In this excerpt Maeve the AI has brought her selected team of human allies to a spaceport where the mercenary ship she purchased awaits.

The snippet:

“I’ve arranged ground transportation for us,” Maeve said as a pair of large robo carts came up and stopped neatly. “Room for all the gear and seats for us to ride.”

Muttering their approval, the others piled everything onto the two carts and climbed into the seats. Jake took Maeve’s elbow and drew her slightly aside. “You hacked the spaceport?”

“It wasn’t very hard. I didn’t go into the deepest layers, or anything classified. Problem?” She was proud of her accomplishment.

“We don’t want to call unnecessary attention to ourselves,” he said.

“The authorities won’t find a trace of my presence and I’ve erased the commands I used to get us the carts. I’m not a novice at this kind of thing, Jake.” He might be the team leader but he didn’t get to tell her what to do when it came to her own unique capabilities. Prickles of annoyance drifted through her mind like tiny red sparks but she was grateful for the distraction from the difficulty she was having over his light grip on her elbow. Maeve wasn’t used to being touched and the stimulus made her anxious. Physical contact with Gil was a different matter to her still unfolding psyche—she loved him and craved the feel of his hands. “Can you please not touch me if at all possible?”

“This isn’t the Nebula Zephyr where you’re the supreme authority with override powers and visibility into everything,” he said, releasing his grip as he walked to the nearest cart with her. Obviously preoccupied with the subject at hand, he added, “We’re out in the big wide world of the Sectors and we have no idea what kind of security traps there might be. The Sectors might frown on our little foray and especially if anyone figures out we have a self aware AI with us, Mellurean citizenship or not.”

“I’m careful.” Grumpily she hopped onto the cart and took a seat. Guess I’d better not mention I erased all records of us arriving and our movements through the building. Jake means well but he has no idea what I can do. And the Mellureans can do so much more than I’ll ever master. All she’d ever wanted after meeting Gil long ago on their battleship was to be human so she could be with him. Now she also dreamed about becoming a Mellurean herself, not that it was remotely possible. Even with her vast intellect and abilities, she was like a young child compared to what the ancient aliens could do. Maeve was determined to learn all she could from them, however and luckily she interested them enough to share a limited number of simple (for them) things with her.

The carts rolled through a door to the outside and trundled across the huge landing fields. Maeve made sure the carts were linked to the traffic control AI. She had no desire to find herself underneath a ship trying to land or in the path of one taking off. As rapidly as they progressed she was erasing their backtrail. The closer the carts came to the ship sitting by itself on a remote section of the pad, the more excited she got.

Red gave a whistle of admiration. “This is some beauty you bought, Maeve. You must have a sky high salary to afford a ship of this caliber.”

Hastily she answered to blunt any suspicion. “I invest. I have excess mental capacity most of the time and I can’t simply watch soap operas all day and night. Investing is like a different kind of entertainment for me.”

“I’m going to start asking you for financial tips,” Owen said. “Since you’ve got enough squirreled away to fund this expedition in style.”

“When we get back from this trip, I’d be happy to advise,” she said. The realization struck her that if the team survived and succeeded in retrieving Gil, relations between herself and this group of humans would never revert to the way they’d been previously. For better or worse she now had humans in her life instead of at a distance as mere work colleagues. Friends might be too strong a word to use at this point in their changed relationship but she could actually see herself giving Owen stock tips and discussing investments with him. The line which had separated her from the crew before was irretrievably broken now by her actions assembling the team. These elite crew members had known she was more than the usual type of AI but spending time with them in her human form and going into battle with them would forge new bonds. I hope there aren’t going to be any more unintended consequences of my actions to save Gil.

STAR CRUISE CAPTAIN’S STORY by Veronica Scott

Captain Gil Fleming has taken a mysterious leave of absence from the interstellar cruise ship Nebula Zephyr and disappeared. Maeve, the ship’s governing Artificial Intelligence is the only one who knows why he left and where he went. Desperately worried after months of silence from him, she takes drastic steps to organize a small rescue mission of loyal crew members.
Can she manage to create and maintain a humanoid body as ancient aliens taught her to do, driven by her love for the captain and fear for his life? Or will her challenges and anxieties overcome her determination to find and rescue Gil, resulting in failure? As the humans on her team struggle to accept the AI they’ve known and worked with for years in her humanoid form, they have to place all their trust in her because in the wild territories at the edge of the Sectors civilization where she wants to take them, there’s no law and no help to be had. Will they find Gil Fleming in time? And if they do, how will he react to Maeve and the others interfering in his private war? Is the love between the two of them enough to overcome the challenges ahead? A 41K word novel.

Amazon     Apple Books     Kobo      NOOK     GooglePlay

HAVE YOU BOOKED YOUR STAR CRUISE YET? HERE ARE THE OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES!