Washington, D.C.

Number One Observatory Circle

(Official Residence Of The Vice President)

The images that the surveillance drones had taken on his orders were on the Vice President's desk, confirming the information Dr. Nikolov supplied. They showed high-resolution pictures of Pagan Island in the Pacific Ocean and all the hectic activity on it. The size of that biodome was impressive in itself, and Dr. Nikolov claimed that it was all a camouflage, hiding its true purpose of building a spaceship underneath it. He himself did not believe such a bizarre story, and he even watched the documentary of Genesis Corporation's environmental study, which was apparently all a ruse. The money shot was one of Michael Freeman himself, walking on the beach with some woman, without a care in the world.

The entire debacle with the AI project gave him another point of confirmation, the name of the rogue AI that Freeman controlled was Max, the same name ARES claimed for his father. Philip Cain did not believe in coincidences.

His rage reached new heights when General Davidson reported that their AI was somehow stolen since he had such big plans for it. Plans for increased control over world affairs, which should have made him more powerful than ever. Despite all security measures, Michael Freeman managed to be a step ahead of him.

He decided to put in motion a plan he kept as a reserve for some time now. Since President Garner was too weak to deal with this problem and had an unfortunate personal connection with Freeman, it was time for him to step down.

One way or the other, by this time tomorrow he would have a far greater ability to openly move new pieces on the world's chessboard. This country will have a new leader and all will bow to his will.

He closed his eyes and sneered at the entire world, but after a while, an evil grin appeared on his face. In the solitude of his office, he quietly whispered to himself.

"The President of the United States of America… Philip Cain."

***

Pagan Island, Pacific Ocean

One Day Later

Max summoned the entire inner circle for an emergency meeting in the conference room; it took very little time for them all to gather.

“There have been several new developments since yesterday, and not one of them is good. First, the story that will soon be on every media outlet in the world is that President Garner has suffered a massive stroke, and is currently in a coma. Vice President Philip Cain was sworn in as acting President under the twenty-fifth amendment.” The AI said, as soon as everyone was seated.

“Damn,” Michael exhaled. “The last time I saw him he looked in pretty good health, is there any indication of foul play?”

“Considering everything else that happened, I predict that as very likely,” Max replied. “I managed to break through White House encryption and this is a file that the new President received recently, it’s a scan of a letter.” Max pointed towards the holo-screen, where a six-foot image of Dr. Nikolov’s letter appeared. “Copies of it are now in possession of several other governments and intelligence agencies.”

For a few minutes, the room was full of exclamations about the Russian Doctor’s ancestry.

“My gut was telling me that he was a rotten egg, and I disregarded it,” Michael said with a frown on his face.

“No son, I was the one who invited him here; but I never imagined he would do something like this.” His father bowed his head.

“Blames and recrimination aside, we have a much bigger problem now.” Max interrupted. “A few hours ago, my satellites noticed several ships from different navies altering their course, and they are all headed this way.”

The screen changed into a map of the world, with Pagan Island in its center and several representations of ships, from all sides converging on the island.

“How long before they reach us?” Michael asked.

“The first one will be here by tomorrow morning; others will arrive at different intervals, depending on how far behind they are. By my calculations, all of them are running at full speed.”

Michael took a deep breath. “Will we be able to launch by then?”

Max did not answer immediately, but shook his head slowly before he started speaking, “… No. Even if we double everyone’s effort, and people are working nonstop, the earliest is one day after the first ship arrives here. And let us hope they do not try aerial assaults, because then it will be a completely different ballgame.”

There was a tense silence in the room before Michael started speaking, “Okay, this is what we are going to do,” he said after taking a few moments to order his thoughts.

“Tyron, go with Pete and Al and take Dr. Nikolov into custody. Max, announce to everyone on the island that I will transmit a statement in half an hour. Emma, you take Elizabeth and Alice and coordinate people, have everybody inside the ship by evening.”

“What are you planning?” Jack asked him.

“We need to buy time using nonviolent methods; going to war with any of those ships is the worst thing we could do right now. We could destroy them with Hammers, but that would undermine everything we are trying to do. So… we need to stall them for at least one whole day.” He looked at Emma. “I will explain the situation to the people and you need to keep them from panicking. Everyone who wants to leave the island can do so by using transporters, but to be safe, we will evacuate all the children.”

From the moment Michael started issuing orders, the bearing of everyone in the room changed. What they were worried about for some time now had happened, so Michael knew that he quickly had to take control of the situation.

“Max, how many transporters do we have?” he asked.

“Five big ones, two were on their way to bring additional supplies, but I’m recalling them back. There are also thirty-nine of the regular ones available, so transportation space is not the issue.”

“Very well, put all the children on them and the adults that want to leave. Send them all to the missile silo, there should be enough room for them all. They may be a little crowded but it will have to do until we resolve this. And Max, I will need some modifications to be done to a few smaller transporters before the first ship arrives.”

The meeting came to a close, and everybody left for their assignments. Michael wrote a few notes on his CEI and then sat in front of the camera to broadcast the announcement to everyone on the island. He told them about Dr. Nikolov, the letter, and about the various navies’ ships that were approaching their position. He made it clear that anyone was free to leave the island on a transporter, and how they were going to evacuate the children. It was a good thing that Dr. Nikolov was already in custody, or he would have been beaten to death by his former colleagues.

“So, what do you think they will do?” He asked Max after the broadcast was finished.

“I think most of them will stay, they have built a community here. There is a sense of belonging among the residents; no matter where they came from, we made them feel equal. Some will take you up on your offer to leave. Fear can do that to people, make them search for a safe haven when they perceive a threat; all we can do is wait and see.”

In the end, less than one hundred decided to evacuate, and most of them as chaperons for the children. The silo would be crowded for sure, but they would be safe and the supplies there would last them for the entire week.

Michael was seeing them all go, standing close to the area that was the official landing zone. At one point, Zizi approached him. “Mama is making me go, but I want to stay,” said the little boy, with tears in his eyes. Behind him, Emma was apologetically shrugging her shoulders.

Michael kneeled, so they would be at the same level.

“Zizi, this is only for a little while, and you can look at it as an adventure. You get a new place to explore.”

The boy wasn’t buying it, silent tears were still running down his face. Michael hated that such a small child had to go through so many changes when it was stability he needed the most.

“Tell you what, when you get to the silo, ask Max to bring you into my secret office. It is a very special place and not everyone is allowed in. There you can see any place on earth, or in space, projected on the walls, and only you have permission to bring friends there to play. Okay?”

Zizi smiled through his tears and nodded. “Okay.”

Emma took the child in her arms and whispered to Michael, “thank you,” and then walked towards the transporter to put him in his seat.

As the last aircraft lifted into the air, many parents were walking back to their designated working position with expressions of deep sadness and heartbreak.

***

The work on the ship became frantic; everybody wanted to help with the ship’s engines. If it wasn’t for Max’s organizational skills and Emma’s calming demeanor, it would have been utter chaos. People of all colors and backgrounds worked side-by-side with Max’s robotic drones, trying to win the race against time.

As for Michael, he had an unpleasant interview to conduct. A mile away from the main entrance of the ship was a security office, which had a few prison cells. He hoped that they would not have to be used for a long time, yet they had their first occupant and the ship hadn’t even left the Earth.

Dr. Nikolov was peacefully lying on a cot, taking a nap, but as soon as he heard the door opening, he stood up and looked at Michael with a smile on his face.

“Mr. Freeman, so nice of you to pay me a visit,” he said cheerfully.

Michael couldn’t believe the audacity of the man. Here he was, a person who had made so much trouble with just one letter, acting as happy as a clam at high tide. He wondered if the doctor was all there, normal people were usually not happy to be in jail.

“Why did you do it? Why did you betray us?”

“Mr. Freeman, you still don’t understand,” Dr. Nikolov patronizingly said. “I didn’t betray you, I took away the wrong choices from you; now you have to do the right thing and the world will be better for it.”

“I will have to do the right thing?” Michael controlled his irritation with the ease of long practice.

“Yes, don’t you see? The world knows about you now, and after you share all the technological wonders you have, it will turn into a better place. I did the best possible thing, and you should be grateful to me.” The doctor smiled pleasantly and continued, “I realized that if I send a letter explaining everything, they would listen to reason. And it wasn’t so hard to fool your AI; I’m sure it monitors our communications, but an old-fashioned letter was out of his digital reach. One of the people going out for supplies mailed it for me, and now we can celebrate the dawn of a new age, a better one.”

By his euphoric expression and the high sound of his voice, Michael realized that the man in front of him was living in the world of his own.

“And all the people here, the children… did it ever cross your mind that they could be hurt by your action? There are various navies’ ships coming here, with weapons and soldiers; they are coming to take what they can, and they will not ask nicely.”

The doctor’s smile grew even wider, “that’s even better, now you have to give them control of the spaceship, and we can start working on making this world into a paradise.”

Michael looked the man in the eyes and saw that it was pointless to continue this conversation, “No, Dr. Nikolov, I have no intention of giving anything to anyone, and frankly, I don’t have time to listen to your idiocy anymore.”

He turned around and left the cell followed by the doctor’s screams about stupid soldiers and unreasonable decisions.

“Max, tell Tyron to take Dr. Nikolov in the transporter and to leave him in some village in Indonesia, we are done with him.”

“Don’t you want to punish him in some way?”

“What’s the point, he’s never going to see reason. It would be like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted; he has done all the harm he could. Besides, we have much bigger fish to fry.”

All through the rest of the day and night, people on the island worked like possessed. Running against the clock to finish as much as they could, before the fast-approaching deadline. There were even a few vegetable gardens around the ship that were now being dug up from the ground and transferred to the ship’s hydroponics level. Nothing was to be left on the island, and in any case, there was no way of telling what would be needed in space. What's more, the ship had enough storage room.

Elizabeth found him as he was returning from the ship’s engine level, he was using his enhanced strength to help carry heavy equipment to the team that was building the engines.

“You’re taking a break, let’s go for a walk,” she told him in a voice that didn’t allow for an argument.

It took them a few minutes to reach their beach; the light of a full moon reflected off the calm ocean water.

“I’m scared Michael,” Elizabeth said while leaning her head on his arm. “Scared of what we are about to face; I feel like I am in Anna’s hospital room again, powerless to do anything.”

He held her closer to himself, “Shh, everything is going to be all right… I won’t let them destroy what we build here.”

Despite his words, he could still feel her body shivering, and it was a warm night.

“Liz, we still have a few aces up our sleeves, they will not know what hit them,” Michael said and laughed.

They returned to the ship after a while since they couldn’t afford to lose much of the precious time. Before they knew it, it was a dawn of a new day, and their time was up.

First of the Navy ships was approaching the island.