“Remain calm, Richard,” Aldous said, his own tone remarkably relaxed as he accessed the A.I.’s global defense network. “The arrival of reinforcements is imminent.”
“What sort of reinforce—”
His words were cut short when a multitude of familiar robots began to empty out of underground storage compartments that opened up into launchers around the perimeter of the mainframe.
“Holy…I did not think I’d ever be relieved to see those guys again,” Rich reacted as thousands of the sleek, black, bat-like robots launched from the surface, on an intercept course toward the plummeting androids.
“Interesting that the A.I. opted to utilize the design that originated with the nanobot consciousness that infiltrated and corrupted his systems,” Aldous commented. “He recognized the usefulness of the design and kept it. It seems the A.I. is full of surprises.”
“Yeah, good call on his part. Those’ll be helpful,” Rich said as he prepared to erect the magnetic field around the mainframe, since the androids were now engaged with the mechanical bats just a kilometer above his head. “But we’re gonna need a lot more. Are you in control of the mainframe yet?”
“I’m working on it, my friend,” Aldous said as he located and landed on the surface of the A.I.’s vast information storage network. He’d never been there before, and just as James had been when he first arrived on the planet-sized structure, he was both bewildered and in awe. Trillions of glowing, blue structures stood around him, towering high into the empty, black sky.
“Faster please,” Rich said as he finally ignited his cocoon, utilizing the augmentation belt and making sure the cocoon expanded to the trench he’d dug around the structure.
The first android smashed against the giant green cocoon and ricocheted away, followed almost instantly by dozens more. Seconds later, what had been a terrifying prelude became a previously unimagined horror, as tens of thousands of metal bodies began crashing against the cocoon. Rich looked straight up at the horror unfolding above him; the androids were so close that he made eye contact with several of them as they hit the surface and then swarmed, thousands more androids swarming on top of them, crushing their own numbers beneath them. The androids were both male and female—it didn’t seem to matter. All that mattered was their singular purpose: to destroy the mainframe and to destroy its lone protector.
“It’s me,” Rich whispered to himself. “I’m the one who dies. Kill the comic relief, and the audience knows how serious things are. I’m a goner.”
23
“WAKE UP, James Keats,” the Kali avatar spoke as she held James’s head between her hands.
James’s eyes suddenly widened before he blinked twice in disbelief. His head suddenly completely cleared, all of his pain vanishing instantaneously. He instinctively pulled back from her and ambled to his feet. “What did you…” he began to ask before he realized the obviousness of the answer.
The woman in the red dress, who’d been crouched over the fallen James, stood straight and kept her adoring eyes on him. “All the beauty in the universe is inside of you, James Keats.” She then turned slightly and brushed the back of her hand against the A.I.’s injured cheek.
The A.I. reacted with surprise, tilting his head back as he felt a sensation from long ago: the itching of healing flesh. He reached up to touch the bandage, eliciting no pain from the wound underneath. He peeled the corner of the bandage off, then looked to Thel for confirmation.
Astonished, she simply confirmed what he already knew. “It’s gone.”
The A.I.’s eyes went to Kali’s, as did everyone else’s in the room, but she kept hers on James.
“We’ll meet again,” she said before, instantly, her eyes glazed over and the glow of her life force, the intelligence of the mystery pattern underneath the surface, observably vacated. The avatar stood, barely moving, like a mannequin in the center of the room.
The candidate went to her and waved a hand in front of her face. When she didn’t react, he snapped his fingers.
“Don’t bother,” the A.I. said to him, meeting his eyes. “We’ve both seen this before.”
“I suppose we have,” the candidate agreed, thinking back to an earlier moment in his testing, when Kali had seemed to become an empty vessel. That had all been part of a charade, though, orchestrated by the three entities still in the room. But what is this new terror? he asked himself.
Thel went to James and put her arm on him, standing in front of him so that she could get a better look into his eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked with concern as she examined him.