"Might I make an 'outside-the-box' suggestion?" the A.I. said to James.

"Yes," James replied.

"Perhaps your friend Nikola Tesla could be of help?"

James's eyes opened wide, and a faint smile crossed his lips. "That's actually a h.e.l.l of an idea!"

"What?" Thel asked.

"I've got it! I know how to save Rich and Djanet!"

30.

"Of course, you'll need to build a tower," the A.I. said as he calmly strolled by James back at the mainframe.

James was still in the operator's position. "I'm on to you," he replied.

"What?" The A.I. smiled, placing a hand on his chest as he mockingly feigned sincerity. "I'm only trying to help."

"You're trying to give away our position, which you will accomplish, and you know it."

"My heavens. That was never part of my thinking," the A.I. replied, amused.

"The androids have already reached the mainframe in Seattle and know it was abandoned. They'll be looking for you-us-and tracing signals. The nans are working based on preprogramming now, but building the Tesla-designed tower will require me to send millions of instructions-traceable instructions."

A continent away, in a place called Sh.o.r.eham, Long Island, about sixty miles from Manhattan, the nans began to swirl in tiny wisps along the muddy ground. They multiplied at an exponential rate, and what had been wisps soon became a hurricane of activity. In just a few minutes, a Tesla tower, a magnificent metal structure stretching 180 feet into the air, stood triumphantly in the field. It exactly matched the designs and dimensions that the world's greatest inventor had implemented but had never had the chance to complete.

"The aliens, no doubt, will have already traced the command signals back to us," the A.I. began, "and you can't run-they would be able to trace that too. You disappoint me, James. Just when I thought you were becoming an admirable computer, you had to go and ruin it with your pathetic human feelings of compa.s.sion."

"I have a few more tricks up my sleeve yet," James replied. The tower began to whir as James brought it to life. "You're witnessing history here-something that should have happened hundreds of years ago-the human species is about to go truly wireless."

"A little late, don't you think?"

"Better late than never," James replied.

31.

High above the Earth's atmosphere, Rich and Djanet were about to put a hastily formulated plan into action. "Okay. Let's do this!" Rich shouted as the two post-humans exited the wake of the magnetic engines on opposite sides and then shot simultaneously at the androids who were tearing apart the engine casing. Both blasts. .h.i.t their mark, knocking several of the androids unconscious and off the hull. However, the blasts also caught the attention of dozens more machines, and they reacted with fury, lifting off the hull and pursuing Rich and Djanet. The post-humans quickly darted back inside the relative safety of the engine's wake. Rich watched as android after android tried to enter the wake, only to be blasted away by its force, like a person trying to walk unprotected into a raging waterfall. "I think we made them angry!' Rich observed.

Meanwhile, in the c.o.c.kpit, James excitedly monitored the progress of the Tesla tower. "Old-timer, remember what I told you about the ionosphere of Venus?"

"Yes," Old-timer replied, his brows knitted at first, until he realized the significance of James's words. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide, and a slight smile emerged on his face. "You're going to create the electromagnetic surge we need with the ionosphere!"

When Thel realized what that meant, her mouth formed a wide and relieved smile; at least temporarily, her fears that James's thinking was becoming too machine-like abated. "That's brilliant, James! I knew you wouldn't let them die!"

"We're not out of the woods yet, but in another thirty seconds, once our coordinates are linked to the tower, we'll-"

James didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. An android ripped a hole in the ceiling of the c.o.c.kpit and lunged into the room, smashing into James in a sickening meeting of metal with meat and bone.

32.

"James!" Thel screamed as she blasted the android, instantly rendering it unconscious and sending it into the wall with enough force to leave a sizable dent.

An automatic magnetic field went up to stop the c.o.c.kpit from depressurizing, but, unlike the magnetic coc.o.o.ns of the post-humans, it wasn't impregnable. As a result, more androids began crawling through the small hole in the ceiling. Old-timer blasted the first one and scrambled to get across the room to protect the Purists. "You have to get out of here!" Old-timer shouted to Alejandra as she grabbed General Wong and began to pull him out of the room, aided by Lieutenant Patrick.

Their efforts were too little, too late. The third android to enter the room was immediately followed by a fourth and a fifth. Thel, who had sprawled over James's badly broken body to form a protective shield, twisted her body around to shoot one of the androids, while Old-timer managed to shoot another, but the last one made it to Alejandra and stuck an instrument into her neck, instantly rendering her unconscious.

"No!" Lieutenant Patrick shouted as he pulled his gun out of his holster and unloaded into the back of the android. One of the bullets ricocheted off the t.i.tanium frame of the mechanical monster and hit Old-timer in the shoulder, spinning him around. He fell against the android and, in turn, it stabbed him with the same instrument it had used on Alejandra, rendering him unconscious. It grabbed him roughly under the arm and pulled his limp body with it, back out the hole and into s.p.a.ce, killing the post-human almost instantly.

"Old-timer!" Thel cried out as, still draped over James's badly crushed and bloodied body, she watched Old-timer die.

33.

"Are you seeing that?" Rich asked Djanet as his eye caught a glimpse of one of the androids pulling a limp body with him out into the blackness of s.p.a.ce like a hawk carrying a mouse back to its nest.

"Yes!" Djanet shouted in distress. She immediately tried to patch into Old-timer's mind's eye, but there was no response. She followed that by attempting to contact James-again, there was no response. "I can't get a hold of the c.o.c.kpit! Something bad has happened!" Finally, she reached Thel, who was too distraught and too caught up in a firefight to respond. "The c.o.c.kpit's been compromised!"

"We've got to save whoever that is!" Rich shouted as he darted out of the safety of the wake and into pursuit of the fleeing android.

Suddenly, at that very instant, the Tesla tower came to life, connecting to the almost limitless energy of the Earth's ionosphere and channeling a ma.s.sive electromagnetic pulse to the hull of the Purist ship. In the blink of an eye, thousands of androids were suddenly rendered unconscious and blasted off the hull, scattering in all directions and forming, ever so briefly, the shape of a dark metallic flower, the petals floating into s.p.a.ce. The escaping android was instantaneously obscured from view.

"d.a.m.n! I lost sight of him!" Rich shouted. "You got a visual?" Rich asked Djanet desperately.

"No," she shook her head as she tried to see past the flood of unconscious android bodies. She craned her neck, and her eyes darted from focal point to focal point, but it was a wasted effort. "We lost him," she finally said after a long, desperate minute.

In the c.o.c.kpit, Thel blasted the last of the androids that had entered the room before the electrification of the hull, then collapsed on the floor next to James. Her face was streaked with tears, and her mouth was twisted into an expression of agony as the vision of Old-timer being murdered in front of her eyes replayed itself in a loop.

"Thel?" Djanet's voice broke in on her mind's eye. "What's happening?"

"You better get in here," Thel said through tears. "James is hurt badly, and they took Old-timer!"

There was a long pause.

"Can you repeat that?" Djanet asked, disbelieving.

"Old-timer is dead," Thel repeated.

PART 2.

1.

James flashed into Thel's mind's eye. "Thel?"

"James!" Thel shouted in reply, her expression still agonized.

"What happened? My body's...unconscious."

"An android broke into the c.o.c.kpit, James!" Thel related, distraught. "It crushed your body and then it attacked the Purists and...and..." Her voice broke before she could say the words, but she struggled and managed to whisper, "they got Old-timer."

In the mainframe, James was silent. The A.I. stood nearby, drinking in the anguish of his foe. "This is where we see the fallibility of human emotion. Even though you are here in cybers.p.a.ce, your consciousness remains the same pathetic, predictable human pattern, and therefore subject to your pathetic, predictable human thoughts. The death of your friend clouds your judgment. Your situation is dire, and time is your utmost a.s.set, and yet you waste it-unable to act."

James turned to the A.I. and sneered. "I'll kill you for this-and this time, there will be no coming back."

The A.I. shook his head. "You can't kill part of yourself, James-and you're still wasting time."

James addressed Thel. "Thel, how bad are the injuries to my body?"

Thel interfaced with James's nans and downloaded a detailed physical diagnostic. "It's bad, James. You're body is in full recovery mode-it's essentially dead and being rebuilt. You're spine is broken in-oh my G.o.d-seven places. The list of injuries to the rest of your body is too long to go through. The nans are working on repairing it but-it may not be salvageable."

James absorbed the information and instantly realized the repercussions. "That's a problem, Thel." James replied. "That stunt with the Tesla tower may have cleared away the androids and allowed you to escape, but I've also compromised the mainframe's position."

"What does that mean?" Thel asked. "Are you saying the aliens know where you are now?"

"Yes, and I can't run anymore. I need to have a body to put my consciousness back into, or else I'm..." James didn't finish his sentence.

"Can't you just create another body, James?" Thel asked, confused.

James shook his head. "No. The planet is completely overwhelmed. I'd never be able to get off the surface."

Thel's concern steadily increased as she tried to think of a solution. "Could we make another body for you here?"

James shook his head again. "The nans...o...b..ard aren't programmed to create a human body-the ones inside my body aren't equipped for that either-and I can't reprogram them because any signals with that much information would be blocked now by the alien A.I." James sighed. "Thel, get my body to sick bay and do whatever you can to facilitate a recovery. I'll try to buy time down here, but that body is my only chance."

Thel nodded as the horror began to sink in. She looked up and saw Alejandra's unconscious body being carted on a stretcher by medical staff as Governor Wong and Lieutenant Patrick looked on. "This man needs your help also," she said.

A medic bounded over the unconscious body of an android and grimaced when he saw James. "Um, ma'am-he's dead."

"He's not dead," she retorted calmly. "He needs to be in sick bay. Get a stretcher."

The medic appeared confused but knew he was dealing with a post-human, and with post-humans, all seemed possible. He bounded back over the android and called for another stretcher.

"James," Thel began as she looked at James's virtual image in her mind's eye, "how long will our communications remain open?"

"I don't know, Thel. It could go down at anytime or it could remain strong. It all depends on whether or not the alien A.I. deems our speaking to be a threat."

"Then...James...if we get cut off-"

"As long as my body pulls through, everything will be okay, Thel."

"I love you, James," Thel said.

"I love you too, Thel."

2.

The androids that thudded one by one onto the rich, black forest floor of Cathedral Grove were different than the ones James had seen earlier-these ones were highly trained. They didn't have any sort of visible weaponry, but they moved like soldiers on the hunt and, one supposed, they didn't need weapons-their bodies were enough. They didn't speak, but it was clear that they were communicating from the way they fanned out amongst the towering trees, moving almost as though they were one mind. They were hunting for signs of the mainframe. It wouldn't be long until they found it.

"This little ruse won't work for long, James," the A.I. observed. "The alien A.I. will surely guess what you've done in short order, and then you'll have to face reality, once and for all."

"Maybe so. But for now, they literally can't see the forest for the trees," James replied.

He tried to remain focused on the androids, but, just as the A.I. had predicted, James's human mind couldn't stop going back to Old-timer. He was the closest thing James had ever had to a father figure. His own father's relationship with him was strained at the best of times-one of the major pitfalls of a world where children eventually ended up the same age biologically as their parents was that it created absurd rivalries that became more like sibling squabbles than natural parent/child relationships. James's father spoke to him, but the conversations were strained and sometimes years apart. The older Keats was a gifted scientist in his own right but, try as he might, he would never reach James's level of success. This knowledge tortured him-so he withdrew. He didn't want to face the fact that his offspring was far superior.

Old-timer, on the other hand, had no feelings of rivalry with James. He'd always seemed proud of the younger man-impressed by his accomplishments, yet secure in his own position as James's mentor. He had known that James felt insecurity-self-doubt. He saw it as his place to rea.s.sure and strengthen James. Old-timer was the iron in James's spine. Now James wasn't sure how or if he could go on.

One of the androids knocked his metallic fist gently on the bark of one of the trees.

"Knock-knock," the A.I. said, an amused grin painted across his ugly, twisted, mouth.

After a short moment, the android put its ear to the bark of the tree and listened.

"They're on to you, James," observed the A.I. "They're scanning for abnormal electrical signals from the trees."