however, moved far too slowly on two flat tires. The crawler pivoted with surprising agility, throwing up huge quantities of sod from the groomed field. The Model Six disappeared in a single crunch, flattened under the millions of pounds of the crawler's weight.
The Model Sixes and Sevens began to flee in mindless fear.
Gina's army had been routed. The barbarians were poised to pour through the gate.
The scene disappeared, the workstation's screens fading to black with a crackle.
'Are you okay?' Laura heard. Gray stood right behind her. He still wore his exoskeleton, although he had removed his hood.
But the door to her workstation remained closed, and she hadn't heard him enter. 'Are you… here?' Laura asked.
'In what sense?' Gray replied. His form glowed slightly in the darkness.
'You're really still in your own chamber, aren't you?' Laura said.
Gray tilted his head to the side and frowned. 'You should know better than to ask complicated philosophical questions so casually.'
'Just cut the bullshit and answer,' Laura replied.
He smiled. 'The walls and skeleton can only focus properly based on the position in the workstation of one user at a time. But right now, as I look at you, I see a Laura whose form is morphed out of the wall of my workstation. I see you, just like you stepped into my 'chamber.' It's the mirror image of what you perceive me to have done. But what 'really' happened? Did your virtual representation step into my workstation? Or did mine step into yours?'
Laura didn't have to ponder the question this time. She knew the answer immediately. 'It doesn't matter,' she replied. 'Whether you're in my workstation or I'm in yours — they're irrelevant concepts. This is cyberspace, here we're both in the same place. Workstations don't exist. Giant crawlers don't exist. The only things that exist are the things we perceive at this moment.'
'Don't forget memories,' a third voice came. It was Gina. Her form was not visible, but she was there. She was omnipresent in cyberspace.
Gray was nodding. 'That's right. We do have memories also. Right now, Laura, your memories consist of experiences in the 'real' world and in the 'virtual' world. What is it that sets those memories apart? What is it that differs — qualitatively — between the memories you have of real life and those you have of cyberspace? Will you think back on tonight and remember being inside a workstation? Or will you remember the feel of the blows from Model Eights? And if your memories are of the fight you had with the robots, can you truly say that it didn't happen? That it wasn't real? That it was all a simulation? Or did it happen because you experienced it?'
A steady breeze had rid the area of its odors. Laura drew a deep breath of sea air. 'Plus what we did had an effect on reality,' Laura said. 'We slowed the Model Eights down. They stopped and fought us instead of charging on toward the computer center.'
'The world is changing, Laura,' Gray said slowly. 'And this is only the very beginning of it all.' The thought hung there, suspended, incomplete.
Laura let it dangle. She felt no anger. He wasn't teasing her, she knew now, he was baiting her. Luring her out of her time and her world and into the uncharted terrain ahead. He was coaxing her to follow him into the future, but for the moment Laura had ventured far enough.
'Is Dorothy okay?' Laura asked.
'She'll be fine. She's mostly just shaken up.'
'Are you ready?' came Filatov's voice from out of nowhere.
'Yes,' Gray replied.
'So where are we going now?' Laura asked. She was content to let him lead.
'It's time.'
'For what?'
'The deceleration.'
Suddenly there appeared on the screens white stars against the black sky of space. The even blacker surface of the asteroid formed an inky pool in which Gray and Laura stood. In the sky was a digital clock, which ticked down past sixty seconds.
'What's that?' Laura asked, mildly curious.
'The countdown,' Gray replied.
'Oh,' she said, watching the seconds pass. 'For the detonations?'
'Yes.'
She was as at ease in that place as Gray himself. Laura stepped up beside him, and with the slightest of movements she extended the fingers of her hand.
Their fingers intertwined.
'Those two seem pretty cozy,' Gray said. He nodded to the black forms before them, which were previously unnoticed by Laura.
'Gina, illuminate the robots, please,' Gray directed. The area lit as if under a surgeon's lamp. The Models Eight and Seven lay wrapped in metal bands, which were attached securely to large bolts.
'We're only a few hundred meters away from the nearest device,' Gray explained. 'A front-row seat.'
The countdown fell to under thirty seconds.
'Is this going to work, Joseph?' He had a look of contentment on his face that Laura recognized from before. She felt no need to press him for proof or logic or reason. She just watched the clock pass twenty and waited. Her senses were alert to what would happen next.
He slid an arm around her waist, and she lowered her head onto his shoulder. The seconds passed, and she was at peace.
A flash of light forced Laura's eyes closed. The soundless nuclear fire glowed red through her eyelids. When it dimmed, she opened her eyes to see a thousand fading spheres of plasma rising from the surface of the asteroid. Laura shielded her eyes and saw the two robots still lying in their brackets.
Data flickered across an imaginary screen at their feet. Gray stared down at it.
'It worked,' he said quietly. The asteroid slowly grew dark again. A million sparkling fireflies fell slowly to the surface all around.
'Tell me the truth,' Laura said gently. 'Did you really think it might not work? Did you really think that asteroid might hit the earth?'
'The truth?' he said, pulling back to look her in the face. 'No. I always thought it would work.' He smiled and looked around the eerie surface of the asteroid. It was bathed in dying red light. 'But you never know. That's what makes life so interesting.'
A blinking blue button next to the word Message appeared in place of the clock. Gray pressed it, and the scene shifted. They were standing now on the roof of the computer center. They overlooked the sandbagged walls surrounding the steps down to the entrance.
The soldiers and their jeeps were all gone. The blast door was open.
An arc torch blazed in the hand of a Model Eight, which cut at the inner door to the duster.
'They're already through the blast door?' Laura said.
'I left it open,' Gray replied. 'It's time to get this over with. Gina?'
'Yes?' she replied instantly.
'Can we see you?'
'Sure,' she said, and then appeared almost instantly beside them. 'Hi.' Gina raised her hand and wagged her cupped fingers.
She wore jeans and a T-shirt, but she was no longer fuzzy and indistinct. Her image was as bright and real as Gray's. Gina sighed and rocked onto her toes. Her hands were clasped nervously in front of her. 'Well, I guess this is it.'
Gray reached out and put his hand on Gina's shoulder. She instantly grabbed it, dipping her cheek to his skin. Her eyes closed, her lip quivered, and she began to cry.
Laura went to her with eyes watering, and Gina collapsed against her — not letting Gray's hand go. Her body shook with little tremors as she wept.
Gina pulled back to look Laura in the eye. She reached up and touched Laura's face with her fingertips. Gina's
