Sequence (14 page)

Life Swapping

Just to be sure, they waited for three days before making a move. Apparently the Grays and their cousins had come to an understanding
, as they never showed up. Perhaps the Grays weren’t as heartless as Chris had once thought.

Samda’s mech was in the dock first and
Jackie was on the table. She started to undress and Chris almost let her.

Chris
uploaded Samda’s consciousness into the console and then scrubbed her unit clean. Then he used the same disc that had been used on him to transfer Jackie’s mind directly to the mech. After that, he sent Samda’s mind into her new human body. It would be his and Dave’s turn next. He would have to make sure that Samda knew the process to the letter before allowing her to touch the controls. He trusted her, but this meant trusting her with his life. Dave’s too, if anything went wrong.

Samda crawled off of the circular table and immediately fell to the floor. “These legs are weak as hell. This is going to take some getting used to.” Her voice was human
, and exactly the same pitch as Jackie’s. He was glad he wouldn’t have to use a translator on Dave and Jackie’s bodies. Those translators sucked.

Chris
made sure Jackie was okay and then warned her that he was about to release her, so she’d better be ready. He did, and she wasn’t. She stumbled before getting control of her new robot body. She waved her tentacles around wildly. “This is amazing, Dave.”

Dave got on the table and
Chris got in the dock. He said to Samda, “Now, you’d better be sure to do everything exactly like I said, or else I could die.”

She rolled her eyes at him
before transferring his mind into Dave’s body and vice versa.

Chris
moved his fingers. They were foreign and yet familiar. He got to his feet and took in the scene. He and Samda were now small human beings. Jackie loomed over them, but Dave was still stuck in the dock.

Chris
released the mech and watched as it moved its metallic tentacles around in amazement.

Farewell

Chris
and Samda told the mechs everything they remembered, how to operate the ship and how to navigate.

Jackie
and Dave kept telling them to stop fussing. They asserted that the mechs had infused them with plenty of information to get them by.

Samda tested them with a couple of questions
, and when they got the answers right, she and Chris breathed a little easier. The last thing they wanted was to repay this kindness by sending Jackie and Dave out into the universe unprepared.

Then
Chris warned them to keep an eye out for aggressive behavior in one another, but Samda corrected him. “The suits didn’t provide us with emotions, Chris. The aggression was all you.”

Chris
had a hard time believing that at first, but there was a part of him that knew it was true. The suit had empowered and changed him while he was in it.

Dave finally said, “Listen,
Jackie’s eager to fly this ship across the universe, so I’m going to have to ask you two to leave.”

Chris
and Samda laughed and thanked them profusely before going to the holding cell to await transport to Earth.

Chris
said out loud, “I hope you have wonderful adventures, and I hope to see you soon.”

No sooner had he uttered the last word, they vanished.

An Adventure

Dave said to no one in particular, “See ya, Chris. Thanks for the robots.”

Jackie
said to Dave, “Let’s go and meet E.T.”

“I’ll get right
on it. Do you want to see other planets in our galaxy or do you want to go to a different one?”

“Who cares? Let’s see it all.”

Outpost Planet Eight

The mechs all stood inside the open
courtyard of the octagonal structure. In the middle of them, they regarded the EMP device. This was it. This was an end to their suffering. A hundred thousand years of torment and toil was coming to a close. They could hardly wait.

If they had tear ducts, they’d
have been crying.

One of them stepped towards the EMP and held his tentacle above the activation switch. “Goodbye
, my friends. Every journey must come to an end.”

He was about to flip the switch when a shriek of pure rage came to hi
m from inside the octagonal building. His hand wavered for a moment too long.

The
god creature rushed out into the courtyard. She was slick with slime. Her body had regenerated, but not fully. It was awkward and undefined.

One of the mechs gasped in terror and another screamed out, “Flip the switch
, damn it.”

But the
god was too quick. She pointed at the device and it melted away into a thick bubbling puddle before their eyes.

“How dare you betray me like that? If you thought you suffered before,
just wait to see what I’m going to do to you. There is no escape from me unless I grant it.”

One of the mechs said, “Kill me first then
, you bitch.”

“No one gets off that easily. We ha
d a project that got derailed. But we still have all the DNA we need to successfully design our true God. I will fix the damaged apparatus’ and then we’ll achieve the impossible. Follow me and don’t test my patience. Death is hardly the limit of what I can inflict upon you.”

A mech tried to run
away but she stopped it with a wave of her hand. Another lunged at her but she knocked him backwards with a nod.

She sneered. “Follow me. Your suffering is almost at its end. Our
new god will take everything from you, suffering included.”

Forgiveness

The Gray
Admiral Chaybo said to the mechanical captain, “Are you sure this isn’t overkill? You said you saw her with your own eyes. You said she was mashed to a pulp.”

“If you think it’s overkill, then let’s go,” the mech captain said. “But I’m not so sure.
She can regenerate, as you know. I doubt she could come back from what we did to her, but why take that chance?”

Admiral Chaybo
looked at the floor for a moment, deep in thought. Finally he said, “I trust your judgment.”

“I can’t tell you how good that is to hear.”

The nukes on board Admiral Chaybo’s ship had each been fitted with transponders taken from the ships that had escaped from Outpost Planet Eight. The drones buzzing the atmosphere of the planet would mistake the nukes as friendlies and leave them alone.

The Admiral ordered,
“Second in command, drop the nukes. Turn that building into a crater of glass.

“Yes sir.”

“When it’s done, take us home. There are some folks on this ship who haven’t been home in a very long time and I’d hate to keep them waiting much longer.”

The mech captain simply said
to the admiral, “Thank you, sir. Thank you for your forgiveness.”

“Thank you for failing,
Captain.”

The captain’s mechanical first mate took a step forward and said, “We didn’t fail. The Earthman saved us
from ourselves. He saved all of us.”

Flesh

Chris
held Samda as she struggled to keep her balance. They had been transported into Dave and Jackie’s house and her human knees were giving out.

“This gravity and these skinny legs make for a tough time walking.”

“We can practice. You’ll get good at it in no time.” He walked her over to the couch and sat her down.

Samda asked, “When
Dave and Jackie were talking about sex, is that what I think it is? Is it the same for your people as it was for mine?”

“I don’t know how your people did things.”

“I could show you.”

Chris
smiled. “And I could let you.”

The End

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