Babylon Lost

Chapter 22

"The Hunter-Seekers have infiltrated the first floor" Pax said "they're moving toward the second barrier at an accelerated pace."

Jiro was listening but didn't really hear any of it, his mind was on that satellite which hung over them high above in space, minutes away from raining down fire. He needed someway to thwart it but it seemed fate had conspired against him in one last crushing blow. All of his thoughts lead to nothing, they really were out of options.

"Jiro we still have time to complete the transfer back into your biological body, should the host continue to hold off for these remaining four minutes and thirty-eight seconds."

And that was it. The final play. The last thing Jiro had any control of. He could choose to wake up back in his real body or not. If he did proceed with the transfer then what? Live in the wake of billions and billions of dead.

"How sure are you that this transfer will even work?" Jiro saw the words come flying out of his mouth "It doesn't sound like it's even been done before."

"Correct, a full reversal has never been documented before, nor is the procedure stored in my programming, so the full effects of your return are not known. However, in theory it should be possible. In all likelihood there will be some residual memory loss and a little discomfort when readjusting back in an organic form, but I believe the procedure will work."

Jiro lifted the robotic skull he held and looked into its eyes. All that destruction and death in his palm of his hand.

"Shall I commence the process?" Pax asked.

Jiro wanted to say yes, he knew he was out of options, but a part of him was still trying to wrap his brain around what he could do, still searching for an out. He just needed something, anything that could give him even the slightest chance to figure all this out.

Then the universe gave it to him.

"I'm picking up an open call over the public network" Pax said "it's moving through multiple backchannels but it's specifically calling out for you."

Pax didn't need to say who it was.

"It's Tamira, isn't it?" Jiro said, hope returning. "Put her through."

"Jiro her organization has proven to be more advanced than even I can anticipate, opening a line could be dangerous."

"You said its coming through the backchannels right, maybe she's trying to reach us secretly" and besides, Jiro wanted to add, they were out of options anyways.

Jiro felt the presence of someone coming on the other line.

"Listen I don't have time to explain," he started "but you need to stop whatever it is you're about to do. This orbital strike thing, you're going to get us all killed."

"So that really was you with the target." Tamira said "when I saw the feed I couldn't believe it. First you lead us to it and now you're protecting it. What's going on Jiro?"

"Did you not just hear what I said!? What's going on is this, is you need to stop the attack, you're going to destroy the city."

"You got your wires crossed or something, didn't you hear a word of what I told you before. We need to destroy that thing before it jumps the network."

"No you don't understand" Jiro pointed at the air in front of him "this thing is already ready to jump the system. The only thing holding it back is its body, if you destroy it you'll set it free. You've never had to deal with one this far along, right? Well, you're walking into a trap."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't have time to explain, but my virus is on our side. It's talking to me, I thought it was the system AI but it's actually the thing that was sent back to kill me, kill us. And he's telling me that if we pop this thing we're all dead."