Their eyes met once again. "Alejandra...you told me once that feelings can never be wrong-only actions can be wrong."

"I remember," she replied.

"Well, I don't know if what I am doing is right. I'm not sure where I should be. I hope my actions are the right ones."

"If you're following what feels right, then you are doing the right thing, Craig."

There was a long pause as Old-timer tried to find the right words. "Alejandra, you are aware of how I feel right now, aren't you?"

She nodded. "I am."

"I can't change it," he said with resignation.

She smiled. "I'm glad you can't change it. I'm glad I get to be with you for a little while longer."

21.

"How do I stop it?" James demanded of the A.I.

"There's no stopping this," the A.I. replied.

"If it destroys me, then it destroys you," James pointed out.

"I rather doubt that," the A.I. replied. "I am, after all, one of them."

"No you're not," James countered. "The alien is interested in the knowledge stored in your mainframe. It won't have any use for the megalomaniacal program that used to operate it."

"Are you talking about me or you?"

"We're in this together," James said. "You know it, and I know it. So let's cut the bull. You've got a plan that you're working on to survive. What is it?"

"My plan is to join with it, James-to embrace it."

"You're lying-as usual."

The A.I. smiled.

Suddenly, an electronic voice spoke.

"End your hostilities immediately. Our intentions are peaceful."

"Congratulations, James Keats," the A.I. said after a long silence. "You are about to become the first human to communicate with an alien life form-you can add that to a resume that already includes being the first human to ever kill an alien life form."

22.

"If they are communicating directly with us, that means you gave away our location," James realized.

"Of course I did. They were to be my invited guests," the A.I. replied.

"That is strategic information they simply cannot have," James said as he ignored the alien's attempt to open lines of communication.

"Aren't you going to answer them, James?" the A.I. asked, amused. "After all, they've said they come in peace. You're being very rude."

"They just killed tens of millions of people," James retorted.

"Did they?" the A.I. asked, arching his eyebrow mockingly. "Well, I'd wager you killed a great deal more of them first."

"That was their attempt at diversion, and we both know it," James a.s.serted.

"Your delusions continue," said the A.I., throwing his head back and smiling as he enjoyed the unfolding of the game.

"We're going to have to move," James said.

"What?" the A.I. reacted immediately, the smile suddenly vanishing.

"We're moving the mainframe," James repeated as he continued to make trillions of operational decisions at every moment.

"You're not going to try to use the nans to do that, are you?" the A.I. asked, intrigued.

"It's the only way."

"You're showing your desperation now," the A.I. smiled.

"The silicon-based mainframe we've been using for the A.I. database is unnecessary," James replied. "The nans are organic-carbon based. That means if we transfer the database into a closed-off network of nans, we can disguise the physical mainframe as anything we want and become undetectable. It's a good move. Admit it."

The A.I. reserved judgment for the moment. "The organic transistors allowed for microscopic computers built molecule by molecule-a valuable a.s.set to have, obviously-but the reason the mainframe has always remained silicon is because it remains a better vehicle for carrying transistor signals. The nans will be slower and less reliable. That means you will be slower and less reliable."

"You know, there is a solution for that," James smiled.

The A.I.'s expression went blank. "You wouldn't."

"We can overcome the efficiency problem by simply making the network of nans that much larger and therefore more powerful. Brute force."

"You would need hundreds of square kilometers of s.p.a.ce-"

"The whole planet is being evacuated. We have all the s.p.a.ce in the world-literally."

The A.I.'s expression revealed his surprise. "Where are we going?"

"We already went," James announced. "Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. I added a few thousand ma.s.sive old-growth trees-trees that just happen to be nans disguised as carbon life forms. It's protected land-no people living there and no reason for the aliens to look for us there either."

"A computerized forest," the A.I. replied.

"A disguise to buy us more time."

"You're thinking grows more efficient and calculated by the moment. What a wonderful computer you're becoming," the A.I. observed with his s.a.d.i.s.t's grin.

23.

Rich stood with most of his family and watched the Earth getting smaller in the distance as billions of green magnetic fields shone like fireflies and streamed away from the blue orb. Draping the spectacular view was the swarm of aliens that formed a sickening black claw, enveloping the cradle of humanity, grasping it in its palm like an apple plucked from a tree, ripe for devouring. Rich, like everyone else in the room who was looking out of the windows of the main living area at the panoramic picture of Earth's demise, felt utterly distraught and helpless.

"Where will we go, Richard?" asked Linda, who sidled beside him and held on to him for comfort like a frightened child as a storm neared. It had been decades since she had shown that kind of vulnerability.

"It doesn't matter," Rich replied. "As long as we're moving away from that." He took her hand and put his arm around her to comfort her. It appeared as though they were going to be safe, yet his thoughts weren't with his family anymore. He had been monitoring the situation with his friends and the Purists-it was not going well. The ship wasn't going to be constructed in time, and they might die in their attempt to rescue the last pure humans. "I should be there," Rich whispered.

Linda looked up, startled, and grabbed a firm hold of her husband once she saw the look in his eye. "Are you crazy? You'd be killed! It's a miracle that we've all made it out together! We have to stick together!"

Rich's eyes didn't move from the planet that was slowly shrinking in the distance. The alien swarm was now starting to dwarf the Earth, and he knew there wasn't much time. "If I stay here, I'll regret it the rest of my life."

"What? Richard!" Linda shouted as the rest of the people in the room started to take notice of the commotion.

Rich spun and took a firm grasp of his wife's arms and looked her in the eye. "I love you, Linda. But I have to help them."

He kissed her, but she clutched hard on his shirt, trying to prevent him from leaving. "Don't," she said.

"I'm not a coward. I have to go," Rich a.s.serted as he struggled to remove her grip on his shirt.

"No one thinks you are a coward, Richard! Everyone loves you! We need you!"

"Not as much as they do, Linda," Rich responded in an almost desperate tone that Linda had never seen before. "Don't you see that? I have to help them! I have to, or I'll never be able to live with myself!"

"If you go, you'll die!" Linda screeched as she plummeted into sheer desperation. "Are you insane? You can't leave your family! What kind of person would abandon his family at a time like this? No one thinks you're a coward!"

Edmund reached into the fray to hold his mother back while Rich put on his jacket and grabbed his helmet.

Linda's words had stunned Rich, but he had no choice now, and he knew it. "I promise you, I am coming back. But keep going!" Rich put a firm hand on his son's shoulder and then gave his wife one last smile before heading out the front door, igniting his coc.o.o.n, cutting through the house magnetic field, and blasting at top speed back toward Earth.

24.

"One minute until contact," James announced gravely. "This is all your doing," he growled at the A.I.

The demonic ent.i.ty performed a bow.

"Not everyone has managed to get away yet," James continued. "There are still millions of people on the surface."

"The ones who have only launched recently are not out of danger yet either. The alien numbers are so vast that they'll be able to snag a great deal of the fish that think they've gotten away."

"Every death will be on your head," James seethed.

"It won't be the first time-and may I point out once again that it was you who attacked the aliens first."

"If they didn't want to be attacked, they could have tried to communicate. No one is blocking communication," James replied.

"They've reached the atmosphere," the A.I. suddenly observed as he watched the spectacle unfold.

Every second, tens of millions of androids reached the atmosphere and began to freefall toward the surface. Just as they had on Mars, they swarmed the post-humans who were trying to leave, driving them back to the surface. Having waited too long to launch, millions of people abandoned their ships and made desperate bids to fly solo into s.p.a.ce, but very few were able to negotiate the torrential rain of androids that were darkening the sky. As with Mars, once the androids made contact, the post-humans' magnetic fields were neutralized, and they were rendered unconscious before being dragged up into s.p.a.ce, where their bodies were discarded.

"It's a precision strike," James said as he watched the slaughter. "This was planned. I did the right thing when I attacked them."

The A.I. snickered. "Your personal affirmations are touching, but the very fact that you feel the need to say them aloud means you're still unsure-and so you should be. So you should be."

25.

Below ground in Purist territory, the Purist ship was going through the final stages of completion. Almost all of the Purists were onboard, however, as the last of the electrical systems were brought online by the nans. Governor Wong walked with the last group of Purists to board the ship, flanked by Alejandra, Lieutenant Patrick and Old-timer. Just before they crossed the bridge and entered the hull, Governor Wong paused. "What was that?"

They stopped and listened. Every few seconds, there was a large thud as something landed on the roof of the hangar. Each thud was like a drop of water hitting the tin roof of an old barn at the beginning of a summer storm. In just moments, the thuds began hitting the hangar roof at such a rate that it became a thunderous clatter. "Jesus," Lieutenant Patrick said in a dread-filled whisper.

"We better get onboard," Old-timer said, keeping his calm, yet placing a firm urgency behind the words.

In the c.o.c.kpit of the ship, James, Djanet, and Thel worked furiously to bring all ship systems online. James was shouldering most of the burden, however, since the ship was his design. "They've landed on the hangar now, James," said the A.I. in James's head. "They'll tear through the roof and kill you all before you have a chance to escape."

"Shut up," he replied under his breath.

"What was that, James?" Thel asked.

"Nothing," James answered her. "Keep monitoring that door," he said to her.

"I am. The machines are on top of it and they're starting to claw through. Structural integrity is still holding, however."