“What is it?” I asked as something that OneZero said left Akron speechless.
He turned to us, slowly shaking his head. “I know why they drove us North.”
Chapter 65
“They’re not robots,” Akron explained.
I glanced at OneZero’s gleaming body and shook my head.
“Well, they are,” he amended. “But they weren’t always. Their world was also dragged away from its sun by the rogue, but theirs was captured, and they had to adapt. One of the ways they did that was to transfer their consciousness to machines. Now that they’ve found Earth, they’re going to transfer back.”
“So what are they?” I asked, looking at OneZero’s humanoid body.
“They’re made up of several different species, all of them sentient. And this one—” Akron pointed to OneZero and slowly shook his head. “I don’t know whether to believe her or not, but she says that she was human.”
I gaped at Akron and studied OneZero with new eyes. That would certainly explain why she looked so much like us, but how was that possible?
“And the other ones like her...?”
“Also human.”
“They’re the same as us?” Rachel asked in a soft voice.
I squinted at OneZero, and she stared back at me. “That’s impossible.”
“That’s what I said,” Akron replied. “She explained that her ancestors were abducted from Earth a long time ago.”
“Abducted by aliens...”
“About fifteen thousand years ago,” Akron added.
“That’s... what were we doing fifteen thousand years ago?”
“Rubbing sticks together to make fire.”
“And the other Screechers? What about the four-legged ones, and the discs?”
“According to OneZero, each of the different models represent distinct intelligent races.”
“Even the bug-sized assemblers?”
“Even them,” Akron confirmed.
“And all of them were somehow living in harmony with each other? That’s hard to believe.”
Akron shrugged. “I don’t know how much harmony there was—” He turned to OneZero and asked something in Spanish. She replied at length, and he translated. “She says a social hierarchy and peace was established after many bloody conflicts. The flying discs are in charge, followed by humans, and then the bug-sized assemblers. Last of all are the four-legged ones.”
“This is absurd,” I said. “If they had the ability to abduct people from Earth, and to invade us now, then they sure as hell had a way to escape their planet. Why would they just go along for the ride until they reached us?”
“Maybe Earth was the closest habitable world besides their own,” Akron suggested.
“Then why not take off in their spaceships and come here faster?”
Akron turned to OneZero and asked her something. They spoke for a few minutes.
“Well?” I prompted as soon as their conversation lapsed.
“She says that they did leave, but there weren’t enough spacecraft to evacuate everyone. They’re the ones who got left behind. Rather than go looking for a new home, they turned themselves into machines and built their civilization under the surface of their world. And the ones who came to Earth are just a fraction of their total population—they’re the ones who want to return to their organic bodies.”
I shook my head. “Still. Wouldn’t it have just been easier to build more spaceships?”
Akron spoke with OneZero again. A moment later, he nodded to me. “They did. There was constant migration to other planets the whole way here. She says they colonized dozens of star systems along the way. Earth was an after thought because they knew that it was already inhabited, and they thought that by now we would be more technologically advanced than them.”
“Why would they think that if they abducted us on spaceships when we were still rubbing sticks together to make fire?”
“That’s a good question,” Akron replied. He translated it for OneZero, and she explained.
I waited for him to translate for me.
“Apparently they didn’t abduct us. A species she calls los Primordiales—the Primordials—did that, but then they disappeared. Apparently, all of the other races they abducted were just as primitive as we were.”
“And they expected us to advance at the same rate as they did,” I said.
“Faster,” Akron said. “They wasted a lot of time with in-fighting.”
I snorted. “So did we... Then the reason they didn’t come sooner is because they were scared of invading us?”
Akron nodded. “The signals they sent were a test to see how we would react. When we didn’t send any spaceships to investigate, they realized that we must be less advanced, not more.”
The implications of all that sunk in belatedly, and I whistled softly. “If that’s all true, this is incredible. It means we’re not just making first contact. We’re making first, second, third...”
“Who cares?” Kate said, throwing up her hands. “Alex is out there, and all you can talk about is the kind of aliens that took him?”
I looked at Kate. “You don’t get it.”
“No! I don’t!”
“If there are humans among them, then they’re not all aliens, and like OneZero, some of them might be sympathetic. What’s more, humans are pretty high in their pecking order, which means that Alex and the Hartfords probably won’t be tortured or executed.”
“Probably?” Kate echoed.
I winced, realizing how bad that sounded. Turning to Akron, I added, “Ask her what she thinks the others will do with them.”
He did, and then translated. “She thinks they’ll be taken back to the border. The Screechers don’t want to hurt us. That’s why they evacuated everyone from the South rather than killing them.”
“Then they’ll freeze to death!” Kate said.
“Not if someone helps them,” I said.
She gave me a dubious look, as if to say that humans helping humans in the middle of this crisis was more than we could hope for.
“If they don’t want to hurt us, why did they want to know about Haven?” I asked.
Akron and OneZero spoke once more, and the billionaire explained: “That’s how she got us across the border—by telling them about Haven. She described it as a hidden city. The Screechers wanted to know where it was because they’re worried about pockets of resistance in their territory.”
When I heard Akron call them Screechers another thought struck me. “Why haven’t they tried talking to us in whatever language their ancestors used on Earth?”
After asking OneZero, Akron’s gaze swept back to me, and he shook his head. “She says too much time has passed. The Screechers developed a more efficient, universal language after they all turned themselves into machines. That screeching you hear is an acoustic form of binary. That’s why it sounds so high-pitched. The frequency has to be high in order to pack in more data.”
I remembered the sounds made by old dial-up modems and supposed that made some sense. Silence fell inside the submarine as we sat processing all of the information.
“I’m cold, Mommy.”
I glanced at Rachel as Kate rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm her up. For my part, I was actually pretty warm now that my body heat had been transferred to my wet clothes. Akron was right, the water outside was keeping the inside of the sub warm. Rachel was probably cold because she was hungry. We all were. There’d likely be plenty of food for us in Haven once we arrived. That thought made my mouth water, and then I remembered Alex and my chest began to ache. Guilt, grief, and despair churned around inside of me. Where would the Screechers leave Alex and the Hartfords? Would their clothes still be wet by the time they were kicked out into the snow? I imagined Alex collapsed somewhere on the side of the highway, his skin as pale and cold as the snow around him.
A shiver tore through me, and I glared at the back of Akron’s head. He couldn’t force us to stay in Haven. He’d l
et down his guard eventually, and then I’d find a way to sneak out and rescue my son.
Chapter 66
By the time we finally arrived at Haven, the hazy blue water had turned black, and the water in the bottom of the sub was up over our ankles. The only way we knew we had arrived was by the sensation of the sub slowing down, and by the subsequent clunk of something metallic touching the top hatch.
“Let’s go,” Akron said.
Everyone got up and followed him back to the ladder we’d climbed down hours earlier. He went up the ladder first, and opened the hatch with a manual lever and crank wheel. Whatever electronic locking system the hatch might have had was non-functional now from all the water that had poured in when we’d boarded the submarine.
Akron opened the hatch and we climbed up into an airlock. He shut the hatch behind us. Once it was sealed, he opened a panel inside the airlock to reveal what looked like an intercom. He touched a button and spoke into it, confirming my suspicions.
“This is Akron Massey in airlock two fourteen requesting ingress.”
He released the button and waited for a reply with his ear to the speaker grille. “Massey?” an astounded voice replied. “Is that really you?”
“It is. Open the hatch, would you?”
“You have a Screecher with you. Please tell me you didn’t lead them all here.”
“I didn’t,” Akron replied. “Don’t worry, she’s on our side.”
“She?”
“Yes, she. I’ll explain everything once we’re in.”
“Okay...” the voice replied.
I heard locking bolts thunking and then the hatch swung wide, revealing four men with harpoon guns already waiting for us on the other side. Their eyes found OneZero, and all four of them shifted their aim to her.
“Don’t shoot!” Akron said. “She’s friendly.”
* * *
Our armed escort led us down a short corridor and around a curving walkway lined with broad windows to a large, circular chamber with a domed glass ceiling.
The floor was an illuminated aquarium just a few feet deep, with colorful coral, rippled sand and darting fish. The center of the room sported a bar, and I assumed, a kitchen. Concentric circles of coral-crusted booths and tables ran around that, each of them beneath their own glowing jellyfish light fixtures, attached by invisible strings to the metal frame supporting the glass dome above our heads.
I marveled at all of that. Akron had obviously spared no expense in building Haven. He led us over to one of the booths, and we caught horrified stares from late-night diners as we approached. I knew they were looking at OneZero. I smiled and nodded to them, but none of them acknowledged my greeting.
Once we were all seated—except for OneZero, who didn’t fit at the table—Akron told one of the four men with harpoon guns to go find Richard Greenhouse and someone named Wesley Parker. He told a second man to go get us some towels and dry clothes.
The other two remained standing beside our table, their eyes and weapons never leaving OneZero.
“So?” Akron said, his gaze finding us across the table. “What would you like to eat?”
“Pizza!” Rachel said, before any of us could reply.
Akron laughed and smiled. “One pizza coming right up.”
I looked around for a waitress, but there weren’t any in sight. Akron spoke to the table. “Computer, we’re ready to order.”
“Of course. What would you like?” a pleasant female voice asked from a familiar black cylinder in the center of the table. I remembered the ones like that in Akron’s Bel Air mansion, and I realized that this was the same technology, or some subsequent evolution of it.
“Two large pizzas,” Akron said. “One with...” he trailed off and he looked to Rachel with eyebrows raised.
“Pepperoni!”
He nodded and his eyes flicked to me. “And?”
“Whatever you like,” I added.
“One with pepperoni and one with Italian sausage.”
“Yes, sir. And to drink?”
“Four hot cocoas and lots of water, please.”
“Coming right up. To whom should I charge the account?”
“Akron Massey.”
“Very well. Your order will be ready in thirty minutes. Please retrieve it from the bar when your name is called.”
I marveled at the degree of automation Akron had achieved here. “You could have changed the world with technology like that,” I said.
Akron snorted. “Yeah, it’s a pity the Screechers beat me to it.”
The conversation lapsed into an uneasy silence, and we sat staring out into the black depths beyond the dome. It felt wrong to be sitting here without Alex, waiting for food, as if the world hadn’t just ended and our son was actually someplace safe and warm like us. I felt like I should be trying to swim to shore or beating up the guards on my way to hijack the nearest submarine.
Instead, I just sat there, paralyzed with exhaustion and aching with hunger. It wasn’t right. It felt like I was giving up. How could I relax and enjoy this, knowing that my son was out there somewhere, hungry and cold?
“You made it!” a familiar voice said.
“Uncle Richard!” Rachel said, and bounced out of our laps. Kate and I watched as she collided with him and hugged his legs. He leaned down to kiss the top of her head, his eyes never leaving OneZero.
“What’s that thing doing here?” he asked quietly.
“That’s OneZero,” I said.
Richard frowned, and Akron waved him over. “Sit down and I’ll explain.”
He took a seat beside Akron. Rachel crawled back into our side of the booth, laying her head in my lap and making a pillow out of her arms.
“Where’s Alex?” Richard asked.
“They took him,” Kate replied in a cracking voice.
Richard’s expression became troubled. “I see.” He turned to Akron next. “And your family?”
“On their way to Mars.”
Someone else came striding across the illuminated floor, flanked by half a dozen harpoon-gun-carrying guards.
Akron looked up and waited for the man to arrive.
“This thing can’t be here,” the man declared, jabbing a finger at OneZero. I took him in at a glance—tall, bald, with glasses and a face that could have been chiseled out of stone. He had an air of authority about him, which Akron confirmed with his next breath.
“Wesley Parker, this is the Willis family,” he said by way of introduction. “Kate here is Richard’s sister.” His gaze turned back to Kate and me, and he added, “Wesley is the elected mayor of Haven. He took over after I left.”
I nodded to Wesley. “OneZero is on our side. We would never have made it this far if it weren’t for her.”
“OneZero?” Wesley asked, his brow furrowing and his glasses lifting. “You mean the robot?”
I nodded, and he scowled. “Will it come willingly to the brig, or do we need to start shooting?”
That sounded like an empty threat to me. Shooting in an underwater chamber surrounded by glass? They wouldn’t dare.
Akron said something to OneZero in Spanish. She replied, and then held out her hands to the men, as if waiting to be hand-cuffed. I frowned at that.
Wesley looked on incredulously. “It speaks Spanish?”
“It’s a long story,” Akron replied. “She’ll go willingly.”
“Good. Deputy Cole—” Wesley gestured to one of the men flanking him. “Cuff it.”
The man moved haltingly toward the robot, producing a set of handcuffs from his belt, which he then clasped awkwardly around OneZero’s wrists.
I smirked at that, remembering how one of the humanoid models had rolled a car off a bridge. Those handcuffs couldn’t restrain her.
“It’s okay,” I said to her. “We’ll sort this out.”
OneZero’s eyes bored into mine for a moment, but her head dipped in a shallow nod.
The mayor nodded to us with a tight smile. “Welcome to Ha
ven. Enjoy your meal.” To Akron, he said, “We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Of course,” Akron replied.
“Where are you taking her?” Rachel asked, lifting her head suddenly from my lap.
“Shhh,” Kate replied. “Go back to sleep, honey. They’re just going to show her to her room.”
“Oh. Okay. Can we go see her later?”
“In the morning.”
Rachel nodded and laid her head back down in my lap. I watched OneZero go. She glanced over her shoulder, and our eyes met. I couldn’t help feeling like she was accusing me, as if to say, this is the thanks I get? I smiled reassuringly at her, and she turned around.
“Well?” Richard prompted. “Is someone going to explain what the hell happened out there?”
Akron spent the next half an hour doing exactly that; then Massey’s name was called from the black cylinder on the table, and he and Richard went to pick up our food. Silence reigned as we ate and drank our hot cocoa. Someone had obviously forgotten about our dry clothes, but it didn’t matter anymore. After six hours in that leaky submarine and another hour here, we were mostly dry already anyway.
When there were only a few slices of pizza left, Rachel went back to sleep in my lap. Kate leaned her head on my shoulder, and I laid mine back against the booth, listening as Akron and Richard discussed the implications of alien robots that had once been humans, and might be again soon. They seemed to think that was a good thing, like maybe the human-aliens would be nicer to us once they got settled on Earth. They had obviously forgotten how well us humans had treated each other throughout history. This was like what happened when European settlers came to North America and met the Native Americans, except that this time we were the natives.
When they finally finished talking, Richard looked to us, his eyes bright with sympathy. “I’m really sorry about Alex. I know this is hard to accept, Kate, but you’re going to have to forget about him.”
Kate’s eyes blazed, but she said nothing.
Richard looked to Akron for support, and the billionaire shook his head. “I already explained that they can’t leave.”
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