Alien Proliferation

gaseous form.”
    “Why?” Gower didn’t sound convinced. “On a bunch of random tourists? Why would they want to do that? There’s no control, no way to follow the test subjects.”
    “No idea. I’ll find out when I get there.”
    “When we get there.” Gower twitched and sighed. “ACE agrees with you.”
    “Good. Mister White, can you please call for another floater gate? I want Paul back in Dulce pronto.” White pulled his phone out and dialed. “Interesting that we’re still alone in this compartment.”
    White shrugged. “We were moving more quickly than I think you realized. It’s doubtful that anyone in any individual car heard us long enough to worry about it. And clearly our enemies felt that even if we found Paul, we’d be killed while trying to rescue him.”
    “Good point. Let’s keep Paul nice and safe and disappoint them completely.”
    “Kitty, I don’t know why you want me, and ACE, to go back. I have to think we’d be able to help you.”
    “Paul, if you die while ACE is inside you, the PPB net will collapse and destroy the Earth. Call me crazy, but that makes you more indispensable than Richard.”
    “Oh.” Gower looked shaken. “Maybe . . . maybe ACE shouldn’t be in me?”
    I hugged him. “ACE belongs in you, Paul. It’ll be fine. I’ll get everyone, foil the plan, and we’ll be back before you know it.” I was human, I could lie well.
    “Or you could be killed.” Couldn’t lie that well, apparently. Gower shook his head. “I don’t like it. You shouldn’t be here at all.”
    “Could have let you die, voted against it. Take care of everyone, my baby in particular.”
    “I’ll do my best.”
    There was something in the way he said it. “Um . . . are you really okay, Paul?”
    “Yes.”
    Still something. Gower sounded doubtful and worried, and he wasn’t looking at me. “Paul, what’s wrong?”
    He sighed. “ACE wants us to go back and go into isolation.”
    “Um, why?”
    Gower took a deep breath. “ACE had to use . . . resources he’s not . . . used to in order to keep me alive.”
    I thought about this. “Is ACE hurt?”
    “Not like we’d consider hurt, but, yes. Drained, might be the better way of putting it. ACE needs to recharge, and he’s saying in order to do that, I need to sleep, heavily.” Gower swallowed hard. “That means we can’t help you, at least not until ACE is recovered at least somewhat.”
    I’d accepted from day one that ACE wasn’t going to save us unless he could be settled in his collective consciousness about it. And when White had shared that if Gower died, the PPB net that was the “physical” part of ACE would collapse and destroy the Earth, that had made sense to me, but only because I thought ACE would be essentially trapped in the vessel that was Gower’s body.
    The idea that ACE, a superconsciousness, could be drained or damaged just like anyone else wasn’t one that had ever occurred to me. Now that it had, I had to consciously force myself not to freak out.
    I cleared my throat. “Ah, what about Jamie?”
    Gower managed a weak smile. “ACE says that the blocks Jeff put in are protecting her well enough. He also says that Christopher should wait to put in the imageering blocks until everyone’s safely home again.”
    So that was why and how Jamie could actually tell me where everyone was—ACE wasn’t muting her imageering powers, which, clearly, she had. I decided I could marvel about this, freak out about this, or get back to the business of saving the day and marvel and freak about everything at a later time. I went with the latter.
    “Okay, we’ll handle it. You get yourself and ACE back to the Science Center and into a nice isolation chamber pronto.”
    “Gate coming in a moment,” White said.
    I looked over to where he was standing. “Wow, I can see the gate. I mean, not some shimmering or trick of light, the real gate itself. Awesome. This drug’s fab.”
    “Please, one addict on Alpha Team was enough,” Gower muttered.
    “Dude, I didn’t shoot up, and I’m not ingesting more. I just like the results. Not all the lab rats get the cancer, you know.”
    Gower looked at me. “That may be the test, at Notre Dame.”
    “Yeah, good point. I’ll keep my supereyes peeled. Love to all, have medical check you over while in isolation or something, and let us know when you and ACE are feeling better.” I didn’t add that I hoped this would be soon. Healing took however long it