Proxima Centauri - Hunt for the Lost AIs (Aeon 14: Enfield Genesis Book 2) Read online

  PROXIMA CENTAURI

  ENFIELD GENESIS – BOOK 2

  BY LISA RICHMAN & M. D. COOPER

  Just in Time (JIT) & Beta Readers

  ??

  Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper & Lisa Richman

  Aeon 14 is Copyright © 2018 M. D. Cooper

  Version 1.0.0

  Cover Art by Andrew Dobell

  Editing by Jen McDonnell, Bird’s Eye Books

  Aeon 14 & M. D. Cooper are registered trademarks of Michael Cooper

  All rights reserved

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  FOREWORD

  WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

  KEPLER

  SCHISM

  IN THE NAME OF RESEARCH

  CADAVER

  TRIAL AND ERROR

  A LITTLE R&R

  A GOOD SCOLDING

  COMING CLEAN

  THE DEATH OF SLEEP

  PARTNERSHIP

  NEW CHAPTER

  THE QUANTUM ROSE

  REFINERY 47

  MAELSTROM

  VEILED WEB

  HUNTERS

  CATCH THE LIGHTNING

  RIGHT-HAND RULE

  AFTERMATH

  SHACKLED

  DOUBLEBLIND

  CONSCRIPTED

  ENTRAPMENT

  DESIGNER TOXINS

  KILLBOX

  MAN DOWN

  MISDIRECTION

  TRANSITORY

  SPECTER

  GRIMSPACE

  INSIDIOUS

  PRIMARY INVERSION

  DOPPELGANGER

  CRACKED CASE

  A STROLL ALONG A HULL

  THE RAPIDS

  HAVOC

  SAFEGUARDS

  BREAKOUT

  RADIATION BURN

  TIME LAG

  THE FINAL KEY

  BEARER OF BAD NEWS

  DEMON IN THE MIDST

  OSCAR CHARLIE

  IMPATIENCE

  TURN AND BURN

  DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY

  THE PALADIN OF SOULS

  GENERATION WARRIORS

  AFTERWORD

  THE BOOKS OF AEON 14

  A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  FOREWORD

  Copy to come

  Michael Cooper

  Danvers, 2018

  WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

  It has been a mere fifty years since the Sentience Wars ended and the Phobos Accords were signed. By some reckoning, that span of time could seem like an eternity. For those who fought, it was not nearly enough time to heal. Or to forget.

  As with all wars, there were no tidy lines separating the oppressors from the oppressed. For many of the humans and the sentient artificial intelligences—the AIs—that fought, the wounds are still painful and fresh.

  Although the war had been fought around a different star, the colonists living in Alpha Centauri did not emerge unscathed. The people of El Dorado, the first planet to be terraformed by the Future Generation Terraformers, struggled to uphold the tenuous peace between the humans and AIs who lived there.

  One AI in particular, Lysander—a veteran of the Sentience Wars and one of the first AIs, known as Weapon Born—chose to dedicate his career to helping mend those relationships.

  He ran for office.

  As a senator, Lysander worked to help end hate speech, and to pass laws that ensured all sentients were treated equally. Now Lysander has been appointed Prime Minister.

  One of his last acts as senator was to authorize an off-the-books, covert operations team at the request of Benjamin Meyer.

  Ben had sought Lysander out, not knowing who else to trust in his bid to take down the Norden Cartel. Too many in El Dorado’s Intelligence Service had been bought by the cartel—or were mired in political intrigue—to be reliable. The Weapon Born, however, was known both for his unassailable integrity and his ability to get things done.

  Lysander agreed under one condition: that Ben include his own brother-in-law, Jason Andrews, on the team.

  Unbeknownst to Ben, Jason was a rare, next-generation L2 human. The axons—neural pathways—in Jason’s brain possessed significantly more nodes than those in a normal L0 human. They functioned as signal boosters, allowing him to process information at lightning speeds, and gave him much faster reflexes than those of unaugmented humans.

  As a recent arrival from Proxima, Jason’s skills would be unknown on El Dorado. His addition to the team would provide Ben with a hidden advantage in his battle to rid the system of the cartel.

  Lysander recruited several more AIs onto the team and brought in a retired El Dorado Space Force vice-marshal named Esther to lead them.

  Her second, an AI commodore named Eric, ended up embedding with a human named Terrence Enfield after the two crossed paths when Norden framed Terrance’s company for the kidnapping of more than two hundred and fifty AIs.

  The team’s first mission: to repatriate those AIs and take down the cartel who had kidnapped them.

  Thus, Joint Task Force Phantom Blade was born.

  The Blade shut down the cartel—but not before seventeen of the kidnapped AIs had been sold into slavery.

  Now that team has been tasked with finding and repatriating those sentients, to return the freedom that was stolen from them….

  KEY CHARACTERS REJOINING US

  Aaron – AI and security officer for Enfield Aerospace, embedded in Chief Operations Officer Daniel Ciu. Former Marine in El Dorado's Space Force.

  Benjamin (Ben) Meyer – Senior analyst for El Dorado's Secret Intelligence Service. Married to Jason Andrews' sister, Judith.

  Calista Rhinehart – Former ESF top gun; currently Chief Pilot for Enfield Aerospace's Technical Development division (TechDev). On indefinite loan to task force Phantom Blade.

  Daniel Ciu – Former ESF Marine, Aaron's partner. Current head of security for Enfield Aerospace. An off-the-books member of Phantom Blade.

  Eric – An AI and former ESF commodore, reinstated by Prime Minister Lysander when Phantom Blade was created. Second-in-command of task force, under Vice-Marshal Esther. He chose to embed in Terrance Enfield in Alpha Centauri.

  Esther – AI and former ESF vice-marshal; reinstated by Lysander when appointed Director of Operations for task force Phantom Blade.

  Frida – One of the two hundred seventy-seven AIs aboard the New Saint Louis, a ship of Sentience Wars refugees out of Sol. Served as ship's communications officer. Kidnapped and sold into slavery by the Norden Cartel.

  Gladys – Hacker extraordinaire, she is one of five AIs asked to join Phantom Blade when Ben first approached the then-senator for help in creating a covert ops team. She is the team’s ‘ghost in the machine’.

  Jason Andrews – Son of Jane Sykes Andrews, grandson of Cara Sykes, Jason grew up in the C-47 habitat orbiting the planet Chinquapin in the Proxima Centauri system. One of the first few humans to exhibit the natural L2 mutation, Jason is a pilot and a bit of an adrenaline junkie with a love for ancient aircraft. When not working, he can be found BASE jumping, or tinkering on his reproduction Yakovlev.

  Jonesy – Served in the ESF under Calista, in acquisitions and procurement. Calling him the ‘best assistant this side of Sol,’ Calista hired him for Enfield Aerospace as soon as his tour of duty was up.

  Judith Andrews – Jason’s sister, married to Ben Meyer. Judith is a biogeochemist and chairs the Planetary Sciences Department at El Dorado University.

  Landon – One of two AIs who were appointed by Senator Lysander to the task force that would become Phantom
Blade. Twin to Logan, Landon is the more outgoing and garrulous brother. He is also known as the ‘Mendoza whistle-blower'.

  Logan – Former ESF Military Intelligence profiler and AI-hunter, Logan was appointed by Senator Lysander to Phantom Blade. He is the more taciturn twin.

  Lysander – A veteran of the Sentience Wars in Sol, he is a Weapon Born AI who chose to run for a senate seat in El Dorado. After serving several terms, he became Majority Leader and was shortly thereafter appointed the first AI Prime Minister.

  Niki – One of the two hundred seventy-seven AIs aboard the New Saint Louis, a ship of Sentience Wars refugees out of Sol, where she served as ship's scan officer. Niki is one of the seventeen AIs kidnapped and sold into slavery by the Norden Cartel.

  Shannon – AI chief engineer for Enfield Aerospace’s TechDev Division, reporting to Calista Rhinehart. Shannon is also on loan to Phantom Blade.

  Sophia Enfield – Matriarch of the Enfield family and Chairman of the Board for Enfield Conglomerate’s vast portfolio of businesses. Sophia is responsible for relocating Enfield’s headquarters to El Dorado, leaving her son, Bradford, behind to manage Enfield’s remaining interests in Sol.

  Terrance Enfield – Grandson of Sophia Enfield and CEO of Enfield Aerospace. Terrance joined Phantom Blade when the Norden Cartel framed the company for AI trafficking. He is the first Enfield in Alpha Centauri to partner with an AI. Commodore Eric is embedded with him.

  Tobias – A Weapon Born AI, Tobias left Sol after the Sentience Wars to settle in Proxima. There, he formed a close friendship with the Sykes-Andrews family. Along with Lysander, he was influential in Jason’s early life as a friend, tutor and mentor, often accompanying the human in a harness worn by a partially uplifted Proxima cat.

  Tobi – One of the marginally uplifted cats bred by Jane Sykes Andrews as companion pets for families living in habitats and ships. Tobi was given to Jason and Tobias as a gift, a way for Tobias to accompany Jason, since AIs cannot embed inside an L2 human.

  Victoria North – The leader of the Norden Cartel, and owner of NorthStar Industries, the cartel’s front. Victoria was arrested for AI trafficking by joint task force Phantom Blade in 3189.

  KEPLER

  STELLAR DATE: 05.07.3191 (Adjusted Gregorian)

  LOCATION: Kepler Mining Torus, Station Nearspace

  REGION: Rigel Kentaurus Dust Belt, Alpha Centauri System

 

  Shannon’s voice called out over the combat net, just as the Enfield Aerospace shuttle Sable Wind canted sharply to the left. Its pilot was already on it, correcting for the impact and vectoring to dodge the next strike. The Enfield engineer’s voice was pitched higher than normal, threaded now with panic and fear.

  Being shot at will do that to you, Jason Andrews thought, his hands buried wrist-deep in the Sable Wind’s weapons holo as he flung the sensor return of the attack craft that was harrying them up on the display.

  Like Shannon, Jason was a civilian. Unlike the AI, Jason wound up getting shot at. A lot. That hadn’t always been the case. Didn’t have any trouble avoiding it for the first thirty-five years of my life, he thought as he gritted his teeth against another rapid change in velocity.

  Until his brother-in-law, a senior analyst for El Dorado’s Intelligence Service, had maneuvered him onto Lysander’s covert ops team. In that time, he’d learned that no one truly got used to being shot at, not even Shannon’s boss, the former El Dorado Space Force top gun currently piloting the Icarus-class shuttle.

  Usually when this kind of thing happened, you were too busy trying to survive to feel any fear. Reaction would set in later.

  While Retired ESF Major Calista Rhinehart took them through a series of high-g maneuvers more suitable for a pilot’s cradle in a fighter than the ones installed here, the fourth member of their team spared a moment to reassure the engineer.

  Tobias sent.

  The Weapon Born AI was in a starboard-facing cradle, manning point defense. Whereas Shannon had opted to embed herself into the shuttle as ship’s captain for this mission, Tobias—their mission commander—had chosen to wear a combat mech frame.

  Being Weapon Born made Tobias as uniquely qualified to lead as he was skilled at doing battle. The product of an illicit experiment out of Sol, Weapon Born AIs had been grown from seeds imaged after the mind of a human child. They were among the first non-organic sentients in existence. Some of the most brilliant and charismatic people in known space were counted within their ranks.

  Tobias said now from his position behind Calista, his mental tone terse.

  Calista acknowledged the directive as Jason brought the railgun online, transferring control over to his HUD. Layering the weapon’s reticle over the feed from scan, he began tracking the spacecraft pursuing them. He swayed as the shuttle took a glancing blow, a result of the pilots’ cradles having more give than the precision-machined cradles found in a fighter.

  The reticle lined up; he took a shot, but the pilot in the other craft jinked just as he sent the mental command that triggered the railgun, and the ribbon of weapons fire passed harmlessly through empty space. Jason cursed silently and worked to line up another shot.

  He glanced over at Tobias when he heard a series of soft clicks emanate from the point defense cradle, indicating that the AI had engaged maglocks on his mech frame and powered it down. Not that it would impact how the AI manned point defense—he’d been operating its controls from within the ship’s systems rather than using the physical interface, like a human might have.

  The AI equivalent of a sigh was relayed over Jason’s private Link with the Weapon Born. Tobias must have seen his head turn when he’d heard the frame go into lockdown.

  the AI explained.

  Jason sent Tobias him a mental nod, and then grunted as Calista pushed the Sable Wind into a hard burn for a brief moment.

  She shot him a quick look. Her voice sounded in his head as she jinked sharply on their y-axis, avoiding yet another missile as Tobias released chaff countermeasures. The little craft pinged and rocked slightly as it was peppered by debris from the exploding missile.

  Jason didn’t respond to Calista’s comment. He wouldn’t have been able to do so audibly anyway, since the moment they spotted the attack craft tailing them, the two humans had triggered their flight combat nano. Carbon nanotube fibers that ordinarily lay dormant formed a rigid lattice structure throughout vital organs and soft tissue, enabling them to endure physical stresses as high as thirty gees for extended periods.

  It also rendered talking impossible, due to the CNT matrix now lacing the insides of their lungs. For now, all communication was limited to the combat net transmitted across their embedded neural Links.

  Jason’s eyes remained riveted to the reticle of the shuttle’s single gatling railgun. Optical implants both protected and enhanced his eyes as he worked to line up the mining rig’s ship in his sights. It was a small craft, a retired fighter that looked like it had seen better days. It was more nimble than the Sable Wind, but by the look of it, the craft’s owner had been lax with its maintenance and upkeep. That meant the Icarus-class shuttle should be more than a match for it.

  He dipped lightly into his altered state, and the universe appeared to slow dramatically as his mental processes and physical reflexes sped up. Aligning the reticle with his target felt almost leisurely when he operated at L2 speeds.

  He sent the command to trigger a short, three-second burst, and a stream of deadly pellets raced toward their opponent. The pellets struck true, hitting the junction between the craft’s fusi
on engine and its fuselage.

  Abruptly, the other craft began to bleed velocity, but Jason had anticipated that. It began vectoring erratically, its pilot using the only tool he had left—the ship’s waning maneuverability—in an attempt to evade.

  But Jason was ready for that, too. Dipping deeper into his altered state, the ship almost seemed to drift lazily before him on the holo. He felt he had all the time in the world to line up the perfect shot: the section that shielded the attack craft’s maneuvering thrusters. One more quick burst, and the enemy fighter was traveling along a fixed trajectory, its velocity steadily dropping.

  Now that they were out of immediate danger, Jason could relax into his cradle and lean back from the weapons station. As he did, he glanced over at Calista with a raised brow and a lazy grin.

  She rolled her eyes at him as she flipped the Sable Wind over, sending it back toward their attacker, careful to remain aft of the fighter’s forward-facing armament. Tobias had obligingly rendered its missile tubes inoperative, which made an approach from behind the fighter perfectly safe.

  The shuttle hadn’t been the ideal ship in which to evade an attack, but then again, they hadn’t been expecting one. Its responses were more sluggish than their Icarus-class fighter would have been, but it had still been more than a match for the ancient spacecraft they were now approaching, a ship that had been decommissioned almost a century before. The craft was caught in an ever-slowing corkscrew stellar north, away from the ecliptic plane of the Alpha Centauri system.

  Calista’s mental response was tinged with amusement, and Jason could see her lips twitch as she fought a smile.

  She turned back to the Sable Wind’s display and began reaching for various virtual switches and toggles, cleaning up the craft and restoring it to its standard configuration after their mad flight.