magnetic cocoon and temporarily driving him out of the engine’s wake and back into danger—there were still millions of androids in the vicinity. “Sorry!”
“I’m okay!” Rich shouted back as he zipped up into the protection of the distortion once again. “I don’t want to be, you know, that guy, but that was not a very good shot! I’m sorry to be so critical!”
“I can’t possibly hit them from here!”
“We’re going to have to get out of the wake to get a clear shot!” Rich concluded.
Meanwhile, the ship finally left the stratosphere and entered space. “Okay, the autopilot’s engaged now,” James announced. “Thel, how is it coming?”
Thel shook her head in frustration. “It’s not. Nothing I try leads anywhere. I’ve tried rerouting power from the engines to the hull insulation, but it’s simply not enough voltage to do any damage.”
James examined the data quickly. “You’re right, damn it. I should’ve built an EMP into the design of the ship. I was so fixated on the minutia of the design that I couldn’t see the big picture.”
“Then you need to start looking at the big picture, boss,” Old-timer said. “Rich and Djanet aren’t going to make it much longer.”
“
“Yes,” James replied.
“
James’s eyes opened wide, and a faint smile crossed his lips. “That’s actually a hell of an idea!”
“What?” Thel asked.
“I’ve got it! I know how to save Rich and Djanet!”
30
“Of course, you’ll need to build a tower,” the A.I. said as he calmly strolled by James back at the mainframe.
James was still in the operator’s position. “I’m on to you,” he replied.
“What?” The A.I. smiled, placing a hand on his chest as he mockingly feigned sincerity. “I’m only trying to help.”
“You’re
“My heavens. That was never part of my thinking,” the A.I. replied, amused.
“The androids have already reached the mainframe in Seattle and know it was abandoned. They’ll be looking for you—us—and tracing signals. The nans are working based on preprogramming now, but building the Tesla- designed tower will require me to send millions of instructions—
A continent away, in a place called Shoreham, Long Island, about sixty miles from Manhattan, the nans began to swirl in tiny wisps along the muddy ground. They multiplied at an exponential rate, and what had been wisps soon became a hurricane of activity. In just a few minutes, a Tesla tower, a magnificent metal structure stretching 180 feet into the air, stood triumphantly in the field. It exactly matched the designs and dimensions that the world’s greatest inventor had implemented but had never had the chance to complete.
“The aliens, no doubt, will have already traced the command signals back to us,” the A.I. began, “and you can’t run—they would be able to trace that too. You disappoint me, James. Just when I thought you were becoming an admirable computer, you had to go and ruin it with your pathetic human feelings of compassion.”
“I have a few more tricks up my sleeve yet,” James replied. The tower began to whir as James brought it to life. “You’re witnessing history here—something that should have happened hundreds of years ago—the human species is about to go truly wireless.”
“A little late, don’t you think?”
“Better late than never,” James replied.
31
High above the Earth’s atmosphere, Rich and Djanet were about to put a hastily formulated plan into action. “Okay. Let’s do this!” Rich shouted as the two post-humans exited the wake of the magnetic engines on opposite sides and then shot simultaneously at the androids who were tearing apart the engine casing. Both blasts hit their mark, knocking several of the androids unconscious and off the hull. However, the blasts also caught the attention of dozens more machines, and they reacted with fury, lifting off the hull and pursuing Rich and Djanet. The post- humans quickly darted back inside the relative safety of the engine’s wake. Rich watched as android after android tried to enter the wake, only to be blasted away by its force, like a person trying to walk unprotected into a raging waterfall. “I think we made them angry!’ Rich observed.
Meanwhile, in the cockpit, James excitedly monitored the progress of the Tesla tower. “Old-timer, remember what I told you about the ionosphere of Venus?”
“Yes,” Old-timer replied, his brows knitted at first, until he realized the significance of James’s words. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide, and a slight smile emerged on his face. “You’re going to create the electromagnetic surge we need with the ionosphere!”
When Thel realized what that meant, her mouth formed a wide and relieved smile; at least temporarily, her fears that James’s thinking was becoming too machine-like abated. “That’s brilliant, James! I knew you wouldn’t let them die!”
“We’re not out of the woods yet, but in another thirty seconds, once our coordinates are linked to the tower, we’ll—”
James didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence. An android ripped a hole in the ceiling of the cockpit and lunged into the room, smashing into James in a sickening meeting of metal with meat and bone.
32
“James!” Thel screamed as she blasted the android, instantly rendering it unconscious and sending it into the wall with enough force to leave a sizable dent.
An automatic magnetic field went up to stop the cockpit from depressurizing, but, unlike the magnetic cocoons of the post-humans, it wasn’t impregnable. As a result, more androids began crawling through the small hole in the ceiling. Old-timer blasted the first one and scrambled to get across the room to protect the Purists. “You have to get out of here!” Old-timer shouted to Alejandra as she grabbed General Wong and began to pull him out of the room, aided by Lieutenant Patrick.
Their efforts were too little, too late. The third android to enter the room was immediately followed by a fourth and a fifth. Thel, who had sprawled over James’s badly broken body to form a protective shield, twisted her body around to shoot one of the androids, while Old-timer managed to shoot another, but the last one made it to Alejandra and stuck an instrument into her neck, instantly rendering her unconscious.
“No!” Lieutenant Patrick shouted as he pulled his gun out of his holster and unloaded into the back of the android. One of the bullets ricocheted off the titanium frame of the mechanical monster and hit Old-timer in the shoulder, spinning him around. He fell against the android and, in turn, it stabbed him with the same instrument it had used on Alejandra, rendering him unconscious. It grabbed him roughly under the arm and pulled his limp body with it, back out the hole and into space, killing the post-human almost instantly.
