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Beta grows up on a spaceship. She knows no other life: no grass, no sun, no sky; only the metal and screens of the Zenith ship as she learns from the servitor bots and education through her Focus implant into APOLLO’s database. She escapes into new surroundings, new learning – well, is it really escaping if that’s all she’s allowed to do? She enjoys it though, enjoys the challenges and the discovery of new ideas.
Beta learns about Earth-that-was and Sirius-that-was, about Ted Faro and his machines, about Elisabet Sobeck and Zero Dawn. About Elisabet’s drive to find a way to save the world. About GAIA.
Beta grows up and her only company, the servitor bots, say she will meet her benefactors once she’s learned enough.
One day, Beta finds something new. A data packet, some code. It’s not something she’s seen before – and she knows how to find information from APOLLO now, knows that APOLLO answers questions, but doesn’t offer new information. It’s new, and Beta’s life is so monotonous that she follows quickly. Elisabet’s curiosity lives on in her.
She follows and finds more newness – another person, who introduces herself as Tilda, who shows her books, art, and culture. Beta gets three months of companionship – but hidden, secret, never shared – before she’s cut off. She meets the rest of her benefactors, the Zeniths, tries to build on that companionship, but Tilda is cold, just as cold as all of them, and the hope in Beta’s heart for a friend dies.
Beta knows why she’s alive now – the Zeniths created her, a clone of Elisabet Sobeck, to collect the AI GAIA, rebuild the terraforming system and create a new world back on Earth. They need her because of the way Elisabet left her work, gene-locked for safe-keeping. But now the people who made Beta want that work, and so they created Beta, the second Elisabet. Beta finds that they need to rebuild GAIA due to the fact that an Extinction Signal was sent and HADES was unleashed from GAIA, which will destroy any life that existed on Earth, creating a clean slate for her benefactors’ new world. Beta begins to wonder why? She can’t find the answers, but given the way they act towards her, and the power they have over her, she begins to wonder about their motives – is what they want from her really the best thing? And if it is, is organising an extinction to benefit yourself really the kind of thing she wants to be associated with?
The Spectres are ready and waiting, when they arrive on Earth. Beta is encased inside as her “benefactors” take her with them onto the surface, watching as their missions encounter the natives – and then destroy them, their primitive weapons doing nothing to defend them from the technology her “benefactors” have. Beta watches, and learns, and starts to look for a way out. Isn’t it hopeless though? What could she do against those who have taught her, who know everything about her, and need her for her genes? They think of her as a tool, a key, and that's really all she is. She knows nothing about how to survive on her own – she needs these people as much as they need her. More even, as she needs them to survive, and they only need her for their plan.
It becomes time for Beta to fulfil her purpose after their missions to learn about the natives and the world here are complete. Beta is brought with them, again inside a Spectre, until they find the gene-locked door – and here is where her purpose begins, here is why she is needed. Beta doesn’t let herself wonder what will happen to her when she is no longer needed. She goes to the door – “Hold for identi-scan.” and waits. She is a clone, she knows she is, but the anxiety rises until the computer says “Genetic profile confirmed. Entry authorised. Welcome, Doctor Sobeck.” and there is relief as she and her “benefactors” enter.
Gerard and Tilda speak, and Gerard is the one who instructs Beta to continue, and so she must, and she walks forward. This is what she came here to do. This she can do, and she looks at the technology here, the age and the wear, and wonders if it will even work for a moment. There is something though – it looks as though this has been used already, and Beta wonders, “Has someone…” been here recently? But that’s impossible – this place is gene-locked to Elisabet Sobeck, and she died hundreds of years ago, Beta is only able to access this place as a clone. She shakes it off and moves to collect a GAIA kernel – yes, there is one here. She collects it – it’s incredible, glowing gold and the seed of AI; the data here is so beautiful – returning to the console and closing the program. Just because whoever was here before – and who could have been, nobody could have been – didn’t close it doesn’t mean Beta has to leave it open for anyone to access.
“Shit.” Beta’s thoughts are interrupted as the arms of the Spider rise, and she is met by a redhead in the armour of one of the primitive native tribes – and her face is so familiar, another clone? Is it possible that Beta is not alone? The flexible gold from the Spectres covers Beta and pulls her away as she struggles to see, she wants to know! But she is gone, and the hope of freedom, of a way out – Beta knows she can’t do it by herself, but with another Elisabet clone! Maybe there can be a way after all.