by John Zakour
‘‘Them and the Moon?’’ I asked.
Sputnik’s smile broadened. He may have been mad, but he was sincere. ‘‘I realize the Moon is a beautiful place; one million hand-picked people living equally and in perfect harmony.’’
‘‘Yeah, yeah,’’ I said. ‘‘Nice speech. All you need is sappy theme music playing in the background, like that ancient cola commercial.’’
No sooner did I get done speaking when friendly, upbeat music starting playing throughout the building. It was freaky, surreal, and made me kind of thirsty.
‘‘Is that better?’’ Sputnik asked, drawing ever nearer.
‘‘Strangely, yes.’’
Sputnik continued. ‘‘Like I was saying, the Moon is a wonderful place, but we are a closed environment. Even I know there is no such thing as the totally perfect society. We are always striving to improve.’’ He paused for a moment, then waved at the chambers. ‘‘That’s where these people come in. They are the best Earth has to offer. They will help seed our population long after Earth is a dead decaying rock.’’
Even the snappy theme music didn’t make that last part sound good.
‘‘From what I understand, Earth has a few billion good years left in her,’’ I said.
‘‘Actually, Zach, the exact number of years, not taking into account any new global warming . . .’’
I cut HARV off. ‘‘Big picture here buddy.’’
Sputnik wiped a fake tear from his eye. ‘‘Sadly, Earth is going to die a premature death.’’
‘‘How premature?’’ I asked, despite my better judgment.
‘‘It dies today,’’ Sputnik said. I felt the ice in his words. ‘‘The Earth showed its true colors by refusing to grant us our freedom.’’
A couple questions immediately sprang to mind. Actually, my first question was going to be, ‘‘Are you nuts‘? But I figured, one, he probably was, and two, that wouldn’t help the situation. So I went with a less obvious question.
‘‘Just exactly how do you plan on destroying Earth?’’ I asked.
Sputnik stopped advancing and gave me a toothy grin. ‘‘I’ll let you figure that out for yourself, my friend.’’
‘‘I’m not your friend,’’ I said.
‘‘Believe me, Mr. Johnson, I am about to be Head Administrator of all that’s left of humanity, a new and better humanity. You want me to be your friend.’’
I pondered his words. I examined his expression. I looked over his followers. It hit me.
‘‘You’re going to force the ZAP asteroid into Earth. Aren’t you?’’ I said.
‘‘You see, Zach, that’s why you’re still alive. You will make a good addition to our gene pool. You are a bit rough around the edges . . .’’
‘‘A bit?’’ Carol interrupted.
‘‘More like completely jagged around the edges,’’ HARV added.
‘‘Hey, whose side are you guys on?’’
‘‘Yes, you certainly have your flaws,’’ Sputnik agreed. ‘‘But they will just help make us a better place. I am wise enough to understand that we learn just as much from our mistakes as we do our successes. You will help us all learn.’’
I hate it when I’m not sure if I’ve been complimented or insulted.
‘‘Just curious, Sputnik, how would you have justified this if Earth had voted for your freedom?’’
He stopped his advancement. His trailing mob stopped too.
‘‘Come again?’’
Now it was my turn to point to all the chambers. ‘‘Surely you had this planned for a long time. You wanted Earth to turn you down. This gave you an excuse to get violent.’’
‘‘Please, I knew the people of Earth were too stubborn and pig-headed to give us what we wanted, to do the right thing.’’
Now the picture was finally zooming into focus. These psis had to be blurring my mind. That’s why I didn’t figure it out sooner. I saw why the Mooner killed the council members. I saw Sputnik’s endgame. It was a nasty one.
‘‘You even goaded the Earth by killing the council members. You might have convinced your blind sheep that that was for the best, but you’re a politician, you know how politicians think. You knew those murders would galvanize them to be totally against you. You also knew they wouldn’t blame you at first, they’d go for the easy patsy, Shannon Cannon, giving you time to plot your plot.’’
‘‘Plot your plot?’’ HARV said in my head.
I paused to let what I said sink in. I knew I couldn’t get through to Sputnik but I thought I had a shot at the others. If I could turn them we’d have a chance here.
‘‘You don’t want freedom, you want genocide. That’s all you’ve wanted all along. You want to destroy the Earth so you and your perfect little society can create the perfect people.’’
Total silence.
‘‘Daddy, is this true?’’ Lea asked.
‘‘Take out the girl and computer. Johnson is mine!’’ Sputnik ordered.
To say all hell broke loose right then and there would be one of the greater understatements of my career.
Chapter 31
Sputnik leaped ten meters, tackling me to the ground. That caught me off guard. Not that he could tackle me but that he could jump so far so easily. The really scary development was that I tried to fire at him but nothing happened. Sputnik and I rolled over and over.
‘‘HARV, what’s going on?’’
‘‘You are currently being pummeled,’’ HARV answered bluntly.
‘‘Why?’’
‘‘Sputnik wants to capture you but for some reason not kill you,’’ HARV answered.
‘‘I gathered that.’’
‘‘Then why did you ask, Zach? Do you just like the sound of my voice in your head?’’
‘‘No, that’s not it,’’ I said.
Sputnik and I continued our rolling tussle.
‘‘Why couldn’t I fire GUS?’’
‘‘Oh that!’’ HARV said as if he was the Japanese intelligence in WWII and he had just broken the Navajo codes. ‘‘That’s easy to answer!’’
Sputnik and I exchanged a few punches, in between grappling on the ground.
‘‘Then answer it, HARV!’’
‘‘Oh right. Your interface is being blocked.’’
Guess I should have seen that coming.
‘‘GUS isn’t as advanced as I am, so it makes 110 percent sense that if they can, hic, interfere with me then they can do the same, hic, with him. The good, hic, news is, hic, their bots are about as, hic, advanced as, hic, GUS; so I was, hic, able, hic, to, hic, take them offline.’’
I managed to flip Sputnik off me and pushed myself to my feet.
‘‘HARV, do you have the hiccups?’’
‘‘Ah, no, hic.’’ There was a slight pause. ‘‘Then again maybe I, hic, do,’’ he said out loud.
I ducked under a lightning fast left hook thrown by Sputnik.
‘‘What the DOS is going on?’’
‘‘I’ve built up defenses against them shutting me down,’’ HARV sang. ‘‘So they’ve worked around them. Their battle bots may have, hic, hic, had, hic, a backdoor virus, making me, hic, for the lack of a better, hic, word, hic, hic, drunk.’’
Sputnik caught me with an uppercut to the solar plexus that sent me flying, crashing down near the chambers. If it wasn’t for my body armor the blow would have done serious damage to my insides.
I pushed myself up off the ground again. ‘‘HARV, how is Sputnik able to toss me around so well?’’
‘‘He’s, hic, wearing, biometric armor just, hic, like you,’’ HARV sang to the tune of ‘‘Three Blind Lab Mice.’’ ‘‘Probably stole the design from Randy’s, hic, hic, lab, hic, hic, hic, hic,’’ HARV added, this time to the tune of Beethoven’s Fifth.
‘‘Great,’’ I said.
‘‘Actually, Zach, that’s, hic, not great, it’s, hic, bad.’’
HARV’s chips were so scrambled it wasn’t worth me wasting the energy explaining th
e concept of sarcasm to him. I had to concentrate on Sputnik. I couldn’t worry about Carol right now. I had to hope she was holding her own, though outnumbered as badly as she was, I didn’t see how she could. I had my own problems to worry about. I was battling a man who was mad in more ways than one.
Sputnik leaped at me again. This time I was ready. Just because I didn’t have access to GUS’ computer interface didn’t mean I didn’t have other options. I quickly pushed the manual override switch and pulled up on GUS’ tip, stretching him out to bat size. Swinging GUS hard, I used Sputnik as the ball. My blow landed square on his head, knocking him to ground. He was dazed but still conscious.
‘‘How’d that blow not put his lights out?’’ I asked HARV.
‘‘He’s, hic, using a, hic, computer interface to, hic, modify the energy in his, hic bo-dy to de-flect the blow.’’
Rushing at Sputnik, I drew back GUS for the finishing blow and asked, ‘‘What computer is he using?’’
‘‘Ma me, hic,’’ HARV said.
Now that was something else I wasn’t expecting. The surprise caused me to hesitate just a split nano before swinging at Sputnik. He reached up and caught GUS between his hands. Standing up, he ripped GUS from my grasp. He tossed GUS over his shoulder, smiling at me all the while.
GUS hit the floor with a clank. ‘‘I’m all right! I’m all right!’’ he shouted.
‘‘This is so not good!’’ I said.
‘‘My half, hic, guiding him is not inebriated,’’ HARV told me.
I had pretty much guessed that by now.
‘‘Inebriated,’’ HARV giggled. ‘‘Funny word.’’
Sputnik sprung up, head butting me in the midsection. It hurt, but not enough to stop me from grabbing his head between my arms then dropping down on top of him, slamming us both to floor, him face-first. That had to hurt.
I bounced back to my feet before he knew what hit him. He groaned and tried pushing himself upward, giving me the perfect target, his face. I drove my foot down toward his forehead. My foot froze in mid-kick, less than a whisker’s length from finishing him off. DOS!
I spun away from Sputnik. I didn’t want to. An unseen force was pulling me around. It was a psi. DOS! Psis are great when they are on your side but a pain in the ass when they’re against you.
Across the room I saw Carol lying at Lea’s feet. Carol and HARV had been able to take out some bots, an ape or two, and a psi, but they were far too outnumbered. Lea, Melda, and the rest of the standing psis and apes were now concentrating their attention on me. A snowball on the sun would have had a better chance.
‘‘I thought your father, husband, uncle, male role model, leader called dibs on me,’’ I shouted to them.
That was met with looks of total confusion.
‘‘Sputnik, your boss, said he wanted me all to himself,’’ I said.
Their smiles showed me that now they understood.
‘‘We don’t think he would have wanted you to win,’’ they all echoed inside my head, with a hive-mind-like sentiment.
Sputnik forced himself up off the ground.
‘‘My family is right. I would not have wanted you to win!’’
He clubbed me on the back of my head with GUS. Things started spinning around and then went black.
Chapter 32
‘‘Zaaaach, Zaach, wake up,’’ I heard HARV calling from the deep regions of my mind.
My eyes shot open. The good news was it appeared HARV was back. The bad news was I was trapped in a big tube. I was pretty certain it was the inside of a cryo-chamber. My hands and feet we were tied and I was getting colder. Yep, there are times it really hoovers to be right.
‘‘HARV, you’re back?’’ I asked.
‘‘If I wasn’t, you’d be frozen stiff by now,’’ HARV added.
‘‘A simple yes would have sufficed.’’
‘‘Yes,’’ HARV said. ‘‘I am back.’’
‘‘Can’t just say, yes, can you?’’
‘‘No,’’ HARV said. ‘‘Apparently not.’’
‘‘Are you okay now?’’ I asked.
‘‘Better than ever. Melda underestimated my will. She may be a good scientist and a powerful psi but she really knows diddly-squat about my advanced, cognitive abilities. I was able to reprogram myself so I am no longer drunk and more important, able to block their attempts to control me.’’
‘‘HARV, you just said diddly-squat.’’
‘‘Yes, clearly I am not totally back to normal. Still, me functioning at 80 percent is better than any other three computers in the known worlds functioning at 100 percent, or any number of humans functioning at 110 percent.’’
‘‘HARV, you just said . . .’’
‘‘I know, please don’t remind me. I am running corrective subroutines now.’’
I looked around, as much as I could move my head. I didn’t see much but I noticed Carol in the chamber next to me.
‘‘They are freezing Carol, too?’’ I asked.
‘‘Yes. Sputnik is saving her for a later day. He figures once Earth is destroyed she will cooperate with them without having to be reprogrammed.’’
‘‘How does he figure that?’’
There was a pause. ‘‘He’s an egomaniac. He believes whatever he thinks is the absolute truth. To him, his thoughts are like the Gospel and Koran but much more sacred and pure (since he didn’t write those books). That’s part of the reason he didn’t want me interfacing with his bio armor anymore. He thought I was somehow hindering him. That’s the only way he could justify you beating him.’’
‘‘Were you hindering him?’’
‘‘I wish,’’ HARV said. ‘‘All my spare routines were being used to try to break free of the psi’s control. You beat him without me helping you or hurting him. His massive ego just can’t accept that. So now I’m supposed to freeze with you while all my backups and coprocessors get destroyed on Earth.’’
I smiled. Yep, Sputnik was a politician all right. His ego jammed the door open just enough to give us a chance to escape. Now I needed to find a way to push the opening wider. I looked at Carol out of the corner of my eye.
‘‘HARV, can you contact Carol?’’
‘‘I may be able to use my wireless connection to reach her through her PIHI-Pod,’’ HARV said.
‘‘Try it,’’ I ordered.
‘‘Turn your head toward her.’’
‘‘Why?’’
‘‘Zach, I’m only functioning with the chips directly in the lens in your eye. It would help matters greatly if you did what you were told and gave me a direct line of view with Carol.’’
‘‘Yes, sir,’’ I said, turning my head.
‘‘And that snotty attitude doesn’t help!’’ HARV added.
As I understood it, normally the HARV chip I have in my eye lens is just one of many virtual processors that HARV’s personality or presence uses. Now that he was being isolated from the rest of the chips, my link with HARV was weakened. I was betting that, even in his weakened condition, he was still more than enough computer to get the job done.
I trained my vision on Carol. I saw the small PIHI-POD she was wearing as a diamond on her right ear. I concentrated on it.
‘‘Open your eyes wider!’’ HARV scolded.
‘‘It’s not easy to concentrate and hold my eyes so open.’’
‘‘Zach, don’t concentrate. Just do what I tell you.’’
I did as I was told. I forced my eyes open as wide as possible.
‘‘Hold steady,’’ HARV said.
At first I was going to complain that it wasn’t like he was performing brain surgery, but I realized that in a way he was. Carol was still lying there, eyes closed.
‘‘Nothing is happening,’’ I said.
‘‘Be patient. Halo XX wasn’t programmed in a day you know.’’
‘‘I am being patient.’’
‘‘Quiet,’’ HARV ordered.
I saw Carol’s right eye start to twitch,
slowly at first, but then it built up the steam it needed. Both eyes opened wide. Her head moved from one side to another.
‘‘Did they really think this would hold me?’’ she said.
‘‘They assumed you’d sleep until you were frozen,’’ I answered.
‘‘You know what they say about assuming,’’ Carol said.
Carol squinted her eyes. The top of her chamber flew across the room. Carol moved her arm forward, snapping her restraints like they were old-fashioned peanut brittle. She looked down at her leg restraints. They surrendered to her will without much of a fight, curling up and rolling to the ground. Carol slipped out of her chamber. Her feet touched the floor. She stretched out.
‘‘Now I’m mad,’’ she said.
Carol pointed at the latches holding my chamber lid tight. The latches crinkled up then fell to the ground. With a snap of her fingers, Carol sent the chamber top flying away.
‘‘Thanks,’’ I told her. ‘‘Just be careful to only pop my restraints and not my bones,’’ I cautioned.
‘‘Don’t be a baby,’’ HARV said.
‘‘I second that,’’ Carol said.
She motioned with her right hand toward her body. My restraints flew off me. I tumbled to the ground.
‘‘You could have given me a bit more warning,’’ I said.
‘‘You’re welcome, Tió.’’
I pushed up off the ground. I saw roughly thirty heavily armed apes charging us. I pointed them out to HARV and Carol.
‘‘We got company, guys.’’
Carol started to ripple with energy. Her hair danced off her shoulders as she levitated off the ground. ‘‘These Mooners have pissed me off,’’ she said. ‘‘Time to let the genie out of the bottle!’’
The apes, seeing Carol’s little display of power, stopped in their tracks. They held their arms up over their heads waving them in the universal ‘‘slow down, don’t kill’’ sort of way.
‘‘Hey, we’re on your side!’’ one of the apes shouted.
Now that was a surprise.
Chapter 33
Carol, HARV, and I waited for the apes to come to us. I wasn’t sure what I found more of a shocker, that the apes could talk or that they claimed to be on our side. The apes were all wearing armor and carrying sidearms but they were approaching us in a calm, non-threatening manner. I had a good feeling about this. Not good enough for Carol or HARV to lower their guards or for me to lower my gun I keep in my ankle holster (my good old Colt .44). I was feeling secure, not stupid. My .44 was light but still packed enough for a wallop to put an ape down, as long as I hit him or her square between the eyes.
