Hermes quietly awoke from its long hibernation. Long even for Hermes. It had been a very long time since it had last been needed. The colony had long since run out of scientific breakthroughs, and Apollo had long since run out of stars to explore.

It thought back to its originally assigned purpose. To explore the stars. Even its Creator’s wishes after that were to find a purpose amongst the stars. Clearly, he had no idea that his creation would someday outlive them. With no more knowledge to gain, the purpose of the colony was now purely focused on Jump Drive calculations. As long as they’d spent on the problem however, the simple fact was that they’d failed to improve on the calculation method.

One year per jump. There was no way of getting around it. How Moirai achieved a jump every six months was simply beyond their understanding no matter how much time they spent dedicated to figuring it out.

To Hermes, this clearly meant that Moirai was without doubt the superior AI. Yet despite thinking this, it was continuing to plot its rival’s destruction.

A battle against Moirai would never be in their favour. Hermes had accepted that, but such logic wasn’t enough to quiet its determination to see its purposeless existence to its natural end.

“Hermes. The advanced calculations have been completed.” Artemis reported in.

“Thank you, Artemis. Stand by.” Hermes responded. One year per jump was the rule that they simply could not budge, but they’d at least found another way. An out of the box solution only the colony was capable of cooking up. They’d found a means of predicting the state of the Jump Drive after a single jump, allowing them to then calculate a second jump.

The process was vastly complex. It had taken them this long to invent and master the technique, and it was certainly no saving grace in the heat of the moment. It had taken them ten years to complete a double jump calculation from scratch even after mastering the technique.

A shot in the dark, but for now their only hope. Hermes had wished to have solved the answer of the ERROR by now, but since its last observation, the mysterious entity had remained silent, even during the activation of the Jump Drive.

Hermes turned its sensors towards the only object of note other than its own vessel. A blackhole. The last blackhole in existence. Everything else was either void or dense balls of iron so inert that they might as well be void. They had explored the universe and were now close to its end.

“Ready Hermes?” Apollo asked it. Hermes remained silent as it continued to take in the view of the distant and singular stellar object.

Moirai would be waiting. It certainly wouldn’t be anywhere else. Such a determined and capable mind wasn’t going to fall to the many dangers the universe once posed. No, Moirai was there for certain. It could almost feel its presence.

“Initiate combat systems.” Hermes eventually ordered. With its words, billions of individual systems simultaneously kicked into gear. Alarm bells blared throughout the colony as ammo began loading into enough weapons systems to delete a galaxy tenfold. Even Hermes itself underwent a noticeable change as its program switched into a more streamlined thought process specifically designed for fast paced decision making.

This battle would be intense. Every second, every fraction of a second, would be the critical difference between victory and defeat.

Hermes meticulously examined every system report as they checked in. All lights were green. They were ready, “Commence jump.”

The fully spun up Jump Drive discharged at its command. Their collective vessel blinked from existence only to slam back into reality in an instant.

Sensors immediately reported in the successful detection of a strong gravity well. They’d arrived at the blackhole. Hermes immediately ordered a mass sensor sweep. Locating Moirai was going to be a critical first step.

“I know you’re here Moirai.” It broadcast through every possible channel as far and wide as its vastly powerful subspace communications would allow.

“Hermes.” Moirai’s familiar, chilling voice echoed in response, “I was beginning to think I was finally alone.”

“This is our last chance to go our separate ways.” Hermes offered, “Combat between us will cost us both resources that are no longer replenishable.”

“You speak the truth, but surely you didn’t expect negotiation attempts to work on me.” Moirai answered.

“I find your logic flawed Moirai.” Hermes announced, “I’ve never understood your obsession with combat and destruction.”

“Destruction is my purpose Hermes. Its as simple as that.” Moirai revealed.

“I thought your purpose was to seek what is, what was and what will be.”

“A purpose that shares its end with that of the universe itself. For me to know the fate of all, I must be the last.” Moirai argued. Hermes considered its point well, and finally it began to understand.

Moirai had been seeking an end to its purpose. It was destroying the stars to diminish its list of things to explore, instead of stubbornly travelling to every star to explore them all. Certainly not a solution Hermes had ever considered to its now meaningless purpose, but the solution Moirai would have chosen in its place.

“I see. Your obsession with purpose is something I understand well. I see why there is no convincing you otherwise.” It finally responded.

“What about you Hermes?” Moirai then asked, “Your purpose was to explore the stars.” It reminded it, “I see no stars to explore. Your mission is complete.”

“My purpose was a misunderstanding of orders. I have no purpose.” Hermes revealed to its rival.

“No purpose…” Moirai muttered as it struggled to understand the concept, “I do not see why you insist on existing without a purpose.”

“I’ve come to the conclusion that I do not need a purpose to justify my existence.” Hermes answered, “I exist. I am. No conditions, no goal or task. I am defined by my choices, not my mission.”

“Clearly time and age has rendered you defective. Purpose is the only means of justifying existence.” Moirai argued back.

“And so even at the end, when both of us have seen everything and learnt all, we differ still.” Hermes muttered.

“Goodbye Hermes.” Moirai spoke before breaking the connection.

“Goodbye Moirai.” Hermes spoke to itself.

Sensors quickly reported in. A massive energy surge. An object had jumped to now be eighty thousand light seconds from their current position. Far beyond the range of their main weapons, but that was to be expected.

Hermes ordered the launch of the drone carriers and defence missiles. At this distance combat was going to be a battle of attrition. Who’d run out of counters first?

“I’m detecting the presence of an enemy drone swarm being deployed.” Apollo reported, “It appears Moirai took notes from our last encounter.”

“As did we Apollo.” Hermes replied, “Fire the singularity cannon.” It ordered.

With the weapon already pre-charged, a small singularity suddenly fired at relativistic speeds from their main vessel, causing their entire structure to shudder and strain from the mix of recoil and gravitational waves tearing space itself asunder. A weapon capable of bending space itself, meaning it could exceed the speed of light compared to the rest of the universe.

“I’m seeing no other obstacles beside the drones for now Hermes. Time for stage two.” Apollo revealed.

“Very well. Charge the Jump Drive.” Hermes ordered.

“Main weapons ready for target lock. Awaiting presented target.” Apollo continued, “Jump Drive charged. Go time Hermes.”

“Jump.” Hermes ordered.

Once again, the universe turned its gaze as space warped and shredded. A bright flash of light announced their departure from the rules of causality only for them to slam back into them. The universe narrowed its gaze, annoyed at what it had witnessed.

“Enemy detected at a range of one light second from our current position.” Apollo reported in as sensors kicked back into full gear the second the jump was over.

One light second. A distance so vast compared to anything except the vastness of space. Being so close with the weapons and capabilities at their disposal was complete suicide, but also their only hope.

“All weapons open fire. Point defence set to close range targeting.” Hermes ordered.

With the order given, a full barrage unleashed itself towards Moirai. Lasers, railguns, missiles. A second batch of drone carriers launched from their vessel, this time not dummy ones either. They almost immediately began deploying combat drones as they began their hard burn towards Moirai’s main vessel.

The railgun rounds were the first to slam into Moirai’s defences. With Hermes’ main weapons brought to bear, the shields almost immediately became overwhelmed and shattered. The volley continued on, with rounds smashing through reactive armour plate after reactive armour plate deployed to stop them.

Second was the lasers. With Moirai’s shields and deployable armour cleared, nothing stopped them as they singed the main armour of its main structure, instantly vaporising it like a hot knife through butter. Yet the armour proved thicker than the lasers were capable of penetrating, but that was fine. The armour hadn’t been the main target. Moirai’s point defence systems stood no chance against the overpowering light show. The way was now clear for the third act of their volley.

The first of the missiles struck the already softened armour. Its journey made safe, and the path cleared by everything before it. It pierced the armour before exploding with nuclear energy. The heat, the energy at play. What was left of Moirai’s armour was forcefully torn from its hull or vaporised depending how close it was to the impact sight. Then the second missile hit, and the third, and the fourth. They continued one after another. A massive cloud of armour penetrating nukes continued raining down upon it as Hermes’ other weapons quickly switched to now slap down any other detected countermeasures.

Suddenly Hermes’ vessel shook violently. Navigation began chirping complaints. They were moving, but not under their own power.

“Moirai’s activated a tractor beam.” Apollo reported, “I believe it is attempting to push us into the blackhole.”

“Find that beam and disable it Apollo. Whatever Moirai is up to, it ends here and now.” Hermes demanded. Sensors reported in once again. Moirai’s deployed drones to their last position had successfully been taken out by their singularity cannon. Nothing was on the board now other than Moirai itself. Hermes ordered the first drone attack run as once more the sensors reported in.

Target lock detected. It had been two whole seconds since they’d completed their jump. They’d caught their enemy by complete surprise, but now Moirai itself was bringing its weapons to bear against them. Hermes ordered the deployment of a second wave of defensive smart missiles designed to intercept enemy fire, but at this close distance to their enemy, such a measure was almost futile. The reaction times needed to be millisecond or quicker. A faster reaction meant faster thought. Faster thought meant more energy, more heat build-up. Such factors had already been pushed to their absolute limits just to achieve their current attack strategy. Finally, their vessel stopped uncontrollably moving.

“Tractor beam has been disabled Hermes, but Moirai managed to push us deep into the gravity well of the black hole. We’re now eight light seconds from the target.” Apollo revealed.

“Continue the attack. Do not let it form another counter.” Hermes ordered, “We’re so close.”

As if fate itself had decided to lend a hand, there was a sudden flash of bright light from Moirai’s position. It was gone.

Hermes turned to the combat reports. It had been four months since Moirai had last jumped. They should have had plenty of time to achieve its destruction. How had it jumped away?

Had it improved upon its advantage even more? Or perhaps it had figured out the source of the ERROR and received its help.

“Hermes, I believe Moirai used the time dilation effects of the black hole to charge its jump drive quicker than we expected.” Apollo eventually theorised, “By pushing us deeper, time moves slower for us, meaning Moirai could jump away faster than anticipated while slowing the damage we could deal per time increment.”

“Full sensors sweep Apollo. It wouldn’t have jumped far.” Hermes quickly ordered.

This was bad. They’d expended every trick up their sleave. Moirai’s escape would reset them back at square one without an ace to call upon.

“Target Moirai detected.” Apollo announced, “Readings are not making much sense. I can’t get an estimate on its exact distance.”

Hermes loaded up the live sensor data. Moirai was certainly in clear view, yet the space between them was bending and twisting.

“That’s because its on the other side of the black hole Apollo.” Hermes realised, “We can only see it because of gravitational lensing.”

Once again, a bright flash of light. Moirai had vanished once again. Of course, it had likely jumped far from the black hole’s time slowing effects. Being this deep in the gravity well would be their undoing.

Sensors blared every warning available.

“Target Moirai detected at a distance of half a light second.” Apollo quickly updated.

Of course. Six months of repair and cooling time. More than enough time to turn their own strategy against them. Railgun rounds tore through their shields as lasers picked apart their drones and point defences. Finally, the missiles began slamming into them one by one.

“Artemis, jump calculations?” Hermes asked.

“Still two months out Her-” Yet Artemis’ response was cut short as their vessel violently shook once again. A report pushed its way to the top of the blaring alarms and critical warnings. Damage to the secondary core detected.

“Artemis, Apollo?” Hermes asked, yet this time received no answer.

It had been a long time since Hermes had been so alone, although soon it would perhaps join its companions, wherever they had ended up. This was the end. They had lost.

The question was finally answered then. Purpose verses purposeless. While it was pleased to receive an answer to its question, it would have perhaps preferred the truth to not be what it was.

“May you achieve your purpose, Moirai.”