me. I don’t have time to explain.”
He kissed her.
“But I don’t want you to forget everything that’s happened,” he said. He turned to Old-timer. “Do you still have the device they use to download consciousness?”
Old-timer reached in his pocket and pulled out the small, black stick. “They call it an
James took it and placed it on Thel’s neck.
She jerked away from him. “No!”
“Honey,” he said, “you have to trust me. 1 can reenter any of your bodies at any moment. She wants to destroy the solar system. I want to save it—and I can bring everyone back.”
“Bring them back?” Djanet gasped. “How?”
“I don’t have time to explain it,” he replied. “I can do it though.” He turned back to Thel and looked deeply and earnestly into her eyes. “I can do it.”
She looked back at him, at his new body, this incredible, almost magical achievement, and replied, “I know.”
“I love you, Thel.”
“I love you, James.”
“See you soon,” James said, winking his left, glowing eye. He placed the assimilator on her neck, and she immediately lost consciousness, her body curling up into the fetal position as she floated gently in the zero gravity. He temporarily transferred the pattern from the assimilator to himself before sending it back to the A.I. on Earth, where it would safely survive the inception of the Trans-Human program and subsequent reversal of the solar system. He then turned to Djanet and Rich. “Your turn.”
Rich winced. “I don’t know about this, Commander. The last time I got stuck with one of those things, I woke up as a robot. I’d really rather not go through that again.”
“This time when you wake up, you’ll be your old self,” James smiled. “I just don’t want you to forget everything that has happened in the last twenty-four hours. You’ve got to trust me, guys.”
“It’s James,” Old-timer echoed, speaking in a reassuring tone. “He knows what he’s doing.”
“All right,” Djanet said, bravely moving forward and floating toward James. “I trust you. Let’s do this.”
James placed the assimilator on her neck, and her muscles instantly relaxed. She remained in a standing position, almost appearing like a sleepwalker as she swayed slightly to and fro. Rich floated to her side and took her unconscious body into his arms. He felt his stomach twist as he considered the thought of never seeing her again. “You better know what you’re doing,” he said to James.
James smiled. “I give you my word.” He placed the assimilator onto Rich’s neck and he too, instantly, went to sleep.
As soon as they were alone, Old-timer echoed Rich. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing.”
“It’s the A.I.’s plan. It should work.”
“Before you put me to sleep,” Old-timer said, regarding the assimilator in James’s hand, “I wanted to say thanks for taking care of that Neirbo for me. I only wish it had been more painful. I owed him—big time.”
“You may still get your chance,” James replied. “Are you ready?”
“I’m ready,” Old-timer replied.
James placed the assimilator on his friend’s neck and watched him slip out of consciousness. “I’ll see you soon, old friend,” he said as he sent Old-timer’s pattern back to the safety of the A.I.’s mainframe.
“Much sooner than you think!” Old-timer suddenly shouted as his eyes suddenly blazed open and he grasped James around the neck, twisting him around and thrusting him right through the thin hull of the ship and out into space.
Before James had time to reorient himself, Old-timer had turned his attention to the anti-matter missile and quickly removed it from its platform. He mounted it like a cowboy hopping on the back of his trusty steed and launched himself toward the sun. Just as James began to pursue, another wormhole opened up and gulped down Old-timer and the anti-matter missile—it vanished as quickly as it had opened.
“Oh no,” James whispered.
21
Back at the mainframe, James turned to the A.I., who was still standing beside him in the operator’s position. “What can I do? Can we track 1 somehow?”
“No. Not from this range, I’m afraid.”
“I need help here. I’m at a loss,” James responded, panic seeping into his voice. Even with his new powers, he felt utterly helpless.
“Use your reason, my son,” the A.I. replied in a master’s calm and patient tone. “Remember: the android’s limited wormhole technology will not allow her to have traveled a great distance. Also, Craig’s android body will not be able to withstand the sun’s heat for long.”
“Meaning she’ll have to pause and set a course for the missile before the body gives out,” James realized. “I have to find her before then.”
Back in space, he blasted away from the android ship, in the direction of the sun, using his new senses, feeling the molecules around him, waiting to feel the ripples in space that 1 and the missile would have made when their wormhole opened up and spat them out. It wasn’t long before he found them. “I’ve got them,” he affirmed.
1, in Old-timer’s possessed body, raced toward the sun, still mounted on the back of the missile. The blazing-white heat was melting Old-timer’s hair and the flesh on his face, but 1 continued, undeterred.
James overtook them quickly, turning back to see 1’s grimace as the flesh on Old-timer’s metal frame became red with the heat and peeled off, streaming off into glowing red globes in her wake. He held his hand up and began to manipulate her molecules, scattering them so Old-timer’s frame disappeared in a puff of smoke, instantly left behind by the careening missile.
“Excellent work, James,” said the A.I. in his ear. “You have a clear path now. However, you must hurry and download the Trans-Human program into the missile. I calculate that there are less than sixty seconds before it will have reached its intended detonation location.”
“I’m on it,” James replied as he placed his palm on the side of the missile. The Trans-Human program was within him, and once his skin made contact with the missile, he was able to download it into its onboard computer.
“It’s going to take another twenty seconds to bring the program online,” James related to the A.I. “This is going to be close.”
Back on Earth, Katherine, Jim, and the A.I. watched the events unfold through James’s eyes. “What if he doesn’t activate it in time?” Katherine asked.
“He will,” Jim replied, trying to sound reassuring, though he was truly unsure.
“Five seconds,” James said. The light from the sun was now too much for even his new eyes to filter out, and the heat was beginning to cause his skin to glow red as it threatened to liquefy.
“Done!” he finally shouted as he let the missile continue on its trajectory without him; he retreated as quickly as he could. “It’s away!”
Only a handful of seconds later, the anti-matter missile ignited.
22
James had made just enough distance between himself and point zero that he was able to turn and, through his mental connection, give those back on Earth a view that was unlike anything any human had ever
