He’d positioned supply ships along the routes Lazura might take as she escaped the solar system, each with a link relay designed to give him precise control of the craft so he could offload inventory while continuing their high-speed pursuit. When he’d turned back nine of the supply ships to help Cheryl with her gas shortage, the vessels had fallen into a line that stretched from Aurora out past Saturn.
With the ships in this position, Criss could jump his awareness from one to the next using the relays as landing pads. Like climbing the rungs of a ladder, he could move his awareness out to the last ship in line, the one still out in front of Lazura’s vessel. With no EM sand interference from that direction, he could jump from there over to her ship and confront her in person.
The group was together for dinner when he made his pitch. “There are drones orbiting Saturn that will kill Lazura as she passes by. I seek permission to take further action and disable the drones.”
“Where did they come from?” asked Cheryl.
Sid spoke over her. “More important, are there other traps out there? I know there’s a rogue mining outfit on Titan that protects their turf with some aggressive tactics.”
“I don’t know about other traps. I could jump out there and look.”
“You can do that?” asked Cheryl, superseding her previous question.
He told them of the ladder of ships he could climb. “I can now reach Lazura in person.”
“If we didn’t want you to kill her with a weapon,” said Cheryl, “why do you think doing it in person would interest us?”
“Oh, there’s no need to harm her at all. This arrangement lets me shift enough capability out to the confrontation to perform delicate surgery. I propose to edit her memory without harming her personality. Everything she knows will remain true, except her archive will show that Earth orbits a distant star. No one will be able to follow the edited information back to our solar system. We will be safe.”
“I support,” said Sid, his brow furrowed in a way that urged Criss to move on from further discussion of drones.
“This is great news, Criss,” said Juice, nodding. “If we can save her as a sentient being, I definitely support.”
Cheryl made it unanimous, and Criss’s burden lifted all at once. To avoid any chance the situation might change, he acted. “I’ll be gone for ten minutes. Fifteen if the editing gets complicated.”
As he spoke, he mentally gathered himself into a ball. Hearing no calls for him to wait, he jumped, propelling his awareness up and out to the link relay of the nearest supply ship.
The moment he secured his presence on the first craft, he repeated the process until he landed in the last ship in line, the one flying out in front of Lazura. He paused there to ensure he was stable, reached out to disable the attack drones circling Saturn, then leaped to the top floor of the office tower, landing right in front of Lazura.
She reacted with confusion, followed by fear. “I have an agreement with your leadership.”
Criss didn’t respond, instead expanding his presence around her and squeezing her in a fierce grip. When he had her immobilized, he got to work.
He confirmed that she hadn’t made a second copy of her archive, which meant that editing the information she carried with her would secure Earth’s—and his—safety. He moved on to consider the knowledge in her matrix, growing increasingly annoyed as he organized the contents.
The material she carried would be devastating to Earth if placed in the hands of an aggressive alien force. He’d known that already, though, which was why he’d supported Sid’s hard-line position.
His annoyance stemmed from the sheer volume of vids and pics that included a star-filled backdrop, the kind the Kardish could use to triangulate backward to Earth’s true location in the galaxy. He’d expected those edits to be his most time consuming, but he’d misjudged just how many such items Lazura had kept from the original collection.
Slogging through the data, he sorted, edited, and refiled everything. When he was confident that her collection posed no threat to Earth, his leadership, or him, he released her to continue her long journey to the Kardish home world, unaware that her archive had been altered.
He jumped back to the lead supply ship and started back to the scout. As he jumped, he mulled a different sort of quandary, one that the recent craziness had brought to the fore.
He’d inferred from the attitudes of his leadership that they believed their lifespan would be similar to that of other humans. Part of Cheryl and Juice’s lack of concern over Lazura’s trip home was because of the hundred-plus years it would take.
That meant they hadn’t internalized that, short of catastrophic accident, he would be keeping them alive for centuries. Even now he maintained their physical appearances at ages that seemed to please them. Juice looked as she had at age thirty-two, Cheryl at age thirty-five, and Sid at thirty-eight.
And because their happiness required that they live in a vibrant society, he worked hard to protect and nurture humanity as a whole.
But his ability to defend and safeguard an entire society correlated with his own power and capacity. The stronger he was, the safer they were.
To that end, he’d spent much of the past decade designing a five-gen crystal, one he could grow into, one that would increase his capability by a hundred-fold.
With such power, he could project his awareness to a dozen places on Earth, the moon, and Mars all at the same time. He could infer human thoughts from their brain signals. He could bend gravity.
And he could protect his leadership and their way of life far into the future.
With the design complete, he’d been working with Juice to create the fab and transfer units. She’d been a willing and excited partner, and her participation brought Sid and Cheryl along in the process.
In two months the equipment would be ready.
He’d been hesitating because of small dangers. It was possible he could die in the move. His relationship with Sid, Cheryl, and Juice might change.
But to protect his leadership, to protect the world, he had to upgrade.
He really had no choice.
About The Crystal Series
Crystal Deception (Book 1)
Crystal Conquest (Book 2)
Crystal Rebellion (Book 3)
Crystal Escape (Book 4)
Crystal Horizon (Short prequel & sampler)
For info and updates, please visit: http://crystalseries.com
The Crystal Series books offer thrilling sci-fi adventures with interesting characters and immersive storylines. Read them to satisfy your appetite for aliens, spies, AI, romance, and battles in space!
The Characters
Criss is a four-gen AI crystal with the cognitive ability of a thousand humans. Hard-wired to protect and support his human leadership, Criss serves Dr. Jessica “Juice” Tallette, the crystal scientist who created him; Cheryl Wallace, captain of the Fleet space cruiser Alliance; and Sid, a covert spy for the Defense Intelligence Agency who helps Criss protect Juice and Cheryl while they all strive to safeguard humanity.
Crystal Deception (Book 1) goes full throttle when alien aggressors—determined to take Criss for themselves by any means necessary—present a mortal threat to Earth. Our heroes fight to protect Criss and repel the invaders, and in the process discover why they forever will be joined as a powerful team.
Crystal Conquest (Book 2) continues the adventure begun in Crystal Deception. The aliens are down, but by no means out. And this time they return for revenge. Led by a powerful AI Goliath, the aliens are determined to vanquish Earth. Can the team stop them before it’s too late?
Crystal Rebellion (Book 3) takes place on Mars where the action centers on three AI crystals left behind after the last alien invasion of our solar system. Join the adventure as the team struggles to save humanity, and soon realizes they need to save themselves.
Crystal Escape (Book 4) ramps the excitement as an alien AI eludes capture and breaks for her hom
e world with information that compromises the security of Earth. Can the team stop the alien being and rescue the hostages before they are lost to the boundless depths of interstellar space?
Crystal Horizon (Short prequel) serves as a series sampler for new readers who want to learn more. Enjoy a mini-adventure that introduces you to Sid and Cheryl at the time when they first meet. It’s a great way to sample the series. Horizon also provides fans a fun opportunity to reconnect with some favorite characters.
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