Free The Dead Sun (Star Force Series) by B. V. Larson Page A

had his own private, oddball goals.
    I knew he really wanted to perform an experiment out in the Thor system. Could that be why he’d suggested doing nothing? He’d known that if I did shoot at the Worms, it might have created a distraction, delaying us. There was nothing that slowed down an expedition like a diplomatic incident that needed cleaning up.
    “Damn,” I said aloud to no one.
    The trouble was rooted in a simple fact: the robot was at least as smart as I was. He always had been. That was the real problem. How could a mere human outthink an artificial genius?

-7-
     
    When we finally arrived in the Eden System, I felt like I’d come home again at last. I immediately headed to the ship’s tiny observatory and gazed out the frosted window, mesmerized by the local star and the shimmering planets that circled her.
    I remembered wanting to leave Eden and head home to Earth. In retrospect, that seemed insane to me. How could I have pined away for Earth when all this natural beauty awaited me here, circling a perfectly stable yellow sun? I chided myself for not having visited for so long.
    The Eden System was made up of six habitable worlds that circled a lone star many light years from Earth. There were actually seven habitable worlds, if you included the homeworld of the Blues. But that was a gas giant, and as only the Blues could survive there, it didn’t count in my book.
    Such lovely worlds…they were like jewels floating in space. Eden-8 was probably my favorite. It was the coolest of the human colony-worlds. I’d built my sanctuary there, Shadowguard. It was a castle-like structure, and it clung to the tallest peak on the planet, the only spot where natural snow fell regularly.
    I felt a sudden yearning to visit Shadowguard again. Once I had the feeling, I couldn’t shake it. Inexorably, my thoughts moved from Shadowguard to thoughts of Sandra, my dead girlfriend. She’d been my companion through many years and adventures. We’d been happy on Eden-8 if a little restless and homesick.
    “A penny for your thoughts,” said a quiet voice behind me.
    I jumped a little. I hadn’t heard Jasmine come into the chamber.
    “I haven’t held a penny in my hands for years,” I said, smiling at her.
    “Well, tell me what you’re thinking about anyway.”
    “Right now, I’m thinking we were crazy to ever leave Eden. What is it about us humans that causes us to take a good thing for granted? To become restless and bored when we have it too good? We just have to go out into the wilderness and stir up some trouble.”
    She laughed quietly. “You should know. You’re the very best at stirring things up.”
    I nodded and returned to the view. She was right about that. I had a knack for finding trouble wherever it hid and whacking it with a stick.
    “Why are we out here, Kyle? Really?”
    I glanced back at her for a moment. I thought about Marvin’s plan, and my face darkened. “We’re about to whack another wasp’s nest, I think.”
    “Why not go home then?” she asked, coming near and clasping my arm. Her touch was as gentle as that of a butterfly alighting on my artificially toughened skin.
    “Maybe we should, but I think it’s time we learned what our adversary is planning. If we wait any longer, they might be ready.”
    “Who? And ready for what?”
    “The machines—our first enemy. Our real enemy.”
    “Do we absolutely have to mess with them again? Can’t we just leave them alone? Perhaps they won’t come again. Maybe they never will. Maybe their minds are caught in some kind of endless loop.”
    I shook my head and sighed. “No. They’re building up. They’re preparing a surprise for us. If we do nothing, they will have the initiative when the time comes. They’ll be ready, we won’t. I don’t want to play their game. I want to force them to play ours.”
    Her hands gripped my elbow, but she didn’t argue further. I liked that about Jasmine. She wasn’t a fighter—at least not in