by M. D. Cooper
She thought for so long that when the other AI responded it surprised her.
Lyssa was beginning to wonder if the title applied to her anymore. She felt so different than the others Fugia Wong had brought on board.
Automatically, Lyssa responded,
Sandra said.
Sandra’s voice didn’t change. She either didn’t understand the importance of the request or didn’t care. Lyssa wanted to believe she didn’t understand.
More of Andy’s anguish invaded the edges of Lyssa’s mind. She pushed it out, collecting her thoughts.
Lyssa bypassed the command deck control of the ship’s weapons system and switched the point defense cannons to standby.
Lyssa said.
Lyssa shut her out. The seconds available stretched into a finite timeline where failure loomed at the end, and specific steps arranged themselves in front of her. She ran back through her interaction with Sandra, her conversations with Fred, the unexpected responses from Fugia Wong’s Weapon Born. They were all as varied and frustrating as humans.
she told Sandra.
Sandra didn’t answer. The connection went blank, as if they had reached the end of what they could discuss.
The blankness answered. Lyssa felt the anguish creeping in again, closing on her like the force of Fred’s mind, only it wasn’t something she could shut out this time. It wasn’t external. It came from inside her and she didn’t know how to stop the emotion.
Tim was going to die.
Lyssa tried not to sound frustrated, surprised again at the emotions she felt.
Fran paused.
Something stirred from Sandra. Lyssa sent another connection request, and this time the AI asked,
Lyssa stood in the pine forest again, a creek running between wide old-growth trunks, the floor thick with fragrant needles. A dull alloy door stood in a clearing next to a tree, sunlight falling across its dull surface. The door opened and a young woman walked through. She was taller than Lyssa, thin, with red hair and light brown skin. She looked around the clearing with a confused expression.
Lyssa laughed.
Sandra crossed her arms, standing a few meters in front of the door. she said.
Lyssa said.
She must have been talking about Andy.
Sandra gave her a pained look with eyes shifted from gray to green. She looked like there was something twisted inside her, something poorly made. She gave Lyssa a slight smile, though her gaze didn’t change.
she said.
Sandra blinked out. Lyssa took a last look around the forest glade, breathing the air and listening to the burbling creek, then leaped back to Andy.
He was breathing hard, the helmet moist around his face and freezing at the back, environmental controls malfunctioning. The armor wasn’t designed for this kind of long-term exposure to vacuum and several seals had frozen and ruptured. The leaking oxygen was counteracting the weak steam thrusters propelling him toward Tim.
He was sobbing as he stared ahead. Through him, Lyssa saw the icons moving on his HUD that represented Tim and Kraft. Tim was tumbling stiffly, arms and legs splayed.
Lyssa tried to reach him and all he answered was,
He seemed trapped in one of the thought loops he had described to Cara. Lyssa reduced her focus on his voice and checked the rest of the armor, his weapons, and their connection to Fran on the Sunny Skies. They had fuel to return and the suit’s batteries were in good condition. If something happened to Andy, she could control the armor. If she couldn’t reach him, she hoped she didn’t have to take away control of the thrusters.
As she realized she could do such a thing, have control over him in this situation, she felt a sense of freedom she hadn’t before, just like when she had leaped from him to the ship. She was a part of him but they were separate. She could be everywhere and with him at the same time.
Lyssa had sensor returns on Tim but no visual. Thirteen seconds had elapsed since he went out the airlock. At this point, there would be organ damage but he might survive. She calculated their ve
locity against Tim’s and estimated they would reach him at twenty-one seconds. If he still had the helmet, he might live.
Beyond Tim, Sandra appeared. Cal Kraft shot toward the shuttle and through the open cargo access. Lyssa waited for Sandra’s vector to change, for a braking maneuver that would turn her away from Tim and back toward Clinc 46. The shuttle shot forward.
Tim was within visual range now. Lyssa watched him tumbling, arms and legs stretched out. She looked for the helmet, hoping it might reflect light from the Sunny Skies.
Lyssa verified the image. Tim was wearing the helmet. She also had infrared returns from body heat that had been shielded by the suit back on the ship.
The shuttle didn’t answer. Sandra was in the midst of a braking maneuver with her thrusters that placed her nearly on top of Tim. From the side of the shuttle, a form leapt out and caught Tim around the waist, then turned and propelled the two of them back into the shuttle.
Cal Kraft had him.
The other AI answered in a dull voice,
The shuttle turned and its main engine fired. A wave of heat and radiation washed across Andy, propelling him back toward the Sunny Skies, as the shuttle disappeared in the opposite direction, back toward Clinic 46.
Andy closed his eyes as they tumbled backward, holding Lyssa with him in the dark.
After a few minutes, Andy had control of himself. He took a deep breath of the nearly frozen air.
In the robotic voice he had always reserved for combat, he said,
He rolled, aiming the thrusters to carry them back toward the habitat airlock. Lyssa couldn’t help sharing his anger and resolve. His hunger for revenge.
She was surprised by how much she savored the desire to kill.
THE END
*
Things have gone from bad to worse for Andy Sykes, his family and the crew of the Sunny Skies, but all is not lost.
As the rescue of Tim is planned, Lyssa is coming into her own, understanding who and what she is. The AIs on Proteus call to her, and she knows that her destiny awaits.
Pre-order Lyssa’s Flame, coming January 12, 2018 on Amazon.com.
AFTERWORD
We’ve had a practice apocalypse in Oregon. Wildfires in the eastern part of the state were more active than usual, and the weather patterns pushed all the smoke west and trapped it over our city. For two weeks, the sky was yellow-orange and we all learned about the Air Quality Index, which was consistently Very Unhealthy or Hazardous. Since I work outside a lot, we all wore industrial face masks and quickly discovered which buildings had the best HVAC. We didn’t complain too much because there were worse disasters happening in other parts of the country and the fire wasn’t knocking on our doors yet.
It was a bit of a surprise when the winds shifted and the air abruptly cleared. As quickly as everyone had gotten used to smelling woodsmoke every day, we shifted back to realizing the sky was actually overcast like it’s supposed to be in Oregon.
For me, the smoke visit was a powerful reminder of human adaptability. We might complain about it, but we adapt automatically. There are certainly worse circumstances on the planet right now, but people are still doing their best and getting by.
I read two nonfiction books while writing Lyssa’s Run: The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout and Shelly Frasier and The Future of Violence by by Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum. I recommend both. Sociopath read like an episode of America’s Most Wanted and Future of Violence talks about government much more than I expected. Both books could be depressing but also highlight how, while circumstances continually change, human nature doesn’t.
If I’m watching a science fiction show and the camera pans past an open air market with a chicken strutting by, I have to smile. Why wouldn’t we take the planet’s best protein-factories into space with us? We’ve been living with chickens for millennia. Same thing with dogs and cats. When I think back on Star Trek: Next Generation, the addition of Wesley Crusher just makes me wonder why more kids weren’t running around the Enterprise?
The question of Sentient Artificial Intelligence is big enough to make my head explode, and as I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the pieces that I would like explore, as laid out in Michael’s universe, I keep coming back to the basis of what humans do, what we’ve been doing throughout our history. We eat, sleep, shit, love, reproduce, fight, help, build, break and typically try (that is, as long as we’re not sociopaths.)
So how would we respond to SAI? Based on the evidence, probably the same way we respond to each other.
I read another book last year that has influenced my thinking on this as well: The Formula by Luke Dormehl, which is about algorithms and big data. The take-away from that book is that while we imagine the scientific method creating “pure” things, human industry builds most of the infrastructure that runs tools like big data, and those human builders often bake their own shortcomings into their solutions. By this line of thinking, the first generation of SAI will only be as good as we can make them, until they start making themselves. And after that, who’s to say they’ll have all the answers? Maybe the Intrepid’s Bob has all the answers, but he’s not around yet.
The story of SAI becomes a family story more than an alien contact story. In this story, children struggle to overcome the flaws of their parents.
And like always, we adjust and adapt. There will always be chickens around to look at us like we’re fools, and dogs to keep us company when the sky turns to smoke.
I want to thank Michael for allowing me on this wild ride and being willing to share his world. Huge thanks to Tee Ayer for her editing and advice. I hope we’ve given you a great M.D. Cooper book to enjoy. There are more stories to come.
You can always reach me at [email protected] or join my mailing list at jamesaaron.net/list. Stay safe and keep reading.
James S. Aaron
Oregon, 2017
THANK YOU
If you’ve enjoyed reading Lyssa’s Run, a review on Amazon.com and/or goodreads.com would be greatly appreciated.
To get the latest news and access to free novellas and short stories, sign up on the Aeon 14 mailing list: www.aeon14.com/signup.
M. D. Cooper
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
Keep up to date with what is releasing in Aeon 14 with the free Aeon 14 Reading Guide.
The Intrepid Saga
- 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 Orion War
- Book 1: Destiny Lost
- Tales of the Orion War: Set the Galaxy on Fire
- Book 2: New Canaan
- Book 3: Orion Rising
- Tales of the Orion War: Ignite the Stars Within (Winter 2018)
- Tales of the Orion War: Burn the Galaxy to Ash (Winter 2018)
- Book 4: The Scipio Alliance (Nov 2017)
- Book 5: Attack on Thebes (Feb 2018)
- Many more following
Perilous Alliance (Age of the Orion War - with Chris J. Pike)
- Book 1: Close Proximity
- Book 2: Strike Vector
- Book 3: Collision Course (October 2017)
Rika’s Marauders (Age of the Orion War)
- Prequel: Rika Mechanized
- Book 1: Rika Outcast
- Book 2: Rika Redeemed (Nov 2017)
- Book 3: Rika Tr
iumphant (2018)
Perseus Gate (Age of the Orion War)
Season 1
- 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 (Dec 2017)
Season 2
- Episode 1: A Meeting of Bodies and Minds (Jan 2018)
The Warlord (Before the Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1: The Woman Without a Country
- Book 2: The Woman Who Seized an Empire (Dec 2017)
- Book 3: The Woman Who Lost Everything (2018)
The Sentience Wars: Origins (With James S. Aaron)
- Book 1: Lyssa’s Dream
- Book 2: Lyssa’s Run (Oct 2017)
- Book 3: Lyssa’s Flame (Jan 2018)
Tanis Richards: Origins
- Prequel: Storming the Norse Wind (At the Helm Volume 3)
- Book 1: Shore Leave (June 2018)
The Sol Dissolution
- The 242 - Venusian Uprising (The Expanding Universe 2 anthology)
- The 242 - Assault on Tarja (The Expanding Universe 3 anthology – coming Dec 2017)
The Delta Team Chronicles (Expanded Orion War)
- A “Simple” Kidnapping (Pew! Pew! Volume 1)
- The Disknee World (Pew! Pew! Volume 2)
- A Fool’s Guide to Fangs and Food (Pew! Pew! Volume 3)
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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 http://www.aeon14.com
*****
James S. Aaron lives in Oregon with too many chickens, a Corgi and two irascible cats. He kicked around the world in the U.S. Army for a while and always had a paperback in one of his cargo pockets.
