The Last Librarian: The Custodian of Forgotten Wisdom.

The only background noise unaffected by all the events around was the monotonous hum of the air conditioner for Anya. Shuffling slowly through the deserted aisles of the Archive, she lightly played with the books' cold spines with her gloved hands. The archive wasn't a library in the conventional sense; instead, it was the digital mass of the Exodus, an inter-generational ship that carried the remainders of humankind. It was climate change that made life impossible on Earth and one lone librarian, Anya, became the custodian of all the knowledge and culture of a culture that no longer existed.

The inside of her space suit sounded like a giant bell, making her jump out of her trance. A notification showed in her visor indicating the attempts of unauthorized access to a restricted data area. Her heartbeat raced against her ribs. The Archives were all shutdown, only available with her authorization codes. Someone (or something) was trying to hack our system.

Applying a method, Anya secluded the infected zone, a dusty corner, of the digital depository, which contained obsolete historical documents considered as useless for the new community living on Kepler-186f, the designated planet. Curiosity gnawed at her. What secrets hide in here, a forgotten place? Initially inhibited, she entered her code and retrieved the classified information.

All that was left on the screen was one file named "Project Lazarus". She felt her breath tightened. Lazarus was a project for years that aimed to build such means of communication. In Exodus, which relied on the sub-light speed journey – which was to last for several generations. Project Lazarus gave us a sliver of hope, we could get that house before from now.

An encrypted file had notes, technical drawings, and the final log before the Exodus ship left. The project was reckoned to be unsafe with the probability of major collapse too great. Anya had a twinge of anger. This could have possibly come to revolutionize everything.

Suddenly, the Archive shuddered. The red alert was ringing, – a system-wide hacking attack. Panic surged through Anya. Data entry was not happening from within the spaceship Exodus. The computer hack in the security-permitted area was a distraction. This was clearly an offensive.

Therefore, Anya executed emergency measures. The Archive then went into lockdown, cutting all external lines. She competed against time, tirelessly scouring every nook and cranny of the ship for the origin of the intrusion. The ship’s AI, an entity called Kairos, which was benevolent in its nature, reported multiple access points. The hacker was using up splits in the antique network of Exodus.

Anya reached out to the Chief, her tone stifle with the direness. "Chief!

"Captain! We're under attack! Someone's trying to grab the helm of the ship!"

Static was heard in her earpieces before Captain came ahead. "Got it, Librarian. Ready to deploy urgent lockdown operation. Ready for possible override."

The silence then was deadening. Anya was fixed on the screens that kept changing, chills going through her whole body. This is an example of a ransomware attack. If the attackers gained full control, they could alter the course, redirect the Exodus to an unknown destination, which may be even worse.

For me, minutes lasted forever. Finally, a text appeared on the screen. It wasn't a text message but a data stream, and it was a mind unfettered and reaching out from the void. The pictures swam before her eyes - a barren waste of an alien world, ruins of an unruly civilization. Anya gasped. This was not a common attacker. This simply meant that they were of extraterrestrial origin.

The data overflowed, a tornado of emotions and broken pictures. It is an appeal to help, the last plea for assistance a dying civilization can make. They detected the Exodus and they were reaching out with their hands, claiming for a connection, for a salvation.

Anya was torn. The Captain’s command was clear – separateness at any cost. However, the hopelessness in the alien's message echoed with her strongly. These creatures were to the Exodus community the holders of the key to fast-than-light travel, the very technology on which their desperate survival depended. Would she be able to rebel against all the senses and risk the whole mission, the fate of mankind, all for the last hope of a group?

The weight of this decision almost crushed her. She cast a glance at the endless shelves of unspoken books, those that were mute warehouses of human knowledge and past. Was this not their purpose, to learn from mistakes, to discover the universe and its inhabitants?

Gathering up her courage and taking a deep breath, Anya made her choice. By means of quivering fingers she typed a message into the alien data-stream- a kind of salutation, word of acknowledgment their presence. Because of that, it fell on Anya's shoulders to represent humanity to the void of the universe.

The message sent, Anya wrapped herself up in her fears. The silence loomed, a mass of expectancy. Then, rush through a data stream that has been filled with gratitude and a fresh hope. Now, the very existence of the Exodus as well as the complete collapse of civilization was hinging on a small bridge built on determination and a library member’s defiance.