The spaceship had a number of small, flying drones scouting the area and one of them, perched in a tree a few miles from the landing site, sent its camera feed to the head phones of the three humans.

     There were three priests, their white robes stained with mud where they were dragging through the damp, soggy field. They appeared to be unarmed, but Randall remembered that they had hyperdermic injectors built into their fingertips with which they could administer drugs and medications to their patients. He was sure that they could administer deadly toxins just as easily. They could kill instantly with a touch.

     Dolly and Maisey, looking confused and miserable, were walking between them, their hands in gleaming, silver manacles. They must be totally bewildered, thought Randall. Not knowing what they'd done to be treated like criminals. Dolly must have guessed that it had something to do with the Gorsty Common excavation, that Randall had broken the laws of VIX and that her presence there meant that she shared the guilt, but what had Maisey done wrong? Surely VIX wouldn't torment an innocent girl to gain leverage over Randall, would He? VIX was supposed to be a god of compassion and mercy. Randall dared to hope that Dolly would be beginning to suspect the truth about VIX and the priests.

     "You can't give in to them!" said Emily urgently. "They want to destroy the Earth, turn it into raw materials for their Dyson swarm."

     "I don't care about the Earth. And anyway, you said that's still centuries away..."

     "The machines must be stopped! We're so close..."

     "She's right," said Jane. "The truth of God, the true God, must be brought back to mankind. Our lives are nothing in comparison. We're expendable..."

     "Dolly is not expendable! Neither is Maisey! I'll give my life if that's what it takes to save them."

     "Will you give our lives as well?" asked Emily. "If you give in, they'll want to kill us as well."

     "I'll try to make sure nothing happens to you."

     "You'll try? That's very reassuring."

     "I'll make it a condition of our surrender."

     "They'll demand our unconditional surrender, you idiot! They won't take the chance that there might be another Gorsty Common out there somewhere."

     "They can take our head phones. We're no threat to them without them."

     "I'm not taking that chance," said Emily. "I'm getting out of here, and I'm taking some weapons with me. Something powerful enough to kill priests and chieftains. Tell the ship to make things for me."

     "Me too," agreed Jane, looking up at Randall as if something had just occurred to her. There was a look of determination on her face that hadn't been there a moment before, as if Emily's words had given her an idea. Emily wondered at it, but Randall had his full attention on the images of Dolly and Maisey trudging miserably through the mud.

     "Randall!" said Emily as several moments went by without any reply from the former businessman. "Randall..."

     "Yes! Alright!" said Randall, angry and irritated by the distraction. *Ship, fabricate whatever they want.*

     *Achnowledged,* replied the space ship. Jane and Emily immediately dashed from the room, heading for the chamber in which the fabricator was located.

     *Can we kill the priests?* Randall asked the ship.

     *If they come within range of our weaponry, yes, but they will not do so. They have dozens of drones scouting the area, noting the position of every mobile unit we possess. They will make camp at a safe distance and one priest will come alone to bring their demands.*

     Randall nodded. That made sense. *Okay,* he said. *I'm going out to meet them. If anything happens to me, if they kill me, I want you to tell all the other machines to continue fighting the machines loyal to VIX any way they can, as long as they can.*

     *Understood. Your instructions have been passed on to the Lunar Systems Manager.*

     *That's the machine in overall charge of our side of the war?*

     *The Lunar Systems Manager is the most powerful computer answerable to you. All the other machines defer to it for that reason.*

     *How does it compare to VIX?*

     *The LSM surpasses VIX in intelligence and processing power, but VIX has more creativity as it still has a functioning CRES code.*

     Randall nodded. Erasing the CRES code of a sapient machine turned a person into a zombie, which meant that his machines would be at a huge disadvantage. He gave a mental shrug. He would just have to supply the creativity himself, that was all. *Can you monitor my vital signs by means of my head phone?* he asked.

     *Not at present, but I can download the necessary routines and add them to my programming.*

     *Do so. I want you to monitor my vital signs at all times. If I give you an order and you think I'm acting under duress, you must ignore the order. Do you understand?*

     *Affirmative.*

     *Okay.* Randall took a deep sigh to steady his nerves. "Better go then, I suppose."

     He left the room and found himself in a large chamber that filled the bulk of the ship's interior. Once, it had contained all the vehicles and machines that now waited outside, in the muddy field. Looking out and down through the huge, open hatch, he saw that the work to adapt them to operate on Earth had been completed. Twenty large vehicles of several kinds stood in a double line, waiting for the order to drive off and do battle with a variety of makeshift weapons. They had come to rescue him, but since he had escaped from the city by himself and made his own way to the ship the rescue was no longer necessary. He could tell the ship to just take off and carry him to some far distant part of the world from which he could direct the war in comfort and safety. Or he could have if not for Dolly and Maisey. He clenched his fists in frustration and anxiety. Everything would have been so simple if he hadn't fallen in love!

     The crane was waiting to lower him to the ground, but before he could grab hold of the thick, iron chain Emily appeared wearing a backpack made of woven metal. "That was quick," said Randall in surprise.

     "These modern fabricators are unbelievably fast," replied the eco-terrorist. "So long as they have the files they can make pretty much anything in moments."

     "So what did they make you?"

     "I just want to make sure I can carry on by myself if you decide to give up everything in the name of conjugal harmony." She glared at him in disbelief and contempt. "You have everything in your grasp. Everything, and you're ready to give it all up for love." She sneered the word, her face a condemnation of his weakness and stupidity.

     "If you've never been in love I can't expect you to understand."

      "I love the planet. The ecosystem. There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect it."

     "Then perhaps you do understand."

     She shook her head, though. "How long have you known them? Just a few weeks? How do you know you'll feel the same way about them a year from now? Maybe you'll curse yourself for what you could have had, what you could have done."

     Before Randall could answer Jane appeared holding something small and metallic in her hand. "Looks like we're all ready to go, then," she said, eyeing the others.

     "Where are you going?" asked Randall.

     "With you, to help you get your lady friends back. If you surrender, I'll lose my biggest chance to bring the one true God back to the world." She showed them the object she was carrying. It looked like a hand grenade. "EMP bomb," she said. "The ship said it'll blow their computer brains out without hurting us, so long as it detonates more than three or four metres away from us. We'll have to find a way to get the ladies a short distance away from the priests. Then we pull the pin, throw it and sing 'Fight the good fight' all the way back to the ship."

     "They'll be expecting an electromagnetic pulse weapon," said Randall doubtfully.

     "Maybe. They may not be expecting a pacifistic Christian to be the one carrying it. As if Christians never kill. Christians kill humans in wars all the time, or they did back in our world, and these are just machines. They don't have souls."

     "They may be expecting it for precisely that reason, because you believe in souls but you don't believe that they have them."

     "So what's your idea? Have you got a better idea, other than just rolling over and surrendering?"

     Randall shook his head, angry at himself. He should have thought of an EMP weapon. He would have, he was sure, if his judgement hadn't been clouded by the threat to the women he loved. More than that, the ship should have thought of it. It probably would have if Randall hadn't erased its CRES code, rendering it incapable of true creativity and free will, but then it wouldn't be on their side in the first place.

     "No, you're right. It's a good idea. Thanks for wanting to help me."

     She beamed with pleasure and tucked the weapon into the front of her jacket, adjusting her thick, woollen coat to hide the bulge from view. "I was inspired by God. The time for His return to mankind is very close now." She looked up into the featureless white, overcast sky as if she could see all the angels in Heaven looking down at her, smiling with approval.

     Randall turned to Emily. "What about you? Are you coming?"

     "With you? No I am not. I'm going far away. As far as I can, and when I get there I'm going to carry on the fight to protect this planet. There's no way you can win here, the priests aren't stupid enough to fall for your stupid trick. You're going to surrender, I can see it in your stupid, lovesick, puppydog eyes, and when you do VIX will be back in charge like nothing happened. Then it'll be just me, left to carry on the fight as best I can."

     "All by yourself?" He eyed her backpack. "What have you got in there?"

     "The less you know, the less you can tell them."

     "Okay." Randall reached out and grabbed one of the crane chains, using the hook at the end to stand on. Jane and Emily each took another of the other three chains and then the boom swung slowly and gently away from the hatch, the chains swinging like pendulums. When it was a safe distance from the ship the crane began to lower the three humans until they were able to step off onto the damp, muddy ground.

     Emily began walking away to the north without a word. Randall and Jane stared after her, thinking they ought to say a few words of farewell, but the eco-terrorost seemed to have already forgotten they existed. She simply kept on walking, shrugging the heavy backpack into a more comfortable position on her shoulders, until she entered the trees and passed out of sight.

     Randall and Jane glanced at each other and then, still without a word being spoken, they began walking to the south, in the direction from which the priests were still approaching them.