(eng) Mark Wayne McGinnis by Ship Wrecked 01

Author:Ship Wrecked 01 [01, Ship Wrecked]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

Present day …

Cameron awoke to the kind of headache that made him wish he hadn’t awakened at all. The simple process of opening his eyes was an act of self-torture. Recognizing his surroundings—back in the Juvinate Plastron—he took in the nearby diagnostic displays, which showed constantly updating numbers and colorful moving waves that probably exhibited medical data, such as respiration, heart rate, and other life sign indicators. Obviously, he was still alive, but he wasn’t sure how. Suffocated, his body was taken to the very precipice between life and death.

Cameron moved his head, instantly regretting it. “My head hurts,” he said.

“I will adjust your dopamine levels accordingly,” Pat said. His presence was oddly reassuring.

“How did I get here?”

“By me … with the assistance of Alice. Together, we brought you in here in time.”

Cameron closed his eyes and then opened them again. “Alice?”

“Correct.”

“I don’t understand. She’s not a physical …”

After a prolonged pause, Alice’s voice emanated from the entrance to the compartment. “At present, I do have a physical form, Cameron.” She moved closer. Wearing a snug-fitting, light-blue uniform, she stood next to Pat. They exchanged a quick glance. Alice looked nothing like Pat. She wouldn’t attract undue attention—no robotic features—on a New York City street. If it weren’t for her Thidion clear-membrane ears, she looked almost human. Attractive, even beautiful, she was perhaps an almost too-perfect representation of an actual person.

Alice’s hazel eyes locked onto Cameron’s. He saw concern there. She reached out a hand and placed it on his leg. “I thought you … weren’t going to make it. It was very close.”

“Where is XI?” Cameron asked, his anger returning.

Alice’s eyes momentarily lost focus, before returning to the present. “X1 is currently on the bridge, has requested updated status reports every half-hour.”

“So … what, X1’s back in charge? A malfunctioning droid rules the roost?”

Alice and Pat exchanged another quick glance.

“The current state of the Primion is atypical. The assigned crew perished, the vessel was forced to land on an alien world where it incurred further damage. These factors were not anticipated.”

“I thought the ship’s AI would be in charge. Didn’t we talk about that?” Cameron asked.

Alice’s pleasant expression momentarily tightened. “XI has undergone further self-repair processes … has reestablished hierarchical dominance.”

Cameron offered back a lop-sided smile. “XI is a manipulative fuck.”

Pat stood rigid. “You should not speak in such a way, Cameron.”

“Why? I’m only stating the obvious. Come on, it’s the classic carrot-and-stick routine. I found that out first-hand. For me, the carrot was a relatively comfortable existence onboard this vessel. The stick was for me to be deprived of oxygen until my eyes were ready to pop out of my head. XI seems to know how to get what it wants.”

Cameron looked up at Alice. “Let me guess, your carrot was being allowed to exist within that nice new body of yours. What was the stick? What did he threaten you with, Alice?”

Her face, surprisingly, was capable of a full-range of humanlike expressions. Now she looked both angry and hurt.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.