Almost a sense of relief.
He liked that word. “Fuck!” hegrowled.
Yes! It perfectly expressed hisfeelings on the subject.
He could not understandwhat it was that he had said, though, that convinced them to go.Perhaps it was because he didnotwant them to? And they decided since they couldtell he did not want them to, that it must be something to bedesired?
Well and it was certainlysomethinghedesired.
He supposed he had somehow given thataway.
* * * *
Ultima was more than a little unnervedby her decision, but, despite her state of mind, she thought therereally was no choice.
They had fought the good fight, butthey were losing.
Everyone knew it.
That was what had spawned the idea ofthe collective to start with—the fear that humanity was about tobecome an extinct species. The desire to at least leave a record oftheir passing.
They had been certain that it would befar better to entrust humanity’s last hoorah to many rather thanone, but it was so difficult to gather more than a handful ofhumanity any longer.
And beyond that, gathering only madethem a bigger target.
She had thought as she lay dying thatshe had missed her chance to pass on the collective—all thathumanity was or had been.
And then she’d seenthemarrive.
And she’d seen—or at least believedshe had—something akin to humanity in Tau’s eyes. Not humanity,because he wasn’t, as difficult a time as she was having with herjudgment. But the traits humans most admired in themselves—empathyfor the pain and suffering of others. And the willingness to risktheir own life to save another.
The possessiveness he’d displayedtoward her was yet another human-like trait. Though not sobeautiful, it was something to work with—however surprising it wasto her to see it.
He surprised her again when he relayedthe message.
And they surprised her because theycame.
Quan settled beside her—lookingcurious, puzzled, hopeful, and more than a littleunnerved.
She thought she understood.
She thought they were beings oflight—non corporal of form.
They might not be. They might onlyhave used that as a means of travel, but it seemed that they hadborn up that theory.
She took Quan’s hand and drew ittoward her so that she could help him find the portal to link to.Surprise flickered across his face, and then understanding and hesearched, as Tau had, for a way to make the connection.
Fortunately for their aspirations,they had managed to take down one of the enemy cyborgs and matchtheir portals—a fair match, anyway.
A distant look entered his eyes whenthe connection was made and the computer began to load the datainto his onboard computer. It wasn’t instantaneous. There was fartoo much data for that, but it was the fastest processor they’dbeen able to design and it was the fastest mankind had succeeded inperfecting.
Probably the last.
The one called Xi entered while Quanwas processing.
From the look on his face, she morethan half expected that he would leave again, but he met her gazefor a long moment and then he merely found a place to wait untilQuan had completed the download and unplugged.
After two aborted attempts to riseafterward, he merely stayed where he was.
