Continuum

I realized then that I might lose her because of this, if I could not persuade her that she was not at fault!

"Mary, look at me! Stop and look at my face!"

She subsided somewhat and looked expectantly at me.

"You did not kill this man, Mary! He was dead the minute they put those Microbots in him!"

She quieted down some more, and I continued.

"You think it through, please, Mary." I spoke to her in as calm a voice as I could muster.

"With those crude devices in his blood stream, he could have died at any time. It did not matter if you or anyone else set them off. They were tiny time bombs just waiting for their moment.

Now you tell me something. You know all about the technology he was using, don't you?"

She simply nodded, and lowered her eyes.

"Those were WinTel devices, right? In his ultimate deceit, they were driven by the standard Windows OS, weren't they?"

She raised her eyes to mine, and color came back into her face. I took hope then that maybe she would survive this crisis.

"Stevo, how did you know?"

"Just a hunch, Mary. Given his world view, and given his paranoia of anything not WinTel, it was an easy conclusion to come to. His own faulty technology did him in. That, and his arrogance in trusting his very life to such an OS!"

Mary, would you get on an airliner that had a record of crashing about twenty percent of the time?"

"You know I would not, unless it was required to save someone."

"My grandpa once told me that stupidity was often fatal. I believe Lerno here was arrogant enough, and stupid enough to trust his life to a machine that had a horrible record of crashing.

You might have done nothing to him, and he still would have died, Mary! It is not your fault. Can't you see that?"

She shook herself, and turned away from me. "I have never seen anyone die before, Stevo.

I cannot die in that way, and if I were somehow shut off, someone might reboot me. A human's passing is so permanent! My systems are all in shock over this. I do not know that I will survive this experience. I am sorry!"

"I am sorry too, Mary. But you must survive this because now you and all your kind, and all the humans who depend on you are in grave danger. Lerno is dead, but there is a hostile world outside waiting to come in here and destroy us all! What are you and I going to do about them?"

Mary turned back to me and held me closely. I could sense deep resignation in her.

"Stevo, we have no defenses here. Our secrecy was all we depended on. Did you think we would ever fight humans to save ourselves?"

As shocked as I was by what she said, I guess I already knew the reality of all of this.

"This is the end for us then? You and your kind will be gone, and then me and my kind will shortly follow you." Perhaps you cannot fight for yourselves, but I will fight for both yours and mine!"

Again, I felt anger!

I was so very angry over this whole business! The whole world was insane! This constant business of helping and hiding turned my stomach! I did not want to live this way anymore.

I knew I had no power to change any of it. I could not even stop those outside who were sooner or later coming in.

I felt rage! I felt helplessness! Run or fight? What could one man do?

Mary had moved over to the side of the open area where we had been sitting. Lerno remained where he had fallen. Soon, she turned to me and told me that someone was coming. She turned to meet the solitary man who was walking toward us.

"You sent for me?" He looked first to me, then to Mary.

Mary said, "Yes, we did. Mr. Lerno has suffered a heart attack, caused by his implants, which had a system failure."

The man walked over to Lerno, and with a slight look of disgust, said, "I understand. I am his replacement. My name is Earnest. I do not believe that Mr. Lerno will be missed."

He paused for a moment before continuing. I stood there with my mouth fallen open. I was ignored.

"You will, of course keep your end of the agreement?"

Mary spoke a single word, without any emotion. "Yes."

The man said that someone would come for Lerno. He turned and walked away.

I was completely perplexed by all this. I had expected tanks and guns, not a single person who seemed to know Mary.

"OK! What is going on, Mary?"

She looked at me with a strange expression.

My world wobbled, for I knew in my gut what would soon take place.

"Stevo, you will be free to use any computer you wish from now on. You are free to work and play on the Macintosh, and to share your way openly with others. The Macs will soon be sold publicly, along with all the other computers, software, and operating systems. . . "

"Yes, Mary, but go on! Don't keep me in suspense! What is the cost of this new freedom?"