I did exactly as Pilot Officer Lamb asked me and gave him my full life history. I told him about Steven Mandell and his role in my upbringing, firstly as himself, and then in the guise of the robot Sol. How Sol had looked after me, and continued to do so, after I was sent by the machines to the base in the early history of early Earth run by the tyrannical commandant known only as 'King.'
Lamb seemed startled when I mentioned the commandant and asked me many questions about King. I told him how Sol had killed King and our escape in a spacecraft, only to be hijacked by the 'Tribus,' and land at their base in the Andes Mountains of Argentina on Earth.
"Were this species you call the Tribus sympathetic to our struggle against the machines?' He asked.
"Very much so," I replied, "and they were instrumental in creating an alternative timeline where the machines had never existed."
"That's interesting," said Lamb," and did they succeed?"
I had to say that I did not know for sure. I explained how the world we inhabited was destroyed, and how Jarvis and the rest of the team died there.
"What happened to you?" he asked.
I hesitated, unsure whether to answer truthfully. I knew nothing about this so-called pilot officer, and I decided to give him only part of the story.
"I was appointed by the Tribus to lead a battle against the spiritual leader of the machine dynasty and kill him. I failed to do my duty and allowed him to live. The Tribus abandoned me, and I have undertaken a self-imposed mission to find and kill this leader, whom I believe to be capable of taking human form."
Lamb became agitated and rose to his feet.
"What is the name of this man?"
"He has many names and has great power."
"What is his name?" Lamb repeated.
He was standing above me, and his eyes blazed with anger. I knew that he would kill me if I failed to answer.
"Satan," I said.
Lamb turned away and said in a subdued voice.
"Do you know where he is?"
"No," I said, truthfully.
He remained silent for a moment, and thought over all that I had told him.
"I believe you," he said.
"We are on the same mission, and I would like us to join forces. Before you decide whether you want to make such an alliance, I will tell you my own story. Will you listen to what I have to say?"
I nodded, not certain that I could control my voice, but I felt a thrill of excitement. This could be the breakthrough I needed.
But it was not going to happen right now.
I looked up, and in the distance, I could see a large formation of drones heading our way. Lamb noticed them too but seemed unperturbed.
I jumped to my feet and hurriedly told him what had happened to me before. It seemed that I had experienced a premonition of something that was going to happen in the future, and this was it.
"I don't want to get blown up again. They are still some distance away. We could try to get shelter somewhere as far away from the bombs as possible. Come on, let's go, you know this mountain better than me."
"Cool down," said Lamb. "Nobody is about to get bombed. The Commandant will see to that. Sit back down and watch."
I opened my mouth to protest.
"Sit down!" he bellowed.
I sat down.
As the drones got closer, they came together in formation, just like before.
I squirmed a little but said nothing. I trusted he wanted to live as much as I did.
They were less than half a mile away when Lamb said, "Look up," and pointed to the summit of the mountain, high above us.
I saw a brilliant flash and parallel beams of white light shoot towards the Drones. I braced myself for an explosion as what I assumed to be missiles hit the drones, but nothing happened. The beams went straight through, and the Drones continued on their course.
Ten seconds later, they began to dive and weave erratically.
A couple of them collided, and I got my explosion, but most eventually turned around and headed back the way they had come, spinning around, but remaining aloft, like a firework display. It seemed certain that they must eventually crash, but again, it didn't happen, and I watched incredulously as the drones disappeared into the distance.
"What is going on?" I said. Who did that?
"The commandant of the base," replied Lamb. "Blew out the navigation controls of the drones and sent them back home."
"Why not just shoot them down?"
"That would let the machines know where we were, and that we possessed the armaments powerful enough to shoot down their aircraft. The navigation jammers leave no evidence of their work, and the enemy puts it down to a system malfunction. Smart idea, don't you think?"
"A brilliant idea," I said, "but if the enemy doesn't know about the base, why did they bomb the mountain in the first place?"
"They were trying to flush out the human who live underground in these parts and destroy their tunnels. They wage a constant war of attrition against these people, but the tunnels are well hidden and heavily fortified, and the enemy has little success."
I had more questions.
"Who is the commandant, and how did he get all this firepower from?"
"Built it himself or rather taught the people how to do it and supervised the manufacture of the weapons. As to his name, we just call him the Commandant.
Nobody knows who he is or where he came from, but he has helped the human population in many ways. He is a good man, so don't get any idea that you have found Satan. Around here, they worship him like a god, and you won't find anybody on the base who has a bad word for him."
"Can I get onto the base?"
"Maybe. You could try speaking to the people who pick up my scrap. If they accept you as human, you have a chance, but they hate all machines, except for dumb service droids, and that includes me," he said bitterly. "They will not let me get close enough to prove that I have a human mind trapped in the body of an android."
"Like Steven Mandell in the body of Sol?" I asked.
"Something like that, but different. Maybe you will understand when you hear my story.