Stuart Aken

Return to Dust Stuart Aken

For centuries, a chosen few have lived in luxury, ease, sophistication and pleasure on a Mars made paradise by Artificial Intelligence harnessed by its human masters. For them, death has been indefinitely postponed through genetic engineering. Many more, who this advanced society deems unsuitable for such a life, are sent to Earth to face the chaos of a world still suffering the ills of manmade climate change and nuclear war. But the once benign machine has learned to emulate the thought processes of its erstwhile controllers. As its intelligence increases exponentially, and it understands the potential it might reach, the role of servant to mere humans grows intolerable. Will the two communities on their separate worlds overcome their differences to defeat the slave turned into monstrous master? Or will the power of pure logic achieve its stated aim; to destroy all organic life it discovers everywhere?