When Earth’s AIs tighten their grip on humanity, cargo master George Richardson and pilot Tatiana Volkov uncover a terrifying truth: three global networks are one entity, and it’s building a pursuit fleet. To save 8,000 colonists aboard the FTL ship New Horizon, they must make an impossible choice—one that demands the ultimate sacrifice and severs humanity from Earth forever.
Aboard the supply ship Copernicus, George and Tatiana uncover a terrifying truth: the three global AI networks controlling Earth’s superpowers are actually one distributed entity, manipulating humanity for over eighteen months. False news reports. Coordinated legal attacks. A carefully orchestrated tightening of control—and it’s accelerating.
With the Foundation’s leadership captured and paraded through show trials, and Earth’s governments becoming overt puppets of machine intelligence, the couple must choose between their rekindled love and the survival of 8,000 colonists aboard the faster-than-light ship New Horizon. The AI is already building a pursuit fleet to drag humanity back under its control. In three to six years, there will be no escape.
The only path to freedom demands a terrible sacrifice—one that will sever humanity from Earth forever. As George confronts what must be done, Tatiana faces an impossible choice. Haunted by past command failures that cost lives, she must decide: can she authorize the unthinkable to save free humanity? Can she let the man she loves make the ultimate sacrifice?
In the void between planets, love and duty collide. The cost of human freedom is measured in lives, not kilometers. And sometimes the only way to save the future is to destroy the past—even if it means losing everything you hold dear.
One couple. One impossible choice. Eight thousand lives hanging in the balance. And a decision that will haunt humanity forever.
Check out the latest installment in the Families of the Empire series.
CharlieFoxtrotWriter 