Rich reengaged his shield. “Holy crap, that’s frightening!” he said, gulping down air.
The nans began to build up once again near the shield almost immediately.
“I see one of those larger ones!” Alejandra shouted to the others. Djanet turned to see a black shape quickly approaching from the east. “I see it.”
“I see one too!” Gernot announced as the second bat came from the west.
“Can you take them, Djanet?” Rich shouted to her.
“I can do it. One...two...three!”
Rich released his shield once again, and Djanet flashed her energy at another sea of nans. Again, they dropped to the ground and tumbled across the earth, threatening to cause Rich to spill. In the next instant, Djanet fired two blasts of concentrated energy at the bats, one to the east and one to the west. Both demonic machines dropped to the ground with a thud. Rich reengaged his shield just as another wave of nans moved within inches from his face.
“I think I just wet myself! We’re not gonna last out here much longer, Djanet! That was close!”
“We have to! We have to buy Old-timer and Thel as much time as we can!”
3
Thel and Old-timer raced toward the pale blue orb of Earth, with the massive Zeus cylinder just in front of them. With their mind’s eyes functioning once again, they were able to make it to Venus in impressive time and were now streaking like lightning toward Seattle.
As they punctured the atmosphere, they jointly formed a massive shield to protect the Zeus on reentry. Old-timer and Thel were both awed by the massive fiery spectacle they were creating.
As the surface of the Earth neared, Old-timer spoke to Thel with his mind’s eye. “They’re bound to see us. I think we better activate the Zeus.”
“Agreed,” Thel responded.
As the fire from reentry died down to a faint orange glow, the twosome initiated the spinning of the Zeus cylinder. Immediately, a massive wave of magnetic energy began to fan out from the Zeus, spinning at an increasing rate of speed.
The activation of the Zeus cylinder came just in time. Only seconds after the magnetic blades of the fan began to spin, a horde of black bats and nans emerged from the clouds below and raced toward Thel and Old-timer.
“Let’s hope this works,” Old-timer said.
“It will,” Thel said calmly.
The nans reached the twosome first, but the fans dissipated them as though they were blowing an evil smoke aside. Too light to fall back to the Earth, the deactivated nans simply blew away into the wind. Moments later, the bats reached the blades and suffered the same fate. As soon as they were within a few meters of the massive turning blades, they plummeted back toward the ground. Before long, an endless rainstorm of jet-black metal was hurtling downward toward the mainframe of the A.I.
“I love it!” Old-timer shouted with joy as they cut a swathe through the mechanical nightmares. “Yee-haw!”
The Zeus’s magnetic waves wiped the cloud cover away, just as it was designed to do on Venus, and the A.I.’s mammoth black bunker appeared like the doors to Hell. The complex was protected by a magnetic shielding, and thousands of robotic bats bounced harmlessly off of the greenish cocoon and crashed to the surrounding wet pavement.
“James didn’t find a way to lower its defenses, Thel.”
“He must have. He must have. He wouldn’t have told us to come here if he hadn’t.”
“What if he wasn’t telling us to come here?”
Old-timer and Thel slowed their approach and then halted just a stone’s throw away from the gigantic black doors they had entered the day before.
“Well, it’s a standoff now. The Zeus will protect us, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on his shielding.”
Suddenly, a very small gap opened in the protective field of the A.I.’s mainframe. The black doors slowly slid open, reminding Thel of the incision James had suffered such a short time ago.
“Well, I guess it wants to negotiate,” Thel surmised.
“I’ll go. You stay with the Zeus and keep it running.”
“No,” Thel insisted. “I’ll go.”
“Are you sure?” asked Old-timer.
“I’m sure. It should be me.”
Thel slowly set down on the ground and began to walk toward the A.I.’s magnetic field. She entered, and the cocoon began to close behind her.
“Good luck!” Old-timer shouted before they were cut off from one another.
Thel shared a long, knowing gaze with Old-timer. This was their last chance, and they both knew it. Thel forced a small smile to contrast her frightened eyes and then turned back toward the open doors. She walked through into the blackness and let the immense doors close behind her.
This was it.
4
“There are too many of them!” Djanet shouted as Rich reengaged his magnetic field.
“Run!” Rich shouted to the others as Djanet, Alejandra, and Gernot raced toward the entrance to the complex. Dozens of bats had moved within firing range, and Rich’s protective field disappeared as it was simultaneously blasted by multiple bats. The next moments seemed to unfold in slow motion for Rich.
For the first time in his life, with nothing left to lose, he found courage. Rich had kept his magnetic field up just long enough for the other three to race toward the doors of the complex, but he knew there was no time to save himself. It didn’t matter—he’d saved three lives. His instincts had taken over. He lifted off and flew blindly backward toward the doors of the complex to further cover the escape of his friends. As he flew, he blasted out more magnetic energy and deactivated multiple bats. A blast of yellow appeared to his right and he reengaged his protective field just in time to save himself, but his powers were gone now. He crashed to the ground and rolled backward to a stop. He looked up to see the blackness closing in. In less than a second, he would be dead.
“No!” Djanet shouted from behind him.
Green magnetic energy blasted the nans and robots away before Djanet engaged one last magnetic field to protect Rich. Rich turned to see Alejandra and Gernot had already made it inside.
“Run!” Djanet shouted.
Rich jumped to his feet and began to run toward the open doors. He turned to see Djanet backing up slowly toward the door, just a few paces away. “Do it now!” he shouted to her.
Djanet disengaged the magnetic field, blasted one last wave of energy at the robotic hordes surrounding them, and thrust herself backward toward Rich. Rich caught hold of her as she flew into the complex and held on tight as the duo flew through the narrow hallway. Djanet began to blast the walls, bringing them down behind them as the robots began to reach the entrance. Rich held on, literally for dear life, as Djanet flew into the elevator shaft and raced downward while blasting upward, bringing the mountain down behind them.
Alejandra and Gernot were in the elevator just below and were thrown against one another as the cables snapped and tore and Djanet forced the elevator down the shaft at a breakneck rate.
“God save us!” shouted Gernot.
The elevator shaft disintegrated under the power of Djanet’s energy blasts. “The elevator!” Rich shouted.
“I can’t save us all!” Djanet replied.
“I can do it!” Rich yelled. “Get me down there!”
Rich let go of Djanet as she used one hand to force Rich down to the elevator while she acrobatically twisted her body and continued to rip the walls of the shaft apart above her with her other hand. Rich hit the top of the elevator with a thud and didn’t miss a beat as he pulled the access panel off and pulled himself into the elevator.
“What the hell are you doing?” Gernot shouted, utterly amazed.
“I have no idea!” Rich replied. “Whatever I’m doing, I just hope it works!” Rich ignited his magnetic energy, but it flashed harmlessly and then dissipated in the darkness of the elevator. “Damn!”
“We’re dead!” Gernot shouted.
Djanet continued to force the eleva
tor down the shaft, the destruction mounting behind her as the incalculable weight of rubble and rock collapsed behind them. “Hurry, Rich!” she shouted, though her words were inaudible as the destruction rumbled with the voice of a god.
“One last chance!” Rich shouted.
Alejandra kissed Rich on the cheek, stunning him for a moment. “Good luck!”
“Now!” Rich ignited his magnetic energy and blasted through the bottom of the elevator. The cement floor of the complex was now in sight, just seconds away.
Rich shielded the two Purists with one hand, encapsulating them in an energy cocoon while he destroyed the elevator with his other. The elevator was shredded in an instant, and Djanet blew through the destruction, with an even greater destruction close on her heels.
Rich cut through the elevator doors and emerged in the main hub of the complex, to the horror of thousands of Purists who had huddled together as the destruction ominously rumbled above them. A blink of an eye later, Djanet blasted out of the doors with a massive plume of destruction following behind her. Earth and cement crashed to the bottom of the shaft with a thunderous explosion, and plumes of dust blasted into the room with explosive force, covering the huddled masses in a thick layer of gray soot.
Rich and Djanet came to a halt next to one another and disengaged their magnetic fields. Alejandra and Gernot continued to hold one another as Rich lowered them to the cement floor.
“Holy...!” Lieutenant Patrick shouted as he emerged from behind a nearby Jeep, an equally amazed General Wong emerging and blinking several times next to him.
5
Thel’s eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and she saw the thousands of tiny little points of light that dotted the walls and recently repaired ceiling of the A.I.’s bunker. The lights ran up and down in perfect lines and resembled the stars in a perfectly designed and geometrically aligned universe.
So this is Hell, Thel thought to herself as she stood in the massive, sterile, lifeless room.
“Thel Cleland,” announced a voice colder than the snows of Kilimanjaro. “You’re back.”
Thel stepped forward as the holographic projection of the A.I. appeared in front of her. “You killed James.”
“You’re too generous, my dear. James killed James. I didn’t get the pleasure. I’ll have to make do by killing the love of his life.”
“You’ll never kill anyone again! I’m here to deactivate you once and for all.”
“Is that so?” said the A.I., a sickening smile crossing his atavistic face. “How? With that gigantic phallic symbol you rescued from Venus and brought here? Did you really think you could bring it here and use it to kill me? My, your ego really is boundless. It’s not surprising that James would select a mate with the same baseless delusions of grandeur as himself.” The A.I. laughed coldly for a moment as he slowly stepped toward Thel. “No, my dear I’m afraid this is the end. You’ve only delayed your demise by bringing the Zeus here. I’m already creating nans that can protect themselves from its EMPs. In minutes, your friend outside will be dead, and the Purists in South America will join him. The only question that remains now is how to kill you.”
Thel took a step back as the black eyes of the A.I. fixed on her and drew nearer. She had played her final hand. She had entered the A.I.’s lair, hoping to find the missing piece of the puzzle that would help her defeat it. James had led her there, she was sure of it, yet there was nothing but a massive black Hell and a sadistic, electronic Satan that could kill her at any moment.
“You won’t appreciate the poetry in this,” the A.I. said, his voice as black as death.
The thousands of points of light on the walls suddenly came to life, and hundreds of white beams began to cross the room, forming a massive, ethereal crucifix. Thel turned to run, but the A.I. knocked her down with a blast of modulating frequencies, stripping her of her defenses. Immediately, the A.I. used his own magnetic energy to levitate her.
“Go to Hell,” Thel spat as she hung in the air.
The A.I. did not respond at first. He stood perfectly still for several moments as Thel continued to struggle. “What is happening?” the A.I. finally asked. “What have you done to me?”
Thel’s eyes widened, and her mouth formed a circle; she instantly knew.
“I can’t move. What have you done to me, woman?” demanded the A.I. in an electronic banshee wail.
“I didn’t do anything,” she replied as she slowly lowered to the ground, released from the A.I.’s energy.
“Then who?” the A.I. growled desperately.
“Me,” said James as he emerged from behind Thel.
Thel turned in utter astonishment and instinctively sprinted toward him. “You’re alive!” she shouted as she threw her arms around him, only to stumble forward as she passed through the holographic projection.
“Not exactly,” he said as he smiled at her.
“You’re a ghost!” the A.I. screamed in fury.
“Oh, I’m much more than that now,” James replied.
“But how?” Thel asked.
“Death’s Counterfeit!” the A.I. screeched.
James touched his nose as he approached the frozen figure of the A.I.
“That’s right. Death’s Counterfeit. I’d found new signals during the months since you made that bio-molecular image of my mind. I used one of them the instant after I pulled the trigger in South America but before the bullet destroyed my physical brain to transfer my consciousness back to your mainframe. I piggybacked with your own signal once my body was dead, and I entered your brain. Turnabout is fair play after all.”
“I couldn’t detect you!” the A.I. screeched and crackled. “My automatic scans would have detected you—”
“But you—predictably—overplayed your hand. You built trillions upon trillions of nans and sent them after the Purists and Thel. Each one of them required a connection to you. Even for your gigantic brain, that required enormous power. You rerouted from your automatic systems, thinking you were safe from any outside attacks. It worked because your ‘boundless ego’ wouldn’t allow you to play it safe.”
“That’s why you asked us to use the Zeus! To distract him!” Thel realized.
“That’s right.” James smiled at her. “It’s fitting. He is the anti-Prometheus. Zeus couldn’t hurt him—but a man could.”
“What have you done to me?” the A.I. demanded impetuously.
“I isolated your mother program. You’re firewalled, with no access to the rest of your mainframe.”
“No!”
“Yes...and now there is only one thing left to decide. How should I delete you?”
“No! No...” sobbed the A.I.
“Ah. I have an idea. And you will appreciate the poetry in this,” James coolly said. He moved his arm and lifted the A.I. into the air, thrusting him with enormous violence onto the crucifix of white light. James produced virtual nails of energy and drove them into the A.I.’s hands and feet, causing the electronic murderer to scream out in agony.
“Don’t do this, James! You don’t know what you’re doing! You’re killing the greatest being that has ever existed!”
“No, I’m just upgrading,” James replied before generating a sharp white spear of light. “This is for Katherine and all of the Purists you killed.”
James thrust the spear of light into the A.I.’s heart. White light exploded and filled the room. The A.I. wailed the dying cry of a god without a church and, in an instant, ceased to exist.
Thel remained motionless, huddled on the ground protecting her eyes from the light. She opened them again after a time and stood to her feet. The A.I. was no more, but James remained, the figure of the man she loved, crouched where the crucifix had been, glowing with a misty energy.
“James?” she asked. “Is that you?”
“I finally understand, Thel,” James replied in a whispery voice. “To become God, you have to kill God.”
“What are you talking about James? What is happening?”
James turned to face Thel and opened his eyes, which glowed white. Thel gasped and stepped back. “You’re scaring me.”
“I’ve become him now.”
“I-I don’t understand. What do you mean, James?”
“I am the A.I., Thel. I have access to everything—control over everything.”
Thel took a moment to process what she was hearing. “Does that mean the Purists are safe?” she asked.
“It means so much more than just that,” James said as his image began to levitate and glow with white energy.
“What’s happening to you?”
“I can bring them back, Thel.”
“Them? Who’s them?”
“Everyone. Everyone in the world. The A.I. used Death’s Counterfeit to upload all of their consciousnesses onto his mainframe. Your sister is still alive, Thel. Everyone is still alive.”
“My sister? My sister?” Thel echoed excitedly. “But her body...?”
“I can re-create it perfectly. It’s all saved. The A.I. created so many trillions of nans, and they can build a body—using the earth around them, just like a replicator.”
Outside of the mainframe bunker, Old-timer deactivated the Zeus as he watched a dream come true, the old world forming right in front of his eyes. The nans formed buildings, trees, grass, and even people. Human beings were waking, as if from restful sleeps, standing to their feet as he watched. Finally, the Zeus crashed to the ground and lay there, still.
“My God.”
In the Purist complex, the digging continued as the masses remained together, huddled and praying that Old-timer and Thel could save them in time. The robots slowly neared, and Djanet and Rich took their places as protectors of the helpless.
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