“Not good,” Rich uttered to himself, his eyes round as the first android locked eyes on him.
The android crouched down, about to begin his charge toward the single post-human that held back the trillion-strong tide of assimilated humanity.
Rich never gave him a chance. He instantly shrank the force-field by several meters, and millions of bodies dropped, impacting on the new, lower ceiling above him as a result. The android that had made it through the field suddenly found himself back on the outside, swallowed up by the perversion of humanity that came charging forth, the crowd reclaiming him as though he were a droplet of ocean spray reclaimed by the ocean.
“Aldous, I am not kidding when I say that they are about to crash this party,” Rich stammered, his voice shaking from fear and desperation. “I just used my last trick, man. They’re gonna be able to dig up under the magnetic field now!”
“Not to worry,” Aldous replied with a calm tone that seemed to Rich to be several leagues removed from their current reality. “I’m in control. The androids will be cleared off momentarily. Stand by.”
Well, it isn’t like I can do anything else, Rich thought. He stood perfectly still, his hands outstretched as he continued to generate his magnetic field, his nervousness causing sweat to pour from his forehead, despite the efforts of his nans to calm him. “Stand by,” Rich said, imitating Aldous’s flat tone. “Is this some sort of artificial intelligence understated humor? Gee, Aldous. I guess you’re right. I’m going to twiddle my thumbs, if you don’t mind.”
The seconds ticked by as the ground shook from the aerial attack that was quickly transitioning into an attack from below. The androids were already under Rich’s force-field, the earth being thrashed around under the protective perimeter, the androids having quickly adapted, digging farther toward the mainframe in an effort to force Rich to collapse the field back even further. Rich knew that each android that was charging up from under the earth was cognizant it would quickly be dispatched after the magnetic field retreated once again and he was appalled at the ease with which they chose to sacrifice themselves for the singular purpose of the collective.
The first androids began breaking through, arms emerging simultaneously in various locations all around him, quickly surrounding him. He could only assume others had breached the other sides of the mainframe as well, and that he’d have to collapse the entire magnetic field back several more meters, almost to his feet, to keep up the protection any longer. “Dear God, this is going to be way too close for comfort,” he said, nearly hyperventilating.
“Richard, disengage your magnetic field,” Aldous suddenly commanded.
“Are you sure?” Rich replied, considering the mass of metal that surrounded him and that would almost instantly collapse on his head if Aldous had miscalculated.
“Richard, you have nothing to fear,” Aldous replied calmly. “Disengage. Trust me.”
As Rich watched the first of the androids to fight his way up out of the Earth within the confines of his perimeter, he realized he had no choice. He closed his eyes, knelt on the ground, and let his guard down.
The instant the magnetic field was down, it was replaced by the mainframe’s own magnetic protection, a force-field far more powerful than the one Rich had generated. It pulsed out, heaving the millions of bodies that had collapsed on it up and off of it, hurling them out in a formation that looked like a dark gray mushroom cloud from afar. The bodies were expelled for dozens of kilometers.
Rich could feel the sunlight on his eyelids, a feeling he’d felt sure he’d never experience again, and he flashed his eyes open to take in the life-giving orb for one more moment in the sun. He smiled from ear to ear. “Aldous! That was incredibly badass! We might actually be able to win this thing!”
“I’m afraid you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself, Richard,” Aldous cautioned, throwing cold water on Rich’s brief hopefulness. “Even with these new powers, I don’t have the experience that would allow me to fend the androids off for long.”
“What do you mean?” Rich replied, his expression suddenly souring. “Just keep blasting them!”
“Richard, look up to your one o’clock.”
Rich looked almost straight up. A brownish object, the sun reflecting brightly off of its left side, hung in the sky like a cigarette burn on a piece of paper.
“Do you see it?”
A cloud partially covered the object, just as Aldous spoke, but Rich had indeed picked it out beforehand. “I see it. It’s an android ship, right?”