“I’ve been through this with people before, on Earth, back in the old days,” Old-timer related. “There’s always someone out there who thinks we should draw a line and not cross it and that humanity will be much happier if we just stand still.”
“I’ve been through this more than once myself,” 1 replied. “And I’ve always managed to stop the spread of monsters like him,” she said, gesturing with Neirbo’s body toward James. “Don’t fool yourselves. He’ll just be the beginning. When people are given the reins to become anything they want, they will become unrecognizable…and uncontrollable.”
“We don’t want to be controlled,” Old-timer retorted.
“You’re a petty, selfish, idealist,” 1 answered back. “What I have done, I have done for all of humanity, throughout the universe.”
“Isn’t that what all dictators claim,” replied Old-timer. “You did it for the people? Bull. You just wanted to be number 1.”
1 snapped her neck quickly toward Old-timer, her eyes filled with black hatred, fueled by a war and a conviction that had lasted for centuries. “How dare you speak to me that way!” she thundered with Neirbo’s voice as she used Neirbo’s arm to train his weapon on Old-timer again. 1 fired.
20
James held his hand up once again, palm outward, and the bullets became a harmless puff of smoke that wafted through the air. “That’s not going to happen.”
“What did you do?” 1 furiously demanded.
“If you had allowed your civilization to progress scientifically, you’d know what and how I did it.”
“Your science makes you smug and arrogant,” 1 stated coldly, “but you have absolutely no idea in which direction it is taking you, do you? You’re just blindly moving forward, unable to even realize the simple reality that your science has taken away your humanity.”
“It hasn’t taken away my humanity—it has transcended it. But you are right about one thing,” James conceded. “I cannot see where we are going or what our distant future will hold, and I hope I can never see the boundary of human ingenuity and progress.”
“You have become too arrogant to admit it, but we were meant to have limits,” 1 retorted. “If we do not respect them, we will inevitably destroy ourselves.”
“That’s the same fear I’ve been fighting against my entire life,” Old-timer countered. “You sound like a broken record.”
Neirbo’s head tilted slightly as 1 sent a command message to the troops on the ship. With negotiation at an impasse, she had decided to eliminate James and his companions. In a flash, each of them drew their weapons and fired.
Equally quickly, James held his hand up to dissipate the bullets. However, this time, he didn’t stop with only the bullets. He waved his hands in front of his adversaries, and their entire bodies simply evaporated into a white smoke that hung in the air.
A brief moment of astonishment from his companions followed. “Where’d they go?” Djanet asked.
“I think you’re breathing them,” Rich replied.
“You killed them?” Thel uttered, aghast.
“They will live again,” James replied. “I’ve just removed them for the time being.”
“Removed them? James!” she shouted, stunned.
He grabbed her shoulders with his diamond-hard hands and pulled her to him. “You’re going to have to trust me. I don’t have time to explain.”
He kissed her.
“But I don’t want you to forget everything that’s happened,” he said. He turned to Old-timer. “Do you still have the device they use to download consciousness?”
Old-timer reached in his pocket and pulled out the small, black stick. “They call it an assimilator.” He handed it to James.
James took it and placed it on Thel’s neck.
She jerked away from him. “No!”
“Honey,” he said, “you have to trust me. 1 can reenter any of your bodies at any moment. She wants to destroy the solar system. I want to save it—and I can bring everyone back.”
“Bring them back?” Djanet gasped. “How?”
“I don’t have time to explain it,” he replied. “I can do it though.” He turned back to Thel and looked deeply and earnestly into her eyes. “I can do it.”
She looked back at him, at his new body, this incredible, almost magical achievement, and replied, “I know.”
“I love you, Thel.”
“I love you, James.”
“See you soon,” James said, winking his left, glowing eye. He placed the assimilator on her neck, and she immediately lost consciousness, her body curling up into the fetal position as she floated gently in the zero gravity. He temporarily transferred the pattern from the assimilator to himself before sending it back to the A.I. on Earth, where it would safely survive the inception of the Trans-Human program and subsequent reversal of the solar system. He then turned to Djanet and Rich. “Your turn.”
Rich winced. “I don’t know about this, Commander. The last time I got stuck with one of those things, I woke up as a robot. I’d really rather not go through that again.”
“This time when you wake up, you’ll be your old self,” James smiled. “I just don’t want you to forget everything that has happened in the last twenty-four hours. You’ve got to trust me, guys.”
“It’s James,” Old-timer echoed, speaking in a reassuring tone. “He knows what he’s doing.”
“All right,” Djanet said, bravely moving forward and floating toward James. “I trust you. Let’s do this.”
James placed the assimilator on her neck, and her muscles instantly relaxed. She remained in a standing position, almost appearing like a sleepwalker as she swayed slightly to and fro. Rich floated to her side and took her unconscious body into his arms. He felt his stomach twist as he considered the thought of never seeing her again. “You better know what you’re doing,” he said to James.
James smiled. “I give you my word.” He placed the assimilator onto Rich’s neck and he too, instantly, went to sleep.
As soon as they were alone, Old-timer echoed Rich. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”
“It’s the A.I.’s plan. It should work.”
“Before you put me to sleep,” Old-timer said, regarding the assimilator in James’s hand, “I wanted to say thanks for taking care of that Neirbo for me. I only wish it had been more painful. I owed him—big time.”
“You may still get your chance,” James replied. “Are you ready?”
“I’m ready,” Old-timer replied.
James placed the assimilator on his friend’s neck and watched him slip out of consciousness. “I’ll see you soon, old friend,” he said as he sent Old-timer’s pattern back to the safety of the A.I.’s mainframe.
“Much sooner than you think!” Old-timer suddenly shouted as his eyes suddenly blazed open and he grasped James around the neck, twisting him around and thrusting him right through the thin hull of the ship and out into space.
Before James had time to reorient himself, Old-timer had turned his attention to the anti-matter missile and quickly removed it from its platform. He mounted it like a cowboy hopping on the back of his trusty steed and launched himself toward the sun. Just as James began to pursue, another wormhole opened up and gulped down Old-timer and the anti-matter missile—it vanished as quickly as it had opened.
“Oh no,” James whispered.
21
Back at the mainframe, James turned to the A.I., who was still standing beside him in the operator’s position. “What can I do? Can we track 1 somehow?”
“No. Not from this range, I’m afraid.”