The Pandora Paradox by Joshua Dalzelle

Author:Joshua Dalzelle [Dalzelle, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: sci fi
Published: 2020-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

When Jason's eyes cracked open, he was genuinely shocked at how good he felt. Even the low-grade headache he'd been suffering from for the last couple years was gone without a trace. He'd become accustomed enough to manipulating the neural implant in his head that he knew at once something was different. He subvocalized the commands for a status check and realized at once what it was: this was a brand-new implant.

Panic overwhelmed him. What about Cas? What about the Archive? Had all of that been lost? Priceless information of a dead civilization, entrusted to him and lost because he couldn't think of a better hiding spot than his own skull?

"Finally awake, I see."

"Cas?" Jason sat up, looking around. The voice had come from outside his head.

"The one and only." The small, onyx orb that was Kage's recon drone popped up over the edge of the bed. "They were able to get you up here and stabilized quickly enough to pull all the data out of the old implant before it failed completely, my own matrix included. After some cajoling, I was able to convince Kage to let me have one of his drones."

"So, your entire matrix is in that drone?" Jason asked.

"A temporary situation. I have more permanent accommodations in mind that will be less risky," Cas said. "But yes, right now, all that I am now resides in this little black sphere."

"Crusher didn't let that doctor come back with us, did he?" Jason asked, remembering the last moments before his brain shorted out.

"No, but not for her lack of trying," Cas said. "She really didn't want to be left behind once she figured out you'd been messing around with Ancient tech."

"The Archive?"

"It was touch and go for a while there, but it was safely extracted intact and stored on one of the servers down in the hold," Cas said. "You'll need to be the one to access it since it's coded to respond to you specifically. We need to figure out what to do with it, and I wouldn't suggest putting it back into your head."

"We?"

"While it's true I was created by accident due mostly to your own incompetence, I feel I'm just as much a guardian of the Archive as you are," Cas said. "At least, I have a strong compulsion to keep it safe."

"I was thinking about that, actually," Jason sat up and swung his legs over the edge, the medical gown someone had dressed him in riding up around his waist.

"Could have done without seeing all of that."

"Grow up," Jason growled, kicking the drone out of the way so he could hop off the bed and go in search of his clothes. They were nowhere to be found, so he clomped barefoot out of the infirmary, heading for his own quarters.

"So, what's your master plan you were about to share?" Cas flew along right next to him.

"We need to figure out what in the hell the Machine is after," Jason said. "We also could use a little help when it comes to countering that superweapon it's building.

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