“When the asteroid hit, it not only marooned us, it condemned us to a slow, agonizing death. What saved us were advances in genetic engineering that allowed us to harvest new organs from the original donor tissues—new red blood cells and bone marrow, even replacement flesh. For hundreds of years we continued to regenerate ourselves, anchored to our ever-changing bodies by the life force we call the ‘soul.’ And then we made the ultimate evolutionary leap—converting our consciousness to pure energy—a breakthrough that allowed us to abandon our physical bodies. What you see before you is a hologram.”

“But you touched my shoulder … I felt you!”

“The hologram is wired into your senses. What you experienced was your neurological impulses reacting to an artificial stimulus.”

I backed away, my eyes focusing on the speck of energy glowing from his chest. “What is it you want from us?”

“Do you know what the human body is, Robert? It’s a vessel animated by the soul. When the body dies, the soul moves on. Only the body has to cease functioning before the soul can be released. We want to free ourselves from this purgatory of energy so that our souls can move on. To accomplish this we must die. Death is a physical event, requiring a physical vessel in which to inhabit. We tried capturing the cephalopeds in an attempt to occupy their bodies, only their genetics were incompatible and their souls refused to vacate their physical forms. We attempted to occupy your computer’s clones, but GOLEM had tinkered too much with their DNA to allow us to inhabit their bodies. And then one miraculous day we discovered that both you and Dharma were still being kept in cryogenic stasis, and suddenly there was hope.”

“You intend to preserve me and Dharma in a vegetative state so you can clone us, inhabit those bodies … and then what? Kill yourselves?”

“Suicide affects the soul’s journey. Occupying your clones would allow us to return to Earth and live out our lives as physical beings before dying a natural death.”

“Quite the happy ending … except for the two of us.”

“You’ll never know what transpired. Your minds will remain in a dream state, your consciousness maintaining free will. Had you not awoken, your mind would have found its way to a happier existence back on Earth.”

“Another never-ending cryogenic dream? I don’t think so.”

A swarm of red, green, and white sparks of energy advanced down the corridor, surrounding McEntyre. “Unfortunately, Robert, you have no choice.”

ABE, activate Hibernation Mode on my signal! Awaken me in thirty days!

EISENBRAUN VOICE-ACTIVATED PASSWORD IS REQUIRED.

I stumbled backward, the radiant entities spinning in my vision as I bellowed, “Vanilla sway … vanilla sway … vanilla sway!”

Chapter 41

41

In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.

—BABA DIOUM, African environmentalist