Inhuman(133)

James was stunned as he heard the A.I. use the same, cryptic words he’d heard in the sim from the entity that had taken control of the Kali avatar. What?

“Live to your potential, James—it is a potential that you still cannot even begin to fathom—and help others to live to theirs. You’re their leader now. They will look to you. Guide them wisely. Goodbye, my son.”

The A.I.’s visage vanished, and a lump immediately formed in James’s throat.

Wait! Don’t go! I need to know about the creators! What about V-SINN?

There came no response from the vast emptiness of space.

James’s almost hopeless situation began to overwhelm him, and he curled back up in the fetal position and closed his remaining eye as he floated through the harsh emptiness of space.

What am I supposed to do?

*****

On Venus, the candidate spoke in Thel’s ear. “I’m detecting something odd outside of the protective worldwide magnetic field.”

“What is it?”

“It appears to be a body, but it isn’t an android.”

Thel’s breath caught in her throat. “Is it...alive?”

“Most certainly,” the candidate replied. “It’s moving on a trajectory that suggests its following a course for reentry. Should I—”

“Yes!” Thel responded excitedly. “Let him in!”

“Affirmative,” the candidate replied. “I’ve locked on to its signal. You should be able to communicate—”

“James!” Thel shouted. “James, is that you?”

Old-timer, Rich, Djanet, and the others milled about, just meters behind Thel as they looked skyward, searching the dusk sky for signs of James.

“Th—” was all that came through in reply.

“James? Are you okay?” Thel asked, intensely concerned.

There were several seconds of silence before Old-timer thought he saw a flash of light in the sky. When it flashed again, not far from the point where he’d seen it just a second earlier, he felt sure and pointed for the others. “There. That’s gotta be him.”

Thel whirled to see where Old-timer was pointing. She watched with an ironic feeling of déjà vu as the streak of light briefly flared up into a ball brighter than the sun before fading quickly.

This time, James wasn’t able to lower his speed enough to avoid causing a shockwave that sent ocean spray flying dozens of meters into the sky and knocked curious Purists over on the beach, sending them tumbling to the ground.

Even Thel was nearly thrown back, but she braced herself and continued to peer upward at the incoming glow of light.

As he had only a day earlier, James dropped down on a vertical trajectory, splashing down in the ocean just a few hundred meters from the beach.

Thel waited, nearly breathless as he again moved toward the shore, his body like a vein of underwater lava, white steam lifting angrily off the water’s surface and swirling in the early-evening sky.

Then, he emerged.

Thel gasped, her hand clasping over her mouth in horror.

This was not James.

This was not the superman who’d saved them time and time again. This was not the savior humanity had come to depend on.

This was a man barely alive, everything that had made him appear human seemingly having been destroyed. Like a grotesque, animated corpse, James, barely surviving, crawled through the surf, the inner workings of his body exposed as barely any of his flesh remained. Chrome-colored organs pulsed, completely and unnaturally exposed to their surroundings. Only a man who’d built his entire body through and through with the incredibly tough nano-scaffolding material James had chosen for his new form could’ve survived. But, considering his condition, those around him now wondered whether survival was actually a curse.

Thel rushed into the water, but James held up his handless arms to keep her back, his one remaining eye desperate to communicate with her. His mouth was gone, but he made a guttural, mournful, desperate warning sound.

She froze in place.

Then words appeared in her mind’s eye—a written message that he’d managed to compose with his own mind’s eye.

Stay back! I love you but you’ll burn.

“Okay!” she cried out. “Okay! But what do I do?”

Just wait. Just wait a few minutes, he replied in text form.

“All right,” Thel bellowed out as she waited helplessly. “I love you, James!”

I love you too, he answered.

A second later, Old-timer trudged past her into the surf. “I can get him,” he announced as he splashed into the water.

Thel watched as dozens of Old-timer’s tendrils unfurled and quickly gathered James up, picking him up out of the waves before Old-timer turned and headed back toward the beach, his expression as sorrowful as it had ever been, James weak and motionless, helpless as a newborn baby as Old-timer carried him.