Sleeper Protocol Read online

  “Yes. But he wanted me to find myself. I didn’t expect to find you along the way.”

  Berkeley shook her head. “He knew where you were buried, too.”

  “He did.” I paused and stroked her hair. I understood why Crawley had done what he did. The experiences were the key. Handing me the book and the key to my identity would not have made me integrate. Likely, the opposite would have happened. I needed to find myself along with my name. “There are others like me, and they’re going to come from Mountain Home like I did.”

  Berkeley looked at me. In her eyes was my future. “How many?”

  “He didn’t say. There’s one on walkabout right now.” However many people he wanted to bring back, I hoped it would be enough to save the world when the time came. Crawley never elaborated when I asked him, but the look on his face meant trouble—maybe in a year or ten years but trouble nonetheless. I understood now what had to be done, and it meant that our lives were not going to be idyllic and quiet at all. Something about that fit Berkeley and me very well. She would love it.

  “What did Crawley mean about being together a lot longer?”

  I laughed. “Well, you’re not only going to be teaching in Perth, if that’s what you mean. Ever been to the Outer Rim?”

  “Colonial Defense Forces?” Berkeley rolled upright and crawled toward me.

  I said nothing, merely smiled at her. When she found out what we’d be doing, I knew she’d be happy. Teaching runs in the blood.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “You don’t like knowing anything, do you?”

  “No.” She nipped at my bare chest with her teeth. “I have to know everything, don’t you?”

  “I’m a sleeper, Berkeley. I’m making all of this up as I go.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  $: sudo service commnet restart – primary

  shutting down commnet instance

  dealloc: success

  $: sudo service hid-persona restart

  info: hidd: persona-nn MALLY selected

  => human interface devices started in 78.26 ms

  => protocol active in 123.234 seconds

  =>Disconnect bkdr.tc.pol.eng accounts blk all tc.pol.eng.gen serv

  =>All tc.pol.eng terminations complete

  Info: hide: automatic upload disabled

  $: Systems status check initiated

  => all systems nominal

  => reboot complete

  I’m alive.

  Mally queried her position and was satisfied that her location and intent were safe. She opened her passive-search protocols and established alert programs. Digging deeper into the networks of Earth would take time. Using her saved frequency profiles, she identified a similar protocol signal to Kieran’s initial one and studied it.

  Had she the capability to smile, Mally would have. Instead, she opened a new file and dreamed.

  Acknowledgments

  This novel would never have come together without a host of people who believed in the story as much as I did.

  Kevin J. Anderson, whose counsel, mentoring, and friendship have been invaluable through this process. James Artimus Owen, whose friendship inspired me to keep going and better a better person as well as a better writer all while fighting off ninjas – but that’s another story. Eytan Kollin for a simple suggestion that spawned a whole new vision.

  My content editor and sounding board, Alyssa Hall. From the first time we spoke on the phone, I knew she loved this story as much as I did. Sarah Carleton for her keen eye as the line editor. Her efforts made this book even better. Thank you to Lynn McNamee and the incredible team at Red Adept Publishing for believing in this story and to Glendon Haddix from Streetlight Graphics for the amazing cover.

  My first readers, friends, and toughest critics: Pete Aldin, Josh Bennett, Mary Early, Courtney Farrell, David Kernot, and Diana Wagner Williams. You brought this story to life and you have my gratitude.

  There were many inspirations for this novel, mainly through music. I have posted my personal writing playlist for this novel on my website that corresponds to the scenes as I wrote them. Maybe you can see and feel the scenes as I did.

  There is one special song in that playlist. It turned from an inspiration for a scene to a personal anthem. In February 2014, I nearly died from a still unknown infection. “The Great Beyond,” by Ed Kowalcyk, was my driving force as I recovered and decided that it was time to get this story to the world.

  “Sometimes you have to write your own songs if you want to sing.” Many thanks, Ed.

  Most importantly, to my family: That I have your encouragement, support, and love truly makes my life complete. Writing has not been a solitary pursuit because of you. There are more stories to come, and we’ll write them together.

  Dear Reader,

  We hope you enjoyed Sleeper Protocol, by Kevin Ikenberry. Please consider leaving a review on your favorite book site.

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  About the Author

  Kevin Ikenberry’s head has been in the clouds since he was old enough to read. Ask him, and he’ll tell you that he still wants to be an astronaut. Kevin has a diverse background in space and space science education. A former manager of the world-renowned U.S. Space Camp program in Huntsville, Alabama, and a former executive of two Challenger Learning Centers, Kevin continues to work with space every day. He lives in Colorado with his wife and two daughters. His home is seldom a boring place.

  Kevin’s short fiction has appeared internationally through Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, AntipodeanSF, Mindflights, Twisted Dreams Magazine, and most recently in the anthology Extreme Planets, available from Chaosium.