Post-Human Series Books 1-4 (38 page)

6

Old-timer streaked through the stratosphere toward Texas. His mind’s eye and navigational systems were operational once again, and the trip took only seconds. When he reached his house, Daniella was outside in the back yard, holding her
trowel as though it was a strange message in a bottle from another planet. She wasn’t gardening, but was looking straight up at the spectacle above. The nans were moving overhead in a cloud of black, clearing the atmosphere of the fetid smoke that had been left in the wake of the earlier destruction. When the nans had finished passing overhead, the sky was a brilliant color of blue, unlike any she’d seen in her life.

She turned, startled when she saw Old-timer approaching from the corner of her eye. “Craig!” she shouted. “What’s going on?”

“Daniella!” Old-timer shouted with glee as he tackled her to the ground and kissed her hard, tears streaming from his eyes. She struggled against him at first, shocked by his kiss, but he relaxed and began to kiss her softly, which made her relax as she began to kiss him back. He released her after a moment and pulled back so he could look at her again. He smiled from ear to ear as he ran his fingers through her black hair. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too. What is happening?” she asked, astonished.

“I’ll explain everything to you soon. Right now, there’s somewhere I have to be.”

Old-timer stood to his feet and lifted off into the air. “I’ll be back in a flash, Daniella! I love you!” he called down to her before igniting his cocoon and streaking southward toward the Purist complex.

He saw other green lights twinkling above the surface of the Earth as twilight approached.

Life
.

Moments later he was above a rebuilt countryside just outside of Buenos Aires. He watched as Djanet helped a large group of Purists out of a hole in the earth where the complex used to be and into the golden light of the dying day. The leaves were emerald green and shone brilliantly with life.

“Rich! Djanet!” Old-timer called out with glee as he embraced his two friends.

“What the hell happened?” Rich asked, smiling and fighting the urge to jump from foot to foot as the three held on to one another.

“It was James! He deleted the A.I., and he’s bringing everyone back!”

“What do you mean?” Djanet asked as she and Rich looked on, stunned.

“I don’t know how he did it, but he’s taken on the powers of the A.I., and he’s bringing everyone back! I’ve already seen Daniella! Rich, Djanet, your families are alive!” Old-timer gleefully delivered the good news.

“My...my family...” Rich stuttered, shaking like an autumn leaf before eventually letting go and sitting on the soft, rich earth. “It’s a miracle,” he said in a broken voice as he looked up at Djanet and Old-timer, his eyes glistening wet.

“That’s what I said.”

“But what about the Purists?” Djanet asked suddenly.

“I don’t think James can do anything about them,” Old-timer replied, guilt seeping into his voice. “The A.I. saved the consciousnesses of everyone connected to the Net in his mainframe. The Purists weren’t saved.” Old-timer turned to the huddled masses of Purists, watching as they embraced one another, dusty and bloodied and recently emerged from Hell. His eyes quickly found Alejandra’s blue disks and locked onto them. “Alejandra,” he whispered as he left his companions and walked to her.

“You made it,” Alejandra said with a smile.

“I made it.”

“But now, I sense you wish to leave.”

Old-timer’s smile faded as he searched for the right words. He wondered what he could say to her? She was an empath and could feel the truth.

“It’s okay. She’s alive again. You should rejoice,” Alejandra said, smiling.

“Alejandra, I—”

“It’s okay, Craig. I felt everything. It was genuine. What you feel now is genuine too. We were of the same world for a time, but we are from different worlds now once again. You belong in your world, and I belong in mine.”

Old-timer grabbed her and held her tight. “Alejandra, we may not be meant for one another, but we were meant to be in one another’s lives. We’ll always live in the same world now. I’ll never forget that.” He let her go and kissed her softly on the forehead before lifting off into the air.

He turned to Djanet and Rich and shouted, “Hey! Go home! It’s been a long day!” Then, with a final wave to Alejandra, Old-timer streaked home toward his life, happy as a newborn babe.

7

Thirteen months later, the hearing was in full swing. Golden sunshine gleamed down on Seattle through the newly clean atmosphere as thousands of green cocoons streamed down to the A.I. Governing Council headquarters. Inside, James sat with Thel, facing the eleven council members who sat in their white robes. The hearing room was filled w
ith hundreds of onlookers, and millions more watched the proceedings on their mind’s eyes.

Council Chief, Aldous Gibson, stood at the center podium and spoke as sunlight streamed into the room, giving the interior a golden sheen.

“Why should we believe your version of the events in question? This appears very much like an elaborate power grab. You’ve used the Death’s Counterfeit program to supplant the A.I., making yourself a
virtual god
, and in the process your wife—whom it is well documented that you wanted to leave—has conveniently been killed.”

“You bastard!” Thel shouted out as she stood rigidly to her feet. James grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to his side. The crowd erupted into murmurs in response the drama unfolding before them.

“Guards! Remove that woman!” Chief Gibson ordered. Two enormous robots, black and shining, glided above the ground and toward Thel before stopping midflight.

“She’s staying with me,” James said, no discernible expression in his voice. The robots were forced backward to their positions at the side of the long Council table.

“Are you exerting
your
will above the will of this Council?” demanded Chief Gibson of James.

“Yes,” replied James succinctly.

Gibson paused as the onlookers further murmured in reaction. “It is clear that something very serious has happened. In the blink of an eye, the world has forever changed. Our homes still exist, but the sickening feeling that our private lives have been invaded remains. Our sky has been cleansed, yet we are now faced with a world inhabited by trillions of microscopic nans. The A.I. has been deleted and replaced with the consciousness of a man who stands here in this very hall today. Make no mistake, ladies and gentleman, we are all at this man’s mercy. He has control over every system that was previously the domain of the A.I. My question for that man is, now that you have this power, what is next? Why should we trust it in your hands? What qualifies you?”

James stood to his feet and faced the Council as he responded, “The question is moot. I don’t want this power, and I refuse to accept it. It’s a power no one should have. As we speak, I’m constructing an automated program that will be capable of carrying out the former functions of the A.I. but will not be capable of independent thought. It was a mistake to ever create such a being. Dr. Frankenstein created a monster because he wanted to create man, and that decision eventually led to his own death. We created a god, and that god killed all of us. We can never make that mistake again.”

The crowd continued to be unsettled as the spectacle unfolded. The stakes could not be higher. A single man was in control of the known universe, and his words carried a weight unmatched in history.

“Let me clarify this point. You are agreeing to yield your powers to an automated program that will, in turn, be monitored by the Council, just as before,” Chief Gibson slowly stated, carrying every syllable carefully, as though the slightest error might cause the good news to break apart before his very eyes.

“Yes,” James replied, causing a pulsation of energy in the millions watching that could be sensed by everyone in attendance.

Chief Gibson pounded his gavel until the crowd quieted down to a low murmur. “Then we will adjourn this hearing for the time being and make preparations for the handover of power. That is all.”

Gibson pounded the gavel one last time to close the proceeding before dropping the gavel and striding triumphantly toward James. “You are a piece of work, Keats. You know that?”

James didn’t respond but stood toe to toe with the chief and met his eye.

“Let’s get away from this circus, shall we?” The chief guided James and Thel away from the main hall and into a quiet side room. “You’ve made a wise decision to hand over power to the Council. I should have expected no less from you, considering the infinite wisdom to which you now have access.”

“Indeed,” James replied.

“I want to apologize for the theatrics in there, young man. It’s just that this whole business...well, it defies reason. To think the entire planet was wiped out while we were in a sort of...stasis. Imagine how it feels for us to know we were, in a sense,
dead
. Our whole world has been disrupted. The order that has existed for nearly a century has been turned on its head. I’m sure you can empathize.”

“I can,” James replied. “Not to worry.”

The chief smiled and placed his hand on James’s arm. “I’m glad we have an understanding. You know, one good thing that has come out of all of this is the Purist situation.”

“What do you mean?” James asked.

“There were more than a million of them before this mess began, and now there are only 10,000. I would say the elimination of 99 percent of that population is very good indeed.”

James didn’t waste a second; he turned and punched the chief across the chin and sent him sprawling to the ground. “It’s a very bad thing, Chief Gibson—a very bad thing
.
Don’t forget it.”

The chief wiped blood from his lips onto his white robe, and his nans repaired his split lip in a matter of seconds. “You would do well to remember that you won’t be a god forever, James. Soon, you’ll be just like the rest of us, and you’re not making any friends right now.”

“I’ll never be like
you
,
” James retorted, “and I have 10,000 new friends. If you harm them in any way, you’ll hear from me.”

“Once you’ve removed your consciousness from the A.I. mainframe, I’ll have nothing to fear from you,” the chief answered as he slowly stood to his feet, his lips curled in an atavistic sneer.

“You’ll always have me to fear, Chief Gibson, because I’ll always see through you. Goodbye.” Thel followed James out of the room but turned and gave the chief the finger before turning the corner.

“God, that guy is a real piece of garbage,” Thel announced as she and James stepped out into the sunshine through a back entrance to the headquarters. “You should have reconsidered when it came time to bring him back from the dead.”

James smiled and nodded in agreement. “Live and learn.”

“Are you sure about giving power over to them, James? Can you trust them?”

“I’ve given them no power, Thel—only the
illusion
of power. The automated system will resist control, and if they ever attempt to manipulate it, I’ll know about it. I made sure of that. The nans will no longer record natural emotions and feelings and punish the people who have them. We’ll be free now, Thel. But as long as the Council believes they are in power, it will keep the peace.”

“So what now, James?” Thel asked. “Billions of people want to hear what you have to say. You’re the most famous man on the planet.”

James saw the throngs of people hovering and milling about near the front of the Council headquarters and grinned a sideways grin at Thel. “I’ve got it covered. Let’s go to your place and grab our flight suits.”

As they neared Venus, Thel began to see a difference in the surface of the planet. “Oh my God,” she said to James as they entered the stratosphere together. “You didn’t.”

“I did.”

“You terraformed the entire planet?”

“Surprise!” James announced, laughing.

“The Council said they are abandoning the Venus terraforming project for the foreseeable future while they deal with the fallout from the A.I. situation. They announced that during the hearing and you just sat there quietly, all the while knowing that you had already terraformed the entire thing!”

“Yes. Follow me. I have a nice spot picked out for us.” James veered toward a sandy beach on the edge of thick, lush jungle and set down on the white sand. Turquoise waves gently ran up to lick at his boots. Thel set down next to him and removed her helmet. “It’s breathtaking,” she said, unable to remove the smile from her face.

“And not complete just yet,” James replied before turning to watch as the jungle gave way and a beautiful white resort house emerged from the tree line, courtesy of a cloud of nans.

“Nice touch,” Thel commented. “I’m really going to miss these god-like powers of yours.”

“You better enjoy them while you can,” James replied. “I’ll be completely human again in a few days. But until then, it’s just you and me on this entire planet.”

“Then why are we wearing all these clothes?” Thel asked as she laughed and began to peel off her flight suit, revealing her perfect skin and exposing it to the Venusian sunshine.

“I have no idea,” James said in reply as he began to remove his own suit.

Thel stood naked before him and stepped into the perfect water, kicking up a splash that wet James’s chin. She pounced on James as he tossed away the last of his clothing, collapsing them both into the warm water and the soft sand. Their skin came together and the thought suddenly crossed his mind:
Electric
.

“I love you, James,” Thel said.

“I love you too.”