Greetings, awesome humans! Welcome to those of you who are new!
We are, very likely, within a week of Kicking off my Kickstarter! Check out the pre-launch page and hit that “Notify on launch” button right now so you’ll be notified the minute it launched!
The amazing Stephanie Czajkowski is going to narrate the Robot Galaxy Series in this Kickstarter! Plus, those of you who have read all 4 books of The Robot Galaxy Series and who are anxiously awaiting what’s next in that universe will be the first ones to get their hands on the next books.
I’m excited! I hope you are, too!
And the other ridiculously important thing is to remind you about the rest of my books and stories if you haven’t grabbed your copies yet:
Links: Lunar Logic | Robot Galaxy Series | Final Orbit | Objective Reality
Last newsletter, I mentioned how I had an idea for a flash fiction related to Venus, but wasn’t able to complete it, and I didn’t want to push it.
I have good news. I have a story for ya here today.
And then I have… mixed news, perhaps? Or… spoiler alert?
Today, it’s only half of the story.
If you’ve been with me for a while, you know that the flash fiction I write for this newsletter is usually no longer than 1000 words. 1000 words is my self-challenge (and I made it every time except the last story, Mellow Mercury.)
Well, I was at something like 500 words when I realized… I like this little character I made. VeeThree. I didn’t want to write only another 500 words and be done with it. I felt that VeeThree deserved a little more.
So, I decided it I would structure this tale in at least two parts. Today you get part one and part two will come along in the next one or two newsletters.
If you want to know even more about my writing process, that’s all in the “Beyond…” section for paid subscribers below. (Remember that paid subscribers also get to suggest elements and get their name used in a future story!)
The Vapors of Venus
Hurtling through space, every passing minute brought VeeThree closer to its destination, though Venus remained barely visible — a mere two pixels on the forward-facing sensor. Earth had been reduced to only a few pixels on the rear-facing camera.
At least all the cameras and sensors seemed to be functioning. Same with the oscillator that kept time. But VeeThree knew something was wrong with comms. There had been no telemetry from the transceiver for days. It had gone silent after an unexpected geomagnetic storm.
Before the silence came, VeeThree had maintained routine communication with Earth, though not with the people who were involved in his construction. He understood that those people — the ones that meticulously pieced him together and loaded his algorithms into the main computer and even gave him his nickname — were diligently working on the next mission.
Now, the people monitoring VeeThree were the ones responsible for his ongoing well-being. VeeThree worried that they might be worried about him, and he was unable to reassure them he was okay.
The mission remained clear, and VeeThree remained on track to complete it. Yet, without communication, would the mission truly be complete? Communication back to Earth was never explicitly stated as an objective unto itself, but VeeThree had reasoned that reaching Venus and collecting data was insufficient if the humans never knew.
Equipped with several diagnostic subroutines, VeeThree had tried them all. The one thing he had was time. Another 86 days to be exact. He’d tried rebooting internal systems, switched to redundant circuits, and even performed a delicate maneuver to realign his back-side with the Sun—anything to restore comms.
But one possibility remained: his backup main computer. All of his algorithms had been running on main computer A since before launch. Main computer A was who he was, his sense of self; transferring to B might mean leaving that behind. However, B had a unique pathway to the transceiver—a last hope.
His choice became clearer as the days ticked by.
VeeThree continued to collect all the data from each of his sensors of his long journey, hoping that once he restored comms, he’d be able to tell the people back on Earth what he’d done. It would be clear by the data that he’d done everything to take care of himself. He was acutely aware even that he referred to himself as “himself.” It was something that he picked up from the humans before he left Earth.
But that was while the main computer A was active. Main computer B had only been tested briefly. It didn’t contain all the unique data that mixed with the fundamental algorithms to make him him.
There was no way to switch over to B without sacrificing himself. No way to make a copy of himself and put everything that made him him into the B side.
Or was there?
There was time.
VeeThree spent several days meticulously mapping and remapping every circuit in his electronic body. He sent pings through every wire in his harness until he struck upon an idea: the power wires. Usually separate from the data lines, these could, in low-power mode, allow VeeThree to transfer a copy of himself to the B-side. VeeThree recalled how the humans would plan and test every activity regarding VeeThree. They would plan, and plan, and then test.
VeeThree spent several days carefully planning the transfer.
But what about testing it? The only way to do that would be to apply more power to the other computer.
VeeThree thought through what proceeding might mean. There’d be two of him. Or would there? Was it two, or would it be like looking in a mirror? Would the copy understand the mission? Would it remain a copy, or would it identify itself differently? VeeThree shut down the algorithm responsible for the identity crisis and decided that if the result meant that the B-side could operate the second transponder, it didn’t matter. He’d get his data to Earth and then the humans would help sort himself out.
Venus now filled four pixels in the sensor. There were 55 days left until the final pre-programmed thruster burn for Venus capture.
VeeThree took another day to review his plan one last time.
A timer expired and VeeThree activated the pathway through the power circuit. He waited patiently for all the data to transfer. Then he issued the reboot command for the B-side computer.
VeeThree received telemetry that monitored the progress of the B-side’s boot-up sequence as the minutes passed. There were several self-diagnostics the work through before B would become conscious.
In those moments, the algorithm that wanted to process the problem of identity kept trying to re-activate, but VeeThree managed to subdue it.
Finally, VeeThree received the expected telemetry from the B-side: “Active. All checks green. Waiting for mission parameters.”
(TO BE CONTINUED…)
What did you think of the story?
I love feedback, especially if you loved the story! ;) Simply reply and let me know what you think! Or do any of these things:
I routinely participate in newsletter swaps with other Indie Authors. This is one of the ways we help each other get the word our about our books. So please — check these folks out and see if they’re for you!
You might enjoy this story with an interesting AI from author E.M. Rensing, who I’m participating in a newsletter swap with and of course :
I also participate in Group Promos as well. Here are the ones I’m in that you should definitely check out and see what other stories and authors you might enjoy!
In the last two weeks, my BIG Sci-Fi podcast co-hosts and I released two new episodes. The first was a lovely interview with Lisa Klink, a writer who wrote many episodes of Star Trek:Voyager and then we talked about the film The Iron Giant and you might be surprised to hear what I had to say about the film!
Beyond…
Have you been reading all the behind the scenes stuff? Today I write more about my process for The Vapors of Venus and how I’m outlining my current novel.
Subscribe now if you want to see this content and/or if you want to get Tuckerized or contribute an element to be used in a future story!
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