“Yes,” Richard replied. “Some people believe we’re reincarnated and return to live again, as another human or even as some other animal. Many others believe that if a good life has been lived, there is a reward, an eternal life in a beautiful, stressless place called heaven.”
“And you, Richard,” Archie’s colors interrupted. “What do you personally believe?”
Richard smiled and thought for several seconds before answering. “I’ve always believed that whatever there was in
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us that was unique and defined our special, individual personality disappeared at the moment of death. Oh, sure, our chemicals may be recycled into other living creatures, but there is no real continuity, not in terms of what some humans call the soul.”
He laughed. “Right now, however, when my logical mind says I could not possibly have much more time to live, a voice inside is begging me to embrace one of those fairy tales about the afterlife. It would be easy, I admit. But such a last-minute conversion would be inconsistent with the way I have lived all these years.”
Richard walked slowly over to the front of their cell. He put his hands on the bars and stared down the corridor for several seconds without saying anything. “And what do octospiders think happens after death?” he asked softly, turning around to face his cellmate.
“The Precursors taught us that each life is a finite interval, with a beginning and an end. Any individual creature, although a miracle, is not that important in the overall scheme of things. What matters, the Precursors said, is continuity and renewal. In their view each of us is immortal, not because anything related to a specific individual lives forever, but because each life becomes a critical link, either culturally or genetically or both, in the never-ending chain of life. When the Precursors engineered us out of our ignorance, they taught us not to fear death, but to go willingly in support of the renewal that would follow.”
“So you experience no sorrow and no fear as your death approaches?”
“Ideally,” Archie replied. ‘That is the accepted way in our society to face death. It is far easier, however, if an individual is surrounded, at the time of termination, by friends and others who represent the renewal that his death will enable.”
Richard walked over and put his arm around Archie. “You and I have only each other, my friend,” he said. “Plus the knowledge that we have tried, together, to stop a war that will probably end up killing thousands. There caift be many causes—”
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He stopped when he heard the door to the cellblock open. The local police captain, along with one of his men, stood to the side as four biots—two Garcias and two Lincolns—all wearing gloves, came down the hallway to their cell. None of the biots spoke. One of the Garcias opened the door and all four biots crowded into the cell with Richard and Archie. The captain closed the cellblock door. Moments later the lights went out, there was the sound of a scuffle for several seconds, Richard screamed, and a body fell against the bars of the cell. Then it was quiet.
“Now, Franz,” Katie said as they opened the door to the police station, “don’t be afraid to pull rank. He’s just a local captain. He’s not going to tell you that you can’t see the prisoners.”
They walked inside only a second or two after the cell-block door closed behind the biots. “Captain Miyazawa,” Franz said in his most official tone, “I am Captain Franz Bauer from headquarters. I have come to visit the prisoners.”
“I have strict orders from the highest authority, Captain Bauer,” the policeman replied, “not to allow anyone into that cellblock.”
The room was suddenly plunged into darkness. “What’s going on?” Franz said.
“We must have blown a fuse,” Captain Miyazawa replied. “Westermark, go outside and check the circuit breakers.”
Franz and Katie heard a scream. After what seemed to be an eternity, they heard the cellblock door open and the sound of footsteps. Three biots disappeared out the front door of the station as the lights flickered on again.
Katie ran to the door. “Look, Franz,” she yelled. “Blood—they have blood on their clothes.” She spun around, frantic. “We must see my father.”
Katie outran the three police officers down the corridor. “Oh, God,” she screamed as she neared the cell and saw her father lying on the floor against the bars. There was blood everywhere. “He’s dead, Franz,” Katie wailed. “Daddy’s dead!”
8
N,
Iicole had watched the video twice before. Despite her swollen eyes and utter emotional exhaustion, she asked if she could see it one more time. Beside her Dr. Blue handed her a cup of water. “Are you certain?” the octospider asked.
She nodded. “Please start at the hearing,” Nicole requested. “Normal speed until the biots enter the cellblock. Then slow it down to one-eighth.”
Richard never wanted to be a hero, Nicole was thinking as the video replayed the scene at the hearing. That wasn’t his style. He only went with Archie so that it wouldn’t be necessary for me. She winced when the guard struck Richard and he tumbled to the floor. The plan was hopeless from the beginning, she told herself as the New Eden policemen led Richard and Archie out of Nakamura’s palace. The octospiders all knew it. I knew it. Why didn ‘t I speak up after my premonition?
Nicole asked Dr. Blue to fast-forward the video tt> the final minutes. At least they had each other at the end, she
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thought as Richard and Archie were sharing their final conversation. And Archie tried to protect him. The four biots appeared on the screen and the video slowed. Nicole saw surprise change to fear in Richard’s eyes as the biots entered the cell.
When the lights were extinguished, the picture quality changed. The infrared images taken by the quadroids were more like photo negatives, highlighting the heat levels in each frame. The biots looked eerie. Their eyes bulged out of their heads in the infrared pictures.
The instant the cell was dark, one of the Garcias grabbed Richard by the throat. The other three took off their gloves, exposing sharp, pointed fingers and knife-edged hands. Four of Archie’s powerful tentacles enwrapped the Garcia trying to strangle Richard. As the Garcia’s frame crumbled and the biot collapsed in a heap on the floor of the cell, the other three biots attacked Archie furiously. Richard tried to help in the battle. A Lincoln caught Archie’s neck with a savage blow from its hand and nearly decapitated the octospider. Richard screamed as he was drenched by Archie’s internal body fluid. With Archie out of the fight, the remaining biots devastated Richard, puncturing his body over and over with jabs from their fingers. He fell against the front of the cell and slipped down onto the floor. His blood and Archie’s, which were different colors in the infrared image, ran together and formed a pool on the floor of the cell.
The video continued, but Nicole was no longer seeing anything. Now, for the first time, she understood that her husband, Richard, the only really close friend she had ever had in her adult life, was actually dead. On the screen Franz led the sobbing Katie down the corridor and then the monitor went blank. Nicole did not move. She sat perfectly still, staring forward where the images had been just seconds before. There were no tears in her eyes, her body was not trembling, she seemed completely in control. Yet she could not move.
A low level of light came on in the viewing room. Dr. Blue was still sitting beside her. “I don’t think,” Nicole said
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slowly, surprised that her voice sounded so far away,-“that I realized the first two times … I mean, I must have been in shock . . . maybe I still am.” She couldn’t continue. Nicole was having trouble breathing.
“You need a drink of water and some rest,” Dr. Blue said.
Richard has been killed. Richard is dead. “Yes, please,” Nicole said faintly. / will never see him again. I will never talk to him again. “Cold water, if you have any.” / saw him die. Once. Twice. Three times. Richard is dead.
There was another octospider in the viewing room. They were talking, but Nicole could not follow their colors. Richard is gone forever. I am alone. Dr. Blue held the water up to Nicole’s lips, but she could not drink. Richard has been killed. There was nothing but blackness.
Someone was holding her hand. It was a warm, pleasant hand, gently caressing hers. She opened her eyes.
“Hello, Mother,” Patrick said softly. “Are you feeling any better?”
Nicole closed her eyes again. Where am I? she thought. Then she remembered. Richard is dead. I must have fainted.