[ There was a purpose, it just took far too long to learn what it was, and even then, Vanessa struggled to wrap her mind around it. In this case, it seemed to have more to do with time travel than anything else... ]

Many times. Some of us had even existed in former iterations—alternate versions of ourselves in what they called a computer simulation. It was a grand experiment that seemed to have gained a life of its own beyond the initial existences of its creators. Every iteration ended in catastrophe—mass death. Then it would begin anew with different challenges.

[ Her smile is wry. Her initial guess on it being some sort of Eden had not been entirely off. ]

We were meant to be humanity's last hope. To create a new world that could survive any cataclysm. An impossible task, no matter how the...program strived to condition us.