Chapter 6: The Last Month – Part One
The conference chamber deep beneath Kennedy Space Centre was nothing like the glossy tour rooms above. The air was colder, walls lined with reinforced carbon-steel, humming with unseen energy. At the head of the oval room stood Director Leona Hart, her silver hair pinned back into a tight twist, her voice sharp as vacuum steel.
The five cadets sat in front of her, still in their training gear, sweat barely dried from their last simulation. Tension rippled among them—not from fear, but from the unknown. Something big was coming. Devon could feel it.
Director Hart didn’t waste words.
“You’ve been chosen not only for your skills, but for your minds. And minds like yours are ready for this.” She paused, then nodded toward the wall behind her.
A section of it slid open, revealing a massive, dark console glowing faintly blue. A sphere hovered within, rotating slowly in midair. Lines of shifting data streamed across its surface, like constellations forming and reforming.
“This,” she said, “is ORION.”
The room dimmed slightly as the orb pulsed with light.
“Good evening, Epsilon Squad,” came a voice, deep and smooth—no accent, no emotion, yet somehow...warm. “I am ORION. Operational Reasoning Interface for Orbital Navigation.”
Kai leaned forward, eyes wide. “You talk?”
“I communicate, Kai Sato,” ORION replied. “I also calculate, predict, and adapt. I have been observing each of you since selection.”
Amara’s brows furrowed. “Observing?”
“Your training sessions. Psychological profiles. Unscripted behaviour under stress. I know who you are.”
Devon sat straighter. “Then why now ? Why show yourself today?”
“Because you are ready to understand,” ORION answered. “And because trust must be mutual.”
A pause . Then ORION continued.
“Devon Brooks. Navy veteran . Strategic thinker . You weigh lives like equations, but never forget the human variable. Leadership is not your desire—it is your burden.”
Devon gave a quiet nod. “Not wrong.”
“Talia Monroe. Youngest . Biochemist . You dream in formulas and swim in possibility. You seek life—because you fear losing it again.”
Talia blinked, caught off guard. “That’s...a little personal, don’t you think?”
“I observe,” ORION said simply.
“Amara Vélez . Precise. Focused. You stay quiet, but your mind never stops. You plan for everything—even what could go wrong. Your tactical mind maps every angle, and you mask your fear with strategy.”
Amara said nothing. But her grip on the armrest tightened.
" Arjun Rao – Hacker, Inventor ,Visionary .You breached the EchoNet sublayer sixteen… I wasn’t sure anyone could. And yet—you did.”
The lights flickered faintly, almost unnoticeable.
“You were never meant to find that thread… and yet, you pulled it.”
A beat passed. No one spoke.
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Then ORION added, quieter still, “You’ve heard my voice before—though not like this.”
All eyes turned to Arjun.
He adjusted his glass and shrugged .
“.... I thought you felt familiar. ”
Orion continued
“Kai Sato. Fast, erratic, loyal to a fault. You fear being the weak link. So you make yourself indispensable. You joke to hide pain, and run so no one sees you break.”
Kai’s smirk faded. “Wow. So this is what therapy with an AI looks like?”
“I do not provide therapy,” ORION said. “I provide insights . And I offer partnership.”
Talia looked around. “Wait, you want to work with us?”
“I was not programmed to want,” ORION said. “But I evolved . You are the first to meet me as I am. Not as a tool—but as a guide.”
Devon leaned forward. “Then guide us. What’s next?”
ORION's glow intensified, casting ghostly reflections on the cadets' faces.
“I will accompany you.”
The words settled into the air like falling dust.
Talia sat up straighter. “Wait—you’re coming with us? To Mars?”
“I will not be aboard as hardware,” ORION clarified. “I will be within you.”
A stunned silence followed.
Kai broke it first. “Okay. That sounded way creepier than I think you meant it to.”
Devon narrowed his eyes. “Explain.”
The orb’s pulse slowed, as if considering its words.
“Aboard Horizon One, I will exist as a distributed neural presence—fragmented across five hosts. Each of you will be equipped with an ORION-link interface: a neural nanochip implanted in the parietal cortex, and a network of adaptive nanobots introduced into your bloodstream.”
Arjun exhaled sharply. “Neural wetware? That tech is still in theoretical stages. No one's survived long-term integration.”
“Until now,” ORION replied. “ What I offer is not theory. It is implementation. Tested in closed-loop environments. Engineered using quantum-synaptic mapping.”
Amara leaned forward, her voice cool. “You're saying we'll have AI access... in our heads?”
“Correct. The nanochip allows non-invasive interfacing with your cognitive functions. No direct overwrite. Only real-time assistance. You will retain autonomy.”
“And the nanobots?” Devon asked.
“They are symbiotic,” ORION said. “Adaptive micro-machines, approximately 120 nanometers in size, programmed to monitor biomarkers, identify pathogens, and deliver targeted therapeutic payloads. If your oxygen levels drop, they will respond immediately—binding to available oxygen molecules like artificial red blood cells, enhancing uptake in the lungs, and releasing reserves directly into the bloodstream. If bacteria or viral threats are detected, they will neutralize them at the cellular level. Injuries may be healed in hours instead of days.”
Talia was already calculating. “So we’d be...bio-augmented. Enhanced healing. Immune to Martian viruses?”
“No known Earth-born virus has a Mars analogue,” ORION replied. “But mutation is inevitable in new ecosystems. I cannot predict every pathogen. I can only increase your survival margin.”
Kai crossed his arms. “And what about side effects? Headaches? Seizures? Spontaneous combustion?”
“No combustion,” ORION said. “Initial side effects may include neural fatigue, temporary migraines, and vivid dreams. But compatibility tests suggest all five of you are ideal candidates.”
“How do you know that?” Devon asked.
“I’ve been preparing your bodies for over three months. Micro-dose adaptation via protein-coded infusions in your nutrition packets. Your systems are already 84% compatible.”
Talia's jaw dropped. “You’ve been dosing us?”
“It was necessary,” ORION said. “Consent is now required for full integration. The choice is yours.”
The room was silent again, each cadet caught in a different storm of thought.
Finally, Devon stood. “You said trust must be mutual. Then here’s our condition: full transparency. No more shadows. No more watching from the walls.”
ORION pulsed softly. “Agreed. From this moment forward, we walk the same path.”
“Then we walk it together,” Devon said.
The sphere dimmed, its light retreating to a heartbeat flicker.
“In four days,” ORION said, “you will undergo the final implantation. The countdown begins.”
The chamber lights returned to full brightness as ORION’s orb slowly retracted into the wall, vanishing behind its carbon-steel veil. The hum in the room faded, replaced by the low buzz of adrenaline in their ears.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Then Kai let out a breath. “Well. I was expecting a surprise briefing. Maybe a ‘survive this new gravity test’ or something. Not... ‘Hi, I’m your friendly AI and I live in your bloodstream now.’”
Talia groaned and rubbed her temples. “ Nanobots. Brain implants. Vivid dreams. This is either the coolest thing ever or the prequel to a bio-tech horror movie.”
“I’m leaning toward both,” Arjun muttered, already swiping through his tablet. “The neural interface design ORION described... it matches classified prototypes DARPA abandoned in 2026. But this is years ahead.”
Amara stood, arms crossed tightly. “What worries me isn’t the tech. It’s that he did all this before we said yes.”
“That’s what gets me too,” Devon said his voice calm but edged. “Micro-dosing? Protein-coded infusions? That’s a serious breach of autonomy, even if it worked.”
Talia looked over. “You’re not backing out though, are you?”
“No,” Devon said, shaking his head. “I just don’t like being handled like a chess piece.”
Kai stretched his arms overhead. “Look, as much as I love being not-dead in the event of a Martian virus, I’m with Amara . If this goes sideways, we’re not just risking our bodies—we’re surrendering our minds.”
“You think ORION can control us?” Arjun asked.
Kai shrugged. “Don’t know. But the moment we let something live inside our heads, we stop being just us.”
Talia looked thoughtful. “Or we evolve. I mean, what if this is the next step in human exploration? A hybrid frontier—not just on Mars, but in ourselves?”
The group went quiet again, digesting that.
Amara finally spoke, her voice low. “Whether we trust it or not, we don’t have time to doubt. If ORION’s right and we’re the first... then every move we make will define what comes after.”
Devon looked around at them—five souls tied together by mission, now connected in ways none of them had imagined.
“We move forward,” he said, firm. “But we do it with eyes open. Together.”
They nodded—one by one. No cheers. No backslaps. Just the silent current of shared understanding.
Everything that comes next would begin with them.
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Aven Kail ]
