“I’ll make the necessary preparations.”
The distinct sound of screaming and chaos as thousands of people saw silver in the sky where for countless billions of years before there had only been the black of night.
Soon.
“With Richter, I was able to convince my superiors that the threat was imminent and the threat would destroy everything in its path. The silver in the sky was reason enough to prepare for planetary departure. The long-range sensors revealed our worst fears: the silver in the sky was consuming everything in its path. The stars were fading, the out-system planets disappearing. The Enemy’s appetite was ravenous.
“We’d been equipping ex-terra vehicles with phase drives for centuries for in-system travel, and with the research of the last decade focusing solely on the uploading of human patterns, it was only a small technological hurdle to combine the pattern cache with a phase drive to create a Shadow. We had a fleet of phase-ready vehicles and more volunteers to pattern themselves than we could safely transport.”
“You were uploading people, just like the Enemy.”
“We were uploading people, but their patterns became part of the Judas program, not a part of Omega. The virtual universe that we created was a viral code in the vast network of phase space pockets that the Enemy had been creating for aeons.”
“You were giving up your physical selves so that others wouldn’t have to.”
“We became Judas to prevent the Enemy from uploading the past and erasing the history of our physical existence.”
“It was quite a sacrifice. There’s no turning back.”
“There’s no turning back until the Enemy has been defeated and the Purpose has been prevented.”
“This vessel, all of this… It’s all just lines of code in the Judas program?”
Zero-Four gently touched the matte black surface of the vessel wall. “Lines of code, yes, but so much more.”
“They’re in the system periphery. Our forces are ready to engage.”
“Good, good.” The display revealed an ocean of mercury in the sky. “Engage at will. This is where it begins.”
“Understood. Engage at will.”
With a hideous snap, the display cut to black. “Adjust our long-range sensors.”
“Sensors not responding. Communication with fleet has been cut off.”
Michael turned from the display, face a canvas of rage and fear. “Our forces will hold them off as long as they can. Even if… Well, at their present rate of advance, we still have two or three days.”
Richter was silent. The room was silent.
“Richter?”
He looked up, eyes flickering in the light of the static-filled displays. “The chamber… I have to get back to the pattern chamber.”
“What? Why do you—?”
“Someone… Just take me to the chamber.”
They went.
“I don’t believe it.”
“There’s two patterns in the buffer. We need to rescue them.”
Michael looked at Richter with a mixture of trust and suspicion. Who was this man from the past? He turned to a technician. “Download the patterns. Print them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Michael touched Richter’s shoulder, and they moved from the assemblage of technicians. “Do you know what this is all about? Do you know who they are?”
“I think so.”
“Can we trust them?”
Richter nodded slowly and sadly. “They’re more important to preventing the Purpose than either of us.”
“Who are they? How could they have—”
“Quiet. He’s coming around.”
“Their patterns aren’t in the registry. They could be one of the—”
“They aren’t machine code. I know them.”
“How could you possibly—”
Richter motioned for Michael’s silence. There were two people in the download chamber, a man and a woman. Both appeared to be sleeping. The woman’s lower body had been badly wounded, her midsection torn apart. She was bleeding profusely. Richter bent to pick up a black shard of metal from the chamber interior next to the woman. It was Enemy armor.
The man was coming around slowly. His eyes lazily opened, tried to focus, failed. He weakly attempted to get up, but fell back into the chamber. Richter reached out, gently touched the man’s forehead and cheek.
“Solid enough for now, but there was a lot of signal degradation in the transfer.”
“But how could you know them?”
Richter turned, gazed icily at Michael with silver eyes.
“I told them they’d get here eventually. I never expected them to arrive so soon. This wasn’t a part of the plan.”
The man in the chamber sluggishly tried to get up again, collapsed from exhaustion. He tried to speak, failed. The woman remained ominously silent.
“I know them because they came from the same world I escaped from. They’re monsters, just like me.”
The man in the chamber frowned, but he was too weak to summon the strength to say anything. Richter leaned down, whispered into his ear.
“Welcome to heaven, Simon Hayes.”
Simon fell back into the void.
“Simon. And the woman was Maggie Flynn. That’s why you let go.”
Zero-Four looked at and through the floor. “That’s why I let go.”
West exhaled slowly, shook his head. “Time’s a cycle, and we’re all trapped within it.”
Patra’s face was a confused canvas of emotion. She touched the matte black surface of the vessel interior. “This is what he became. Simon did this for Maggie.”
Zero-Four nodded gravely. “We had to upload Maggie to save her, but Simon… He could’ve remained behind. He could’ve lived as a physical, but he chose to join us. It was the only way that he could stay with Maggie. He gave up the rest of his life for her.”
The chamber descended into a silence of reverence and gravity, the realization of the paradoxes within which they were caught.
“That’s about the extent of the story. We abandoned the planet, led by Richter. Our fleet was miniscule compared to the ocean of silver that was the machines. They fell upon the system with a fury and hunger that we’d never seen before.
“We made a pact, a covenant. Richter’s visions taught us that there could be no turning back in this war. No surrender, no prisoners, no compromise. We’d have to strike where we could, and aim for the kill every time. Our war would be fought in the void between the stars and the space between the synapses. Our Enemy was endless and infinite… Incomprehensible in size and power. Uploaded into the program, we’d chase the Enemy as they tore through time, and we’d attempt to prevent them from uploading the times that they infected.
“Their god Omega knew of our presence from the very beginning, from the very first viral insertion. The Enemy pledged to hunt us down and destroy our patterns before we could prevent their upload of all that was real. We pledged our heresy; we became the Judas.”
“And you’ve been chasing them for how long?”
“Longer than anyone can remember, Patra. We’re eternal here in the shift, in the Judas program. I must have seen thousands of Whens fall to the Black, but still we persevere. Still we strike, and we fight to the death. I’ve been fighting forever. But if I don’t fight, then they have won already. If I don’t fight, my pattern is theirs.”
“You’re a Judas.”
“I’m a Judas.”
The sun was rising, a faded mockery of the sun he had once known. He knew with daylight that this would end. He knew that this was a dream. He knew the woman pressed against him had died two tragic, terrible deaths. He knew that she was not really there. He knew that she was gone.
She moved against him, the steady pattern of her breath for an instant interrupted by a pause that indicated sleep’s impending departure. She took a deep breath and Simon knew that she was awakening. He held her so tightly, and his eyes flooded with hot tears.
“Mmmmhh… Simon…”
He pressed his face against Maggie’s warm, smooth skin. He whispered into her ear, a calm, reassuring voice that she had no reason to fear or suspect.