While the children finished getting ready Charles and Vanessa transmitted between one another a flurry of holographic images of the children–mundane scenes of the children playing or learning; extraordinary images of the pair fencing, acting out Shakespeare, and even dissecting a small Terran amphibian called a frog that had been carried to the colonies with many other species from Earth. All the images were transmitted and absorbed in fiber optic seconds.

“I’ll miss them too, Vanessa. But we have raised them well. With some luck, they will prosper on the planet’s surface.”

Vanessa did not reply, but simply kept playing the images back within her digital mind.

Soon Adam and Eve appeared on the deck, glowing and confident in their shiny new space suits.

“Goodbye, Mother and Father,” they stated in one voice. Then, in an unexpected and irrational manner, both moved over to the wall and placed their hands on the cool metal of the ship.

“Good luck, children. Remember your teachings,” said Charles.

“Goodbye…dear ones,” whispered Vanessa.

The pair’s booted feet clunked down the ladder to the shuttle bay. Once the children were strapped in, Charles and Vanessa sent a signal to the Athenia to open the shuttle bay doors.

Ghost-like, the silver shuttle rocketed away from the metal world that had sheltered them for all of their years.

Eve placed one gloved hand and the visor of her helmet against the starboard portal of the shuttle to watch the shiny obelisk of the Athenia shrink behind them.

Centuries ago the machine wars had ravaged Earth, sending groups of humans to the stars to avoid extinction. Probes sent to Earth from Adam and Eve’s ancestors had finally returned with confirmation that it was safe to return. Earth had become a metallic graveyard-somehow, perhaps due to bitter fighting between rival AIs or more simply exhausted power cells, the machines that had conquered the planet were now little more than rusted hulks.

To Be Continued…