“So, Robert, now it is time to fill in the blanks, as you Americans like to say. Since we are in Vietnam, I must assume the cryogenic process caused serious damage to my memory. It has been many years since I last set foot in Hang Son Doong cave; the first time my uncle brought me here was on my eighteenth birthday. But of course you knew that from my bio. I love the underwater lights—what a beautiful effect. How long has it been since I was unfrozen?”

ABE fed me the answer. “Six hours, twenty-eight minutes.”

Her smile cracked. “I don’t understand.”

“Dharma, this isn’t Vietnam, we’re still in Antarctica. Something terrible happened shortly after we were put to sleep … a cataclysm.”

Tears formed and her throat constricted. “What sort of cataclysm?”

“An asteroid. It struck the moon so hard it altered its orbit, blasting away massive city-size chunks of rock that would have been caught in Earth’s gravity. The impacts must have been horrible … planetwide firestorms; debris clouds that clogged the atmosphere, essentially cutting off photosynthesis and the sun’s heat. We’re talking major Ice Age, the end of humanity. I know it’s hard to fathom—”

“How long?”

“Honestly, it’s still all conjecture. ABE was frozen. I suspect the bio-chip was damaged.”

“How long were we asleep, Robert?”

“The A answer is twelve million years and change. Trust me, you don’t want to know the B answer.”

“Twelve million years? Then my family … everyone I knew—”

“There’s more. From the evidence back on Oceanus, it appears that GOLEM may have gone a bit stir-crazy. The rest of the crew … we found some serious genetic mutations.”

“We? Who else was with you?”

“A friend. Another species.”

She smiled. And then she giggled a half-mad, half-adorable giggle. “Bravo. You actually had me, the whole thing … it feels so real.”

“You think this is an Omega-wave dream? Hate to tell you, but that would make it my dream, not yours.”

“So sorry to remind you, Robert, but Hang Son Doong cave is my memory, as are you. Our lovemaking just now … it traces back to a desire I felt for you on the first day we met. I can understand your confusion. These Omega waves … they’re really quite powerful, how they mine the subconscious.”

She was practically giddy.

“So this friendly species, when may I meet it?”

“It doesn’t like human females. Apparently there’s a few genetic clones of Andria prowling the forests, hunting down cephs.”

“Cephs?”

“Short for cephalopeds—my name for Oscar’s species, not his. Oscar, come join us please.”

Dharma followed my gaze to the river. “Robert, there is no one out there.”

I waited another thirty seconds, then peeved, waded back into the freezing river and tapped the nearest rock formation—which materialized into a maze of hairy tentacles and an oblong head whose stalked yellow eyes looked at Dharma with malice.