“A quarter of an hour? Jesus. Why don’t we send smoke signals?”
Aldous persevered. “And the nanobots are still functioning. Yes, it’s true that they can’t be updated, and it’s true that they aren’t powerful enough for long-distance communications, but if we get to Venus, we may be able to communicate with your family if they made it there.”
“Venus is a huge planet,” Rich countered. “What’s the range?”
“I’m not sure,” Aldous admitted, “but an educated guess would be 1,000 kilometers.”
Rich sighed mournfully before shutting his eyes and bowing his head. It was all he could do to prop himself up with his hands on his knees to keep himself from collapsing out of his chair.
Aldous crossed the bridge and reached out, patting Rich’s shoulder to steady him. “I know that’s not far, but it’s not hopeless either. Don’t lose your hope, Richard. I believe in my heart you’ll be reunited with your family.”
Rich took in a deep breath, but didn’t respond to the kind gesture as he thought of his family, and then of Djanet. She should’ve been able to respond to him. Something happened to her or she would’ve been able to answer me before the mainframe went down, he thought. She had to have been assimilated. An idea suddenly crossed in front of his eyes, causing him to lift his head suddenly, shocking Aldous.
“Where do the androids construct the bodies of the assimilated?”
“I-I have no idea,” Aldous replied.
“There must be a place. There must be a way we can—”
“Even if there was,” Aldous cut him off, speaking gently but clearly, “Not even this ship could survive a direct assault on one of those android behemoths—it would be like a fruit fly attacking a bear.”
“But maybe, together, we could figure out how to work the weapon James was—”
“That’s exceedingly unlikely, Richard. We’re mere mortals now. And besides, you don’t know of anyone who has been assimilated for sure. It’s just as likely that our loved ones are on Venus.”
Rich clenched his teeth, frustrated as he slammed his fist down on the instrument panel. A second later, he took in a quick, deep breath and started inputting the course for Venus. “Send your damn smoke signal, Chief. If we get confirmation that the Purists are still alive, then we’ll figure it out from there.”
Aldous smiled, relieved. “A good choice, Richard—a very wise choice indeed.”
7
“What the hell is this place?” Old-timer asked as he flew over the modern, sleek skyline of the city by the shore deep inside the bowels of the android constructor vessel.
Jules flew next to him, a single, sinewy tendril unfurled from near Old-timer’s ribcage having driven itself into the back of her skull, hidden by her strawberry hair, the tendril having latched itself on to her mechanical brainstem so that Old-timer had access to her communication system. “It’s Eden,” she replied.
Old-timer’s initial reaction was that Eden was a dark joke and that his prisoner was being deliberately abrasive, but he could feel her emotions through their connection, and there was no hint that she was being untruthful. To her, they really were in Eden.
He craned his neck and looked up at the sky—it was beautiful and sunny—a perfect mid-afternoon sky on a perfect summer day. There was even a slightly cool breeze on his skin as they flew away from the city and over the water below.
“It’s a simulated sky,” Jules offered, anticipating his question. “And an artificial sun, but the rest is real—the forests, parks, rivers, city, suburbs...everything.”
“Why?” Old-timer asked. “You’re machines, for God’s sake.”
“We’re human,” Jules replied, tentative in her speech but honest in her answers. “I’m sorry you can’t believe that, but it’s true. And like all humans, we long for Eden.”
Old-timer looked straight down and saw a couple in a small fishing boat, rowing into the middle of the lake. To his astonishment, they were accompanied by an android that appeared to be a youth, sporting a fishing rod. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“What did you think?” Jules responded, calmly but challengingly, “that we’re all mindless drones, flying around through space, conquering other humans for the fun of it and then plugging into batteries in our cubicles until the next conquest?”
Old-timer was speechless.
Jules dared turn her head to look at him. “Heh. You did think that. Now who’s kidding who?”
“So you live inside manmade paradises inside these ships?”