Shilnya Factor (eBook)
420 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-9642-5 (ISBN)
Scott Jacobsen is a seasoned broadcast engineer and proud alumnus of the University of Oklahoma, where he honed his storytelling skills studying journalism. In his free time, he enjoys the thrill of the open road, frequently embarking on exhilarating bicycle tours. In 1975, he participated in a prestigious cross-country bicycle tour and captured his adventure on the big screen, starring in the feature film, 'The Great American Bike Tour.' A romantic at heart, Scott fondly recalls chasing his future wife, Peggy, up Gates Pass on their first date-a testament to his love for both cycling and his life partner. Currently, Scott and Peggy enjoy the picturesque landscapes of Tucson, Arizona, which they call home. Always inspired by his journeys, both on two wheels and through the airwaves, Scott continues to share his unique experiences with a broad audience.
Kayla Younger, super genius inventor of the Younger Interstice, has come of age for her transformation into a Hybrid Android. Her mother Janet, a Hybrid, tries to convince Kayla that she should undergo the metamorphosis. Kayla refuses, until she discovers her critical role assuring that Ferenti civilization endures the test of time. She refuses to believe that she is not human, but rather a royal member of the Ferenti race. The family's android Sascha Trudeaux, who cannot lie, assures her that what her mother says is true. When she discovers that her knowledge has been greatly expanded in preparation for her crucial role, she begins to believe the truth. She and her father begin researching the time travel feature of the Interstice and the ability to navigate the Multiplicity of Histories. When her research maroons her in the future, she uses one of her Interstice-making panel sets to travel into the past to intercept her father's first discovery of gravity control. She discovers that she has placed herself on Earth only a month prior to the impact of the giant asteroid impact that is part of her history. Not only that, she's also landed in an alternate timeline of her life-one where her parents have never met, and duplicates of her father and uncle still live in Post, Texas. The ensuing adventure will leave readers burning through pages to reach the unexpected finale.
5
Disclosure
Almost a whole week later, Kayla lay sandwiched between her mom and Sascha Trudeaux in sublime relaxation on the expanded real estate of her bed, and it brought back with some force the memory of the altered reality she’d seen, because the pattern of her bed’s newly-sized comforter, which she had left up to her mom, had exactly the same pattern she’d seen in the Thread with her as a Hybrid—which was not only bizarre, it was disturbing. It looked like her becoming a Hybrid was inevitable, no matter how hard she tried to put it off.
“Thanks, you guys,” she said quietly. “You have no idea how much I needed that.”
Her mom snickered. “I did not require telepathy to assess your need, my lovely daughter.” She and Sascha kissed a moment and then, “You may have noticed this one’s exceptional technique.” More kisses laid on the android Sascha.
“I sure did. Just where in the heck did you learn that stuff, Sascha?”
“From my creator, Dr. Sascha Ralin, of course. My sister Renate and I are hers. We exist to service her.”
“Then what in the heck are you doing here, Sascha? How can what you’ve been doing with our family have anything to do with servicing her?”
All of a sudden, her mom’s look got real serious and she said, “The time has come, Sascha, for her to know.”
“Indeed,” Sascha said deadpan. “I will consult Saldana.” After about ten seconds of blank staring, her features reanimated. “She concurs. Miss Younger must be informed, but only if she consents to absolute secrecy.”
Kayla turned to her mom, nose wrinkled with puzzlement. “What in the heck did she mean by that, mom?”
“She means that you must never, until the time is right, divulge to others what we will now tell you, or we will not tell you.”
“But you just said it’s time for me to know.”
“Yes,” Sascha said. “It is time. However, in order for events to pass as they should, you must not tell others; not even your closest associates. You must do what needs to be done. Only you can nurture events to their proper fruition.”
“What the heck? Now I’m really confused.”
Her mom kissed her lightly. “Sascha simply means that we will now tell you a secret, and that you should never speak of it to anyone else besides Dr. Ralin, Hybrids and androids. Think of it as a family secret.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say so?” She giggled when she saw Sascha’s flummoxed expression. “Okay, I won’t say anything; cross my heart and hope to die.”
At Sascha’s concerned look, her mom said to her, “It is merely a colloquial expression, my dear. My daughter’s vow of secrecy has been expressed.”
“Ah…very good. You may begin, Mistress.”
“Actually, Sascha, I think that you are in a better position to tell the story.”
“Story?” Kayla wondered.
“Think of it as a history lesson. I know it will be hard to accept, but your origin is much different than is generally known.”
“Hah! Looking at you guys, I’d say that’s a given.”
“You are included in that reference,” Sascha said. “All in Settled Space are included, in fact.”
“Dang!” Kayla breathed, beginning to see what they might be getting at. “Are you saying that I’m not human?”
“Yes.” Sascha emphasized with wide eyes.
She wanted to believe that her mom, who had a history of pulling her leg, had told Sascha to go along with a prank. But that was just it; you couldn’t talk an android into telling a lie, no matter what, because they couldn’t—the Android Laws of Morality and Restraint, or ALMRs, would send them into a protection restart routine, which would cause them to reboot from protected memory. Such a process was harmless to an android because they would just restart from the program that was loaded upon initial manufacture. All subsequent data would be purged, and with it all life experience attained up to that point. To Sascha herself, the process would be harmless. But to her friends and those who loved her, it would be devastating, because all that she had become up to that point would be lost. It would be like she had died and been replaced by someone else. If such a process were to happen to a Hybrid android, it would normally mean the death of that individual, for a Hybrid had no protected memory from which to restart. However, each Hybrid had a crystalline jewel at the navel in which the core program was kept. Every so often, a checksum was run to guard against corruption. If corruption was introduced, the Hybrid’s system would fall back to the latest uncorrupted backup stored in the crystal. Once Hybrids appeared, the android’s protected memory was copied from the photonic brain to a nano-grown jewel at the navel. As long as the jewel was clear, the program was pristine.
She surveyed the faces of her mom and Sascha, searching for any deception, any sign that they might be waiting to say, “Hah! Got you!” But they were deadpan serious.
“Dang, mom, you’re starting to scare me.”
Her mom smiled gently. “There is nothing to fear, my daughter. Such knowledge does not change who you are; it merely provides insight necessary to your role in our future society.”
“Whose society?” She shook her head. “Look; if I’m not human, then what am I?”
“We are, all of us, Ferenti.”
“Ferenti? What the heck does that mean?”
“It is the name of our species.”
She puffed nervous laughter. “Funny, I don’t look alien.” She frowned. “And what do you mean by all of us…I mean, even Uncle Johnny’s a Ferenti?”
“That is correct.”
“Holy catfish!”
“Remember your oath,” Sascha said sternly. “None outside of our circle must know of this; not until the time is right.”
“Yeah, yeah, Sascha, don’t get your bitmap in an uproar. I won’t spill the beans, right mom?” She tapped the side of her head to give permission, as the Laws demanded, to probe her thoughts for any deception.
Her mom closed her eyes briefly and Kayla felt her presence, felt her probe deeply, as the permission had been given.
At length, she turned to Sascha. “My daughter relates the truth. Sascha, please entreaty Saldana for full disclosure.”
After a few heartbeats, Sascha responded, “It is done, Mistress Younger.”
Her mom’s eyes slid to hers. “You now possess the knowledge, my daughter.” She shivered with a great sigh. “Your path has been laid. You are unique among us, in that your role is instrumental, essential to the rebirth of our great civilization.”
“And you must be made aware, Miss Younger,” Sascha said, “that many trials must be endured over many thousands of centuries before our great destiny will be fulfilled.”
Her mom steepled her hands in what looked like prayer. “And the first stone of the foundation was laid in place as the Savant was gifted with the knowledge of the ages.”
She was thinking that all this mumbo-jumbo was weird in the extreme. “Hey mom, you’re not going all freakazoid on me, are you?”
“I merely state Holy Scripture, my sweet.”
“Okay, now I know y’all have flipped out.”
Her mom put a delicate hand on her arm. “Think of the color of your eyes.”
“What? What does that have to do with anything?”
“The color of your eyes is?”
“They’re gray for crying out loud. So what?”
“What else about them?”
“I don’t know. What else is there? They’re not blue-white like yours.”
“What do you recall about the color of my eyes before my transformation?”
“They were the same as mine, okay? That’s just hereditary, ain’t it?
Her mom nodded, smiling brightly. “Yes! Now; do you remember what you said to me once, when you were very young, about how our eyes were different?”
She was getting real tired of this. “What do my eyes have to do with any of this, mom?”
“Please,” her mom stressed. “It is important to your understanding.”
“Oh, alright.” She reflected back with her photographic memory to the moment when she and her mom stood in front of the bathroom mirror when she was just six years old. “I wondered why my eyes had so many more blue flecks, that’s all. Is that what you mean?”
Her mom clapped her hands gleefully, just like the genie lady from the old TV show her dad told her about.
“Oh, yes, my daughter!”
Sascha, who had been silent, now inserted with, “It is the signature of Ferenti Royalty, the color of your eyes, Miss Younger. Your eyes bear the marker of one in very high standing, in fact. You are the Savant, the one whom the King will call upon to deliver us from our own misdeeds.”
“Huh?” Sascha said that like she was talking about the almighty Rapture, like some kind of religious experience. “Who’s this king you’re talking about? Is it King Ghent, Aunt Raytchel’s dad?”
“No,” Sascha said curtly. “I refer to the one true King of all Ferenti, the one who will cast out our demons and unite the disparate factions. He...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 27.3.2025 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction |
| Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen | |
| ISBN-13 | 979-8-3509-9642-5 / 9798350996425 |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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