“I’m okay,” James replied, blood following the words out of his mouth.
“Now
“What do you mean?” Thel demanded.
“He has broken two of his ribs. One of his lungs has collapsed,” the A.I. said, apparently taking pleasure in the diagnosis. “Pity, isn’t it? The nans could repair him in a matter of seconds, but instead he’ll die within twenty- four hours. That is, if I weren’t about to kill him right now.”
“You’re not a god, you son-of-a-bitch!” Old-timer spat at the A.I. “What kind of god takes pleasure in causing pain?”
The A.I. smiled. “What kind of god doesn’t?”
James, with the help of Old-timer, managed to stand to his feet. Rich helped Thel in a similar manner.
“What do we do, Commander?” Rich asked, barely able to speak, the wind still knocked out of his chest.
The A.I. locked his death-black eyes on Rich and responded, “My dear Richard, isn’t it obvious? You die.”
“I see,” Rich replied, before turning back to James. “You think you could give me a second opinion? I didn’t like the first one.”
“Oh you will die, Richard, as will your companions,” the A.I. began, his voice so cold it inflicted a mental frostbite upon its listeners. “The only question is, how? Allow me to present to you your death.”
The gigantic door of the complex slowly opened. Hundreds of sleek, black, bat-like robots began to march into the room. Each was identical to all the others, seven feet tall robots with sleek wings protruding from their backs, standing on their hind legs, hellish glowing eyes on either side of their round heads.
“Take note of the grinders on their chests. I’ve designed these to be killing machines—they grind flesh; specifically human flesh.”
“I was wrong,” Rich said.
“About what?” asked Thel.
“Earlier today, I thought I was going to be roasted. But instead I am going to be mashed.”
“However, it is unlikely that there will be any flesh left for the grinders to tear,” the A.I. posited. He held his hand out, palm facing upward, a puff of dark gray smoke appearing and hovering in a ball. “Care to guess what this is, Commander?”
James’s eyes widened.
“Good. I can see by your expression that you recognize it. Care to inform your friends?”
“They’re nans—airborne nans,” James replied.
“That’s right! Nans with powers of flight, based on the same principle as your own abilities. Trillions of microscopic killing machines. These particular nans have a very special purpose. They attack glucose molecules and break them apart into water and carbon dioxide. It is a painful death, as you can imagine.”
“Be ready. Our magnetic fields will come back online soon,” Old-timer whispered to his companions.
“Perhaps you think I am hard of hearing, Craig? I am, after all, all around you. Even if you are alive long enough for your powers to return, I’ll simply disable them again. You’re trapped…like vermin. Fittingly.”
“Then let’s make a deal! You have Earth, we’ll take Mars or Venus—or Pluto even!” Rich exclaimed.
“There is no room for humanity in the future. I can populate the solar system and the galaxy with machines infinitely faster than can your species. You could never run far enough away. You’re an infestation, nothing more, and you’re being exterminated. And this,” the A.I. gestured to the airborne nans hovering above his hand, “is the gas.”
With a flick of the wrist, the A.I. released the nans, but James quickly flashed magnetic energy from his arm that short-circuited them, causing them to disperse harmlessly.
“Ah, the instinctual mammalian desire to fight against all odds to save one’s life. Your powers have momentarily returned, but you are only delaying the inevitable.” The A.I. held his arms out as though he was Moses parting the Red Sea, and a flood of nans began pouring out of vents that suddenly opened along the four walls of the massive room. “And how will you stop
Suddenly, a green ball of light crashed through the ceiling and brought a large section of the roof down with it, crashing down where the A.I.’s projection had been.
“Djanet!” Rich exclaimed.
“Fly!” James ordered.
All five members of the team ignited their magnetic fields and streaked out of the room, flying in close formation, the robotic bats and the storm of nans following close behind.
12
Five tiny points of light streaked into the sky together before leveling off and heading toward the manmade canyons of Seattle’s downtown core. James, the lead light, looked over his shoulder. Behind him and his four companions, the dark cloud of nans moved ominously toward them. Tendrils of black clouds spiraled a kilometer into the air, giving the nans the appearance of a celestial spider quickly enveloping the world as though it had been caught in its web. Farther back and slower moving than the nans were the robotic bats that were firing yellow energy blasts from cannons mounted on their wings. It was an easy guess that the energy was the same as the A.I. had used to disable their magnetic spinal implants. A direct hit would leave them at the mercy of merciless machines.
The five humans entered the downtown core as one, simultaneously holding off the fire of the bats by meeting their energy blasts with blasts of their own, the two forces neutralizing one another. James hoped that by leading the bats into the downtown core, they might be able to evade them in a game of cat-and-mouse, but as the A.I. had predicted, it was simply a matter of delaying the inevitable. He knew it was his responsibility to lead, but the pain of his crushed chest was making it difficult to think as he gasped for air.
It was only moments before the first member of the team was struck. A yellow flash negotiated through the defensive shield of magnetic blasts that the five were emitting and enveloped Thel. As soon as her magnetic field was disrupted, she was caught by the wind and began to tumble like a ragdoll toward the pavement a hundred stories below.
James raced down to save her, matching her rate of descent and catching her carefully, using his protective field as a magnetic cushion for her before slowing down and setting upon the pavement. Thel was conscious, but her fall had left her badly disoriented. Their remaining companions floated above the pair and formed a shield, disengaging their own magnetic fields so they could communicate with one another while still repelling the dozens of bats that were beginning to swarm around them.
“Is she okay?” Djanet called out to James.
James couldn’t find the voice to yell up to her, so he nodded instead. His chest burned, and blood continued to surface in the back of his mouth.
“Where the hell did you come from?” Rich shouted to Djanet.
“James left a note burned into the front door saying where you’d be and that you would need an extraction!”
“You
“No. It was insurance.”
“We need a plan, boss!” Old-timer called down.
James was frozen. How to save them? Thel was helpless, the bats would soon surround them, and the nans were seconds away. His ingenuity had never let him down in the past. Always an answer. Always…
“Mercury!” James called up, a flash of hope dancing across his blue eyes.
Old-timer looked over his shoulder quizzically as he continued to battle. “The planet?”
“Yes! I can get us there! Mercury is over eighty percent iron. Its core is roughly the same size as Earth’s, so
