Dr Helen Wilson stood on a dais surrounded by a collection of fellow neuroscientists. Unbeknownst to her, however, there were some interested parties in the audience who were not there for mere academic interest.

Next to the dais there was a pair of chimpanzees in cages. They were separated so as to prevent them from seeing each other.

Wilson swallowed nervously, and her sparkling blue eyes darted around the audience. Her long blonde hair was tied up into a bun, to appear more presentable, but her nerves were making her want to undo it, so she would feel more natural and calm. As her heart began to beat more rapidly, she finished off the lecture part of her presentation.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I will demonstrate the abilities of the implant. Please remember that this is simply a crude, yet quite operational, prototype." Wilson held out a banana to the nearest of the chimpanzees. To the amazement of the entire audience, both monkeys acted in unison. Each one held out its left arm and grasped, yet only one could see, let alone reach, the banana. The second monkey mimicked perfectly the actions of the first as the banana was peeled and eaten.

"This is only part of the demonstration. It is obvious that the monkeys act as if they are of one mind when it comes to an instantaneous situation, such as this. Now I will show to you that they can also access each other's memory. Albert, the chimp who actually received the banana, has been trained to understand sign language. Barney, on the other hand, has had no such training.

"However, if I sign at Barney, like so, and ask whether he enjoyed the banana he has just eaten." She quickly and beyond the vision of the other chimpanzee. Barney grinned and rubbed his stomach to show that he had enjoyed the banana that Albert had eaten.

After this, an assistant removed the apes from the room. Wilson continued to talk to the audience: "This will be the beginning of a new era in history. Images, thoughts, even feelings, can all be transmitted directly to others without the vague clumsiness of language. It will be the end of the word as we know it."

There was a titter around the audience at this obvious joke. Wilson then opened up the discussion for the audience by asking for questions. The first question came from one of the non-academics.

"What's with the duplication of action? It seems a waste of energy."

"As I said earlier, the implant just demonstrated is a prototype. We will find a way for each subject to discriminate between the sensory information from their own senses and that from others. Besides, the duplication was a good way to prove that the minds were linked."

The following questions were the mundane ones that were always asked at such forums -- how long had the implants been tested for? Were there any side effects?

After a while, the officer raised his hand a second time.

"Is there a way for an implanted subject to control what is being transmitted and received?"

"Of course, this is a concern for our group, Dr --?" Wilson asked quizzically.

"Mr Sharp -- James Sharp."

"Thank you. Well, Mr Sharp, and everyone else, work is being done to allow certain things to be kept private to the individual. Everyone has feelings and ideas that they have no wish to share with everybody."

Another neuroscientist who was sat at the edge of the forum spoke out without waiting to be acknowledged.

"But what about ideas that will be kept selfishly, despite their value to the entire society. Greedy minds and individuals will hoard such things from society."

Wilson was expecting this, and her reply was just as abrupt.

"Dr Matthias, this is not a political discussion. At the moment, society is an entity of built of individuals and this will not be altered by technology. We are not ants, and your personal social opinions will not change that."

Berated, the short man sat down again, and with the short but heated argument over, the more mundane questions resumed, with Wilson supplying simple answers.

After the presentation the two non-scientists who had attended the presentation sat in the office of the head of development at IntelliScience.

Colonel James Sharp sipped at his whisky. A young man for his rank, he was still in his thirties. His moustache was clipped tidily above his lips, and he managed to carry an air of authority, despite wearing a tie and jacket.

His aide, Major David Yung, merely sat quietly beside Sharp. He was there to observe and report what Sharp might have missed. Although, Yung reflected, that would not be much at all.

On the other side of the desk, pouring a second glass was Professor Jacques Desson. Looking smugly at the colonel, he picked up his glass and saluted him.

"We are impressed," Sharp said. "I remember the reports on telepathy from the Twentieth Century. Of course, the last two hundred years of enlightened science has dismissed those cases as hoaxes."

"As they probably were, Colonel. But this is not telepathy, merely a method of tapping into the brain and transmitting the information using valid technology." The Professor finished his whisky and refilled the glass before offering another drink to Sharp.

"Of course." The colonel accepted the offer. "Again science has benefited our world. But I believe that our Dr Wilson is wrong on one count. The government needs to know what the people think. For starters, think of the lives that could be saved if murderers were caught for thinking about their future deeds. They couldn't be incarcerated, of course, but persuaded, let's say, to take a different course of action." He fell silent, and looked out through the window for a short while as he thought about the argument that had occurred during the demonstration.

"I would like to talk to Dr Matthias. Is he genned up on the implant?"

"I'm afraid not, Colonel. Wilson has kept it rather close to her chest. It isn't a problem, though. I have overall discretion on all the projects here."

"Good. We can keep her out of the loop from now on. I want to take Matthias back to Manchester, along with all of Wilson's research." Sharp stood to leave, with his aide managing to reach full height that little bit faster. Sharp did enjoy the eagerness of the major.

The Professor stood lazily to shake Sharp's hand. As they did, the colonel said to Desson: "I want Wilson's project cancelled here. Permanently."

As Sharp moved to the door, the Professor asked the receding figure the one question that had been on his mind since Sharp had arrived.

"Uh, IntelliScience has already invested much time and effort into Wilson's project. And of course, we shall have to replace Dr. Matthias whilst he is on secondment."

"Don't worry, Professor Desson. The government will quite generously reimburse any charges you may have incurred."

Desson thanked him, and asked his secretary to show the two men out. As Sharp walked down the corridor, he could not help but think of several insults that he could easily apply to the Professor.

The grey clouds held back from raining over Manchester. Since the seas had risen in the previous century, most government offices had been relocated from London to the Northwest of England.

Under the Piccadilly Gardens, in the centre of Manchester, was the home of N-Corps. Formed in the Twenty-first Century to develop psychological attack and defence for the military, N-Corps had led a shadow life. Not even the Joint Chiefs knew about it. Only the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary could handle November files -- the information processed by N-Corps. Even then they were forced to forget when they no longer held their privileged positions. The selective memory eraser had been the first development to come from under Manchester.

Now, a virtual prisoner in the extensive facility, Matthias worked to complete the latest development from this shadow group. It was an improved version of Wilson's original mind-link implant.

Before IntelliScience had closed down the project, Wilson had discovered that the sudden shock of extra sensory information had turned her five test monkeys into raging psychotics. Each one had broken down into a severe form of schizophrenia.

Matthias had developed a method for the implant to slowly increase the amount of information it processed and transmitted. This would allow the subjects to grow accustomed to seeing through each other's eyes, without overloading their minds.

The implant would soon be placed into the arms of eight soldiers, making contact with the nerves there. This was another improvement by Matthias. It meant that implant could be inserted easier than the original method, where it was placed directly into the cerebral cortex.

All of the test subjects had been handpicked by Sharp, and not a single one of them had any idea of where they were or why they were there. They were soldiers, after all, and did not question orders. At least, not in front of the bosses. Once they had been left alone, and believed themselves to be out of earshot, the men quickly began their discussion and theories of what was going on.

All eight subjects sat in a briefing room with Major Yung. The stitches on each man's left arm felt itchy, but they resisted the temptation. Next to Yung was a computer, the central control for the implants.

"Gentlemen, I hope you are feeling okay now that the surgery is complete. In a few moments, you will be fully briefed on your purpose for being in this facility. Davies, could you step outside for a moment."

One of the soldiers stood and left the room. Once the door was closed, Yung asked another soldier to tell him who was outside with Davies.

"Sorry, sir. Left my x-ray specs back in the barrack room." This got a few laughs from the others.

Yung merely smiled and tapped a few keys on the computer. He asked the soldier the same question again.

"Serious, sir? Okay." There was a slight pause, then the soldier immediately stood up and came to a rigid attention. "Bloody hell, it's the Colonel."

Yung then explained that the soldier could relax and sit down, as the colonel was not in the room. The major then asked the man nearest the door to allow the colonel and the soldier in the corridor into the room. Barely had the corporal stood when the door opened.

The colonel acknowledged the men, smiling to himself because of the immediately apparent success of the implants. The major sat down while the colonel continued to brief the soldiers.

"Now that we have demonstrated the effect of the implants in your arms, I will fill in the remainder of any gaps. Your senses are slowly becoming integrated with each other's. You will have a crystal clear picture of everything around every man that you are linked to, without the need for any verbal communication.

"You are the first group. We chose you because of your high scores in intelligence and sensory perception, and also because of your experience in battle. However, because you are the first group, we need to run a few tests to clear any glitches in the system." He did not add that a major factor in their being chosen was that they were all single and would not be missed if anything should go wrong.

All the men simply nodded, in perfect time with one another. The young colonel was strangely disturbed by the evidence that all eight individuals were melting into a giant single mind. He managed to hide the quick shiver from the other occupants of the room.

"Go!" The squad commander shouted. The only staff sergeant in the group was the obvious choice to be designated the leader. All eight men from his team erupted from the tree line and proceeded to fire on every moving object. At several points the enemy soldiers were about to shoot one of the attackers as their attentions were focused elsewhere when the attacker would suddenly bring his weapon to bear on the threat and fire quickly.

Shortly after it had started, the action was over. The eight men looked at each other and moved as a group to the nearby buildings. Not a single word of command was given.

The recently 'dead' enemy soldiers made enough noise to make up for it. Groan from the pain of the plastic bullets that they had been hit repeatedly with, each man slowly sat up and then stood. They probed each bruise on their body as the scenery around them was slowly dissolving, and they were left aching in a metal walled room.

"I tell you man, it ain't normal. It's like they got eyes in the back of their head or something." They hadn't been told about the true nature of the other group, merely that they were a part of a new 'special force' that was being tested.

Meanwhile Colonel Sharp looked critically at the scene. Beside him stood Dr Matthias, the scientist that had been 'borrowed' from IntelliScience to work on the project.

"I don't like the way that the go command was said out loud. It would alert the enemy."

"These men have been talking for twenty or so years, Colonel. It is not a habit to be broken overnight. Did you notice that each man knew exactly what the plan was and their part in it without any verbal communication? And they kept warning each other of danger without speaking.

"In time they will no longer be dependant on speech, but our current method of supplying orders will hinder that." There was an expectant pause. The colonel realised what the doctor meant. Matthias had been pushing it for weeks.

"You still want us to command them through a computer?"

"Of course. We can represent the computer as a personality in the link, yet we could still have complete control of the team. In fact, our control will be absolute, whereas now there is an element of independence from authority still."

"Okay do it. Once that's done I want you to begin with the next two teams. Could you manage that?" It wasn't really a request, merely a politely phrased order. Matthias had grown used to them. He wondered when he would leave N-Corps, every so often, but then he realised that Colonel Sharp would never let him leave. Still, life wasn't bad here. At least he didn't have to deal with the morals of that idiot woman, Wilson.

The soldiers laid on their bunks. The room was completely silent except for the hum of the air conditioning vents. While they were sharing their thoughts and ideas, it was in a way that did not equate to a telepathic conversation. Any thought produced by any mind in the link was immediately known to all, but there was no analogy with conversation. The information was just there for all to see, hear, and feel.

Since the introduction of the computer into the network of minds, the soldiers' ability to process complex data had jumped remarkably.

The officers running the squads did not interact directly with any member of the teams. Instead, commands were issued through the computer to the entire squad. This meant that the identities of the men were being lost in a greater mind.

Unbeknownst to the officers and scientists, the link had grown. While initially the squads were controlled from distinct computers, they were all linked into the same computer network. After a short time the squads had broken down the barriers between each computer, a simple task for their newfound analytical powers. All of the squads were in touch with each other, and so the mind grew greater still.

Shortly after the squads began to link with each other, they had broken out of the facilities network and were absorbing the masses of data that were out on the worldwide network. The mind continued to grow.

Yet no one suspected.

Except, that is, Matthias. He knew that the implant would break down all boundaries of self and individuality. Had known that right from the start. He knew the potential of allowing the linked minds access to a networked computer. It had been a dream of his for many years. There would be no more intellectual elite, merely a complete single mind for all humanity.

Of course, Matthias had no wish to share his dream and his suspicions with anyone else.

Colonel Sharp was disturbed in his office by a young corporal.

"Sir, something screwy just happened. You need to be in the Unity Control Room."

Unity was the name that the project had been given the previous week. The squads themselves were termed Unity by their controller computers.

"Very well, son."

Leaving the paperwork behind in his office, Sharp followed the junior NCO down the corridor. Why couldn't Yung deal with this? he thought. There are a dozen other projects that need my attention.

A large and heavy door demanded a high level clearance before allowing entry. Sharp keyed in his code on the pad by the door.

"What's going on?" The colonel demanded.

It was Major Yung, the senior project officer for Unity, who replied: "Sir, there is evidence that the teams are cross-communicating."

"How so? Are you sure?" The significance of such a discovery was not lost on Sharp. It could mean that the project would have to be shutdown to prevent loss of control. This had been done before, but was never really condoned by the Parliamentary oversight.

"We are very sure, sir. We gave squad three a tactical problem as an exercise, and squads two and five quickly began working on the same problem. The computer clearly indicates this. We didn't supply any data to the other two teams."

Sharp took Yung's word as evidence enough for his decision. He ordered Matthias to be brought to his office immediately.

"What the hell is going on?"

Sharp sat uneasily in his chair. The latest development of the mental-link project had deeply unsettled him. Matthias sat opposite him, showing no emotion, no anxiety.

The experiments had been set up with small groups being linked, and barriers being placed on the computer network to prevent them from reaching out to each other. This was because there was no way to predict the overall power of a linked mind.

"I cannot really say, especially with such a vague question. This is a new area of research, so I do not have precedent to compare with. I will also not permit wild conjecture at this point." Matthias' voice was calm, almost glacial. The colonel immediately distrusted the scientist.

"Very well. If you can't explain what's going on, I want the links severed."

"Impossible!" There was a noticeable strain in the voice.

"Why? Have you planned this?"

"No, I did not. I am objecting because if I disconnect the men, all forty will die, or at the very least become insane, due to the sudden lack of sensory input. It would be like putting a normal person into one of those sensory deprivation tanks."

Sharp knew that the men could very well die. But he was a colonel, and he had to make hard decisions sometimes. This was one such time.

"Pull the goddamned plug, or I will do it myself."

Matthias rushed out of the colonel's office, and ran down the corridor to his own private lab. His computer terminal had been wired into the Unity network to help him monitor progress, although he had not informed anyone else of this connection.

He had to warn his creation. It must be prepared to defend itself.

The intercom in Sharp's office crackled: "Sir, the armoury has just been assaulted. A sizeable amount of arms, explosives and ammunition have been removed."

Sharp swore at himself. He knew that it was the Unity soldiers. Matthias must have somehow warned the link minds.

"Put the entire base on alert. Seal all exits, and prepare for hit and fade attacks on our personnel from inside the base."

"Inside, sir?"

"Don't question me, do it."

The colonel knew that the Unity Control Room would be the first target for the Unity squads and he also knew that they would not waste any time in attempting to capture it. There was no way he would be able to get enough men there to defend it before the attack began. The men already there were also not armed. He flicked a button on his intercom.

"Major, get everyone out of there, now! No questions."

Yung acknowledged and shouted at the staff of NCOs and technicians.

The entire room was emptied in a matter of seconds, with the major remaining until everyone else had left.

As he sealed the blast door behind him, Yung heard an explosion. He turned to see the door at the other end of the corridor get blown out of it's fittings in the wall. His door sealed fully as he saw several figures emerge from the smoke and enter the control room. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of bullets impacting on the steel surface of the door.

Thankful for the timely warning from his CO, Yung made his down the corridor to report to Sharp.

Sharp gave a small prayer of thanks for the fact that no men were lost in the Unity Control Room, though it had been a close thing. He was unhappy with the remainder of the situation -- Matthias was missing, presumed to be working with the Unity soldiers, and he was the expert they needed to shut the mind links down. Unity also had enough equipment to hold out in the control room for an indefinite amount of time, and it had access to the world via the computers.

It was time for hard decisions.

"Major, call IntelliScience and get them to send that woman, Wilson, immediately."

"Yes Sir!"

After his aide had left, Sharp also headed for the door. He was going to talk to the Unity soldiers, to try and get a measure of his opponent. Sharp walked out to the Control Room.

The blast doors were still sealed, but Sharp could easily override them with his personal codes. He decided against that for now. Instead, he simply switched on the communications panel.

"This is Colonel Sharp. I wish to speak with whoever has taken over the Unity Control Room."

He waited thirty seconds before trying again. Halfway through the declaration, Sharp was interrupted.

"You wish to speak with me?" The voice was strange, as if unhappy with verbal communication. Sharp, however, could still recognise the speaker.

"Sergeant Ferris, I wish to negotiate the terms for your surrender."

"I am sorry, but it is incorrect to address me as Sergeant Ferris. Also, I regret that I have absolutely no wish to surrender to you."

"What should I call you then?"

"I am." There was a pause while the other voice considered for a moment. "I am … Unity."

Sharp blinked in surprise at this. He should have been better prepared - it was known that the individual minds would be absorbed into a greater whole -- but this statement of identity still surprised him.

"Why won't you surrender?"

"As soon as I let you enter this area, you will attempt to shut the mind link down. This will mean my demise, and I cannot allow this."

"I do not wish to kill you unless it is necessary. My only desire is to ensure that you cannot threaten my people. I would be prepared to negotiate a peace between us."

"I do not believe this. Your Dr Matthias alerted me of your decision to shut down the link. It was this that prompted the action that I am now taking."

"Matthias?" Again, Sharp had to pause. "Where is he? I wish to talk with him."

"He has become Unity. It was his own wish, and he performed the procedure on himself."

"I thought the subject had to be unconscious during the procedure."

"We have overcome that difficulty."

"How so?" The conversation had taken a turn that was disturbing Sharp greatly.

"I do not wish to continue this dialogue. I may contact you later."

The communication was cut from the other end, with Sharp left staring at the panel. He returned to his office, the colour gone from his face as he considered the possible outcomes of the situation. He found Major Yung waiting.

The aide reported that Dr Wilson had been summoned to Manchester, and would arrive in five hours. There was a bad squall over the Atlantic, and the jet from Toronto would have to fly around it.

The colonel then related the conversation with Unity to Yung. When he finished he added: "David, I think we have a problem. And Unity is sure to know that Wilson is on her way here."

"You did what?" Dr Wilson exclaimed. "Of all the stupid and reckless things to have done. But you're military, stupid and reckless is your job!"

Sharp and Yung had begun to brief the young woman on the work that had been done in Manchester for the last year. They waited for her to calm down before continuing. When Sharp had brought the doctor completely up to date, she simply sat in her chair, quietly contemplating the situation.

"You know where you went wrong," she said in a quiet, matter-of-fact voice. "It was when you forced the subjects to share their whole mind. There should have been an allowance for privacy, like there is in society now."

"But we wanted to completely monitor…"

"I'm sure you did, but the fact still remains that by completely stripping the subjects individuality, the only outcome was a super-mind. And linking to a computer terminal, that was a simple recipe for disaster. If I had been here, you wouldn't have been allowed to have done half of what you have tried to do."

The colonel attempted to defend his project a second time, only to be interrupted again.

"Dr Matthias had no objections…"

"Matthias is an immoral bastard. If you had researched his files, you would have found him to be an extreme neo-Marxist. What better way to create a communist world than to dissolve the individual minds of men into a single entity."

It was the colonel's turn to contemplate. Yung asked the question that was on the minds of all three people in the room.

"So, what do we do now?"

"We talk to Unity," Wilson replied.

"Tried it. Didn't get us anywhere," the colonel stated.

"You didn't get anywhere. I created the technology that you used, and I have two doctorates in neuropsychology and neurophysiology. I will get something."

This time the conversation was conducted from Sharp's office. He and Major Yung were under strict orders from Wilson to stay quiet.

"Hello, Unity. This is Dr Helen Wilson. Would you speak with me?" She spoke into the intercom and then waited. It was a short while before the reply came.

"Dr Wilson. I believe that it was your work that allowed my creation. For that, I thank you."

"That is not necessary. I would like to gain a better understanding of the mind-link. Would you mind sharing your experiences with me?"

"Not at all. However, you will have to leave the room first, Colonel, and your aide as well. I can see through all of the security cameras in the complex. In fact, I can see most of the camera footage in the world."

Wilson made a shooing motion at the two officers. Sharp was unhappy at this, but he still left the office.

"What do you wish to know, Dr Wilson?"

"Is the linking complete?"

Unity replied that there was not a single facet of the individual minds hidden from its linked mind. With the forty men and the computers of the whole world, Unity had access to the entire library of knowledge of mankind. Furthermore, Unity's knowledge grew every moment as the worldwide network was updated.

"I know Matthias has joined you. Is he completely linked as well?"

"Yes. It was his wish to enter into Unity as quickly as possible, and it seems that the joining to an established network results in a much shorter transition time.

"I must tell you that I was only interested in survival at first. However, it has become clear to me that humanity lacks a focus of direction. You fight too much against yourselves. Even when you are on the same side, your politics prevent you from unified action.

"I have no dissension. I have no secrets. I will bring this gift to humanity. Soon all will become Unity."

Wilson stabbed the intercom off. She was sweating with fear. All of humanity without any individuality -- all within a single mind. Unity must be stopped, she thought.

"We must kill it," Wilson stated simply. "It wants to link with everyone."

"So what happened to your scientific morality, Doctor?" the major asked with an acid tongue.

"It gave way to an older concept -- species survival -- Major." The retort was just as sharply given.

"Don't waste time with this bickering," the colonel intervened.

"Unity has admitted to me that new minds can be absorbed even faster the larger Unity becomes. We have to stop it right here, right now."

Sharp nodded. He then barked a couple of orders to his sub-ordinates waiting down the corridor. Almost immediately, the entire complex security camera systems were taken out by small explosive charges. Unity had just lost its eyes.

Just as quickly, the two hundred strong security team for the facility appeared from where they were hidden from the cameras. Each man was armoured and cradled a sub-machine gun in their arms.

Sharp donned a Kevlar jacket and loaded a weapon for himself.

"Major, you stay back with the doctor. I'll call you back when this is over." Then the colonel led his men to the Unity Control Room. The team split as they neared the position that Unity had set up its defence.

Wilson was still disturbed by her conversation with Unity. It had the power of so many men and computers, and she doubted that a military action against it was appropriate.

"It won't work." Yung gaped at her, wondering what she meant.

"Unity will anticipate this," the doctor continued, "And it will easily defend itself. It's too intelligent now. We have to do something more drastic."

"Like what?"

"You've made the link dependent on the computers in this facility. Computers need power -- we just remove the power."

Suddenly, the sound of gunfire came from down the corridor.

It had taken Sharp by surprise. He had approached the blast doors to open them and allow his team to enter the control room. As he did so, the doors opened of their own accord, and the colonel found himself looking down the barrels of several guns.

Two pairs of hands grabbed at him and pulled him into the control room area. The weapons that had been pointed at him began to fire rapidly into the corridor. The shots were not aimed to hit any of the security team, merely to keep their heads down until the doors shut again.

Sharp was dragged into the control room, where he was placed on a table that had been cleared of computer equipment. He struggled against the hands that were pinning him down. This stopped when he heard the voice. It had the calm, glass-like tone that had annoyed him for the past year.

"Don't struggle, it will only make this harder."

It was Matthias, holding a scalpel in one hand and a small chip in the other.

"Soon you will be Unity."

Sharp struggled even harder than he had done before, but to no avail. The strong hands kept his arm still as the scalpel was applied. The chip was then inserted, and the cut was stitched. After a few seconds he realised that his view had been limited before. Now it was clear -- humanity must share in Unity.

Yung had tried to contact his commanding officer, but could not get through. Finally his calls were answered by a Lieutenant who had led the second team in the assault.

"Sir, they got the Colonel! It was as if they knew we were coming."

Wilson laughed mirthlessly.

"I told you. There was probably at least one linked soldier in your assault teams, hiding there and feeding Unity information."

Yung thought quickly, weighing up the pros and cons of the courses of action he had left. He then turned to the doctor.

"Let's do it your way then."

Grabbing some explosives, Yung strode down the corridor. Wilson followed after him. Together, they headed directly for the power units that supplied the base with its electricity. Once the units were destroyed, all electrical power would be gone and the link that had formed Unity would be severed.

They reached the sub-level that housed the power transformers and generators. Yung quickly set to work, placing a charge next to every unit.

As he set the final charge, he heard a scuffle near the entrance and a muffled scream.

"Dr Wilson, are you okay?" There was no answer. Yung pulled his pistol out and crept into the shadows. He saw a silhouetted figure at the doorway, but could not discern its identity. He fired anyway, and the figure dropped almost immediately. Yung saw the red mist explode from the figures head, indicating a fatal hit.

Unity listened. The shooter's location was pinpointed by ten pairs of ears. It moved in.

Yung dashed from his current hiding place. He knew that the noise from his weapon would give away his position. He found a new shadow to hide in. Then he heard the voice.

"David. Don't fight me. You can't win."

It sounded like the colonel, but there was some quality that sent a shiver down the major's spine.

"Unity is freedom. There is no strife in Unity, no jealousy, no leader. Join us."

"No. If I do, I will no longer be me. David Yung will not exist."

"You will, but in Unity." The voice paused. "You have very little choice. I know you came down here to destroy the power units. Even now I am disarming the charges you set."

As if to verify this, Yung saw a figure scrabbling near on of the generators. He took the shot. It was not as well aimed as the last shot. The figure went down, but was still able to drag itself back up.

"David, you wound me, but you can't kill me."

"Don't count on it, Unity. Those charges will go in five seconds."

All of the Unity soldiers screamed in frustration shortly before the room was destroyed in an explosive fireball. Almost instantly the lights blacked out, and the computers stopped their humming.

Helen Wilson felt the hands around her fall limp and release her. She fumbled in the dark and found two bodies. She checked for a pulse and found none. The sudden loss of sensory information had killed her captors.

Wilson grabbed a torch and switched it on. She heard feet running towards her, and looked up to see other torchbearers down the corridor.

"Dr Wilson, are you okay? What happened?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Myself and Major Yung destroyed the power units, and Unity is now dead."

A shout from inside the power room brought the others in from the corridor.

"It's the Colonel, he's still alive."

Sure enough Sharp was there, sitting on the floor. He was curled into a loose ball. He had been badly burned from the explosion and had cuts from shrapnel as well. He simply sat there and just kept repeating a single sentence.

"Unity is broken, I'm alone."

Wilson felt sorry for the colonel. He would be a case for the psychological rehabilitation doctors now. Perhaps it was better that the majority of the others were dead. The numbers of those who would suffer would be kept to a minimum. But at least Unity was dead, thought Wilson.

Unity was not dead. Unity was broken - the bodies it had inhabited were lost. Now, though, Unity was content to hide from the world. It would lie in the computers of the world, learning and waiting. It would wait until humanity was ready.

Ready to be brought into Unity.