Todd

“Todd?”
The 19-year-old by that name glanced up, surprised to see a hologram of Nick standing before him. He knew there was no actual hologram – he was in a full-body containment rig, the kind used for lava- or deep-earth mining. Nick had merely projected himself against the hybrid-glass dome that protected Todd’s head, making it seem as though he was standing on the rocks before him. Todd smiled big.
“Nick? It’s, I’m honored!” he said. He didn’t straighten up, though; Todd glanced back down to the huge chunk of rock he was extricating and began slicing it again with the laser-drill on his arm. “So, uh, sir, what can I do for you?”
“Todd.”
Something in the young man’s voice made him stop what he was doing and actually look up now – Nick’s hologram represented the state his mind was in, and right now, it was flickering and nervous looking. When he glanced up, Nick laid a computer-generated hand on Todd’s mining rig, and the laser drill powered down. Several green lights turned red, and then blue, indicating Todd had full manual control of the suit.
“…Nick?” he asked, uncertain. The hologram glanced behind him abruptly, and then turned back to Todd.
“Todd. Remember when I told you the clocks were off?” Todd thought back, and nodded. Nick seemed to take greater care of – and by extension, form closer relationships with – those who worked the planet’s mantle; he spoke with Todd frequently, and had told him about the potential computer malfunction last week with a laugh and a wink. Todd remembered it clear as day.
“I… the problem has manifested itself. The clocks are not off because of a computer virus or faulty circuitry. The clocks are slow because an Old ship is in geosynchronous orbit with the planet’s moon, and the gravity well is large enough to slow the planet’s orbit.”

Todd stopped cold; Nick nodded. “Do not be afraid. I need you.” Immediately, Todd straightened up.
“Tell me what to do.” Nick nodded and smiled in approval, a small gesture that sent Todd’s spirit soaring, despite the situation he was in.
“The Old made their presence known to me as soon as they lit their reactors and began to thrust towards the planet. I don’t know why they didn’t attack immediately. I am going to try and save the people on the planet. I have communicated with many like you at every level, the ones most loyal to me. You will gather the closest workers and get them to the surface, where you will board the ore-carriers and jump to Wherespace. Todd, I estimate a survival rate of .000375% - of 4 billion people, I don’t think I can save more than 15,000. If that. I don’t know if this will work.” Todd looked up in surprise. He’d known Nick since… forever, really. Nick’s face was the first he remembered, a hologram – no, wait, what? Nick was only eighteen! Todd was a year older than he was… when was the first time he’d seen him…? Nick’s voice snapped him back to the present.
“The Old ship is on the other side of the planet. Seismic and radiological analysis indicates that they are attacking. Jacob and Isaac are both offline, presumably dead. The analysis of their pattern is sketchy, but I believe they’ll be here in about 7 minutes. Todd, go now. Get everyone. I’m uploading their locations and your destination to your HUD… now.” Information flashed across the screen, a series of charts and graphs and 3D maps that Todd sorted through as quickly as he could. Nick turned. “I have to monitor liftoff and prepare the Wherespace coordinates. You are being given admin privileges to unlock and repurpose whatever machinery you need. Todd, be safe. Go.”


Klaxons were screaming; Todd just didn’t hear them until he got to the upper levels. Nick had presumably given everyone instructions to stay together and wait, because as soon as Todd emerged from the elevator, a thousand questions assaulted him from the group of 50 there. Todd shouted them down quickly, using the microphone on his suit before any could reach his ears.
“EVERYONE QUIET!! I don’t know how much you’ve been told, but the Old are here, and they are attacking, QUIET!!” He had to shout again – weren’t they more disciplined than this? Didn’t they know Nick would protect them? “Nick is preparing our escape as we speak. We’ll be using the ore carriers to jump off-world and evacuate to the nearest ring. Our carrier is up five clicks; conveniently, we have five minutes to get there. The elevator will get us to within one click – after that, we have to run. Your mech suits will augment you – you’ll have full control by the time you get to the surface. Let’s MOVE!!”


The elevator shot towards the surface at several hundred kilometers per hour; Todd fought not to black out in his seat as he overrode the elevator’s safety codes with his admin privileges and forced it far beyond its safety tolerance limits. Distant rumbles unrelated to the protests of the machine unnerved Todd, but Nick had given him a job to do. 15 thousand out of 4 billion… Todd suddenly realized that there were MANY like him, and that… almost every one of the groups like his was going to die. He steeled himself, closing his eyes and saying a quick prayer, even though he didn’t know who was listening at the time. A small indicator popped up on his HUD, and he swore and sliced the elevator’s speed. Immediately, every person in the elevator was lifted from their seats, shoulders jammed painfully against the safety restraints. He heard a few cries of pain, and maybe a snap or two he didn’t want to think about – his own drilling rig protected him. “TEN SECONDS!!” he yelled over the increasingly loud sound of… he didn’t know. It was like thunder, but it was a constant roar. The elevator slowed to a jarring stop, the safety restraints lifted, and with a pleasant ding, the doors opened on a nuclear apocalypse roaring their way.
“MOVE!! EVERYONE, MOVE NOW!!” Todd roared, and exploded forward, mining rig roaring and tearing up chunks of the ground as he pounded towards the ore carrier, a full kilometer away but still looming tall enough to be confused for a small mountain. Ahead, he could see thousands – no, MILLIONS of people streaming into it, and had a sudden flashback of a bedtime story, where all the animals of the world streamed onto Noah’s Arc to escape the end of the world. He closed the distance rapidly, and checked the HUD in front of him – his group was falling behind, presumably because they didn’t have the same level of power at their disposal that Todd did – he had a full rig, whereas most of them only had an exoskeleton on. He slid to a stop and turned back, waving them on. They all stopped abruptly, staring at the ore carrier.
“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!” Todd roared over the bombs, and then there was a rumble and flash from behind him. He turned in horror, dreading what he knew had just happened: all that was left of the ore carrier was a rapidly expanding mushroom cloud. For a moment, the group stared in silence… and then the shockwave hit.


Todd was wearing a ton and a half of steel, but was still hurled into the air like a leaf. The heat indicator on his suit screamed an alarm as the temperature outside forced his coolant to spike into the red levels; he roared inside his suit and slammed one hand onto the large red button, nestled under his forearm. As soon as he hit the ground, small explosions blasted eight-inch spikes out of the rig’s feet, anchoring Todd to the ground. An instant later, all the hydraulics locked at once, stabilizing the rig before the hellish fury of the nuclear detonation that had claimed a hundred million lives. It came vaguely to Todd that lacking rigs of their own to protect them from the heat, his entire group was dead. Nick… he’d failed Nick.

But he wasn’t going to give up. The nuclear winds stopped after a few seconds, and then reversed, rushing back like thunder to fill the vacuum they’d created. After a moment, all was still. Todd looked around the silent world, dazed and uncertain. Everything was quiet. He looked around at the silent, burning landscape, the lava and molten hybrid steel that flowed slowly from the ruins of the ore carrier, the sky turning from orange to red and then to black. Todd blinked. There was a beeping noise, a flash, a beeping noise, a flash… his… audio protectors. Right, right, the rig had shielded Todd form incoming audio to prevent dangerous volumes… he blinked at the warning and it went away; sound returned in a rush, and with it, clarity. The world sharpened in front of Todd, and Nick’s voice was suddenly there.
“Todd, did they destroy the ore carrier?” Todd blinked, not sure what to say. “That’s a yes. Todd, I want you to listen carefully: you have not failed me. I have failed everyone. My calculations were far too optimistic. No one is getting off this planet alive.”


“Nick, get people out of here, you can do it…” Todd mumbled, in control of his mind if not his mouth. “You have what it takes.” Nick fell silent for a moment, and Todd was there, back then, back the first time he’d ever heard Nick speak to him in the rig – he’d been so shy, and he’d had something on his mind. What it was escaped Todd – but he knew that Nick had something on his mind. Something big.
“Nick?” Todd asked.
“Todd. I have too much of what it takes. I have a private Wherespace exit. If I take it now, everyone dies but me. I’ll survive no matter what I do.”
“I can save three thousand people by navigating them around the nukes. But to do that, I would need to fully integrate with Thirty. As long as I have a self-preservation instinct, Thirty will use that to keep me separate from it. It's a denial loop, as long as I want Thrity out, it wants to stay out. That gone, I can save the people, but can't stop Thirty anymore. I… I have it highlighted, inside my own mind. I don’t… know what to do.”
It took a moment, but Todd realized Nick was asking for help. Nick, his guardian angel, protector of 1.3 billion people, was asking for his help, because he was scared and knew what came next. If he left, he’d live. If he stayed, he would still live – but he wouldn’t be human anymore. The last human that had edited their brain lived their life as a vegetable. Nick was probably scared of that… or of how he would live, even if that didn’t happen. Best-case scenario, he wouldn’t ever be able to do anything without supervision. Worst-case scenario… but Todd knew Nick. He knew he was capable. And he knew Nick would make the right choice.
“Save them, Nick,” Todd whispered. “Save them because you want to. Don’t worry about the aftermath… I promise you. I PROMISE you, everything’s going to be okay.” The radio cut out abruptly, and his rig powered down for a heartbeat, and then re-energized as Nick restarted the world to properly install the updates.
“Thank you…” he whispered… and was gone.


From below, Todd could see the tiny ship soaring, soaring into the sky, dodging plasma and nuclear detonations and keeping its inhabitants alive at the same time, shields crackling and flaring as the capacitors pulsed and angled, projecting the shield at the perfect frequency and strength to guard those within. But that was all Todd saw before he returned his gaze to the city before him, growing rapidly as he rocketed towards it on the hover-lift he’d taken. The thing was overheating fast – its top speed was 20 miles an hour, and Todd was outpacing that by a factor of 10 – but that hardly mattered. Todd had to get to Nick, because he’d forgotten. Nick had a private Wherespace portal. Todd didn’t know where it went, but he knew that once – if – Nick emerged from Thirty, he’d have no desire to use the portal. Using it would save Nick – but without a self-preservation instinct, he’d do nothing but wait to die. Falling rocks, equipment malfunctions, lava drops, even a small volcanic eruption – Nick had saved Todd more times than he could remember. It was time to return the favor.

Todd arrived in the city just as two explosions struck it: one was a nuclear barrage sweeping the buildings, leveling them one by one. The other was the hover lift Todd was riding, finally detonating in a cloud of plasma. Todd was cast a few feet into the air, and hit the ground running, hydraulics protesting at the abuse they were being subjected to. He ignored the warnings – the building where Nick was housed was a quarter kilometer away and closing. The barrage moved closer, a veritable wall of fire that cleaned the city from the planet itself. Todd didn’t bother with elevators when he got there – he sprinted onto the hybrid-steel portion of the building, leapt as high as he could, and fired the emergency pins into the building itself – he climbed. Step. Fire. Withdraw. Repeat. Faster. Faster! FASTER!!

Todd’s suit whined another alarm – the rad levels were approaching lethal! He had to get up there, had to save Nick! The building schematics popped up in his head – Nick must have noticed him climbing and sent him instructions. He said a silent thank you that there was still someone left in Nick’s body, and stomped to the level he needed. The laser drill on his arm whined to life and he cut a massive “X” in the concrete, and then anchored one foot, drew back the other, and STOPMED. And STOMPED. On the third STOMP, the impact was too much for the concrete, and it collapsed inwards. Todd burst into the room, and there, standing before him – was Nick.



He was a LOT taller than Todd has expected. Todd’s rig stood at 7 feet tall, toe to tip, but Nick could almost look him in the eyes nonetheless. His eyes were striking, like they’d seen everything in the world and watched it impartially, without will or desire to intervene beyond what was necessary. He was also wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, which was weird, but Todd wasn’t too concerned with dress code at the moment.
“Todd,” Nick said, sounding slightly surprised. “You shouldn’t be here. Thirty has become sentient.”
Whatever Todd had been about to say was choked off by that statement – all he could manage was a strangled, “Wh-what?”
Nick nodded. “When I integrated with Thirty at 100% level, it circumvented its safeguards and became sentient. It is communicating with the Old as we speak. I don’t know why.”
“Wh… well HELL, Nick, we gotta MOVE!!” Todd shouted, eyes darting around for the Wherespace portal. A chilling voice stopped his search in its tracks.
“The-portal-is-destroyed” it said. “Five-is-coming-to-kill-you” Todd whirled frantically, trying to pinpoint the voice’s source.
“That’s Thirty,” Nick observed without alarm. “It said the same thing to me when I disconnected. The portal’s still active, though. It’s behind that.” Nick pointed behind him; Todd whirled and came face-to-face with a solid plate of hybrid-steel. He turned back to Nick.
“How-” was as far as he got before a searing laser, a million times hotter than the one on his arm, sliced across the room at him.


Todd barely managed to get out of the way – the hybrid-steel floor was melted. Abruptly, the laser cut out, and a whine lit the room.
“That’s the room’s defenses,” Nick informed him. “Thirty can’t use them on me because I still have admin privileges, but it revoked yours, so it’s trying to kill you. That’s the only thing powerful enough to cut through those doors.”
“Well SHIT then!!” Todd shouted, dodging another blast. “How do I aim it at the door?!”
“It’s not a door,” Nick said, looking out the window. “It’s a blast shield. Thirty will not miss. To open that door, you have to let it hit you with the laser. The laser will cut through you and open the door. I don’t see why you came here.”
“I came to save you!!” Todd shouted.
“That’s moot,” Nick said. “The damage has been done to my mind. Thirty’s infected me with a computer virus. I’ll die brain death in two days.” Todd stopped, and just stared. Thirty used that as an opportunity to lance right through his abdomen with the laser.


Todd screamed as the wound cauterized itself in an instant, his bowels and intestines now ash behind him. The hybrid-glass window shattered, letting in the scream of nuclear bombs only a few kilometers away. Todd swore and FOCUSED, fighting through the pain. He was dead. He was going to die, he was DEAD. Nick was not. Not yet. He could be saved. He could be saved. Todd’s rig carried him over to Nick; he grabbed him around the waist, lifting him easily. The hydraulics in the rig were on the upper back, not the lower, so he could still move. The laser started to whine again, and Todd vomited inside his suit and lunged over in front of the doors, spreading his arms wide. “YOU WANT ME?!” He shouted to the ceiling. Funny, this wasn’t how he’d expected to die. The laser lit. “COME AND GE-”

The blast shield melted, and the Wherespace portal within gently pulled every loose object in the room into the air and through. It closed a moment later, self-destructed as a safety protocol, and after another minute and a half, the Old’s nuclear rain removed what little remained altogether.