Rich had nothing he could say to such a morbid, yet true observation.
Patrick continued to lead them through freshly constructed, metallic corridors on their way to the command center. Rich noted that the design was reminiscent of their old lab on Venus, the one he’d worked in for years with James and the others in the small band of terraformers. He suddenly felt an overwhelming pang of nostalgia and wistful desire to return to those times. Little did he know that those would be days he’d think of as golden.
“Are you still with me, James?” Rich whispered. There came no reply.
“Did you say something?” Aldous asked.
“Just talking to myself. I do that,” Rich replied with a forced smile.
“Here we are,” Patrick announced as he breezed past two guards as they saluted him and entered through the double-doors that led to the command center. Governor Wong’s attention was glued to the dozens of screens in front of him as he stood at the center, surrounded by dozens more operators at workstations.
“Governor,” Patrick announced, “they’ve arrived.”
The governor turned, his face brightening when he saw Aldous, although he didn’t smile. He walked away from Alejandra, who’d been at his side, and held out his hand early, even as he was walking up the stairs that led up to the doors to the room, and spoke before they’d even shaken hands. “Chief Gibson, we’re so pleased you survived.”
When the governor finally reached him, Aldous shook his hand and replied, “As am I that you and your people have endured.”
“I know we’ve had our differences,” Wong stated, “but the enemy of thine enemy is my friend. It’s time we put our differences aside. The fate of our solar system depends upon it.”
“Agreed,” replied Aldous. “Please get me up to speed.”
“It would be my pleasure,” the governor returned as he guided Aldous back down the stairs.
Meanwhile, Rich glared down at Alejandra. She craned her neck to look at him, and as soon as they made eye contact, he waved with his hand for her to come to him. She narrowed her eyes and used the opposite of the twin staircases that lined the walls of the command center to make her way to him.
Lieutenant Commander Patrick had, by this point, noticed their odd behavior and silently watched.
“What is it?” Alejandra whispered when she reached Rich.
Rich grabbed her hand, then turned to the lieutenant commander as well. “I need to speak with you guys outside,” he whispered.
Curious, the two Purists made their way out of the room with the post-human, closing the doors behind them.
“What’s going on?” Patrick asked.
“Listen, we might have a huge problem,” Rich explained. “I’m still in contact with James and the A.I., and—”
“They survived?” Alejandra responded, astonished. “Then why haven’t they—”
“They’re trapped in a simulation—trapped in a computer. The hard drive is that black box Aldous has strapped over his shoulder. But they’ve found a way to communicate with me, and they think Aldous is the number one suspect for having trapped them and sold us out to the androids.”
“Holy shit,” Patrick replied. “The fox is in the henhouse for real this time.”
Rich closed his eyes and shook his head. “I still really don’t get that metaphor. Can we use metaphors from this century please?”
“It means we just let the most dangerous man in the solar system into our command center,” Alejandra explained.
“Yeah! That’s what I said!” Rich replied, exasperated. “Though we don’t have proof yet. Look, James and the A.I. told me to watch him. They think he might be here to sabotage you guys to make the Purists as easy to assimilate as we were.”
“We can’t let that happen,” Patrick announced, holding up his rifle as though he were about to charge back into the command center.
“Hold it!” Rich fired back. “Aldous has the solar system’s best hope strapped over his shoulder. That hard drive contains James and the A.I., not to mention Thel. If we try to confront or arrest him, he could destroy it.”
“So what do we do?” Alejandra asked. “We can’t let him shut down our defenses!”
“We’ve got to incapacitate him without harming that hard drive,” Rich replied.
“Any idea how we do that?” Patrick asked.
Rich shrugged. “I’m willing to open the floor to suggestions.”
“You don’t have a plan?” Alejandra replied in disbelief. “Can’t you ask James or the A.I.?”