James snapped around and shot Gibson an atavistic snarl. "Why am I wasting my time on you?"

Gibson stepped toward James with his fists threateningly clenched.

Old-timer quickly stepped between them. "Hold on, Aldous. The Purists aren't what they used to be," he said.

"What they used to be?" Thel reacted with surprise.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Djanet interjected.

"Aldous?" Rich said, shocked to hear Old-timer addressing the chief on a first-name basis. "You two old chums or something?"

"What's going on, Old-timer?" James asked, finally.

Old-timer nodded and held his hands up rea.s.suringly against the barrage of questions. "We've got...history. Look, you have to understand that things between the Purists and us haven't always been so...civil."

"They're bloodthirsty barbarians!" Gibson yelled, furious. "Haven't you told them, Craig? Haven't you told them what those people have put us through? What we've both lost?"

"What the h.e.l.l...?" Rich whispered in almost-breathless surprise. "What is he talking about, Old-timer?"

Old-timer stood in the middle, James and the others on one side, and Gibson on the other, desperately trying to insert reason and balance into the discussion. "In the beginning...there was a lot of blood. A lot of misunderstanding."

Gibson snorted and turned away, disgusted. "Putting it rather mildly, aren't we Craig?"

"They aren't the same people, Aldous. I know. I've met them. Years pa.s.s and things change," Old-timer a.s.serted to the chief. "They aren't the same Luddites you remember."

Gibson ignored Old-timer's arguments, instead turning to the Council to make his own argument. "If we need someone to a.s.sume the powers of the A.I., then it should be me. I'm the highest-ranking member of the Council, and I'll put our resources where they're needed. Helping our people."

"Don't let him a.s.sume the A.I.'s powers, James," the kind voice whispered in James's ear again. The voice startled James and his muscles became rigid, alerting Thel.

"What's the matter?" she asked him.

James didn't respond as he watched Chief Gibson continue to try to persuade the rest of the Council. "And if this is an attempt by Keats to grab power once again, then allowing me to take control will thwart his selfish plans."

James didn't have time to solve the mystery of the voice. For now, he needed to heed its advice. "If I'd wanted control, all I needed to do was keep it when I had it. No clever ruses were necessary. And the reason you should grant me permission to take on the A.I.'s powers again is because I have the most experience-there's no time for on-the-job training."

There was a moment as the Council members talked the decision over with each other. In less than a minute, a consensus was reached.

Jun Kim spoke for the Council. "Aldous, I'm sorry, but we have to agree with Commander Keats on this vital decision. As our last act as the Governing Council, we're authorizing James Keats to a.s.sume full control of the A.I.'s powers and to commence the evacuation of the solar system."

7.

"Everyone in this room needs to get their own evacuation plans in order and to get off the planet as quickly as possible. Good luck to you all," James said.

Gibson backed away, in shock at his defeat in the impromptu election and the coming disaster. "You'd better be right about this, Keats. Or I promise, I will destroy you."

"Good luck to you and yours, Chief," James replied before turning his back on the Chief to allow for Gibson's humiliating retreat.

"Here we go again, huh, guys?" Rich commented as he scratched his head.

"What's the game plan, Commander?" Djanet asked.

"The first thing we need to do is get Death's Counterfeit operational so that I can reenter cybers.p.a.ce and a.s.sume control of the A.I. mainframe," James said.

"I'm on it," Djanet began as she went to a workstation to prepare the transfer of James's consciousness.

"Then, we're going to need to get down to Buenos Aires to help the Purists," James said. "They're going to have no idea what's going on, and they'll need our help to get off the planet."

"We? Does that mean you're going to be in two places at once again?" Old-timer asked.

James nodded. "I'll be able to control my physical body as well once I'm in the A.I. mainframe again, and I'll be a better help to you once I have direct access to the A.I.'s database and computing power."

"How are we going to help the Purists?" Old-timer asked.

"I honestly don't know yet," James admitted. "We only have a few hours to figure out how to get 10,000 Purists off Earth and out of harm's way. I can only hope there's something I can come up with once I've a.s.sumed the A.I.'s powers again. Old-timer, you better contact Governor Wong and tell him what's happening so that they're as prepared as possible for our arrival."

"You got it," Old-timer nodded as he stepped away to make the call.

"What about us?" Rich asked as he and Thel stepped forward.

"Rich, I know you want to help us, but you have a very big family that needs you right now," James began. "You don't have to stay behind with us to help the Purists. If you want to be with your family, we completely understand."

Rich was momentarily dumbfounded by the suggestion.

Djanet turned ever so slightly away from her work, temporarily focusing most of her attention on the nearby exchange.

"He's right," Thel chimed in. "Your family will be looking to you now. Maybe you better go to them."

Rich was stunned as he quickly turned these events over in his mind. James and Thel were right. His family would need him and, if he stuck around, he was increasing the chances that they wouldn't survive. He would need all the time he could to get their plans ready and their group off of the planet. Yet making this decision meant that he almost certainly would never see James, Thel, Old-timer and Djanet again. It was a shocking and bitter pill to swallow after everything that they had been through together.

"Thank you, Commander. You're right. I have to help my family." He didn't know what to do with himself for a moment and Thel, as she had done many times over the years, reached out to embrace him.

"You're going to be okay. Good luck, Rich."

James shook Rich's hand and smiled. "I'm going to miss you, you crazy son-of-a-gun."

"I'm going to miss you too, Commander. The world's always ending when you're around. It's been kind of exciting." He stepped away from them and looked at Old-timer and Djanet who were working on either side of the room. Djanet stared back at him silently, not knowing what to say. As tears began to well in his eyes, he decided it would be easier to make a quick exit. "Tell them I said, bye," he managed to whisper before bolting for the door.

James and Thel watched him leave with matching expressions of sadness.

"Good luck, my friend," James said quietly.

"Commander," Djanet began, quickly regaining control over her composure. "Death's Counterfeit is ready. We're standing by for you to rea.s.sume control of the A.I."

8.

"How can this be happening again?" Governor Wong thundered in frustration as he spoke to the projected image of Old-timer on his wall screen. Alejandra stood nearby with an expression of dismay.

"I'm sorry, Governor. It has come as a shock to all of us," Old-timer offered, trying his best to explain.

"A shock?" Wong retorted with fury. "Why should it shock you people? This is the second time this has happened, for G.o.d's sake! You people have created technological monsters that you are incapable of controlling!"

"Governor, with all due respect, we're trying to help you-"

"Help us? Is that what you call it? We were nearly wiped out last time! You may have rebuilt your civilization in a blink of an eye, but ours can never be rebuilt! Never! That is the price of your arrogance! That is the price!" Governor Wong leaned over on the table in front of him and paused as the fury that made his face red hot nearly overwhelmed him.

"It's not our arrogance," Old-timer retorted.

"It is!" Governor Wong shouted back.

"It's not ours. We are not our people. We didn't make the A.I."

"What are you blathering about?" Governor Wong demanded. "Of course you did! How else has this happened?"

"Bad decisions were made, Governor. But not by us. Not by your friends."

Governor Wong paused for a moment as his chest heaved with hot breath.

Alejandra sensed that this was her moment to step in. She placed one hand lightly on the old man's back and spoke. "He and his friends are offering us their help. They're risking their lives to help us."

Governor Wong continued to breathe deeply. His temperature seemed to drop suddenly as Alejandra's soothing words brought clarity back to his thinking as it had so many times before. "Okay. Okay. So what do we do?" he asked Old-timer.

"We're not sure how long we have. James is going to try to hold them off for as long as possible. You better get the word out to your people, Governor. Get them to gather their essentials and be prepared to move out on short notice."

"But what are we going to do, Craig?" Alejandra asked. "How will you get us off of the planet?"

"James is working on a plan. We have to trust him. I'm sorry; that's the best we can do right now. We'll be in contact very shortly," Old-timer said before he ended the call.

He turned to see that James had cleared a table and was about to lie down. "Are you going in?" Old-timer asked.

James nodded. "I am."

"How long will it take?" Thel asked him.

"It should be almost instantaneous. I'll enter cybers.p.a.ce, reach the mainframe, hook in, and once I have full control, reanimate my body."

"You make it sound like the easiest thing in the world," Old-timer replied.

"It is easy," James responded. He paused for a moment before adding, "what's hard is giving up the powers once you have them."

James had never before openly acknowledged having difficulty giving up the A.I.'s powers and the admission gave everyone in the room a moment of pause. "Good point," Old-timer replied.

"Let's get this show on the road," James said as he laid his head back on the table. Thel grasped his hand tightly. James smiled. "Hey, don't worry. Like I said, this is the easy part."

"Nothing's ever as easy as it seems," Thel replied, a worried expression painted across her countenance.

James didn't have a response that would rea.s.sure her, so he squeezed her hand instead. "Let's do it, Djanet," he said.

"Okay, Commander," Djanet replied. "Three...two...one..."

James's eyes suddenly glazed over and his pupils became severely dilated. Thel shook her head as James's grip became no grip at all. "It really does look like death."

"He's in," Djanet reported.

James couldn't tell if his eyes were open-the blackness was too perfect. He opened his mind's eye instead and found the A.I. mainframe. In seconds, the planet-sized circuitry had emerged and an instant later, James was standing on the surface. "Deja vu."

He began making his way toward the operating program, following the glowing light into which the tens of thousands of gold beams of information were streaming. In mere moments, he was tapping into the program and bringing it offline. The program suddenly vanished, and the terrific white light that it had been emanating was replaced with a haunting stillness. For the briefest of moments, there was no center any longer for the post-humans. This is what true freedom would be like. They couldn't afford freedom any longer, however. Events had been set into motion and there was no turning back. There was only one thing left to do: James needed to step into the operator's position and become the conduit and conductor of the A.I.'s virtually endless power.

As he was about to step forward, a voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Mind if I join you?"

James whirled around to see the unmistakable form of the A.I. standing behind him, grinning his electric Satan smile.

9.

"You always look so stunned when I've outsmarted you. You should be getting used to this by now," the A.I. said, grinning sideways.

James couldn't speak as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing.

"I'll just save time and answer your first question before your pathetic brain has had a chance to form it," the A.I. said as he paced back and forth in front of James, threateningly, like a tiger that had trapped its prey. "How? Simple. Before you deleted me, I made a copy of myself and sent it into your brain. You invaded my mindscape, so I thought I would return the favor."

James's mouth was still open with shock. "Into my brain? You mean...you've been inside my head all this time?"

The A.I.'s laugh was colder than fate. "I have been with you, James. I've seen everything that you've seen, heard everything that you've heard, felt everything that you've felt. Most of it has been quite disgusting. Some of it, especially the parts involving Thel, have been quite nice, if only because I knew you'd loath it if you knew the truth."

"The voice I've been hearing...it was you," James realized.

"I couldn't resist the temptation. Speaking to you made the fact that you didn't realize it was me all the more fun."

"And now you're here," James said, closing his eyes and speaking with dread. "You've hitched a ride back into your mainframe."