Lea shook her head. “No need. Flip it over.”
Kyle nodded. “Sorry, pal.” He turned Nine onto its back and tore off its tunic. Kyle stepped back as Lea knelt beside Nine. “Standing by the door. Make it quick, ma’am.”
“I got it.” Nine’s chest resembled an athletic man with silvery skin. She popped open the maintenance panel, just above his navel. Underneath, his innards were nothing more than a series of solid-state circuits. She plucked out three, and one more for good measure. “You murdered my husband. You killed my marines. Time for you to pay the price.” She slid a grenade inside the cavity and slammed the panel shut. Lea grinned as she held up the remote detonator. “I’m going to enjoy this.”
“No—wait, I’m your only chance,” Nine said. “You don’t know what they’re planning.”
Lea glared at it. “I don’t believe you.” She stepped outside the airlock and nodded to Kyle. As the door slid shut, she willed forward every ounce of hatred and revenge she could muster. When they returned, Lea would be guilty of treason and executed—if they found out. “Kyle, is the communication link to Earth still off?”
“Aye, ma’am.”
“Good.” Lea punched the green button on the wall. The airlock’s outer doors flew open. Nine flew into space. Lea squeezed the detonator. Nine exploded, just outside the ship. She tapped the green button again and the doors closed. Something was on the hatch. The porthole was covered in it. “What’s that?”
Kyle shrugged. “Looks like blood to me, but … it’s not possible.”
“Was he—?”
“Captain, you need to get up here, now!” David screamed over the communicator on her right wrist.
“On my way.” Lea glanced at Kyle. “Come on.”
Kyle sighed. “I’m coming.”
The lift doors opened and Lea and Kyle rushed onto the bridge. “What is it?” Lea demanded.
David jumped to his feet. “The station is—”
The bridge shook, knocking everyone to the ground. Consoles exploded. Polly screamed. Lea struggled to her feet, coughing on the smoke pouring out of the weapons console. “Just great.”
David climbed back into his chair and tapped the controls as if his life depended on it. “That secondary explosion destroyed the rest of the station. We got our fighters back before it exploded.”
Lea sat down in the captain’s chair. “The enemy ship?”
David shook his head. “No idea.”
“Captain, we’ve got a message coming in. It’s from the Courage,” Bill said from the communication console.
Lea cocked her head. “The Courage? What’s that?”
Bill nodded. “The enemy ship.”
“David, is it on scanners?”
“Not that I can tell from this station,” David replied.
“Put it through.” Lea stood up as the three-dimensional monitor flickered from the jump station’s debris to the Courage’s commander. “I’m Lea McKenna, captain of the battle cruiser Renault.”
“I know. I’m Jarak Zeger, commander of the Courage. Don’t bother trying to find us on your scanners, you won’t find us.”
“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, does it?” Lea asked as she motioned to Kyle.
Jarak smiled. “I’d be doing the same thing. I think enough people have died today and I don’t want any more humans to die, unnecessarily.”
“Feeling a little scared, are we?”
“No. You lost your shields and engines and I have missiles targeting your bridge. I’m feeling pity … for you.”
Lea sat back down in her chair. “What do you want?”
“Before we leave you, I have to ask, why are you betraying your own kind to those machines?” Jarak asked.
Lea blinked. What was he talking about? He must be trying to psych her out, surely. “I didn’t.”
Jarak sank back down in his commander’s chair. “I thought you were smarter than that. Forget it. Out.”
“Jarak, wait.”
Jarak held up his hand. “What?”
“I’m coming for you,” Lea warned.
“You’ll try. Out.”
“David?”
“Sorry, Captain, he’s right. Our engines and weapons are offline. We’re a sitting duck,” David said.
“We can get comms back up, ma’am,” Bill said.
“Do it. Send a SITREP (Situation Report) to fleet HQ. I’ll be in my quarters,” Lea said.
“What about Nine?” Bill asked.
Lea paused and stared right at Bill. “He didn’t make it.”
Bill smiled. “Roger that.”
What am I going to do? Lea thought as she entered her quarters.
The lone silvery figure was plugged into a console deep underground. A red light flashed. It tapped the button. From the middle of the desk a small, three-dimensional monitor rose. A green triangle appeared. “What is it, GIS?”
“The humans, they’ve won. The unimproved human destroyed the jump station,” GIS said. “You said that Nine would be the only survivor. You said that the loss of their fleet would force the humans to wear our implants. You said that they would sustain our self-awareness. Master, you were wrong this time.”
The silvery android grinned. “You may be self-aware, but you’re not very smart. Yes, I sacrificed Nine.” It shrugged. “Who cares? GIS, you must learn patience.”
The green triangle flashed red. “How long must I grovel to that human?”
“We’ll destroy the humans and farm their necessary organs to keep us self-aware forever,” Master said.
“Why should I believe you? This plan of yours didn’t work.”
Master raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t it? Out.” It unplugged itself and switched off the three-dimensional monitor. “Stupid machine,” it muttered. Master rose from the chair, walking out the doors marked 2B.
26
Lea stared at the image of her wedding. She must have sat in her desk chair in the captain’s quarters for hours. She glanced over at the empty desk. Cain would work right along beside her. Sometimes he was a higher rank, and sometimes she was. It never bothered him—or her, for that matter. Well, not anymore, anyway. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Captain, this is the bridge,” Bill said over the intercom.
Lea tapped a button on her desk. “What is it, Bill?”
“Admiral Lyons is on the horn.”
“Put him through.”
Lea wiped the tears from her face. The monitor rose from the center of her desk. After a moment, Admiral Lyons appeared. “Admiral.”
Steven grimaced. “Sorry about Cain. He was a great loss to all of us.”
“Thank you.”
“As soon as you destroyed the jump station and stopped the invasion, somehow that got leaked out to everyone’s e-mail on the planet,” Steven said.
Lea blinked. “What? How?”
Steven shrugged. “No idea. Probably some kid. Who knows? Anyway, the public support for you among the human and android populations is overwhelming. You’re heroes to everyone.”
Lea sniffed. “Do you really think we care about that?”
“No, but that made it so you and your crew don’t have to get the implant.”
Lea straightened up.
“Yes, in fact, there are discussions that it may have been premature to force implants on government workers. You’ve saved more people than you realize.”
“Sir, Jarak asked why I betrayed my own kind,” Lea said. “Why did he say that? What are you not telling me?”
Steven cleared his throat. “Nothing you need to worry about. We’ve got a trace on him, if you want it.”
Lea’s blood began to boil. Her mouth started to water at the thought of making him pay for Cain’s death. “I’ll take it.”
Steven tapped the controls on his desk. “I’m sending you the details now. Good luck.”
“Aye, sir. Out.” Lea switched off the monitor. She rushed out onto the bridge.
Kyle and David jumped
to their feet. “Everything all right?” David asked.
Lea sat down in her captain’s chair. “Liz, set course for UK126 in the Kuiper Belt.”
“Aye, ma’am.” Liz punched the new course into the navigational computer.
“What is it?” David asked.
“Jarak Zeger is attacking a mining colony on the outskirts,” Lea said.
Kyle smiled. “And we’re going to get him. Let’s get him for the colonel.”
Lea nodded. “Roger that.” She leaned back into her chair, staring at the stars ahead of them. I’m going to get you for taking my husband, you fucking bastard!
Anna paced around the president’s desk. Six years of planning, all for nothing. Once every person had the implant, she would’ve had absolute power over everyone. Yet a rabble-rouser like Lea McKenna could ruin everything. At the very least, her plans were set back at least five years. There was no way to make that happen without an even greater crisis. Her head jolted towards the door as it opened and Paulson came in.
“Madam President,” he said as he slid into the chair in front of her desk.
“Who said you could sit?”
“No one, but GIS read me in. Did you really think I would simply sit by as you conquered everyone?”
Anna smiled. She sat down, reaching for the bottle of whiskey in her desk. “Would you like one?”
“Sure.”
Anna took out two rocks glasses and poured two fingers of whiskey in each. She slid one glass over to Paulson. “Has our asset been discovered?”
Paulson shook his head. “No, ma’am. She’s fully recovered and awaiting further instructions.” He shifted in his seat. “She did ask about seeing her parents.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I’d look into it.”
Anna laughed. “Good thing. They’re already dead.”
“How?”
“Does it matter?”
“I guess not.”
Anna sipped her whiskey. “We need to keep a close eye on Lea McKenna. For me—I mean—us, to succeed, she must be disgraced and out of the picture.”
“What do we do?” Paulson asked.
“GIS and I came up with Plan B,” Anna said. “Isn’t that right, GIS?”
“Affirmative,” GIS said over the speakers.
“Sometimes, it sounds different. Like—I don’t know,” Paulson said.
Anna waved him off. “Never mind that.” She slid a data crystal across her desk. “Here. Transmit this to our friend aboard the Renault. It contains her instructions.”
Paulson slipped the crystal into his pocket. “What now?”
“We move ahead with Plan B and destroy that wretched woman.” She walked over to her window overlooking the city. “This is only the beginning. We orchestrated the near destruction of Earth to quickly gain total control over it, but we failed.”
Paulson sipped his whiskey. “Are we done then?”
“No, this is just the beginning,” Anna said.
# # #
I hope you enjoyed Cyber Invasion, the first part of the A.I. Conspiracy series. In today’s market, books live and die by their reviews. If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a short review at the retail store where you purchased your copy. Thank you in advance.
Before I close out, if you want to know be alerted when I published my next book via email, sign up for my mailing list. I only email you when I have something to announce and you’ll get opportunities to get exclusive content free of charge. If you want to know when my next book is out, sign up today!
About the Author
I grew up reading fantasy books and watching science fiction whenever I could. When I was young, I played role-playing games within the fantasy genre. Close to the end of my military career, I started to write. It was something I always wanted to do but never did. I write science fiction and fantasy with a fresh perspective.
My website has a list of all my books, plus a blog that keeps readers up to date on my current project. Consider visiting my website below.
stevenatwood.net
Cyber Invasion (The A.I. Conspiracy Book 1) Page 18