Post-Human Trilogy (8 page)

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.”

“You sent yourself through the Planck?” Samantha asked, her head swiveling from the A.I. to Aldous.

“No, of course not,” he replied. “I was studying them. I knew some universes move more slowly, so I focused my research on ones that are nearly identical to our own. The best way to determine this was by looking for recognizable events from history.”

“Red letter dates,” the A.I. added. “I can set the Planck to take us through a series of these universes, but I don’t have enough time to change course.”

“I understand.” Aldous nodded before turning back to Samantha. “
Don’t change anything
. These are all major events in history. We don’t have the right to interfere with the timelines in those universes. Just lie low and wait for the Planck to engage again and take you to the next universe.”

“How many universes are you talking about?” Samantha asked, still aghast.

Aldous turned to the A.I. for the precise answer.

“We’ve examined sixteen,” the A.I. answered. “They are loaded and ready. There will be a ten-hour layover in each universe, though the time frame will be relative to that universe.”

“Relative?” Craig asked. “What does that mean?”

“We don’t have time to explain,” Aldous interjected. “Explain it to him when you arrive in Universe 66,” Aldous ordered the A.I.

The door to the Planck room suddenly opened, and a large syringe on a small, levitating tray entered.

“The nanobots are ready. I will upload my consciousness now, with your permission, Professor,” the A.I. announced.

Aldous nodded. “Do it.”

The A.I. returned the nod before turning to Samantha to give one last instruction. “You will need to have Dr. Emilson implant the nanobots high in the back of your neck, just below the occipital bone. It will take the nanobots anywhere from several minutes to an hour to pass the blood-brain barrier and make neural connections so I can communicate with you.” And with those final words, his image vanished from the room.

Aldous grabbed the syringe and handed it to Craig. Their eyes met, ever so briefly. The look on Aldous’s face was intense, and his eyes communicated a message that had to remain silent but needed to be communicated nonetheless:
Take care of her
.

He turned back to Samantha. “I have to go now. We’re down to five minutes. I have to meet the others.” He grabbed her hands, and their fingers interlaced as he looked upon her wet, desperate eyes. “Live for me, Sam.”

“No, no, no! We need a better plan!” Samantha shouted, her eyes squeezing shut as she tried to block the nightmare out. If only she could wake up.

“There’s no better plan. Craig can’t take care of himself yet. You have to protect him and the A.I. When you return, the two of you have to hide and rebuild. You’ve got to wait for your opportunity.”

“For what?” she asked.

“The A.I. will know,” Aldous replied. He leaned in and kissed her quickly but passionately—a last kiss.

Craig, with great effort, resisted the urge to stab Aldous with the syringe.

Aldous pulled back and stepped away, but Samantha wouldn’t release her grip.

“Don’t do this, Aldous!” she shouted with all of her desperation.

“This is the right thing,” he said to her, pleading for her understanding as he tried to disentangle himself. “This will make things right.”

Aldous turned to Craig for help in separating himself. Craig didn’t have to be asked twice and pulled her roughly away from her new husband. Samantha fought back, but Craig easily manhandled her.

“No!”

“Live for me, Sam,” Aldous said again before turning regretfully and flying out of the room.

“No!” she shouted one last time before the tears turned into sobs and overwhelmed her.

Craig stood over her and watched as she cried. He shook his head slowly as he watched. He couldn’t have written a version of Hell that would have been more painful. “I hope you’re not expecting me to console you right now,” he said as Samantha continued to sob.

She pulled at her hair and rocked herself slightly, her face bowed to the ground and hidden from view. “I don’t expect you to understand,” she replied, her tone harsh but filled with regret. She almost wished she hadn’t reanimated him.

Craig watched her, crumpled and in pain, and suddenly sighed. An hour earlier, the woman had been his life. “Samantha, how about some understanding for me, huh? From my perspective, I was doing a suborbital jump over China ninety minutes ago. Now I’m watching my wife make out with a dirty old man and being told to stab her in the neck with a syringe and then to go hangout with her in another universe? This is like a bad acid trip! What do you expect from me?”

“Nothing,” she said as she stood slowly, her legs unstable. “I expect nothing.”

“Sam, this whole thing is crazy. Just give up the A.I.”

“No!” she suddenly shouted, her neck snapping around, her eyes wild. “No! Craig, they aren’t here to negotiate. They show no mercy!”

“How do you know that?” he responded.

“We tried to make contact once,” she replied. “We tried to show them what we’d done—our powers. At first they welcomed us. But it was a trap. We were invited back once they’d analyzed our powers. As soon as they’d figured out how to neutralize them, they led us to a slaughter. They killed hundreds. Aldous barely escaped with his life.”

“How can they kill you people if you’re superhuman?”

“They have super soldiers of their own, Craig. No doubt, they’ll be the ones leading the charge.” Her eyes were wide and stricken with horror. “Aldous won’t survive this.”

There was something in her expression that sent a stab of cold through Craig’s body. He could see she wasn’t exaggerating, and he knew he had to heed her warning. “All right,” he said, making up his mind. “All right, then we’d better go. How much time do we have?”

“Haven’t you set your mind’s eye yet?” she asked, concerned.

“The A.I. helped me with it, but I’m still a little foggy on how to control the damn thing. It gives me a headache just looking at it.”

“We’ve less than three minutes now,” Samantha announced.

“Okay. Well, we better get started. How does this work?”

“First, we step up on that platform,” she began, pointing to the small, silver platform. “The machine will harness the fusion energy from the generator and, for a microsecond, boil space, for lack of a better description.”

“Boil space?”

She nodded. “You’ll be protected by a magnetic field, but you’ll slip through the hole into the next universe.”

“You haven’t been through before?”

“No one has.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

“We’ve sent probes, and so far they’ve all come back fine.”

“And what about the nanobots?” he asked, holding up the syringe. “Aren’t I suppose to inject you with these?”

“We can do that on the other side,” she said. She was no longer looking at him, but speaking as though she were in a trance.

“I think we better go then,” Craig stated. “Time’s short.”

“Yes. Time’s short.”

“Sam. Are you okay?”

“Craig,” she said, the look in her eyes warning Craig too late that something was very wrong, “I’m afraid I won’t be coming with you.”

Before Craig could verbally respond, she held up her hand and sent green sparks of energy flashing toward him, stunning him unconscious and collapsing him to the ground.

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.