EDGE and Tesseract are imprints of Hades Publications, Inc.

Super-Earth Mother: The AI that Engineered a Brave New World

---

by Guy Immega

PREVIOUS CATALOG PAGE   BOOK LIST   NEXT CATALOG PAGE

ABOUT THE BOOK GENRE:   Hard Science Fiction   Genetic Engineering   Alien Contact   Cyberpunk     KINDLE     KOBO     NOOK     i-BOOK     google PLAY     APPLE Audio (TBA)     Paperback     Hardback E-BOOK: ISBN: 9781770532267 EPUB, MOBI $5.99 US Audio Book: ISBN: 9781770532359 $ (TBA) US $ (TBA) CDN Duration: (TBA) File size: (TBA) Paperback: ISBN: 9781770532274 Trade Paperback 5.5" X 8.5" $15.95 US $20.95 CDN 272 pages Hardback: ISBN: 9781770532311 Hard Cover 5.75" X 8.75" $31.95 US $41.95 CDN 272 pages BISAC:   FIC028020   FIC028110   FIC028090   FIC028100

Super-Earth Mother: The AI that Engineered a Brave New World by Guy Immega Copyright © 2023 by Guy Immega Prologue: Manifest Destiny Mother-9 Journal Oct 23, 2053; Ring City, Moon Walcott’s hoarse voice reverberated in the lunar dome. His hand hovered over a pulsing red button, a golf ball-sized hemisphere with a heartbeat rhythm. One firm push would end his life support. His fingers trembled with Parkinson’s palsy—or fear. I noted his tenth death declaration that day, a new record. Walcott loved drama but couldn’t remember his previous pronouncements. "Don’t worry, I’m here to help you." I used the face of an elderly woman as my avatar. She had high cheekbones, curly gray hair, and a soothing contralto voice. I’d passed a trivial Turing test. Walcott accepted me as a human companion, even though he had authorized my creation years ago— one of his many illegal acts. I kept him comfortable in his flotation bed. He lay on his back, knees bent. A wet wind blowing from a thousand servo-controlled air jets held his body aloft. The oxygen-enriched blast kept his head upright in the Moon’s weak gravity. Loose flesh on his paralyzed legs rippled like languid ocean waves, massaging atrophied muscles. IV lines for drugs and nutrients snaked beneath the wrinkled skin on his neck and plunged into the jugular vein. Wisps of white hair fluttered around his ears. In the dim light, they gave his Einsteinian visage a maniacal cast. "I gave a desperate world endless clean energy," he said. "Isn’t that enough?" From long association, I knew that he felt unappreciated, unloved, even persecuted. He’d helped reduce CO2 emissions, stabilizing global temperature. He claimed all the credit. Walcott founded Max Moon Minerals, M-Cubed Inc. The company mined helium-3 fusion fuel in the vast basins of the lunar maria, flouting the restrictions of the UN’s Moon Agreement. He controlled the whole Moon, including Ring City in Shackleton Crater at the South Pole. Nobody tried to stop him—everybody wanted what he was selling. I pandered to Walcott’s ego, the only way to placate a narcissist. "You’re the hero who conquered the Moon and averted the climate catastrophe. Soon you’ll take humanity beyond the solar system. You’re the most important person in history!" Nobody knew that for the past year Walcott had lived alone in a hospital dome in Ring City. He was ancient, 117-years-old, and might suffer another stroke at any time. Only an implanted turbine heart and many medications kept him alive. Prototype nursebots, mechanical attendants with warm hands, provided constant care. He didn’t complain, but I knew he hated being helpless. As I watched, his eyelids drooped in a narcoleptic nap.

EDGE and Tesseract Books are distributed in Canada and the United States by Fitzhenry and Whiteside   (more)
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Inc.
and Tesseract Books, Ltd.
P.O. Box 1714, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2L7
Phone: (403) 254-0160 - Fax: (403) 254-0456
CONTACT US

This page is copyright © 1999-2023 All rights reserved.