“If you go, you’ll die!” Linda screeched as she plummeted into sheer desperation. “Are you insane? You can’t leave your family! What kind of person would abandon his family at a time like this? No one thinks you’re a coward!”
Edmund reached into the fray to hold his mother back while Rich put on his jacket and grabbed his helmet.
Linda’s words had stunned Rich, but he had no choice now, and he knew it. “I promise you, I am coming back. But keep going!” Rich put a firm hand on his son’s shoulder and then gave his wife one last smile before heading out the front door, igniting his cocoon, cutting through the house magnetic field, and blasting at top speed back toward Earth.
24
“One minute until contact,” James announced gravely. “This is all your doing,” he growled at the A.I.
The demonic entity performed a bow.
“Not everyone has managed to get away yet,” James continued. “There are still millions of people on the surface.”
“The ones who have only launched recently are not out of danger yet either. The alien numbers are so vast that they’ll be able to snag a great deal of the fish that think they’ve gotten away.”
“Every death will be on your head,” James seethed.
“It won’t be the first time—and may I point out once again that it was you who attacked the aliens first.”
“If they didn’t want to be attacked, they could have tried to communicate. No one is blocking communication,” James replied.
“They’ve reached the atmosphere,” the A.I. suddenly observed as he watched the spectacle unfold.
Every second, tens of millions of androids reached the atmosphere and began to freefall toward the surface. Just as they had on Mars, they swarmed the post-humans who were trying to leave, driving them back to the surface. Having waited too long to launch, millions of people abandoned their ships and made desperate bids to fly solo into space, but very few were able to negotiate the torrential rain of androids that were darkening the sky. As with Mars, once the androids made contact, the post-humans’ magnetic fields were neutralized, and they were rendered unconscious before being dragged up into space, where their bodies were discarded.
“It’s a precision strike,” James said as he watched the slaughter. “This was planned. I did the right thing when I attacked them.”
The A.I. snickered. “Your personal affirmations are touching, but the very fact that you feel the need to say them aloud means you’re still unsure—and so you should be. So you should be.”
25
Below ground in Purist territory, the Purist ship was going through the final stages of completion. Almost all of the Purists were onboard, however, as the last of the electrical systems were brought online by the nans. Governor Wong walked with the last group of Purists to board the ship, flanked by Alejandra, Lieutenant Patrick and Old-timer. Just before they crossed the bridge and entered the hull, Governor Wong paused. “What was that?”
They stopped and listened. Every few seconds, there was a large thud as something landed on the roof of the hangar. Each thud was like a drop of water hitting the tin roof of an old barn at the beginning of a summer storm. In just moments, the thuds began hitting the hangar roof at such a rate that it became a thunderous clatter. “Jesus,” Lieutenant Patrick said in a dread-filled whisper.
“We better get onboard,” Old-timer said, keeping his calm, yet placing a firm urgency behind the words.
In the cockpit of the ship, James, Djanet, and Thel worked furiously to bring all ship systems online. James was shouldering most of the burden, however, since the ship was his design. “They’ve landed on the hangar now, James,” said the A.I. in James’s head. “They’ll tear through the roof and kill you all before you have a chance to escape.”
“Shut up,” he replied under his breath.
“What was that, James?” Thel asked.
“Nothing,” James answered her. “Keep monitoring that door,” he said to her.
“I am. The machines are on top of it and they’re starting to claw through. Structural integrity is still holding, however.”
“It just needs to hold for a minute or so more,” James said as he frantically worked to get the ship’s electrical system running. “I’m not going to have time to test our systems. We’re just going to have to hope this bucket of bolts works!”
Meanwhile, high above Purist territory, Rich streaked toward the Earth while he watched the swarm of androids entering the atmosphere. Rich had faced dire situations before, but nothing compared to what he was facing now. “Rich, you crazy son of a gun. What the hell have you gotten yourself into now?” he asked himself as he pressed on, the androids drawing near.
He patched into communication with James and the others as he approached. “Commander, I’m en route!”
“Rich?” James reacted, stunned. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“You know…I just missed you guys so darn much!”
The androids were now all around Rich, and he flew in an extremely erratic pattern to avoid making contact with them. They didn’t have magnetic fields, but their appearance was human, and he could see the expressions of determination on their faces as, one by one, they made their way toward him, attempting to apprehend him. He blasted energy at each one, knocking them unconscious and sending them plummeting toward the surface.
“Rich, we’re launching in about thirty seconds, but there are androids crawling all over the hangar!” James shouted. “You’re going to have to try catch a ride with us as we lift off!”
“Affirmative!” Rich shouted, gasping for air as he desperately fought off the thickening hordes of androids. “Commander! Hurry up! It’s raining men out here! Not hallelujah! Not hallelujah!”
26
“Are the doors holding, Thel?” James asked for confirmation before launching.
“The outer surface is torn to shreds, but the release mechanism appears to be operational!” Thel responded.
“Okay, then we’ve got to go! Keep your fingers crossed!” James shouted as he activated the launch sequence.
The hangar doors began to slowly open, allowing the thousands of androids that had crowded on top of the door and had been ripping the metal apart in their attempts to penetrate the hangar to leap down on top of the ship. The hydraulic launcher pressed into action and pointed the nose of the zeppelin-shaped ship up toward a sky that had been darkened by a rainstorm of androids.
Old-timer entered the cockpit, with Governor Wong, Alejandra, and Lieutenant Patrick in tow. “Old-timer,” James said as he engaged the magnetic engines, “keep an eye on the hull. Those things are bound to breach it at some point.”
“On it.”
“Djanet, keep an eye on Rich,” James said.
“I’m already on it,” Djanet said while she watched Rich’s desperate flight toward the ship as hundreds of attackers quickly became thousands.
“Launching now!” James shouted as he throttled the engines and the ship thrusted out of the hangar, shaking off thousands of android attackers as it did so. However, hundreds more managed to maintain their holds on the hull and they used their enormous strength to pound and claw at any ridges or weak spots in the structure that appeared exploitable.