Old-timer let go of a frustrated, exhausted sigh. “That was the infection, Governor,” Old-timer countered.
“He’s not lying, Governor,” Alejandra echoed. “The nans have formed a consciousness and they are launching an attack on any living thing that isn’t one of them as we speak!”
“This was all a trap,” Old-timer continued. “We’ve seen it for ourselves. The androids weren’t here to harm us at all—they were trying to save us!”
“What the…” Lieutenant Patrick began as the Purists were dumbfounded by yet another unpredictable and catastrophic turn of events.
“Look, I’m sorry, but we don’t have time to explain any more of this right now. We have to establish contact and warn the post-humans that are still out there,” Old-timer announced as he brushed Lieutenant Patrick aside and went to the com device in the cockpit.
“How can you send a communication signal that will reach the post-humans in time? Isn’t the attack wave moving through the nan population at the speed of light?” Alejandra asked.
“We can do it the same way you and I beat the signal back here,” Old-timer explained as he desperately worked to establish a link with the fleeing post-humans.
“A wormhole?”
“That’s right. The androids aren’t the only ones with the technology to circumvent the speed of light. Our communication signals work that way too. If we’re not already too late, we might be able to get a signal out to those that are furthest away from the solar system. I’m sending a warning that will go to anyone who is still out there.”
“What about the nans onboard?” Lieutenant Patrick asked.
“I’m generating an electromagnetic pulse that will disable the nans on the ship,” Old-timer replied.
Suddenly, his face went white.
“Your wife?” Alejandra asked, reading him like a book. Alejandra’s empath ability was as strong as ever.
“She’s alive,” he whispered as Daniella appeared on the screen in a slightly distorted, grainy image with a time delay of a few seconds.
“Craig?” Daniella said, as she peered at the image in her mind’s eye; she was still online.
“Daniella! You have to get offline! You have to deactivate your nans!” Old-timer shouted desperately.
The time-delayed pause took on a sickening agony.
“What’s happening, Craig? I don’t understand!” she replied, a terror-stricken look of confusion contorting her features.
“Listen, damn it!” Old-timer nearly screeched as he leaned in toward the screen and pounded the instruments in front of him. “You’re almost out of time! You need to deactivate your nans!”
Again, the time-delayed agony.
“How?” she finally responded.
“You and everyone there need to generate a strong enough electromagnetic pulse to shock yourselves offline!”
Another sickening pause.
“But, Craig!” Daniella countered desperately, “We’ll be helpless out here without our nans! How can we run the replicators? We won’t last a week! And we’ll lose contact with you. How will you find us?”
“I’ll find you, damn it! And you’ll last a hell of a lot longer than you will with those nans in you! They’ve turned against us! You have to—”
Old-timer didn’t finish his sentence. Just as Daniella had seemed to accept the situation and turned to her sister to relay the message, the nans signal finally reached her. The last he saw of his wife was an almost instantaneous liquefaction of her body before the signal went dead.
The last agonizing pause would be eternal.
30
His metallic hands crushed the edges of the screen to which he clung as though it were gumbo. It disintegrated, crumbling through his fingers, and he fell back onto the floor, putting his head into his hands, distraught, and letting his body shake with fury and despair. A moment earlier, Old-timer’s wife lived—just a moment. Yet it might as well have been an eternity.
Alejandra didn’t have to be an empath to know not to say anything. Instead, she draped herself over his back and cradled him as though she were trying to shield his body from a grenade in the trenches. She wished she could somehow absorb the pain for him, but she knew holding him was all that she could do.
Governor Wong silently waved away his troops; machine or not, Old-timer’s despair was clearly genuine—it deserved privacy. Only he and Lieutenant Patrick remained; like Alejandra, they stayed silent.
A long moment passed. It may have only been two or three minutes, but that kind of pain stretched time to an eternity. The moment may have continued for even a longer time if it weren’t for an incoming message to Alejandra and Old-timer. The grim-faced man was calling them through their android telepathic connection—a system very similar to the mind’s eye.
Alejandra answered the call for both of them. “Hello, Neirbo.”
“Your friends have been transformed and are ready to be roused. In respect of your request to be here when they awaken, we will await your arrival.”
Old-timer’s head was still firmly buried in his hands but he couldn’t hide from the message; there was the grim-faced man, Neirbo, staring at him. “We need you to respond immediately. We are under, attack and your friends will have to be awakened soon to give them a chance to defend themselves once the battle reaches us. If you are not here when they are roused, we will have to proceed with the education without you.”
“No!” Alejandra responded, jolting upward as the memory of her “education” shot through her like a bolt of electricity. Neirbo tilted his head back ever so slightly, as though he were startled by the strength of Alejandra’s reaction.
Old-timer reached up to put his hand over Alejandra’s to steady her. “We’ll be there shortly,” he said in a lifeless monotone.
“Hurry. Time is short,” the android replied.
“Where will you be?” Governor Wong inquired urgently.
“You’re not leaving us again, are you?” Lieutenant Patrick echoed, desperation in his voice. “We need you here to guide us.”
“You’ll be okay,” Old-timer replied. “We’ll set a course to get you out of the solar system and as far from all this carnage as possible. The Vega system has the most rocky planets; it’s probably your best bet to find a life-sustaining planet.”
“But why won’t you come with us?” asked Lieutenant Patrick, almost pleadingly.
“We are not astronauts,” Governor Wong stated frankly. “We will need assistance.”
“We’ll make sure we can return to you,” Old-timer said, getting to his feet. “But right now, our friends need us more than you do, believe me. We have to be there to help them first.”
“I’ll stay behind,” Alejandra suddenly announced, stunning Old-timer, who turned his head quickly in astonishment.
“Alejandra, I’m going to need your help to explain this to the others. They aren’t going to be happy to be…machines. You can help me persuade them.”
“I won’t be able to go with you,” Alejandra replied.
Old-timer paused as he suddenly realized why Alejandra wasn’t going to accompany him. “I can’t believe it. You actually want to go back into your flesh body,” he said, disbelieving his own words.
“Craig, I have to.”
“No you don’t!” Old-timer yelled out as he shut his eyes tight and moved sharply away from her. “You’re impossible! There is no reason for you to go back into that body! None! Neirbo already explained to you how your powers work! It has nothing to do with your flesh or your…spirits or anything else!”
“I heard what he said,” Alejandra replied, still speaking in a patient, even tone. She wouldn’t lose her patience; she knew where Old-timer’s pain was coming from. “He may be right…”