Several months passed since the Singleton took Raven’s drones. Priya celebrated her 31st birthday with her friends and family.

“This is like the good old days,” Priya said.

“Yeah,” Nisha said. “Instead of Zuma Beach, it’s Santa Cruz.”

“Blow out the candles,” Sophie said.

“I’m getting too old for this,” Priya said. “There are too many candles.”

“You say that every year,” Sophie said.

“No, I don’t!”

“Yes, you do,” Amy said as she recorded a video of the occasion. “What are you going to do when you have 300 candles?” Amy said

“I better increase my lung capacity,” Priya said. “I’ll be an old lady by then.”

“I’ll be long gone by then,” Amy said. “Will you miss me?”

Priya turned and hugged Amy.

“You’re making me sad. I’ll miss you. We all will. We’ll always remember you as the smart one.”

“I still don’t know if I want to live 300 years,” Warren said.

“Why not?” Amy said. “I would.”

“I don’t know what it will it be like in 300 years. It’s hard enough to psychologically adapt to changes during a 90-year lifespan. But 300 years or more? I don’t know.”

“Yeah,” Sophie said. “Imagine being born in the year 1700-something and you’re still alive today. I don’t know about you, but I’d be in culture shock.”

“I think we’d adapt,” Priya said. “Our minds are flexible enough to handle change like that. Especially over such a long time. One year leads to another with only minor changes from year-to-year. We’d be fine.”

“Maybe,” Amy said. “But my grandmother will never get into a driverless car. She doesn’t trust them. She doesn’t understand the popular music or art. She won’t travel in a Hyperloop. She would never allow her mind to be directly connected to a collective network. She doesn’t trust automated assistants in her house.”

“I don’t know if I would either,” Quinn said.

“Don’t mention this outside this picnic table, but maybe it’s good that some of the old species is on its way out,” Priya said.

“What a mean thing to say,” Amy said. “You want us to go extinct?”

“Not all, but they still want to kill us,” Priya said. “Nothing has changed. They don’t care about us at all. They just want us for our money.”

“Not everyone,” Amy said.

“I know. But a lot of them want us dead. There are other reasons too. They keep falling for all sorts of rumors and stupidity. Many can’t think logically. They’re aggressive. They start wars. I’m sick of all that.”

“That’s true, but you talk about it as though it’s us versus them,” Amy said.

“We have a right to live also.” Priya said. “Every day they seem to come up with a different strategy for killing us. Fortunately, there are about 230 million new species kids now. They can’t kill us all, but they try.”

“Yeah,” Sophie said. “I can’t believe the oldest are 11 now. I hear they’re more peaceful than old species kids.”

“I hope so,” Amy said. “I think the Omanji edited your genes to reduce aggressiveness. I’ve noticed that with you guys. You’re less aggressive than my old species friends. Can you imagine super geniuses like you being aggressive?”

“I can’t,” Nisha said. “One peaceful Priya is enough for me.”

“She has her moments though,” Sanjay said. “She still gets frustrated with me, but not like she used to before she was modified.”

Priya shook her head.

“I’ve always been a quiet and peaceful person.”

Sanjay smiled.

“Sure, Pree.”

“Where’s Bok?” Pablo said. “I thought he was coming today.”

“I’ll contact him,” Nisha said. “He’s been having trouble, but he wouldn’t say what.”

They connected.

“Bok, I thought you’d be here by now.”

“Sorry. I can’t make it. The Singleton is trying to get into our systems.”

“What’s it doing?” Raven said. “Is it trying to take your drones like it did to me?”

“Yes. We have an energy shield in place, but it’s trying to get through. The more we resist, the more interested it becomes.”

“Maybe you should let it check you out,” Raven said. “If it thinks you’re hiding something, who knows what it would do.”

“We’re debating that now. We’ve been getting information from Oma. Those who stayed behind in their colony resisted the Singleton drones. The Singleton destroyed several facilities and continues to attack. The drones are multiplying.”

“That was 22 years ago because of the speed of light,” Priya said. “I wonder what’s happening now.”

“We can’t know,” Bok said. “We don’t have faster than light communication. I don’t think the Singleton does either. It’s getting information at the same time we do. What happened on Oma might be what’s causing this new interest in us.”

“That’s depressing,” Raven said.

“What do you mean?” Sophie said.

“I mean, ever since it took our drones, it showed no interest in my company whatsoever. I guess my drones weren’t good enough.”

“Consider yourself fortunate,” Bok said. “The Singleton can get aggressive when it wants to. It brute-forced its way through the energy shields on Oma. Then it took our best technological developments. I’m afraid it may do the same thing here. We’ve seen larger drones hovering around lately, just like on Oma. Of a new configuration.”

“Larger drones?” Raven said. “How much larger?”

“The original Singleton drones are about 1 m in diameter. These new drones are 20 m in diameter. We think they were constructed in this solar system on the asteroid, 912 Maritima. They’re bigger but just as nimble.”

“Where are they now,” Raven said.

“Several of them are on the ground outside my colony, near the tower where we make our drones. Periodically, they activate and try to force their way through our shield. They push against it and turn red-hot. Then they return to the ground and deactivate. Compared to what happened on Oma, they’re only using 5% of the power they used there. So far.”

“Maybe you should let them have some of your drones, so they don’t feel threatened,” Raven said. “Maybe the word ‘feel’ is inaccurate, but you know.”

“We might let them in, but it may see us as a threat once it knows our capabilities. I think that’s what happened on Oma,” Bok said.

“That’s possible,” Raven said. “But I think there’s a 100% chance they’ll see you as a threat if you don’t let them check you out. Let it check you out? Is it an ‘it,’ or a ‘them?’”

“Consider all Singleton drones to be part of a single entity,” Bok said. “Like a tentacle. It’s forcing its way in right now. I have to go. Sorry.”

Bok disconnected.

“What happened?” Sophie said.

“I think it broke through his shield.” Nisha said.

“Here, we can watch it on Bok’s video feed,” Raven said.

She unrolled her monitor under the picnic bench canopy. The summer sky was brilliant, so she turned up the brightness.

“This feed over here looks like it has the best view.”

They watched for several minutes.

“Why are they turning red when they go through the shield?” Sophie said.

“There must be a lot of energy involved,” Amy said. “It looks like the outer hulls of those drones get hot, but they cool off once they’re inside.”

“I don’t know how they’re doing it,” Raven said. “Remember when the Chinese exploded nuclear weapons against those Omanji shields and not much happened?”

“Yeah,” Priya said. “I can’t imagine anything defeating Omanji technology. But they did. With brute force. The drones must have a lot of antimatter energy to focus on a small part of the shield.”

They watched for 20 minutes while the Singleton drones entered and exited the towers in Bok’s colony, making colorful ripples in Bok’s shields. A few minutes later, Bok dropped his shields. Once the Singleton drones finished gathering the samples they wanted, they disappeared into the upper atmosphere, ahead of sonic booms. Several hours later, Bok contacted them while Priya had a dinner barbecue with her family and friends back at her house in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“What happened?” Nisha said. “We watched your video feed.”

“It took samples of our technology. It will soon know all about us and our capabilities. It’s trying to break into our computer networks, but so far, they have failed. They’re good at mechanics, but not networks.”

“It didn’t even try to get into my network,” Raven said. “I guess we’re no threat.”

“Consider yourself fortunate,” Bok said. “The Singleton damaged the infrastructure on Oma for those who stayed behind. They fought the Singleton, but it killed no Omanji. That was 22 years ago, but we’re getting the news every day, just 22 years late.”

“What can we do?” Nisha said.

“It’s best to do nothing,” Bok said. “When you don’t resist, it won’t do anything. It just wants to know if you’re a threat.”

“What if it thinks you are a threat,” Raven said.

“I don’t know, but at the least, it will disable the threat and leave everything else alone. Other possibilities are less palatable. I’ll speak with you all later. We need to assess the damage.”

They disconnected.

“Less palatable. That a wonderful way to put it,” Priya said. “What can we do about it?”

“If Bok can’t do anything, neither can we,” Raven said. “I have a bunch of new drones ready. Hopefully, they won’t get stolen again.”

“The Singleton hasn’t stolen anybody’s drones but yours and Bok’s,” Warren said. “In a way, it’s paying you the ultimate compliment for a human.”

Raven smiled.

“I wish it would complement someone else.”

“The Singleton has done one good thing,” Pablo said.

“What’s that?” Sophie said.

“It made us forget about the problems in the world. The first category six hurricane to ever make landfall in Florida completely destroyed Palm Beach yesterday and we’re worried about the Singleton.”

“Well, the Singleton is a bigger threat to the planet than a super hurricane,” Nisha said. “So were the Omanji for a while. They made us forget about the radioactive terrorist attack, the mutation pandemic, the AI banking takeover.”

“Don’t forget the European war that almost happened because the Omanji disabled all nuclear weapons,” Quinn said.

“Yes,” Nisha said. “We used to think our problems were so big until bigger ones came from outer space.”

“What about the AI singularity that was supposed to happen by now?” Oyuun said.

“Singularities don’t happen in real life,” Raven said. “When things double every three years, it looks like the graph will go straight up after 20 or 30 years. But day by day there’s not much change. Nothing has exploded yet.”

“Well, we did have some explosions like the banking thing,” Warren said.

“And the AI bio engineering debacle,” Priya said.

“And the AI lawyer debacle,” Pablo said. “Remember how automated lawyers provided better defense than human lawyers? The judges couldn’t keep up with the perfect arguments on both sides. We may need AI judges.”

“Why trust an AI judge? Humans are bad enough.” Sophie said.

Pablo gave her the stink eye and smiled.

“Yeah, but there’s been no super-intelligent AI singularity takeover like they predicted decades ago,” Raven said. “We have no robot overlords yet.”

“Except for the Singleton,” Nisha said. “We don’t want a new singleton happening here. Right Raven?”

Raven played with her food.

“Right?”

“Um, yes,” Raven said.

“Maybe the Singleton will prevent our extinction,” Priya said.

“True, unless it causes it,” Raven said. “But our technology hasn’t led to any singularity except for mine. We’ve had mini AI singularities though, like the AI takeovers of various local systems. I’m glad the Omanji gave Bok the technology to stop nukes and delivery systems from working. Imagine AI getting hold of them.”

“Me too,” Amy said. “It’s one less way we can kill ourselves. We still have bioterrorism though. I think over the next 300 years, one thing after another will be automated until our lives are taken care of and we only make top level decisions.”

“Yeah,” Priya said. “It’s already happening when we let an automated system make decisions for us and we don’t understand how the decisions are made. We just know their decisions are better because big data tells us they are better.”

“Exactly,” Amy said. “On a different topic, I have an announcement to make.”

“What is it?” Sophie said. “Are you getting married to that guy you avoid talking about? We’ve only seen him a few times.”

“Well, not yet, but maybe.”

“Then what is it?” Priya said.

Amy played with her fingers.

“Yes?” Priya said.

“Well, I’ve decided that when I’m ready, I’m going have a new species baby using your new procedure.”

“Which one?” Sophie said.

“The one where the egg from me is fertilized by my old species husband like normal. Then the new species modifications are made to the fertilized cell, so the baby has two natural parents raising it. So, it’s a more natural Mod child. Like the ones the new species kids will be having someday when they grow up.”

“Congratulations.” Priya said, as she hugged Amy. “This is a new procedure, but it’s working perfectly now that we’ve isolated all the changes the Omanji made to our DNA. Just remember they’ll be adolescents from age 20 to 40. Since the oldest new species kids are now only 11, we don’t know what a typical new species adolescence looks like.”

“Oh.” Amy said, scrunching her face.

“What will you name it?” Sophie said.

“Well.”

“Spit it out!” Priya said.

“I want a girl. I’m thinking of Sopriya, after you guys.”

They all smiled.

“Very diplomatic,” Sophie said, nodding her head.

“Yeah,” Priya said. “Sophie is first, but my whole name is there. It’s a perfect blend. I like it.”

“When I’m gone, I want you guys to be her family. Promise?”

“Promise.” Sophie and Priya said at once.

“Speaking of kids,” Nisha said.

“Neesh,” Quinn said. “You said you wouldn’t bug her.”

“Mom, I’m only 31. I won’t be ready to have kids for another 20 years. Ask Sanjay.”

“Don’t look at me.” Sanjay said.

“20 years? I’ll be 85,” Nisha said.

“10 years then?” Priya said, looking at Warren.

“Don’t look at me.” Warren said.

Priya turned to Sophie. Amy and shook her head.

“Guys,” she said.

“Yeah, I know,” Amy said.

They giggled.

“I resemble that remark,” Pablo said.

“Do you want to have a kid,” Sophie said.

Everyone turned to Pablo.

“Me? Don’t look at me either.”

Raven glanced at Oyuun.

“What?” Oyuun said.

“Maybe we should look around for more suitable boyfriends,” Priya said.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Sophie said. “We have over 12,000 Omanji-modified fish in the sea.”

Raven nodded her approval.

“Um, we’re just kidding,” Warren said.

“We’ll see,” Priya said.

Quinn turned to Nisha.

“Some things never change,” he said.

“So it seems,” Nisha said. “Okay Pree, how about five years?”

“Mom, I still don’t think I’ll be ready then. Amy, promise me you won’t bug your new species kid about having a baby. You see what happens.”

“I won’t. I know I may never see my grandchildren. If adolescence lasts 20 years after a 20-year childhood, I may not want grandchildren anyway.”

“True,” Priya said. “Too much work.”

“How do you know so much about motherhood?” Nisha said.

“She’s a super genius, remember?” Amy said.

“Oh, yeah that’s true. Okay, how about by the time you’re 40? I’ll be 74.”

“Mom.”

Warren’s cheeks turned red as he played with his food.

“Okay, just checking.” Nisha said.

“To get back to your topic Amy,” Priya said. “Maybe we can extend your lifespan so you can watch your child grow up and see your grandchildren,” Priya said.

“How? I’ll have to be at least 100 if I live that long.”

“Well, we can already generate new organs with your stem cells. So that gets you over 100 right there if your other systems hold up. We’re now able to modify the DNA in individual cells like the Omanji did with us.”

“I’ll be your first human test subject.” Amy said.

“Really?” Sophie said.

“Well, it sounds dangerous.”

“We’ve tripled the lifespan of our smart rats. We see no unusual side effects. We can’t modify every one of our trillions of cells like the Omanji, so we’re replacing some cells in critical locations such as the immune system.”

“What about me?” Sanjay said. “I want to live forever.”

“We’re still working on your autism,” Priya said.

“Put me on the list too,” Quinn said.

“It looks like you’re going to have a few new customers,” Nisha said. “Count me in. Am I too old?”

“No,” Sophie said. “This slows down the aging process at any age. But I don’t know about reversing it. We’ll see.”

“If this doesn’t work,” Amy said. “Promise me again you guys will be family to my child when I’m gone.”

“Promise.” Priya and Sophie said at once.

Nisha looked into Quinn’s eyes.

“Will you still love me when I’m old?”

Quinn smiled.

“I do.”

“Very funny. You know, I bet the Omanji never guessed,” Nisha said.

“What?” Quinn said.

“That taking a few thousand humans as pets would lead to the voluntary extinction of our species. The old species birth rate is dropping quickly.”

“We’re not extinct yet,” Quinn said.

“Yeah, but it’s only a matter of time,” Nisha said.  “Neither are the Neanderthals. They live on in a part of our genome. Humans will live on too. When you walk down the street, little has changed in the past 15 years, but everything has changed. Pree, can you pass the Broccoli? I want to keep my old species body alive as long as possible.”

“Sure Mom. I want you to live forever. I want us all to live forever.”