There were things about this story I liked, and things I didn't like.
I basically liked the main premise, having a supercomputer (inconsistently depicted or not) take the remains of humanity to somewhere else in the galaxy and build a new home for us (though now that I think about it, I do wonder why that's a better solution than just waiting an equivalent amount of time around Earth itself for the Plague to die out for lack of a host, and then recolonizing).
I liked the author's optimism in having the human race get on with things and do something practical rather than seek pointless revenge on the virus-maker. This flies in the face of the fact that most (all?) modern justice systems are based on little other than revenge, so I found it highly implausible. But a pleasant thought, notwithstanding.
I liked that Duxa explicitly referred to her Tale To Expunge Her Guilt as a lie (since it was) and, more importantly, that she redeemed it by going back and telling the truth.
However, I didn't like what Duxa did at the end. I know she felt that she was helping the Crucians*, but ultimately, she wasn't. Their life cycle took into account the coming of the 'cold-no-food' season (to which I will hereafter refer as 'winter') - they mated and reproduced during that time so that the young born in the 'spring' would have a better chance of surviving (March of the Penguins, anyone?). Since so many - didn't they say "almost all"? - die during the winter, they must have many, many children to replace them.
Now, what's going to happen when she builds them an ocean that never gets cold? Are Crucians going to choose to have fewer children because they don't need to have as many in order for the species to survive, or are they going to continue to have large broods that will, inevitably, overcrowd the oceans and cause more problems than dying of the cold ever did? This is assuming their biology even gives them a choice.
Actually, since they aren't religious, the likelihood of having fewer children (if they can) are a little higher than for the human race, but biological imperative is a strong thing, and thanks to Duxa's cryogenics, this change is going to happen in a single generation! Duxa seems blithely - and, given the reasons for her creation, rather ironically - unaware of The Law of Unintended Consequences here.
(It's also possible that the Crucians will never have more children, because winter - or the ending of it - may be what triggers the mating urge, and winter will never come again.)
What bothers me is not so much what Duxa did, though I do think it's at best short-sighted and at worst reprehensible, so much as the fact that the history of humanity itself should have pointed at exactly this scenario (well, the overpopulation one, anyway) and this 'supercomputer' should have seen it.
Or maybe that's the point; and this is how we know she really is human: she does what she wants, however well intentioned, rather than taking the time to come up with a less facile, probably more painful, but ultimately better solution.
Overall, I liked this story. I liked Duxa, I liked that she learned that a hard truth is better than a tempting fairy story, and I liked the way she became 'human' (or at least that she came to understand what it meant). But the ending, Duxa's solution to her dilemma, disappointed me greatly.
* I did wonder, though only momentarily, why they were called Crucians instead of Crucigerans or something. Perhaps the Cross connection that Ocicat mentioned was the reason. Seems a bit contrived to me, though.
