Thirty minutes passed before I located a six-inch acrylic barrel protruding from the karst wall of the crater, its power source no doubt buried deep within the geology. The junction’s technology seemed far more advanced than my own; whether the beam delivered something far more lethal than an EMP was impossible to tell.

Sitting by the edge of the crater, gazing down into the darkening valley, my mind attempted to sort out the mysteries at hand without the aid of my biological chip. Having established that a security grid existed, the next immediate question I sought to answer was not who had created the grid or even why, but how—as in how could an EMP keep human clones from entering the doline?

I was so absorbed in thought that I never noticed how late it was until the crickets began chirping at the night.

Looking up, I took in the star-filled heavens and wondered if the cephalopeds would one day invent a telescope or comprehend other solar systems or create the means to visit another planet like Mars, or an alien moon, like Europa, or even the damaged remains of our own—

“Alpha Colony! Holy shit, what happened to all those scientists?” Could they have survived the asteroid impact? If yes, could they still be alive? It hardly seemed possible—then again I was still here. “No, dipshit. You’re just dreaming.”

“Ike?”

Startled, I turned. The woods behind me were cloaked in shadows, but the woman’s voice was as clear as day, and it definitely wasn’t Dharma.

Moving quickly, I retreated feetfirst over the edge of the collapsed doline, the tips of my running shoes searching blindly for the redwood branch below.

“Ike, wait!”

Halfway over the edge of the crater lip, I hesitated.

Andria stepped out of the forest into the clearing, her athletic physique pressing against the torn seams of her soiled orange Omega jumpsuit, her breasts challenging the outfit’s central zipper. Her short-cropped black hair was messed, her American-Indian complexion a bit tanner than when I had last seen her, but otherwise she was the same beauty I had intended to rendezvous with the night the crewmen had turned against me.

She walked toward me, her expression one of disbelief. “You’re really alive. Oh my God, it’s a miracle.”

She was unarmed and alone, and every cell in my body yearned to hold her. Still, my feet remained poised on the tree branch.

“Ike, what’s wrong with you? It’s me. Andie.”

“Prove it. Where did we meet? What city?”

“We didn’t meet in the city, we met in the woods in Virginia. You tried to steal my deer.”

My heart raced. “How did you get off Oceanus?”

“We used the subs.”

“Who’s we?”