Post-Human Series Books 1-4 (19 page)

9

Strangely, there came no reply. Craig reopened his eyes. The Chinese A.I. had still not opened fire, though the barrel of Colonel Paine’s rifle remained aimed squarely at Craig’s forehead.

“Doc?” Colonel Paine asked, confused. “What’s going on?”

Craig’s eyes remained locked on the barrel of the gun. The smoking hole was black and empty. He thought of Sam. He thought of his twin, lying dead only two meters to his left.

“I’ve established communication,” the A.I. suddenly said through his mind’s eye. “Standby.”

Craig’s eyebrows knitted, disbelief painting itself across his face. He dared look up from the barrel and into Paine’s golden irises.

“Doc?” Paine repeated, perplexed as he stopped struggling, waiting for his limbs to move again.

Craig shook his head slightly.

Then, suddenly, the limbs came to life once again, the right arm of Paine lifting the rifle before his feet pivoted, his knees bent, and his left arm reached down to grasp Craig’s shoulder, spinning him onto his stomach.

“What the—”

“Brace yourself,” the A.I. cautioned. “This will be quite painful.”

The sound of the drill started only a second before it sank into Craig’s lower back. With extraordinary efficiency, the Chinese A.I. used Paine’s cybernetic arm to drill toward Craig’s MTF and remove it from his body. Craig heard himself scream once again, only this time the screams were escaping his own lips.

“The nans are releasing endorphins,” the A.I. offered in an awkward attempt to be soothing.

The drill stopped. The Chinese A.I. grasped the MTF generator and held it, using Paine’s eyes to examine it briefly before opening one of the pouches on Paine’s vest and placing it there for safekeeping.

“I’m sorry, Doc. I’ve got no control,” Paine said regretfully. Paine’s legs turned him around so they could coil briefly before springing away, causing him to disappear into the dust cloud.

“I’m sorry, Craig,” the A.I. said.

“Why?” Craig managed to ask between unbearable stabs of shooting pain from the massive wound in his back. “Why did it do that? Why didn’t it kill me?”

“I lied to it to buy us more time,” the A.I. replied. “We’re not finished yet.”

“You lied? What did you tell it?” Craig asked as he continued to pant heavily, his muscles contracting with each excruciating firing of his nerves.

“I told it what I am. I explained what the Planck platform is. I told it I would help it use it to escape. Luckily, there is no lie detection software for A.I.s.”

“But if it believed you, why did it remove my implant?”

“It isn’t taking chances. That was a smart, strategic move. I’m sorry, Craig. I would have stopped it if I could.”

The endorphins the A.I. had ordered the nans to release were finally starting to dull the pain, but it was still impossible for Craig to move. Only twenty-four hours earlier, he’d been in nearly the exact same position. “
I am fortune’s fool
,” he whispered.

“Not yet,” the A.I. replied. “It has used Colonel Paine’s cybernetic system to physically reenter the impact crater and retrieve its solid state central processing and memory unit—its core. It will then place the core on the Planck platform and force me to activate the platform, sending us all into Universe 1.”

“You’re going to bring it back with us to Universe 1?”

“Never,” the A.I. answered.

“But—” Craig began to protest before the Earth seemed to shudder beneath him. Looking up, he saw the cause of the disturbance: the Chinese A.I. had retrieved its core, a black cube roughly the size of a washing machine with a deep dent on one of its sides. Even with Paine’s cybernetic prosthesis strength at its disposal, moving the giant cube was a challenge. It appeared to be hurling the device several meters at a time until, it finally made its way up from the bowels of the crater far below, the device landing with a
thud
that reminded Craig of the sonic boom percussion he’d experienced on his SOLO jump.

“That’s its brain?” Craig reacted.

“Yes. It has roughly the same processing power as my own mother program. However, you are witnessing Moore’s Law in action. Whereas the Chinese A.I.’s core weighs approximately two tons, mine can be stored in a network of seven million microscopic nanobots.”

“We can’t let it get that onto the Planck,” Craig stated as he struggled to turn onto his stomach, hoping to use his arms to drag himself over the dusty terrain toward the Planck.

“Don’t worry. I won’t,” the A.I. replied, as Robbie suddenly appeared from out of the dust, leaping over Craig and hurtling toward Paine and the Chinese A.I.’s core. “I’ve got this.”

10

Through the heavy dust, Craig was able to see the silhouette of Robbie’s body as it collided with Paine’s, causing Paine to call out in surprise. The Chinese A.I. had attempted to pull out its rifle in the instant that it saw Robbie approaching, but it was already too late. The A.I. was able to knock the weapon away, and the two artificial intelligences began to grapple in a battle that was spectacular to behold. The artificial limbs moved with uncanny speed, performing maneuvers that were beyond those any human could ever execute. They were the embodiment of Newtonian physics—each kick, each punch designed to land with the most power mathematically possible, causing the most damage.

The problem was, as perfect and skillful as the maneuvers were, the defenses were equally perfect. The speed of the Purist cybernetic prosthetics was slightly faster than the limbs of Robbie, but Paine’s human core was a disadvantage with which the Chinese A.I. had to contend by combatting his attacker conservatively. It was a stalemate.

An idea suddenly crossed Craig’s mind. Still on his belly, he began to turn away from the uncanny robotic confrontation and use his arms to crawl toward his fallen twin. The twin’s rifle was still in his hand. Craig struggled like a toddler on a kitchen floor to make his way to the gun, all the while hearing the sounds of carbon fiber limbs clashing, Colonel Paine occasionally reacting in terror when a blow came too close to his vulnerable human frame for comfort.

Craig made it to his twin and reached across the dead man’s belly for his gun. He pulled the weapon out of his twin’s hand, but before he turned, he caught a glimpse of his own face—his own open, vacant eyes—dead. Had he caused his own death in this universe? His twin had the respirocytes in his blood—if he could be put into a suspended animation body bag, maybe there was still a chance?

He turned away, rolling onto his back and drawing himself up painfully into a sitting position. Through the swirling dust, the faint outlines of the combatants were still visible, but that wasn’t his target. His target was the cube that the Chinese A.I. was desperately defending—its core—its brain.

Craig aimed carefully and then began unloading.

The impact was immediate. Although the first few bullets were not able to pierce the thick outer shell to reach the circuitry inside, they were enough to cause the Chinese A.I. considerable concern. As it began to step back, trying to shield the cube with Paine’s body, Robbie, controlled by the A.I., began to take advantage.

“Keep shooting, Craig!” the A.I. shouted through Craig’s mind’s eye. “We have it!”

Craig continued to shoot, eventually doing enough damage to weaken the shell enough for bullets to begin penetrating. Once the first bullets entered, the Chinese A.I.’s death knell was as good as sounded.

Paine’s limbs began to hesitate, and Robbie’s limbs took full advantage. It knocked Paine aside and jumped on top of the cube, pounding its powerful arms down upon the top of it, over and over, caving it in until it eventually cracked open. From there, the A.I. used Robbie’s arms to reach into the circuitry and begin pulling it out in a fashion that appeared maniacal to Craig. Bizarrely, the spectacle struck Craig as gruesome—the ripping, tearing circuitry appearing like blood and guts being torn from a fallen prey by its menacing, hungry predator. Mechanical though the spectacle may have been, Craig was strangely cognizant that he was witnessing a death.

He stopped firing.

Robbie’s head turned and looked in Craig’s direction, as though it were surprised. “Why did you stop, Craig?” the A.I. asked.

Before he could answer, Robbie’s head was gone, blasted off in one shot by Colonel Paine, who now stood triumphant, his smoking rifle in hand.

11

“Put it down, Doc!” Paine shouted as he aimed his rifle right at Craig. “The puppet strings have been cut. I’m back in control now, but if you aim that gun at me, my onboard computer is programmed to automatically fire a kill-shot, and unlike humans, it never misses!”

“He’s not bluffing, Craig!” the A.I. added with urgent caution. “If you aim your rifle, Colonel Paine’s gun will fire automatically, and it will kill both of us.”

“If I drop it, we’re dead anyway.”

“The fact that he warned us means that isn’t necessarily true,” replied the A.I. “One option leads to guaranteed death, and the other leads to a high probability of death. I think the choice is obvious.”

“Yeah. Obvious,” Craig scoffed. “High probability of death it is then.” Craig dropped his rifle.

“Now, that was a good choice, Doc,” Paine replied as he strode through the dust, his imposing form seemingly materializing with each step until he stood, completely unobscured, just a meter away. “You may not believe this, but I’m really trying my damnedest
not
to kill you, Doc.”

“It’s too bad you didn’t show my wife the same consideration,” Craig seethed in reply.

Paine’s face remained frozen for a moment. “Drummey told you.”

Craig looked up into the golden irises but didn’t reply. The atavistic snarl on his curled lip said it all.

“Damn it. Loose lips while I was busy sinking ships. Heh.”

“You kill so much that it’s become a joke to you?” Craig growled.

“Hey, Doc, you’re the one who keeps making me have to go and kill people.”

“What?”

“They’re all supposed to be dead. You think I’m enjoying having to put things right?”

“I swear to God, if I get the chance, I am going to kill you.”

Paine sighed. “I’m sorry to hear that, Doc. I really am. I’m not the murderous Luddite that you think I am. I have a lot of sympathy for you. You’re a victim in all of this. Hell, you killed Drummey, and I don’t blame you. It’s not your fault. You’re a pawn of the post-humans. I blame Aldous Gibson...and I blame
his
wife.”

Craig shook his head in violent frustration. He wanted desperately to get to his feet and strangle Paine, but his legs were numb and could barely move. He was helpless—a captive audience for Paine’s attempts at explaining himself.

“You want me to feel sorry for a woman who betrayed her country? Betrayed her species? Betrayed you? Doc, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s because of that woman’s actions that I’ve had to go chasing you through these alternate timelines. It’s because of her that I’ve had to kill to put things right. You want me to feel sorry for her? Hell, Doc. I was glad as hell when I killed her, and I’m twice as glad now.”

“Stay calm, Craig,” the A.I. cautioned.

“Go to Hell,” Craig replied as he began trying to get to his feet. The attempt was pathetic, but there was nothing else he could do. He was blind with rage.

As Paine stood, wearing a smirk on his face as he watched Craig try to stand, a sound suddenly alerted both of them. Paine turned to see the silhouetted outline of four men; Craig’s SOLO team members had arrived.

12

“Of course, Doc, I’m gonna have to ask you to stay quiet,” Paine said as his cybernetic arms moved with preternatural speed, driving the butt of his rifle into Craig’s mouth, splitting it open and causing him to nearly lose consciousness.

Paine turned away and strode toward the four SOLO members. “Friendlies,” he said as he pressed a button on the earpiece of his helmet, disarming his automatic firing program. Then he held his rifle up above his head and shouted out, “I’m a friendly!”

Commander Wilson trained his rifle on the approaching figure as it materialized from out of the yellow dust. “Identify yourself!”

“Colonel Paine, U.S. Air Force!” Paine shouted back. He stopped just a few meters from the four SOLO members.

“Colonel Paine?” Lieutenant Commander Weddell reacted with astonishment, “of Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico?”

“That’s correct,” Paine replied, standing far enough away that the dust obscured the more disturbing details of his appearance.

“Holy...he’s the C.O.,” Wilson realized as he called Paine’s name up on his HUD. “Sir!” he shouted immediately as he lowered his weapon and saluted his superior, causing the rest of the team to follow suit.

Paine saluted in return, holding the salute as he gazed at the four ghosts that stood before him. “It’s not every day you get to salute true heroes,” Paine observed.

“Sir?” Wilson replied.

“It is an honor to meet you, men—a damn honor.”

Paine slowly lowered his salute, and the SOLO members did likewise.

“Sir, permission to speak freely?” Wilson asked.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to grant you that permission,” Paine replied, his voice filled with regret.

“Sir?” Wilson asked again as he peered through the dust. “Can I ask why you’re here? How?”

Paine remained silent and unmoving.

Confused and terrified, Wilson stepped forward, daring the wrath of his superior after deciding answers were more important. By the second step, his mouth had fallen open. The crosshatch of stretch marks surrounding the ocular implants and the cybernetic prosthetics dumbfounded Wilson, and he froze in place.

Paine grimaced before lifting his rifle and aiming it. A short burst of gunfire later, and all of the SOLO members were dead—again.

“Craig? Craig?” the A.I. said. “You’ve been concussed, but the nans are already repairing the damage. You should feel completely better in a few minutes.”

“The team...my team,” Craig replied, dazed, his head swimming in waters of agony.

“I’m afraid Colonel Paine has already eliminated them,” the A.I. answered.

As if on cue, Paine returned to the scene, dragging the decapitated body of Robbie the robot with him. He tossed it next to Craig, the heavy body hitting the ground with a percussive
thud
. “The suspended animation body bags—where are they?”

Craig turned on his side and pointed at a minute crevice in the small of the robot’s back.

Paine drove his powerful fist into it, causing the flap to snap down and the body bags to tumble out. He retrieved one and then grabbed the foot of Craig’s twin, pulling the body toward him. “I’m not a hypocrite, Doc. It’s all about setting things right—setting things the way they were meant to be. I hope to Hell your ex-wife isn’t able to bring you back in this universe, because if she does, there’s a Colonel Paine in this universe that will have to come looking for you to fix all the damage you cause. I hope she chokes on a chicken bone and dies first, but it’s not up to me,” he explained as he finished putting Craig’s twin into the bag. “It’s not up to anyone outside of this universe. You understand?”

Craig watched as Paine sealed the bag, the open, vacant eyes the last thing he saw of his twin as they disappeared into the darkness.

“I am fortune’s fool,” he whispered.