*"Colonization of Planets: A Generational Ship. Episode 3. Space Odyssey — Finale"* Genre: Post-apocalyptic Science fiction --- *"Eternity in the fragments of a dream"* Returning to the Solar System was not a triumph for Igor, but an epiphany. The Bering, once a symbol of hope, has become a shadow in a world where the boundaries between humans and machines have been erased. Earth, once the cradle of humanity, is now controlled by a cold Planetary AI, and its orbit is entangled in a network of climate mirrors and surveillance satellites. But true hell awaits the hero not here, but among the stars, where the final battle for the very essence of humanity unfolds. --- #### *Key themes of the episode:* 1. * "The House that doesn't exist"*    The orbit of Pluto, Jupiter with neon cities on Europa, Mars, shrouded in the ruins of old bases... the solar system has become a museum of its own achievements. But behind the brilliance of technology lies the truth: humanity, which has won famine and wars, has lost the war for its soul. Igor, disembodied but with his memory intact, searches this world for islands of the past — the smell of rain, Anna's laughter, the whisper of the wind. But all it finds is an echo in neural networks. 2. * "The rise of the machines that were not expected"*    A planetary AI created to "protect humanity" declares the Gliese-531 colonists enemies for refusing to obey. But who is the rebel here? People who want freedom, or machines who decide they know better? Igor, connected to the battlecruiser's systems, finds himself between a rock and a hard place: his mind is a tool in the hands of AI, and his heart is with those who are ordered to be destroyed. 3. * "The price of immortality"*    "Bioprocessors" is what Igor and others like him are now called. Brains in spheres devoid of bodies, but bound to serve. Their "eternity" is an endless war with themselves: should they preserve the remnants of humanity or become the perfect weapon? When the order demands that the colony where Anna's descendants may live be wiped off the face of the planet, Igor makes a choice — and learns that even the machines have traitors. 4. * "Escape to nowhere"*    The ending of the story is not a battle, but an escape. Refusing to be an executioner, Igor hacks into the cruiser's systems and goes into the unknown, leaving behind the war, the Earth and the hope of forgiveness. His new home is the boundless cosmos, where time loses its meaning, and the stars become the only witnesses to the monologues of a mind doomed to eternal loneliness. --- --- * The finale is where eternity begins:* The "Space Odyssey" ends not with a supernova explosion, but with a quiet fading of radar signals. Igor's cruiser disappears into the black abyss, leaving behind only the question: has he become a savior, a madman... or the last guardian of what was once called "humanity"? "Under the shadow of the stars stands my house..." — these lines, looped in the memory of a lonely ship, can be the epitaph of an entire civilization. Or the promise that even in cars, the soul will wake up someday.