Many of the single, wandering replicates, those that so many individuals now wished they had destroyed long ago, were at the remote fringes of the universe. They were leftovers from the countless cosmological investigations that had taken place. So many of these fascinating journeys to the edge, had yielded ground breaking discoveries. The boundaries between dissimilar universes were much too intriguing to ignore. Many people left these replicates as lone wolves. They were out there, purposefully. They wanted eyes in places where no one else was. So that in case there was cause to study some aspect of a boundary, they would be first on the scene. A hero of science, in the right place, at the right time. They only left one, as to escape notice by others.
After hiding for many decades, and with the supply of new EMs still choked off by Sala, these remote loners became an even bigger problem. The higher mass density of the central zone of the universe, continued its relentless consumption of EMs. It was unavoidable. The effect was starting to take its toll. Rarefaction started slowly, but as time went on, the frontier of the universe started to wind down. Without a new energy supply, the trace amounts of matter in the outer reaches, could not compete with the voracious appetite of the core. The lonely EMs, representing millions of weary and frightened survivors, notably slowed. They now became easy targets.
Under normal circumstances, humans were about evenly matched with Sala in speed and mobility. Sala’s weapon was sheer numbers, closing in on vast areas like a cosmic net. But now, as the outliers slowed, Sala gained significant advantage and he targeted his ever increasing dragnets close to the boundaries on all sides. He now had in aggregate, roughly ten to the power sixty four tiny replicates. If he had constructed these of humanoid forms, it would have consumed nearly all of the matter in the universe. But his replicates were so much smaller. More importantly, he produced more that half of them from septaquarks in the adjacent universes. These particular replicates had only travelled inward a hundred light years so far, but in these outer reaches, there was so much abundance, which was now easy pickings.
Far from careless, Lola Abby and Laszlo still had a loose end to worry about - that one replicate pinned against the boundary behind the black hole. There was no way to get to it and no way to destroy it. It had been some years and unfortunately, they had already destroyed their other nearby replicates, a sign of good housekeeping and energy conservation. Any others on the team that were also trapped there, if caught, were a risk to each other. Sala would immediately know where to pick up another seventy nine victims, one of them being Lola. He would no doubt make it a priority. And, many of the others were careless and exposed elsewhere. It was only a matter of time.
“We are in deep shit, babe.”
“You have a way with words, Mr. Charming.”
“I’m just sayin’, we seriously need to think about it. Let’s bring Lola into the conversation.”
“You think she will want to cooperate?”
“I don’t know, but we need ideas.”
“Okay.” And with that Abby invited Lola to their lavishly styled penthouse, designed and built by Laszlo. There came an immediate knock and Abby opened the door to welcome her in.
“Not bad,” commented Lola, scanning the huge lounge area with the incredible ocean view and a picture perfect sunset. A light breeze passed through to large open doors at the back, giving an open air feel. “Nicely done.”
“It’s Laszlo. He’s the decorator and the architect. I’m more of a culinary person.”
“Well then. The two of you go nicely together.” Lola turned as Laszlo entered.
“Lola. Thanks for coming. We are stuck at the boundary, and since we are all there together and we present a risk to each other, I mean, I don’t see any harm in trying to come up with ideas. We couldn’t think of anything specifically,” stammered Laszlo, still intimidated by his former teacher. He still felt eight years old when he had to discuss anything with her directly.
“It is probably futile, but the obvious thing is to retrace our steps. Which is to say, make new replicates, on the same planet as before and then head toward the black hole. That will take about twenty years. So, we can do that. Can’t hurt I suppose, although it does up the odds of being discovered. But we will be discovered anyway. Maybe we have been already.” Abby and Laszlo shifted uneasily on the sofa, facing Lola who was now sipping on a dark amber liquid, presumably whisky.
“I just had an idea,” declared Abby. Then she stopped herself. But I can’t tell you what it is. If I do, Then any one of us will lead to the others. This way, I can try something. Only if I’m caught, it’s a problem.” Lola and Laszlo just stared at her.
“Well if that’s the case, then we can’t talk about it, right? So what else?” Pressed Lola.
“Abby and I are staying together, we are down to two replicates, plus the one that’s stuck.” Abby glared at Laszlo, wondering why he had divulged that information. Laszlo looked back at her, helplessly. “It doesn’t matter, does it? With all of us stuck at the boundary?”
“I guess not,” Abby surrendered.
“Maybe we can all just stay together,” suggested Laszlo to Lola. “I think it’s our best chance.”
“You’re right,” declared Abby in a change of heart. “I have something I want to try and it’s no use keeping it a secret. You will know in the end. Besides, I need Lola’s help.”
“What kind of help?” asked Lola, very curious at this point.
“We need to get inside the Sahara station.”
Abby and Laszlo’s two remaining replicates were both in the outer solar system. They concluded that it didn’t matter if they were split up. Finding one was the same as finding all. Having a second one was simply a precaution against damage or malfunction. They were blending in among the rings of Saturn, which presented reasonable cover according to their calculations, because of the sheer scale and number of similarly sized objects. There were others hiding in the rings, having had similar ideas, but this didn’t discourage them. They had each other and at such close range, they used directional light wave communication that dissipated quickly. There had been no sign of Sala yet in the solar system, which was odd given that most of humanity originally had replicates based in this area.
“He’s probably building those death stars down on earth right now. I wonder what’s taking him so long.” Only half joking, Laszlo was spot on, as Sala was indeed at that very moment, planning his assault of the solar system from the depths of the Arctic Ocean. While replicating and amassing enough replicates to scour the solar system, Sala was sad to note that there seemed to be actual biological human activity in North America. He had no way to assimilate these primitive humans. But he figured that they would not likely develop into entities of interest, even in the long term.
“Let’s boogie,” declared Laszlo, to which he and Abby suddenly broke ranks among the debris and streaked toward the inner solar system. Just after passing near Jupiter, they split up again, each sending one replicate toward Mars and another continuing on toward Earth. When they were not far from Mars, they picked up the signal from Lola. Her two replicates were there waiting. One took off to rendezvous with the earthbound replicates, while Lola’s other waited. “Follow me,” she commanded and they descended toward the surface of Mars. Somewhere in the far north, as they neared the surface, Lola travelled low, maintaining close proximity to the ground, as if flying low to avoid radar detection. It was a similar concept and meant as a precaution, in the event that Sala was already in the vicinity, hunting.
Abby and Laszlo followed Lola closely, as she suddenly turned sharply and then dropped down into a deep shaft. They passed the Martian underground settlement with its subterranean structures going out in all directions, but they moved right past it and continued deeper. Soon they were passing the excavation sites, where Martian civilization had ended on Mars, hidden from the elements and drawing heat from the depths of the dying planet. But this too, was only a fraction of the way to where they were going. Without engineering capability, the research team on Mars had never been able to get much deeper than the ruins, though they had found passages that continued. But following the death by suicide, and the ascendence of the Martian colony, Bill Jantzen and a few of his close friends and colleagues, came back to continue the work, to understand what had happened to the original Martians.
Most people dispensed with such questions as pointless, given the new grandiose state of humanity. But Bill and his kind were still shackled by their former home, helpless to put the past aside without some degree of closure. It was only of minor interest to most, scientifically speaking. But Lola and others, especially psychologists, were fascinated by the evolving mind and how different groups adapted quickly, or not at all. Lola also felt obligated as a friend, to stay close to Bill and the Martian team. In a way, it was fortunate because the depths of Mars, where they were headed, gave them the shelter of an intense magnetic field. Bill and his group had destroyed any replicates, not within these caverns, which were fifty miles deep. The magnetic field was already effective cover in its own right. But temperatures approaching one hundred and fifty degrees centigrade, showered everything in an intensive bath of infrared radiation, which was also effective camouflage.
While the place was really hot, it was not uncommon for Bill and his friends to organize ski adventures, one of many things they had never known or experienced in the flesh, but now enjoyed, in perfect contrast with the scorching heat of their new reality. Lola, Abby and Laszlo in fact found Bill and several others out on the top of a high mountain. They had just been dropped there by helicopter and were fixing to attack the mountain at a terrifying angle of descent. There was no other option. When they suddenly appeared, Bill visibly shrugged. He was always affable and cooperative but his gestures seemed to cry out, that their timing couldn’t have been worse.
“You guys go ahead. We will see you at the bottom,” bellowed Laszlo, now anxious to do a quick run himself. Lola and Abby were also expert skiers in the afterlife, having never even considered doing such a thing in the real world. They all waited a few breaths after Bill and his group launched. Then they all pushed off aggressively and barreled down the fictional mountain, a mountain too perfect and steep and long to really exist.
Panting at the bottom, Bill was in better spirits. “Welcome to hell down under. I hope this isn’t too uncomfortable,” Bill said with a note of sarcasm.
“Bill, these two will be staying here with us. We have our other replicates running one final errand before we settle in and wait it out.”
“I trust you Lola. I’m glad to have you back. We have some interesting new information to share about our little friends.” He was referring to the real Martians of old.
A week following their downhill skiing introduction in the boiling depths of Mars, the trio arrived at Earth and made haste to acquire the Sahara. Lola had the privileged knowledge required to enter the station and she activated a small airlock allowing them in. The station had not been used in two centuries, but absent any internal atmosphere or heating, things were basically preserved. Plastic components had outgassed and decomposed in some cases but generally things were functional, including the solar arrays. Electric power was the big question. They had been relieved to see the blinking lights as they had approached, signifying at least a little power.
“If the panels are still fully functional, is that enough juice?” Inquired Laszlo.
“I doubt the panels are fully functional. Their design life expired like two hundred years ago. But if the radiation damage was less than expected, maybe there is some output. These panels had no encapsulants. The Gallium Arsenide cells were grown and fabricated in space.”
“Whatever that means,” quipped Laszlo. “Assuming the panels are weak, that means we need the Thorium reactors, right.”
“Correct. But we need a specific part of the ship to have power. So, we need at least one out of a specific bank of fifteen reactors to work reasonable well. Abby, I will go with Laszlo to see if any of those reactors is working. You get over to the main server core. I sent you the map. Try to see if there is power and if any servers are operational.”
“Got it.”
It is hard to say whether they arrived at a good time or not. If later, they might have been intercepted by Sala as they approached Earth. Now that they were inside and distracted, they might not be aware of the armada that was now preparing to smother Earth, then fan out across the solar system. The humans on Earth, descendants of the cave survivors led by General Avery Balanson a few centuries earlier, took little notice of the sudden graying of the skies. It was a massive swarm of replicates passing overhead, scanning. There were more than a few protohumans that believed they might be able to blend in on Earth as rocks or what have you, and evade detection. It was a fatal mistake. Thousands of replicates were disappearing across the cosmos as a result.
“The panels that supply this section are at six percent. That’s not going to cut it, I assume.”
“That’s not bad actually. That should be around,…., is that about a megawatt?”
“About half a megawatt.”
“Okay, we need at least twenty megawatts. That’s peanuts for the reactors. When we left the station, once everything looked successful, we didn’t bother to properly put this facility into storage. So everything must be fairly dead at this point. But with no loads running, there should be some life. We did do a shutdown on the systems, and there was no lighting or life support running. Let’s see.”
“I got something,” called out Laszlo. This one still has some life in it.” Laszlo went on to check the rest. “Unless you had any luck, I think it’s just that one.”
“I didn’t find any good ones,” Lola stated as she floated down the long corridor that stretched as far as one could see. “Let’s have a look.” Lola operated the controls internally and took readings on the promising Thorium reactor. “Three percent of the fuel left. We can run it for a few hours if necessary, and then it will continue at a lower energy level, maybe for many decades.”
“Bingo!”
“Okay, it’s online and I have routed it to the core server area. Let’s go.”
As soon as Abby sensed the power availability, she fired up the servers, as instructed by Lola. Then she pulled up the algorithms needed. Although the idea had been hers, only Lola’s understanding of the system and its possibilities enabled her idea to become a reality.
“Okay, I think it’s ready,” declared Abby as Lola and Laszlo entered the cramped, energy hungry space. A place never meant for biological humans, but in their current form, the heat and dangerous currents were not an issue.
“Let’s not waste time. I wouldn’t want this to all be for not. We can only go one at a time. It will take about an hour each. Abby first, then you,” Lola motioned to Laszlo, “Then I will go.”
“No, Lola. You first, then Abby, then I will go last,” Laszlo insisted, knowing that Lola was the most critical. They didn’t argue further, which was just to waste more precious time. Lola’s replicate became static and there was no longer a sense that she was there with them, during the nearly one hour it took to devolve her consciousness back down to the old system. It was certainly primitive, but for just three of them, the system had the capability of capturing their complete memory and body of knowledge. And, the algorithms were essentially the same. The fact that the system was old and primitive was the main point. It was essentially offline, without sub vacuum accessibility. That meant that Sala would not know they were there.
They had to gamble on the fact that Sala wouldn’t bother to look on Sahara, and he wouldn’t bother to destroy it either.
But Sala was done mopping up Earth proper and now trained his attention on the solar system and the galaxy. The place where it all started. As soon as Lola completed her upload, she said her goodbyes and departed for Mars, not leaving anything to chance.
Abby was already into her turn and making progress. When she was nearly complete, Laszlo started picking up sub vacuum distress calls, thousands of them. It was a slaughter, genocide taking place down on Earth. He suddenly felt panicked. He scanned beyond the station. Nothing yet, but they will be coming any moment, I’m sure. He urged Abby to hurry, but she was in her own world, oblivious to the approaching threat. He waited impatiently. Abby received a shock when she finally came out of it and Laszlo blared his warning. “Abs, you need to leave right now! Go!”
“Huh?” She wanted to ask why but she knew the answer already and made her way quickly to the exit and streaked for Mars, just ahead of the approaching wave of death. Laszlo knew it was too late for him. And he knew that if Sala caught him on Phoenix, it might prompt him to destroy it as a precaution. He quickly exited the core and went back to dial down the reactor, following which he left the Phoenix. He shot out and tried to distance himself from the Phoenix, but he wasn’t sure if he had been spotted. Luckily, he was not detected until he was on the other side of the planet. He could sense that they were coming, a large detachment of replicates now vectoring his way.
He immediately dove for Earth. If I can do an atmospheric burn before they get me, then we are home free. As he plummeted, he could sense the swarm giving chase. In open space, it would take them a while to catch him. But in atmosphere, they were smaller and less impacted by atmospheric friction and they gained on him swiftly. Bye now, he could feel his outer shell losing integrity to the heat. C’mon baby. Almost there.
Lola was on her way back to Mars, about an hour ahead of Abby. But she stopped and waited. Abby arrived an hour later. They knew they could be tracked back to Mars. If by some miracle, Laszlo could escape, then the logical action was to destroy these two replicates. So, they followed protocol and separated by the two hundred mile distance prescribed, then accelerated toward one another at maximum impulse. At this range, they were able to each achieve over one million miles per hour. The collisions was not even a cosmic blip. But in close proximity, it was a spectacular flash of high energy, electromagnetic waves that then dissipated within a few seconds.
Deep within the Mars crust, the answers would soon be known. Answers about Laszlo and about their own fate. It did not take long. Abby shrieked as Laszlo suddenly disappeared. Lola gasped, and then grimaced. Laszlo was like a great grandson. She loved him. They both did, and they were now gripped by their sense of loss, an emotions that never quite faded from the new human experience. Lola’s infallible logic worked furiously. She assumed two things. Sala would now know where to find them and he would know about their plot to survive using Sahara. She would know within days if the first assumption was correct. But as far as the Sahara, she would not know. Maybe she never would. But in a strange twist of fate, something unexpected had occurred. As Laszlo went into his burn, the replicates got within proximity and hit him with the Destroyer sequence. He was assimilated, but not entirely. Unfortunately, his assimilation did reveal Mars and the presence of the others there. But he was already seriously damaged and some information was lost. Sala was totally unaware of the Sahara plan and the waves of replicates leaving Earth passed right bye without taking any interest.
Lola was suddenly struck by another realization. Bill! Poor Bill. Not again. Lola anguished over the fact that she had saved Bill and the rest of the Martian settlers, now only to have been the cause for their ultimate demise. Again. Hours later, all of the people hiding on Mars hovered above the lonely red planet, including Abby and Lola.
“I want to thank you Lola, sincerely,” said Bill Jantzen.
“I am so sorry Bill. I can’t express my regret enough.”
“No, it’s okay. Imagine when we were back on Earth. Who would have thought we could live for four hundred years? You did that for us. You gave us ten lives, Lola. You have nothing to apologize for.”
“Bill, you can still leave. There is time.”
“Nah. Eventually we’ll be eaten by that thing, and I refuse to be part of that. Really, Lola, it’s okay. It’s poetic in a way. I never got the chance to tell you what I found out about the original Martians. The ones we found. Those last ones? They took their own lives. Just like we did. They thought the Earth was their new salvation. Now we are going to complete the story. This is the way things always end on Mars.” In their simulated conversation, Lola and Bill were together. It was in a workshop. Bill’s workshop. It was his favorite place. A place where he could dream and design and create. Lola and Bill hugged each other, teary. “Good bye.”
“Bye,” was all Lola could mutter, distraught as she was.
And with that, the remaining replicates on Mars took opposing formation, two hundred miles apart, and sped toward eternity.
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