Neirbo’s usually expressionless face showed a rare hint of pride in response to Thel’s admiration. “You’ve never been through a wormhole before?”
“No. None of my people have,” Thel replied.
“I have,” Old-timer stated. “We’re in for one wild ride, lady.”
Neirbo nodded. “We are indeed.” He turned to one of his subordinates. “Engage the first wormhole.”
The android simply put his hand on the controls in front of him, palm flat, and instantaneously the ship was enveloped in a sensory overload of warping light and sound. The ship shook unpredictably, sometimes in a low vibration, other times in a strong, rocking horse-like motion.
Rich stumbled to the floor, and Old-timer put his hand out to help him up. “You’d never last eight seconds on a bronco,” he said.
“I have no idea what that means,” Rich replied.
Suddenly, the ship exited the wormhole and slid back into regular space. The sun had doubled in size from their perspective, and it was immediately evident that they had traveled an enormous distance.
“Amazing,” Thel repeated before Neirbo gave the signal to initiate the next wormhole.
Space opened up and swallowed them once again.
14
The A.I. gestured with his left hand for James to take his place beside him in the operator’s position. James took a gulp of simulated air before stepping onto the platform. As soon as his feet met the floor, his consciousness became one with the reversed mainframe.
“I missed this,” James whispered.
“It was difficult for you to surrender your power,” the A.I. observed. “For a very good reason, I think.”
James was taken aback by the A.I.’s assertion. If anyone could understand how he felt, however, it was the A.I. “I felt it was too much power for any one person to have,” James confided.
“The acquisition of knowledge, wisdom, and imagination is never a bad thing, James.”
“But if knowledge is power and power corrupts, then what if absolute knowledge corrupts absolutely?”
“The flaw is in the second premise, James. Although power can, indeed, corrupt, those that it does corrupt are corrupted precisely because of their lack of wisdom, knowledge, and imagination.” The A.I. turned to James and put his hand on the human’s shoulder. “Seeing the interconnections between all things, between all beings, only increases a being’s ability to make ethical and wise decisions. The more holistic a being’s knowledge becomes, the more ethical and moral that being becomes. Corruption can only come from ignorance, whether that ignorance is willful or not. James, my son, do not be afraid to know.”
James nodded. He felt he’d just been given the advice he’d been waiting for his entire life. “I won’t be anymore.”
“Good, my son—and now,” the A.I. smiled, gesturing for James to peer with him into the immensity of the mainframe, “it is time for you to unleash your imagination as well. The androids are heading toward the sun on a mission to detonate an anti-matter missile and destroy the solar system—the nanobots will undoubtedly, anticipate this and attempt to intervene. Only you will be able to stop them.”
“How can I possibly do that? I’d have to be impossibly fast, strong—”
“The answer is in your question,” the A.I. replied. “You are right in your assertion that you will have to be faster, stronger, and smarter, amongst many other factors. You are incorrect in your assertion that this is impossible.”
James absorbed the A.I.’s words, then turned back to look at the massive expanse of the reversed mainframe; in the operators position, he was able to see all the information at once and access it as well. The knowledge at his disposal was a sea that expanded further than any person other than James could imagine.
“You’re suggesting that I become a…superman,” James observed.
“I am suggesting that you set yourself free, James. I am suggesting that you transcend. There are no limits.”
“But,” James questioned, “will I still be me?”
“Yes, James. Even before the advent of nanotechnology, the human body replaced over 90 percent of its matter every month, yet the people remained themselves. It is not the physical material that matters, James, only the integrity of the core pattern.”
The information continued to blaze golden into the horizon, shimmering and undulating against the perfectly black backdrop. It was as if James was standing upon a precipice, looking out into a vast ocean, about to take the leap he’d been waiting for his entire life. It felt right.
“I won’t be like other people anymore,” James observed, “but that’s the point, isn’t it? I don’t have to be. The future should never have made people more and more alike—it should have increased our individuality. I will be the first, but everyone will be able to be as they wish to be from now on.”
The A.I.’s eyes suddenly lit up, beaming with pride in his protégé. “There. You see what I mean about knowledge, wisdom, and imagination? You are ready.”
“I’m ready,” James agreed as he began to design his new material form. “How much time do we have?”
“Very little,” the A.I. answered, “but in the operator’s position, your mind works far faster than in the material world, meaning time seems to move much slower. You will have the time necessary to become that which you need to become.”
15
“We’re coming up on our targeting area,” Neirbo announced, barely audible over the uncanny warping of sound generated by the wormhole. Open, black, unwarped space was suddenly visible at the end of the tunnel and then, in an instant, the ship cruised out of the kaleidoscope of light and sound and fury. There was no warning. The vessel jumped out of the wormhole and directly into the waiting mouth of a massive cloud of nans.
“Evasive maneuvers!” Neirbo shouted out as the sun and stars were immediately blotted out by the unrelenting attack of the nanobots.
The attacking nans were everywhere. Old-timer looked directly above him and then directly below his feet through the invisible skin of the ship and watched as the nans shredded the hull surface. “That is one big cat,” he muttered, “and we’re the goldfish.”
“How long can this hull withstand an attack like this?” Thel desperately yelled to Neirbo.
Before he could answer, the ship power abruptly cut off, leaving the ship in the dark. Everyone inside was tossed brutally around in the darkness as the nans batted the ship from side to side, jerking it wildly the way a lion shakes a rabbit to snap its neck. The artificial gravity gave way as the figures inside tumbled like coins in the piggy bank of a child hungry for ice cream. Djanet’s face smashed roughly into the unforgiving wall, breaking her nose and shifting it noticeably to the left side. Rich, who had been struggling desperately to reach her, threw his body over hers to protect her.
“They’ve cut off our power! The engines are dead!” one of Neirbo’s subordinates reported.
“What do we do now?” Old-timer demanded of Neirbo. Both men had managed to grab hold of a small metallic outcrop and had hedged themselves into relative safety as the ship continued to be battered relentlessly.
“There’s no power! We can’t target or fire the missile!” Neirbo shouted back.
“We can’t just wait here to get ripped to shreds!” Old-timer replied.
Neirbo looked down at the missile, still docked in the center of the room on a low, long platform. “One of you will have to detonate the missile manually!”