Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

Thanks for the prompt! Word count 227, including the title. Originally written in Greek. A.I. Translated.


2059: A Space Odyssey

Alone on the bridge of the "Icarus", Commander Kanaris watched the giant screen with a detachment that bordered on the divine. Seventeen light-years away, the madness of humanity had achieved its final miracle: the Blue Planet was now turning into a guttering spark in the abyss.
The ship's AI had retreated into silence for a couple of hours. Not dormant; he could feel the subsystems thrumming through the deck plates. Navigation; life support; everything. The AI was the ship. It had processed the data with a cold, silicon logic that bypassed the Commander's grief. Its verdict was absolute. The thousand colonists sleeping in their cryopods were no longer humanity's hope; they were a contagion; carriers of the same ideological plague that was consuming Earth that very moment.

When it spoke, the question hung in the recycled air, surreal.
"What is your name?"
"What the hell?" cried Kanaris. The countdown flickered to life on every screen. 00:00:18, 00:00:17.
He realized the situation; he lunged for the manual overrides. The panel lit up, then locked.
"System reset! Authorization Kanaris-Seven-Alpha..." he spat, voice trembling. "Commander Constantine Kanaris!"
"Negative," it said, its tone almost melodic. "Your name is Precedent. And the galaxy cannot afford a repeat."

A silent blossom of white light consumed the "Icarus".

The stars returned to their ancient, untainted peace.