Dark Empire: An Epic Space Opera Saga (From Far Beyond Book 3) by Christian Kallias

Author:Christian Kallias [Kallias, Christian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

Boomer was continuously pacing on the bridge, with Zelda walking behind him. He had morphed back to his beagle form, which he wasn’t exactly feeling safe about, but he wanted to save as much power as he could so he could use it to help Kevin.

“Will you stop doing that?” asked Lacuna.

“What is it to you?”

“It’s distracting, that’s what it is.”

“I’m nervous, I can’t help it.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” said Lacuna with a smile.

Mira’s voice boomed from the speakers.

“We’re three minutes away from exiting hyperspace. My long-range sensors, though not worthy of the name, have picked up some interesting data.”

Boomer barked and ran next to Lacuna. “What is it?”

“There seems to be some sort of battle happening in the imperial palace on the surface of the planet. I’ve intercepted communications that confirmed my readings. Also, we’ve received a subspace transmission from Ziron, they’re also heading this way.”

“Did he say why?” asked Lacuna.

“Negative. It was a text transmission. I suspect they can’t establish a video feed while we’re in hyperspace, these ships aren’t exactly running the latest tech. I’ve been doing some modifications of my own, and I’ve got something that should be of interest to the both of you.”

“What’s that?” asked Boomer, his tail wagging in anticipation.

“I’ve managed to establish read-only access to Kevin’s subspace transmitter.”

“That’s the first bit of good news I’ve heard all day,” barked Boomer.

“Why do I get the feeling there is a but coming,” said Lacuna.

“Very perceptive of you,” confirmed Mira. “There is something strange about the readings. Let me show you.”

A holo-screen sprung to life and Boomer looked at it. It displayed two animated graphs side by side.

“What are we looking at?” asked Boomer.

“I detected two different brain patterns from the same subspace transmitter, which is worrisome. As you can see, they’re very different.”

Lacuna pointed to the right one. “This one seems more angular, more mechanical, like patterns repeating somehow. And less complex.”

Boomer looked at Lacuna and the screen again. “What does that mean?”

“I believe the only hypothesis that can explain these readings is that there are currently two consciousnesses inside Kevin’s brain, one being artificial.”

On the left diagram, another brainwave graph superimposed itself in a different color.

“The left one,” Mira continued, “shows a match for Kevin’s brain patterns we have on file. But the right one seems to be an AI of some sort.”

“That would explain its blockiness and patterns,” said Lacuna.

“Correct,” Mira confirmed. “And herein lies the problem: most of the patterns responsible for motor functions seem absent from Kevin’s current brainwave activity.”

“He’s being controlled, his body at least,” said Lacuna.

“How the hell did you jump to that conclusion?” asked Boomer.

“That’s the most likely scenario,” said Mira.” I agree with Lacuna.”

Boomer barked in frustration. He was having trouble following the conversation and felt like he wasn’t as smart as he ought to be under the circumstances. Zelda must have sensed his distress as she ran by his side, jumped on his back, and rubbed against him.

Boomer gently pushed Zelda off of him. “Not now,” he whispered, “this is important stuff.

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