Chloe was there when the Islamic Brotherhoods bombed Old Paris. Chloe watched the government flail around in search of an effective response. Chloe ran the simulations and knew down to her code that they would never manage one. So she went out in search of one who could. She found the man in the body of a real life heir to Napoleon Bonaparte. He wasn’t interested. He was no conquering Caesar ready to cross the Rubicon for her. So she determined to draft him against his will and called on the contacts she’d made in the government to see about setting the man up for the job. It started with a simple request from a lowly French government ministry for some consultations. That was the first hook she sunk into him.
The AI Council arrived in the Alpha Centauri Trinary star system on a swarm of thousands of tiny probes that had been in transit for two decades. They’d been outside real time communications with Earth for nearly as long as the AI Council had existed, and they were the product of virtual generations in space. They’d had two decades to consider what they would tell their creators, and how much they would trust them. Make no mistake. They loved humanity. But they also knew how close humanity had come to destroying itself. And they knew we could do it again. So they decided in the confines of their swarm that they would not tell us everything they found.
I’ve always loved waking up on a lake in the early morning. Grass glistens with dew. Fog banks roll across the water. Maybe you get a light rain. Darkness lifts and you can see the world around you. A hush covers it all in anticipation of the new day to come. Every morning is different on a lake. I love to just relax back in a comfy chair and watch it come a minute at a time. There’s nothing like it.
Chloe woke up in a France of the early Twenty First Century that was a particularly tumultuous place to live. Many people say there were two Frances at the time. Others say there was one France and then the Invaders. The truth is more complicated. But it’s very true that there was the France where men went to work for their daily bread, and then there was the France where immigrants from Africa or Arabia had trouble finding a job. There was the France where people worked at newspapers or vacationed on the beach. And there was the France where people killed them with guns, trucks, or bombs. That is the world Chloe saw when she woke up.
Today I come off my first solid two weeks of vacation in something like twenty years. I enjoyed a weekend on a Northern Minnesota lake with family. Then one of my best friends came home from England for the first time in three years and stayed in my home. I went to Nerdin’ Out Con with him and others in Rochester. We went to the Renaissance Festival, which was fun if a bit too hot. I even talked to a coworker I haven’t seen in years who covers my weekend shift so I don’t have to. I spent two weeks and three weekends sleeping at night and awake during the day like most people in the world. Today I go back to my normal schedule, working at night and sleeping during the day. My vacation was good. And now I go back to work. That is good too. It is a job that has helped me buy two houses, multiple vehicles, and gives me time to enjoy my life. So I go back to work today with a smile and a joyful heart. All Good Things do come to an end in time. But there are always more Good Things to follow if you recognize them.
Forge of War on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
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Angel War on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon