Suddenly, a warning flashed in both of their minds’ eyes. Their embrace ended as they each stood straight, shocked. The warning system had never been triggered before, but they both knew what it meant.
“The LIDAR has picked up a threat!” Aldous stated, alarmed.
“It has to be a mistake,” Samantha quickly cautioned.
“I designed the warning system with the A.I. myself. There’s no such thing as a false alarm.”
“You are correct, Professor Gibson,” the A.I. broke in, his image appearing in both of their minds’ eyes as he, too, reacted to the proximity warning. “I’ve evaluated the information, Professor Gibson, and I’m afraid the Purist government has discovered our location,” he informed them emotionlessly. “There’s a hostile armada headed our way.”
6
“What are you talking about?” Craig asked, stunned. “Hostile armada?”
“Affirmative,” the A.I. replied. “I’m already processing images of hundreds of airships. The Purists appear to be intent on eliminating the post-humans with this strike.”
“Can’t you fight?” Craig responded. “You’ve got unlimited power! You said so yourself!”
“We have no weapons,” Aldous suddenly interjected, cutting into their conversation, his visage appearing in Craig’s mind’s eye.
Craig suddenly felt the urge to gouge out his own eyes. “You,” he whispered, his mouth twisting with vitriol.
“We’re researchers,” Aldous continued. “We save lives. We don’t take them.”
“Where is he?” Craig asked the A.I. in a low voice.
“Headed toward us,” the A.I. replied. “He should be here in seven seconds.”
“Terrific,” Craig replied as he quickly jogged to the door of the room, his right hand balled into a tight fist.
“Craig,” the A.I. reacted as he processed the image of the fist and the threatening stance Craig had taken, “you don’t intend to strike Aldous, do you?”
“Absolutely…as hard as I can,” Craig replied, his teeth clenching.
The door slid open, and as soon as Aldous took a step inward, Craig punched him, as promised, as hard as he could across the jaw. The blow drove Aldous back out the door and sent him stumbling off of his feet, onto his back.
Samantha had been only a few steps behind him, so she was quick to see the results of the vengeful attack. She turned to him, disgusted, before dropping to her knees to cradle Aldous into a sitting position. “You had no right to do that,” she snapped, holding back her anger and hurt the best she could.
“Like hell,” Craig replied, the corner of his lip curled atavistically. “The two of you disgust me.”
Her expression suddenly filled with so much hurt that Craig nearly felt shame for what he’d done. “This man brought you back, Craig! This man saved your life! Don’t you see that?”
Aldous shook himself free from his wife and got to his feet. “Enough of this!” he shouted as he brushed past Craig and entered the room. “You can sort out your personal problems later! Right now, we’ve got lives to save!” He turned to the A.I. “We need to preserve you. That’s our number one priority. Nothing matters as much as that. Do you understand me?”
“I do,” the A.I. replied, “but that runs contrary to the primary objective of my life—to put every other life above mine.”
“You won’t be able to do that if they destroy you!” Aldous countered. “Are we clear? You must survive!”
“We are clear,” the A.I. answered.
“Good. How much time do we have?”
“Nine minutes and seventeen seconds at their current velocity and trajectory. Their aircraft are equipped with all the latest stealth technology, so it is reasonable to conjecture that they don’t know we’ve detected them already. That is an important advantage.”
“Not much, if you’ve only got nine minutes,” Craig cut in, momentarily putting his feud with Aldous on hold. “What kind of counterattack can you put together with so little time?”
“The counterattack isn’t our priority,” Aldous replied. He turned to the three figures with whom he shared the room. “The priority is that we get the three of you out of here safely before the attack arrives.”
7
The soft glow of information flashing across Aldous’s eyes indicated that he had flipped open his mind’s eye once again. This time, he opened up a link to everyone in the facility. “Attention! As you already know, the world government has amassed an attack force, and they are headed this way. Each of you has a choice. You can either flee—in which case you will undoubtedly be tracked until you disengage your cocoon and flight systems—or you can remain here and take your chances. You take a risk either way. I won’t advise a course of action, but I will remain here to help protect those who choose to face the Purists, come what may. If you plan to stay, meet me at the main entrance, where we will work to facilitate the escape of those who choose to flee. Hurry!”
“Aldous,” Samantha began, grasping tightly onto his bicep, “you can’t do this. They’ll kill you!”
“Everyone in this facility is here because of me, Sam—every single one of them, including you. I won’t abandon them to save myself.”
“But you’ll abandon me?” she exclaimed, shocked.
“I’ll save you,” he responded, trying to be soft while also cognizant of their rapidly dwindling time. “I won’t see you die. But I need you to do one last thing for me.” He gestured to the holographic figure a few paces away. “I need you to protect the A.I.’s mother program. I need you to upload him into your brain, and I need you to escape.”
Craig watched the exchange with a grotesque fascination. There was his wife, desperate to talk another man out of sacrificing himself for her. He didn’t know how to feel. Part of him was glad Aldous would soon be out of the picture, but another part of him was so repulsed by Samantha’s behavior that he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.
“Fleeing isn’t going to do those people any good, Aldous!” Samantha shouted back desperately. “They’ll be tracked! There’s no way they’ll be able to get far enough away on foot once they set back down. Every camera and sensor in the world will be locked on them! It’s a fool’s errand!”
“You’re not going to be flying out of here,” Aldous replied. “You’re going to be crossing into Universe 66.”
8
Aldous nearly had to drag his wife next door; they entered yet another large industrial room, this one housing the Planck platform.
“This is insane!” Samantha shouted in protest. “It hasn’t been properly tested!”
“It’ll work,” Aldous replied, his lips pulled back into a stubborn determination. He turned to the A.I. “Are you readying the download?”
“I am, Professor Gibson. The nanobots that will receive my consciousness are being prepared as we speak and will arrive in moments. In the meantime, I am preparing the Planck platform for our departure.”
“Okay, what the hell is going on?” Craig asked, desperate for information that might help him begin to comprehend this most recent upheaval.
“You and Samantha are about to be transported into a parallel universe,” the A.I. replied with the same inappropriate calm that Craig was quickly learning to expect from the technological apparition.
“What now?” he responded, his mouth opening in astonishment.
“Professor Gibson,” began the A.I., ignoring Craig’s flabbergasted expression, “the Planck platform is still set for departure to the series of universes you have most recently explored. I cannot recalibrate in time to change this.”