find their own happiness, in whatever way they choose, and in the process saving untold billions of lives. So, what was the right thing to do?”
“Now you sound like Dr. Granger.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose, slowly. Painfully.
“If Atopia is destroyed, billions will die.”
26
THE MOMENT OF truth had arrived.
We were watching projections of the two converging storms, overlaid with a glowing array of plotted future paths of Atopia through them. The phutures were stabilizing as we approached time zero. Everything was coming together and I readied to power up our weapons systems.
“Thanks for everything,” said Rick as we waited in the final moments. “Whatever happens, I wanted to thank you for trying to help with Cindy.”
I looked at him. How quickly our roles had reversed. He was pathetic now.
“Of course, Commander,” I said to him. “We’ll find her, get her out somehow.”
He nodded, his slightly bloodshot eyes holding my gaze for a moment. He smelled of alcohol.
“You ready for this?” he asked, watching the display.
“As I’ll ever be.” The high altitude displays of the storms had a mesmerizing, hypnotic effect. They centered on the pulsing orb of Atopia highlighted near their convergence point. We would only have a window of a few minutes to get this right.
The room was deadly quiet as we sat and watched the storm systems engulf the entire volume of the room. They were all waiting on me. I looked up at Kesselring, Rick, and then at Marie. Patricia hadn’t shown up in person, but I knew she was watching through her proxxi.
“On my command, power up the weapons systems,” I instructed, waiting, feeling for just the right moment as I fed the information flowing in through my extrasensory splinter network. I could feel the winds ripping at the surface of Atopia, the forests heaving and tearing, the waves pounding against her hull.
“On my mark,” I said, raising my hand. “Five… four… three…”
Everyone held their collective breath.
I waited.
Something held me back—something inside me. Someone inside me.
I continued to wait, trying to understand what was going on. Interminable seconds ticked by. Then I understood. It had been sitting there in front of me all the time, but I just hadn’t been able to see it.
Until now.
“For God’s sake Jimmy!” screamed Kesselring. “What the hell are you waiting for?”
27
“WHAT THE HELL is he doing?”
Bob stopped his pacing and looked at me. He didn’t have access to Command and couldn’t see what I saw now. Jimmy was standing motionless as critical seconds slipped by. We all watched in disbelief while Kesselring roared at him again.
“Bob, I need to go,” I said without waiting to discuss, leaving behind a tiny splinter while I snapped my main subjective into Marie’s body at Command.
Everyone in the room was frozen, all except Kesselring who had crossed the room and was standing in front of Jimmy now, holding his shoulders and shaking him. Jimmy didn’t even look like he was there. I strode over and pulled Kesselring away.
“Jimmy!” I yelled, looking directly into his slack face. The window of opportunity was closing fast.
At that moment his face came back to life, his eyes flashing as he turned to look at me, but what he said next stunned the room even more.
“Power down all weapons systems immediately!” he ordered. “And shut down the propulsion systems!”
“Belay that!” I yelled back, pinning the system technicians in place with my phantoms.
Everyone else stood by hopelessly, watching the two of us. I reached into the Command network with my other phantoms and tried to gain control of the systems as he blocked them.
My mind raced. The Terra Novans had gotten to him somehow. We had ceded enormous power to Jimmy for this operation, and I now realized that perhaps we’d put all our eggs into one basket. Furiously, my mind splintered into hundreds of shards that shot straight at Jimmy’s command and control structure in the multiverse worlds spreading out from Command.
I could feel Kesselring joining me, but he hadn’t the power in these worlds that I had.
Desperately, I quickened my mind and began launching thousands and then millions of attacks and feints and counterattacks at his cyber defenses, projecting millisecond phutures as I tried to find any weaknesses to exploit. The milliseconds became seconds, the window to save Atopia was closing.
“Stop this!” I screamed at him.
“Stand down, Patricia, I’m warning you!” he yelled back.
Desperately we grappled with each other, and then everything went white in a blinding flash of pain.
As my mind reassembled itself and my senses and metasenses slowly reintegrated, one by one, the world slowly came back into focus. My ears were ringing, and I was sitting on the floor. Everyone in the room looked stunned. What the hell was that?
Jimmy was looking at me calmly. The point of no return had passed. Atopia was sitting motionless, a sitting duck, doomed.
“Do not touch anything,” said Jimmy finally. “Everything is under control.”
28
THE WORLD STOOD transfixed by the scene. Jimmy had begun broadcasting the scene direct from Command and into the mediaworlds at large. An audience of billions had already been tuned in to the drama of the destruction of Atopia, but not for the reason we thought.
Jimmy stood, his calm and resolute image hanging over the bewildered and powerless Patricia Killiam in the holoscreens and lens displays of the world as they watched.
“General McInnis,” called out Jimmy, straightening up, “we’ve powered down all systems and we will sequence down our fusion core at your request. I have opened all command and control functions to you. Please acknowledge.”
There was a moment of silence before General McInnis’ voice responded, “Goddamn boy, acknowledged. What the hell…”
“Please General,” interrupted Jimmy, “please stand down.”
The General’s image was now projected into Command. He just stood there, not sure what to say as he scratched his head.
“You kids sure have some explaining to do.”
One by one, surprised and shocked expressions clicked through the other faces in Command, and I wondered what was happening until suddenly it happened to me too.
