“I know, right?” Anisim commented.
“Just keep focused.”
“I’m focused,” Anisim answered, the pain in the back of his skull making it impossible not to be present in the moment, “just, look, please don’t hurt her.”
“I’ll do what I have to do,” Old-timer insisted emphatically, ignoring the request, dead set in his determination to save the last survivors of Universe 332, no matter the cost.
“She just wants to be a mom—”
“Shut up, Anisim, or I’ll make you shut up,” Old-timer ordered. “Take me to her.”
“Yes, sir,” the android replied meekly as they made their way toward the hive-like inner workings of the ship to the area that was clearly where the androids had made their dwellings.
Old-timer’s mouth opened in awe when they emerged from a wide, ugly, twisted tube of metal, and into a place that he couldn’t have imagined existed in his wildest dreams, especially not deep in the belly of the gruesome vessel.
Before him, Old-timer saw land—earth—whether simulated or not, in which forests sprawled for kilometers, river-like creeks flowed, and parks and gardens dotted an idyllic, spectacular, serene landscape. There were buildings that reminded him of the modern architecture of Earth, giant skyscrapers that reached up toward a simulated blue sky, complete with simulated sunlight.
“What the hell…” Old-timer whispered.
“I’ve set a course for her address,” Anisim informed Old-timer.
Old-timer worked hard to shake himself free of his shock. “She lives alone?”
“Yeah, I think. I dated her a couple of years ago. I haven’t checked up on her.”
Old-timer began to feel the wind blasting on his skin as they continued to fly into the simulated Earth-like setting. “There’s an atmosphere here,” he observed, using his mouth to speak once he realized that the air would carry the sound.
“Yes,” Anisim replied, “of course. We’re still human. We want to be able to speak to one another with our words and not just via mental connections. We want to listen to live music, hear a bird singing in the trees—”
“This is perverse,” Old-timer said, his upper lip curling. “It’s a crude imitation of the real thing.”
“It’s how we have to live,” Anisim responded. “We don’t have a choice. We’d all still be on Earth if we could.”
“Still be on Earth?” Old-timer said, his eyebrow’s knitting harder than ever. “You mean, your version of Earth? Your home planets?”
“Home planets?” Anisim reacted. “I’m from Earth, man. I’m an Earthling, just like you. I was born in the Ukraine.”
Old-timer forced them to a halt. They floated in the warm breeze, midway between two skyscrapers in the belly of the android’s mothership. “Hang on here a second. You’re from the Ukraine? As in next to Russia, Ukraine?”
Anisim nodded, but winced, the pain of the tendril in the back of his skull causing his eyes to close for a moment thanks to the worst headache he’d ever endured as he moved his mouth to confirm the gesture. “Yes. I’m human, just like you.”
Old-timer suddenly understood the truth. “My God. James was right. The reason you all appear human is because you’re from parallel Earths.”
“That’s right,” Anisim replied. “We’ve been at this for a long time. Our mission is to save the universe, man. We’re the good guys, I swear to you.”
Old-timer’s lip curled again as he glared at Anisim, but he remained speechless.
Anisim dared to follow up his stunning pronouncement with one that was even more stunning. “Our mission is to save humanity from itself.”
31
Djanet halted a dozen meters above and slightly to the south of the farmhouse shared by Daniella and Old-timer, close enough to see the shadowy figures inside as they appeared to ransack the old structure while they searched for signs of human life—human life to be assimilated.
“Old-timer, do you read me?” Djanet whispered over her mind’s eye as she disengaged her magnetic field and let herself float softly to the ground, crouching low as she made contact with the earth, ducking behind the tall brush to obscure her from the eyes of the androids.
“I read you,” Old-timer cut in, quickly and excitedly. “Have you got her?”
“Not yet. I don’t want to open communication with her yet, in case they’re scanning for communication signals—it’d give her position away.”
“You talking to me now will give yours away,” Old-timer pointed out.