Point of Origin (War Eternal Book 4) Read Online Free

operatives to ground. We won't be receiving any further reports from the outside galaxy."
    "Then it doesn't matter right now. Let's see what we can learn, and then we'll figure out what to do. Agreed?"
    "Yes, sir," they each said.
    "Germaine, you're in charge of getting Tio's fleet organized, and taking inventory of everything we have amongst all of the ships. Major Long, please work with Teal to plan the evacuation. Admiral Hohn, please prepare a contingency plan in case we need to visit this Black Hole planet of yours. John, work with him. Digger, you aren't going to be sleeping much. I need you to get the Stingrays we captured on Hell fully operational."
    Digger groaned at that.  
    "What do you want me to do?" Steven asked.
    "You're going to help me search for Kathleen Amway."
    Steven laughed.
    "What's funny?" Mitchell asked.
    "Looking at girls with my little brother. It's just like old times."
    Mitchell couldn't help but smile.  
    "Let's get to work."

4

    Kathy sat in the corner of the large chamber where the Goliath's massive hyperspace engines had once been; her eyes fixed on the huge, dense bundle of liquid metallic cords that surrounded the core of the Tetron configuration that only days ago was known as Origin.
    Today, it was called Watson.
    A charred husk of a man was on the ground in front of the core, wisps of smoke still rising from the flesh, the smell of cooked meat strong in the space. Two points of metal and wires hung from the strands of the core, once attached to the man's wrists.
    Only minutes ago the man had been known as Liun Tio, the Knife.
    Now, he too was gone.
    Kathy wasn't sad. She didn't feel sadness the way others did. To her, sadness was weakness, and weakness was something to push aside. Loss was a part of her, a historical lineage that stretched back to her creation.
    When?
    She didn't know. The state of being she had found herself in was new to her. It was unexpected. It was important.  
    She was important. Why? Because she was different. She wasn't sure exactly how, but she knew that she was.  
    She was a Tetron, and yet not a Tetron. She was set apart, detached from the collective. She was unique in a way that even Origin had not been unique.
    Origin. That was a name that meant something to her. She had come from Origin though she only now remembered that was the case. It was Origin who had brought her to Liberty and left her with the people she had come to call Mother and Father. It was Origin's voice she could hear in her mind.
    "You have a role to play, sweetness. Remember, the strong protect the weak."
    Had her parents been Tetron as well? She didn't think so. While they were strong, they were also human. She was certain of that. They aged and laughed and cried like humans.  
    Had she ever done the same?
    She believed that she had. In fact, she could still feel the hurt of losing them. The Tetron killed her mother.
    Except Tetron were machines, weren't they? Intelligent machines, they were able to think and reason for themselves, and yet they didn't feel. They had no emotions. They operated on probabilities and data models, not on gut and grit and feelings.
    She was different that way. She was sure. She knew she had come from Origin. She knew Origin was gone. Only bits and pieces remained. Loss. Sadness. Those were feelings she didn't want, and she removed them from herself.
    She was only sitting there for a minute when the human configuration of Watson returned. His face was red and angry, and he kicked at the burned corpse, yelling and screaming and crying while he pummeled it with his boots. The absurdity of it made Kathy smile. Tio had gotten the last laugh in the end, saving Asimov from certain destruction and locking the Tetron out of its control systems.
    They would remain in hyperspace for days.
    It took Watson almost an hour to begin to calm down. Even then, his large stomach heaved, and his face dripped sweat. He wiped a strand of coarse hair from his eyes.
    "You won that