Artificial intelligence is a fact of life. But an artificial person is something else entirely. Lieutenant Brian Kidd betrays the King and his royal prohibition against creating synthetic beings. It may not be the smartest move, but to stop the Bakkui, the deadly mechanized race that is spreading across the galaxy, and inexorably winning the war against humanity, Brian has to break all the rules.
He teams up with Mei, a young woman who knows more about artificial life than anyone. Their one hope of survival is to build an android fleet right under the king’s nose and launch the largest invasion fleet the galaxy has ever seen.
But even if they win, it may not be enough to get right with the King. The problem is Brian and Mei used the King’s daughter as their first test subject. She blackmailed them into transferring her existence out of her sickly, dying body into a healthy, capable machine that is indistinguishable from the real thing. But if the king finds out his daughter got a mechanical upgrade, Brian’s only reward may be a swift execution.
Description:
Artificial intelligence is a fact of life. But an artificial person is something else entirely. Lieutenant Brian Kidd betrays the King and his royal prohibition against creating synthetic beings. It may not be the smartest move, but to stop the Bakkui, the deadly mechanized race that is spreading across the galaxy, and inexorably winning the war against humanity, Brian has to break all the rules.
He teams up with Mei, a young woman who knows more about artificial life than anyone. Their one hope of survival is to build an android fleet right under the king’s nose and launch the largest invasion fleet the galaxy has ever seen.
But even if they win, it may not be enough to get right with the King. The problem is Brian and Mei used the King’s daughter as their first test subject. She blackmailed them into transferring her existence out of her sickly, dying body into a healthy, capable machine that is indistinguishable from the real thing. But if the king finds out his daughter got a mechanical upgrade, Brian’s only reward may be a swift execution.