Derelict: Halcyone Space, Book 1 Read Free Page A

useless. They hadn't made this kind of freighter in decades, and even if the thing could be made to fly, the first gen models had been unstable buggers. AIs had come a long way since then.
    An idea so crazy it might work danced through her mind. Accessing the ship would be simple given her new official status, and she had a program of AI enhancements she'd been dying to field test. If she could wow the admissions board — really wow them with something — she wouldn't need to apply for any scholarship.
    Excitement bubbled through her like an oxygen high. She patted the hull. "You and me, baby, we could be something special." There was plenty of room to set up a little workshop. "Oh, yeah. This could totally work."
    Ro pushed away from the corridor and paced as she schemed. Micah wouldn't risk making a fuss and besides, Ro's work wouldn't get in the way of his little greenhouse. Power might be an issue, but her mind was already churning on ways to find the additional resources she would need and how she could divert them. She stopped at the door seal that connected the ship with the now-permanent, temporary umbilical to Daedalus and tapped against the tarnished metal.
    She needed an assistant — someone clever enough to follow her directions, be discreet, and keep the project moving while she knocked down Mendez's work list, but not so clever as to hijack her idea.
    Micah wasn't smart enough to follow her lead in the programming and too clever and too sneaky by half to control. Besides, if he was working with her father in some way, he presented a security risk. No, she needed someone quite different. Smiling, she pulled out her micro. It was late, but he'd probably still be awake. "Message Durbin, Jem." Most likely he was still tinkering with the code he wanted her to look through.
    "Ro! Did you get my message? I've been looking all over Daedalus for you."
    She winced and dialed down the volume. If his incessant babbling didn't drive her mad, his unrelenting cheerfulness would.
    "When you get a chance, patch that program directly through to my micro. I'll run it in protected mode and take a look."
    "That's super! Thanks. It's not as elegant as your stuff, but it's still pretty cool. Look, I have this other idea —"
    "Jem. Stop." She projected as much cold authority in her voice as she could.
    "Oh. Sorry. I —"
    "Shut up. Listen. No apologies. Just listen." She'd throttle him if he wasn't so damned smart and eager to please. "I have a job for you." That got his attention. "It's complex and probably doomed from the start. But I need your help — and you can't tell anyone about it. That includes the commander, my father, and your parents." She paused, enjoying the momentary silence.
    "When do we start?"
    First, she needed to do some investigating. "Check your syllabus in the morning. You've had a change in course requirements."
    Jem's low whistle pierced her ear. "Outstanding! You so need to give me those access codes."
    "I think not," she said, laughing. There was no telling what Jem would do with that amount of unholy power. "Go to sleep. You'll need to be at your best tomorrow."
    "Aren't I always?"
    Ro snorted. "Go. Dream of perfect code."
    "Oh, man, oh, man! This is gonna be great —"
    She terminated the call mid-gush, not quite regretting her choice, but wondering how the hell she was going to keep Jem from making her crazy. "I guess it's time to head back to school," she said, tunneling into the ed database. Going directly against Daedalus would have been risky, but the teaching algorithm was a quasi-independent program only loosely connected to the station's AI, not too different from her own autonomic nervous system. Ro accessed Jem's coursework, replacing his syllabus with a new one, tailored to her needs.
    Now she just needed to find out what her father knew.

Chapter 3
    Jem burst into his room with the intensity of an amp dialed way past distortion . Barre turned over and threw his arm over his eyes as his