The girls seemed edgy even a week after the big battle. I assumed that they were suffering posttraumatic effects from the battle and me almost dying. I tried to leave them alone. I spent a lot of time working out in the gym. I did pushups, pull ups, chin ups, and squats, curls and lifts with weights. I figured that I needed all the muscle power I could manage. 

I ran into Diane in the gym. The girls usually come to the gym during the day, but I prefer the evenings. 

“How are you feeling, Jack?” 

“I’m completely healed, Diane. How are you doing?” 

“The girls and I are restless. We need something to take our mind off of the aliens.” 

“Maybe I could be of assistance.” 

“What do you have in mind?” she asked, cocking her head and smiling. 

“I’m sure that the girls would enjoy questioning me again.” 

“I don’t think they would want to do that again, Jack. However, they have expressed a desire to get to know you better. They are unhappy because you aren’t paying attention to them.” 

“I cook good meals for them. Don’t they appreciate that?” 

“They do, but they want more.” 

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to.” 

She offered an ornery grin. “I think you do, Jack.” 

I stared at her for a few minutes before replying. “Okay, I give up.” 

“I’m surprised, Jack. You act as if we’re poison. What changed?” 

“The brush with death made me realize that I have no real reason to be embarrassed anymore.” 

She sighed, and that made me regret bringing up the shooting accident. “I’m sorry, Diane, I didn’t mean to . . . “ 

“That’s okay, Jack. I deserve it.” 

A screen lit up with George’s image, but the video was tearing and full of static.  “There is something wrong, I can’t feel my mind. Please . . . “ The image faded to static. 

“Something must have happened to the computer,” Diane said. 

We rushed to the elevator and descended to the lower level. The instant we got into the computer chamber we knew something had happened. One of the main cabinets full of circuit boards had a blinking red light. 

“It looks like a power module has failed,” Diane said. “We’ll have to shut the entire thing down to make the repair.” 

“Is that safe?” I asked. 

“I don’t know, but we have to get the power module going in order to fix the damage. That means a total re-boot.” 

“How do we shut it down?” 

Diane ran to a control desk that had a screen. She began typing on a keyboard and it lit up. “It wants a password.” 

“What would George use as a password,” I said, tapping my lips. “Try Pennsylvania.” 

Diane typed it. “That’s not it.” 

“How about Talbot Industries.” 

She tried it. “Nope.” 

“Try Life After Death.” 

She typed and I knew it worked when she smiled. “Bingo.” 

Diane typed a shutdown command and the entire computer stopped working. The control screen remained active. 

“We have to replace the power module,” Diane said before she rushed to the unit that had been blinking red. She opened a panel and pulled a circuit board out. “We have to find a replacement.” 

“I looked around. “Where would they keep something like that?” 

She pointed to cabinet. “Try that storage unit.” 

I went to it and opened the door. After searching through a number of circuit boards mounted on a rack, I found what she was looking for and took it back to her. 

“That should do it,” she said before sliding it back into the rack. 

She rushed back to the control desk and typed a boot command. We waited for what seemed like an eternity before the computer came back to life. 

“The red light isn’t blinking,” Diane said. “Now, all we have to hope for is that George didn’t get erased.” 

A message typed out on the control screen. “The Simulated Memory Algorithms of George Talbot are now on line.” 

Diane and I exchanged a high five. 

George’s image came on the screen. “Thank you, my friends. I can feel my mind again.” 

George’s avatar came in the room. “You did well, Jack Siefert.” 

“It wasn’t me, George. Diane fixed you.” 

“She is your capable helper, Jack Siefert.” 

“Now that we have saved you, George, we would like you to be forthright with us. Are . . . were you an alien?” 

“My ancestors merged with humans a thousand generations ago. We came to Earth to escape persecution at the hands of the Xinth.” 

“I assume that the Xinth are the aliens that are responsible for exterminating the human race. “ 

“Yes. They did it to punish us.” 

“Why are we still alive?” 

“Over time, the genetic information that we introduced into the human race has been diluted and in a few lines completely eliminated. You are the offspring of those isolated lines.” 

“If that were true, out parents should have survived.” 

“They had not yet mutated to include the specialized T-cell antigens that are necessary to resist the retro virus that the Xinth employed to exterminate humans. You and the females have those specialized cells.” 

“If the Xinth were so adamant about exterminating humans why didn’t they develop more destructive weapons?” 

“They became lazy and depended upon the pathogen to do their evil work.” 

“You must have known that there would be survivors and that’s the reason that you built this compound.” 

“Yes, Jack Siefert.” 

“The only problem is that it’s all in vain. The virus has rendered the girls infertile. We can’t reproduce. The human race will end when we eventually die.” 

“You will not die, Jack Siefert. The virus has altered you by blocking the gene segments that cause aging.” 

Diane and I exchanged looks.

“You mean that we won’t grow old and die?” 

“That is correct, Jack Siefert. Have a happy life.” He walked away. 

I sighed. “It’s not as simple as that.” 

Diane put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s not all that bad, Jack. We have each other.” 

I didn’t know how to take that, but it made me feel better.