What would be difficult was what would happen next.
“Jesus,” James cursed when he felt the enormous pressure that encapsulated his entire body.
“We’ve been driven several kilometers below the surface of the Earth, James,” the A.I. related calmly. “Your body’s sensor array is functioning correctly and quite impressively, but since we’re no longer connected to a mainframe, there’s actually too much information for our core matrix processing power to sort through. I’m trying to determine how far below the surface we are so—”
“It doesn’t matter,” James grunted in reply as he began wriggling his body, using his enormous strength to break apart the earth around him, allowing him more room to gain even more leverage. “The body is strong enough, and even if there’s too much information to process, I can sense the gravity field enough to fly. All that matters is that we get out. Now.”
“Agreed, although, James, you should prepare yourself for what you’re about to see. It will be, albeit on a slightly smaller scale, a replay of the incident in which the moon was originally formed after the Earth collided with another body roughly the size of Mars. The android ship was smaller than Mars, but when a collision is that massive, the results are quite extraordinary.”
“I already know,” James responded through gritted teeth as he managed to pry himself enough room to raise up his legs and push the crust of the Earth away from him. He began to propel himself upward, into the darkness, his determination increasing as he progressed, the crust exploding out of his way as he moved. “It won’t matter. We won’t let this outcome stand. It’s up to us to make this right.”
“Indeed it is, James,” the A.I. replied, though his tone reflected dubiousness that didn’t match the focused determination James was exhibiting.
“What is it?” James asked as he continued to fight his way to the surface, clawing and punching, forcing the darkness in front of him to give way meter by meter, the sound of his escape so deafening that the A.I. had already turned their shared aural sensors down to near zero.
“We’re still in the dark, metaphorically as well as literally. Do you not find that troublesome?”
“Your intuition again?” James responded.
“I suppose so,” the A.I. replied. “I’ve been connected to the mainframe for so long—I’ve been in control and sure I had the tools to solve any puzzle, so much so that to be disconnected has created what I might describe as something like phantom limb syndrome.”
“I know the feeling,” James agreed. “Even though my time in the mainframe was shorter than yours, losing those extra abilities feels like losing a huge part of yourself.”
“Every instinct I have is screaming at me to run game theory scenarios based on our new information to determine the answers to our questions,” the A.I. complained, “but we simply don’t have access to that sort of power. It feels as though we’re fighting blind.”
“We’ve got your brain pattern and mine,” James reminded him as he grunted, continuing to fight his way to the surface as only a superhuman could, “and two heads are better than one.”
“This is too easy.”
“Too easy?” James responded as he continued punching. “Are you not connected to my optics yet?”
“Of course I am. I am aware that burrowing up to the surface is difficult, but when we reach the surface we’ll be able to fly to Trans-human, and from there, you’ll be able to input my pattern. Then, in theory, I should be able to firewall us and, using the computational power of Trans-human, reverse all of the events in the solar system, thereby restoring the lost lives of the Purists and the biosphere of the Earth, not to mention the mainframe.”
“Right,” James huffed in reply as he felt the pressure decreasing noticeably. “We must be getting close to the surface.”
“James, we’ve been a step behind throughout this entire ordeal—at least since the androids fired that anti-matter missile at the mainframe, which, at the time, appeared to be against all reason.”
“You’re saying there was some method to the madness?”
“Think about it. That action caused us to move up our timeframe for testing the candidate and inserting a core matrix program into Trans-human.”
“Sure. The androids, and most likely 1, made a deal with Aldous and Aldous would’ve suggested poking us with that anti-matter missile stick to prod us into immersing in the sim. Elementary. You hadn’t figured that out already?”