Chapter 20

There were screams of pure joy when Ben strode through the door to the bridge. Sarah was still on the floor; her arms now limp in front of her where they had dropped when his body had disappeared. Ben realised that no time had passed here while he had been speaking with God — it was almost as if he could hear the echoes of Sarah's anguished cry as he had stopped breathing.

"Well at least she hasn't had to suffer very long and Elizabeth won't even have been told that I died yet, so that's a bonus," he thought to himself, before he was just about bowled over by a suddenly very happy Sarah.

The strength of her hug all but forced the breath from Ben's lungs, as she clung to him tightly.

"I thought I'd lost him forever, oh Ben, don't ever leave me, I couldn't go on without you. It was like someone had ripped the heart from my chest."

Ben gasped with surprise as he realised he was 'hearing' Sarah's thoughts — how was that possible without the metals (or as he now knew 'the God dust')?

He returned her embrace as he tried to figure out what was going on, then decided there were other priorities to deal with for the moment.

"I'm safe, my love. You don't need to worry about losing me anytime soon. Now come on, there are things we need to do," he said gently.

Sarah pulled back and gave him a funny look.

"That almost sounded as if you were reading my thoughts," she said, tears of joy leaking from her eyes.

"Later," he replied, now getting all businesslike. "Has anyone tried to track down where Isaac has gone? We need to try to capture him before he does something else. Simon? Report to the bridge please,"

"Err, Commander. Elise is still not working so you'll have to use the communications in your chair if you want to contact Simon," Leona reminded him.

Ben looked round the bridge and could see that all eyes were on him, eyes that were showing amazement that he had literally disappeared as a dead man and then instantly re-appeared walking through the door to the bridge. Leona, Nathan, David and Beckie didn't know what to make of what had happened, but each of them was mightily relieved to have their Commander back and apparently none the worse for having been shot by Isaac.

Ben's face reddened with embarrassment at forgetting that Elise wasn't available to make his life easier. He crossed to the pilot's chair and pressed the buttons that allowed him to summon Simon to the bridge.

"What just happened?" David asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"I guess you could say that it's a red-letter day for the Celestialites, David," Ben replied.

"What do you mean?" asked Beckie.

"God," Ben replied. "God is what just happened and from now on you can count me as a firm believer!"

David and Beckie shared a puzzled look, but their chance to pursue the matter further vanished for the moment with the arrival of Simon on the bridge.

"You sent for me Commander?" he asked.

"Yes, one of your troopers, Isaac, just tried to assassinate me and he's loose somewhere on the ship. He needs to be apprehended as quickly as possible. He's wounded in one arm and the trail of blood that I saw leading away from the bridge might help you track him down," said Ben.

"Isaac? Are you sure? He was our top trainee, why would he try to kill you?" asked a now stunned Simon.

"It's a long story, son. For now just track him down, I'll explain everything later," said Ben. He pulled himself up into his chair and began acting like the Commander-in-Chief that he was.

"Sarah, can you give me a damage report please? According to Mary, the Rebecca sustained five missile hits, how much damage did they do?"

Sarah was still struggling to keep her raw emotions in check, but she tried to carry out her duties, even smiling at her son, Simon, as he left the bridge.

"No damage to report, Commander. For some reason the hull managed to absorb the impact of the missiles," she advised.

Ben decided to test something. He closed his eyes and focused on letting himself sink into what he had called his 'world-view'. In an instant he was outside the Rebecca, looking down on her gleaming hull. He could see that the gold coating that had been there previously was now gone, but the hull hadn't suffered any damage. His theory that the metal would have been used up in protecting the Rebecca seemed to be accurate. His suspicion that his own abilities had also returned somehow also seemed to be borne out.

Opening his eyes again, Ben slid his hand into the pocket of his uniform trousers. He felt a handful of dust and realised that somehow some of the God dust had been returned to him.

"Yes, I must have been a little careless there. I did say the God dust was a by-product of me creating life and in one sense you were dead when I took you. So, I had to give you back life and that must have in turn created a little God dust. Treat it as an unlooked for gift, my son. It might help you in what is to come."

Ben looked around the bridge to see if anyone else had heard God's voice, but it was clear they hadn't. He shook his head in wonder once more — there really was a God and now he was speaking to him!

"Nathan, you have the con. Sarah, would you like to join me? I'm going to see how Elizabeth is getting on with trying to repair Elise," he said.

The water twins went to leave the bridge only to find their way blocked by two burly troopers from Simon's company.

"The Lieutenant said that he didn't want you going anywhere without some protection, Commander," explained one of the troopers. "Apparently Isaac is still loose and a potential threat."

Ben shrugged and allowed the two troopers to bracket him and Sarah as they stepped onto the moving corridor and headed for Thomas and Elizabeth's quarters. He let his hand slip into the opposite pocket of his uniform and found that there was a handful of God dust there too. His face split into a large grin at this further discovery, things were certainly looking up.

"What did you mean when you told David and Beckie that 'God had just happened'?" asked Sarah as they travelled along the corridors.

"Exactly that," Ben answered. "I really was dead this time, but God decided to save me and send me back."

"Are you serious?" Sarah asked, her face betraying her scepticism.

"Absolutely. Believe me Sarah, there definitely is a God and I've met him, or is it her? I wasn't sure about that. From now on I'm a firm believer, I have the faith."

Sarah shook her head. She would be sure to question Ben more about this later when they had some privacy. Her attention returned to where they were just as they arrived at the door to Thomas and Elizabeth's quarters. This time Ben knocked before entering and they found Elizabeth still hunched over the computer screen, working away at trying to stop the virus that was attacking Elise.

"Still no luck?" Ben asked.

The sound of his voice seemed to surprise Elizabeth and she jerked away from the screen.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't hear you come in," she said. "I can't crack the command sequence for the virus and Elise has locked her code down so tight I can't get into that either."

Ben walked further into the room and moved over to stand beside Elizabeth.

"Where's Thomas?" he asked, realising that Elizabeth's twin wasn't in the cabin.

"He said there was something important that he had to fix. I haven't seen him for more than an hour," Elizabeth replied, turning her attention back to the computer.

"Why don't I give it a try?" suggested Ben.

As Sarah and Elizabeth watched, he closed his eyes and let his 'world-view' allow him to reach out to where he knew Elise's systems were located. He focused on getting his perception to sink lower until it was looking at the micro level and then he began to explore what he thought was Elise's programme code.

What he was seeing didn't look like how he had imagined code in his head — this had more the same quality of what he saw when he looked inside himself.

Ben let his view follow what seemed like a major artery. He could see individual cells rushing past him and they all seemed to be heading in the same direction. On impulse, he let himself follow them.

Before long he came to something he recognised from the computer screen back at the caves on New Woden. These were the stem cells that Elizabeth had built-in to Elise's higher order functions and which the AI had somehow managed to turn into brain tissue.

Now Ben could see that something was trying to attack the brain cells. It had an ugly, black appearance and as he watched the cells that had been passing him charged at it, surrounding it as they tried to kill whatever it was. Ben guessed that this must be the virus and the cells had to be Elise's attempts to defend herself from it.

Mentally reaching out, he carefully brushed the attacking cells aside and took hold of the ugly black thing. He could 'feel' it changing shape immediately, as it tried to escape from him, but he focused and kept hold of it.

"Commander? Is that you?" he heard Elise ask.

"Of course it's me! I'm sorry it took me so long to come, but let me try to get rid of this thing for you now," he replied.

Ben was thinking frantically for some idea of how he could safely dispose of the virus. He tried to imagine what Elizabeth would do and that helped. Still holding onto the slippery, constantly changing black blob, he reversed his direction and travelled back along the artery he had followed.

"What are you doing?" Elise asked.

"I thought I might be able to somehow isolate the virus in Elizabeth's computer. I'm trying to find the point that you're linked to it," he answered.

"I'm not linked to her computer at the moment, I didn't want to allow her entry to my programme. If you give me a moment I'll create a link and then guide you to where to find it."

Moments later Ben's view changed from the rich organic feel of Elise's insides to the more sterile interior of Elizabeth's computer unit. He searched for the processor and the hard disc and now saw something that looked more like how he had imagined code would appear.

"There's a problem. I don't know how to read this or how to lock the virus down in a file somewhere," he told Elise.

"Let me help you, it's second nature to me," she replied.

Instantly the code began to make sense to Ben and he was able to wrap what he needed tightly around the wriggling, slippery black mass. Quickly the code constrained the virus, but Ben continued to wrap more around it until he was satisfied it wouldn't be able to escape.

"Thank you, Commander. I think it's safe now. I did think of using the ship's abilities to do the same thing, but by the time the idea came to me, I couldn't seem to access the metals," said Elise.

"Unfortunately the metals have gone. They were used up helping to protect the ship from some Zytol missiles," Ben informed her.

"Oh! That's sad; I really enjoyed what they let me do. Does that mean that I'll stop developing now?" she asked.

"Maybe there's something I can do to help with that," Ben replied.

He let his 'world-view' pull back and upwards until he was once more looking down at the hull of the Rebecca. Mentally he reached out for the God dust in one of his pockets — he decided that he had plenty to spare and summoned the contents of that pocket to himself. The golden dust shimmered as it raced towards him and he re-focused his mental energy so that the dust sprinkled itself onto the hull below. The dust almost seemed to be alive and it reacted as if it knew what Ben wanted. Within seconds the thin golden coating was back in place around the Rebecca and Ben heard Elise inside his head telling him that she could feel her abilities had returned.

Satisfied that he had accomplished what was needed for now, Ben was just on the point of opening his eyes to break his 'world-view' when he saw a small emergency shuttle shoot from one of the Rebecca's space bays. He reached out to it and saw that it was Isaac — presumably trying to make his escape.

Ben considered his conversation with God. Did he feel that Isaac should die for what he had done or should he try to show understanding for the life that Isaac had led?

He continued to let his view follow the shuttle while he debated with himself what to do. He could easily use his mental strength to stop the little ship which was speeding away from the Rebecca at top speed.

Something on the edge of his view attracted his attention and he saw that it was a group of Zytol ships. As he watched, two missiles were launched and they began streaking through space towards the shuttle.

In that moment, Ben remembered the lasting hatred that Adam had nurtured within himself over so many years. He realised that Isaac was cut from the same cloth and that nothing he did would ever be able to overcome the insanity and hatred Isaac harboured. Making his decision, Ben watched as the missiles homed in on the shuttle and then hit it, exploding and fragmenting the ship into tiny pieces.

When he opened his eyes, he found Sarah and Elizabeth staring at him.

"Where have you been and what have you done?" asked Elizabeth. "I could swear that you were inside my computer — while you've been day-dreaming the computer has been apparently processing away by itself."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked, feigning ignorance.

Elizabeth pointed at the screen to line upon line of unintelligible characters.

"That. I don't think I've ever seen such complicated code and I didn't write it, something else did. If I had to guess, I'd say that it's a containment programme, a very powerful one."

"Maybe Elise has managed to overpower the virus then," Ben suggested.

Elizabeth gave him a doubtful look.

Elise chose that moment to announce her re-appearance.

"Commander, you might like to know that trooper Isaac tried to make his escape using one of the emergency shuttles. It would appear that he was unfortunate in that he ran into some Zytol ships and they've destroyed his shuttle. Isaac is dead I'm afraid."

"Thank you, Elise, but I already knew that. It's good to have you back with us," said Ben.

"Thank you for repairing me and for giving me my abilities back," she said so that only he could hear.

"I didn't repair you, Elise. When are you going to stop denying what you already know? I healed you, that's what we say when we help a living thing to recover. You're alive, admit it to yourself."