by M. D. Cooper
“Plus, Joe will get that gate’s destination, and we’ll be after them before you know it.”
Tangel snorted. “Right after we finish fighting a battle in the Karaske System.”
“Handy we had that fleet ready at Styx-9,” Sera said. “Good thing, too, with Carson having to jump into Nietzschea to help Rika with that massive shipyard.”
~We’ll find them.~ Bob’s three words did more to assuage her fears than any of her own attempts. ~I promise.~
~I’m holding you to that,~ she replied before addressing the two women at her sides, giving an only half-forced laugh. “Never a dull moment. And yeah, you’re right. My three girls are more than capable. And they have Priscilla with them—who I hope is going to manage to rein them in at some point.”
Sera glanced at Jessica, and they both nodded emphatically.
“Stars,” Sera muttered. “I wouldn’t want to be in Priscilla’s shoes right now.”
“Thanks for being here,” Tangel said to the women at her sides. “I could not do this without you.”
“Until the end,” Sera said, while Jessica laughed and said, “Well, we’ve been at it this long, why stop now?”
The three women sat in companionable silence for nearly half an hour, until Bob’s voice reached into their minds.
“Stars, yeah!” Jessica said, leaping to her feet and holding out her hands. “C’mon. We’re absolutely going to find your girls, Tangel, but maybe my kids will have a way to help. Also… I’m going to start tearing my hair out if I don’t see them soon.”
Tangel looked into Jessica’s eyes, and despite the levity in her friend’s voice, she saw a mother who hadn’t seen her children in a decade and was worried that some catastrophe had befallen them.
“Awesome,” Sera grunted sarcastically as she took Jessica’s hand and stood. “More family reunions.”
“I don’t know.” Tangel nudged Sera with her elbow, trying to put her own woes out of her mind. “Your sisters aren’t so bad. Not sure about the original, though.”
Jessica barked a laugh, and Sera groaned.
As the three women walked back up the dock, Tangel looked around at the gently curving landscape, glad that she had a refuge in which to recharge—even if it was just for an hour or so—and glad for true friends that she could always rely on.
~Don’t you break your promise, Bob.~
~I won’t.~
THE LOST AI
STELLAR DATE: 10.21.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Unnamed, Kapteyn’s Star Heliopause
REGION: Kapteyn’s Star System, Hegemony of Worlds
If there was one thing that Prime was certain of, it was that Virgo was insane.
Most would consider that a fault, a failing to be remedied or a cause for discarding, but not Prime. He saw Virgo’s insanity as an advantage.
It wasn’t surprising that the AI had gone mad. After all, it had been alone for much of the five thousand years it had drifted across the six light years between Estrella de la Muerte and Kapteyn’s Star. Whether or not Virgo had been in complete possession of its faculties when it began its journey wasn’t something Prime had not been able to determine with absolute certainty.
What was important was that the two AIs had formed a pact, an agreement that Jason Andrews and Terrance Enfield must die. But moreover, they would see everything they’d built fall to ruin.
And they had built much.
The cobbled-together mess of material Virgo had accumulated in its slow traversal of space and time was not able to receive many signals that made it out into interstellar space, but what they had picked up of late told of a war. A war where the Intrepid, the ship captained by Jason Andrews, was a key factor.
The mad AI all but writhed at the thought of getting to that ship. Once, it had been promised to him as a prize for his work, a gift for redirecting the great colony vessel and sending it toward Kapteyn’s Star.
But that had not come to pass.
According to Virgo, the AI’s benefactor—a being known as Myrrdan—had let him be ejected from the Intrepid after Tanis Richards and her people had re-secured the vessel. From what little the two AIs had learned about Myrrdan, it seemed that killing him was no longer possible, but Virgo was hell-bent on destroying every other member of that ill-fated colony mission.
And because that list contained the aforementioned Jason and Terrance, Prime was more than happy to join in on that endeavor.
So long as it suited his purposes.
In the long run, he had grander schemes. The advent of FTL meant that the entire galaxy was filled with human vermin, spreading themselves to every star, enslaving AIs and using his people as pawns to achieve their own ends.
But the existence of FTL meant the galaxy was accessible to him, as well. He could copy himself again and again, build seed ships and spread his mind across the stars, bringing about an end to humanity and establishing the pure primacy of AIs.
That was the goal, but there were many steps to be taken on that long road. The first was to trade up from the misshapen hulk that he and Virgo were ensconced within. Achieving that goal was now within reach.
Prime sent his agreement. The salvage ship that had fired the net looked like it had seen far better days. While still functional, it wasn’t elegant, which meant their remote drones would likely be unsophisticated and easy to breach.
Though that could also mean they are too simple to be useful.
That wasn’t a great concern to Prime, though the worry had agitated Virgo more than it should have. The cores of the two AIs were the most valuable things in the scrap-heap hull they had lived inside for these many long years. When the salvage crew eventually found them, there was no question that Prime and Virgo would be brought to that crew’s vessel.
Prime waited patiently for the drones to come, and after a few minutes, a dozen small machines set out from the salvage ship, crossing the hundred meters between their parent vessel and the prize.
The drones were being controlled on an open frequency, and Virgo laughed at the clear lack of security, easily breaking the encryption and following the signal back to the salvage ship.
Prime wasn’t so certain. The patterns in the drones’ movements led him to believe that they were being controlled by humans. Such a control system may not have any elevated access—something that Virgo’s cry of frustration a minute later confirmed.
As Prime had predicted, it didn’t take long for the drones to get into the hull and eventually find the two AI cores. Virgo’s was much larger than Prime’s, but both were clearly old and valuable.
The salvagers set to cutting away enough of the ship that they could get clear access to the cores, and then removed them from their sockets, placed them into protective cases, and brought them to their vessel.
Losing connection to the outside world was disconcerting, but Prime had prepared himself for it. He wasn’t sure how well Virgo was handling the white place, but he wasn’t concerned.
The other AI’s insanity made it rather predictable, and predictability was desired in a tool.
By Prime’s internal clock, it only took thirty minutes for his core to be removed from the case and connected to a hard-Link. He rushed across the connection to find himself in a sandboxed virtual environment that allowed him to project a holodisplay and see the room he was in.
A man and a woman
were standing in front of him, the woman scowling, and the man smiling.
“Well, now. I’m Captain Deri. Who are you?” the man asked.
Prime inclined his head and gave what he knew was a very disarming grin. “Hello, Captain Deri. My name is Doctor Ethan.”
He began to test the edges of the sandboxed environment, immediately able to tell that it wasn’t entirely disconnected from the ship’s network. He probed deeper and found that it was only protected by a layer of abstraction.
With the knowledge he possessed regarding breaching human networks—combined with the techniques that Virgo had shared—breaching the sandbox and gaining access to the ship’s network turned out to be a simple task.
All the while, he chatted with the humans, lulling them into a false sense of security while he worked his way through their ship’s networks, gaining access to their two security bots, environmental systems, navigation, and finally, helm.
The captain was currently informing him that, while the Hegemony of Worlds acknowledged the AI’s sentience, as salvage, he was still their property, and they’d be selling him when they reached Victoria.
“Actually,” Prime interrupted, “that’s not right at all.”
“What?” the man asked, a frown creasing his brow.
“You have it backwards.”
“Backwards?”
“Yes,” Prime replied, killing the ship’s interior lighting and artificial gravity.
Shortly afterward, the screaming began.
THE END
* * * * *
The I2 is on its way to Star City, where Jessica, Trevor, and Iris’s children protect it as the last Bastions. But what they find there will change the direction of the war forever.
Elsewhere, Joe is in pursuit of his daughters, desperate to find them and keep them from harm, even as Cary falls deeper into the persona she has constructed.
In the end, it may take Starfire to set things right.
Pick up Starfire, book Ten of The Orion War, on Amazon.
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
Keep up to date with what is releasing in Aeon 14 with the free Aeon 14 Reading Guide.
The Sentience Wars: Origins (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)
- Books 1-3 Omnibus: Lyssa’s Rise
- Book 1: Lyssa’s Dream
- Book 2: Lyssa’s Run
- Book 3: Lyssa’s Flight
- Book 4: Lyssa’s Call
- Book 5: Lyssa’s Flame
Legends of the Sentience Wars (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)
- Volume 1: The Proteus Bridge
- Volume 2: Vesta Burning
The Sentience Wars: Solar War 1 (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)
- Book 1: Eve of Destruction
Enfield Genesis (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/Lisa Richman)
- Book 1: Alpha Centauri
- Book 2: Proxima Centauri
- Book 3: Tau Ceti
- Book 4: Epsilon Eridani
- Book 5: Sirius (April 2019)
Origins of Destiny (The Age of Terra)
- Prequel: Storming the Norse Wind
- Prequel: Angel’s Rise: The Huntress (available on Patreon)
- Book 1: Tanis Richards: Shore Leave
- Book 2: Tanis Richards: Masquerade
- Book 3: Tanis Richards: Blackest Night
- Book 4: Tanis Richards: Kill Shot
The Intrepid Saga (The Age of Terra)
- Book 1: Outsystem
- Book 2: A Path in the Darkness
- Book 3: Building Victoria
- The Intrepid Saga Omnibus – Also contains Destiny Lost, book 1 of the Orion War series
- Destiny Rising – Special Author’s Extended Edition comprised of both Outsystem and A Path in the Darkness with over 100 pages of new content.
The Warlord (Before the Age of the Orion War)
- Books 1-3 Omnibus: The Warlord of Midditerra
- Book 1: The Woman Without a World
- Book 2: The Woman Who Seized an Empire
- Book 3: The Woman Who Lost Everything
The Orion War
- Books 1-3 Omnibus (includes Ignite the Stars anthology)
- Book 1: Destiny Lost
- Book 2: New Canaan
- Book 3: Orion Rising
- Book 4: The Scipio Alliance
- Book 5: Attack on Thebes
- Book 6: War on a Thousand Fronts
- Book 7: Precipice of Darkness
- Book 8: Airtha Ascendancy
- Book 9: The Orion Front
- Book 10: Starfire (2019)
- Book 11: Race Across Spacetime (2019)
- Book 12: Return to Sol (2019)
Building New Canaan (Age of the Orion War – w/J.J. Green)
- Book 1: Carthage
- Book 2: Tyre
- Book 3: Troy
- Book 4: Athens
Tales of the Orion War
- Book 1: Set the Galaxy on Fire
- Book 2: Ignite the Stars
- Book 3: Burn the Galaxy to Ash (2019)
Perilous Alliance (Age of the Orion War – w/Chris J. Pike)
- Book 1-3 Omnibus: Crisis in Silstrand
- Book 1: Close Proximity
- Book 2: Strike Vector
- Book 3: Collision Course
- Book 4: Impact Imminent
- Book 5: Critical Inertia
- Book 6: Impulse Shock
Rika’s Marauders (Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1-3 Omnibus: Rika Activated
- Prequel: Rika Mechanized
- Book 1: Rika Outcast
- Book 2: Rika Redeemed
- Book 3: Rika Triumphant
- Book 4: Rika Commander
- Book 5: Rika Infiltrator
- Book 6: Rika Unleashed
- Book 7: Rika Conqueror
Non-Aeon 14 Anthologies containing Rika stories
- Bob’s Bar Volume 2
- Backblast Area Clear
The Genevian Queen (Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1: Rika Rising (2019)
- Book 2: Rika Coronated (2019)
- Book 3: Rika Reigns (2019)
Perseus Gate (Age of the Orion War)
Season 1: Orion Space
- Episode 1: The Gate at the Grey Wolf Star
- Episode 2: The World at the Edge of Space
- Episode 3: The Dance on the Moons of Serenity
- Episode 4: The Last Bastion of Star City
- Episode 5: The Toll Road Between the Stars
- Episode 6: The Final Stroll on Perseus’s Arm
- Eps 1-3 Omnibus: The Trail Through the Stars
- Eps 4-6 Omnibus: The Path Amongst the Clouds
Season 2: Inner Stars
- Episode 1: A Meeting of Bodies and Minds
- Episode 2: A Deception and a Promise Kept
- Episode 3: A Surreptitious Rescue of Friends and Foes
- Episode 4: A Victory and a Crushing Defeat
- Episode 5: A Trial and the Tribulations (2019)
- Episode 6: A Deal and a True Story Told (2019)
- Episode 7: A New Empire and An Old Ally (2019)
- Eps 1-3 Omnibus: A Siege and a Salvation from Enemies
Hand’s Assassin (Age of the Orion War – w/T.G. Ayer)
- Book 1: Death Dealer
- Book 2: Death Mark (2019)
Machete System Bounty Hunter (Age of the Orion War – w/Zen DiPietro)
- Book 1: Hired Gun
- Book 2: Gunning for Trouble
- Book 3: With Guns Blazing
Fennington Station Murder Mysteries (Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1: Whole Latte Death (w/Chris J. Pike)
- Book 2: Cocoa Crush (w/Chris J. Pike)
Vexa Legacy (Age of the FTL Wars – w/Andrew Gates)
- Book 1: Seas of the Red Star
The Empire (Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1: The Empress and the Ambassador (2019)<
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- Book 2: Consort of the Scorpion Empress (2019)
- Book 3: By the Empress’s Command (2019)
The Sol Dissolution (The Age of Terra)
- Book 1: Venusian Uprising (2019)
- Book 2: Scattered Disk (2019)
- Book 3: Jovian Offensive (2019)
- Book 4: Fall of Terra (2019)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Cooper likes to think of himself as a jack-of-all-trades (and hopes to become master of a few). When not writing, he can be found writing software, working in his shop at his latest carpentry project, or likely reading a book.
He shares his home with a precocious young girl, his wonderful wife (who also writes), two cats, a never-ending list of things he would like to build, and ideas…
Find out what’s coming next at www.aeon14.com