The Harbinger of Life

Description

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Synopsis

An Artificial Intelligence is tasked with transporting colonists from an ancient civilization to a new planet, but when an accident kills her crew and leaves her ship stranded in a distant galaxy, she must arm herself to protect against possible threats. Before she can acquire the rare materials needed to repair her ship and return to finish her mission, she encounters two fledgling interstellar empires embroiled in war. Both will do anything to acquire her advanced technology, but betrayals, alliances, and innocent civilians complicate matters. Can she assist refugees of war without sacrificing herself? Can she repair herself and return home to complete her mission? What lengths will she go to to survive? How many must die before she can bring life to a new world?

Excerpt

In one instant, her resolve almost failed. She had thought about this moment for more than a century, and here she was, about to engage in combat with an unknown enemy force. She had no idea what kind of weapons it had. There was no clue if it had a self destruct that could somehow destroy her as well. Energy shields could absorb the laser radiation, or maybe deflect it back at her. The possibilities were endless. No statistics could apply because she had nothing to compare.

1.01…

The moment passed as fast as it came. She knew even if she died here, she would never allow herself to be captured. She would self destruct before that happened.

1.00

She fired.

Space between The Ship and the Fessen’s Blade was suddenly filled with hundreds of brilliant blue beams of light. The Fessen’s armor collapsed instantly and the metal boiled as trillions of joules of energy poured into the vessel. The metal vapor expanded quickly like a bucket of water that was suddenly dumped out.

She had been expecting the worst. This vessel had only needed a fraction of the energy she spent on it. But the encounter had not improved her situation. The conversation with the captain had been mostly fruitless. There was the small exception that they knew what trinium was and, to some extent, had access to it. She was still drifting, moving only by her initial momentum. Her sublight engines and hyperdrives were useless without the trinium. She could only do what she had already been doing: wait.