“It is, pal! It’s good to hear your voice! Where’s Aldous?”
“On the bridge. And we’ve got Thel’s body with us. Unfortunately, Aldous couldn’t rescue yours, Commander.”
“Heh. Shocking,” James retorted. “Where are you?”
“We’re on your ship, en route to Venus.”
“Venus?” James reacted. “What’s he want with Venus?”
“He thinks it’s the best place to find survivors,” Rich replied, “and he thinks it’s a low priority for the androids.”
There was a short pause. “Maybe,” James finally returned, his tone dubious. “Or maybe he’s planning to bring them down himself, from the inside.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Rich asked, stunned, his heart suddenly beating twice as fast.
“Rich, listen to me. We can’t prove it, but Aldous is a suspect—maybe the prime suspect—for having been the one who trapped us in the sim and helped the androids destroy the mainframe.”
“What the—are you serious?”
“He’s only a suspect, but he had the means and we think he might have had the motive.”
“Listen, Commander Keats, we sent a message to the Purists, but our regular communication system is down, so we haven’t heard back from them yet, but we’re on our way and should be there in about half an hour. If the Purists radio back to us that they’re okay, what do I do?”
“Keep a very close eye on Aldous,” James replied, “but don’t tip him off that you’re on to him. If he gets wise to us, he might damage the hard drive.”
“You think he’d do that?” Rich reacted, aghast.
“If he’s a man who’d betray his entire species? Yes. Rich, if there’s any way in Hell that you can get that hard drive away from him without him getting suspicious, do it. Then let Old-timer know what happened and get it to him. He’ll know what to do from there.”
“Commander, I’ve lost contact with Old-timer. Hell, I’ve lost contact with everyone but Aldous. I’m alone out here. Old-timer might’a been…you know…”
“He better not have,” James replied, “because right now, our only hope for the solar system rests on his shoulders.”
10
“Dear God,” Old-timer said when the replicator came into view at the end of the tunnel. A moment later, they reached the mouth of the tunnel, and the full, awful expanse of the monstrosity started to sink in: a dark, brutal, metal structure that stretched in every direction in perfect geometric lines, endless coffin-shaped pods, adjoined by the ubiquitous catwalks that were a mainstay of android architecture.
“This is it,” Jules announced. “Pretty impressive, I know.”
“Wasn’t the word I was thinking.”
“Oh, right,” Jules replied as she held up her hands and mockingly twitched her fingers as though she were shaking with fear, “this is the evil heart of mechanical darkness,” she said, mimicking a scared child’s voice. “This is pure technological evil.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Ridiculous, Luddite reaction.”
“Luddite?” Old-timer reacted, astonished. “You’re calling me a Luddite?” He unfurled one of his tendrils and displayed it to make his point. “You don’t think joining a collective of trillions, all in the name of keeping humanity standing still, is a little more on the Luddite side?”
Jules scoffed, unimpressed. “Your weird worm parts don’t make you advanced, Craig. They make you a freak.”
Old-timer glared at her but kept his composure.
“Come on,” Jules said, dropping the subject, “Let’s get your friends.”
“From where?” Old-timer asked. “It’s endless.”
“If they were uploaded together, they should all be grouped together.”
“They weren’t.” Old-timer held up his assimilator. “In fact, three of them haven’t even been uploaded yet.”
“That’s perfect,” she said, holding out her hand to take the assimilator. “We can upload them now.”
Old-timer refused to hand the device to her.
“Really?” she said, shocked. “You’re in my head. You know I’m not lying.”
He relented and handed her his precious cargo.
“Was that really so hard?” she chided. “Now, tell me the names of your friends who were uploaded already. I’ll find their location and then we’ll make sure we construct them all near one another.”
“Djanet Dove and Daniella Emilson,” Old-timer replied.