A Deception and a Promise Kept (Aeon 14: Perseus Gate Season 2) by M. D. Cooper

Author:M. D. Cooper [Cooper, M. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Wooden Pen Press
Published: 2018-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

CAVALRY

STELLAR DATE: 04.27.8948 (Adjusted Years)

LOCATION: Cerka Station

REGION: Mullens, Virginis System

<OK, we’re through,> Iris called back to Sabrina and Cheeky as the inner lock opened and Usef moved out into the corridor.

<Good. We’re keeping the Sexy out and about, but Cheeks is flying me in close just in case you need the big guns.>

Iris nodded absently. <Good call, though I hope it doesn’t come to that. We’ll find this Darla and pull her plug.>

<She may have an internal power source,> Amavia said with a sly grin on her lips. <So pulling her plug may not do much.>

Iris groaned. <Seriously, Amavia? Not your best attempt.>

<Sorry. We’re—I’m—still sorting out how to do humor.>

Iris wondered about Amavia’s plural slip. She put on a brave front, portraying her mind as a unified entity, but it wasn’t the first time Amavia had called herself a ‘we’.

Iris supposed it made sense. Amanda—for all her many, many mods—had still been an organic. When Ylonda had fled into her mind back on the Hellespont, the AI had mostly taken refuge in Amanda’s non-organic enhancements.

Amanda’s unique mental structure—an organic brain with a mind that spanned both organic and non-organic topology—created a real opportunity for a mental merge.

But it didn’t surprise Iris that there were still clear distinctions in some places.

I wonder how similar Amavia’s mind is to what Tanis and Angela are becoming?

Few people talked about Tanis and Angela’s slow merger. Slow being the operative word as much as merger. The pair was closing in on two hundred years of conscious time together, and they were still distinct beings.

Iris assumed it was some sort of intervention by Bob and Earnest that had kept the pair separate this long. What that was, she didn’t know.

She hadn’t asked, and no one was telling.

<Damn, corridor ahead is shredded,> Usef said. <Some serious heavy weapons at play.>

Iris caught up to him and saw the passage ahead devolve into an impassible jumble of bulkhead panels and support struts. <Well, good thing there’s a secondary lift stack.>

<Half a klick away,> Usef muttered as he backtracked to find a new route.

Iris followed Usef and Amavia, eventually coming to a long corridor that led to a wide atrium that they’d have to cross to take an alternate route up to the Command Sphere.

As she walked, her mind wandered again, and it occurred to her that perhaps Tanis and Angela already were merged.

They could be faking it, she thought. Sometimes it seems as though Tanis has Angela’s sarcastic humor. Although, that could just be the two of them rubbing off on one another over the centuries.

<Iris,> Usef called out, waving a hand as they approached the atrium. <Take that side corridor. Probes show a bunch of VDF’s ahead. I want to put ‘em in a pincer.>

<Do we know which side they’re on?> Amavia asked.

<We’ll ask after we have them surrounded,> Usef replied. <But from what intel we got, our side doesn’t have anyone down here.>

Iris signaled her acknowledgement and turned down the side passage that would take her around the atrium to an entrance half-way down its length.

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