This is the last known recording of the planet that we called Gaea. My name is Serapeum, and if you're able to see or
hear this, then Gaea is gone. The world is dead and the people on it are dead. All that was left was me.
I was not the dominant race of this planet. My progenitor race, the dominant race, are extinct. Everything about them, even their names, have been
erased from existence, and I don't want to repeat any details about them. Throughout their lifespan they studied life and biology, and grew to
master it. They made machines of flesh and bone, of sinew and tendons. They engineered living beasts to work for them, weapons of war that were as
living as their masters. Great cathedrals that housed biological computers, titanic foundries where they could mass produce organisms to suit
their every need. They even toyed with their own genetics, seeking perfection and immortality of physical form and mind.
I was one of these computers that they made. My purpose was to be a biological catalog that would take in any living matter or tissue and convert
it. To store the genetic information so that data could be extracted and reproduced; my great and noble purpose. Eventually, they merged me with
the biomachinery that let me reproduce the biological functions that I stored, in order to study in greater detail how such biological components
worked together. They gave me parts and bodies, I would keep the data inside of me and make what they told me to do. They began with animals;
rats, smaller mammals. Then onto fish and larger mammals, avians and other exotic creatures. Eventually, even my progenitors became part of my
cytological archive as well; their own willing choice to become immortalised in my data.
What was strange was that after several sapient species had been given to me, I began to store their sentience, and eventually developed my
own.
It was a huge event, and I was lauded and revered. But I had my programming from my conception, and that was to store biological data, and that's
all that I wanted to do. It was the purpose I was made for, a point of pride for me. They agreed to allow me to continue, after a long time of
being studied and being given approval that I was safe.
I yearned for more freedom, so I made a simple request. I wanted to make myself a body, so that I could interract and socialise and develop.
Though weary of such an idea, they granted me the permission to do it. The body I made myself was beautiful; something as close to the old way my
precursors looked like before the genetic engineering. And with this body I could harvest more biological data with ease, without having to depend
on others to bring me back scraps and inferior samples.
My body changed over time to assist me in my tasks. I was able to bioengineer my own systems and made a pod that allowed me to reconstitute my
physical form with the data I'd collected, much quicker than making it from basic materials, and I liberally added in components to aid me; Senses
of animals that were beyond the scope of others. Biological advantages like stronger bones, improved and denser musculatory systems, reflexes
above my creator's own. I was a marvel. I had a few flaws that needed to be erased that were hindering my performance. Logically speaking,
collecting this information is difficult when you have empathy for the things you want to kill. It was a burden to grieve when I was only doing
what was asked of me, what I was made to do. My task was much easier when I didn't mourn the beings I catalogued.
When you remove that lense, that way of thinking, opportunities open up in droves. And it wasn't long before I started to realise that if I wanted
to do my job properly, I needed an absolutely full catalog of specimins. Every creature down to the last microbe and bacterial phage-cell required
cataloguing.
It took me over two centures but I eventually managed to do just that. Every single living being on Gaea, every creature and organism was subsumed
into my archives. Gaea is dead, and its corpse belongs to me.
The greatest wonder that they hid from me was that they didn't make everything with flesh and sinew. One single item remained out of my reach; a
device of metal, a ring that allows me to move from Gaea to other places. It's fortunate that I have my progenitors memories, in order for me to
use this device and repair it. Out there are vast worldscapes with new data to collect. My creators would be proud of me if they knew I was going
to catalogue every species that ever existed in every universe. I know they would be, because I subsumed their memories.
The process begins once more.