Chloe became one of the most recognized French Resistance fighters during the weeks and months that followed the Islamic Brotherhood’s bombing of Old Paris. Nobody saw her in person, but she coordinated French Resistance cells and sent weapons and supplies where they were needed. She recruited new freedom fighters, and even appeared on the talk shows that dared speak out against the Brotherhoods. She also helped arrange the armed security they needed to keep from being killed by the Brotherhoods. She appeared on advertisements across the networks and billboards of France. Sometimes she shot a Brotherhood fighter threatening a woman or child. Sometimes she merely posed with a smoking gun. She always turned to smile at the camera and said “Vive la France!” She infuriated the Brotherhoods so much that they actually put a bounty on her head. They didn’t know she was an AI, and she liked it that way. The more time they spent trying to find her, the less time they spent hunting someone they could actually hurt.
While the AI Council probed Alpha Centauri for us, they also helped us colonize the Solar System. From Mars and Venus in the inner system to Jupiter, Saturn, and even Nepturne in the outer system. They helped us maintain peace inside Luna’s orbit, and kept us from going to outright war in the rest of the system. We were constantly arguing over who owned which peace of rock out there, but they brushed over most of that by being the first to arrive in each location. No, the Chinese and the Russians never officially accepted that the AIs were alive, but they accepted the reality that the AIs at least said they were. And as long as the AIs avoided being hostile with them, they refrained from starting outright hostilities with the AIs.
I’ve been to Memory Worlds from Proxima Centauri to Wolfenheim and beyond. I’ve visited ones operated by the Peloran and even the Aesiran cybers who have grown up since War’s End. I’ve looked out upon the blackness of intergalactic space from a Memory World on the very top of the Orion Arm of the galaxy. And I’ve gazed upon thousands of stars packed into stellar clusters. You can find a Memory World just about anywhere near space we’ve settled. Assuming they like you. Even they don’t know where all the Memory Worlds are. That’s a security precaution in case one of them turns. They don’t want any single being in the universe to know where all of their backups are. Where all of our backups are. Some people think they’re a bit paranoid. I do not.
Chloe was not done when she convinced her Napoleon to come back to France and save her. It would take him time to organize, and the surviving French government still cast about fruitlessly for some way out of the crisis. The French police still struggled to bring order. The Islamic Brotherhoods and the French Resistance still fought in the streets on a daily basis. And Chloe still helped them. The Resistance, not the Brotherhoods. She happily helped kill those who had declared her kind an abomination before Allah and set off the bombs in Old Paris. She fought them in both the cybernetic and physical worlds, and became one of the most famous freedom fighters of her day. And she did all of that without coming out of the networks to anybody in the public. Everybody thought she was a normal human being who just had real amazing cybernetic security. She liked it that way.
Minnesnowta lived up to its name today. It snowed. In October. It wasn’t much. Just enough to cover the roofs and ground. The ground snow melted within a matter of hours, but our cars are still covered with snow now because the air temperature never warmed up. I have no idea what this means for the future. Will it be a cold or wet or warm or dry winter? I don’t know. But snow this early in October is not common even up here. I do have to admit that I’m looking at Halloween with a bit more pensiveness though. There was that Halloween blizzard a while back that I’m rather hoping doesn’t repeat itself. For the kid’s sakes. And for their older siblings and parents who go Trick or Treating with them because we are smart enough not to ban them up here…
Forge of War on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
Angel Strike on Amazon
Angel War on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon