by M. D. Cooper
“I wonder if they even left after the Sentience Wars?” Tanis mused. “The ascended AIs, that is. What if they just remained in Sol, or somewhere close by, and have been manipulating us all along?”
“Then what did my mother find around Sagittarius A*?” Sera asked.
Bob replied.
“So why did they make us jump forward to the eighty-ninth century?” Tanis asked. “What was the point of all this?”
“What do you take from the entity’s name?” Sera asked. “‘The Caretaker’?”
“Given what humanity’s been through for the last five thousand years, I’d say the Caretaker is doing a piss-poor job of living up to that moniker.”
Tanis nodded, wondering exactly where Bob was going with this. “I recall studying that long ago; the first notions of the technological singularity from the twentieth century spoke of that outcome as a possibility.”
“And there are places where it’s a reality,” Sera said. “But those branches of the human race tend to go extinct before long.”
“The Phobos Accords forbade AI-managed utopias,” Tanis added. “For good reason, it seems.”
He trailed off, something the AI almost never did.
“What is it, Bob?” Tanis asked.
Tanis sat back as the enormity of Bob’s statement hit her.
Not only was he saying that the core AIs were purposely putting humanity through progressive dark ages to keep them from moving forward, but that the Intrepid—and presumably herself as well—was meant to be an agent of destruction.
“I can see that in your eyes, Tanis,” Sera said quietly from her side. “That anger. We’ve all been manipulated, here. My mother clearly wants a strong Transcend to defeat the core AI. She was prepared to make me…well, make me what I am today—President, so that I could take the fight to the core.”
“Or maybe Airtha is still under the core AIs’ sway and she’s driving this war forward at their behest,” Tanis replied angrily. “We’re just their pawns, doing exactly what they want.”
Tanis blew out a sharp breath. “Sure feels like it.”
“That’s right!” Sera said. “All our analysis of the flight path the Intrepid took—vector, the Streamer’s composition, the whole thing—it pointed to an exit in 9470, give or take a few years.”
“Do you think it means they’re not ready?” Sera asked.
“How long will it hold for?” Tanis asked as she rose from her chair to look out at the view of Alexandria on the holodisplay on the wall. “A century? A millennium? Ten? These core AIs want to periodically push humanity back to the Stone Age because they think it’s what’s best for us. Any war which does not end with their destruction is the very definition of futility.”
“How are we going to defeat them?” Sera asked. “We’re talking about Finaeus’s fifth dimensional beings; they can strike at us across planes of existence we don’t even know about.”
“Not to mention turn people like Nance into their agents without anyone being able to tell,” Tanis added.
“Why?” Tanis asked.
“We’re going to need to reconnoiter the core,” Tanis decided. “We really have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
“I know someone who’s seen the core,” Sera said quietly. “And she seems to have a plan for taking them out, as well.”
“If she’s not still under their thrall.”
“Stars!” Sera exclaimed and rubbed her eyes. “This is all such a fucking clusterfuck! My mother’s evil, my father was a raging asshole, Kirkland is a blind fool, the Inner Stars are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic—yes, I looked that up—the Inner Stars AIs are threatening war, and we don’t know who we can trust anywhere anymore. On top of all this, we have Garza clones running all over, making a mess everywhere.”
Tanis walked back to her friend and held a hand out to her. “We’ll figure it all out, Sera.”
“How?” Sera asked, her voice heavy with emotion as she clasped Tanis’s hand.
Tanis smiled. “Because we have to.”
Sera took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair.
A moment later, Diana entered the room with an expression of honest amazement on her face. “Quite the ship you have here…I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. Let alone an AI with human avatars.”
Diana’s face paled, and Tanis offered her a chair. “You get used to it.”
Diana shook her head in wonder. “I can’t see how.”
Tanis sat across from Diana, placing her elbows on the table and interlacing her fingers. She met the empress’s eyes and took a deep breath. “Are you ready to hear the rest of the story?”
“What, there’s more?” Diana asked.
Sera nodded somberly. “A lot more.”
THE END
* * * * *
Tanis and Sera have only just begun their struggle against the many factions arrayed against them. Only now have they truly learned what it is that they’re up against.
However, their next order of business will be to deal with the anti-AI extremists that are moving into the fringe on Scipio’s rimward side.
Peter Rhoads’ fleet is coming to Silstrand, and it may be that Tanis is the only one who can stop it. If you’ve read the first two books in the Perilous Alliance series, then pick up Collision Course now.
If you’ve not read the first two Perilous Alliance books, you can get them here.
While it is not necessary to read the Perilous Alliance series to follow along with Tanis and Sera’s ever-expanding story, doing so will deepen your understanding of what is transpiring in the Aeon 14 universe, and I highly recommend it. One thing is for certain; little is initially what it seems to be in the Gedri System on the coreward end of the Silstrand Alliance.
The next Orion War book, Attack on Thebes, will be out on February 15th. In it, Tanis will travel to the Praesepe Cluster, where a few nations and a band of mercenaries known as the Marauders—led by a woman named Rika—are all that stand against the inexorable advance of the Nietzschean Empire.
If you’ve not read the Rika’s Marauders books, you can pick them up here.
THANK YOU
If you’ve enjoyed reading The Scipio Alliance, 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
- Book 2: New Canaan
- Book 3: Orion Rising
- Book 4: The Scipio Alliance
- Book 5: Attack on Thebes (Feb 2018)
- Book 6: The Thousand Front War (2018)
- Book 7: Fallen Empire
- Many more following
Tales of the Orion War
- Book 1: Set the Galaxy on Fire
- Book 2: Ignite the Stars (Feb 2018)
- Book 3: Burn the Galaxy to Ash (2018)
Perilous Alliance (Age of the Orion War - with Chris J. Pike)
- Book 1: Close Proximity
- Book 2: Strike Vector
- Book 3: Collision Course
- More coming in 2018
Rika’s Marauders (Age of the Orion War)
- Prequel: Rika Mechanized
- Book 1: Rika Outcast
- Book 2: Rika Redeemed
- Book 3: Rika Triumphant (2018)
- Book 4: Rika Commander (2018)
- Book 5: Rika Unleashed (2018)
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 (Dec 2017)
- Eps 1-3 Omnibus: The Trail Through the Stars
- Eps 4-6 Omnibus: The Path Amongst the Clouds (Dec 2017)
Season 2: The Inner Stars
- Episode 1: A Meeting of Bodies and Minds (Feb 2018)
- More coming in 2018
The Warlord (Before the Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1: The Woman Without a World
- Book 2: The Woman Who Seized an Empire
- 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
- Book 3: Lyssa’s Flight (Jan 2018)
- Book 4: Lyssa’s Call (2018)
- Book 5: Lyssa’s Flame (2018)
The Empire (Age of the Orion War)
- The Empress and the Ambassador (2018)
- The Scipian Front (2018)
- The Hegemon’s Demise (2018)
Tanis Richards: Origins
- Prequel: Storming the Norse Wind (At the Helm Volume 3)
- Book 1: Shore Leave (June 2018)
- Book 2: The Command (June 2018)
- Book 3: Infiltrator (July 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)
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 http://www.aeon14.com
