LYSSA’S CALL
THE SENTIENCE WARS: ORIGINS – BOOK 4
BY JAMES S. AARON
& M. D. COOPER
SPECIAL THANKS
Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Reads
Jim Dean
Lisa Richman
Gene Bryan
Scott Reid
Marti Panikkar
Gene Bryan
Timothy Van Oosterwyk Bruyn
Steven Blevins
The Aeon 14 Universe is Copyright ©
2010, 2017, 2018 M. D. Cooper
Lyssa’s Call is Copyright © 2017, 2018
James S. Aaron & M. D. Cooper
Cover Art by Laércio Messias
Editing by Tee Ayer
Version 1.0.0
Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper
All rights reserved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREVIOUSLY…
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
AFTERWORD
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
FOREWORD
Without a doubt, I enjoyed reading James’s first draft of this book as much as I’m certain you’ll like this final version. It begins the work of tying together all the threads that have been left dangling on the way to Neptune, though it certainly pulls free a few more.
We’ve been aboard Sunny Skies for some time. Floating through the central corridor, watching drones remove cargo from the hold, walking from room to room in the habitation ring.
In some respects, Sunny Skies feels like home to me. If James and I have done our jobs well, it may feel the same to you as well.
Though the home is still there, the family does not always remain.
After a long journey across a far more unruly Sol System, the growing crew aboard Sunny Skies is finally on the final stretch of their mission.
Just a slingshot around Uranus, and then a week or so of coasting toward Neptune before they begin the deceleration burns.
And the goal? For Lyssa to join the other AIs at Neptune, which means she’ll leave her home and family for the next phase of her life.
Michael Cooper
Danvers, MA 2018
PREVIOUSLY…
In the last three books, we’ve followed Andy, Lyssa, and Sunny Skies as it traveled to Cruithne, Mars 1, Ceres, Clinic 46, The Cho, and finally Europa. What started as a transport job with the added complication of implanting a Sentient AI in Andy Syke’s brain has become a struggle to help free sentient AI throughout Sol.
While at The Cho—the multi-ring orbital habitat encircling Callisto—Andy and Lyssa received a directive from Xander, a shard of an advanced, multi-nodal AI to acquire a ship and bring it with them to Proteus, the innermost moon of Neptune.
But Xander did not want just any ship, he required one of Heartbridge’s massive hospital ships, which meant that Andy and the crew had to steal it.
In the ensuing attack at Europa, the team managed to secure the Resolute Charity a massive Heartbridge Corporation hospital dreadnought, where they also confronted Cal Kraft, the operative who had been pursuing them for so long.
Onboard the Resolute Charity, they managed to extract the AI Kylan from Petral’s mind. Eventually they secured and cleared the ship, but Kraft escaped. Brit took off in pursuit.
Andy, however could not dally, and Lyssa set the Resolute Charity on the first leg of its journey toward Neptune, with Sunny Skies following behind.
On High Terra, Jirl Gallagher, assistant to Heartbridge power broker Arla Reed, is learning just how deep the company’s tendrils reach, and deciding she can no longer be part of the Weapon Born SAI program.
As our story opens, Andy and Lyssa are aboard the Resolute Charity while the rest of the crew, including Cara, Tim, Fran, Fugia, Petral, Senator May, and her guardian Harl Nines, are back aboard Sunny Skies, wrapping up wounds and deciding the best way to get the two ships out of the Jovian Combine and deep into OuterSol.
Now to just to while away the long weeks before they reach Neptune….
CHAPTER ONE
STELLAR DATE: 10.05.2981 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Carville Terminal, Raleigh
REGION: High Terra, Earth, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
Jirl Gallagher couldn’t shake the feeling that everything was going to explode. The world felt like a trigger pull caught in slow-motion. When the feeling became too much, she had to get out of the Heartbridge headquarters, away from the false-white ceramic and gleaming steel, away from the people with vacant faces and artificial smiles.
Carville Terminal on the outer edge of Raleigh was as far from the Heartbridge spire as Jirl could venture on her lunch break and still make it back before anyone noticed she had been gone. Along with the feeling of dread, she’d found herself drawn to real people. People who weren’t Heartbridge. People who were talking, laughing, crying, rushing to work or home or off High Terra altogether.
Her boss, Arla Reed, could reach her whenever she wanted. No, the people Jirl had to worry about were the other assistants and office workers who noted her comings and goings and shared that information with outside agencies.
As Arla’s surrogate, Jirl’s activities were watched more closely than many of the Heartbridge Board members. For better or worse, Jirl’s daily comings and goings occupied a whole cadre of corporate spies. And, if those spies thought she was cracking, they would look for a wedge to split her completely.
What would they think if they followed her down to one of the middle-class space ports on the edge of the city, a place where families boarded shuttles and sometimes even smaller craft to take them to waiting liners, or to Luna? She found it comforting that most of the people she saw here had hopeful looks on their faces. They seemed excited about life, about their journeys, or caught up in the minutiae of managing small children.
If she had tried to explain her desire to come here to Arla, she imagined the tall woman humoring her with a look of light disgust before asking, “Who even has children anymore?”
Of course, Arla would forget that Jirl had a son named Bry, that she had chosen to give birth to him as naturally as possible. Jirl was the last person to pretend she was better than someone else because she had procreated—the truth was, she had pursued motherhood out of selfish reasons. She had thought a baby would help her feel less alone. She had wanted to feel human.
The endless flow of people walking past the bench where she sat reminded her that she was
n’t alone—even if she felt that way. She let her gaze wander from face to face, many lost in their Links but some holding audible conversations, adjusting clothing, struggling with luggage.
Porter drones rolled past at regular intervals, beeping sedately as they wound between groups that refused to move. Some carried hapless looking people. Being one of the poorer areas in Raleigh, there weren’t many people with obvious augments.
That absence meant those who were modded stood out all the more. Such as the woman who walked past with heavily muscled legs, followed not much later by a young man with a brilliant red mohawk that glittered and shifted, apparently responding to the colors around him.
Jirl had a hard time reconciling the thought of Bry as a baby and toddler with the fifteen-year-old he had become. Would he ever come home with something like that mohawk on his head? Would she tell him what she really thought, or instead praise his fearlessness?
I might actually be pleased by that, Jirl thought. He’d be living his life, digging in, not just floating like me.
She was gathering the remnants of her lunch, ready to leave for the maglev station, when a secure Link connection tickled her thoughts. Jirl checked the request and wasn’t surprised to find it was Colonel Yarnes of the Terran Space Force. She glanced around without meaning to, wondering if any office spies might be watching her for the tell-tale signs of a Link conversation. No one paid her any attention.
Jirl smiled to herself. She was just the assistant of a powerful woman. She wasn’t important. Yarnes didn’t care about her, only about what she might make available to him.
<Hello, Colonel,> she answered. <What can I do for you?>
<What are you doing?> he asked.
Jirl frowned, uncertain how to interpret the question. He almost sounded flirtatious. But then, why wouldn’t he be? He wanted something from her.
She took stock of her current emotion, which she judged as something above a light depression, and made herself sit up straighter, smiling at a man in front of her who quickly glanced away in surprise. Jirl took a deep breath.
<I’m sitting on a bench in the Carterville transfer station.>
<Carterville.> Yarnes paused for a moment. <That’s South Raleigh, isn’t it?>
<That’s what the signs say.>
<Are you going somewhere?> he asked.
<No. I’m just sitting for a while during a break. It’s relaxing to watch all the people coming and going.>
<Jirl Gallagher is a people watcher.>
Jirl couldn’t help a small smile. <It’s what I do most of the time.>
Yarnes chuckled. <Watch them and read their thoughts. You know, when I first met you, I thought you had some kind of high-end Link hacking set-up. You seemed to know what everyone in the room was going to say before they talked.>
<That’s not hard with TSF officers.>
Yarnes laughed warmly. <Why’s that?>
<Temper aggression with vanity and you can guess most military leadership’s response to a situation.>
<I thought you were going to say nationalism.>
<That’s the vanity. You think you’re special.>
<And the Protectorate is the same way?>
Did he want to know about her conversations with the Marsian general Moira Kade on the Weapon Born project? He could just ask about the Heartbridge demonstration with the Marsian Protectorate. It had been identical to the attack test carried out for the Terran Space Force four months ago. Both governments had placed orders for Weapon Born drones.
<I’ve been thinking about the ship you lost….>
<We have a lot of ships, Colonel,> she said, playing coy. <It’s inevitable that a few might become lost.>
<I should say stolen then. You do lose more ships than any of the other companies I work with, but I think it’s safe to say Heartbridge is up to more things than most companies. I was thinking about the Resolute Charity. I’ve been reviewing the report logs the JSF quarantined before they were cut off. And that was a feat in itself—cutting them off. I don’t think even your local AI could preclude the JSF from accessing their own systems. Whoever took control of that ship has capability we haven’t seen before.>
Or he might be suggesting a ploy between Heartbridge and the Jovian Space Force? Jirl decided to push back.
<Did you want to set up a meeting with Arla, Colonel? I’m probably not the best person to talk with about these matters.>
He laughed. <I think you’re the only person to talk with about these matters, Jirl.>
<You should know I don’t respond well to flattery.>
Yarnes paused. <I have a reason for this Link,> he said, a note of seriousness entering his voice.
<Oh?>
<Have you looked into the entity I mentioned the last time we talked?>
<You mean Alexander, the multi-nodal AI you mentioned so mysteriously? Yes. I have.>
Every mention of the name went back to an organization called the Psion Group, and had ended there. Jirl had found alternate research under another company called ‘Psion’ that seemed too close to not be a coincidence but had, in the end, offered equally little information. Psion had a history of AI development in support of colony ships that appeared to go back nearly five hundred years. But they hadn’t tried to sell anything that she could find, and there were no recorded incidents related to tech they had developed. Unlike other companies whose AIs escaped containment or involved semi-legal frameworks as a foundation—like the facility on Object 8221, which would remain legally ‘ownerless’ once the TSF finally let it go.
<Your silence makes me think you found something,> Yarnes said.
<That’s not completely true. There are current communication trails mentioning something calling itself Alexander in OuterSol. Whether that’s a group, company, or person, I don’t know.>
<What if I made it all up just to get a rise out of you?> he asked.
<Then I would be angry that you had wasted my time and I probably would trust you less than I already do.>
<So you trust me a little bit, then?>
<Have you given me reason not to?> Jirl asked.
<I don’t think so,> Yarnes answered, still serious. <I suppose time will tell. If you looked into the Psion Group, I imagine you hit a dead end. Did you push on your scientists who worked for them before they came to Heartbridge? I think one of them recently came back under your attention, didn’t she?>
Now how would he know that? Jirl couldn’t help frowning at the passing crowd. Did Yarnes have a spy in Heartbridge? Would her continued conversations with him be considered espionage someday? She had to be careful. She had Bry to worry about.
<I don’t know what you’re talking about,> she said, wanting him to say more.
<Here’s the thing about multi-nodal AI,> he said, <and why they’re on the verge of being made illegal. They reach a point where it seems to be inevitable that they see themselves as gods. Personally, I think that’s a human failure. We can’t create a being that doesn’t ultimately succumb to the same megalomania that plagues all people who think they’re special.>
<If that were the case,> Jirl said, <I would think there would be actual research evidence on different types that had been developed.>
<Of course there is.>
His crumbs of information made her suspicious. <You’re speaking as if all this is not conjecture. Do you have data about Alexander you can share? I’m sure if the TSF is interested in a joint research project, that’s something we can explore.>
His voice grew more intense. <I’m not talking about research, Ms. Gallagher. I’m talking about a threat that already exists.>
Why is he telling me about this? Why has he mentioned this Alexander AI at all? Jirl felt like she was being burdened with a weight she had
n’t chosen to carry.
<All right,> she said, waiting for him to continue. Jirl ran through different questions that might get him to say why he wanted her to know this information. Why tell Heartbridge? He had started by probing her about the fleet in Jovian Combine space. Was he suggesting the fleet was in danger from this AI?
She assessed Yarnes as reasonably ambitious. She didn’t expect he would just give away information without a plan to get something in return.
Jirl was running out of time; Arla would be asking where she was in a few minutes.
When Yarnes hadn’t answered, she said, <I enjoy talking with you, Colonel, but if you want something from me, I need you to be more clear with your request.>
Yarnes laughed. <There it is. That’s why we all like you, Jirl. You should have had a career in the military.>
The warmth in his voice made her blush despite herself.
<You still haven’t answered my question.>
<Since I was assigned to Weapons Acquisition, I’ve been made aware of other threats created by this new tech both Terra and Mars have been working to acquire. AI is only one of those tools. But anything we see, we have to expect it’s been available in the private sector first. There are plenty of failures out there, warped, dangerous things still hanging around or abandoned because no one could sell them to a government with the resources to pay.>
He sounded tired. Listening to the words, Jirl supposed they sounded sinister. The world was full of threats.
<I suggest you dig deeper into the Psion Group. The people doing this all know each other. Where was Hari Jickson before he came to Heartbridge? Have you ever looked into that?>