“I’m not having any luck getting through to Earth!” Djanet shouted.
“Me neither!” Rich shot back. “I’ve tried James and the A.I. again and Chief Gibson, but the communication signals aren’t getting through…” he paused for a moment as a particularly violent jolt nearly knocked the wind out of him. He shook it off and persevered. “Not getting through all this interference.”
“Are you all right?” Djanet called out to Rich.
“As Old-timer would say, this ain’t my first rodeo...whatever the hell a rodeo is!” Rich confirmed. “But I can handle a bumpy ride!”
“Unfortunately,” Djanet replied as she pointed to the android that was glued to their view screen like a spider clinging to a wall in a thunderstorm, “it looks like it isn’t his first rodeo either!”
“Yeah, that son-of-a-gun sure is hanging on!” Rich agreed. “Maybe we’ll lose him when—” Rich suddenly stopped speaking when they left a wormhole and in the second before the next one opened, the android scrambled at preternatural speed onto the roof, vanishing from view.
“Uh-oh. What the hell was that?”
Djanet was already patching into the craft’s sensors with her mind’s eye. “This is bad,” she announced.
“Oh no.” Rich sighed. “What?”
“He’s going after the engine.”
Rich shook his head. “Déjà vu all over again.”
“We can’t let him rip through the engine casing,” Djanet stated.
“It’s made of that super-strong stuff, like James’s body is made from. He won’t be able to get through,” Rich replied, dismissing the possibility.
“He might not be able to get through the hull or the engine’s casing,” Djanet answered, “but those suicidal bastards wouldn’t have any qualms about trying to toss their entire bodies into an engine to block it, would they?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Rich admitted, forlornly. “Ugh.”
“This is too important to take the gamble.”
“Rock-paper-scissors to see who goes and gets him?” Rich suggested.
Djanet’s expression was aghast.
“What? Just kidding!” Rich said as he scrambled to his feet and carefully began moving toward the exit. “Chivalry isn’t completely dead. I got this.”
Djanet grabbed his arm to stop him, her expression deadly serious. “No you don’t. I’ve got this.”
Rich shook his head, “Hey, there’s no way—”
“Listen to me!” Djanet suddenly shouted, silencing Rich. “This is serious. James and the A.I. aren’t communicating and may not be functioning. The post-humans would assume the A.I. would warn them if the androids were attacking. In all likelihood, they don’t even know what’s comin’ for them. One of us has to get back there in time to—”
“One of us?” Rich suddenly shouted in a mixture of shock and protest. “Oh no, we’re not splitting up! That’s the stupidest thing anyone can ever do! Haven’t you ever watched a movie? They split up all the time right before people start getting killed!”
“One of us needs to get back to protect the mainframe and warn the post-humans throughout the solar system, and the other one needs to get Old-timer in Universe 332 and bring him back before it’s too late!”
“If we stop the ship, we can both take out that android bastard together and we’ll be able to send a message without any interference. And then we can head back to Universe 332—”
“And just abandon the ship?” Djanet reacted.
“Sure,” Rich shrugged. “It’s a nice ship, but—”
“It’s not just a nice ship, Rich! James said it had a weapon that was powerful enough to do some serious damage to the androids.”
“A weapon he was in control of,” Rich countered. “We don’t even know what it is, let alone how to use it.”
“But if we leave the ship to fall into the android’s hands and they figure out—”
“Ugh. I hate it when I’m not right,” Rich said, his hands going to his temples in frustration. “Which means I hate a lot of moments.”
Before Djanet could respond, the ship suddenly jolted sharply before spinning violently like a corkscrew into the next wormhole.
“He’s disrupted the engine!” Djanet shouted. “We don’t have time to debate this!” she screamed out as they were both thrown violently around the bridge of the craft. “I’m going out there to take this bastard out, and I’m going to use the Planck to do it!