Space Relics (Galactic Archaeology Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

them?
    “You’ll end up dead one of these days,” Amy said.
    “Thanks for your trust in my abilities.”
    “It isn’t about trust, it’s about chances of success. You’re more skilled than many non-genetically modified humans, but that still places you at a disadvantage if you want to fight the world.”
    “Does that mean that you won’t help me in this mission?”
    “Who’s said anything about avoiding trouble? I’m only stating your chances; you should be aware of them in order to make an informed choice. Otherwise, if you’re killed and I end up being resold, they’ll accuse me of not informing you of the kind of idiot you are. This is purely a self-preservation instinct. I wouldn’t like to have my hard drives formatted and my personality altered.”
    “You’re such a romantic, Amy,” Rick said.
    Ahead of them, the Java port appeared on the screens. It had been a relatively short trip, and it was time for them to face their fates. Lord Baylor would have landed there, and he wouldn’t expect an unarmed archaeologist and a sassy artificial intelligence to attempt anything.
    Lord Baylor was in for a surprise.

Chapter 5
    Modern ports had nothing to do with old orbiting junkyards. Scientists had invented the terraforming revolution and several other tricks, and it had changed everything people knew about space ports. Instead of metallic boxes orbiting around planets, they were now nice and comfortable buildings on solid ground. The weather and air purity were sometimes bad for human health, but nobody stayed there for long if they could avoid it. The mechanics and other residents would’ve died of other causes anyway if they’d stayed on Earth, so the space ports weren’t harming anyone. Or at least that was the official version.
    Lord Baylor had taken the Argonaut and several of his huge gorillas to the port’s main hangar. He wanted to get his ship fixed as soon as possible to get a proper appraisal for his magical stone.
    The situation wasn’t too difficult: a fat and old lord talked to a mechanic, and several of his gorillas patrolled the area. Rick had seen worse. At least this time he had a weapon. Even if it didn’t work, it was intimidating. He only had to get inside, steal the Argonaut, and ask Amy to join him using the transport shuttle’s autopilot mode. It would’ve been way easier if she’d been one of those transferrable programs, but she wanted to act human, so she never left her CPU. That implied physically carrying her in order to change ships; one of Amy’s peculiarities.
    “Your heart rate is too high, Richard,” Amy said through the intercom. “Some adrenaline can enhance your instincts, but you’re far too nervous to do anything properly. It is unwise to attack a group of men unless you have a clear advantage. Are you sure that this is a good idea?”
    “Can you be more pessimistic, or is this your maximum?” Rick whispered. He was half a mile away from the port, but he didn’t want any long-range microphones to hear him and get him killed. Amy didn’t care about those mundane details; she was, after all, an immortal being.
    “Why do humans always ask rhetorical questions whenever they’re out of arguments?” she said. “You know that I’m right, yet you don’t want to acknowledge it. In many circumstances, it would be a reasonable cause to strip command from you.”
    “One: you’d need to be the second officer to do so, and two: computers can’t decide when a human is unfit to command.” What the hell was he saying? He was arguing with a can about his rights as a captain, when smugglers and other vermin didn’t follow the Laws of Space. “We aren’t even in the Navy. Why don’t you keep quiet and let me decide how to get our ship back?”
    Ugh . Amy could sometimes act like a little, annoying child. She was stubborn, irritating, and way smarter than most people. A recipe for disaster.
    “Oh, so now you’re a racist bigot and you consider computers