30
His metallic hands crushed the edges of the screen to which he clung as though it were gumbo. It disintegrated, crumbling through his fingers, and he fell back onto the floor, putting his head into his hands, distraught, and letting his body shake with fury and despair. A moment earlier, Old-timer’s wife lived—just a moment. Yet it might as well have been an eternity.
Alejandra didn’t have to be an empath to know not to say anything. Instead, she draped herself over his back and cradled him as though she were trying to shield his body from a grenade in the trenches. She wished she could somehow absorb the pain for him, but she knew holding him was all that she could do.
Governor Wong silently waved away his troops; machine or not, Old-timer’s despair was clearly genuine—it deserved privacy. Only he and Lieutenant Patrick remained; like Alejandra, they stayed silent.
A long moment passed. It may have only been two or three minutes, but that kind of pain stretched time to an eternity. The moment may have continued for even a longer time if it weren’t for an incoming message to Alejandra and Old-timer. The grim-faced man was calling them through their android telepathic connection—a system very similar to the mind’s eye.
Alejandra answered the call for both of them. “Hello, Neirbo.”
“Your friends have been transformed and are ready to be roused. In respect of your request to be here when they awaken, we will await your arrival.”
Old-timer’s head was still firmly buried in his hands but he couldn’t hide from the message; there was the grim-faced man, Neirbo, staring at him. “We need you to respond immediately. We are under, attack and your friends will have to be awakened soon to give them a chance to defend themselves once the battle reaches us. If you are not here when they are roused, we will have to proceed with the education without you.”
“No!” Alejandra responded, jolting upward as the memory of her “education” shot through her like a bolt of electricity. Neirbo tilted his head back ever so slightly, as though he were startled by the strength of Alejandra’s reaction.
Old-timer reached up to put his hand over Alejandra’s to steady her. “We’ll be there shortly,” he said in a lifeless monotone.
“Hurry. Time is short,” the android replied.
“Where will you be?” Governor Wong inquired urgently.
“You’re not leaving us again, are you?” Lieutenant Patrick echoed, desperation in his voice. “We need you here to guide us.”
“You’ll be okay,” Old-timer replied. “We’ll set a course to get you out of the solar system and as far from all this carnage as possible. The Vega system has the most rocky planets; it’s probably your best bet to find a life- sustaining planet.”
“But why won’t you come with us?” asked Lieutenant Patrick, almost pleadingly.
“We are not astronauts,” Governor Wong stated frankly. “We will need assistance.”
“We’ll make sure we can return to you,” Old-timer said, getting to his feet. “But right now, our friends need us more than you do, believe me. We have to be there to help them first.”
“I’ll stay behind,” Alejandra suddenly announced, stunning Old-timer, who turned his head quickly in astonishment.
“Alejandra, I’m going to need your help to explain this to the others. They aren’t going to be happy to be… machines. You can help me persuade them.”
“I won’t be able to go with you,” Alejandra replied.
Old-timer paused as he suddenly realized why Alejandra wasn’t going to accompany him. “I can’t believe it. You actually
“Craig, I have to.”
“No you don’t!” Old-timer yelled out as he shut his eyes tight and moved sharply away from her. “You’re impossible! There is no reason for you to go back into that body! None! Neirbo already explained to you how your powers work! It has nothing to do with your flesh or your…spirits or anything else!”
“I heard what he said,” Alejandra replied, still speaking in a patient, even tone. She wouldn’t lose her patience; she knew where Old-timer’s pain was coming from. “He may be right…”
“May be? Are you kidding me? Christ!” Old-timer shook his head violently and grunted with frustration like a pit bull rejecting his master’s leash. “Reason is never good enough for you people, is it? Seeing evidence with your own eyes is never good enough! Well, here we are, Alejandra! You’re made of metal, and you’re still alive! You’re still you! Neirbo ripped out your insides to show you, but it still wasn’t good enough to convince you that your old body is a useless, fragile remnant of evolution!”
“Craig…it’s my body,” Alejandra replied, keeping her hypnotic eyes locked on Old-timer’s. “I can’t let it die. Can you honestly tell me that if you had the chance to go into your old body, you wouldn’t do it? You’d just let it die?”
“That flesh body will die, Alejandra! It’s just a matter of time and not much time either! That’s what you can’t appreciate because you’re so young and your body is healthy, but believe me, you are going to fall apart and quickly!”
“I can always choose to become like you, Craig. If I let my flesh body die now, however, I can never go back. Even if I could somehow remake a flesh body or clone myself, it would always be a copy.”
Old-timer’s breathing was slowing as he kept his eyes locked with Alejandra’s. As usual, in the face of what seemed like impenetrable logic, she was able to make a point that would cause him to pause. Why was he even huffing and puffing at all? Oxygen was useless for him. He could walk out into space and have a stroll if he wanted, completely unprotected from the radiation and extreme temperatures. So why huff and puff when angry? The answer was obvious: because this body was a copy. Whether his new body was better than the old one he used to have or not, it was still imitating the things that made the old one human.
He nodded slightly. “Okay. Okay, if that’s what you want to do. I won’t stop you.”
“Thank you, Craig,” she responded softly. “But I need more than that; I need your help.”
In the infirmary, Alejandra looked down at her body. It was still covered in dust, even though the medical staff had tried their best to clear it away. The room’s ceiling was still torn apart where James had blasted it.
“How rare a moment this is,” Alejandra commented in awe.
Old-timer watched as she stood over her own body. He wondered if she could still sense what he was feeling—complete and utter loss. As soon as she returned to her original body, she would no longer be able to follow Old-timer to where he needed to go. Didn’t she realize that this act would separate them? Perhaps she confused his feeling of loss for what he felt for Daniella; perhaps she was just too overwhelmed by the magnitude of her own decision to sense anything from him at all.
“I’m ready,” Alejandra said, suddenly snapping Old-timer free from the consumption of his thoughts.
“Okay,” he responded, brandishing his assimilator and putting it to her neck.
“Wait,” she said as she gently held his hand back. “This doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”
“I never said—”
“You’re very easy to read, Craig,” she replied, her eyes filled with sincerity. “Don’t give up on me. When you’ve done what you need to do with the others, come back to me.”
Old-timer was dumbfounded for a moment before he finally nodded.
“Okay. I’m ready,” she said.
“Okay,” Old-timer responded as Alejandra took her hand from his and let him touch her neck with the assimilator. Her android body thundered and clanked to the ground.
“God. Those are heavy bodies,” Lieutenant Patrick observed. The lieutenant, Governor Wong, and a doctor were present in the infirmary.
Old-timer held the assimilator for a moment—inside was the pattern of Alejandra. It was like holding her soul. He held it as though he were holding the most precious and fragile egg in the universe as he placed it onto Alejandra’s flesh body. As soon as the object touched her, her body reacted, and color began to return to her
