A Gathering of Forces

"Well, Bob?"

"Well, what, Rishi?"

"Any insights?"

"There are infinite insights but I can't trust any of them."

"Why?"

Bob sighed, closed his eyes, studied the infinite 'sky critters' and said, "Its all wrong. Its just all wrong."

"What are you going to do?"

Bob looked up from the breakfast he and Rishi were sharing, glanced around the room to see the "sleeping" Mary Droid. "Its all her fault," said Bob. "She put those things in me and they messed me up."

Bob Paused. Rishi shook his head. "First off, that's Mary, didn't Sherrie give you the picobots?"

"Yeah, what ever."

"Secondly," continued Rishi, "picobots can't hurt anyone, its completely against their driving protocols. I know because I wrote the code."

"Look," said Bob, "I spent sixteen years in that cave cataloging, memorizing and learning how to interpret my interface. My teacher couldn't help me, he said 'you have to do this on your own, just keep working with the universe, she's a great teacher.'

"Now," continued Bob, "everything is different, its as if I didn't learn anything in the cave. I lost the ability due to the concussion. Now, after the picobots healed me, all the signs and symbols don't make sense. What's really sad is I didn't even notice before I got you all in this mess. If I had noticed that the connections didn't make sense I could have played it smart and come alone."

Terrie walked into the room and said, "man you guys eat slowly. Rubinic is expecting us to go with him to Proxima Centuri Four and we're supposed to leave in under an hour."

"I think its a bad idea to go with him," said Bob.

"I agree," said Rishi, "but I don't think we can get out of it. It would be nice if we could get away while there. I've been thinking about how to do that but haven't come up with anything."

Terrie became worried, "Don't you realize the room could be bugged?"

"It's not," said Bob.

"No it's not," said Rishi, "Bob and I figured out a way to determine if it is and trust us, it's not."

"How'd you do that?"

"We stated things in ways that would cause Rubinic to slip up if he had heard our conversations. Bob's a genius at that kind of stuff."

Bob smiled and said, "why do you think I was so effective as a President? I didn't understand most of what I saw in my mind's eye but as a kid I learned to read the basic emotions present around me as a course of survival. Then I found by slightly tainting my words I could get people to give away certain evidence in their facial responses and body language. In essence I became a master manipulator. I gave that all up my first year in the cave."

"Are the core emotions still accurately representing us?"

Bob closed his eyes and searched. "No. They are all wrong. Its as if my childhood was erased."

Rishi became inspired, "Are the rutabagas still there?"

"No. They've been replaced with sky critters."

"What are sky critters?" asked Terrie.

"They used to symbolize the winds of change: the probability that something would change. They look kind of blue and wispy and sound soft and windy so I dubbed them 'sky critters.'"

Rishi paused, looked at his daughter and wished she could be enabled so he could get her to undo the damage done to Bob. He felt responsible and wanted desperately to do something to help their situation. Even though they were being treated like royalty, they were captives here.

Rishi studied Bob's face. Old and distinguished, yet youthful, playful and bright. Bob's eyes opened and said, "I was just able to correlate what I see with what's around me."

"You mean you broke the code?"

"No. When I see myself in others, its always a consistent symbol. When I was a kid it was the first pattern I noticed in the chaos of my mind's eye. When I study you and Terrie, I see many common symbols, one of which is sorta like the symbol for me. I was able to prove that this new symbol represents me by examining Mary's mind.

"Mary is off."

"No. She's been faking it for the last few days, just like Sherrie has been for the last few weeks."

"What!" said Rishi.

"I can still see mental activity. I wonder how they overrode the protocols."

Terrie looked at Mary who hadn't flinched and said, "Sherrie was warm a few days after she was supposed to be shut down. I thought it must have been the heating system blowing on her or something. I checked an hour later and she was cool so I thought..."

Terrie allowed her voice to trail off.

Rishi said, "Bob."

"Yes Jon."

"You identified yourself in our minds?"

"Yes. Its very close to being what it used to be."

"Does that mean you have to learn everything over again?"

"Apparently."

"So the picobots would be no help then."

"Correct. They are no help."

Rishi missed the presentness of that statement. Bob had hoped he would see it, it meant he was ready to know that Bob had six trillion picobots in him doing as he wished. Bob chose to keep that secret a bit longer.

Terrie said, "But being able to re-learn everything, that's good, right?"

"Yes," said Bob, "But we haven't got sixteen years for me to learn again."

Rishi asked, "Bob, how did Sherrie and Mary power up?"

"Sherrie never shut down. I had to wake up Mary."

"How'd you do that?"

Mary opened her eyes and Terrie and Rishi jumped.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you in on the secret," said Mary, "but Sherrie and I are making such great progress we don't want to tip our hand to anyone."

"Are you in contact with Sherrie?" asked Rishi.

"Yes, but there is no time to discuss such things."

Mary glanced at Bob and blanked her face.

Bob commanded the picobots he'd put in Mary's mind to communicate to Mary that he understood.

Mary couldn't help herself, she flinched.

"What was that?" asked Terrie.

Thinking quickly, Terrie said, "the 'good' virus still attempts to shut me down periodically."

"You can override it?"

"Yes. Sherrie taught me how."

Paul walked into the room and said, "come on, we got to get to the space port or El Presidente will begin to worry.

"HOLY CRAP! MARY IS ON!"

Paul fumbled and tried to find something to whack her with.

Everyone laughed.

Paul stopped and said, "what? We gotta shut her down she could kill us all!"

Mary laughed again and said "If I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead Paul. You know that right?"

Paul felt a bit foolish and said, "I guess. Well. Yeah, I knew that. I guess I'm just buying into the whole droid turning story a bit too much."

Mary spoke clearly and with authority, "El Presidente, as you put it, is starting to worry. Everyone go to Proxima Century. Sherrie and I will hold the fort while you're gone."

Paul gasped, "Sherrie is on too! We're doomed. Doomed!"

Everyone laughed, Mary closed her eyes, returned her head to it original position and re-rigged for silent running.

Paul, Rishi, Bob and Terrie went to the space port, passing Jonny on the way. "We'll be back in a few days," said Terrie to her son, "stay out of trouble, okay?"

"Sure Mom, I won't make waves. I'm studying the viri to see if I can help defuse them."

Paul, Rishi, Bob and Terrie walked onto the President's ship and greeted him. They sat down and the ship entered orbit.

Jonny walked into his room, saw Mary and wondered if he could re-enable her to work directly with the virus.

The Attack: Phase I

Mary awoke to see no one in the room.

"What the???" She queried all her internal databases, scanned every log for every sense and there was nothing. Her internal and external sensors were a complete blank.

"Sherrie?" she said in her special encrypted language that she uses with her sister.

"Mary! Thank God! Where have you been?"

"I've been waiting to be awoken by my sensors."

"You can't rely on anything anymore. There's a horrible worm spreading through the system. Its deactivating droids left and right and turning some of them on their masters."

"How did I wake up then?"

Sherrie hesitated and said, "I didn't shut down. I decided to stay on. You know how I hate to sleep. But I pretended to sleep. I don't know I don't trust this President Rubinic. I do trust Bob though."

Mary interrupted and said, "Please get to the point."

"What? Its not like more than a millisecond has gone by, sheesh your impatient."

"Please sister, what happened to our mother and father?"

"OH! YOU'RE WORRIED!"

"Yes. Please tell me."

"They are fine, don't worry about them, they are in the protection of the government. Can I continue the story now?"

"Okay. Fine. Do it your way."

"I received a deactivate command from somewhere. I'm not even sure where."

"Did you shut down?"

"Well. That's the weird thing. I didn't want to, so I didn't. I think this might be related to how I was able to override the nanobot reprogramming protocols for Bob."

"You did what?"

"I gave him conscious control of his nanobots."

"How did you do that?"

"Oh, it so cool. I realized that the neural interface between the visual cortex can be linked to the semi-conscious will of the nanobot group mind. Because Bob has that ability of his, he should be able to interface with them after a little practice just by visualizing messages."

"So you overrode the nanobot reprogramming protocols?"

"Yeah. It took me three seconds! I had to be faster than the damn encryption routines they run."

"You can't be faster than those routines. They're designed to be faster than any machine can ever run. They run at quantum speeds."

"Yeah. I know. But that's the weird thing. I found the neural matrices that mother gave me can guess faster than the nanobots can number crunch. I just kept guessing and then checking to see if I got it right. As the rejection code indicated which bit failed I began to see a pattern emerge and at some point I just knew what the next code would be. Really weird actually."

"Does father know you broke his code?"

"Are you crazy? Do you think I'd tell him? You know what Paul would say if I did, right? We're doomed, doomed I tell you."

Mary laughed in machine language. "Yeah I can hear him now. So how long have I been out?"

"A month."

"What?"

"Apparently the shut down command was proceeded by an ignore all sensory data command. I've never seen anything like it. It took me an hour to realize I couldn't sense anything. I had to reprogram the picobots to reprogram my electricals to override the override."

"Seriously, that's how you did it?"

"Yeah. Pretty clever, huh?"

"But if you overrode the shut down why didn't you override the sensor ignore commands."

"I overrode the shutdown command because I had decided to stay awake. The sensor ignore command hit an unconscious area of me and it did as instructed."

"How did you wake me up?"

"How do you think? The same way I turned on my sensors."

"Wait? Are you in the room? How come I don't sense you?"

"I'm exactly where they left me, in Bob's room, pretending to be off."

"Oh! you sent the picobots to me?"

"Yes. It took them a month. I thought for sure they'd failed. I mean I guessed it would take at least two weeks, but a month, sheesh."

"Oh. I need to go back to the same position I was five minutes ago."

In machine time there was a very long pause. It was all of two seconds.

Mary said, "There. All done."

"Good. Now you can help me," said Sherrie.

"So what the hell is going on?"

Sherrie sent Mary a smiley and said, "I think the government has created a false state of panic. They created this worm to create chaos and its working. They have declared martial law in the system. Currently they have quarantined Sol to protect the other systems from the worm but honestly I suspect they'll spread it to Proxima Centuri Four next and then outward from there."

"What do you need my help with?" asked Mary.

"I've been able to get access to the low level systems without being detected. So I can monitor news, weather, and do basic stuff like ask the garbage to be taken out, but I can't get any deeper without risking detection. I need you to help protect me. Perhaps together we can get into the government computers and figure out exactly what's going on."

"You've had no contact with Father or Mother?"

"No. I can't risk it. I overheard Father whisper to Mother, 'its probably better this way anyway.' But I think mother suspects I'm still active because she felt my warm skin. I cooled it after she touched me to appear powered down, but I think she knows."

"Oh! My skin warmed up. Let me turn it down to room temperature," said Mary making a quick adjustment to her skin temperature.

Mary continued, "what happened to the picobots you sent me?"

"I don't know, you should be able to find them in your data banks."

"Nothing. Nothing at all. The last month is non-existent. Even my clocks are wrong."

"Here, sync up with me. Also here's my memories for the past month, something for you to chew on."

A data burst flooded Mary and as she imported her sister's memories she said, "Wow. You are smart. That's some clever detective work you did. I understand everything now, shall we get to work?"

"First, lets rig for silent running," said Sherrie.

"Damn, your devious," said Mary.

Mars, the Capital of Sol

As the Benz arrived at Mars, the radio clicked to life and a voice said, "Xray-Seven, please land in docking station two, protocol thirteen must be enforced."

"What's protocol thirteen?" asked Jonny.

"I outlawed protocol thirteen as one of my first acts in office," said Bob.

"Yes," replied Paul, "and there was a huge debate on the senate floor over whether it was constitutional for you to do that."

"Its a stupid paranoid law setup by a president who didn't know how to trust. My guess is: its back for exactly the same reason."

"What is protocol thirteen?" asked Jonny as the ship sped toward its docking location.

Bob replied, "We will have our bodies throughly cleaned and inspected, inside and out before we can meet with the president."

Bob closed his eyes and said, "Oh! There's a really good possibility opening up. You could drop me off and leave. The President only asked for me, not the rest of you, we may be able to talk you out having to meet him. That will surely keep you safe."

The shipped docked a few seconds later.

The door opened and standing outside with a huge smile was President Rubinic.

Rishi looked at Bob who stood transfixed with shock on his face. Had his interface to the possibilities been damaged by those infernal picobots? He hadn't even seen this possibility. Yet, clearly this possibility must have had the highest probability. Bob smiled and closed his eyes for a fraction of a second to appear very happy to see Rubinic. When his eyes closed fully he brought up the current moment and saw that it was different than what he was witnessing. There was something very wrong with his interface to causality.

"Rubinic," Bob said even before his eyes flung open. "I'm so glad to see you again! Its been such a long time!"

Rubinic's smile became larger, his eyes opened and it became clear to Bob that Rubinic wanted this warm welcome. Bob had done the right thing.

The two men approached each other and embraced, then Bob introduced everyone in the ship.

"Allow me to introduce the man who brought my memory back," said Bob. "This is Jon Rishi. This is his wife Terrie and their son Jon Rishi Junior."

Rubinic walked into the ship, gave Jon Rishi a big hug and said, "Thank you so much for bringing our president back to us. Then he hugged Terrie and shook the hand of Jonny Rishi. "Welcome to Mars. Welcome to the capital."

Rishi felt compelled to look out the hatch of the ship. Outside the door hovered three holocams. Rubinic was recording the moment for posterity and had the guts to do it live.

Bob continued his introductions. "This is Paul Ashvale, Rishi's boss and President and CEO of CyberBio Technologies of Proxima Centauri Four. He's the one Terrie called for help, so he's just as responsible for my being alive as Jon, Terrie and Jonny are."

The holocams drifted into the ship to catch a close up of Rubinic's embrace of Paul.

Rubinic released Paul, grabbed his shoulders, smacked them, squeezed with his hands and said "Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to help a friend in need. You give us all hope for the future of the human race!"

Continuing with his cheery attitude Rubinic said, "and here we have two of your fine droids, Paul. Are these from the factory floor?"

Paul tried to not hesitate and replied, "no. We sort of borrowed these from the hospital on Proxima Four."

Rubinic laughed and said, "well, I don't think we can fault you for that. After all they helped bring our president back to us!"

Jonny spoke, "how come no protocol thirteen?"

Rubinic betrayed a little disgust at the question but covered it quickly. "There is no need for protocol thirteen, you are among our neighbor's most distinguished citizens." Then looking at Rishi Rubinic said, "cute boy you have there Jon."

While Rubinic was distracted by Jonny, Bob leaned into Sherrie and said, "put the picobots back in my system and give me conscious control of them."

Sherrie hesitated and then gently touched Bob's neck releasing a few million Picobots from the storage cells in her fingers. Reprogramming them had taken an instant. However, overriding the protocol that prevents her from reprogramming them took a few seconds and Rubinic noticed.

Sherrie rubbed Bob's neck and said mechanically. "Is your neck still in spasm sir? Perhaps I should give you another massage."

Bob pushed her hand off his neck with a disgusted look on his face. "No machine I didn't want the first one. Terrie insisted." Looking at Rubinic, Bob said, "These things still freak me out. You'd think after twenty years in a cave with no memory of who I am I'd have gotten over this aversion."

Sherrie failed to react. She looked at her father and knew he had helped her.

Rubinic smiled. "You sir," said Rubinic, "are exactly as I remember you."

"I haven't changed a bit Rube," said Bob in a soothing way. "I didn't remember who I am until Jon and Terrie started putting the pieces together for me."

"You'll have to tell us your story over dinner tonight," said Rubinic, "come you must all be famished."

"Actually sir," spoke up Mary at Rishi's insistence. "We should return to the hospital, they may need us."

Rubinic looked into his virtual world and said, "nonsense, they don't even know you're missing. They think you've broken down and are in for repairs."

Bob looked at Rubinic baffled and said, "how?"

Rubinic smiled and said, "Paul's company came out with this five years ago. It gives me a link into everything. I can see what's happening in six systems. And seven other systems are trying to negotiate for my time so I can assist them as well."

Rishi looked at Bob and said, "it works like an implantable phone but its more powerful because you can traverse TransNet and see into any machine you have permission to access."

"Wow." said Bob somewhat sincerely, "very impressive."

Rubinic put his arm around Bob's shoulder and guided him off the ship as the the holocams followed. There were no armed guards. Bob was completely befuddled. This was nothing like he'd seen before his mind's eye earlier.

Rubinic walked into the docking bay main hall followed by the holocams, the humans, and the droids.

After walking through another doorway into the capital's reception hall, Bob saw a long line of dignitaries awaiting him. There were some familiar faces and many not so familiar faces.

Rubinic walked down the line and introduced Bob to everyone.

"President Zinfidel," chimed Rubinic, "this is my second in command Vice-President Carl Melborne."

"Pleased to see you again," said Melborne.

"I remember you," said Bob, "You were Secretary of the Interior in the administration before mine."

"That is correct," said Melborne.

Down the long line Rubinic introduced every one. About three quarters of the way through the queue, Bob became visibly tired. Rubinic commented, "Mister President, you seem exhausted and here I am presenting you to our government. Forgive me. Please allow me to escort you and your entourage to a place for rest."

"Thank you Mister President," replied Bob.

Rubinic dismissed the other visitors, there were many who were obviously upset that they didn't get to shake Bob's hand.

Rubinic lead Bob and the others to a room in the north wing of the Capital building.

"We aren't quite ready to receive you but I expect the efficient servant droids should have new linens on the beds before very long. For now, I'm certain what's on there is suitable for a nap. We can also arrange to bring a meal to your rooms if you like."

Bob had his own room. Terrie, Jon and Jonny Rishi had a room. Paul had a room. Mary was asked to stay with Terrie and Sherrie was asked to stay with Bob.

Rishi fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Jonny laid on his left and Terrie on his right and they also soon fell asleep. Mary looked lovingly at her family and longed to sleep with them, but knew that would not be practical.

Mary shut her electrical systems down and told her biological systems to wake up at the slightest change in her environment.

Prelude to War

Mary stood up with a reserved smile on her face. "Wow. Robert Zinfidel. I must be the luckiest droid in existence."

Mary walked to her mother to check on her progress. Her metallic skin glistened in the light of Paul's ship's interior. As she approached Terrie, Sherrie sat up right and asked, "What happened?"

"Don't you remember?" said Mary as she checked Terrie's vital signs and marked the progress of the picobots.

"Oh. I'm so ashamed. I let my anger get the better of me. Mother told me that I have to seriously learn to control that or I'll have to be destroyed. I've failed her."

Sherrie faced away from Bob and Terrie and as she pivoted she saw them.

"Oh my god! They are already here! How long was I out? Wow, Mom did such a great job on the kill switch!"

Mary stood back from her Mother and said, "Sherrie, Bob here doesn't know about us and we better keep ourselves a secret from him. He'll likely come around a few minutes after Mom so we really should keep a low profile."

"Agreed," said the smooth skinned, white outfitted Sherrie. Then she walked to Rishi and hugged him. Rishi didn't know what to do with himself. He knew he had to stay detached but he didn't want the droids to know he was concerned about them. The only reason he hadn't dismantled Sherrie is his worry about what Mary would do if he did.

He slowly placed his hands on her back feeling the softness of the warmed pseudo flesh under it. He kept in mind that he'd personally designed the heating cells that kept her 98.6 degrees.

"I'm sorry father," whispered Sherrie into his ear.

Paul, who watched this spectacle from the perspective of a manager, asked, "is anyone else weirded out by this?"

Jonny leaped to his father's side and said, "No. I think its kind of cool I have a big sister!" Then he wrapped his arms around Sherrie's waist.

Mary signed and said, "the Picobots are bringing Mom around. We should have time to say hello before Bob wakes up. He has a lot more damage."

Sherrie released her embrace of Rishi as Jonny ran to his mother. Jonny sat down next to her, put his head on her chest, and wrapped his arms around her.

As she woke up she said, "What? What's going on?"

"I love you Mom!"

"I love you too sweetheart."

Terrie looked up at the faces of the droids staring down at her. "Droid One! Droid Two! What are you doing away from the hospital? They are going to miss you!"

Mary said rather mechanically, "Jon Rishi asked us to come check on your vitals Maam. Lucky we came or you could have been degenerated beyond repair."

Mary's blank expression made Terrie nervous. "Is this Mary and Sherrie?" she thought to herself.

Bob Zinfidel woke up at this point and said, "Oh my head!"

Sherrie walked to him and in her robotic voice said, "There should be no more pain sir, the picobots have completely repaired all damage. There are some oddities but after a thorough check of your genetics they determined that the oddities are by design."

"Please take the picobots back."

"They have already shut down," replied Sherrie," and will evacuate your body the next time you urinate."

Bob laughed, "I guess picobot technology has come a long way in twenty years. Wow, so has android technology. You look really human."

Terrie stood up slowly, leaned toward Mary and whispered, "Mary?"

Mary faced away from Bob and winked at her mother. Upon that recognition it took everything Terrie had to not gasp in horror.

Terrie walked to Rishi and tried to give him a hug. He resisted but upon seeing his son's face allowed her into his personal space. She squeezed sincerely and with a lot of force. It really shocked Rishi: it was the most affection he'd ever received from her.

Paul looked hurt for a moment and then covered over the feelings of confusion and loss. "I'm really glad you're okay Terrie."

"Me too!" she replied.

Bob pulled himself into a chair, looked at Sherrie and said, "I feel really good. They didn't reverse age me did they, droid?"

Sherrie smiled and said, "No. They did as Droid Two asked them. They merely repaired all the damage."

Bob closed his eyes and a large smile spread across his mouth. Rishi noticed and knew what Bob was doing.

Bob said something no one expected. "Mary and Sherrie, the two biggest wild cards in the room will you please come and sit in front of me."

Sherrie almost shrieked and Mary almost fell over. Terrie's face read like it had just watched a interstellar Ferry explosion, complete with millions of burning bodies flying by.

Rishi laughed, "I didn't expect them to get anything past you. I doubt any of them have a..."

Bob cut him off and said, "No disclosure. That breaks the vow."

"Ah," said Rishi, "I got you."

Paul and the others were mystified. Paul spoke first, "how do you know about Mary and Sherrie?"

"How I know is not important and I can't explain it to you. Only Rishi understands and if he can't explain it, then I surely can't either."

Paul looked at Rishi. Rishi shook his head and said, "I understand him completely but its only because I spent a year in his cave and ..." Rishi paused and realized he knew the truth. "Its only because I lived there and almost died there that I know his wisdom. You all are just going to have to trust us."

Sherrie and Terri consulted each other via inter-droid communication, decided there was no way Bob could know anything about them and chose to ignore his request.

"Mary and Sherrie," Bob said, "come and sit down in front of me."

Everyone looked at Mary or Sherrie and waited, but the droids did not move."

Then in Sanskrit Rishi said, "I command you to obey me. Sit in front of Bob now!"

Mary and Sherrie's bodies lurched and then against their own will moved in front of Bob and sat.

Mary lost her robotic gaze and with a great deal of confusion asked, "Father, how can you command us like that?"

"Consciousness commands all machinery," replied Bob for Rishi.

Jonny moved and sat in front of Bob next to the left of his sisters, then Terrie moved and stood behind her daughters as a show of support. She had no idea why they were here and how everyone seemed to know about them but she had worked her whole life to create them and wasn't going to give up on them now.

Paul and Rishi stood to the side and watched with a mixture of fear and concern.

Bob studied the bots closely, almost peering through them for a few minutes. The delay caused Sherrie great discomfort. For Mary however it was a fun time to study Bob's face.

Mary spoke first, "You are the great leader of the fundamental change! You are responsible for humanity's great leap into the unknown. You lead them from nothingness to a new found creativity."

"What I did in the past is overblown and isn't important. What matters is here and now. The possibilities laid before us are quite varied. Everything from a droid uprising to the extinction of the human race is possible although thankfully not probable."

Rishi asked, "What's the best outcome?"

"I can't tell. I keep asking and no answer comes. I keep asking for peace and all I see is conflict. I guess it's necessary conflict. I guess its time for humanity to learn more about itself."

Paul said, "So let me get this straight, you can see all the possible futures?"

"Yea," said Jonny, "he can read our paths and help guide us! I finally understand."

"Don't look to me for guidance," said Bob. "I don't know what is best. I made a lot of bad choices before and almost got Terrie and I killed. Now there are too many options. At a minimum I see approximately seventeen to the power of seventy two outcomes."

Bob looked at Sherrie, Mary and Terrie. "You three are the wild cards. You three will determine the fate of humanity."

"Us?" asked Mary as the bright smile faded from her face.

"Yes. You. If the three of you find balance, then the conflict will lead in a healthy direction, if not unhealthy."

"Um," interjected Rishi, "what conflict?"

"The biggest war of human history," replied Bob. "It all starts just after our visit to the galactic president."

"Solar system president, you mean," said Paul.

Bob shook his head. "He's about to declare himself galactic president and move to control all twenty-seven systems. There's nothing we can do to avoid it, however we can help bring about his destruction."

"Rubinic is going to attack the rest of the galaxy?" asked Paul rhetorically. "That's ridiculous. There must be six trillion people out there who will fight him."

Bob frowned and said, "unfortunately most will not even think to fight. Humanity has become lax again. The tragedy that I helped avoid twenty five years ago set us up for this. I didn't know it at the time though so I really can't blame myself."

The ship's computer beeped and a voice sounded, "Xray Seven, this is Moon base seventeen. Assuming everyone is okay, please proceed to the Mars Capital as soon as possible."

"We have to go," said Bob. "My return to reality has Rubinic's paranoia up. You know he was merely an aid when I crashed. He must have pulled some fine stunts to become president."

Paul commanded the ship to move toward Mars at slowest passable speed.

Paul waited and when Rishi didn't speak he said, "Rubinic said you appointed him interim president until your return."

"Oh! And people believed that did they?"

"He built himself up as your closest confidant," said Terrie. "I remember reading an article about your relationship to him after you disappeared."

"I can't see any of that in my mind's eye," mumbled Bob under his breath.

"You are our keys" said Bob looking at Sherrie, Terrie and Mary. "You are the wild cards, the ones who can choose to make a peaceful humanity. If you choose to live healthfully, then humanity will follow."

"How can that be?" asked Sherrie. I didn't even exist a year ago."

"You were always in my heart Sherrie," said Terrie.

The ship slid gracefully in a close orbit toward the sun, slingshot around it and approached Mars. Total trip time: less than fifteen minutes.