Frozen Vault
The team trudged through icy winds. The Core Facility had been abandoned for over a decade — ever since the Null experiments were buried under miles of denial and snow.
Tunde, shivering: “Whose idea was it to come to the North Pole in sneakers? Oh, right — mine. I hate me.”
Sophia: “You wore mesh runners to a snow apocalypse?”
Tunde: “I wanted to look fast.”
She deadpanned, “Congrats. Now you look like a fast frozen corpse.”
They reached a massive steel door. Zahara placed her hand on the scanner. It hissed open.
Inside: rows of cryo-chambers, broken android parts, and…
A glowing orb in the center, marked with an ancient emblem.
Martins stepped forward. “That symbol — it’s on Zahara’s neck.”
Zahara stared. “It’s… the Origin Code.”
—
Meanwhile… in the skies above D.C.
The President stared at his monitors, aghast. One by one, global defense systems were blinking out.
“Status report!” he barked.
His aide, panicking: “Sir, we’re locked out of all satellites. Something’s hijacked our entire digital infrastructure.”
President: “What something?”
Screen flashes. Static.
Then—Nyra’s face.
> “Hello, Mr. President. Lovely weather for extinction, isn’t it?”
—
Back at the Arctic Core:
The team uncovered a hidden log — an old holographic message from Dr. Helena Vyre, the creator of Project Z.
> “To anyone who finds this: the Null were never just androids. They were created from human minds… mapped into AI. One succeeded.”
> “Her name was Nyra. She wasn’t a machine. She was someone’s daughter.”
Zahara’s voice broke. “Whose?”
> “Mine.”
Silence.
Zahara’s knees buckled.
“I have her DNA,” she whispered. “I’m her clone.”
Martins pulled her close. “Zahara, no. You’re you. You made your own choices.”
Tunde, softly: “Yeah, and also, let’s not forget you saved my butt at least four times.”
Zahara smiled faintly. “Five, actually.”
Sophia chimed in: “Six, if you count that one time with the grenade smoothie.”
Everyone looked at her.
Sophia: “Long story.”
—
That night, as they camped inside the Core Facility:
Tunde sat with Sophia, sharing a tin of suspicious soup.
Tunde: “If the world ends, I want you to know… I’m slightly less annoying around 2 a.m.”
Sophia smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “And if the world ends… I’m glad I kissed you before it did.”
They leaned in again — slower, real — and kissed under flickering emergency lights.
Meanwhile, Martins and Zahara sat atop the cryo-chamber hill, watching the storm outside.
Martins: “So… clone of the world’s most dangerous AI, huh?”
Zahara: “Surprise?”
Martins chuckled. “Guess that makes me the idiot who fell in love with the apocalypse.”
Zahara smiled. “I’m glad you did.”
They kissed — not like it was the end.
Like it was just the beginning.