The alien shook her head, earnestly narrowing her eyes as she said, "No. I am not an artificial intelligence. I'm a human. Like you."

17.

Djanet and Rich exited the ship together, trailing several pieces of sc.r.a.p t.i.tanium that floated behind them in their magnetic coc.o.o.n. They flew to the back of the ship, skimming over the pockmarked hull, the nearby sun gleaming off the t.i.tanium skin. "It's crazy," Rich commented, "even with the tint on my visor darkened to the max, it's still bright as h.e.l.l out here."

They set down next to the engines, and Rich began sizing up the pieces of sc.r.a.p that they had brought with them, debating which one to use first to plug the gaping hole in the engine casing.

"Rich," Djanet said, her heart racing as she tried to find the strength to speak, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you."

Rich inhaled deeply before he responded. He had gently separated himself from Djanet when she had kissed him earlier and said only I can't, before heading back inside the ship. They hadn't spoken of the incident since then.

"I guess we should talk about it-it's kind of the elephant in the solar system," Rich retorted with an embarra.s.sed, awkward smile.

Djanet continued, cutting Rich off before he attempted another bad joke. "I've been selfish. I was feeling things-powerful things."

"It's okay," Rich replied.

"But I wasn't thinking about your life and your responsibilities," Djanet continued. "You have a beautiful family-in this world where it is so hard to keep a family together-I mean really together-not forced by the Governing Council-you've done it. And I have no right to interfere or-"

"Djanet, it's not like I didn't want to kiss you back," Rich said suddenly. Djanet was left stunned and breathless by the words. "It isn't like I haven't thought about it," he continued, "and it isn't like I think I've figured out the whole world or what my future holds." Rich stood up and turned away from Djanet, unable to look at her, even though she was garbed in her black flight suit and helmet and it was impossible to see her eyes-it was still too hard. "I think about it all the time. Immortality. What will I do with it? Can I stay with my wife for the rest of time? Will I even want to?" Rich sighed and shook his head. He turned back to her. "I don't have the answers."

Djanet took a moment to digest Rich's confession. "Neither do I," she admitted in reply. She slumped her shoulders and lowered her head.

As soon as she did, Rich saw two objects approaching at an alarming rate. "Watch out!" Rich shouted as he dived to knock Djanet out of the way.

Old-timer and Alejandra attacked.

18.

Old-timer swooped down like a hawk but Rich was able to push Djanet out of the way so the two post-humans could roll out from under the attack and fly off the hull in time to put distance between themselves and their attackers. "What the h.e.l.l is going on?" Rich yelled. "It's Old-timer and Alejandra!"

"It can't be!" Djanet replied as Old-timer and Alejandra came around to continue their pursuit. "Alejandra is still in sick bay. She's alive!"

"Well, whoever they are, they're trying to kill us!" Rich exclaimed as he and Djanet desperately tried to evade their pursuers. Rich patched into Thel's mind's eye. "Thel! You're not going to believe this, but Old-timer and Alejandra are out here...and they're trying to kill us!"

"What?" Thel asked, astonished. "Can you repeat that?"

"You heard right the first time!" Rich yelled. "They don't have magnetic fields or even helmets! I think they're androids!"

Thel was stunned into silence. She turned quickly to see Alejandra, still on her bed in sick bay. "I...I can't believe it," she whispered.

"You better believe it!" Rich shouted as he circled the tail of the ship, Old-timer close behind him, "and you better tell me what to do! Should I fire?" As he looked back and saw Old-timer up close, it appeared that he was trying frantically to communicate with him, wildly flailing his arms and yelling. "G.o.d-he looks crazy."

"I don't think we have a choice!" Djanet replied as she opened fire on Alejandra. Alejandra twisted her body to avoid the blasts and backed off of her pursuit. Rich turned and did the same to Old-timer, narrowly missing him. Old-timer quickly retreated.

There was a short, bizarre standoff. Alejandra and Old-timer floated several meters away from Rich and Djanet, who came together to regroup.

"It can't really be them," Djanet said. "It's some sort of trick."

"I can't communicate with them," Rich said, "but it looked like Old-timer was trying to speak to me."

"We can't get close," Djanet said. "If they are androids, then we know that if we let them touch us, we're goners."

"Then I guess there's only one thing to do," Rich realized. "We have to kill them before they kill us."

"I guess catching them by surprise didn't work," Old-timer said as he floated in s.p.a.ce next to Alejandra, quickly sizing up the situation.

"Have you had any luck tapping into their minds' eyes'?" Alejandra asked.

"No. Their mind's eye is on a different frequency than the android communication system-the systems don't seem to be compatible. We can't communicate with them out here. We're going to have to somehow take this inside-and we have to do it right now-they don't have much time left!"

19.

Rich and Djanet began hurling energy blasts at Old-timer and Alejandra, who then had to scramble to get out of their line of sight. "We're going to have to get back to the c.o.c.kpit!" Old-timer called to Alejandra.

"I have no idea where the c.o.c.kpit is, Craig!" Alejandra yelled back as she flew behind Old-timer, skimming just above the skin of the gargantuan ship. Flying was something that was still frighteningly new to her, and she felt she was at a major disadvantage as the dogfight unfolded.

"Just follow my lead!" Old-timer replied as he headed toward the front of the ship.

"They're heading for the c.o.c.kpit!" Rich shouted over his mind's eye to both Thel and Djanet. "You gotta get ready, Thel!"

"I'm on it!" Thel replied as she flew out of sick bay and through the corridors toward the control center of the ship. She felt her best chance was to reach the narrow opening the androids had previously ripped in the c.o.c.kpit and blast the impostors before they could run amok.

She didn't make it in time.

When she turned the corner to the c.o.c.kpit, a figure, identical to Old-timer, was already standing, poised, and ready for action as Alejandra slipped through the narrow pa.s.sage. "d.a.m.n it!" she shouted. "They beat me here, Rich!"

"Thel! Wait!" Old-timer shouted as he held out his hand to stop her. "We're trying to save you!"

"You attacked Rich and Djanet!" Thel replied as green b.a.l.l.s of energy began to pulsate on her fingertips.

"We don't have much time!" Alejandra shouted. "Thel! You have to believe us! You have to destroy your body!"

Thel's expression was aghast as Rich and Djanet flew through the hole and onto the scene. "I'd rather not!" Thel shouted as she blasted at the replicas of her former friends.

20.

Old-timer grabbed Alejandra with one arm and ran right through the c.o.c.kpit wall and out of the room to evade Thel's blasts. The damage brought more sections of the roof down into the c.o.c.kpit. More magnetic fields were automatically generated to keep the room from decompressing.

"Great! Just great!" Rich shouted as he brushed metallic dust off his jacket. "We have to kill those things before they rip the ship apart!"

Alejandra and Old-timer flew through the corridors of the vessel, sending terrified Purists ducking for cover. "Taking it inside didn't work either!" Alejandra called to Old-timer. "Now what do we do?"

"We have to get to sick bay!" Old-timer replied. "It's the only place I can think of where we can regain the advantage."

Not far behind them, Rich, Djanet, and Thel were in pursuit. The androids, however, were always just out of range. Each time they turned down a new corridor, they would barely catch a glimpse of Old-timer and Alejandra as they disappeared behind the next bend.

"Oh no," Thel said, beginning to realize where they were heading.

"What is it?" Djanet asked.

"They're heading to sick bay!" Thel exclaimed. "They're after James! We have to stop them!"

"d.a.m.n right!" Rich shouted as the trio blasted forth down the hallways, desperately trying to gain ground on the androids.

21.

"What game are you playing?" James demanded of the alien. "Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?"

"We are not here to kill humans-we are here to save humans."

James scoffed. "You save us by attacking us?"

"We have never attacked," the alien replied.

James remained silent. Nothing that was being said meshed with any of the myriad of scenarios that he had examined. He was at a complete loss. "Is this some sort of diversion?"

"No."

"There's no need for it-you've already cut off my communication."

"What?" the alien asked, stunned. "We have not blocked any communication."

"Why do you lie at every turn?" James asked, shaking his head. "You're wasting my time. Start explaining this to me or leave."

"We haven't lied at any point," the alien replied. James noted the extraordinary sincerity with which she appeared to speak. If this was just a computer simulation, the technology to mimic human expressions and to evoke feelings of trust in the listener was lightyears beyond anything humans had developed. "We came here to help you. We came to destroy the A.I. that had destroyed this nest."

"Nest?" James reacted with surprise.

"Yes," the alien nodded. "We were unaware of a human nest in this solar system until the communication from an artificial intelligence informed us that it destroyed the human population here and was seeking to branch out. We responded as quickly as we could and formed a response force. We cannot tolerate an artificial intelligence bent on destroying humans."

James was flabbergasted. Something was horribly wrong, and an electric jolt of fear surged through his mind. "That can't be true. You've been killing us."

"We've killed no one. We've been responding to the circ.u.mstances in the only appropriate way."

James shook his head as though he were trying to shake the alien's words out of his mind. "Appropriate? I watched you take millions of people and dispose of their bodies in s.p.a.ce. How can that possibly be appropriate?"

"We were attacked," the alien began before being abruptly cut off by James.

"We were defending ourselves! You made no attempt to communicate with us!"

"We made every attempt. Our communication was not returned. We were attacked by nan.o.bots and at that point had no choice but to proceed appropriately."

"By killing humans?"

"By saving humans," the alien replied. She moved closer to James, almost close enough to touch him, causing James to step away. "We were surprised that there were still humans here. We concluded that you must have somehow taken control of the situation and eliminated the A.I. threat. However, unable to communicate, we had to proceed with the a.s.similation process."

"a.s.similation?" James made what seemed like a thousand realizations all in the same moment. "You've been a.s.similating humans? You've been turning them into...machines?"

"We are humans," the alien explained, "just like you."

22.

"If it's true that you're turning them into machines, then why are you taking the bodies into s.p.a.ce?" James asked.

"We are destroying them. They are a threat."

"Why are our bodies a threat?"

"They are contaminated," the alien replied. She took a moment to examine James's response; she seemed satisfied that James was finally ready to listen. She inhaled deeply before beginning her explanation. "My friend," she began, "your species needed help. Although you cannot have realized it, you were facing the most dangerous time in your existence."

"The A.I. had succeeded in destroying the species," James replied. "It was devastating; it was a miracle that we survived. But we overcame the danger. We were fine until you arrived."