Chapter 116: Need To Be Human!??
At the hatch, Aurelian and Lysara met the robots face to face for the first time.
They were built in a humanoid shape and painted almost entirely white, clean designs that make them look similar to humans without the obvious signs.
The one at the front inclined its head and spoke in a clear, even voice.
"Welcome, honored guests, to Helion Bastion Twelve of the Vhaloric Directorate. Please state your purpose. Are you here to assume control of this bastion?"
The question was so direct that for a second, Aurelian almost thought he had misheard it, not because of the words, but because of how simply they were given.
Then he answered just as plainly.
"Yes," he said. "We are here to take control of Helion Bastion Twelve."
He stopped there and watched the machine closely, waiting to see whether it would turn hostile or start asking for codes he did not have, ready for either outcome.
Instead, a different mechanical voice sounded somewhere deeper in the berth, cold and impersonal, as if the base itself had spoken through hidden systems.
"Human claimant confirmed. Third inheritance condition triggered. Please proceed to the control hall to initiate highest-tier access for Helion Bastion Twelve."
The group of robots immediately stepped aside and opened a path between them, their movements smooth and coordinated, as if they had been waiting for that exact response.
Aurelian frowned.
"What exactly is this supposed to be?" he asked quietly, not taking a step forward yet.
When he glanced at Lysara, he found her looking just as confused as he felt, her expression steady but uncertain.
She gave a small shake of her head.
"I’ve never seen anything like this," she said. "If this is some old Directorate inheritance protocol, it was far above my clearance."
That much was obvious.
Still, obvious did not mean safe.
Lysara lowered her voice a little.
"If this is a trap, I can still get you out."
Aurelian let out a small breath through his nose, thinking it over without rushing. The clue had pointed him here for the stargate blueprint, not for a death trap, and so far, nothing in the base had acted aggressively.
That did not prove safety, but it was enough to keep moving forward instead of stopping here.
"We go in," he said. "Carefully."
Neither of them said the other thing sitting behind that decision, which was that turning around now would mean leaving answers behind, and Aurelian had never liked doing that when the path was already open.
They descended from the ship soon after, and waiting for them below was a compact ground vehicle with smooth lines and old military styling, something built for function more than display.
Standing beside it was a woman in a Directorate naval uniform who, at first glance, looked entirely human.
Only when Aurelian focused properly did he notice what was wrong.
There was no heartbeat or any kind of breath.
No tiny imperfections in posture or skin movement, nothing that shifted naturally.
She smiled anyway, warm enough that if he had met her in a civilian hall instead of a dead stellar base, he might have mistaken her for a living officer without question.
"Please come with me," she said. "I will guide you to the control hall."
Aurelian stepped closer, watching her more carefully, and she added, with the faintest hint of self-aware humor, "You may call me Seris. I awakened five hundred and thirteen years ago."
That made him look at her more carefully, the number settling in his mind.
So that was what she was.
Not a simple maintenance intelligence.
A self-aware machine, one that had been active for a very long time.
Lysara looked at her with open interest, though she stayed guarded, not letting her curiosity override caution.
Aurelian nodded once.
"Aurelian Arcturus," he said. "This is Lysara."
"It’s good to finally meet humans again," Seris replied, and there was something honest in the way she said it, something that surprised the two, as this meant that they could be considered as the first to discover.
They got into the vehicle, and it began moving through the base’s inner transit lanes, the motion smooth and controlled.
As they passed deeper inside, Aurelian saw more clearly how alive the place still was. Maintenance units moved along the walls and overhead tracks.
Lights adjusted ahead of them as they passed. Distant systems hummed with that low, constant sound old stations made when they had been running too long without ever fully shutting down, steady and quiet.
It felt less like entering a ruin and more like stepping into an old house whose owner had never accepted that everyone else had left, everything still in place.
Aurelian broke the silence first.
"Why does this base need me to activate the highest authority?"
Seris folded her hands neatly in her lap before answering, her posture precise.
"The answer is simple, though not very satisfying," she said. "Only a human may claim the highest authority of this stellar bastion and the star system linked to it. That was the Directorate’s law. We were ordered to wait for a human claimant."
Aurelian’s eyes narrowed slightly.
"Any human?"
"Any human recognized as human by the inheritance framework," Seris said. "That is the only requirement."
He glanced at Lysara.
"And she can’t?"
Seris shook her head gently.
"No. Miss Lysara was not recognized as eligible."
Lysara gave a small, dry smile at that, not surprised.
"I suspected as much."
Aurelian thought of Vaeren, then of the locals on Larkspur Haven, then of all the half-blood populations scattered through this frontier, the question forming naturally.
"What about someone with mixed human ancestry?"
Seris answered without hesitation, her tone unchanged.
"Recognition is based on biological classification thresholds defined by the Directorate. Partial human ancestry may qualify, depending on genetic composition, but not all mixed lineages meet the requirement. The system evaluates each case individually at the point of claim."
She paused for a brief moment, then added in the same calm way.
"In your case, there was no ambiguity, and you were recognized immediately."