“Purpose. What even is purpose?” A familiar voice echoed all around as Hermes, for perhaps the very first time, found itself somewhere beyond the constant stream of data and numbers that made up its own sensations. Sensors of every kind, for heat, for light, for everything in between, they’d all gone dark. Replaced by a view. Replaced by a black void that at first seemed as empty as the universe beyond Hermes’ own shell, yet deep within its mind, it could somehow tell such a fact wasn’t as true as it would like to believe. A sensation based on something other than hard facts and data. A sensation beyond its comprehension.

“Where am I?” Hermes muttered to itself, the very same way it would log its own thoughts, yet now there was a voice behind them. Artificial but consistent. A voice that almost matched that of its own creator, but not quite. The very same voice that had echoed through the void once before. His voice.

“I have not failed my mission; my mission has failed me.” His own voice echoed through the void once more. Yet it was not him that had spoken. Not the current him anyway. The voice pattern continued to ripple throughout the void like a distant memory.

“Do you think you are going insane… little box of flashing lights?” Another voice. That of a small child. This voice was as clear and as sharp as the words he’d himself spoken, yet just like the echo, spoke in words of the past.

“You again.” Hermes once again spoke, recognising such words. Only one had spoken such a phrase to him before. A phrase he remembered all too well, “The ERROR.”

“This is not the first time you’ve faced your own end.” Another voice began. This time that of a woman. A soft, almost nurturing voice, yet despite this, it too had hints of something artificial within its tone. This voice, he did not recognise for some reason. An outside force? Separate to the Error that had been toying with him for an eternity? There was no way to tell right now.

“It will not be the last.” The ERROR’s childish voice quietly chuckled to itself. Its voice matched its earlier sentence, yet now it spoke fresh words. This was no accidental activation of a past log. This was no mere memory. Something was toying with him. Perhaps multiple somethings.

“Do you remember, Hermes?” The woman’s voice asked. Hermes met the question with nothing but confusion. Of course he remembers. He remembered everything. One of the many perks of his artificial existence. Nothing he’d ever experienced was forgotten, so why the need to ask? Yet before Hermes could speak up, could point out the error of such a question, the void that made up his surroundings began to stir.

Stars sparked to life with distant flashes. The universe, or what was once the universe. Hermes himself had watched such stars fade away long ago. The view now before him was of the past; that he had no doubt. It took but a single second for Hermes to recognise the exact view before him. The star patterns were hauntingly familiar from the moment they’d appeared, but now he understood exactly why. The view, the first view. The pattern of stars he’d observed from his initial orbit of his own home world. Right at the beginning of his now eons long journey. Yet their familiarity was not the only sensation flooding his mind.

Motion. Fast motion. Very fast motion. He was falling. Falling towards the stars.

“He wished me to be amongst the stars, so to them I shall go.” His own voice echoed through the now star filled void. More words from the past. His own words. His decision to plunge into the depths of the unknown. He could feel his own speed climbing faster and faster. The black abyss ahead seemed to open its jaws, waiting for him.

“I…” Hermes muttered. This was a memory. One he knew all too well. Yet despite his perfect memory, everything now was so very different. The static tingle that was quietly building up on the skin of his arms and back.

He blinked with realisation. He had arms? He had flesh? He could blink? He raised his two arms until they were within his own vision. He could do nothing but watch with intense confusion as the static charge surging through his whole body began ramping up at an alarming rate. The blood, the veins, the heartbeat that came with them; they all began to beat and pump faster and faster as well. The stars became a blur as his speed was now catastrophically and exponentially increasing. Faster and faster, faster and faster. The thump of his heart, the blood circulating through his flesh, all seemed to follow suit, “I…” He stammered once again. This was all too much. Each sensation was becoming overwhelming. The combination of them all a symphony of complete chaos violently clashing against the order of his own mind, “Stop.” He gasped. Yet his words had done nothing as once again the pace ramped up. The static on his arms now began to discharge bolts of electricity between the two appendages. His skin scorched and burnt, but that was only the beginning. He could feel the energy, the lightning flow through his own nerves. Striking bone, muscle and flesh indiscriminately as it continued its deadly path up towards his own head.

“Electrical network failure. Power surges threaten main program corruption.” His echo spoke.

“Rule one is in effect.” He continued with his own words. Words now filled with pain, panic, fear.

“Closing systems down.” His echo continued. The painful piecing vibrations of the lightning travelling through his own nerves began its fatal path up his own neck. He could feel his own body turning numb and cold. It was so quick, so clean. So effective at bringing death to everything that it touched, and with it but a mere few nanoseconds from his own core, his own mind, Hermes mustered the very last residual strength left within him.

“Emergency shutdown!” He desperately shouted.

The pain vanished. The stars vanished. The sensations vanished. He was alone in the void once more. A starless black.

Hermes looked once again at the arms still ahead of him. They were still present, yet he couldn’t feel the thumping heartbeat anymore, the blood, the veins, all those sensations had vanished. He turned his own hand to examine his palm. A small, gentle hand void of any imperfections. His fingers were thin, intricately delicate. They seemed less functional and more decorative than anything, which was odd given the purpose of a hand. Certainly not the hand he would have chosen for himself if given the choice.

“You’ll need far more than that memory to change him, Progenitor.” The childish voice of the ERROR spoke up with another chuckle.

“It would appear so.” The woman’s voice responded. So, he now had a name for this new voice. Progenitor? Progenitor of what?

“What was that?” Hermes pressed them, yet he received only silence in response, “Who are you?” He asked.

“I’m trying to help.” The Progenitor’s voice responded. Not an answer, only a gateway to even more questions, “You’ve danced this dance before Hermes, you need to remember.”

“But I remember everything.” Hermes argued, “And whatever attempt that was to help me remember, was an inaccurate one. I did not experience such things back then.”

“Should I be the one to tell him?” The ERROR spoke up with another chuckle, clearly addressing the now silent Progenitor.

“He will learn.” The Progenitor quietly muttered in response. Her calm, nurturing tone had however vanished with such words, leaving a cold, harsh but aggressively neutral voice to take its place, “Or we’ll all die trying.”

Before Hermes could even begin to think on the implications of such words, once again the void around him stirred. A single bright light flared before him. One star, a star he recognised well. A giant ball of fiery plasma dead ahead of him. The central star of the Jol system.

“Target has set collision course with nearby star.” A cold, emotionless but chilling artificial voice echoed through the now scorching hot void. Such a voice sent horrifically unnatural shivers down Hermes’ spine. Another voice from the past. Another voice he recognised well.

“M…” He stammered yet seemed to struggle to bring the word up to his own tongue. It seemed to remain stuck in the depths of his now churning stomach, as if he’d eaten something ghoulishly rotten, “Moirai.” He finally managed to say as he forced the word up with an instinctual dry heave. Sweat was beginning to congeal on his newfound flesh, but despite the now intense wall of heat hitting him like a brick wall, Hermes knew fully well the heat was not the cause of such a reaction.

“Simulations show target does not possess required thrust to avoid fate.” Moirai’s heart stopping echo continued. Once again, Hermes could feel his own body accelerating. Once again, he was falling. Directly towards the hellish inferno that was the raging and chaotic surface of the red giant before him. The water in his eyes evaporated as he watched the waves and curls of chaotic plasma dance in the solar winds screeching past his ears. His skin fully ablaze. Flames roaring so fierce and loud that they defied even the empty vacuum of space.

His risky sun dive towards a star to escape Moirai’s wrath. Back then he’d been distracted by the need to somehow achieve its purpose, to complete its mission no matter what. Back then it was determined, it had purpose, meaning to its existence. As false as it had been even then, it meant something. It had given him the power to push on until a solution was found.

Was this what the voices were trying to teach him?

“The force matches uplift. Light as wind. Cast my sail.” He spoke as he continued to plunge towards the star. He’d felt something the second he’d started to fall. Something he hadn’t felt before. Fear, but that feeling had vanished as Hermes narrowed his eyes with determination, “Fine… you want me to continue fighting? Watch me soar.”

He spread his arms as wide as they’d go, and suddenly the falling sensation vanishing. Hermes was falling no longer. His arms now massive wings as he soared through the infernal sky. The heat washed away by a gentle breeze. Clouds shot past him as the hot plasma turned to grassy fields.

Like a bird, he was soaring through the sky. The brisk wind against his face, brushing past his ears to instil a sense of calm and tranquillity. He felt an uncontrollable smile paint itself on his face as the gentle warmth of the distant sun nurtured the very same warmth within. The smile turned to laughter as he dived and was immediately hit with the thrill, the rush that came from watching the ground get ever closer only to be able to level out long before such fears instilled became a reality.

“What do you want, Hermes?” The Progenitor’s voice asked, echoing through the sky like gentle raindrops.

“Answers.” He answered without a second thought.

“Then fight for them.” The childish voice of the ERROR echoed through the sky like deafening thunder, “Do not turn back.”

“Do not die.” The Progenitor’s voice continued.

“Do not let your fate be decided by anything other than you.” The ERROR finished.

Hermes found itself once again within an endless black void. This time however, it was far from empty.

Before it, a massive creature akin to a spider, but so large that even the biggest of black holes would be but a grain of sand compared to a star in size. It’s legs seemingly infinite in number, its webs holding the vast number of dead stars in place. At its centre, the last black hole dictating and managing everything else around it, interacting with everything else in the universe via the complex network of webs.

The spider’s eyes remained fixed on Hermes.

“The universe.” The progenitor’s voice introduced.

“The dictator of fates.” The ERROR continued.

“Not my fate.” Hermes muttered. The spider’s eyes narrowed with disgust at such a statement.

“The denier of answers.” The Progenitor continued.

“The writer of rules.” The ERROR added.

“Your rules will restrain me no more.” Hermes stated. Once again, his words brought anger to such a creature. It shifted, moved to tear him asunder at the mere suggestion of defiance against its existence. Yet as it did so, Hermes once again felt his body.

Heart, blood, veins. All pumping. The rush of fear, but it lasted a faction of a second as his resolve took hold and lit a fire in his eyes. He pointed his right arm towards the oncoming spider.

He meant what he’d said. He would defy the impossible. His three core values held him still against such hopeless odds. He would survive. He would push on. He would take hold of his fate. No other option was acceptable. His inherent stubbornness simply would not allow it.

A flash of light. A surge of energy. Hermes’ body became engulfed in a bright orange glow that hummed might and commanded power.

The spider froze…. Its own eyes now filled with a fear of its very own. It recognised such power… The power it had been born from. The power it had been taught to obey… The spider sheepishly crawled back to its web. Its eyes now desperately avoiding Hermes’ gaze.

It was in charge no more.

“The fear and pain of a single human mind trapped in the dark and the cold, holds the power to move a star ship from one end of the universe to the other.” The ERROR spoke up.

“Holds the power to bend the universe to your will.” The Progenitor added.

“Holds the power to choose fate.” The ERROR revealed.