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“Do you think there’s some kind of core or central brain on the ship? Maybe that was talking to Natalia?” Joseph asked.

Raul frowned, concentrating. Aki worried that he was going to lose his focus again.

“I can’t see a core. If you look at the human brain, it doesn’t have a core of consciousness. Communications networks don’t have cores either. The same goes for Natalia. I think advanced systems like the Builders’ intelligence exist across all components, spread far and wide. It’s called nonlocality.”

Aki wondered if the Builders were individual cells. When combined, they could create a composite being much greater than the sum of the parts. If that were true, then each of the beings shared information with the others, which explained the presence of the embedded transmission devices.

“I don’t get it. So they’re interlocked with each other in a state of meditation as they go from star to star? What’s the point? Some kind of society that completely conquered their individual egos?” Aki asked.

“No idea. Do you think the Builders turned into this after they developed their incredible tech? Maybe their society took a wrong turn somewhere and we’re looking at the wreckage of a societal breakdown.”

Aki brought her hands together. “We are asking unanswerable questions. I know we want to forget that the graser strikes in an hour, but let’s try everything we possibly can.” Aki walked around the group of Builders lying near them. She turned on her external speaker. “Hey! You need to get out of here and go back up to your jungle. It’s not safe here!”

She smiled and pointed toward the branches.

“Do you understand?”

None of them moved.

“I’m sorry that we hit you earlier, but this is going to be goodbye for us all,” she said.

Aki walked toward Alice and caressed her face as tenderly as she could through the gloves of her suit. She stepped back and waved farewell.

The two men watched without saying a word. Together, they climbed back into the jungle and tethered themselves to the sturdiest branches they could find. The suits were designed to absorb most of the effects of shock or collision, but it was time to prepare for sudden course changes that the Builders’ ship might make.

Once they were secured, Aki said, “Men, because we are shut off you are the only two that can hear this, so I will say it plain. This ship might be able to produce dozens of Gs, and a direct hit from the graser will disintegrate us before our brains even notice. Honestly, I am sorry that it has come to this. I know you made your decisions to join my team on your own, but I feel responsible.”

“I’ve had a good life. Igor and Aida were envious that they had to wait on the ship. Now I’m envying them,” Raul said. He was pale.

“No regrets. I wrote my will before I left,” Joseph said. To Aki’s amazement, he was smiling.

“You’re a pessimist,” Raul told him.

“Semper Fi means you never know what comes next. You never know which mission is going to be your last.”

“We all knew it could end this way. I programmed the Phalanx’s computer to beam my research into space if I didn’t make it back. That’s the part of me that I want to live forever, the part I want to eventually reach the corners of the universe.” Raul’s voice sounded far away.

“I wish I had thought of that,” Aki said.

“Crazy lady, we don’t know that the graser will work,” Raul said, his voice stronger.

“If it does, I’m grateful I got to serve with you,” Joseph said.

They soon ran out of things to say and could only stare at the countdown. Aki closed her eyes.

ACT VII: AUGUST 1, 2041

1 AM GMT

THE PHALANX ACCELERATED away from the Builders’ flight path, reaching the safe zone outside of graser range. The UNSS Thompson, which carried the graser, was on an interception course. The Thompson would reach the point where the two ships would nearly intersect in about three hours. Given the power of the graser, the Builders’ ship was already well within range.

To be on the safe side, the UNSDF had shared very few details about their trump card of the hijacked alien weapon even with the rest of the fleet—but Igor knew that the first graser emission would be triggered in less than a minute. He backed up the ship’s data in preparation for the electromagnetic shockwave that would follow the blast. He continued examining the incoming data, trying to take his mind off the fact that three of his crewmates were still inside the alien vessel.

The countdown reached zero. The beam would travel for less than a second before striking the Builders. The light from the resulting explosion was expected to reach him four seconds later. Igor counted the time to himself nervously: one, two, three, four

Nothing. Even after a full minute, the explosion did not happen. After five minutes, he received a message from the UNSS Becquerel.

<GRASER DID NOT FIRE.

PROCEEDING WITH PHASE II.>

“What is that supposed to mean?” Aida asked from her cocoon.

“No idea. I’m sure the UNSDF planned for this. They must have a trick up their sleeves. The Builders must have overridden the graser, or at least thwarted it somehow. Maybe it’s programmed to recognize their ship.”

“What do you think Phase II means?”

“It’s so top secret that they haven’t told me and I’m the acting commander. Look. It’s moving.”

The image from the camera on the outside of the Becquerel showed the engines of the unmanned Thompson, carrying the enormous cannon, firing at full thrust.

“Are they trying to ram them?”

“Can they move fast enough to block the Builders’ path?”

The trajectories of the two ships were updating on the operations map. The map showed that the vectors of the two ships would intersect in fifty-four minutes.

“That gives the Builders an hour to attack the Thompson. They will never even get near the Thompson because the Builders will vaporize it.” Then Igor realized what Phase II was. “That’s it! Fleet Headquarters was planning this all along in case the graser didn’t fire.”

“Planning what?” Aida asked.

“The graser cannon is made of the same material as the Rings. The Builders’ attack beam won’t be able to destroy it.”

“We’re going to use the graser as a shield?”

“Can we win a battle with nothing but a shield?”

The Builders must have known that their beam would be useless against their graser cannon. They made no attempt to fire upon the massive roadblock that was approaching their path. Instead, the Builders made a slight course correction to avoid the potential collision. The ships would now miss each other by less than three hundred kilometers, but the ships would not collide.

After some time, a second flash of light appeared from behind the graser, accelerating away from the Thompson. Then the flash split into four separate pillars of exhaust. As Igor had suspected, the Thompson had been carrying nuclear missiles. The iris of the Builders’ engine dilated and closed as it prepared to fire its attack beam on the missiles. The first missile was struck down almost instantaneously. The remaining three were within two hundred kilometers.

Seven seconds later, the second missile was destroyed. The remaining two crossed the one hundred kilometer mark. Six seconds later, the third was eliminated. A single missile was still on target. Three seconds after that, the nuclear missile struck the Builders’ ship and a blinding flash filled Igor’s screen.