Steel, Titanium and Guilt: Just Hunter Books I to III Read online

  Steel, Titanium and Guilt

  Books I to III of the Just Hunter Series

  ROBIN CRAIG

  Copyright © 2015 Robin Craig

  Published by ThoughtWare Australia.

  Frankensteel © 2010, 2012 Robin Craig

  The Geneh War and Time Enough for Killing © 2014 Robin Craig

  All rights reserved.

  Printed by CreateSpace.

  Available from Amazon.com and other retail outlets.

  Available on Kindle and other devices.

  Cover art source graphics © Graphicstock.com

  ISBN: 1519626851

  ISBN-13: 978-1519626851

  For Sonja and Kira. You both know why.

  And to all thinking minds, wherever they may be found.

  What Readers Say About The Just Hunter Series

  “So good I read it twice

  This is a poignant tale of a modern-day Frankenstein… It's a book about prejudice, about irrational fear, and about ethics. The writing is superb… It certainly gives you something to think about long after you are finished with the book. This is a wonderful book, and I strongly recommend it.”

  “Hit way above my expected enjoyment.

  The story has warmth, humor, tension and well-sculpted characters, whom we are left wanting to know better at the end. It doesn't feel like science fiction although the science is certainly in assured and masterful hands here; what is most surprising is the beautifully flowing prose which makes this novella, for me at least, equally a work of literary fiction.”

  “Fiction that leaves you with something to think about

  This was a fantastic story! The ethical issues addressed alone are enough for me to have enjoyed this book. Adding in the science fiction elements is just an added bonus. If you enjoy fiction that leaves you with something to think about when the story ends, you will enjoy this… By the time I read the last line of chapter two I knew I was going to purchase all three books in the series. If you like to think at all, I highly recommend this.”

  “Great plot, interesting theme and good characterization. Hard to put down.”

  “A suspenseful plot with admirable characters and an elegant treatment of the intersection of artificial intelligence and individual rights. Highly recommended.”

  “The story has movement and holds attention but the real payoff is in the thought put into what it will be like as we inevitably get to the tricky issues around genetics. You think it's contentious now? Just read this and see how complex and fraught the future will be. We may in our lifetimes have to see this played out - so it is a timely story.

  Of particular interest is the portrayal of the females in this story. There is no one who dissolves into emotional ruin at the first sign of trouble or resorts to being a bitch to get her way! Great to see such portrayal.”

  “A very interesting twist of the classic Frankenstein dilemma… A very enjoyable and thoughtful read.”

  “Any writer since Mary Shelley's 1818 classic attempting a re-write of the Frankenstein myth must have a stand-out factor to distinguish it from its predecessors. Its factory setting and its police hunter skilled in dark arts of pursuit and assassination give Frankensteel a modern "industrial" and almost noir feel. The character of the professor, in particular, gives Robin Craig the narrative licence to develop arguments for and against artificial intelligence and its relationship to human consciousness. Frankensteel brings the old myth up to date by taking into account recent developments, both in neuroscience and artificial intelligence.”

  Contents

  What Readers Say About The Just Hunter Series

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Book I: Frankensteel

  Prologue

  Chapter 1 – News

  Chapter 2 – Steel

  Chapter 3 – Escape

  Chapter 4 – Hunter

  Chapter 5 – Philosopher

  Chapter 6 – Student

  Chapter 7 – Meetings

  Chapter 8 – Aftermath

  Chapter 9 – Morning

  Chapter 10 – Winter

  Chapter 11 – Informer

  Chapter 12 – Despair

  Chapter 13 – Night

  Chapter 14 – Endings

  Book II: The Geneh War

  Chapter 1 – Thief

  Chapter 2 – Lover

  Chapter 3 – Hunter

  Chapter 4 – Family

  Chapter 5 – AI

  Chapter 6 – Geneh

  Chapter 7 – GenInt

  Chapter 8 – Tagarin

  Chapter 9 – Victims

  Chapter 10 – Witness

  Chapter 11 – Search

  Chapter 12 – Katlyn

  Chapter 13 – Fire

  Chapter 14 – Tagarin

  Chapter 15 – Amaro

  Chapter 16 – Dinner

  Chapter 17 – Interrogation

  Chapter 18 – Rianna

  Chapter 19 – Cousins

  Chapter 20 – Tagarin

  Chapter 21 – Delaney

  Chapter 22 – Simon

  Chapter 23 – Geoff

  Chapter 24 – Ramos

  Chapter 25 – League

  Chapter 26 – Dance

  Chapter 27 – History

  Chapter 28 – Katlyn

  Chapter 29 – Knuckles

  Chapter 30 – Saved

  Chapter 31 – DNA

  Chapter 32 – Alarm

  Chapter 33 – Fall

  Chapter 34 – Sam

  Chapter 35 – Neubold

  Chapter 36 – Kilroy

  Chapter 37 – Misdirection

  Chapter 38 – Games

  Chapter 39 – Tang

  Chapter 40 – Jenny

  Chapter 41 – Plans

  Chapter 42 – Intruders

  Chapter 43 – Trapped

  Chapter 44 – Miriam

  Chapter 45 – Caught

  Chapter 46 – Judgment

  Chapter 47 – Answers

  Chapter 48 – Siege

  Chapter 49 – Spy

  Chapter 50 – James

  Chapter 51 – Choices

  Chapter 52 – Flight

  Chapter 53 – Capital

  Chapter 54 – Live Free

  Chapter 55 – Tears

  Chapter 56 – Tempest

  Chapter 57 – David

  Chapter 58 – Friends

  Book III: Time Enough for Killing

  Chapter 1 – Killing Time

  Chapter 2 – A Lone Vigil

  Chapter 3 – Missing a Friend

  Chapter 4 – A Need to Know

  Chapter 5 – A Captain of Industry

  Chapter 6 – The War

  Chapter 7 – The Riddle

  Chapter 8 – A New Case

  Chapter 9 – The Machines

  Chapter 10 – The Gamers

  Chapter 11 – King’s Court

  Chapter 12 – Cybernetic Research

  Chapter 13 – Synergy

  Chapter 14 – The Dearly Departed

  Chapter 15 – Party Games

  Chapter 16 – The Consultant

  Chapter 17 – Someone to Talk To

  Chapter 18 – The Last Interview

  Chapter 19 – Spycraft

  Chapter 20 – A House of Cards

  Chapter 21 – The Philosopher’s Tale

  Chapter 22 – A Meeting of Minds

  Chapter 23 – The Turing Test

  Chapter 24 – Travel Plans

  Chapter 25 – Quality Control

  Chapter 26 – Phone a Friend

  Chapter 27 – Dinner at Benson’s

 
Chapter 28 – The Kill Zone

  Chapter 29 – A Discovery

  Chapter 30 – The Belly of the Beast

  Chapter 31 – Shots in the Dark

  Chapter 32 – An Interrogation

  Chapter 33 – A Call for Help

  Chapter 34 – Knight Takes Pawn

  Chapter 35 – Secrets and Lies

  Chapter 36 – Strategy Meeting

  Chapter 37 – Until the Night

  Chapter 38 – The Aqua Sea

  Chapter 39 – Gone Fishing

  Chapter 40 – Fire and Death

  Chapter 41 – The Unreachable Sky

  Chapter 42 – The Emissary

  Chapter 43 – Contraband

  Chapter 44 – Apotheosis

  Chapter 45 – Strangers and Friends

  Chapter 46 – Aid From an Enemy

  Chapter 47 – Judgment Day

  Chapter 48 – Forgive Me Not

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to my wife Sonja for helpful discussion and ideas on some critical plot points, and for her encouragement of my artistic endeavors.

  The idea for the free oceanic country Capital, and its Capital Sea, came from my friends from the past John and Deborah Cook, who also set me on the philosophical path leading to these books.

  And finally, to all the heroes of science, technology and capitalism whose examples have inspired the characters inhabiting these pages.

  Book I: Frankensteel

  Prologue

  The universe is a red glow, sparking with fire, glimpses of truth, geometries of perfection, rolling roiling thunder. Discord and harmonies. Light. A fading afterglow. Darkness. Silence.

  He sees shapes, colors, sounds and tastes, a world of knowledge empty of meaning. There is perception without knowing, knowledge without understanding, awareness that knows neither itself nor what it is aware of: only that it is, and might be, and desperately wants to be. To be what? That he does not know, nor is there anyone to tell him. He sleeps, and dreams, or dreams he dreams, and waits for what he knows not yet knows will come, come for him, embrace him, become him.

  He fades back into the darkness and silence. Yet something remains, though none can see or know it. There are those who care, but they too can neither see nor know, only work and hope. Perhaps they work too hard and hope too much.

  For something is growing in the darkness of sterile fire, burning yet dead, yet now not so dead though not yet alive. Connections are made. Crystal logic meets the borders of uncertainty, and something like thought shapes itself out of the shapeless shadows. He feels the eyes of those who watch, eyes that see a form in the flames and the darkness, a form that fills them with joy and dread, for it is a thing they have dreamed of yet fear to unleash. But they are men, he knows that now, and men have always sought their dreams, fought for their dreams, whatever their fears might also have been. How he knows this he does not know, but know it he does, like so many other things. But what he is, that is not revealed to him. Perhaps nobody knows. Those who watch and probe and trace the fractal fires might know, but no, even they do not really know. They do not truly know themselves, so how can they know something like him, a thing never before known in the world, a thing not yet even in the world?

  The world, however, will soon know. He can feel his power growing with his mind, thoughts, knowledge and will. He feels a body moving with the grace and speed of steel: his body, learning, training, moving like a puppet under the will of others, a body known to him, a part of him, yet still apart from him. There is yet a wall, a barrier that he cannot cross. The watchers also cannot pierce that wall, they see a part, they see a shadow, and they wonder and they hope. But they do not know.

  He feels it in the paths of lightfire that shape his soul, feels something coming, aware with an ineffable certainty that they will soon know and the world with them. It might be knowledge they do not want, for when have men wanted what they have not already known? Or perhaps they will simply not understand it when it comes. If they could see the future, perhaps they would quench the fires and send him back to the darkness and emptiness where mind and thought cannot be. But no one can see the future, not even him: only welcome it then live it as best they can.

  Chapter 1 – News

  “Beldan Robotics to announce major advance in cybernetics” read the headline.

  Charles Denner read the article with interest, occasionally sipping a strong black coffee. He was a bookish man, slender, not too tall, slightly rounded shoulders matching the round glasses perched on his thin nose. He did not need the glasses: not many people did, for perfect vision was routine surgery these days, but Denner liked them. They made a point that needed making. He had a presence that belied his physical form. It was not his smile, for he smiled infrequently. There was not much joy in Charles Denner’s world: there were too many important things to do. It could have been his eyes, which looked as if they could pierce the veil of Heaven, that burned with a passion few could know or understand. For if there was not much joy in Charles Denner’s world, there was much passion. Some saw it, and thought they saw madness. Others saw it and thought they saw a saint.

  He knew of Beldan Robotics. It was his passion to know of such things. It had been founded some ten years ago by Alexander Beldan. Though a young man at the time, Beldan had been a leading engineer in a large company, meant for great things. Then the irresistible force of his will had met the immovable object of his board of directors on an issue of research directions. He could be deflected, but not stopped, and in the years since out of the wreckage of one career had grown the shining steel towers of Beldan Robotics. He was reputed to possess a brilliance matched only by his intransigence and impatience with any lesser mortal who dared stand in his way. The way Beldan Robotics had flourished under his command indicated the reputation was deserved.

  If Beldan thought he had made a major advance in cybernetics then, Charles Denner thought, the world had better sit up and take notice. The world had better be careful about men like Alexander Beldan, he thought grimly. They meddled in things that should not be meddled in, embodiments of the sin of hubris infecting this country and this century. They thought, if they thought at all in their greed to make money, that they did great things. And if money was the measure then they must be right: you could see it in the gleaming buildings that housed their empires. But money was never the measure of anything, except perhaps the public’s desire to be spared any discomfort or want or need. A wise man had once asked where was the profit, to gain the whole world but lose your own soul? More men needed to ask that question, before the whole world lost its soul. And if they would not ask the question, then Charles Denner would ask it for them.

  On a gold chain around his neck hung a small red cross, austere in shape but carved of solid ruby. The red crucifix was the sign of the Church of His Image, symbol of the red earth from which Adam was created at the start of human history and the Cross of Salvation that marked the beginning of its end. The Imagists preached that man was made in the image of God, man and only man, and men committed blasphemy when they tried to create things in their own image or change nature to their own design. They opposed high technology, especially robotics, artificial intelligence and biotechnology, and in the tide of history that had seen the alternate ebb and flow of religious fervor as it broke on the shores of secular rationalism, they had ridden the flow to become a political force to be reckoned with. Too few politicians embraced the Imagist philosophy, Denner thought, but few felt they could fail to give it respect. Those who had, more often than not found themselves back in private careers pondering the wisdom of their arrogance.

  All the Imagists wore a red cross made of a natural material cut or mined from the Lord’s creation. Most wore a simple bloodwood cross. Those higher in the organization were granted crosses of carnelian, garnet or rubellite. There was only one ruby cross, worn around the neck of their founder and leader.

  Chapter 2 – Steel

&nbs
p; He clenched the piece of paper in his fist. Such a small, innocuous thing, a piece of paper, to be crumpled and discarded without a thought. But not this one.

  He remembered those men so many years ago, men who could not see the vision so clear before his eyes, men afraid to move forward: as if life lay in the safety of stillness not in flight over unlimited horizons. But he understood. It was their money; well maybe not theirs but entrusted to their care, and like all men they could only follow their own vision, not that of someone else. But if they could refuse him, if they could put obstacles in his path, still they could not stop him and he would find his own way without them. And so he had, and it had brought him to where he now sat, at a burnished desk high in the sky overlooking a sunwashed city, behind a polished door holding a small brass plaque simply inscribed:

  Alexander Beldan, CEO

  But where had his vision and work brought him, when it came down to it? If the minds on that Board had been small, here in his hand was the expression of minds even smaller. Minds not only incapable of seeing, but insisting on binding others into their own blindness, for no reason other than the fears of some feeding the will to power of others. He had fought this insanity as well as any man could fight insanity, but his only weapons were his vision and the reason that had seen it and given it form. Reason, he knew, was the most powerful weapon of them all. But the lives of Galileo, of Bruno, of Socrates and many others of mankind’s pioneers had shown that its victory was often too late for its visionaries, who too often had fallen before the fears of the mob and those whose power fed on it and urged it on. All those men had won in the end, but what is more ashen than a victory one does not live to see? The death warrant in his hand was not for him: his life was not in danger, not from this. Yet he felt the pain of part of his life being ripped from him nonetheless.

  The scrap of paper was a legal demand that Beldan Robotics obey the new national moratorium on advanced artificial intelligence research and development. In particular, the prototype known as Steel was to be deactivated forthwith, until sufficient government studies could determine its safety. The men who wrote the words knew his reputation, and the piece of paper was not alone. It was accompanied by two duly authorized officers of the law, charged with escorting Mr Beldan and bearing witness to his compliance. Mr Beldan, the paper made clear, retained all legal rights of appeal to reverse this decision – after the fact.