Chapter 1
“We’re over. I’m not going to say it again.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re overreacting.”
Brian’s sigh was heavy. He always acted like the weight of the world fell on his narrow shoulders. “It’s not as if you weren’t considering taking the technology public yourself.”
Dr. Dawn Illya frowned. “Maybe I was but on my own terms. Now that you’ve made a backdoor deal with the Hills Conglomerate, I have no say in the application of technology I invented!”
“Technologyweinvented,” Brian huffed in reply. “You gave me the patent as an anniversary present, remember?”
Dawn might never regret anything more. It had been foolish, but she’d been feeling sentimental, having never reached a six-month relationship milestone with anyone before. And now she was stuck with the consequences—her tech in the hands of the same soulless organization she’d been battling her entire career.
“Come on, Brian. You know how I feel about the Hills. They’re going to manipulate this tech until they find a way to use it to kill, maim, or exploit. How could you make a deal with them?”
“I did it for you,” he said, his watery blue eyes blinking with emotion. “For us. I thought if I could make enough money to take the pressure off, maybe I could get you out of the lab for a little while. You spend all your time cooped up, working on your projects. There’s a whole universe out there, remember? You could have a real lab here, where you wouldn’t have to struggle for funding or work all alone in the middle of nowhere.”
“That’s a convenient excuse,” she fired back. Brian always played the self-sacrificing gentleman who was doing thingsfor uswhen he really meantmostly for me. “So you’re telling me the fifty million Territhian credits didn’t mean anything? Or a seat on the board? Those were just happy byproducts?”
Brian’s face hardened. “I was trying to help you. Help us both.”
“By betraying everything I’ve stood for my entire life?” Dawn couldn’t help the shrill tone that accompanied her words.
“Now who’s overreacting?” Brian shook his head. “You know what? I’m not doing this. You’re going to realize you were wrong, and you’re going to come back to me. Until then, I’ll be waiting.”
“Waiting with your feet up on your comfy new desk in the Hills, doling out my secrets for a payday and to further your own bullshit credentials.”
Brian scowled, then cut the connection.
Dawn wanted to scream, wanted to pound her fists into the communication console in front of her. Unfortunately, it was too expensive to replace. She leaned back in her chair instead, hands covering her face while she tried to get control of her breathing.
Perhaps her relationship with Brian Shinks had been doomed from the start. She’d recruited him from Territh’s Central University where he’d been a low-level research assistant, always a second, third, or fourth author on the articles his lab produced. Dawn had met him at a conference reception and they’d gotten to talking over cocktails that were stronger than she was used to. By night’s end, she’d offered him a position in her own lab.
Dawn worked outside of the usual research systems, unhampered by university regulations and corporate control. Freedom to make her own choices drove her to establish a laboratory on Pallas in Sol’s asteroid belt. She’d always funded it from patents on the technology she’d developed, technology she wouldn’t let out of her hands until she’d determined it could be safely consumed by the masses. Her stuff wouldn’t be used to make war on others, nor to enslave. And she’d fought the good fight, alone, until Brian had come along.
It hadn’t taken long to discover that Dr. Shinks wasn’t much of a scientist. He lacked vision and the ability to focus on minute details that could have large consequences. If there was a shortcut, Brian would take it, oftentimes setting back her work for weeks. Maybe she’d been lonely out in the asteroid belt without human company for long stretches, and he’d been a good companion, quick to prop up her ego in times of stress. Too bad he’d been doing it only to benefit himself.
The long con. I never would have guessed it from him.
Maybe that was why Dawn had been ready to give away one of her patents without a second thought. She hadn’t considered Brian capable of such deception or betrayal. He was a good guy, if somewhat boring and unimaginative. But now, that former good guy was on the board of what Dawn considered to be the evilest conglomerate in Territh’s history.
“Fuck.”
Dawn rose, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose and sighing. She’d planned to spin off the patent she’d given Shinks into a few devices that would have brought in enough income to keep the lab operating for the next couple years. Long enough for her to complete her next, and perhaps greatest, project.
Where would she find the funds to keep the lights on while she tackled one of mankind’s most elusive and fascinating aspects? Her eyes flitted to the corner of the room where a sheet covered the stasis unit she’d built to protect her find. She’d need a lot of power and specialized equipment to attempt what she had been planning. And that took credits.
Dawn risked a glimpse at her watch, surprised at how early it was. She generally spent all of her time in her lab, but at the moment, she felt hemmed in, claustrophobic in her temple to science. She shuffled through the door and into her attached living quarters, barely managing a smile for Ladee as he gave his customary greeting.
“Welcome home, Dr. Illya,” the robot said, gliding forward and giving a short bow.
“Hey, Ladee. How’s it going?” She moved past the robot and kicked off her shoes, taking in the depressingly empty confines of her small home.
“Tip top, Dr. Illya. Thank you for asking.”
The robot wheeled after her, resembling a fox on roller skates. As a child, she’d had a stuffed animal, a fox with a monocle and top hat, that she’d carried with her everywhere. When she’d started building her own robots in her teens, the first one that she’d created had been modified from that stuffed fox. Now whenever she created a companion robot, it had the form of a fox with the requisite top hat and monocle and the formality to match.
This current incarnation was the latest generation of robot.Learning Automated Device Expansion, or Ladee for short, was cutting edge, with abilities that rivaled the planet-guides, supercomputers that steered the governments, economies, and day-to-day operations of certain planets in the system. The difference was, her robot resembled an adorable animal while spouting off complex calculations.
