close to the explosion to escape it. You’re going to go back in time as well, and your consciousness will not be able to exist in both time frames at once.”
“What if you came with me and we terminated the signal and used Death’s Counterfeit to abandon our physical bodies and return to the mainframe?” James suggested.
“The blast will have so much initial force that it’s almost certain that our signals would be caught in the wake and we would both end up caught in the time warp. This must not happen. If we successfully run time backward and no one remains protected against its effects, then we will be doomed to simply repeat the same errors.”
“Will Jim and I be protected too?” Katherine asked.
“Yes,” the A.I. replied. “Everything in the reversed mainframe will be protected by the firewall and will remain in our current time.”
James nodded. “I understand now. It’ll take teamwork.”
“It will take trust,” the A.I. echoed.
“So what do you say now, James?” asked Jim. “Are you onboard?”
James took a moment to think it over. Everything the A.I. had said made sense, yet James had been wrong in his judgments before. If this really was the A.I. and not a ruse, there was still the chance that it was simply trying to take control of the solar system for itself.
“This is the part where you use your reason, my son,” said the A.I.
James nodded. “I don’t really have a choice. If I help you and you’re deceiving me, I could lose everyone I’ve ever loved or cared about and die myself. If I do nothing, I’m guaranteed to lose everyone.” James sighed a heavy sigh, the weight of the world sitting on his shoulders again. “So I’ll have to trust that you’re not deceiving me. Okay, I’m on board.”
Jim smiled a wide grin as an equally happy expression painted itself across the A.I.’s countenance.
“There is one more thing,” the A.I. suddenly interjected.
“What’s that?” asked James.
“If you are going to be physically going on a mission to intercept the anti-matter missile, you are going to need a new body—one powerful enough to do the job.”
13
“We’re ready,” Neirbo declared. “Let’s initiate the launch,” he ordered his android companions. “Every second we wait here, more people are dying.”
“What’s our ETA for reaching our firing position?” Djanet asked.
“We’ll reach it in nine minutes,” Neirbo replied.
“Whoa,” Rich reacted. “How is that possible? Even at the speed of light, we couldn’t make it there that fast.”
“Wormholes,” Old-timer replied.
“If we’re going to use a wormhole,” Thel began, “then wouldn’t we reach our destination instantaneously?”
“No,” Neirbo replied. “The amount of energy required to make a wormhole big enough for this ship to get through limits how far the wormhole can go. Therefore, we’ll be using multiple, shorter wormholes to cut down the distance we have to travel.”
“Amazing,” Djanet observed. “It’s like suturing your way there, using a thread to pull the material of space together.”
“That’s how you were able to move so quickly into our solar system,” Thel realized. “Your technology is phenomenal. We’ve only ever been able to generate wormholes big enough for communication signals to pass through. To put large objects through is…like Djanet said: Amazing.”
Neirbo’s usually expressionless face showed a rare hint of pride in response to Thel’s admiration. “You’ve never been through a wormhole before?”
“No. None of my people have,” Thel replied.
“I have,” Old-timer stated. “We’re in for one wild ride, lady.”
Neirbo nodded. “We are indeed.” He turned to one of his subordinates. “Engage the first wormhole.”
The android simply put his hand on the controls in front of him, palm flat, and instantaneously the ship was enveloped in a sensory overload of warping light and sound. The ship shook unpredictably, sometimes in a low vibration, other times in a strong, rocking horse-like motion.
Rich stumbled to the floor, and Old-timer put his hand out to help him up. “You’d never last eight seconds on a bronco,” he said.
“I have no idea what that means,” Rich replied.
Suddenly, the ship exited the wormhole and slid back into regular space. The sun had doubled in size from their perspective, and it was immediately evident that they had traveled an enormous distance.
“Amazing,” Thel repeated before Neirbo gave the signal to initiate the next wormhole.
Space opened up and swallowed them once again.
14
The A.I. gestured with his left hand for James to take his place beside him in the operator’s position. James took a gulp of simulated air before stepping onto the platform. As soon as his feet met the floor, his consciousness became one with the reversed mainframe.
“I missed this,” James whispered.
“It was difficult for you to surrender your power,” the A.I. observed. “For a very good reason, I think.”
James was taken aback by the A.I.’s assertion. If anyone could understand how he felt, however, it was the A.I. “I felt it was too much power for any one person to have,” James confided.
“The acquisition of knowledge, wisdom, and imagination is never a bad thing, James.”
“But if knowledge is power and power corrupts, then what if absolute knowledge corrupts absolutely?”
“The flaw is in the second premise, James. Although power can, indeed, corrupt, those that it does corrupt are corrupted precisely because of their lack of wisdom, knowledge, and imagination.” The A.I. turned to James and put his hand on the human’s shoulder. “Seeing the interconnections between all things, between all beings, only increases a being’s ability to make ethical and wise decisions. The more holistic a being’s knowledge becomes, the more ethical and moral that being becomes. Corruption can only come from ignorance, whether that ignorance is willful or not. James, my son, do not be afraid to know.”
James nodded. He felt he’d just been given the advice he’d been waiting for his entire life. “I won’t be anymore.”
“Good, my son—and now,” the A.I. smiled, gesturing for James to peer with him into the immensity of the mainframe, “it is time for you to unleash your imagination as well. The androids are heading toward the sun on a mission to detonate an anti-matter missile and destroy the solar system—the nanobots will undoubtedly, anticipate this and attempt to intervene. Only you will be able to stop them.”
“How can I possibly do that? I’d have to be impossibly fast, strong—”
“The answer is in your question,” the A.I. replied. “You are right in your assertion that you will have to be faster, stronger, and smarter, amongst many other factors. You are incorrect in your assertion that this is impossible.”
James absorbed the A.I.’s words, then turned back to look at the massive expanse of the reversed mainframe; in the operators position, he was able to see all the information at once and access it as well. The knowledge at his disposal was a sea that expanded further than any person other than James could imagine.
“You’re suggesting that I become a…superman,” James observed.
“I am suggesting that you set yourself free, James. I am suggesting that you transcend. There are no
