There were only ninety seconds left now before the Purist attack force arrived. She rushed to Craig and quickly turned him over so the back of his head faced her. She grabbed the syringe and quickly stuck it into the soft flesh just below the occipital bone and pumped the nanobots, complete with the A.I.’s mother program, into his body. Then she clutched his shirt and, with a grunt, began to drag his six-five frame up onto the Planck platform. Craig groaned, but his eyes remained shut.
“I don’t know if you can hear me,” she began as she folded his arms and placed his body into the fetal position so there was no danger of any of his limbs dangling over the ledge and being left behind in Universe 1, “but no matter what you think, I do love you.” She opened the controls for the Planck platform in her mind’s eye and readied herself to activate the machine. “I always dreamt that I could bring you back, Craig, but you were gone a long time. Maybe someday, you’ll understand. I hope you will anyway.” She leaned over him and kissed his lips. He moved slightly, but she couldn’t be sure if he felt the kiss or had heard what she said. It didn’t matter anymore anyway. They had run out of time.
She stepped away from the platform and activated the machine. Craig instantly vanished, the ripple in space and time moving through her, causing the walls to bend and twist. In a few moments, everything was stable once again.
“Goodbye, Craig.”
In Universe 66, Craig and the silver Planck platform suddenly appeared on a small outcrop on an icy ledge. The freezing air cut through him, and he quickly began to stir, reaching up with his hand to touch his aching forehead. He opened his eyes slightly but found only a pitch-black night. He leaned forward, trying to pull himself up to a sitting position, but he was still too weak to accomplish the maneuver. He reached backward in an attempt to get the leverage to rock himself up, but his hand slipped over the edge of the platform, and he was sent backward, tumbling over the ledge into the darkness, splashing into the freezing water of the vast, black ocean.
9
“No!” Aldous shouted when he saw Samantha flying toward him as he stood with over 200 other post-humans at the main entrance of the complex. The entrance was a large, square concrete loading bay built into the side of a rocky outcrop on the eastern side of Mount Andromeda. It was hidden by a convincing holographic image of a snow-covered slope, but the image was only visible one way, and the post-humans had a clear view of the Purist invasion force gathering outside.
“I won’t leave you, Aldous!” Samantha shouted back as her body thudded against her husband’s; their embrace was tighter than any they’d ever shared.
“What about the A.I.?” Aldous shouted. “What about Craig?”
“I sent them through!” she replied.
He took her face in his hands and held it just inches from his own. “You uploaded the A.I. into Craig? Do you know how reckless that was?”
“I don’t care, Aldous! I love you! I won’t live if it’s not with you!”
A precious second passed as he considered the ramifications of her actions. She loved him as much as he loved her. Their bond was beyond reason. He knew the right thing—the logical thing—was for her to protect the A.I. He knew the logical thing was for him to sacrifice himself to save her. But he’d been wrong. He should have known she wouldn’t leave him. A huge part of him had wanted her to do just what she’d done—to choose between him and her former husband. He’d tested her without even consciously realizing it, and he’d won. To Hell with Craig Emilson. The right thing to do would have been for them to go through to Universe 66 together. Now, everything they’d worked for was in jeopardy. Craig, who could barely protect himself, was now charged with protecting the most important entity in the history of humanity.
He turned and faced the spectacle that loomed in the air, mere meters from the facility entrance. An ever-darkening wall was forming of dozens upon dozens of stealth harrier transports, the preferred delivery system for super soldiers. Every second, more planes joined the wall and hovered, forming a nearly impenetrable impediment.
“I’m sorry I led you to this, my love,” Aldous said, his voice nearly failing him as he struggled to keep his gaze fixed on the death-bringers.
“It’s not over yet,” Samantha replied. “We’ll take more than a few of them with us.”
“No!” Aldous quickly shouted, turning to Samantha and the other post-humans assembled. “We’re not killers. They’re the ones that are here for war, not us. We won’t lose sight of who we are!”
“It’s a little beyond that now, don’t you think?” Samantha replied. “They’re here to kill us.”
“It’s not that simple,” Aldous answered, turning back to the rapidly assembling force opposing them. “If they suspected we were here, they could have deployed a tactical nuke. There’s no need for all of this…this show.”
“Then what do they want?” Sanha shouted from amongst the increasingly large group of assembled post-humans.
“I don’t know. To negotiate our surrender?” Aldous conjectured.
“Or to look us in the eye,” Samantha suggested, “and make sure they get every last one of us.”
Aldous didn’t counter Samantha’s suggestion; it was plausible. Her words had sent a palpable spike in tension in what was already a barely controlled terror amongst those assembled. He turned to them and called out, “A show of hands! Who wishes to make a run for it? We will do our best to cover your escape!”
At first, no hands went up.
“This will be your one and only chance!” Aldous shouted.
A long handful of seconds passed before the first hand went up. Once one went into the air, several others followed. A few seconds later, nearly half of those assembled had raised their hands.
Aldous nodded. “Okay. When I give the word, you must flee as fast as you can and scatter in all directions! We’ll do our best to disrupt any pursuit!”
Sanha was not amongst those who chose to flee. He sidled up beside Aldous and Samantha and shared a determined expression with them. “Any predictions to ease my mind, my old friend?”
“Not this time, I’m afraid,” Aldous replied.
“Then,” Sanha began with a sigh, “at least it should be interesting.”
“Indeed.” Aldous turned to Samantha. “Are you ready, Sam?”
She nodded. “I’m ready. I’ve dreamt of this.”
His eyes narrowed. “I mean it, Sam. We’re not life-takers. We’re life-savers.”
She remained silent.
Aldous didn’t have time to press the point. Every second that passed was another moment in which the Purists might launch their attack. He held his arm up to signal the post-humans, and the entranceway grew suddenly silent as every man, woman, and child collectively held their breath.
“Now!”
10
“For Christ’s sake!” Craig screamed out as the freezing water bit into his skin, shooting stabs of pain throughout his body. For a moment, he became unhinged, panicking as he clawed desperately in the darkness toward the only thing he could see: the white wall of ice in front of him. His soaked and numb fingers slipped off the icy side as the monolith seemed to toss him aside, back into the black abyss from which he’d come. He thrashed desperately to keep his head above water, the pain of a cranial submersion too painful for him to endure a second time. When it became clear that he couldn’t get a grip on the ice, his mind suddenly cleared.
His mind’s eye was still flashing in his peripheral vision. He’d not yet gone through all of the set-up screens, and the flight systems were up next. As impossible as it sounded, he would have to fly to save himself; failure would make death a certainty.