I was tired of defending myself.
“We’re just giving people what they want, aren’t we? People have always wanted to work less, to travel more, to fuck someone new and exciting every day.” I rolled my eyes. “We’re giving them exactly what they’ve always wanted, the unlimited ability to do anything, have everything, and to be healthier and live longer while doing it.”
Bob stared at me in stony silence.
“Do people really want to make the world a better place?” I asked. “Or do they just want to make a better place for themselves within it? Almost everything humans do is self-serving in the end.”
“I thought you taught us,” objected Bob, “that humans were successful because we developed an evolutionary instinct for trust that outstripped our selfishness?”
“People have a responsibility to find their own happiness, don’t they? Life only has the meaning that you give it, right Bob?” I snapped, knowing this was his own personal mantra. “We’re just giving people the tools to find their own happiness, in whatever way they choose, and in the process saving untold billions of lives. You tell me, what was the right thing to do?”
“Now you sound like Dr. Granger.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, slowly. I was getting a headache. “If Atopia is destroyed, and the release of pssi stopped, billions will die.”
27
Identity: Jimmy Scadden
The moment of truth had arrived.
In the middle of ADF Command, we were watching projections of the storms overlaid with a glowing array of plotted future paths of Atopia through them. The phutures were stabilizing as we approached time-zero. Everything was coming together, and I readied to power up our weapons systems.
“Thanks for everything,” said Rick as we waited in the final moments. “Whatever happens, I wanted to thank you for trying to help with Cindy.”
I looked at him. How quickly our roles had reversed. He was pathetic. I could smell the booze from here. “Of course, Commander. We’ll find her, get her out somehow.”
He nodded, his bloodshot eyes on mine for a moment. “You ready for this?”
“I am.”
The high-altitude displays had a hypnotic effect. They centered on the pulsing orb of Atopia, highlighted near the convergence point of the storms. We only had a window of a few minutes to get it right.
The room went deathly quiet as the image of the storm systems engulfed us. They were all waiting on me. I looked up at Kesselring, Rick, and then at Marie. Patricia hadn’t shown up in person, but I knew she was watching through her proxxi.
“On my command, enable the weapons systems,” I instructed, waiting, feeling for just the right moment as I fed the information flowing in through my extrasensory splinter network. I could feel the winds ripping at the surface of Atopia, her forests heaving and tearing, the waves pounding against her hull.
“On my mark.” I raised my hand. “Five… four… three.… ”
Everyone held a collective breath.
I waited.
Something held me back—something inside me.
Someone inside me.
I hesitated, trying to understand what was going on. Interminable seconds ticked by. Then—I understood. It was sitting there in front of me, all the time, but I hadn’t been able to see it.
Until now.
“For God’s sake, Jimmy!” screamed Kesselring. “What the hell are you waiting for?”
28
Identity: Patricia Killiam
“What is he doing?”
Bob stopped pacing and looked at me. He didn’t have access to Command and couldn’t see what I saw now. Jimmy stood motionless as critical seconds slipped by. We all watched in disbelief while Kesselring roared at him in panic.
“Bob, I need to go,” I said without further explanation, leaving behind a thin splinter while I snapped my main subjective into Marie’s body at Command.
Everyone there was frozen, all except for Kesselring. He’d crossed the room and was standing in front of Jimmy, holding his shoulders and shaking him. Jimmy didn’t even look like he was there.
I strode over and pulled Kesselring away. The window of opportunity was closing quickly.
“Jimmy!” I yelled. At that moment, his face came back to life, and his eyes flashed as he turned to look at me.
What he said next stunned us even more.
“Power down all weapons immediately!” he ordered. “And shut down the propulsion systems!”
“Belay that!” I yelled, at the same time disabling the technicians’ authorizations.
Reaching into the Command network with my phantoms, I tried to gain control of the systems as he blocked them from me. My mind raced. Somehow, the Terra Novans had gotten to him. We’d given enormous power to Jimmy for this operation, putting all our eggs in one basket.
So this was their plan.
Furiously, my mind splintered into hundreds of shards, shooting them into Jimmy’s command-and-control structures in the multiverse worlds that spread out from Command.
Kesselring tried helping me, but he hadn’t the power in these worlds that I had.
Desperately, I quickened my mind, launching thousands, and then millions, of attacks and feints and counterattacks at his cyber-defenses, projecting millisecond phutures as I tried to find a weakness to exploit.
The milliseconds became seconds, the window to saving Atopia closing.
“Stop this!” I screamed at him.
“Stand down, Patricia, I’m warning you!” he yelled back.
Desperately we grappled with each other, and then.…
Everything went white in a blinding flash of pain.
As my mind reassembled itself and my senses and metasenses slowly reintegrated, the world came back into focus. My ears were ringing, and I was sitting on the floor. Everyone in the room was stunned.
What the hell was that?
Jimmy looked at me calmly.
The point of no return had passed. Atopia was sitting defenseless amid the storms. We would be destroyed.
“Do not touch anything,” said Jimmy finally. “Everything is under control.”
29
Identity: Bobby Baxter
The world stood transfixed by the scene.
I was still sitting in Patricia’s office, but Jimmy had begun broadcasting the events from Command live and direct into the world’s media channels for everyone to see. An audience of billions was tuned-in to witness the destruction of Atopia, but not in the way we’d expected.
Jimmy stood tall, his image hanging over a bewildered and powerless Patricia Killiam on countless holoscreens and lens displays throughout the world.
“General McInnis,” he called out, “we’ve powered down all systems, and we will sequence down our fusion core at your request. I’ve opened all command-and-control functions to you. Please acknowledge.”
A moment of silence before General McInnis’ voice responded, “Goddamn boy, acknowledged. What the hell?”
“Please, General. Please stand down.”
The general’s image appeared in Command. He stood there, looking around at everyone is disbelief. “You kids sure have some explaining to do.”
One by one, surprised and shocked expressions clicked through the faces in Command. And then it dawned on me, too.
The storms were gone.
I spun out from Patricia’s office, clicking into my splinters arrayed out around Atopia. They all saw the same thing—blue skies, calm seas, and the coast of America sitting serenely on the horizon. The American drones were buzzing angrily in the skies, watching us carefully as Navy destroyers ringed us further out, their weapons armed and pointing at us.