I glanced down at my groin and my rage grew. A device covered my penis and I had no doubt it had milked my male organ of semen during Andria’s alluring cameo in the meadow dreamscape.

Infuriated, I slammed the back of my head against the surgical table. “What have I done?”

GOLEM had succeeded in saving the human race. In doing so, it had unraveled the very secrets of the human genome, and, through genetic engineering, it was rewriting the blueprints for life on our planet.

But what was its ultimate goal?

Searching for clues, ABE replayed an excerpt from my last conversation with the computer: “GENERATING A LINE OF MALE-INSEMINATED OFFSPRING WILL LEAD TO NEW VARIATIONS OF TRANSHUMANS NECESSARY FOR FUTURE SPACE ENDEAVORS.”

Space endeavors?

My God, it means to seed the universe with its creations.

As if to confirm the working hypothesis, Dharma’s voice filled my subconscious. “The children of GOLEM are an aberration against the Creator and must be stopped.”

“No shit. But how does a flea stop a pit bull?”

GOLEM IS A MACHINE. MACHINES CAN BE SHUT DOWN.

Yes, ABE, but how?

And then I remembered the doline.

To protect the cephalopeds, the mysterious Blessed Heavenly Ones Who Nurture had rigged the crater’s entrance with a powerful electromagnetic pulse … and now I understood why.

ABE, is it possible to use parts from the EMP array guarding the crater entrance to build a weapon powerful enough to disable GOLEM?

UNLIKELY. HOWEVER, AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE YIELDING A SIGNIFICANT EMP WAVE CAN BE CONSTRUCTED USING EQUIPMENT FOUND ON OCEANUS.

Excellent! I squirmed and tugged and fought the straps that bound my arms, waist, and ankles to the surgical table, but I was getting nowhere. ABE, any bright ideas on how to escape?

SEEK ASSISTANCE FROM TRANSHUMAN ANDRIA.

You mean the Hunter-Transport? How do I do that?

ABE replayed the tortured being’s last message to me: “KEEP THIS WITH YOU. THINK OF ME.”

Her ring finger! The severed digit was still in my pocket. She had given it to me, knowing its physical presence would allow us to communicate through my bio-chip.

Andria, I’m being held in the Creator’s lab. I need you, Andie. Please.

TRANSHUMAN ANDRIA HAS ACKNOWLEDGED THE COMMUNICATION.

Is she coming?

UNKNOWN.

Damn … Raising my head again, I searched the maze of cephalopeds that were stuck to the aphaeresis tree, hoping to locate Oscar—a seemingly impossible task. And then I saw him. The big male’s inert body was being lifted by one of the robotic arms to be placed on the machine. My eyes followed the dangling carcass as it was outstretched on a vacant perch high overhead—until my sight line was obstructed by another mechanical hummingbird. For some reason, the annoying medical sentry was flitting around, two feet over my head.

“I’m fine. Now go on, git!”