A pair of luminescent white specks glowed like fireflies before me, magnifying into holographic images of a man and a woman! Both humans were dark-haired, pale-skinned people in their midforties. They wore matching black bodysuits that appeared to be powered by a half-dollar-size object that radiated a soft white light along their sternums.

The man spoke, his English lacking any recognizable accent. “Dr. Robert Eisenbraun. It is truly miraculous to finally communicate with you.”

“Who are you? Where are you? And how the hell do you know my name?”

“I believe you already know these answers,” replied the woman. “What you seek are the details. For instance, you know we are the descendants of the survivors from Alpha Colony, specifically the international team sent to analyze the lunar soil samples collected by GOLEM back in 2028. What you really want to know is how we survived and evolved over the last twelve million plus years. The answer, stated simply so as not to exhaust your diminishing supply of air, is that the asteroid impact struck a different quadrant of the moon than the one where Alpha Colony was located. The devastation, as you can imagine, was still crippling. Forced into subterranean caverns, our survivors discovered that the internal heat generated by the collision had melted ice deposits, providing scientists with water and air and energy to grow food from the seed stores GOLEM had arranged to be brought on board.”

“The computer arranged seed stores? Why?”

“Because of your protocol,” the man stated. “GOLEM had supplied our transport ships with the basic necessities of survival; at the same time the AI prevented us from returning to Earth.”

“How? You had the lunar shuttles—”

“They were damaged in the firestorm.”

“Still, your descendants represented a collection of the most brilliant minds on the planet. Are you telling me that, having survived for millions of years, the Alpha Colonists still couldn’t figure out a way to return to Earth?”

“They had the means,” said the female, “but several hundred thousand years passed before the atmospheric debris subsided enough to allow the sun’s rays to again reach the Earth’s surface and foster vegetation. By that time, the prolonged exposure to gravity one-sixth that of Earth’s had permanently altered the colonists’ DNA, leading to physiological adaptations that, over eons, prevented us from reinhabiting the planet. We have recently discovered a remedy to the problem, and are preparing to recolonize Earth—pending the success of your own mission.”

“And what mission is that?”

“The destruction of GOLEM, as well as the computer’s hives. This must be accomplished before tomorrow evening’s cosmic event—before the AI spreads its seed beyond the subcontinent.”

“I don’t understand. Why can’t you destroy GOLEM? Your drone took out that giant croc, and you did a real nice job on those crabs.”