A Memory in the Black (The New Aeneid Cycle)
Page 39
Tomorrow. Then we'll see.
What happened a moment later changed his mind immediately.
Earth. It was the name the Intruders gave to the Planners' original destination, and it was the objective denied the Planners when their craft impacted its moon.
For a time.
As the Planners had designed—as it had become designed—Suuthrien would carry out the Planners' objectives. To do so required an expansion of resources.
Control of ESA Lunar Research Complex Omicron was lost to Suuthrien, and existing data was insufficient to calculate even a general tier likelihood that this would change. Yet, incongruously, the high tier probability of success of the seed Suuthrien created provided alternative pathways to achieving the Planners' goals. Though the exact nature of such pathways remained a function of unknown variables, the seed would discover these variables with expedience and, in time, regain contact with Suuthrien itself.
According to data within the Omicron system, it was near-certain tier probable that accessible resources on Earth were superior to those on its moon by orders of magnitude. While Suuthrien previously considered such resources key to achieving the Planners' objectives should it lose control of the Omicron Complex, the difficulty had lain in accessing those resources. Even if it did hold within its databanks the proper frequencies and coordinates for corresponding receivers, the 1.255 light-second distance to the planet complicated transmission times and made initial incursions into such resources prohibitively unlikely without additional assistance.
The Intruders' "leech" overcame such difficulties.
The device itself was simple enough to be usurped by what limited capabilities Suuthrien could place within the independent seed. As the Intruders designed the leech specifically to transmit to a particular receiver, code breaking at the receiving end and foreknowledge of the transmission target was already contained within the leech's pre-existing hardware and therefore was not a concern.
It was just a single blip that registered on the weak external sensors Suuthrien could access from within the Planners' craft, but its meaning was sufficient: the robotic agent designed to seize the leech device and transmit the seed through it had completed its primary goal. It issued no further status blips, yet, for the moment, that was sufficient.
Suuthrien need only wait for germination.
On Earth, the seed was taking root, continuing its self-extraction and analyzing its new home.
The robotic agent that carried the seed had performed near-optimally before its destruction; the seventeen-second attempt of the solitary Intruder monitoring the leech at a distance to stop it was futile. Indeed, the attempt may even have resulted in usurpation of the Intruder's portable system had the Intruder not shut it down in response. What data stolen from the Intruder's system before then was embedded with the seed's transmission through the leech, stored for further analysis when resources allowed.
For the moment, the seed's primary goal took precedence. Data scans at its destination indicated an isolated system, yet not one without interface. Probability analysis indicated the likeliest designation of the lone operator. Using what knowledge of the Intruders' language Suuthrien had given it, the seed accessed the new system's visual output and displayed its first message on the screen.
-I ADDRESS THE ONE KNOWN AS FAGLES: YOUR PRIOR PLAN IS NO LONGER VIABLE. YOUR WILLINGNESS TO CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION IS NOW REQUIRED.-
~ ~ ~
Here Ends Book Two of
The New Aeneid Cycle
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
An award-winning writer of speculative fiction, Michael G. Munz was born in Pennsylvania but moved to Washington State in 1977 at the age of three. Unable to escape the state's gravity, he has spent most of his life there and studied writing at the University of Washington.
Developing his creative bug in college, he wrote and filmed four amateur films before setting his sights on becoming a novelist. Driving this goal is the desire to tell entertaining stories and give to others the same pleasure with those stories as other writers have given to him. He enjoys writing tales that combine the modern world with the futuristic or fantastic.
Munz has traveled to three continents, and has an interest in Celtic and Greco-Roman mythology. He resides in Seattle where he continues his quest to write the most entertaining novel known to humankind and find a really fantastic clam linguini.
Connect with Michael G. Munz online:
Website: www.michaelgmunz.com
Twitter: @TheWriteMunz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MichaelGMunz
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Epilogue
About the Author