David Simpson - Post-Human Trilogy

“You know, there is a solution for that,” James smiled.

The A.I.’s expression went blank. “You wouldn’t.”

“We can overcome the efficiency problem by simply making the network of nans that much larger and therefore more powerful. Brute force.”

“You would need hundreds of square kilometers of space—”

“The whole planet is being evacuated. We have all the space in the world—literally.”

The A.I.’s expression revealed his surprise. “Where are we going?”

“We already went,” James announced. “Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. I added a few thousand massive old-growth trees—trees that just happen to be nans disguised as carbon life forms. It’s protected land—no people living there and no reason for the aliens to look for us there either.”

“A computerized forest,” the A.I. replied.

“A disguise to buy us more time.”

“You’re thinking grows more efficient and calculated by the moment. What a wonderful computer you’re becoming,” the A.I. observed with his sadist’s grin.

Rich stood with most of his family and watched the Earth getting smaller in the distance as billions of green magnetic fields shone like fireflies and streamed away from the blue orb. Draping the spectacular view was the swarm of aliens that formed a sickening black claw, enveloping the cradle of humanity, grasping it in its palm like an apple plucked from a tree, ripe for devouring. Rich, like everyone else in the room who was looking out of the windows of the main living area at the panoramic picture of Earth’s demise, felt utterly distraught and helpless.

“Where will we go, Richard?” asked Linda, who sidled beside him and held on to him for comfort like a frightened child as a storm neared. It had been decades since she had shown that kind of vulnerability.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rich replied. “As long as we’re moving away from that.” He took her hand and put his arm around her to comfort her. It appeared as though they were going to be safe, yet his thoughts weren’t with his family anymore. He had been monitoring the situation with his friends and the Purists—it was not going well. The ship wasn’t going to be constructed in time, and they might die in their attempt to rescue the last pure humans. “I should be there,” Rich whispered.

Linda looked up, startled, and grabbed a firm hold of her husband once she saw the look in his eye. “Are you crazy? You’d be killed! It’s a miracle that we’ve all made it out together! We have to stick together!”

Rich’s eyes didn’t move from the planet that was slowly shrinking in the distance. The alien swarm was now starting to dwarf the Earth, and he knew there wasn’t much time. “If I stay here, I’ll regret it the rest of my life.”

“What? Richard!” Linda shouted as the rest of the people in the room started to take notice of the commotion.

Rich spun and took a firm grasp of his wife’s arms and looked her in the eye. “I love you, Linda. But I have to help them.”

He kissed her, but she clutched hard on his shirt, trying to prevent him from leaving. “Don’t,” she said.

“I’m not a coward. I have to go,” Rich asserted as he struggled to remove her grip on his shirt.

“No one thinks you are a coward, Richard! Everyone loves you! We need you!”

“Not as much as they do, Linda,” Rich responded in an almost desperate tone that Linda had never seen before. “Don’t you see that? I have to help them! I have to, or I’ll never be able to live with myself!”

“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.

“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.”

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.”