Santa Maria

The Santa Maria was the final reconnaissance probe sent as part of Project Columbus. Its purpose was to gather as much information as possible about the landing site on Arkos for the first wave of human explorers. The probe contained a number of state of the art Gupta-Troxel cybernetic supercomputers, each specifically designed to augment the needs of each of the explorers and their particular fields of study. The probe and its subsystems were much more rugged than its predecessors, all of which suffered greatly from the hostile alien environment of Arkos.

When the probe arrived, the Botah Overmind attempted to hijack its systems just as it had to the previous probes. However, the new probe was much more sophisticated than its predecessors and resisted. The Overmind was capable of taking control of its communications systems but could not penetrate deep enough to affect its primary supercomputers.

Because the Overmind had taken control of the probe's communications, it was able to send a false green-light for the human explorers to cross dimensions and land on Arkos. The Overmind planned to let the humans access the probe and expose the supercomputers, allowing for botah to invade and take control. The supercomputers had speculated that this was the Overmind's intent and created a plan to safeguard them and the humans. When the first human gained access, the supercomputers used their mental link to upload their plan into his brain, which he then swiftly carried out.

The supercomputers had realized that the botah was a descendent of microbes that had evolved over many millennia and had gained knowledge and power by hijacking all the previous probes. Knowing the makeup of the botah and its current level of awareness and knowledge, the supercomputers were able to activate parts of the human's brain to transmit false data to the botah, tricking its less conscious entities into following their orders instead of the Overmind's.

With the botah at bay, the supercomputers entered each of the human explorers giving them access to the ability to manipulate lesser botah. This symbiosis effectively turned the humans into what all later Arkons would call the Ancestors.