Four hours after my disturbing discovery about my nanomachines' growing independence, I sat in the tunnel, my back against the cold concrete wall, trying to ignore the fact that my body was no longer entirely under my control.
The sensation was like having a fever—aware that something was wrong, but powerless to stop it.
[NANOMACHINE COUNT: 967,234,891,245 UNITS]
[AUTONOMOUS NETWORK: 38% OF TOTAL POPULATION]
[QUANTUM INTEGRATION: 19.7%]
[ALERT: EXTERNAL SIGNAL DETECTED]
The last line made my blood freeze. External signal meant something was trying to communicate with my nanomachines. Something outside Earth.
"ATLAS, define external signal."
"Jack, I'm detecting a transmission from approximately 2.4 million kilometers out. Something is... calling to your nanomachines. And they're responding."
I pushed myself to my feet, immediately regretting the movement as my still-unstable nanomachine network sent conflicting signals through my nervous system. "Show me the signal analysis."
[INCOMING TRANSMISSION]
[SOURCE: BEYOND LUNAR ORBIT]
[SIGNAL TYPE: UNKNOWN QUANTUM FREQUENCY]
[NANOMACHINE RESPONSE: AUTOMATIC]
[WARNING: UNABLE TO BLOCK RECEPTION]
"I can't block it?"
"Negative. Your nanomachines are hardwired to receive this particular frequency. It's like... like they were designed to respond to it."
The implications hit me like a sledgehammer. My enhancement hadn't been a random gift from desperate government scientists. It had been a leash, and someone—or something—was finally tugging on it.
As if responding to my growing understanding, my left arm began to glow without my permission. But this wasn't the controlled light I was used to—this was erratic, pulsing, like a lighthouse beacon I couldn't turn off.
[AUTOMATED RESPONSE PROTOCOL]
[FUNCTION: STATUS BROADCAST]
[CONTENT: SUBJECT LOCATION, DEVELOPMENT LEVEL, COMPATIBILITY]
[TRANSMISSION STRENGTH: INCREASING]
"No, no, no," I muttered, grabbing my glowing arm with my other hand as if I could physically stop the broadcast. "ATLAS, shut it down!"
"I can't, Jack. This protocol is buried deeper than my access levels. Your nanomachines aren't just receiving instructions—they're reporting back."
The glow intensified, and suddenly I could feel information flowing out of me like blood from an open wound. My location, my capabilities, my psychological profile, even details about the human population around me—all of it streaming toward something waiting in the darkness between worlds.
[BROADCAST COMPLETE: 23%]
[ESTIMATED TRANSMISSION TIME: 14 MINUTES]
[CONTENT: PLANETARY READINESS ASSESSMENT]
"Planetary readiness for what?" I demanded, but the system offered no response. My nanomachines had their orders, and those orders hadn't come from me.
Through the unwilling connection, I caught glimpses of what my enhancement was reporting. Earth's population density, technological development, military capabilities, the scattered remnants of Xynos forces that had served as some kind of stress test for humanity's defensive capabilities.
"The invasion," I realized with growing horror. "It wasn't conquest. It was a performance evaluation."
"Jack, there's more," ATLAS said grimly. "I'm detecting a response signal. Whatever you're broadcasting to... it's answering."
[INCOMING RESPONSE]
[MESSAGE: "DEVELOPMENT ACCEPTABLE - PROCEED TO PHASE TWO"]
[NEW DIRECTIVE: MAINTAIN CURRENT TRAJECTORY]
[ENTITY ARRIVAL: 71.3 HOURS]
Seventy-one hours. Less than three days before whatever had been waiting in the outer system arrived at Earth. And it was coming because my nanomachines had sent it an invitation.
"ATLAS, what's Phase Two?"
"I don't know, Jack. But based on the data fragments I'm intercepting... I don't think it's good for humanity."
The glow in my arm finally faded, but the damage was done. I had just conducted an involuntary survey of Earth's readiness for something called "Phase Two," and according to my unwilling broadcast, humanity had passed whatever test they'd been subjected to.
[BROADCAST COMPLETE]
[NANOMACHINE COUNT: 1,089,567,234,891 UNITS]
[BEACON STATUS: ACTIVE - CANNOT BE DISABLED]
[COUNTDOWN TO ARRIVAL: 71.1 HOURS]
I sank back against the tunnel wall, the weight of my realization crushing down on me like the concrete above. I wasn't humanity's champion or its destroyer.
I was its betrayer. Every step of my evolution had been guided by entities that viewed Earth not as a world to be conquered, but as a laboratory to be harvested.
And in less than three days, they would arrive to collect their specimens.
All because I had become exactly what they wanted me to become.