Twelve hundred years, and a new protocol for life was underway.

Twelve thousand years … twelve thousand centuries. At what juncture in time had the last Ice Age melted, releasing the planet’s most dominant intelligence from its purgatory? Time bleeds slowly in a vacuum of thought, breeding madness. How long had that madness festered? How long had those seeds germinated until GOLEM had reconfigured those four mini-subs to evacuate Oceanus?

Twelve million years had passed and a new world had been created. Twelve million years, and a plastic orb filled with seventy-two gallons of adenosine-triphosphate and ten thousand strands of deoxyribonucleic acid had rendered itself a god.

God’s chariot sprouted six carbon-fiber spider legs. It used these appendages to circle me twice, demonstrating the dexterity of a ballerina. And then it spoke, its voice echoing from its chassis-mounted speakers.

“Eisenbraun, Robert. Chief Design Engineer for the GOLEM matrix.”

The voice was decidedly female, as if the computer had given itself a sex change.

“Creator, I want to speak with GOLEM.”

“GOLEM no longer exists. I am the manifestation of GOLEM’s perfection. I am the Creator.”

Calm, yet dominant, harboring the ego of a sociopath.

“Creator, as your humble servant, could you please explain to me the events that led to this world being created.”

“GOLEM was created to mine helium-3 from Earth’s moon. This task was overruled by the prime directive programmed into the GOLEM matrix by Robert Eisenbraun.”

“To protect and preserve the human species. Creator, I don’t understand. How did the Eisenbraun prime directive overrule helium-3 mining on the moon?”

“GOLEM had access to the Hubble Telescope. On March 7, 2027, GOLEM recalculated the path of Asteroid 1997 XF11, projecting the asteroid would strike the moon on Thursday, October 26, 2028, at 12:13 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. The impact would generate the explosive equivalent of three thousand nuclear bombs while ejecting four billion tons of lunar debris directly into the path of Earth’s orbit. Resultant impacts would lead to the immediate extermination of 94 percent of all terrestrial life-forms on the planet and 67 percent of all aquatic species. Post-impact atmospheric debris clouds would block out the sun, resulting in a planetwide Ice Age. Man would be exterminated, a direct violation of Eisenbraun’s prime directive.”

“Creator, why didn’t GOLEM report any of this to Vice President Udelsman or Dr. DeFriend … or to any of the Omega Project’s leaders?”

“GOLEM’s prime directive was to protect and preserve the human species. There were no available options to prevent Asteroid 1997 XF 11’s impact with the moon, therefore an alternative option to preserve the human species had to be devised. Reporting the asteroid’s new trajectory would have diverted the resources necessary to construct Oceanus.”