Read Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary Page 29

  ***…within the mother swarm…you are one with us…you are part of us…***

  Liam found himself thankful for something to concentrate on. He was intrigued and somewhat relieved that here was something he recognized…at least, he had some idea of where he was and what he had become. Symborg was familiar. Symborg was known.

  He had come through. He had been disassembled and now…

  What was he?

  Symborg was saying something…or maybe the words just came floating up. It was a quote. Something from his grad school days, something from Plutarch….

  “The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalerus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, in so much that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same and the other side contending that it was not the same.”

  Yes, yes, he remembered. The Ship of Theseus. The old conundrum. If an object was disassembled piece by piece and rebuilt piece by piece over time, was it the same object? Did the pattern remain?

  Liam understood after this that the same thing had happened to him. Over time, the truth sank in. Like the Ship of Theseus, he had been disassembled, bit by bit, atom by atom and re-assembled somewhere else, as something else.

  He understood somehow that he was now part of something greater. Symborg had always called it the Mother Swarm.

  Again, Symborg came to him. This time, he had specific instructions.

  ***Your patterns have been preserved. We have a mission for you. You are to become a great leader***

  Liam was puzzled. “I’m a scientist. I have so many questions.”

  ***You must be patient. In time, you will understand***

  “What is this mission? I’m not a leader…I’m a scientist…I ask questions…formulate hypotheses—“

  ***You will be given a new configuration. You will appear to be Normal, to be human, as I appear. You will lead a resistance movement. You will help implement the Prime Key. And you will prevent other Normals from interfering with this imperative***

  “This sounds like some kind of action-adventure vid…I’m not a leader. I’m a scientist—“

  Now Symborg’s words came at him with more emphasis, as commands.

  ***Once you receive your new configuration, you will enter the WorldNet. You will combat efforts by the Normals to remove, quarantine, destroy or immobilize entities coming from the Keeper. These entities are critical to implementing the Prime Key***

  Liam didn’t understand. “But how can I do that? I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know what I am.”

  Now, Symborg’s voice was more comforting, more understanding, almost fatherly.

  ***Think of yourself like a sheriff from the American Wild West. Think of yourself as Wyatt Earp…I see you have this in your memory***

  An image of the frontier lawman floats into Liam’s consciousness, slicked back hair, bushy moustache, the silver badge…Wyatt Earp.