The androids that thudded one by one onto the rich, black forest floor of Cathedral Grove were different than the ones James had seen earlier—these ones were highly trained. They didn’t have any sort of visible weaponry, but they moved like soldiers on the hunt and, one supposed, they didn’t need weapons—their bodies were enough. They didn’t speak, but it was clear that they were communicating from the way they fanned out amongst the towering trees, moving almost as though they were one mind. They were hunting for signs of the mainframe. It wouldn’t be long until they found it.
“This little ruse won’t work for long, James,” the A.I. observed. “The alien A.I. will surely guess what you’ve done in short order, and then you’ll have to face reality, once and for all.”
“Maybe so. But for now, they literally can’t see the forest for the trees,” James replied.
He tried to remain focused on the androids, but, just as the A.I. had predicted, James’s human mind couldn’t stop going back to Old-timer. He was the closest thing James had ever had to a father figure. His own father’s relationship with him was strained at the best of times—one of the major pitfalls of a world where children eventually ended up the same age biologically as their parents was that it created absurd rivalries that became more like sibling squabbles than natural parent/child relationships. James’s father spoke to him, but the conversations were strained and sometimes years apart. The older Keats was a gifted scientist in his own right but, try as he might, he would never reach James’s level of success. This knowledge tortured him—so he withdrew. He didn’t want to face the fact that his offspring was far superior.
Old-timer, on the other hand, had no feelings of rivalry with James. He’d always seemed proud of the younger man—impressed by his accomplishments, yet secure in his own position as James’s mentor. He had known that James felt insecurity—self-doubt. He saw it as his place to reassure and strengthen James. Old-timer was the iron in James’s spine. Now James wasn’t sure how or if he could go on.
One of the androids knocked his metallic fist gently on the bark of one of the trees.
“Knock-knock,” the A.I. said, an amused grin painted across his ugly, twisted, mouth.
After a short moment, the android put its ear to the bark of the tree and listened.
“They’re on to you, James,” observed the A.I. “They’re scanning for abnormal electrical signals from the trees.”
James patched through to Thel. “Thel, I may have run out of time here.”
“No!” Thel shouted as she jumped from her seat next to James’s body in the sick bay of the Purist ship. “Your body isn’t ready yet!”
“Listen to me, Thel. I want you to do a lap around the sun and then head back to Venus. The aliens don’t know we’ve terraformed it—there’s no record of it for them to find. The Purists can be safe there. Hole up somewhere on the surface and hide.”
“James, I can’t lose you!” Thel yelled, her body rigid with fear.
“I can still return to that body, Thel. If the body pulls through fast enough, I’ll wake up safe and sound.”
“But…James, I can’t do anything but wait!”
James smiled, trying to reassure her. “Sometimes that’s all we can do, Thel. I love you. Whatever happens, protect the Purists.”
“Wait! James…don’t go. Just…talk to me for a few minutes first. I miss you.”
James watched as one of the androids dug his fist into the bark of a tree and examined it closely. He knew it was sending information back to the alien A.I. for analysis.
“It’s not my choice, Thel. I have to go. It’s time to spring a trap.”
3
“A trap?” the A.I. said, his arms folded across his chest as he shook his head. “You’re only delaying the inevitable and making it worse for yourself.”
“I’ll delay as long as I can—and maybe take a few of them with me while I’m at it.”
The android that had reached into the bark to retrieve a sample tilted its head as though it were listening to some sort of communication. It nodded its head slightly as if in acknowledgment, then stepped back from the tree and craned its neck, looking upward at the towering monolith, summing up its gargantuan foe.
“Yeah,” James said, smiling, “it’s that bad, freak.”
An instant later, the tree sprang into action, sprouting branches and wrapping itself around the android before pulling the metal body inside of the trunk. The android hadn’t had time to call for help or even make a noise before the nans inside of the trunk made short work of it, dismembering it and grinding the metal, leaving only metal shavings as fine as snowflakes to be expelled from the treetop.
The dozens of androids in the surrounding area looked up when they saw the metallic snow falling eerily in the ancient, dark forest. Machine or not, there was something resembling panic as they crouched into defensive postures, eyes skyward, heads on swivels.
“There’s just something so human about them, isn’t there, James?” the A.I. said before breaking into icy laughter.
“They’re a facsimile.”
In the next instant, the entire forest came alive and snatched the androids. Limbs flailed, screams escaped lips, and then the forest swallowed them whole. Only the memory of their screams echoed through the silence as the metal snow began to fall once again.
The A.I. arched an eyebrow. “Facsimile indeed.”
4
“What do you mean?” Thel asked the doctor who was attending to Alejandra.
“I mean, there is nothing wrong with her physically. I don’t know why she’s not waking up, but I can tell you her body is dying.”
“How can that be? There must be something wrong with her!” Lieutenant Patrick asserted.
“There wasn’t,” the doctor replied, “but now there is. She’s having small seizures every few minutes. We’re trying to limit them by keeping her hydrated and getting her the nutrients she needs through her IV, but every time we account for one imbalance, another arises. I’ve never seen anything like it. Her condition is getting worse by the minute. At this rate, she’ll be in a vegetative state or dead in a matter of hours. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? You have to
“Calm,” Governor Wong said, putting his hand between Lieutenant Patrick and the doctor. “Doctor, there has to be an explanation.”
“I’m sure there is,” the doctor replied, “but it’s beyond anything I can provide. The equipment we have onboard won’t allow me to tell you anything more than what I already have. I’m sorry. There is simply nothing
“Wait,” Thel said, reaching for the doctor’s arm as he turned to leave the room. “Maybe there’s something I could do for her.”
“What?” the doctor asked.
Thel turned to Lieutenant Patrick and Governor Wong. “With your permission, I could take some nans from my body and inject them into her. They could do a diagnostic and let us know what the problem is.”
The Purists looked astounded at the proposition, as did Rich and Djanet, who stood nearby.
“I don’t…I don’t think that is something that Alejandra would want,” Governor Wong replied.
“I’m only suggesting that we implant a small amount of nans—only for the purpose of diagnosing her,” Thel argued.
“Governor, maybe we should consider it,” Lieutenant Patrick said.
“It’s against our beliefs. It will turn her into…one of them,” Governor Wong replied.
