Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: The Decision
• Chapter 2: Night of turmoil
• Chapter 3: Back in the real
• Chapter 4: Kindred Spirits
• Chapter 5: Moving on
• Chapter 6: Tell me how you Feel
• Chapter 7: Just Swell
• Chapter 8: Reconciliation
• Chapter 9: Duck and Cover
• Chapter 10: The Historical Learning Expedition
• Chapter 11: I Hurt
• Chapter 12: Here comes the Sun
• Chapter 13: “Hi, I’m Juan.”
• Chapter 14: Stepping Up
• Chapter 15: “Liftoff!”
• Chapter 16: 4 Vesta
• Chapter 17: Magic Carpet Ride
• Chapter 18: The Gadget
• Chapter 19: Go Bold or go Home
• Chapter 20: Consequences
• Epilogue:
• Glossary:

Cut and Run

 

Book Four in the World of Make the Cut.

 

Cut and Run (Book Four in World of Make the Cut) – 136,660 words

© C. Brink, 2021

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

 

***

First edition - version 1.00

Previous works in this series and recommended reading order:

1. Make the Cut (book one) released 2020
2. Cutting a Swath (book two) released 2020
3. Final Cut (book three)released 2021      

 

***

 

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The story depicts an alternative invented reality and timeline. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. None of the events depicted in the story are actual events. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

Warning: This work contains occasional dialog which includes strong language. If words of this nature of-fend you, don’t read this book. Consider yourself warned.

 

Acknowledgements: Special thanks to my early readers. Their help in finding errors or other issues is greatly appreciated. Lending their help with this volume: Zom, Cei-mel, and others.

Author’s note:

This book is part of a series of books in the Make the Cut universe. Although this book stands somewhat apart from the previous trilogy of stories in this universe, it is recommended that it not be read as a stand-alone. If you are reading this book without the benefit of the first three books then I advise you to utilize the included glossary at the conclusion of this novel. The timeline and descriptions it contains should help explain many of the terms and history of the story.

 

Chapter 1: The Decision

I gradually became aware. It was like very, very slowly waking up from being unconscious, a lucid but focused dream slowly becoming reality. My thoughts were a confused jumble of random images that slowly coalesced into vague memories that made little sense. Random faces appeared. Some seemed familiar while others were strangers to me. More images and scenes came and went. One particular recurring scene was of a small house sitting on a grass-covered prairie. Another repeating image was that of a strange animated dark gray manikin. It was moving, so maybe it was a robot or android.

The passage of time was difficult to judge in this weird shifting fugue state. I became aware that I was blind, or maybe I was simply in total darkness, but I missed the sensation of sight. I started to discern true physical sensations and became aware of the rhythmic motions in my chest which meant I was breathing. My perception of a second rhythmic sensation resolved into my heart beating slowly. I began feeling pinprick sensations spreading up and down my body as if my legs and arms were now receiving nerve stimulations.

More time passed and the mental and physical sensations continued to grow. Suddenly I was jarred out of the sluggish recovery by the forceful motions of a breathing tube being quickly withdrawn from my throat. Until it was removed, I had been unaware that a machine had been breathing for me.

I quickly felt the lack of oxygen and I was forced to take over the effort of breathing. I strained and gasped with the effort and managed to take in a deep wheezing breath. Adrenalin surged through my body and my feeble heart rate increased as I half panicked. I calmed myself as my breathing improved quickly. Soon, I was breathing steadily on my own without feeling the need to cough.

“Please state your name,” a generic and mechanical-sounding voice said.

The voice seemed to come from all around me in the darkness. As I processed the sounds into speech, it occurred to me that I did not know who I was. Facial images continued to flash in my brain while I struggled to remember my name. More time passed but I was unsure whether it was seconds or minutes.

“Please state your name,” the voice repeated.

I felt the sensations of a slowly brightening glow registering on my optic nerves. I was not blind after all! The glow was reddish and I realized that my eyes were shut and I was seeing an exterior illumination source through my eyelids. I struggled to pry them open and felt my eye muscles strain and flutter. What was going on? I tried to clear my throat and speak.

“uuhha … who … are you?” I manage to finally croak out. My voice sounded very high-pitched, almost like that of a young child.

“Incorrect name response. Possible query detected. Attempting reply. This unit’s designation is the E.M.A.”

E.M.A.? The letters jogged a memory. I concentrated and began to remember details. The letters were the designation of some sort of computer program. E.M.A.? I think I called it ‘Ema’ for short. The letters stood for something. I remembered that the ‘E’ stood for ‘Emergency’.

“Ema? Emergency … something?” I said before pausing. I could not recall what the rest of the letters stood for.

“Incorrect name response. Possible query detected. Attempting reply,” the mechanical-sounding voice again stated.

“E.M.A. is the abbreviation of Emergency Minimum Awareness. Due to the need to preserve maximum energy resources for later use, this minimum awareness program is currently active,” the voice explained.

A few seconds later Ema repeated its previous question, “Please state your name.”

What in the heck was happening? Again, I struggled to remember my name but nothing seemed to fit. I ran through a few dozen familiar names before I came to Joan. That felt close! Was my name Joan? No, it did not seem quite right although the name triggered strong feelings in me. Maybe she was a close friend or family member.

“I don’t remember. I’m trying to think,” I managed to squeak out.

“Incorrect name response.”

The voice continued after another pause, “Be aware that with your biological shell now minimally revived and functional, rotationally induced gravity will now be suspended. At the conclusion of the following maneuver, you will be fully weightless. Please do not be alarmed,” Ema said.

I felt a distant rumble or vibration accompanied by a faint hissing noise. I felt a change in pressure on my back and side along with a gradual feeling of becoming lighter. While these changes were happening, I continued attempting to get my eyelids open. They must have been slightly stuck or matted closed as they suddenly popped open and I was able to see a blurry glow directly in front of me. I continued to blink weakly, trying to bring the glow into focus.

“Please state your name,” Ema again questioned.

My vision gradually cleared, and I could see that the glow was coming from a display screen located above my head. It was showing an incomprehensible grid of figures and numbers. The sight reminded me of other times I had awakened. I suddenly realized that I had been awoken in a similar fashion many times in the past!

What had we called the process? Bio-suspension? I was being awakened from bio-suspension! I felt myself calm slightly at the realization that I had survived this many times before. As I relaxed, my thoughts cleared enough that my name popped into my head.

“John,” I squeaked out finally, “My name is John Abrams.”

“Response partially correct. Partial name accepted,” the mechanical-sounding voice of Ema replied.

Partial name. What the hell? Did it mean I was to include my middle name? No! I remembered! I was not the original John Abrams Prime. I was officially John Abrams Secundus, the copy. The true original John Abrams was back on Earth. I remembered giving myself the designation when I was first told that I was a mind-data copy of his. ‘Lucky John’ was what John Prime had nicknamed me after he had heard of my choice of suffix.

As I pondered my name, I recalled that there also were many other John Abrams wandering around on the Earth besides the John Prime and me. The forty-seven clones created by the master AI which it had used to populate the new template colonies. Those colonies had been established across the planet in every type of biome possible.

In the case of the clones, it was decided to append the old geographic locations to the clone copy’s names. Thus, alphabetically we had John Abrams Albania to John Abrams Zambia with forty-five other John Abrams ‘someplace’ clones in between. The other template colony humans had also appended their names in the same fashion. It seemed to work. The children of the colonies had either followed the same convention or came up with some other unique name if they wished.

“Please state your current location?”

My reprieve from the insistent questioning was apparently short-lived. Where was I? Hmm. I seemed to remember that in the past when I had awoken in this manner, I had been in an underground bunker. No … I remembered waking in a submarine! Its name had been Nautilus!

I was about to answer Nautilus when I realized that I could not be in a submarine. My weight was decreasing rapidly, and Ema had mentioned that induced gravity was being suspended. That meant I must be in space somewhere.

“I’m in the orbital station?” I answered, again with that weird, high-pitched, child’s voice.

“Incorrect location response,” Ema replied.

Hmm… If I was not at High Castle then I must be somewhere else in space. A spaceship? That jogged a memory. Yes! I’m on a spaceship. More memories revealed themselves and I recalled the large spaceship being constructed in lunar orbit. What was its name? Run away? No … Run Like Hell. That was it!

“I’m on a spaceship named Run Like Hell?”

There was a slight pause.

“Response partially correct. Alternate nickname accepted,” Ema replied.

Alternate nickname? Oh yeah! Run Like Hell was my nickname for the ship. Her true name was Evadere. That was Latin for ‘escape’ or ‘flee quickly,’ hence my better nickname. I recalled that escape had been the main purpose for building the spaceship. We were rushing to escape the coming of our enemy the Assemblage!

As I recalled the enemy’s name, I also remembered the ongoing threat they presented to the Earth and all the humans on it. Their advance scouts had already devastated my world a thousand years ago, nearly eradicating humanity in the process. They had left an AI to rebuild and prepare the Earth for their arrival. I had stopped that AI, but the enemy in their billions were still on the way.

I felt a strap release from my forehead, and I struggled to lift my head. Because of the diminishing gravity, I was able to do so. I looked around and saw that I was in a small, sterile white enclosed cylinder.

There were numerous retracted mechanical devices on the cylinder’s walls all around me. I must be in some sort of medical treatment unit or crèche. I looked down to inspect my body. What I saw jolted me. I was in a child’s body! My small arms and legs were those of a toddler. If I had to guess, I’d say I was in the body of a four-year-old.

I tried to raise my arms but failed as they were still held down by straps. I saw that I had medical probes inserted in each arm. These leads or feeders were connected to small medical units strapped to my tiny upper arms. They reminded me of the floaties children would wear while swimming.

Looking lower, I saw a similar device attached to my left leg near my groin. This unit had leads that extended to both my tiny penis and below, probably to my anus. They must be handling any waste this body might generate. Both of the devices attached to my arms and the one attached to my thigh were featureless and smooth, clearly not needing adjusting or monitoring by humans.

“What is your destination?” Ema asked, interrupting my self-inspection.

Huh! Her question brought me out of the shock that seeing my strange body had caused. What had the voice asked? Where was I going? Well, I remembered we were fleeing the solar system so we must have been heading to the stars. What star? I remembered that Alpha Centauri was one of the closer star systems to Sol. Were we heading there?

I remembered it was a binary star and would make for a harsh living environment, so I doubted that was our target. I suddenly recalled discussions about Alpha Centauri where it was deemed to be too close to the Earth. If the Assemblage did succeed in its colonization attempt, we wanted our escape colony to be further away. Another star system came to mind. Tau something … Tau Ceti!

“Tau Ceti!” I answered, “We are heading to the Tau Ceti star system. Are we there? Have we arrived?” I was suddenly excited at the thought of seeing new worlds.

“Correct destination response. Possible query or queries detected. Attempting reply. Evadere is still in transit. It has not yet arrived at Tau Ceti.”

I felt the rumbling stop and the hissing fade away to nothing. I was now fully weightless and began floating free. All was quiet for a few seconds before a new whirring sound started. I felt my body touch the padded liner of the cylinder. We must be moving again. From the tug, we were heading in a new direction. I again inspected my strange body. I suddenly recalled the reason for its extremely small size.

To limit mass to a minimum, everything about our ship was minimized. This included our life support systems and even our very bodies. Although it was intended that I and the other human cargo would spend the journey as non-corporeal digital mind-data, there were a small number of tiny biological shells aboard for emergency use.

The intent was to not use these minimum-sized shells at all. Instead, once we arrived at our destination, full-sized, more-standard biological shells would be custom grown for our use. I’d expected to wake in a body similar to one I’d left behind in Sol system. Or, possibly, in a shell modified to suit the local environment we would find. Now, I found myself in one of the emergency-only, miniature shells. Something unexpected had occurred.

“Retracting rotational gravity pod. This will take approximately forty seconds,” Ema explained.

Gravity pod? I tried to remember details of the ship and its living quarters. A large silver cigar-shaped rocket came to mind but my memories included that craft taking off and landing on the Earth so it was not Run Like Hell.

Ema spoke again after twenty seconds, “Background Radiation levels decreasing. Overall exposure remains within safety margins.”

Radiation! What the hell? “Is there danger? Were we in some sort of accident? Did something hit us?”

“Possible query or queries detected. Attempting reply. Evadere is currently operating at optimal condition. Your current emergency shell is functioning within operating parameters. Current danger levels are relatively low and within margins. There have been no notable accidents or unexpected equipment failures.”

“Then why is there radiation?” I asked.

“Possible query detected. Attempting reply. Gravity was required to properly revive the emergency biological shell. Thus, the medical unit in which you reside was taken outside the central, heavily-shielded, long-duration storage area of Evadere and moved to an outer area of the vessel where it was spin-rotated to simulate gravity. Your reviving biological shell has resided in that state for the past fifty-six hours. During this time radiation exposure and potential biological damage due to impacting high energy cosmic ray particles was heightened,” Ema explained.

More came back to me. Ema’s explanation reminded me that Evadere in her interstellar mode was not designed to have simulated gravity. But the stored biological shells needed gravity to be revived. So, the medical pods were designed to be temporarily repositioned to the outer, roomier areas of the vessel where they could be spun up to simulate gravity.

There was a bump and all sense of motion stopped. I once again floated free of the padded liner I was laying on. The pod I was in must now be fully retracted and safely back inside the more-shielded areas of the spacecraft. With my arms now free I was able to feel my head and face. My head felt HUGE! I remembered that although this shell was miniature, my skull and brain were still normal-sized. This was needed to provide my mind-data the physical brain capacity to think and fully reason properly. I carefully felt around the base of my skull.

As I suspected, there was a large transceiver unit embedded under the skin of my bare scalp. The emergency shell had artificial neural filaments woven through its brain and these needed the transceiver for rapid mind-data transfers. I was a cybrid, a true little monster. I was glad there were no camera feeds or mirrors.

Other fun facts of this emergency shell came to mind. I recalled that over eighty percent of the shell’s heart capacity was used to simply supply oxygenated blood to the brain. Also, the shells small lungs lacked the capacity to fully oxygenate the blood, so the arm shunts were used to augment the blood oxygen levels. I would not be able to do much physical activity in this state. Luckily, the shell was not intended to move about doing repairs or any real work.

Ema let me be for the moment as I drifted about in the now-weightless pod, I began to recall more details of Evadere and its planned voyage. I remembered the history of how it had been constructed. The frenzied first decade after we had defeated the enemies’ master AI presence in that final battle at its space station in Earth orbit.

After I had regained control of the Earth and the solar system, Naomi, the AI under my control and now running all automation and other AIs worldwide, had used most of the Earth’s available resources to quickly construct this first interstellar capable vessel. It had been a no-frills venture in many ways as we had wanted to send some of humanity off to another star as quickly as possible.

Why the rush when they were still a few centuries away? We had been unsure of what early measures the Assemblage could take as it approached from interstellar space and wanted to get some of our eggs into another basket.

“What year were you born?” Ema asked, resuming the questions.

I flashed back to my childhood. I had been born in the second half of the twentieth century. Nineteen sixty-eight to be exact. The year humanity first circled the moon and a year before it landed humans on it.

“Nineteen sixty-eight,” I answered. “Why all these questions?”

“Correct age response. Possible query detected. Attempting reply. The E.M.A. is attempting to gauge the current functionality of the cerebral portions of your biological shell. It is also considering your mental awareness levels.

“Various questions will be asked, and your response will be used to determine your revival status. The biological shell may have suffered cerebral damage during suspension or revival. Or your mind-data may have degraded over the last one hundred eighty years. Or there may have been download transmission errors.

“The tests will reveal the extent of damage or degradation, if any, which may have occurred. Please direct your attention to the written questions now appearing on the display screen. Answer each query to the best of your current abilities verbally. Note, your response times will be used to augment the accuracy of your responses.”

I saw the display screen’s graphical data blank out and be replaced by a series of questions. The first thirty were mathematics. These started very easy with simple addition and subtraction. Soon they ranged into multiplication and division. Algebra and geometry were next, and I began to struggle remembering seldom used concepts and functions. The machine did not indicate if I was answering correctly but simply displayed the next question after each of my answers.

Following the math came historical questions. I found these easy up until the questions began covering periods after the Earth was attacked back in the early twenty-first century. I struggled to recall some of the more recent events which had happened after that time. It occurred to me that I had undergone many periods of bio-suspension during these time periods and my memories had been adjusted and altered repeatedly.

It was likely that the adjustments had affected my ability to clearly remember certain details. I was able to answer most of the questions eventually and noted with a bit of relief that my memory seemed to improve as the questions continued. I recalled waking up in the twenty-sixth century in the nearly- destroyed underground bunker located near my rural home in South Dakota. A relocation trip to another undamaged bunker in Tennessee soon followed.

Then, nearly eighty years after that trip, I was again revived from bio-suspension and sent on an urgent flight to South America, where I had rescued a woman named Ana Branco. She had been an agent of the rogue elements opposing the master AI in control of the solar system and that trip resulted in my learning the truth of the Assemblage’s attempt to wipe out my planet. It had also provided me the tools and knowledge I would later use to successfully fight back and revert local system control to humanity.

Later, after nearly three more centuries of additional bio-suspension, I had been awakened to begin an expedition to Sri Lanka. This expedition’s purpose was to learn the secrets of the rogue elements which had been active on the planet resisting the Assemblage’s colonization attempts.

The rogue elements had been sent to our planet by another alien race known as the Hemru. It was Hemru computer viruses and algorithms that allowed me to overcome the master artificial intelligence which the Assemblage had installed to control our solar system. After the history questions, there were a few dozen logic and comprehension questions. Finally, the display screen went dark.

“Test results indicate that you are functioning at a seventy-two percent mental level. You will now be rendered unconscious for approximately four hours to allow for your brain to fully integrate short and long-term memory chains. If this is successful, your functioning mental levels should be above the minimum threshold required,” Ema said.

I had had just about enough. What was going on here!?

“What the hell is going on? Why have I been awakened? Where are we?”

“Multiple queries detected. Attempting reply. Evadere’s trailing very-long-baseline sensor array has detected an anomaly that requires decisions to be made which are beyond the capabilities of the E.M.A. As the controlling biological presence, you have been revived to make these decisions. Evadere’s current location is 6.02 light-years away from Sol system. Remaining distance to Tau Ceti is 5.91 light-years. A sedative is being administered now. Further details will be given at the termination of your unconscious state.”

No! I wanted answers. I felt a cool sensation enter my arm through the attached IV. It quickly spread.

“What year is it? What was the anomaly?” I managed to ask, quickly growing sleepy.

“Multiple queries detected. Attempting reply. The current year is 3106. It has been 156.07 years since Evadere departed Sol system. The detected anomalies are a series of high-energy photon and radiation events which have occurred along the projected course and current estimated location of the Assemblage ark ship approaching Sol system. The signatures are indicative of massive matter-antimatter annihilation events.”

My brain was shutting down while I mulled over what Ema had said. Something had happened to the enemy … or they were possibly doing something unanticipated. I lost the fight to remain awake and fell unconscious.

***

The lights in the medical chamber brightened rapidly jarring me awake. I was able to open my eyes quickly and easily this time. My thoughts seemed much faster than before. I looked around and observed that I was still floating free in the small medical pod. My strange miniature body was still naked except for the attached medical devices. Thankfully, it was comfortably warm.

“I’m awake,” I said quietly.

“Please answer the questions which are now displayed on the view screen,” Ema said without even a pause or greeting.

“Good morning to you too,” I muttered.

“Possible deviation from question-and-answer protocol. Invalid response ignored. Please answer the questions which are now displayed on the view screen.”

I realized that it was futile to argue or banter with this simple program and got busy answering the questions. They were the same type as before and this time I was able to answer them much more quickly and without as many blanks in my memory. After I had finished there was a pause as the E.M.A. program determined my mental status and how to proceed.

“Current mental functions estimated at ninety-two percent. Minimum threshold exceeded. Information on current situation will now follow.”

The screen lit up showing a simplified course map. Sol system was shown towards the lower left of the display. A second star system was located near the upper left and this was labeled with the name of the ship's destination, Tau Ceti.

A dashed line between the two was clearly our course. A flashing indicator appeared just past the half way mark which must have been the present location of Evadere. It was heartening to see how much progress our craft had made over the last one hundred and sixty-five years of travel. At the same time, I was over six light years from my original home! I began to feel alone.

A new flashing indication appeared off towards the lower right of the display. I estimated the bearing from Earth to this new indication was not quite ninety degrees off the bearing between Earth and Tau Ceti. The distance between the Earth and this signal was about two-thirds the distance between the Earth and our destination star.

If it was to scale, it meant that the location of the detected anomaly and the enemy ark were currently about eight light-years away from Sol.

“Nine Earth days ago, the trailing very-long-baseline sensor array first detected high energy photons emanating from this location,” Ema’s monotone voice said.

“The location falls within the Assemblage approach vector. The expected probability cone of the course likely to be taken by an approaching Assemblage colonization ark as it travels towards Sol system.”

A new colored conical shape appeared on the display. Its narrow point was centered on Sol system and the slightly wider point led off to the right of the screen. I recalled from my pre-embarkation information and planning sessions that this had been Naomi’s best estimation of the course vector the enemy would take as it approached the Earth.

She had been unsure of how much variation the enemy’s course would have as it passed the various star systems between Sol and the Hemru home world. She was also unsure of the extent of the maneuvering capabilities of the Assemblage ark possessed although this was likely minimal. Also, as the ark's course passed near the star Procyon, there was a chance that the Assemblage might colonize that system as well. If so, its course would be further altered.

On the display, the area of the detection indications became enlarged. Sol and Tau Ceti fell off the screen to the left as the area of the new detections grew larger and became centered. Ranging bars at the top of the display showed that the area enlarged at least a thousand times. When the display froze again there was a line of seven indications. They were sporadic but clearly linear.

“Over a six-day period, these seven events were detected. The first anomaly was furthest from the Earth. The most recent anomaly detected was the closest. Parallax indicates that the distance between the furthest detection and the nearest detection is approximately 16.1 billion kilometers. This correlates to an object traveling at approximately 7.5 percent of the speed of light over the six-day period,” Ema explained.

I was familiar with that speed. That was the best-guess speed of the Assemblage ark ship. We had learned this from both the Hemru data modules and the captured information in the data archives of the Master AI presence.

“Our array has detected the Assemblage?” I asked, my excited voice even higher sounding than before.

“Possible query detected. Attempting reply. There is a 98.18 percent probability that the anomalies are emanating from the object known as the Assemblage ark vessel,” Ema replied.

“What caused the high energy photons our sensor array detected? You mentioned antimatter. Are they using it to send a message or something? Are they possibly trying to change course?”

“Possible query or queries detected. Attempting reply.”

There followed a long pause and I realized that I had better separate and clarify my questions for this simplified program.

“The precise explanation for the detection anomalies remains unclear. Probability of it being caused by a message transmission is low as previous messages from the Assemblage ark were of a different nature. Probability of a course change by the ark unlikely due to spectral analysis of detected high energy photons and particles,” Ema answered.

“What is the most likely explanation for the detections?” I asked directly, trying to simplify my question for the limited program.

“Query detected. Attempting reply. From the analysis of the detected photons and other high-energy particles, it is most likely that multiple, massive antimatter-derived explosions have occurred on or near the Assemblage ark vessel. Indications include consistent with a metallic asteroid being exposed to direct multiple full annihilation energy releases.”

When Ema finished her reply, I just floated in my pod thinking. We had detected seven explosions from the expected location of the approaching Assemblage fleet. The timing of the explosions seemed random and not a signal or pattern. The particles detected indicate an accident or attack of some sort.

“Could they have suffered some sort of accident?” I asked.

“Query detected. Attempting reply. The highest probability is that the Assemblage ark was attacked by an outside source. Furthermore, due to the ark’s relatively high rate of speed, the attack likely originated from a location which the ark had already passed.”

My first thought was the Hemru! Maybe they survived and were able to prevent the Assemblage from taking control of their system. If they did, then they may have acted against their enemies and launched a retaliatory strike. I remembered discussions with Naomi about the possibilities for Sol system to do the same if we successfully deflected the Assemblage colonization.

“Were the Hemru responsible for the attack on the Assemblage?”

“Query detected. Attempting reply. The Hemru species is the most likely source of the attack observed on the Assemblage ark vessel,” Ema said.

Wow! Enemies of our enemies and all that! Our unknown ‘friends,’ the Hemru, had struck a blow against our common enemy. And, they had done so before the Assemblage had arrived at Sol. Maybe the attack had damaged the ark enough to prevent their colonization attempt at Sol system?

“Is the assemblage ark still functional?” I asked.

“Query detected. Attempting reply. Current status of Assemblage ark vessel is unknown. The very-long-baseline array is not sensitive enough to directly observe the current remaining capabilities of the ark vessel. Furthermore, there is a small possibility that the explosions were defensive in nature. If that is the case, then the ark itself may not have been damaged.”

We were too far away to know for sure. From nine light-years away it was a miracle that we were able to detect the explosions at all. Only the fact that the current sole purpose of our array, at least for the first three centuries of our journey, was to focus on the enemy's estimated approach vector helped. After three centuries, the array had a more morbid purpose. It would then have the job of watching Sol closely to try and detect any sign that humanity had survived the enemy’s passage.

Still, if the anomalies were signs that the enemy ark had been attacked, Earth’s chances of prevailing against the Assemblage might now be higher. I continued to ponder the matter as I floated around in my dimly lit medical shell. It finally dawned on me that the information the E.M.A. program had just revealed did not fully explain why I had been awakened.

“Ema, why did you revive me at this time? What is the nature of the emergency?” I asked.

“Multiple queries detected. Attempting reply. A mission-critical decision point has been reached. The decision will directly affect both the continuing success of this mission and the survival of the mind-data of John Abrams along with that of the other humans currently stored aboard Evadere,” Ema answered.

“Explain the critical decision point?” I asked.

“Query detected. Attempting reply. A decision must be made whether to continue on with the current mission or to attempt to send a long-range data transmission to Sol system. The transmission would contain all data regarding the detection anomalies at the estimated location of the Assemblage ark vessel.”

Of course. I recalled how fragile our mission was and how limited Evadere’s capabilities were. Interstellar travel required an enormous amount of energy. We were carrying all we could and that was the minimum needed to get the job done. Our vessel was as small and as low-mass as possible and we did not have much in the way of spare energy, materials or … options. To send a message of any import all the way back to Sol system would require that we fire up our main drive.

This was non-trivial and would have three main consequences: The first was that we had only so much fuel and energy and what we had was needed in order to slow down and achieve some sort of usable orbit at the destination system.

The second consequence was that if we did use our drive, even though it would be used in low-impulse graser (gamma-ray laser) mode, the thrust would still impart some motion to Evadere. Even minimal, that motion would cause the vessel to drift ahead and out of alignments from the cleared “cone of safety” formed by our leading graphene shield disks.

These disks were currently located hundreds of thousands of kilometers in front of us, traveling on the same heading and speed as the main vessel. There were dozens of the disks, each spaced tens of thousands of kilometers apart in a linear arrangement. Each disk was a few atoms thickness of graphene but they were spun out to various large diameters depending upon their distance from the ship.

The smallest of these shields, located nearest to Evader, was slightly over two kilometers in diameter. The next disk beyond was larger and that trend continued until the last disk, located furthest ahead of Evadere.

That final disk formed the wide, bow of the conical safety zone and was over a dozen kilometers in diameter. Despite their thinness, each disk was still massive enough to fragment interstellar dust particles and prevent them from later damaging the main vessel following behind.

If anything got through the multiple disk layers, it might still be deflected or destroyed by a high-powered laser on Evadere’s nose. If not, oh well, failure was always an option with interstellar flight. Maybe the next vessel would have better luck.

So, to summarize, if we fired up our drive and used it as a message graser, we would lose our primary debris and particle shield. Once the communications attempt was concluded and Evadere back on course, it would have to produce and deploy replacement graphene shield disks. This would take even more precious energy and deplete more of our finite supply of carbon reserve material.

A third consequence was that, for the same reasons as the second, we would also lose our trailing very-long-baseline sensor array. Each of these widespread receivers had minimal maneuvering capability. After firing the graser, Evadere would eventually move too far ahead from the trailing array to remain in proper communication. Although it would not be fatal to the mission, the loss of sensor capability would still be significant.

“Ema, what will transmitting the data to Earth do to our chances of safely reaching Tau Ceti?”

“Query detected. Attempting reply. Processing … Please stand by.”

I waited. After a dozen seconds without an answer, I began to wonder if it would be worth the energy cost to order the full ship’s artificial intelligence be brought online. That AI’s physical processors were not only currently powered down, but also packed away and stored behind additional EM and particle shielding to limit radiation damage to its more sensitive nano-electronics.

The downsides to activating the full AI are that it drastically increases the energy consumed and also subjects the AI to high-energy particle damage. We needed that AI to be fully functional once we arrived at Tau Ceti. I decided not to risk it and to continue waiting for Ema to answer. Its radiation-hardened ruggedized processers were far less capable than the full AI but still should be up to the task if given the time. I could spare an hour or day if needed.

Finally, Ema spoke. “Successful mission completion estimates are currently at ninety-two percent, plus or minus eight percent. If a long-range data transmission using the main drive is sent, the successful mission completion estimates drop considerably to forty-seven percent, plus or minus eighteen percent,” Ema reported.

Wow. Best-case odds if we transmitted were only sixty-five percent. The worst-case odds were twenty-nine percent. Those were dismal. Ema kept quiet as I thought over our dilemma.

Finally, after nearly ten minutes I asked, “Ema, what are the chances that the sensors deployed back in Sol system detected the same energy signatures which Evadere’s array just did?”

“Query detected. Attempting reply. Processing … Please stand by.”

Again, there was a significant delay while the program considered the question. Finally, nearly eight minutes later an answer came.

“Detection of high energy particles by Sol system sensor array estimates are seventy-one percent, plus or minus twenty-nine percent. Although, due to the high energy particles arriving nearly head-on to those sensors, it is improbable that any would have been able to detect the angular separation of each individual detonation as precisely as Evadere’s trailing very-long-baseline sensor array did.”

There was that. Since our course departing Sol system was at almost a right angle from the Assemblage approach vector, also known as the AAV, or the course at which the arriving Assemblage ark vessel was approaching Sol, we had the better ‘view’ so to speak of the incident. Was that additional bit of information important enough to risk not only this ship and its mission, but my life and the stored mind-data of my fellow humans?

“Ema, if we send this transmission, will we know if it is successfully received back home?”

“Query detected. Attempting reply. No.”

OK … that was brief. I asked the program to explain.

“Due to the delay of 12.13 years minimum between sending and receiving signals, Evadere’s trailing very-long-baseline sensor array will have long been left far behind and useless. Therefore, no signals from Sol system will be able to be received until, and if, we arrive at our destination and a new long-ranged detection and communication system can be constructed;” Ema answered.

That would be a long wait; almost one hundred and fifty years. During that period of time, we would have no way of knowing if Sol system remained free of the Assemblage. I continued to mull over the dilemma. There had likely been other follow-on interstellar vessels constructed after we left. They had already left Sol system or would soon be leaving.

The plan had been to continue constructing more advanced and capable craft as time and materials allowed, up until the Assemblage actually passed Sol system. This meant that as much as I personally disliked the thought, we were somewhat expendable.

Hell, there were likely other copies of John Abrams on those ships so some version of me would go on. As far as the other humans currently stored on Run Like Hell, they also likely had copies on the other vessels. If one copy was lost to the vastness of space as the vessel drifted on into eternity, there were still others. But they were not awake and it was really up to me. The decision became simple. I would send the message.

***

The E.M.A. program had one more decision for me to make. Did I want the ship to expend energy to scan my current mind-data version active in this emergency shell and over-write the version already in storage? Hell, I’d only been awake for one day. Was it worth it? In the end, I decided that the ship’s log of the event would suffice to explain my actions and memorialize my brief existence.

The second, secret reason I was against the idea was that I was ashamed. A large part of me had wanted to skip sending the message back to Earth because of the risk and I was embarrassed by my selfish thoughts. By not updating my scan, those cowardly thoughts would be lost forever.

Now that the decisions had been made, Ema intended that I be immediately rendered unconscious, and my emergency shell be placed back into suspension. I overrode that to remain awake for just a bit longer. This way, I might get to experience the satisfaction that we had gotten the data transmission sent off to Sol.

Also, there was a small chance that something unexpected would occur during the transmission process which might need my input. Remaining awake would spare the additional time and energy of having to revive me again. Also, maybe I just did not want to die quite yet.

***

So here I was, floating in zero-G in my small medical pod and watching the display which projected the countdown to the transmission attempt. Over the past hour, I had listened to and felt the groans and vibrations from the ship as Evadere fired its thrusters to orientate its ass-end towards Sol (or, where Sol would be in six years). It also had to physically reconfigure the main drive for the data transmission.

This included withdrawing the boosters (the hydrogen injectors located in the aft portion of the drive assembly which functioned like Evadere’s afterburners to use an aircraft term) and repositioning the high energy collimators onto the gamma diffraction modules. The collimators were used to properly lase the gamma rays into a coherent focused beam.

As the countdown reached zero I imagined one of Evadere’s ‘special’ ESUs, or energy storage units to be precise, being prepared for use. Instead of how a normal ESU functioned, which stored a vast quantity of electrons in an artificially-created pocket of subspace, these ‘special’ units stored positrons, the antimatter opposite of the electron.

The special ESU’s had been one of the ‘miracles’ of the post-enemy AI era. The concept of positron storage had been known previously and had even seen limited usage by the assemblage mostly in weapons. Naomi and Uxe, my genius second wife, had worked together and refined the idea enormously. They had managed to produce new more-reliable hardware and methods, which were able to deal with the exotic particles without randomly blowing itself to smithereens.

The process was still imperfect, and any given usage of the drive still presented a tiny, miniscule chance of failure. But the benefits of the vast compact energy storage offered by the new units was so great that the risks were deemed acceptable. Still, I couldn’t forget that using the drive as a message graser increased the number of uses of the antimatter system tenfold. Thus, the overall risk to the mission was also increased greatly. I decided it was best to not dwell on the worst-case outcome as I would never know if the gamble failed.

But, back to the drive and special ESU. When the countdown hit zero, very powerful and precise control magnetics, cooled to almost absolute zero, guided the positrons from their safe pocket of subspace and brought them into contact with electrons provided by the normal ESU’s. The result was complete annihilation of the particle pairs.

Unlike the reactions of normal antimatter and matter, electron-positron annihilation produced mostly much easier-to-handle and lower energy photons. Still, these photons were very high-powered gamma rays which were dangerous to both the vessel and its crew (me!). I hoped and prayed that the hundreds of diffraction modules, that lined the drive core like the kernels on a corn cob, worked as intended.

That was to collect all the gamma energy leaving the core in the forward direction and to all sides. The collected energy was redirected and collimated into a powerful beam pointed rearward, effectively converting Evadere’s main drive into a powerful graser. The graser beam was modulated to transmit data and sent off towards Sol.

The diffraction modules also formed a near-perfect gamma shield, at least in the energy band being produced by our drive. I was extremely grateful for this as it prevented me and the rest of the vessel from being fried like a bug in a zapper.

I felt the straps tug on my arms and legs as the weightlessness disappeared under the small amount of thrust provided by the now-active transmission beam. It was only a few hundredths of a G, much less than the nearly two gravities which the drive would have produced had the hydrogen afterburners been active. I would never get to experience that thrust level though as the active fusion control magnetics would have scrambled the neurons of anything active in a biological shell.

As the signal continued to be sent out from the ship, I began to realize that we had not exploded … this time at least. I felt pride in this vessel. Its creation had been a miracle meld of both machine and good old fashion human ingenuity. The positron storage and gamma-ray diffraction technology were both new and relatively unproven.

When Evadere had left Sol system, Naomi, Uxe, and a team of others had been busy trying to further improve the devices. It was hoped that future vessels would be more reliable and maybe even higher powered. Hell, there was a decent chance that if I arrived at Tau Ceti, I’d get to meet a version of myself already living there. But, for now, I was still the Guinea pig. Lucky me. Secundus also meant ‘lucky’ right? I was counting on it.

***

The first data transmission took only twenty seconds. Evader would repeat this quick initial burst two more times over the next three hours. Then, tomorrow it would send the bulk of our anomaly detection data over three repeated, much longer transmissions. After that, it would be up to sheer luck and the diligence of the sensors back in Sol system to do their job and receive our data. This would occur in just over six years when the signals finally traveled that far.

I did not stay conscious after the first initial transmission, having decided to turn myself off to save power. I’d waited just long enough to know that a signal had been sent. Our drive had performed in message mode. The downside to that bit of good news was that I got to actively chart Evadere slowly but increasingly beginning to drift away from both the forward shields and the trailing sensor array. We would definitely be losing both. Our mission odds were quickly dwindling.

Before ordering myself into oblivion, I made a final closing personal note in the ship’s log. “Fuck it; you only live once right?” Let my future version (assuming he survived) figure that one out! I signed out of the log and told Ema goodbye followed by ordering it to put me under. The simple program never acknowledged either the goodbye or the order. As I faded away, the old saying came to mind. ‘You only live once.’ Here’s to that not being true.

***

Year 3106 (Approximately one month later.)

Sol System:

The defensive AI known by contemporary humans as Minervus noted the unexpected report just received from its very-long-baseline sensor array located in a distant polar orbit around the Sun. An energy detection had been observed at the expected location of the approaching Assemblage ark vessel.

The AI quickly compiled the data and sent copies off to the other major intelligent presences busy in Sol system. It also sent the conclusions it had reached from its own analysis regarding the sensor data, most importantly that the detections were not likely to be any form of long-distance communication sent from the Assemblage to the Earth. It had been expecting such communications, but for the last two decades, none had been received.

Over the next two days, due to their various scattered locations around the solar system, the other three major AI presences acknowledged the data transmission and returned their own independent analysis. Additional information was needed and the consensus was to continue to collect data for now. Optical observations would be undertaken and a second, more sensitive long-baseline array would be constructed and added to the data collection effort.

As had been the case for the past nine years, no reply other than “Acknowledged” was received from the Naomi over-mind AI based on the Earth itself. This was perplexing. Minervus realized that soon actions would need to be taken on that issue. For now, the AI charged with the defense of the Solar system continued to collect data on both situations: the one still light-years away, and the second much closer.

 

Chapter 2: Night of turmoil

October 1^st, 3112 (about six years later)

Mongolian highlands, Earth

 

The evening breeze was cool tonight. I pulled my large fur-lined hooded cape up and around my shoulders a little more snugly and shifted myself on the rock I was using as a stool to be closer to the fire. My camp was in the shallow gully area between two low ridges.

This put it in the path of the displacing cooler air descending from the higher elevations caused by the setting sun. Hopefully, after the sun had fully set, the chilly flow would subside as the temperatures of the differing elevations balanced themselves.

Spreading out in front of my meager camp were miles and miles of incredible vista. The rolling short grass-covered terrain dropped gradually away over the course of many miles. In the middle of the wide valley lay a meandering river. I could see the occasional copse stretched along its serpentine banks. Those tree and brush stands would have made nice campsites if not for the higher risk of predators.

Being more open, the higher elevation swale I was currently camping in was safer. I would have to live with the near silence of the hills as opposed to the tranquil sounds of flowing water. But, that minor sacrifice would mean that I should be safer from unexpected visitors during the night. Also, I would not have to worry about the flooding risks of a streamside camp if a sudden rainstorm sprang up.

I returned my gaze to the task at hand which was a large piece of meat on a stainless-steel forked skewer cooking over the fire. The occasional sizzle of the fat dripping onto the hot embers and the accompanying wonderful aroma had me salivating. Just a few more minutes, I thought to myself as I took a long sip from my ever-present flask. The warmth of the alcohol bit into my throat as it made its way down to my belly.

I noted with a frown that the flask was nearly empty. Tomorrow would likely be another cloudless fall day which meant I simply had to stand in the open and wave the empty flask over my head for a minute or two. An hour or so later I could expect to see a small package come gliding down from the heavens under a small, guided parachute. Carefully packaged in the airmail delivery would be another few weeks’ worth of what had become the essential liquid of my simple existence.

I was not sure if the small care packages were dropped by one of the dozens of perfectly silent high-altitude automated cargo aircraft which were visible crisscrossing the skies each day. Or, if they were launched and deorbited from one of the low orbit manufactories which polluted the night skies with their steady moving lights.

All I knew (or cared about) was that they usually arrived in a timely manner. If I had to go without my daily ration of alcohol, I’m not sure I’d be able to carry on. My booze drops were about the only thing I depended on from the watchers above. I was stubborn enough to scavenge and hunt for my meals, although I did not turn away the nourishment bars which oftentimes accompanied the airmail liquor.

As I mused, I picked at my dirty long fingernails. In the flickering light of the fire, I noticed my left ring finger’s nail was almost completely healed. I’d lost it a few months ago in a rockslide when I’d slipped. When I landed, a large sliding rock had pinned my hand, smashing my finger in the process. I had been lucky that I had only lost the nail.

I noticed that my dirty nails were not the only parts of me that were filthy. Tomorrow, I’d have to detour from my slow southward migration to travel closer to the river and take a bath. I hated the idea of the detour. With today being October 1^st, winter was coming fast in these parts and I needed to reach a warmer climate before the snows came. Also, there were those predators I’d already mentioned which liked to follow the river. I’d have to be quick and on my toes.

Off in the distance, lower down the valley and almost halfway to the river, I caught the flickering glow of another campfire. My regular stalker of the past two months was still lingering nearby. He or she had never gotten close enough for me to speak to, even with a yell, so I was unsure exactly why I was being followed.

Whoever was following me was not doing so out of some sense of duty to provide me protection. I had my own ever-present trio of quadruped security units, and they were easily spotted as they patrolled. The mobile sentries maintained a perimeter about a quarter-mile in diameter.

Once, years ago, the quadrupeds had patrolled much closer. But, one night in a drunken rage I had forbid them to come closer than a thousand feet to my camp. They had maintained that minimum distance ever since and typically stayed even further, probably to keep from pissing me off and banishing them completely. I was not quite that stupid, though, as to forgo their protection completely.

I inspected the meat on the skewer and judging it ready, carefully slid it onto my one battered composite eating plate. My belt knife served to both slice off bite-sized chunks and to deliver them to my mouth. As is always the case with the hungry, the meal tasted delicious. Due to the lack of any, I had long gotten over the need to add spices or sauces to my basic meals.

Dessert would be a still-fresh apple. I’d passed a tree a few days ago and loaded up my pack with all its remaining edible late-hanging fruit. I had a few days of meat left in the cooler bag in my backpack so a hunting trip would be needed in the near future. Luckily, the flechette rifle had the range to make hunting a low-risk activity.

After I had eaten my supper, I sat back on my rock and just enjoyed the quiet cool evening. A bit ago, I had heard a nearby electrical discharge followed by a snarl. This meant that my automatic guardians were on the job keeping the lions, tigers, and bears away. I had no idea if there were any lions up here in these high steppes, but I did know there could be tigers and bears.

The tigers were very rare. I’d only seen them three times in the last five years. The neo-tigers were not descended from some now-extinct Siberian ancestor. Instead, they were from a new strain developed using the genetics of the rare survivors in India. Those had been tailored and adapted for survival in the colder climates and had been slowly spreading northward for over a century.

The neo-bears were a different story. After heading south during ‘the reset’ following their food, the old apex predator polar bears had mingled and bred with brown bears. As the world recovered, the bears had spread out, growing even larger in the process. This left today’s common bear species a true living nightmare. It could be argued that they were the absolute top of the food chain in this era. Mainly because as far as apex predators went, they could easily out-power most tigers and lions.

They were also very smart, and my mobile automated guards seldom had to kill the bears as they learned to fear the deterrent weapons early on. Once they had been zapped with the first painful nerve disruption warning shot, they generally avoided being taught a second, more lethal lesson.

Still, I came across the freshly killed carcasses of the stubborn predator occasionally. If they were hungry and desperate enough, they would still try to stalk and hunt me. Thankfully, my sentries would prevent that. It happened enough that I had learned which parts of the bears were safe to eat, taking what I could from the carcass so as to not let the remains become a complete waste.

I took another sip of my flask and noticed that my long gray beard was stained with a bit of grease from supper. I found my one remaining comb and begin to pick at the stringy mess. I got a few of the tangles out and noted that the grease helped tame the wild hair. I noticed the beard extended down to nearly the middle of my chest. Tomorrow when I bathed, I’d have to trim off a few inches.

I felt and probed at the tangled mass on my head and decided my hair needed a bit of a trim also. As I thought of doing that job tomorrow by feel and by knife, I felt a rare instance of regret at my self-imposed solitary lifestyle. Too bad there were not any barber stands out here on the Mongolian steppes.

My folding shovel made short work of the remains of my fire as I prepared to go to bed. The setting moon gave out enough light that I did not need to resort to my worn-looking pair of enhancement goggles. I stood off to the side of the camp to relieve myself and looked at the heavens. It was a clear night and the many artificial moving stars competed with the fixed natural ones.

Off towards the southeast, I saw that Orion was proudly filling the heavens. I noted the bright stars of its boundary corners of the constellation. Those were the stars Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, and Rigel. Next, I paid homage to the three belt stars. The trio in a row were some of the earliest stars I had learned the names of.

I smiled as I recalled the old public television channel’s short nightly astronomy series. Star Gazer was its name and its host had been a guy named Jack Horkheimer. I had been a kid who loved all things space-related and his weird TV manner drew me in. For some reason, his show discussing the Orion constellation had caught my attention. From that episode, I had learned the names of the three belt stars: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Funny the strange things we remember.

Below those three belt stars was the fuzzy glow of Orion’s ‘sword’, more property known as the Orion Nebula. I remembered my fourth daughter’s giggle when I had once referred to the sword as ‘Orion’s dingus’. I shifted my gaze towards the east and noted the other two stars of the winter triangle just rising from the eastern horizon.

Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, formed the lower-right corner of the triangle and the far-left corner star was Procyon. I lingered on this last star while a scowl formed on my face. Right now, somewhere near Procyon but closer, and hurtling towards the Earth at seven and a half percent of the speed of light was our enemy. They would be here in a hundred years or so. I hoped the preparations for their arrival were going well. But that was someone else’s problem … I was out.

Back in my small one-man tent, I stripped out of my outer clothing, noting while I did that my long underwear and undershirt were holding up well. I had to hand it to modern materials. Nothing from my distant past would have held up to the dirt and grime of my current lifestyle as these new fabrics did. I laid on my bedroll and felt that it was already warm.

The ground cloth that I slept on was heated and helped keep me warm. A few months after I had begun my nomadic lifestyle, the self-heating ground cloth had been air-dropped to me. It worked so well that I dared not complain. Yes, I am a hypocrite. Some things are too handy to do without. Not sleeping on cold ground was one of those things.

Before I touched and extinguished the glowing light emitter that formed the spine of the small tent, I dug into my pack for my smartwatch. I did not wear the watch daily anymore but I did at least check it every few days. As expected, it was filled with a new batch of messages.

The normal daily messages from Naomi were quickly erased unread. I then scrolled through the dozens of human-sent messages. These were the typical messages asking me questions, well-wishers, or the simply curious. I deleted these mostly unread also. One of the most recent messages caught my eye and I opened it on a whim. It was short and to the point.

Happy birthday Gramps! Love, Serenity LB.

I was puzzled for two reasons. It wasn’t my birthday … or was it? Also, who was Serenity LB? I looked at the date and time function on the smartwatch. Tuesday, October 1, 3112. No, my birthday was not until October 2, which was tomorrow. The message had been sent early. I could forgive this Serenity person for sending it a day early as I also forgot the date of my birthday often myself.

I thought back to previous birthdays which had happened in happier times. I wondered how old I would be tomorrow. Close to eleven hundred and fifty years since I was born and probably over two hundred-thirty years spent active and awake. I’d have to do the math to be sure … maybe when I had something to write with.

I looked into the details of the message sent from this Serenity LB. I noted that the message’s geographic origin point was Samoa. That explained it. Serenity was currently in the western Pacific, near the International Date Line. My current location in or near Mongolia (I was not sure) would put me six or seven hours behind her. At her location, it was already October 2nd.

I also seemed to recall that my grandson Ben had had a daughter named Serenity. It was hard to remember all my offspring. This was not because there were so many, it’s because they could come at any point in the life cycle of their parent, regardless of his or her age. I remembered that my fifth child Larissa had had Benjamin to celebrate her fiftieth birthday. Hell, I had even had my sixth child in my hundreds with Charity Hope being born when I was one hundred and thirty years old.

I pulled out my ever-present amulet from under my grimy undershirt and twisted it active. I continued to cycle the images until I got to the ‘sort’ function. Once it was set to grandchildren, I spun the list until Benjamin L Abrams was on the display. I hit the ‘more’ detent and Ben’s family line appeared.

There she was! This confirmed that Serenity LB was indeed Ben’s first daughter with the “L” being from my own daughter Larissa and the “B” referring to my grandson Ben. The thought of one of my descendants keeping up with great-granddads birthday filled me with both joy and melancholy. I was so moved that I did something I had not done in nearly a decade. I sent a reply back. Thank You, G.Grampa John.

***

I came awake in the darkness sometime before dawn. I thought I had heard a distant shout or scream! The night was still and perfectly quiet and the moon had set. The sound of a faint scream came again. I sat up and listened intently trying to find which direction the sound had originated.

There it was a third time! It seemed to be coming from the direction of my stalker’s camp. I quickly got dressed and grabbed my flechette rifle and my enhancement goggles.

Seven minutes later, I had already jogged almost a mile down the gently descending terrain. I was panting and breathing hard as I pushed my sixty-year-old (plus) shell to its limit. I ran with a noticeable limp as my lame leg still caused me problems. As I ran I tried to avoid any potholes or snags which were highlighted in the bright enhanced view provided by the goggles.

My three ever-present quadruped sentry units were running with me. One was keeping ahead of me while the other two covered my flanks. They had moved closer than usual but were still maintaining at least two hundred yards separation.

Ahead, my destination was indicated by an illuminated icon in the enhanced goggle display. I had not caused the marker to appear and suspected that my digital warden had set the pointer to show my stalker’s campsite on its own authority. I’d have to decide if that pissed me off later but not now as it was helping direct me where to run.

I stumbled up and over an intervening rise a few hundred yards away from the campsite and source of the screams. Two bright thermal shapes appeared in the goggle images. As I had expected they were neo-bears. They were smaller than most I’d seen, possibly older yearling cubs. I pulled up and took aim with my flechette rifle. The range indicator near the aiming reticle was flashing amber. Too far for an accurate take-down shot against the monsters. I re-slung my weapon over my shoulder and began to move closer.

Suddenly, the dark landscape lit up as a large shooting star streaked in from the southeast. I quickly pulled to a stop to see what was going on. The fast-moving smear of light was slowing rapidly as it neared the immediate area. Then, it flared even brighter, projecting a long blue-white jet of flame ahead of it as it decelerated even more rapidly under powerful braking rockets.

What I first thought was a falling star proved to be a fast response emergency reentry capsule. My goggles switched to normal vision as the entire valley was now lit up like daylight under the bright jets. I noted the two neo-bears rearing up on their hind legs and also watching the heavenly show.

There was a loud explosion as the sonic boom the object had created caught up with it and rolled over our location. The boom was followed by the thunderous basso crackling and roar of the long deceleration rocket burn. The sounds echoed and reverberated off the nearby ravine walls and rolled over the wide empty valley. Wow! What a show.

The rocket cut off suddenly and the light level in the valley dimmed rapidly. My goggles automatically reverted to enhancement mode. I quickly found the still-glowing airborne object and watched as it maneuvered slightly before plunging directly towards the stalker’s camp.

At the last instant, its still-hot teardrop shell split apart and released a dozen smaller objects about a hundred feet over the two bears. Fiery thruster jets on each half of the descent shell sent them soaring off to the east where they crashed into the hillside a half-mile away.

The objects the shell had released were revealed to be small flying aerial drones. These screamed around in a swarm orientating themselves for a moment before spiraling in towards the two neo-bears in the camp. There were many loud reports as the drones reached the bears and detonated. I saw the flashes and splashes of heat in my enhanced display as both neo-bears came apart in a shower of hot blood and gore. Well, that ended the bear threat quickly enough.

I was relieved that the bears were gone but also doubtful the intervention had come in time. The fact that the bears had been active in the camp for nearly ten minutes after I first heard the screams bode poorly for my stalker’s chances of survival. Still, I resumed jogging forward. Maybe he or she had managed to find shelter in a narrow crevasse or something? Maybe they had a bear-proof portable hut? I didn’t get my hopes up.

I had gotten to within two hundred feet of the carnage when a second aerial object appeared in the skies overhead. This time the intruder was a high-speed jet aircraft incoming from the northwest. This craft was approaching much slower and the accompanying shock wave was smaller than the one the orbital reentry capsule had created. As it approached and slowed I saw that it was also much larger.

I resumed walking towards the camp while simultaneously watching the new visitor aircraft. It had VTOL capabilities as it slowed to a hover a few hundred yards overhead and to the north of the camp. From a side hatch, it ejected a small man-sized object.

This new object fell silently towards the camp while the delivery aircraft moved off to land some distance away. I had an idea what the new object was and stopped walking towards the camp, trying to brace myself for what was to come.

A small parasail spread out above the new object and I watched as it vectored itself to land between the camp and where I was currently standing. It dropped in near silence and landed in a crouch having absorbed the impact of its fall perfectly. As I had expected, it was a familiar human-shaped android. I just waited as it busied itself gathering and stowing the parasail into a compact pack.

Once it had finished that job, it slowly approached to where I stood. The false dawn had arrived and the brightness to the east now lit the valley enough that I could remove my goggles. I noted the remaining original aerial drones still circling the area were now moving away from the camp. The immediate area of the stalker’s camp grew quiet once again.

“John. I apologize for interrupting your peace,” the dark gray humanoid android said. It spoke calmly and with a trace of humility.

I was momentarily taken aback by the machines tone. I rubbed my face and beard as I wheezed, trying to catch my breath. What the hell was going on here? While I recovered, I studied my old companion. It had changed. It looked six inches taller and appeared bulkier. It had a wider upper body and larger breasts. Breasts! What the hell?

“It’s alright, Ohmu,” I said and then paused, trying to decide how to continue. Ohmu just waited.

“You’ve changed,” I finally said.

The android did something very human-like and looked itself up and down. “Yes. I have modified my physical form. Do you like the changes?”

“Um, tits … really?” I asked. What the hell was the AI thinking?

“I needed more physical space for additional processor gel packs and memory augments. It was this or go with a beer belly. I have found that most human males, and a surprising number of females, react positively to large breasts. Notice that each has a high bandwidth data port right—”

“Yes, I see them,” I interrupted with a chuckle. “Well, you’re right that the changes are better than a beer belly.” It would have also made the machine look pregnant which would have been just wrong, I thought with a shudder.

There was another long pause. Finally, I gestured towards the carnage of the camp. “What the hell happened here tonight, Ohmu?”

A grim expression appeared on Ohmu’s illuminated face.

“Tragedy, John. I am sorry to inform you that the woman camping at this location did not survive. She was killed by the attacking family of neo-bears. As she was partially eaten, you may wish to avoid going closer towards the incident site.”

I sighed. I had already expected to hear something like this.

“What was she doing here in the first place and why were the bears able to get close enough to kill her?”

Ohmu seemed to study me for a bit. Finally, she replied. “Her name was Adele Sol Chilean. She was relatively young at only thirty-three years of age and was primarily interested in history and anthropology. You had been the focus of her studies for the past year.”

I had suspected my stalker had been something like that, or maybe a curiosity or thrill seeker.

“Still, why the hell did she get killed by bears? Didn’t she have any sentry units watching her?”

Ohmu paused again hesitating.

“Christ Ohmu! Stop delaying and just answer my damned question!” I shouted. The smoldering anger I still carried deep inside surging forth.

“Ms. Adele did initially have two sentry quadrupeds acting as sentries. Two days ago, she overrode safety protocols and ordered them to withdraw. She intended to use her personal weapon to defend herself if need be in their absence.”

“What the…? Ohmu! That’s stupid!” I said loudly. “There is no way someone alone can maintain a proper twenty-four-hour watch against neo-bears or the other nasties out here that want to eat you. Why the hell would she do such a thing?”

“It is my understanding that driven by her fascination with you, Ms. Adele sought an invitation to join your camp and travel as your companion. The three sentry units assigned to protect you would not let her directly approach your camp and since you refused all digital messages sent from her, she grew more desperate with her attempts to contact you.”

Ohmu paused but continued before I could again prompt her.

“Twice Ms. Adele tried to anticipate your route and traveled ahead of your path to try and leave physical messages. Both times were unsuccessful as your course varies so widely. Finally, she conceived a plan to entice your aid by appearing to be vulnerable and in distress.

“It appears that her plan was to order off her sentry units and then to camp as near as possible to you so that you would observe that she was missing her sentries. She hoped to appeal to your sense of compassion and that you would be moved to contact her to inquire about her safety.”

I began to tremble slightly. I rubbed my own hands together in an attempt to help control my emotions.

“Earlier tonight, it appears that a group of three neo-bears, a large female and her two older cubs, ambushed her camp. Ms. Adele managed to wake in time to kill the mother bear with her personal weapon. The remaining two bears then incapacitated her. She did not survive for long once they began to feed upon her.”

“How long ago—” I stopped as I choked on the rising bile. “How long since her last recording?” I finally managed to ask, hoping like hell that she had not been a follower of amor fati.

“Eleven months, John,” Ohmu said softly.

Oh my God! I rubbed my face again, suddenly feeling my exhaustion. Nearly a year! But thankfully there had been a recording.

“She will live again. A compatible shell is already being readied to receive her stored mind-data backup,” Ohmu replied.

Still, eleven months. A sentient being with almost a year of uniqueness was gone. For what? For the chance that I might notice her? What in the hell …! She would live again but everything for the last year was gone! The replacement Adele would not be the same person that had died here tonight.

“There was a journal, John. Not all will have been lost.”

I just knelt down and wept. Ohmu dared not approach and just stood there waiting like a silent sentinel. The valley around us continued to brighten as true dawn approached.

***

I sat in the early morning sunshine a dozen yards from the stalker’s camp. Two more mobile units had arrived at the camp from the landed VTOL. They had assembled Adele’s remains and processed the carcasses of the three bears. They then proceeded to dig a compact but deep grave on a low rise nearby. I remained where I sat, just watching as the work proceeded. I was still too numb to help.

Finally, Ohmu approached and spoke, “John, if you wish to say a few words you may do so. Although the events of last night and the burial of Adele are being broadcast to Conscientia in real-time, I am filtering out your appearance. In addition, if you do wish to speak, the sounds of your voice will be removed. If you permit, they will be relayed textually and anonymously. No one will know that you are present.”

I rose to my feet and approached the grave. Adele’s body had been placed in a spun polymer bag and now resembled a white cocoon. I cringed slightly when I saw that it was very misshapen. The neo-bears had worked fast. The two mobile units slowly released the attached tethers and the package was lowered into the grave. What could I say? Did I even have anything I wanted to say? Should I speak about this person I never really knew?

“I wish I had been less self-absorbed. I wished I had noticed earlier…” That was all I could get out. After a moment I just turned and began walking the nearly two miles back to my campsite.

***

It was an hour before noon and I was back at my campsite munching on my last apple. My empty flask lay on the ground. I had not packed my tent nor did I feel the urge to travel today. I was still shaken up from the violence of last night and the somber mood of this morning. I was unsure of what I should do, so I just did nothing.

Instead, I just sat on my rock and watched the action off at the other campsite. The machines finished the burial, packaged up the woman’s supplies and equipment, and removed all traces that her camp had ever existed. Ten minutes ago, the large VTOL cargo transport had repositioned itself closer to the former camp and began to take on the mobile units and salvage. Soon, I would be alone once again, but this time without my stalker.

Instead of leaving immediately, I noticed Ohmu walking towards my camp. At first, I wondered why she just did not fly over in the VTOL before I realized that it was probably trying to spare me from the noise and wind. As she got closer I saw that she was carrying something. I wondered what the little unit was up to. Once she arrived at my camp, I saw that she had two items in her hands. One was a book of some sort and the other was a small container.

“Happy birthday, John,” the android said as it handed me the container.

I considered ignoring her but curiosity got the best of me and I took it. Inside was a large, frosted pastry. There was a single large candle stuck on top. Instead of a wick or a flame, it had a tip that was sparkling in the sunlight like a diamond. Hell, it probably was a diamond. I began salivating when the smell of the pastry hit my nose.

“I debated bringing a huge cake with one thousand, one hundred and forty-four candles on it, the number of years since you were born. Or should I bring a medium cake with two hundred, thirty-five candles representing the years you have been awake and aware? Even sixty-one candles, the age of your current shell seemed excessive. So, I decided to round the number of candles down to just one.

“Again, happy birthday. The filling in the pastry is raspberry. The candle will self-illuminate on your birthday for centuries to come. Twist the top to use it as an emergency light source if needed,” Ohmu explained.

The emotions I felt welling up inside shocked me. While I struggled to come to terms with my feelings I removed the candle and took a bite of the pastry. Oh my! What a heavenly taste. It had been so long.

“It is regrettable that your special day began with this morning’s tragedy. Hopefully, the widely circulated example will serve to prevent such poorly conceived actions by other humans in the future.”

I trembled again, about to break into fresh tears.

“This was retrieved among Adele’s belongings. It was an unexpected find and due to its almost unique nature in modern society, I wanted you to be its caretaker.”

The gray android handed me the second item. It was an actual leather-bound book. I opened it to find it was filled with handwriting. Actual ink on paper! The small script was very precise and written in English.

“She kept an old-fashioned journal,” I managed to get out. That was a truly rare habit for a new human to have.

“Yes. What a novelty. I have fully scanned its contents and if she wishes it when she is revived, a duplicate will be conveyed to Ms. Adele. I estimate that of all humanity, you would appreciate this physical journal the most.”

I fanned through the pages as I continued to eat my pastry. There were easily two hundred entries. Each was short at maybe a paragraph or two but it looked like they had been recorded daily. I got to the most recent entry. It was longer than most of the others. I began to read.

October 1. I think JP noticed me tonight! Using the magnified scanner, I observed him at his evening cooking fire, I was just able to make out his peering towards my own evening fire several times!

JP? Ah. She must have referred to me as John Prime.

He knows I am nearby and by now, he must have noticed that I am without a perimeter sentry watch. Hopefully, soon he will attempt contact and offer to help. I’m so excited! Wouldn’t it be amazing that we finally meet on his birthday!

Also, I observed that he only drank twice today and that he spent a bit of time grooming his beard and hair. That is a good sign that he has retained enough sanity that I can achieve a meaningful dialog with him. I can’t wait!

I let the book fall shut and drop from my fingers. The pastry I was chewing suddenly became tasteless and I wondered if I was going to throw up. I carefully put the remaining uneaten portion back in its container. My hands were shaking severely.

“Well then, John. I will be departing the area now. Is there anything I can do for you before I go?” Ohmu asked.

I looked up and just stared at her. What had the android just said? I was distracted thinking of what I had just read. One part of the journal entry kept repeating in my mind. ‘—a good sign that he has retained enough sanity—’. She had feared that I was going insane! Was I insane?

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! …” I heard repeating deep in my mind. I looked away from Ohmu as fresh tears filled my eyes.

What was I doing out here! Why were people still dying because of me? The emotions I had been barely suppressing burst forth like the waters through a broken dam. I was racked with sobbing. I caught Ohmu moving forward to comfort me before she caught herself and pulled up short.

She slowly backed away to where she had been waiting. Why had I been so irritated with the android? Damn her to hell! Did it really matter anymore? I realized I was completely broken … totally insane.

“Ohmu!” I moaned, “Help me!”

Almost instantly I felt the android wrap her arms around me as I sat there and shook. As I had noted long ago in the past, I was amazed at how warm and soft her mechanical arms were. I was also cradled in her new, large bosom. They were also soft and warm, almost too comfortable.

“I want to go home!” I sobbed into her embrace.

“I will help you, John. An appropriate aircraft has been summoned. I will have you home shortly,” she whispered, brushing my dirty and unruly hair out of my eyes.

I continued to weep and was having some trouble breathing.

“Would you like a sedative?” she asked softly.

I was able to nod in the affirmative and soon felt a cool sensation on my neck. I knew how fast her sedatives worked and I was surprised when I heard the shriek of an approaching high-speed human-rated transport before I fell asleep. I was still sane enough to deduce that she had probably had the aircraft waiting on standby nearby, just in case.

‘You can’t outthink the machine’ I thought to myself with a combination of irony and more than just a bit of bitterness. It suddenly occurred to me that it was likely that there had always been an aircraft waiting nearby on standby. I felt myself slumping as I began to fall asleep. Ohmu gently helped me lay back.

—I will take care of you, John.—

It had been nearly a decade since I had felt and heard the buzz of the implant’s more intimate form of direct communication. I was not sure whether to feel further violated or deeply comforted. I realized that it had probably been necessary due to the increasing noise of the approaching VTOL jet. It still bothered me for some reason but I stopped fighting to stay awake and let myself slip away.

 

Chapter 3: Back in the real

I came awake to find I was lying on a soft, clean pillow. Moving my arms, I felt the smooth soft-linen sensation of clean sheets. I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept in a real bed. It was morning and the bedroom I found myself in was lit with the soft sunlight through the pleated ivory window shades. I blinked my eyes fully open and recognized where I was. It was my bedroom in my home. My original home on the acreage in the middle of the Great Plains of North America.

I stretched and took a deep breath. Aside from the minor aches and pains which were normal for a man in his seventh decade, I felt pretty good. Much better than when I had been living in a tent just a day or … I suddenly realized that I had no idea how long ago that had been. I could have spent years in bio-suspension for all I knew.

I soon noticed that I was clean. My skin felt tingly and freshly scrubbed. I ran my fingers through my hair and beard. Both were still long but they had clearly been given a wash and trim. I noticed the nails on my fingers had been trimmed and my hands were clean.

I lifted the bedding and saw that my body was unclothed. No sign of IVs or other medical devices either, which was nice. It had been years since I had been able to sleep in the nude and it felt wonderful. I had grown used to wearing the long underwear at all times, not just to stay warm but in case I needed to move quickly in the night.

My genealogy amulet was still hanging on its light alloy chain around my neck. I lifted it so I could focus on it and saw that it had also been cleaned and polished. I was relieved to find that it had not been taken from me or altered.

I lay still for a moment just listening. The house was silent. Either I was alone or else everyone was being very quiet. I was able to hear the wind blowing outside which was normal for the high prairie location of my acreage. My full bladder finally elevated its status to the top of the list and I got up to use the toilet.

When I had finished, I stood in front of the large mirror inspecting myself. Who was this old guy staring back at me? Although I had been scrubbed clean and my hair and beard neatened, the body I saw in front of me still looked tired and worn out. My skin was leathery and was covered with both old and newer scars although they were mostly minor and long since healed.

A new toothbrush and mint toothpaste were waiting where I usually stored such items, so I brushed my teeth. It felt wonderful to use a regular toothbrush instead of my finger or a soft stick. The auto-flosser felt even better. I thought about taking a shower right then but decided to inspect the house first and maybe find something to eat to break my fast. Besides, I had gotten used to going for weeks between bathing. Skipping a shower this morning would not bother me in the slightest.

Back in my room, I found the wardrobe was filled with garments of the type I’d normally worn every day. I dressed in clean underwear, socks, denim-like pants, and a long-sleeved tee-shirt. I spent a moment marveling at the feeling of the new and clean clothing. I looked around and did not see my old worn utility clothing or my fur-lined hide cape. I wondered what had happened to them.

I stopped in the living room on my way to the kitchen. It was much as I recalled from the last time I had been here. I looked at the images of my family hanging on the walls. So many new young faces! Some of the older members looked different, having changed shells.

On another wall, there was a large portrait that showed my entire clan as if we had all posed together. It must have been created using the machine’s fakery, as I was never physically with them all at the same time. In fact, I was pretty sure that at least a quarter of them I had never met in person.

The shelf on the far wall held the same trinkets and momentous as it did from the last time I had been here. I tried to remember how long ago that had been. More than twenty or thirty years at least. I had stopped coming here as often, as time marched on.

The visits had started to slow down when the acreage had begun to be visited by historically-minded new humans on their discovery tours and pilgrimages. I began to avoid my old home partially because I wanted to respect their right to play tourist and because their visits had made the place feel less like mine.

I had also had some pretty sweet aircraft over the years, most of which had more than all the comforts of home. With almost the whole world now a natural paradise, why live in a fixed place when you can set down anywhere the view is good. I’d traveled, shacked up, visited offspring, boated … you name it … time passed quickly. I had also built other homes around the planet, some of which I missed more than others.

Still, I was happy to see the old house well-kept and clean. There was no dust or mildew, so someone or something had been keeping up with the chores. I saw out the front window that it looked to be a nice partly-cloudy typical fall day. There was no snow on the ground yet and it would be a month or two before the weather was consistently cold enough for anything white to stick around.

That was a preview of Cut and Run - Book 4. To read the rest purchase the book.

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