“Uh…” Old-timer responded, nearly as confused as the candidate. “Shoot off your hand? They didn’t tell me you’d have to shoot off your hand.”
The candidate suddenly remembered something else from the night before. On the center island in the kitchen, he’d left the de-patternizer gun. He turned to it, and then stepped off his barstool. He looked at the stump where Kali’s hand used to be. It was now a makeshift access point to the Kali avatar’s special pattern, and he’d watched as the entity that had identified itself as his predecessor A.I. and two of his companions each successively joined with it, each one in turn taking on Kali’s powers, and each one exiting the sim. If they can do it, he reasoned, why not I?
“Listen, friend,” Old-timer began, “I know this sounds nuts, and you don’t know me from Adam, but you’re our only hope. If humanity is going to survive, you’ve got to trust me. You have to fuse with that avatar, and then you should be able to take control of a tower in the real world. The tower controls Venus’s powerful magnetic force-field. It can shield us from the gamma radiation, but the planet is being hit with it right now. Every second counts here, partner.”
The candidate looked down at his left hand, then looked at the de-patternizer in his right.
“What do you say? Will you help us?” Old-timer asked.
The candidate inhaled as he tried to steady himself. It’s insane, he thought. Then he looked up at the dreary, rain-soaked sky and remembered what Kali had been able to do to the weather. But then again, I could use a sunny day.
He bit his bottom lip before looking up at Old-timer and nodding. “I’ve got little to lose.” Then he fired the de-patternizer.
The pain shot through his entire body and seemed to travel right down through the soles of his feet, radiating out into the ground. His hand went gold first, and then in a fraction of a second, it turned to dust, wafting away in the simulated air.
Old-timer’s mouth hung slightly open as he watched the proceedings. “That looked kinda painful.”
The candidate nodded. “But it’s done,” he replied. as he looked over at Kali. “I’m committed.” He went to her, closed his eyes, and then put his injured arm up to hers.
He felt something remarkable beginning to occur…
25
“Hello?” a familiar voice suddenly spoke into Thel’s ear.
“Oh my God! Is that you?” Thel said, stunned. She looked up to see that Rich and Aldous, who were still connected via their mind’s eye link, also heard the voice and were listening, their expressions astonished.
“Yes, it’s me,” the candidate replied.
Old-timer’s eyes suddenly blinked open and he turned to the crowd of post-humans, androids, and Purists that had assembled around him. “Did it work? Has he made contact?”
“He has!” Thel shouted excitedly in return before turning her attention back to the candidate. “Do you recognize my voice?”
“Yes, you’re the post-human named Thel. How are—”
“That’s right,” Thel interrupted him, hurriedly. “I need you to listen to me carefully! We’ve destroyed our controls for a tower that we’re standing directly in front of, a Tesla tower with the capability of generating a worldwide magnetic field powerful enough to protect Venus from the incoming radiation. You, however, should be able to detect the wireless signals the tower is currently emitting and be able to take control of the tower’s systems.”
“Yes,” the candidate confirmed more quickly than expected. “I see them. My word,” he remarked, impressed by the tower’s schematics and capabilities. “This is extraordinarily powerful technology. It’s tapped into the frequency of the entire planet. Do you realize that this tower could—”
“Never mind that now,” Thel responded quickly but patiently as she clung to a faint hope that they could be saved. “There may be only seconds left before the gamma rays have reached levels strong enough to destroy all life on this planet. Can you determine how to operate the tower and generate as powerful a magnetic field as possible over the entire sphere of Venus?”
“Indeed,” the candidate replied. “I’ve already initiated it. Was that all you needed?” he asked, his tone as casual as that of a robot waiter at a restaurant.
“What?” Rich cut in after the others in the group were too stunned to respond. “Are you serious? You did it already?”
“Pardon me, I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure. They call me the candid—”