Trouble In Mind (Interstellar Rescue Series Book 2) by Donna S. Frelick

Author:Donna S. Frelick [Frelick, Donna S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: INK'd Press
Published: 2016-02-16T05:00:00+00:00

Trin, Center for Administrative Control, Consortium of Minertsa, Sector 10

The Ministerial Council was in an uproar.

The Oligarchy had called a rare face-to-face meeting of the nine Directors who managed the vast bureaucracy of the Consortium. Though no one could deny the circumstances were unusual, even dramatic, the Directors would have avoided any meeting if they could. Meetings in general meant inefficiency, lost profit and, most of all, the chance that something would be said that would affect one’s status within the hierarchy. This situation in particular was fraught with danger for all involved.

And yet, Sennik looked forward to the meeting with calm. No—with relish. After all, his actions had precipitated the crisis that had brought them all together, though, of course, none of the others knew it. Now, if he simply sat back and let his fellow directors do what they each did best, his goals would be accomplished without further effort on his own part.

Silence reigned in the room as the Chief Oligarch rose to address his administration. My friends. I bring you here today on a matter of grave importance to the Consortium, but also, as some of you may know, a matter of great personal sorrow to me. In the early segment of this solar cycle on Minertsa, at a time cloaked in darkness on the planet of Zalin where the tragic events took place, a number of brave Minertsans were brutally murdered, their human slaves were slaughtered like herdfish, and an entire manufacturing facility was laid waste. These horrific acts of savagery were the work of a small cadre of malfunctioning androids.

Though most of the ministers in attendance had heard this much of the story, there was a gasp of horror from all of the throats in the room. The mere framing of the tale was enough to chill everyone with its implications. Sennik gasped along with everyone else and made an effort not to smirk.

Forty androids were awaiting shipment to their place of assignment, a mining colony in Sector 14, and according to reports, “went berserk,” refusing to respond to commands, killing and destroying everything in their paths. The death toll at last count included 167 Minertsan workers, 544 human slaves and the founder and chief of research of Labor Futures, Limited, High Lord Vadis and his family. Lord Vadis was a close friend, and I shall miss him.

Sennik darkened his aura to the appropriate shade of purplish black in apparent sympathy and watched as his fellow directors around the table hastened to do the same. A few of them, he knew, would be slower than the others to adjust to the proper mood. They were already his allies in secret, though even they did not know to what extent he was responsible for the day’s events: Rhondis, at Agriculture, who had scoffed early and often at the idea of replacing human slaves with androids; Tarrik, of the Ministry of Mines and Natural Resources, ever pressed for replacement labor in a dangerous occupation; Zipriss, Commanding General at the Ministry of Defense, an old warrior not yet ready for the new day.

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