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You could have informed your country from the start.

Ægir would have helped take on your burdens. The oldest records of the Academy of Science could verify the past you saw. The latest inventions of the Academy of Technology could model the future you envisioned.

To cede the choice to others. Is that a solution, or an escape?

The choices of the countless many against the choices of the few. Are they more accurate, or more ambiguous? More earnest, or more capricious?

Suppose the means for life to continue is not civilization, and the species that transcends ruin is not humanity. If so, how would Ægir react?

Enough, Mártus.

If you <i>had</i> thought of every possibility and foresaw the bitter price to pay, then your final decision is even more inexcusable.

No, Ægir, I do not mean to defend my choices.

What I wanted to say was that, at the time, there was an immature lifeform that interrupted my flights of fancy.

Its tentacles were minute, and its body yet uncoordinated. Beneath its translucent membranes, simple organs could be clearly seen.

Born from Ishar-mla, it had unknowingly crawled past the cabin wall, and was licking my ankle happily.

Was it unaware of how swiftly its death would come?

Did it not know that it was destined to become one of those insignificant dots among the millions of bio-signatures on the monitor?

Being the progeny of a Feranmut, could it have not seen the frightful vision its parent saw? Was it unaware that the destiny of its entire race was only to foretell and greet ruination?

It just wriggled calmly towards its foreordained destruction, acting out of instinct only.

As for us, there are countless possibilities to consider before making a decision, countless trade-offs to worry over.

We find ourselves unable to ignore the costs of our decisions, or the results, or the value and meaning of those results.

Humanity, glub—Humanity is ever a prisoner of itself, ever one step behind 'fate.'

This is the essential difference between humanity and the Seaborn. This is why they are suited to bear the duty of continued existence.

That's why you ate the strange flesh?;That's why you became like this?;That's why you interfered with civilization's evolution?

If there is any life that can survive that future of quietus, no matter what form it takes...

It is worth fighting for, no matter the cost.

'There is no justice here. Only the path ahead.'

You should understand now why you must help we many evolve.

You are not the first one the Doctor and I have seen who can barely qualify as human, but they all made their hard choices.

No one had ever made a choice as horrifying as yours.

Before you ate that flesh to become a Seaborn, you had already renounced thinking as a human does.

From my perspective, that which you abandoned in your final moments—your doubts, misgivings, concerns, and struggles—were the most precious of treasures.

They're treasures because they're unending.

The Seaborn are swallowing Terra's life whole. You have not denied this, nor can you stop it. How are we to see them as our hope?

What is your choice then, Kal'tsit? To incubate Originium?

The collapsed stargate, the extinguished sarcophagi... Of the countless failed plans, is Originium the only one still in operation?

Stones amidst the land and sky, ever silent. They are an incurable disease, harming life atop dry land.

And yet, they are a plan left by the prehistoric civilization, one expected to save all existence at the very end... In ways incomprehensible to the average person.

Glub—The stairwell to survival can only be forged in the fires of destruction.

No. Such destruction must not happen.

Much like Caerula Arbor, Originium at some point turned to the annihilation you speak of. It changed in ways none can understand, and none can reverse.

And since it has changed, it must now be stopped.

Whatever the case, using life to feed life or ruin to beget ruin would only serve to remove all meaning from survival.

...Kal'tsit. Or rather, AMa-10 from the records. You surprise me.

You and I should have arrived at the same conclusion via different paths. No. You should have been even more rational, more decisive.

I merely noticed a spark of the prehistoric civilization and took on its mantle. You, however, were born for this task. You held aloft its torch eons before I did.

You have kept watch over their distant aspirations and legacies. You have carried out your assigned mission. You witnessed changes. You bore loss... No human could have toiled for as long as you have.

But now...

Has endless 'life' rendered you feeble, Kal'tsit? Has it turned you human?

Kal'tsit has always been like this.;You don't know Kal'tsit at all.

Was it... because of this one?

Dr. {@nickname}, or rather... Oracle?

Many facilities, many doors, your fingerprints, face, voice... Within the cerulean cave, among the ruins... traces of you lie everywhere.

You have visited the depths of the abyss before.

Have I?;A pity I don't remember...

I recognized you. I have been speaking with Kal'tsit until now only because it is more efficient.

You must know the truth. Your visitation is sure to have meaning. Perhaps you are able to explain why the project is at a standstill.

But your title is different now; something has happened to you. Otherwise, Kal'tsit would have held no doubts about what had happened to the plan.

For several reasons, the Doctor is unable to remember many of the things back then.

(The nuclei within its skull spin)

'Memory loss'... Glub, unsurprising.

Losing one's memory is perhaps the most insignificant sacrifice you could make.

Even the most resilient of life cannot withstand the ravages of tens of thousands of years. The fact that you still exist upon Terra is in itself a miracle.

What I saw, what He saw, what They saw. Those frightful visions are an absolute truth to you.

You have lost your proud civilization and homeland. Heaven and earth have lost all color. Time and space have become vast prisons.

You have been exiled by despair. You have stopped to rest upon Terra. You have not escaped your fated ruin... All men will perish, all things rendered meaningless.

Despite this, you have not stopped fighting for hope. This planet has been forever marked by your resistance... Even if those marks are mostly wreckages.

I revere you and your cause. You, the people of a bygone age.

A Seaborn acknowledges my past?;If that 'cause' involves today's Seaborn...;Maybe the project stalled because they realized the cost.

Dr. {@nickname}, whether you accept it, deny it, or are undecided, it matters not to me. I am not hoping to win your understanding.

I seek not your approval.

You, and your comrades, had planted hope in the depths of the sea. A possibility. A spark.

Perhaps you have forgotten it. Perhaps you have renounced it. Perhaps you now stand against it, come what may. Now, it is I who tends to this light. And I shall not see it extinguished.

The rejection of our flame's kindler will not waver the many's resolution.

Let's stop trying to prove ourselves. We shall return to the reality itself.

We many sense the oncoming crisis. Perhaps the eye beyond the clouds has caught a glimpse of Terra's exceptionality, a sword hanging above all our heads.

Terra is but a cage, trapping countless souls unaware of the truth.

Now there is a crack in the bars. A crisis, also an opportunity.

Sight. Sound. Smell. Touch. The rushing of the ocean waves.

Within the cage that is Terra, the children of the sea are the most resilient race. Never have they stopped evolving.

You cannot deny that We Many have become the most magnificent of miracles. They will become the sparks in the wake of the Big Bang, the seeds from which the cosmos will blossom once more.

They are the closest to... success.

Tell me, Kal'tsit, Dr. {@nickname}, and the Ægir...

Do you now choose humanity, Originium, or the Seaborn?

It is true that a crisis fast approaches. There are still many questions I am unable to answer. Many truths I am unable to grasp.

But this does not imply that life can be reduced to a hollow concept. That would simply erase its original meaning.

You consider this a weakness, Mártus. I consider it my drive, bestowed upon me by this endless life of mine.

Life's worth should be determined by the living.;Life's meaning should be written by the living.

The Seaborn are a calamity that must be stopped.

On this, the Doctor and I will not change our positions, and neither will Rhodes Island.

Without civilization, how can you speak of survival?

Without survival, how can you speak of civilization?

This ridiculous debate has gone far enough, Mártus.

We have excised the diseased organ from Milliarium. Your 'kin' in the city are being eliminated as we speak.

You'll have plenty of time to reflect on what you've done and share the rest of your secrets with us in prison.

(Furious howl)

You, Ægir, and that ebon monster...

It is futile to contain me. You alone, your city alone, are not enough to slay me. To slay Ishar-mla.

The city has completed its reorganization. I can imagine how it will look as it bars our current, but we many will surpass it.

There is no right or wrong here. So let your brief resistance provide our soundest proof.

Next, I will rouse the slumbering Firstborn. I will lead our kin to the moons.

You will become a part of this magnificent cycle, Kal'tsit. As will you, Dr. {@nickname}.

Maestro.

Su Santidad, I am here to make my report.