“I am merely stating the truth,” the A.I. replied. “We cannot be blind to the dangers.”
“So what do you suggest we do?” asked Jim.
“What humanity has always done,” answered the A.I. “We will try our best.”
“We?” Katherine reacted to the A.I.’s unexpected inclusion of itself under the umbrella of humanity. “Excuse me for a second here, but aren’t you a computer?”
“Yes, I am,” the A.I. replied, “and I do not think of myself as a human being, if that is what troubles you.”
“If you don’t consider yourself human, then why the ‘we’?” Katherine asked.
The A.I. smiled patiently. “The term ‘human’ is a biological one. I am clearly not biological and, therefore, cannot be human, though the term itself is irrelevant. What I am, however, is an extension of human intelligence.”
“And therefore not a competing species,” James said, demonstrating his comprehension of the A.I.’s logic.
The A.I. nodded. “Hopefully, the omnipotent intelligence we are considering birthing will view itself in the same way—as an extension of humanity rather than as competition for it.”
“That’s not a gamble I’m willing to take,” Katherine struck back. “If you try create this thing,” she said, addressing all of them but saving her hardest stare for Jim, “I’ll do everything in my power to stop you.”
“What do you think gives you that right?” James interceded.
“What gives you?” Katherine snapped back.
“May I suggest a compromise?” the A.I. began in a radiating wisdom. “I suggest we put our newfound technology to a smaller-scale test that will allow us to successfully deal with the present crisis.”
“And how will that work exactly?” Katherine asked in a tone tinged with suspicion.
“If we initiate the program, which I have codenamed Trans-Human, here in our solar system with a powerful enough kick start, then we can immediately use it to reverse the informational processes that have taken place over the last twenty-four hours.”
Katherine’s breath was immediately stolen from her lungs when she heard the suggestion. Were such miracles truly possible? Was the trinity surrounding her really that powerful?
“And how do we get a kickstart that big?” James asked. “Only the sun could possibly have that much initial energy.”
“Correct, James.”
“We’d need to construct a device for releasing the sun’s potential,” James continued as he worked out the equations roughly in his mind.
At that very moment, Jim was doing the exact same thing. “An anti-matter device is the only thing I can think of that would generate that kind of reaction,” he observed. “But how could we get our hands on anti-matter in quantities that high?”
“Fortunately, that has already been taken care of for us,” replied the A.I. “At this very moment, the androids are embarking on a mission to destroy the sun and vaporize the solar system in an attempt to destroy the nans… and they are using an anti-matter missile to do it.”
11
Old-timer gazed through the see-through skin of the android ship’s hull. The storm of nans formed a pillar that was more than a light minute in height. It looked like a beautiful celestial gas formation, the sun gleaming off one side while the other side cast an unnatural night—on the dark side was hell. That was where the nans were slashing and tearing through the android collective. Every second, a million people died a meaningless, agonizing death. The pillar was so massive that it appeared like a still painting—but as Old-timer remained fixed upon it, he could see it change ever so subtly, the way golden clouds would shift above him as he lay on his back on the beach at Corpus Christi. Every subtle change in the shape of the nan cloud, however, indicated a vicious shift in the microscopic attack against the androids. Anyone unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end had no chance. One’s only hope was that the nanobots didn’t come their way.
“Three minutes until departure,” Neirbo announced in his typically gravelly and monotone voice. In addition to Neirbo, there were seven other androids onboard. Old-timer immediately thought of Neirbo’s explanation for why Alejandra had sensed such terrible danger when she entered the torture room with him—he sensed something similar.
“They fixed my face up fine,” Rich said suddenly, putting his hand on Old-timer’s back in a gesture of reconciliation.
“Looks good,” Old-timer replied. He thought of forcing a smile but couldn’t will it to happen.
“No hard feelings, right?” Rich asked.
“Of course not,” Old-timer answered. “Never.”
“Good,” Rich said with a nod. He followed Old-timer’s eye line and observed the nan cloud—it had shifted from the form of a pillar into something resembling a mushroom cloud. “I hate those things.”
Old-timer didn’t react. He felt numb. Something was seriously wrong.
“Hey,” Rich began, sensing his friend’s torment, “this is our chance to get at least some payback. I’m going to miss our home too, but those little freaks have already taken it from us. The least we can do is give them a receipt.”
Old-timer didn’t respond.
Rich, expecting, at the very least, some sort of retort, suddenly began to feel Old-timer’s dread. “Are you going to be okay?”
Old-timer took his eyes off of the cloud and then turned slightly, scanning over the androids who were hovering over the anti-matter missile that had recently been lowered into position. “Rich,” Old-timer whispered, “keep your eyes peeled.”
12
“We have to hurry,” Jim said in reaction to the A.I.’s revelation that time was now, at once, both their only friend and their worst enemy.
“I have one more question first,” James announced, stopping Jim in his tracks. James turned to the A.I. “If you have Jim here, who has all of my abilities, why did you have to wait for my arrival to put your plan into action?”
“The reason is because, my son,” the A.I. began, “like me, you were deleted while occupying the operator’s position in the mainframe. The reversible side of the mainframe does have some limitations, and one of those is that one cannot transcend their position at the time of deletion. Jim cannot access control of the mainframe, while you, on the other hand, can.”
“There can be two operators at once?”
“Yes,” the A.I. responded, “and our plan requires that there be two beings in control of the Trans-Human program at its inception.”
“Why two?” Jim asked.
“The detonation of the anti-matter missile, in combination with the Trans-Human program, will initiate a paradox chain reaction. At first, it will be the universe’s greatest and most efficient computer, and one of us must physically be there to run the program. This, of course, will require that you be simultaneously linked to the mainframe.”
“And what’s your part in this?” James asked.
“I’ll remain here. I will ask Trans-Human to reverse itself and, once the reversal begins, I will be encapsulated in a firewall that will remain in our current time,” the A.I. explained. “Remember, we are running time backward, so after the detonation, the blast radius will suck the solar system into the past. You’ll physically be too
