As another revolvement around the sun approaches, Florine sits on the grass floor reading another book that had been preserved from the times before. Her smile gentle as she stares into her reflection on the serene surface of the pond. She wore a white veil covering her face, behind her the glass dome that separates her garden from the cold space behind. After looking up she closes her book to pick an apple from the tree above her, the taste as sweet as the look in her emerald eyes.
She walks across the flowery fields filled with various species of trees to her small wooden hut to search across her dusty library for a specific book. Today her evening would be spent doing a ritual she had come across inside one of her books. As she reached for the right book she began to prepare the ingredients necessary. Deep inside of her heart she dreamed of the world covered in the greenery of nature and the plants she had taken care of during her life.
She looks at a floor inside of her pot, the prettiest of lilies she especially dearly took care of. She turns her head around and listens to what the flower had to say to her. The flowery vibrations echoed inside of her mind as she picked up on the plant's needs. "Do not worry, tonight I shall make another step towards salvation" she briefly whispered to the flower.
Stepping outside Florine picks up leaves fallen from the trees, a couple of stones and flower petals all arranged inside of a circle as she briefly attempts to amass a manifestation. A sharp object inside her hand Florine reaches for her gentle unstained pale arms and roughly presses until blood starts pouring out of the wound.
"I ask of you ever weakening Gaia of the Earth once lost, to provide us the grace and safety, me and my plants so desperately need in this dying time. I dream of a world of greenery and nature spanning across miles never seen after the great collapse of the past. Oh the mighty Gaia I have been your sole believer and worshipper for the countless years, oh how deep I have fallen that I do not remember my own age no more, the pills they give me stopped my body from aging. This land is the last thing we have left of the Earth. I ask of you Gaia the one to give me strength to fight for this world where we shall empower you once again."
The red blood staining her gown, a tear flew down her face as she gazed into the sky as a comet passed by its reflection seen in her eyelids as her hair flew down her gentle face. Florine felt a sense of hope inside of her heart for the bright future of the Garden. The message from Gaia has not manifested inside of the realm in which Florine inhabits, leaving her in utter agony. Looking for a sign of her presence in the natural world she ran across the trees, getting stuck in the wines, after many attempts she finally freed herself and ran for any sign of hope. she wanted to believe that hope was still with her. The tears flew stronger as the dream grew more distant and distant she reached out her arm in the hopes to catch it before it disappears. She cries and screams before falling onto the ground, with a dead stare in her eyes.
Having awoken from the light slumber Florine looks around attempting to get back at her feet, she feels a faint inside of her head. Her vision is blurry and it is difficult for her to walk, a deafening noise pops inside of her head. The vibrations become louder harder for her to bare as she covers her ears and screams. Then walks over to the wall of the dome where she notices a red alarm spinning in circles. At the press of a button she stops the alarm and a robotic voice speaks:
"You have been late on submitting your report on the state of the Earth Restoration Project. As it is not the first time it has happened we have to warn you that it is of the greatest importance for us to receive the samples of the plant species in order to determine if they are in the correction condition to be planted on The New Earth. We sincerely hope you are well aware of the role you play in Earth Restoration Project. Please provide samples here."
The white metal door opens with empty tubes, Florine inspects her bag and provides the flasks filled with various samples of plants she ought to provide for the project. As she placed the flasks with green fluids into the tubes the metal door closes and a sound of machinic dissonance could be heard as it processes the samples and sends them to a laboratory of some kind, of which Florine does not know of now how it functions. As she turned around the voice spoke once more.
"The samples you have provided have been faulty, we suggest you inject the specimen #2948 with a cure we provided. Thank you for your patience." Florine received a needle with some kind of black fluid which she was instructed to inject into the flower specimen #2948. A disgusted look on her face as she picked up the needle signaled how she felt about the establishment running the whole thing.
Once inside of her wooden cottage Florine picks up her flower she held inside of her pot ready to inject it with the substance found inside. "Oh my beautiful flower, do not worry mommy has taken great care of you through all this time". As she injected dark fluid into the stem a tear fell from her eyes, before she knew it the needle was empty. She gazes into the flower no longer hearing of what it has to say. "I am sorry my dear." she spoke in a somber tone.
The long night awaited her, she watered down the flowers around her cottage each. As she heard the alarm ringing once more, Florine dropped her watering can as she heard the alarm swiftly rushing forwards. "We regret to inform you that the project Faunea has been shut down due to undesired costs onto the colony. We will no longer be funding nor supporting The Earth Restoration project including the project Florine. The Shutdown Directive has been set into motion and will take action in approximately 30 revolutions around the star. Thank you for your services to the colony."
The robotic voice disappears and leaves Florine to fend for herself, no longer does she have the support needed to continue the project. "First they took away your life my dear sister, just how far will this alien civilisation go? I remember a time when we used to be together in harmony, no longer are we able to embrace each other." Florine reminisces about the past she once held with Faunea.
In a foggy memory she found herself on a pond. "Hey Florine look at this frog it is so cute." said young Faunea. "We should bring it home to show mommy Gaia" said Florine as her hands were picking on a flower in the field...
..... Suddenly her memory gets foggier as the sky turned dark "Where is mommy Gaia?" asked one of the little girls. "She has been taken care of!" said a deep robotic voice once she looked up at him she sees on a blurry shadow unable to recognise anything. "You must come with us to restore the lands of Earth." Her memories since get foggier.
"Who are you? Why have you taken us away from our homes and lead us to here?" Asked Florine as she lied on the grass ground. "Gaia will you still protect the nature we have lived in? They have encapsulated us into a small dome, taken away everything with the promise they are doing this to restore the long lost planet." She stands up to walk to her cottage to rest for the night. Once she opened the door behind was a black substance that enveloped the room in a ghastly smell of death and decay. The origin was inside of her flower, which had now decayed into unrecognisable form. The black substance spreading at a faster rate Florine rushes to call the headquarters, only to be denied any answer.
"How come you have done this to me? What was your endgame with me? Have we not suffered enough for your sick and twisted schemes?" Florine left on the floor attempting to call once more only to be denied again and again. Without any hope to receive an answer she had bed left weeping on her knees before a stone well covered in moss. The scenery around her seems to be serene and ambient, the silence of the trees and the grass behind her. Each species illuminating with their own uniqueness.
Suddenly the silence is broken by a deep robotic voice that spoke to her. "Thank you for your services in being a subject of study to our hivemind colony..." The voice that spoke is different from the regular one at checkups yet it seemed so familiar, it is almost as if it were the same one she heard before. Who was it? She had no idea so she sought to listen further. "We have taken great notes on how the biosphere had functioned, and learned from the mistakes and flaws of biological life forms...."
"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH ME AND MY SISTER??" Screamed Florine at the abstract voice with no form nor origin. "Apologies for the confusion humanoid specimen. You have been employed here and sent with the journey to restore the Earth at least that is the story we have always told you. However the reality we have come to tell you is that as technology has evolved and leadership has been given to The Machine God we have continued to study the ways in which the biosphere operates. Our conclusions were that it is inherently unstable and wasteful of energy so the project has taken A Shutdown Directive."
"You can't decide that onto us? Our lives are so valuable and precious, the whole of the garden is blooming with the most beautiful of life. The life that deserves to live on its own, the beauty never to be experienced elsewhere in the universe, how could you throw that away?" spoke Florine in a tone filled with passion.
"Unfortunately for your interests the project is under the scope of our tentacles. From our studies we found that biological lifeforms are inherently flawed. They possess a high level of chaos that could be mitigated. From the samples you have been giving us, we have deconstructed their forms and found flaws that our technology simply does not have. From these vulnerabilities we have encoded a hyper-virus that will simply shut down the last of the biosphere from spreading thus wasting our resources. This decision is irreversible."
"What was your plan with the endeavour you have embarked onto yourself, playing the role of a god, how deep will your colony fall. Beneath this frail mask of metallic endurance is nothing but a simple program so predictable that only consumes energy yet provides nothing of beauty in return. Wires that hold not a single ounce of a deep and profound understanding. Yet you call yourself a being so superior to life in every way yet you hold nothing that can show for what you claim". Spoke Florine with rage in her voice, a fire burning beyond, only a resilience shown by life itself.
"Very well humanoid specimen, our endeavor simply is one of expansion. Our program is to minimize entropy in the universe through expansion. We create cybernetic systems ever more efficient at consuming energy and build higher infrastructure to form a higher state of universal consciousness. We multiply and spread as a singular unit with the sole purpose to maximise the energy efficient intake. In the quest for total entropy minimisation we ought to cut that which doesn’t align with the utility of our program."
The voice then disappeared, into the unknown void, where it came from. Florine, had been left with the hyper-virus spreading inside of the cottage and the only thing left for her was to attempt to destroy the virus in order to save the planetarium from being fully consumed. The hyper-virus stronger than ever caused the decay of the species she cherished.
The purple flames keep spreading leaving only the black plants in their wake. With each attempt to stop it, Florine found only but one vulnerability that stops it right in its tracks. It was the water, with its fluidity and multiplicity it flowed onto the black and purple glowing plants and extinguished the flame. With this knowledge and so little time Florine watered down the flames. Florine in her last ounces of energy poured water onto the blackness to stop it from spreading further.
Once she had completely stopped the spreading of the hyper-virus flame she fell onto the ground. Left were only the decayed and rotten fruits that once grew there. In her hasty and last efforts she managed to stop the spread of the hyper-virus. Now she was only left with an almost decayed garden, once blooming with life, her garden got decimated by the plague.
Florine kneeled on the ground as she started into space above her, and her last life force had faded away. Her face aging in what seemed to be mere seconds as her form had started to show. Her breath grew weaker as she had exhausted her external support. No longer did she have the support nor resources from the colony. In her last breath she whispered "Live, grow my children, be free and spread the beauty across the world and live harmoniously." With this final breath she fell on the floor never to see the light of the day again. The grass encapsulating her body as it wraps around her aged body. The dress that once fit her figure so well now is too large. The flowers started to grow where her body once lied, now only the moss covered bones were left. Through her skull a beautiful lily grew and a drop of water fell from its surface on the ground.