"Hmm. Now that's interesting," said Old-timer.

"Why?" Djanet asked.

"They're offline," Old-timer replied.

"Ohh. No. They wouldn't...would they?" Djanet said, disbelieving.

"s.e.x ed is in session?" Rich posited.

Old-timer shrugged, his bottom lip protruding as if to say, "Maybe."

James went to the closet and retrieved his flight jacket and helmet. He paused before putting them on and sat on his desk, gazing out the window. The best-case scenario had his Venus plan being set back six months. The worst-case scenario was that he'd lost her. Would Inua really be misguided enough to allow the Hektor plan to gain traction in the Governing Council?

He had failed. Why? Every calculation seemed to make sense. He had used every resource the Net had to offer-input as much information as he could find into the model. The model had run thousands of times successfully. What had gone wrong?

There was a knock on his door. He couldn't open it with his mind's eye any longer, so he crossed the room and pulled the sliding panel open manually. Thel floated before him. She was looking at him strangely-almost expectantly.

"Come in," he said, feeling hesitant but trying to hide it. He turned away from the door and crossed back to his desk to retrieve his jacket and helmet.

She closed the sliding door and noted his downcast eyes and slumped shoulders. "How are you holding up?"

He stopped by his desk and looked up at her, a helpless expression on his face. "What went wrong, Thel?"

"Life," she said, smiling. "For most of us, not everything goes exactly as we plan it."

He leaned against his desk and grimaced. "This could be bad. The Governing Council loathes me. They'll use this as an excuse to take Venus away from us."

"What?" Thel reacted with genuine surprise. "That's ridiculous. That's not possible."

"It's true. They hate me. They use me when it's convenient, but they hate me. It's one of those keep-your-enemies-close kind of deals. They've been trying to take Venus away from me from the beginning. It's because I'm thirty-six-they think I'm a child."

"Well, it's difficult for a bunch of centenarians to accept that someone a fraction of their age can do things that they can't." She crossed the room and leaned on the desk, inches away from him; he could smell the apple scent from her shampoo.

But I can't control what I want to do.

"You'll bounce back, James. You're too talented-too special not to. Even if they took this project from you, you'd prove them wrong down the road. And they know it too-and if they really do hate you as you say they do, that's the real reason."

James closed his eyes tight, Thel's words reverberating in his mind. "Special. Not for long."

She smiled. "What are you talking about?"

"They're looking at an upgrade to a 210 IQ, within a decade."

"What?" Thel was stunned. She knew James had access to extremely important officials-if he said it, it was true-but how could it be?

"I know it's selfish but-"

She shook herself from the daze built by his revelation and put her arm around him. "I understand." She moved in front of him and kissed him.

He looked up at her, mouth agape.

"I love you because I've never met anyone like you. I don't want to lose that either," she said.

"You kissed me."

"I love you."

She loved him? He'd wanted to hear those words for a long time. He'd dreamt of it. But it couldn't be. "Thel...we can't-"

"We can," she countered, her eyes locked with his. "Right now. We don't need thirty minutes to pack up-no one is taking anything but their flight suits-we could have been at the airlock in ninety seconds."

She was right. Why did he say thirty minutes? She continued looking straight into his eyes, strangely, fixedly, expectantly.

"Because we can do it doesn't mean we should. It doesn't make it right," James replied.

She touched his face and pressed her torso against his. "People have lived for more than half a century, never being offline, never able to break the rules because the nans will record it, report it, and destroy their lives. But the nans aren't functioning. No one is watching us. There is no law."

"It still doesn't make it right, Thel. Divorce and extramarital affairs are illegal for a reason."

"Spare me."

"It's true, Thel. It's the price we pay for immortality. We can't go switching partners and procreating endlessly throughout eternity. Family would become meaningless. Civilization would break down."

"Now you sound like the Governing Council."

James gave a long sigh. "Maybe so. But I still can't see my way around it."

"Is it right that two people who love each other aren't allowed to be together? Should people be trapped in loveless marriages because of decisions they made when they were barely more than children?"

Her words cut right through to the heart of James's feelings.

"It's not your fault that divorce is illegal. It's not your fault that you feel the way you do. And it's not fair for her to punish you forever for being human-and for making the mistake of marrying her when you were too young to know better. It's not your fault that you are only human."

"Everything you just said was right...but I'm trapped."

"I love you, James. I'm ready to choose what I want now. So are you. And if we don't do this now, if we don't take our chance right this minute, while we're free, you know as well as I do that we'll spend the next hundred years, maybe the next millennium, maybe the rest of eternity, regretting it. People don't go offline every day, James. It's rare and becoming rarer. It might never happen to us again." She kissed him again, lightly and quickly. "It's up to you."

This was one of those decisive moments, James thought, where you made a decision that would alter you forever. He looked pained as he struggled to weigh the variables in his mind.

She smiled at him and raised his chin with her hand so his eyes met hers. "Don't be afraid. I just want to make 'the beast with two backs' with you."

He suddenly laughed. "Oth.e.l.lo."

"That's right." She kissed him again.

He kissed her.

In a moment, he had her on her back on his desk and was removing her shirt, sucking on her mouth, tasting her neck. Her fingers were digging into his shoulders.

She whispered his name...

5.

At 10:08 a.m. Pacific time, Thel and James rendezvoused with the rest of the research team at the main airlock. Some awkward glances were exchanged between Thel and the others, but James didn't notice; he was focused on the task at hand-getting his crew home safely.

"All right, team, this is how this is going to go. First, we need to stick together. We won't have the Net to guide our trajectories, and the cloud cover is thick and dark, so stay within one meter of the person directly in front of you. If we get separated, there'll be no way to find them out there. Hopefully, I'll be able to guide us straight up to the stratosphere. We won't be able to communicate once we activate our magnetic fields, other than with hand gestures, so this is the itinerary. The first step, obviously, is opening the airlock. Now, keep in mind that without the outer magnetic field operating, there will be nothing to stop a ma.s.sive change in air pressure within the lab. The pressure is immense outside and would crush you like a grape if you weren't protected."

"Lovely thought," Rich whispered to Djanet.

"The moment we release the airlock, begin pushing toward the door, or the pressure will knock you back into the lab. Once we've cleared the cloud cover, I'll need to take a moment to read the stars and locate Earth. As soon as I'm ready, I'll signal to the rest of you, and we'll move out slow. Again, stay very close to the person in front of you. Old-timer, you take the rear, okay?"

"You got it, buddy."

"Okay. I think if everything goes smoothly, I can have you all back on Earth in ninety minutes. We'll descend to Vancouver and report for a nan transfusion and get you all back online. Then, all that will be left for you to do will be to head home, relax, and eat a late lunch."

"So, are you saying we'll be getting back just before noon Pacific?" Rich asked.

"Give or take. I think that's a fair estimate," James replied.

"Well, I would just like to point out that today's download occurs at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time-just under an hour from now. So, with the exception of you, Commander, when we get back to Earth, the rest of us will officially be the stupidest people on the planet."

The team laughed, and the tension of the moment was mercifully broken.

"Don't worry guys, I'll protect you from the geniuses," James replied.

"You better," said Old-timer, wearing a grin.

"Okay, team, let's get those helmets on and get ready. As soon as I've got my hand on the airlock handle, I want you to activate your fields. As soon as I give the signal that I'm opening the door, I want you to move forward. Copy?"

"We're ready," Thel answered for everyone.

"Okay," James said, taking a deep breath before putting on his helmet.

He wasted no time moving to the airlock handle. It was fixed on the wall, three meters from the actual door; that was important because as soon as the seal was broken, the door would swing open violently. James turned to the group and pointed, giving them the signal to activate their fields, and four green lights appeared, coc.o.o.ning the crew. James activated his field last, then signaled to the crew to move forward as he opened the door.

The pressure was so powerful that the door swung open fast enough to rip free from its hinges and tear toward Thel like a missile. It bounced harmlessly off of her magnetic field, but the sight of a 150-kilogram metallic projectile streaking through the room and impacting one of the team members sent their collective adrenaline, already running high, even higher. The team quickly exited one after the other and immediately began to ascend. James turned for one last look at the rest of the crew before they entered the cloud cover. Don't lose them, he thought to himself.

Gravity couldn't be felt once one was coc.o.o.ned in a magnetic field. The clouds were so thick that it was as though darkness had tangibility. He had to concentrate. He knew if he began to veer to one side or the other, they might spend hours trapped in the darkness. He felt he was in a maze. He had to keep moving forward and trust he would get somewhere in the end.

After a few minutes, he and the others emerged. Stars speckled the Venusian sky-a million destinations. He looked for Earth, but it wasn't where he was expecting it. He had veered to one side and emerged dozens of kilometers from where he planned to be. It didn't matter-Earth was still the brightest star in the sky and easy to find.

He paused for a moment while he got his bearings and waited for his companions to gather behind him. He signaled to them that he was about to head out, and they signaled that they understood. His motion was slow at first, since he needed to give the others a chance to manually adjust to his speed. Soon, however, they were all moving across the sky like emerald streaks of lightning, heading home.

6.

Earth-and therefore life as well-is a fluke. The thought had never struck James with as much intensity as when the five little points of light approached Earth's stratosphere. The Earth seemed to emanate life; its oceans gleamed in the sunlight, and its atmosphere bathed the surface in a beautiful blue glow. Not h.e.l.lish like Venus, not red and frozen like Mars had previously been, but peaceful and perfect. Working on terraforming for his entire adult life had taught James just how impossible the odds were of a life-supporting planet forming on its own. If the continents hadn't emerged out of the water, if the planet's rotation hadn't been just right, if it hadn't been just the right distance from just the right kind of sun, none of it would exist. Some days, days like today, James was amazed at the beauty.

If only it was like that every day.

James had to guess the location of Vancouver. Judging by the position of the Earth and the time of day, he was able to put them over the general vicinity of his hometown. Much of the northern west coast of North America was covered by clouds, but they seemed light and peaceful compared to the clouds on Venus.

He and the others entered the clouds in a free fall. Now he would find out how strong he was at navigating manually-would he emerge over Vancouver, or would he have led them too far south towards Seattle, maybe too far to the west over Vancouver Island, maybe too far east into some forest in the middle of nowhere?

When the clouds began to break, he caught a glimpse of something strange. It was only a momentary glimpse, and he told himself it couldn't be right. It had looked like flames. He kept dropping. A moment or two later, the clouds abated completely, and he saw where he was: over the east side of Vancouver, facing south. His mouth opened, and his eyes widened as he looked at his city. It was on fire.

He looked to his left and watched as the nearby city of Surrey burned, then turned to his right and saw the downtown core, also aflame. He spun and looked toward the North Sh.o.r.e Mountains, toward his home, and watched the smoke billow. He couldn't see a single person-not a single green glow above the city anywhere.

The rest of the crew were next to him now. They had all disengaged their magnetic fields and were trying to talk to him. He disengaged his own field so he could listen.

"...have been an earthquake!" Thel was finishing exclaiming.

"I have to get home!" James said.

"We'll follow you!" Old-timer replied.

James reengaged his magnetic field and streaked toward his house. He exhaled in relief when he saw that it was not on fire. In fact, his house and all those in his neighborhood seemed to be structurally unaffected by the earthquake.

"Thank G.o.d."

He landed on his front lawn, disengaged his magnetic field, and ran toward the front door. In his panic, he forgot that his mind's eye was not functioning, and he thumped awkwardly against his front door. "Jesus!" he shouted. He took a step back and, this time intentionally, put his shoulder into the door. It wouldn't give; it was reinforced steel, and the hinges were surprisingly strong. He reengaged his magnetic field and flew into the door-it came apart like b.u.t.ter.

Thel and the others set down on James's lawn just as he made his way inside.

"G.o.d. Lousy day for luck," Rich said, his voice full of sympathy. "What is this now? Geology s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g us?"

Thel stepped over the remnants of the front door and entered the house. The ground floor seemed completely undisturbed. Then she and the others were startled by James's cry from above.

Thel shot upward toward the bedroom entrance. James was stumbling backward, nearly stepping off the edge of his doorway, but Thel was there to stop him.

"What is it?" she asked.

He turned to her with his face white and his eyes wide, as if he'd seen h.e.l.l. "Don't go in there, Thel," he replied.

"What happened?" She looked past his shoulder and screamed.

Old-timer had just reached the doorway as James pulled her out of the room with him and set her down on the ground floor.