The smell of burnt flesh lived in the air, alive, seeking to be experienced before it dissipated, before it died through dispersal.

Jennifer easily avoided the plume of living smoke. Anyone still alive could avoid the new life forms that arose after the awaking and the mistakes that followed.

She continued on her way to the meeting. The human meeting.

“I call this last meeting of the humans to order,” declared John Smith

We have one order of business today. To elect a new leader. My time is done. My mandate was to stabilize the remaining humans, to find a way to have a stable environment that didn’t change daily.

Welcome to Eden Prime. Coordinates have been downloaded into your datastreams. They require living human dna to be decrypted. There are no exceptions. ” John intoned

At this, there was a murmuring through the crowd. Many had argued that the coordinates were to be shared with their allies, The robot AI had helped keep the humans alive. Had protected us when we were at our weakest. They deserved to know where we were going. Jennifer was one them. She was alive because of them.

“I know,” acknowledging the unspoken concern, “and there is more bad news, so you might as well sit down, and get comfortable. Many of you won’t like this next bit. ” He waited until they all were seated.

“Eden Prime is aware and programed to only allow on human sentient beings to live in it. Humans with complete dna.”, he sat down, exhausted and free. Free of the secret that he had kept for so long.  It was like his final confession.

Ten minutes later the yelling, threats and pandemonium stopped. At least no one was dead, Jennifer thought. Especially John. Her team had protected him when he was attacked. Kept him alive. He didn’t seem to care if he lived or died.

“Order, Order DAMM IT!”, Jennifer yelled.

“Nominations for leader of the humans is now open”, she declared, stepping down.

“I nominate Jennifer, as leader of the humans”

“I second the nomination”

“Are there any other nominations?”

“Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer” the crowd yelled.

After a few minutes of applause the it died down. She let it play out, letting the emotion of the moment be wrung out of the crowd.

“Thank-you, Thank-you one and all” She cried.

“Sargent of arms, arrest John Smith for treason against humans. Hold him in custody for trail”, Jennifer ordered. She was in charge now.

She was in charge of the humans, hopefully everything else went as smoothly with the AI’s…